207 Vol. 4 pt. 10 Patch 2.0: Prime Real Estate (2/2)
”Oh boy,” Fenrir says. He already knows that she would be delighted to help him. ”Let's check out the forest. Maybe there'll be mushrooms and berries growing there. Hey, how do people even farm mushrooms?”
”Uhh, I'm not sure. I just know that increased humidity in real life helps out, but the hotter weather hasn't been kind to them.”
”It feels… what, maybe like it's in the seventies here?”
”Do you mean lower twenties?”
”Hey, we're American. We don't use Celsius.”
”Unfortunately.”
”We're not getting into that debate again.”
”Only because you know you'll lose.”
”I'm going to name the city 'Fahrenheit.'”
”I'll impeach you and rename it to 'Celsius is the Bestius.'”
”You're a brat.”
”I know.”
The group makes it into the forest, and as soon as they do, Rock and Shogun take the lead.
Rock picks up all sorts of different rocks and other hard items that an animal would normally break their teeth on, but she crunches them all down to dust and eats them. Shogun just makes sure to watch her back while she's busy snacking on new things, and he occasionally sniffs any new scents that he comes across.
The forest is home to all sorts of sights and objects for them to investigate. There are odd looking mushrooms, bushes full of berries, trees with different looking barks and leaves, colorful flowers sprouting up from the ground, and the tracks of critters in case they want to go hunting for some food.
”The more we see of this place, the more I'm thinking it's perfect. Seriously, everything is around,” Fenrir says.
”Yeah, we should just really check out the mountains before deciding anything. I'd say we should go do that now, but it'd probably be better to wait for Rao and the rest since they looked a few hours away.”
”Wouldn't we have to build wagons to carry materials to and from the mountain?”
”Yup! Or, the river looks like it goes up into the mountain, so we could always use that! It's wide enough for a few boats like The Shoebill to fit in at once, so we could build like, a big cargo boat! That'd be harder to do, but it'd save so much time and trouble in the future. Think Rao and Tabs could build a big boat?”
”I'm sure they could if they tried hard enough, but since that's not either of their specialties… I am kind of worried how it would turn out. Rao would want to include a bachelor's pad with a giant bed in it somewhere on it, and Tabs would try turning it into a giant robot.”
”Actually, if I may… I could be of assistance. I spent a good deal of time around shipwrights back in Port Tugator, so I believe that between the three of us – Tabitha, Rao, and myself, that we could build an adequate vessel for the city's needs,” Corwin says.
”Sweet. Things are coming together one by one. I guess we've just got to hope that no powerful monsters come down from the mountain to try and destroy us,” Fenrir says.
”Before we're ready, that is!” Oleander adds on. ”It'd be fun once we're ready.”
”You've always loved your base defense games.”
”You know it! Just think about it. Any big, powerful monsters that come and try to attack us will basically just be providing us with free food and parts and rewards! Assuming we don't like, you know, die and stuff.”
”I think you need to put some more emphasis on that last part.”
”Nah, we'd be fine! We're the Divi—The Soaring Wolves! We don't need to fear anythi—”
Rock's growling interrupts him.
When they look over at Rock, they see her trying to gnaw on a tree and having great trouble with it.
Fenrir says, ”Hey, do you think that's…”
”It does look like an oak tree,” Oleander says. ”There's a whole bunch of them around here.”
”Watch out, girl,” Fenrir tells Rock. She reluctantly gives up on the tree and lets Fenrir take over. ”Yeah, I think this is steel oak,” he says as he examines the wood. ”Hey, Rock, try biting that tree.” He points at a nearby tree.
Rock charges at it, latches onto it, and starts shaking her head! The bark easily gets torn to shreds, and she takes a large chunk of wood out from it.
”One for two,” Oleander says. ”It's supposed to be extremely rare, remember? Only like, what, one in five hundred trees?”
”Hey, Rock, try that one,” Fenrir says, pointing at a different tree.
Rock charges at it, bites it, and has trouble again.
”Make that two for three,” Fenrir says. ”And that one?” He points at yet another tree.
Rock struggles once more.
”Three for four. Coincidence, or did we just find ourselves a nice forest full of one of the game's rarest and most useful trees?” Fenrir asks Oleander.
”We'll have to test more of the trees out,” Oleander says.
”By the way, Rock, since when do you like biting trees?”
Rock looks at Fenrir with a mouth full of bark, crunching on it while tilting her head.