Side Story 1 - The Case Of The Missing E-Potato (1/2)

One week ago. In the mountain biome just two days after Cherry was born.

‘Hnnrgh!’ I grunted hard, pushing out my thirty fourth potato of the evening. Since I’d been sleeping for two weeks, Kearan and the others had made me work double time.

We were already settled in for the night, after finding a cozy cave wedged on the opposite side of a mountain.

Everyone was doing their own thing. Kearan had gone out hunting with Jay, Winter and Verity were treating a massive claw wound on Edith’s back, and Mox and Raul were doing… who knew what they were doing. Meditation or some shit.

My ‘setup’ was a small stone slab, courtesy of Raul. I sat in the middle of it, with a sack for my fully grown e-potatoes to my right and a small empty growing section on my left. It wasn’t pretty, but it was efficient. Efficiently painful, at least.

‘Only two more to go.’ I told myself, laying out the seed in the six by six grid.

Everyday I had to produce thirty six potatoes in three hours, twelve for dinner, twelve for lunch and twelve for breakfast. It was a routine I had long since grown used to.

Footsteps pattered softly behind me, causing me to look up. Yawning, Raul massaged his neck and cracked his knuckles before collapsing into a mound of dirt that he’d shaped to look like a chair.

“Yo,” he said casually, looking over my work. “Are any of those done yet?”

I would’ve squinted my eyes if I had any and slapped his sneaking hand away. ‘No. They are not. And remember, if you want one, I’ll deduct it off your daily three limit.’

He laughed and slapped the table, causing it to crack. I squealed a little as I fell a few centimeters onto the stone ground.

‘Ouch…’ I muttered, feeling my bruised body.

“Sorry about that!” He said apologetically, and used his earth magic to cause a flat mound to rise below me.

I groaned and felt pieces of dirt sticking to my back.

‘I’m going for a wash.’ I called, hovering over him and heading for the small pool of rainwater by the entrance of the cave.

“I’m going for a drink.” Raul called, sitting up and returning to the depths of the cave.

By the time I finished scrubbing myself off with a fallen leaf, the sun was beginning to set. Edith had set a bright fire burning in the cave, warming up the guild. Kearan and Jay were back too, and were roasting a large eagle over the flame. I had no idea how they caught that and something told me I didn’t want to ask.

I turned around and hovered back to my little workspace. Immediately, my spirits fell as the seeds and half-grown potatoes were still scattered on the floor. Sighing, I began to use telekinesis to lift them up and order them once again in that grid formation.

‘Thirty two, thirty three…’ My count stopped as there were no more seeds on the floor.

Where had the last three gone? Hadn’t I completed my quota?

I furrowed my brow and thought back to half an hour ago. Ah, that was right. I hadn’t finished my quota. I still had two more to go.

But wait. Thirty six minus two was thirty four. Not thirty three.

One was missing.

‘Oh you’re kidding.’ I grumbled and hopped off the table.

Where could it have gone?

I scanned the area around my table, looking for the final seed. Unfortunately, five minutes later, it was not to be found.

That led to the second possibility. Someone could’ve taken it.

Who would have done such a thing, and why?

My first suspicion was Raul. He’d been the one closest to me at the time, and even wanted to take a freshly grown potato for himself. It would’ve been easy for him to snag one while I was bathing.

With this thought in mind, I strode- actually, more like rolled- to the centre of the cave, where the fire was burning.

Raul was sat on another stone bench, drinking a bottle of… was that water? Or alcohol of some sort? I couldn’t tell. Whatever it was, he looked like he was enjoying himself.

‘Ahem. Raul.’ I coughed, getting his attention.

“Hm? What’s up, June?” He said in between tearing off chunks of meat from an… eagle wing.

I decided to just be blunt with it. ‘Did you take an e-potato just now?’

He frowned. “Well I certainly wanted to. Someone didn’t let me, though.”

‘Someone? So someone else was behind this? Did that person take the e-potato for themself?’

“Well, when I say someone, I mean you.” He laughed.

Oh. Well now I felt kind of dumb. But even though I was embarrassed, I still needed to find out where my e-potato had disappeared off to. If not, someone would most certainly pass their daily e-potato limit.

‘So you’re a hundred percent sure you didn’t take it?’

He seemed to think about this for a second, but then nodded in confirmation. “Yep. I’m sure. I went to get water, remember?”

That was true. So now another question arose. If it wasn’t him who did it, who else would’ve?

Kearan and Jay walked through the entrance before I had a chance to return, giving them an opportunity to take it. But if I put it that way, then Mox, Winter, Verity and Edith could have been equally guilty. They could’ve simply taken one and went back in again. Cherry was the only one not guilty. There was simply no motive for her to take one. What could she do, eat it?

Aright, then. It was time for Detective June to awaken.

First, I would interrogate Kearan.