Do not murder…

Do not murder… That’s what has been on my heart this last week.

I stared at the palisade for probably an hour when I first returned. I stood on this side of the battlefield, just beyond the range of where they could reach when launching the pieces of the wall.

I have to give credit to Jack. He stayed with me for a bit, but I guess it was apparent that I needed to work through some issues and he gave me some space.

I had thought that if I could grow enough plants that shot out spores, pollen, and whatever else, maybe I could grow enough to create a dust explosion or something and do some damage here. The experiment with the sunflowers showed it wasn’t going to work.

Then I was thinking that I would unleash hordes of carnivorous plants on them.

What have I been doing? I’ve been walking in front of this palisade planting sunflowers. Sometimes talking to myself. Sometimes talking to God. This bag of seeds, each of the pouches has a different little picture drawn on them. One was a sunflower with a happy face. It made me smile. Pouring the sunflower seeds into my hand, I blessed them and tossed them to my side in a wide arc to watch them grow.

I had to wait for this first planting to mature enough to produce more seeds. But after harvesting, I had more than enough seeds to keep myself busy.

I had been removing and shaking the seeds into my hand. Blessing, then scattering them. After a few harvests like this, I just blessed the entire sunflower head and threw it like a Frisbee. That’s when it changed from a crazy person standing out in a field with some sunflowers to a Farmer sowing enough crops to bring to market. I started walking parallel to the palisade, throwing the sunflowers ahead of and around me.

A half-hour, maybe an hour, walking to the right, the palisade ended and turned away. I had been walking along the forest edge where it had been cleared back and away from this city. I just kept walking on a straighter course. Heading in the same general direction and not following the city around.

After a couple of hours, I wasn’t paying attention and one of the sunflowers started to turn toward me. I reached out and grabbed the side of its face and snapped its flowerhead off backward. With that realization, I sheathed the blade that I was harvesting with and started snapping and Frisbee tossing sunflowers heads with whatever hand was closest.

It started getting dark. I saw wolves start to pace me but then they turn away without a sound. I sat to rest and ended up falling asleep. I wasn’t bothered with anything through the night but the rising sun.

Chewing on sunflower seeds as I walked back, I kept blessing seeds and throwing sunflowers. My pace was much quicker now, blessing and then throwing with either hand, I made it back to where I started in a little over half a day. Getting water and something to eat from the camp, I didn’t get much conversation but I did get looks and smiles.

Rinse and repeat. I walked to the left for the day, rested, then returned. As long as I was in sight of the palisade, I’m fairly certain I was being watched.

Now I’m back where I started again. At the edge of the battlefield, staring at the palisade in front of me, our camp behind, wondering when I’m going home. I’m fairly certain that I will. I’m almost as certain that when I do return home, not much time is going to have passed. At least that’s how I feel.

I’m also feeling that the things that I’m going through now are shaping my character in ways that would not normally be possible. When I played online games, sometimes I would play them in a lawful good way even though I wasn’t playing a paladin. It was fun but the games just aren’t set up to play that way.

Theft and killing everything that moves is usually your ticket to success.

Hopping, so that I can get a better view over the sunflowers, they stretch like a four-lane highway in each direction. It brings me back to my dilemma and what I’m going to do.

Looking at what I have done, I’m thinking that if I use the rest of the seeds sparingly, I can plant them along the inside edge of the sunflowers. Then there will be a row of sunflowers, carnivorous plants, cleared open space, then the city. Maybe that will keep some deterrent between us and anyone coming this way. I’m not sure how it’s going to work out. I’m hoping for a hedge of plants making a sort of property line and deterrent. I’m sure if anyone wants to come this way, they will.

Looking left again, I ease into a jog before picking up speed into an almost full run. I’ve spent enough time out here, mostly working issues out within myself.

Sprinting faster than any horse, why do I know that? I pick up my speed another notch as my feet fall into a rhythm, feeling more confident in the unnatural footing and traction this world is giving me. I come near the end of my sunflower highway hedge.

Looking into my bag, I turn it over and dump the seed pouches out onto the ground. Opening each of the packets, I pour everything back into the main bag.

Loose, there seems to be more seeds filling up the bag than when they were all in the individual pouches. Sticking my hand in the bag, I mix them all up. Bless, and start scattering them very lightly about as I head back.

After a few minutes, I move faster into a jog while throwing some seeds around.

Looking into the bag, I try to gauge how much seed I’ve been throwing and how much is left, because I don’t want to run out. I have no idea of how to harvest any of these.

With the battlefield and camp coming near, I’m not exactly sure what I did. But I make the mistake of looking at how much seed I have left. There’s still plenty and I continue to jog. But by the time I’m running through the battlefield, my hand is itching. A burning feeling really.

I yeet the plants growing off my hand and start shaking the seeds out of the bag as I run. By the time I’m out of seeds, I’m picking out the little sprouts out of the skin on my hand and everywhere they’ve latched onto my leathers. I can feel the curses on the tip of my tongue as I want to swear at the little roots trying to dig their way into my skin.

“Heal!” Another mistake trying to heal my hand as the other seeds there dig their barbed roots deeper into my flesh.

It’s only a couple of painful minutes until I pick my flesh clean. Lesson learned, I move through to the other side of the sunflowers and head back to camp.