Oak led me back towards the Dunwich site, something that would have made me nervous if I hadn’t seen him tear an abomination apart with his bare hands.

“So, where are those flowers?” I asked as I skipped along behind my new buddy. I decided that even though we were a boy and a girl walking through a forest together it didn’t count as a date. Sure, he had given me flowers, but I didn’t think there was any romantic intent behind the gesture.

Too bad. Oak was kind of cute for a tree.

Oak, being a tree... man of few words, pointed to the cliffs ahead, then to the rocky areas around their base. “Weeds,” he said.

“Neat. So, what do you consider a weed? I would have thought that all plants would be good plants for you.”

Oak gave me a strange look, one I recognized as the ‘you’re being very dumb’ look people gave me sometimes. “Weeds... bad.”

“Well, that does explain some things, I guess.”

We ambled past the first cliff and to a rocky bit of terrain next to it where the ground was covered in sharp rocks and craggy bits of dirt that seemed super dry from afar. The trees there were few and far between, all of them leafless and emaciated. Oak pointed to one of them, then to its base. “Weed.”

I moved closer and saw what he meant. There was a Two-Lipped Tulip growing around and into a dying tree, its long, thorny roots coiled around the tree’s bark while a few of its fanged flowers were biting into it.

The instructions in my book only said that I should be careful not to get bitten myself. I thought it would be fairly simple, but by the look of it the plant was more like a snake than merely a very angry bush.

I reached out with my spade and poked at the stems before taking a long step back.

Flowers snapped at the air where my spade had been.

“Yikes. That is one nasty flower,” I said.

“Weed,” Oak repeated.

“You got that right. I wouldn’t want any of those in my garden. I kind of need the flowers though. Tricky.”

“No... touch,” he warned. After a moment he decided to add to his warning. “Bite.”

I looked up to the tree then, with a careless shrug, hopped up and onto one of the lower branches. It creaked under my weight, but didn’t crack. With the edge of my spade serving as an axe, I chopped off a long branch and tossed it next to Oak before joining him.

“Cut... brother?” Oak asked. He didn’t look pleased at how I had treated his... brother, but he didn’t look ready for violence either.

“Sorry, but with this I can help your brother.” It swished the branch in the air a few times, making sure that it was still fairly sturdy. Then I whipped it into the bush, skimming just over the top and slicing through a dozen stems. Some of the flowers bit into the wood, but that only helped to tear them out.

I grinned as I swiped again and cut through ever more of the bush. It didn’t go as well the second time, but that was alright.

“See, you just need the right tool.”

“Tool,” Oak repeated as he stared at the long branch. He looked at the tulips again. “Cannot... touch.”

“Right, so you make something to touch it from afar for you.” I brought the branch closer, then pried some of the flowers off the haft with my knife. They came off with a few deft flicks. I pulled out my old haversack from my backpack and tossed the flowers into it. The tough old material would probably handle a few bitey flowers.

Oak looked at my stick for a long time. “Tool,” he said again.

“Yeah. A spear would be better though.”

“Spear?”

I nodded. Dryads probably didn’t have much use for spears and the like, but it could come in handy. “It’s a long stick, nice and tough, and at the end you have a spearhead. That's, ah, like a leaf, but very sharp and hard. That way you can cut things from far away.” I wiggled my spade around. It wasn’t exactly spear-like, but it was close enough.

Oak tilted his head to the side and swayed a little as he thought, then he bent down and touched the ground. Out came a long pole, as tall as he was, and at its end a long wavy leaf made of wood.

“Can I see?” I asked as I gestured to the spear.

Oak let me take his spear and examine it. It was kind of neat, though the leaf bit was a little bit too flexible still, and not nearly sharp enough. It looked flimsy, too flexible and whippy.

“Here, make the sharp bits like this,” I said as I showed him my knife. “And if you can, a little bit less flexible. I think some flexibility is good, but not too much. But I’m not a spear person.”

Oak studied the metal blade, then poked his finger with it a few times. “Tool,” he repeated.

“That’s right!”

His next spear was much nicer, with a slightly thinner haft and with a sharp wooden point that had little vein-y imprints on it. It was deceptively sharp and a fair bit heavier, though not so much that it was hard to swing around.

“Nice,” I said as I weighed it and sliced at the air inexpertly. A few swipes at the bush sent bits of it flying as it cut through. “Insight.”

A living spear of uncommon quality, new.

“Good work, Oak!” I said.

Oak nodded and made a second spear for himself, this one much longer and heavier. We got to work chopping up the plant from afar, then Oak approached it and stomped on the flower-less bush a few times. He really didn’t like weeds.

The dryad touched the dying tree with a palm, then moved forwards and wrapped his arms around it in a deep hug.

The branches shifted and the tree’s colour lightened from the rotting brown it had been. Tiny buds sprouted all along its branches and opened up to reveal pinkie-sized leaves.

Oak backed away and picked up his spear. “Healed,” he said.

“Wow, that was great!” I walked up to the tree, making sure that I didn’t step into any biting flowers, then gave it a hug too. A burst of cleaning magic shot into it and I saw bits of flower poof out of its base and disintegrate in the air. Had they been stuck in the tree’s base?

“No... healing?” Oak asked.

“Me? Not really, no. All I can do is clean. And holy heck did that ever cost a lot of mana. I’ll have to be more careful with the next one!” I grinned at my new buddy and then got to work picking up flowers from the ground. Oak had trampled a few and we had both chopped some up with our new spears, but it was okay, there were plenty more tulip bushes around.

As we moved over to the next tree, I tried explaining other tools to Oak. He didn’t seem to care much for most of them, but when I explained what bows were he paid a lot of attention. “They’re like a curved branch with a string between the two ends that’s kept tense. So when you pull back on the string and then let go it snaps back into place. If you put a smaller stick, an arrow, against the string it’ll fly really far. Oh, but you need fletching. Um, that’s like a feather on the end, but I’m sure a leaf would work in a pinch.”

Oak nodded slowly. “Tools,” he said.

“Yes,” I agreed. “Tools are really handy. You can hunt things with a bow, though I guess you don’t need that if you can just grab things with like, roots and suchlike.”

I wasn’t sure how many flowers I collected, but it had to be close to fifty because my haversack was filled to the brim. I shut the bag closed and made a knot with its drawstring before flinging it over my back.

A glance at the sky revealed that it had begun to put on its night colours. It was far past the time for me to head out. I hefted my new spear and gave Oak a big smile. “I need to go, Oak, but maybe we’ll see each other again some day.”

Oak looked at me with none of the tension and annoyance he had when I first bumped into him. “Grow,” he said.

Congratulations! Through repeated actions your Friendmaking skill has improved and is now eligible for rank up!

Rank E is a free rank!

I laughed aloud and gave Oak a big, clumsy hug. “I will!” I said as I took off.

The trek back was just a little melancholic, but it was fun all the same. The path grew darker by the minute, until I could hardly see a step ahead of me. I considered finding a place to hide in the trees for the night, or taking out a candle and just walking, but then something stirred over my chest and a yawning Orange poked her head out from my bandoleer.

“Wow, you’re very good at sleeping,” I said.

She gave me a flat look before gazing around.

“Yeah, we’re not exactly lost, but making it back will be tricky. I can’t see very well.”

Orange made a huffing gesture, though it was soundless, then bounded off my chest and walked ahead of me. She glowed. It was faint, but still more than enough to light the path ahead.

“Awesome,” I said.

The kitty turned and gave me a look as if to say ‘I know.’

We arrived at Rockstack to find the gates closed and barred, but the walls weren’t so tall that I couldn’t just jump up to one of their uneven sides, then up to the very top.

The outpost was lit up by a hundred candles flickering in the night. Laughter and light flowed out of the Hop on Inn and a sea of firefly-like lights moved around the tents that took up the back of the outpost. The shops were darker, but some still had light pouring out of their top floors.

I landed in a crouch inside the walls and shifted my packs around as I walked towards the inn. The talking and music and sounds of cutlery grew louder as I approached, as did the scent of delicious food wafting through the air.

Grinning, I plucked Orange out of the air and set her on my shoulder, then pushed my way into the inn. I wasn’t home, exactly, but it was a nice place to be. I had had a tiny adventure for the day, and was more than ready for a heavy meal and a long sleep.

I found a seat by the bar and slumped down. “Food please,” I asked as I fished out some coppers from my bag.

“You’re alive?” Juliette asked. “I was almost starting to get worried. Where were you?”

“Near the Dunwich site,” I said. A few heads turned my way, some eyeing my strange spear, others my well-worn but clean gear. I wished I could read minds, if only to know what they thought of me, but I dismissed that thought soon enough.

Juliette shook her head as she placed a mug of something warm before me. “I’ll get you somezing to eat, you fool girl.”

“Hey, I’m not that foolish! I levelled up after all.”

“Humph. Zen we’ll get you a meal to celebrate wiz.”

I leaned onto the counter, eyes closed as I soaked into the ambiance of the inn and the warmth of the hearth that warmed my back even from across the room. “That would be nice, really nice,” I said.