Chapter 14

Winter Birch

It was late evening by the time I decided to close the front door and build a strong fire in the stove. The door didn’t lock and I hoped Thrush would make himself at home on his return. Part of me worried about the little beast. The other part knew he’d be fine. He’d even said the cold didn’t bother him.

Either way, I left some baked fish in half a squash for him along with a handful of nuts. I set that by the fire pit outside. Instead of chicory tea, I’d decided to make some sassafras tea from the roots of long ago foraged saplings. The tea was sweet and reminded me of root beer I’d had as a child back in Lunstad. I lay back in bed, opposite the way I usually slept, and propped myself up on some pillows and folded bedding.

The wind had picked up and it snowed. I could hear snowflakes batter against different walls when the wind curled up or changed direction. Firelight stroked the contents of my home. Shadows peeked behind objects.

Ahhhh. What an excellent day. Fulfilling.

I spent the better part of an hour slowly drinking my tea, losing myself in my thoughts, and simply existing. Then I thought about working some more on my new quest objective and decided to focus on that. The remaining nine were completed in a few hours and I received ten corks and another small brewer’s loot box. The corks fit snugly into each gourd container. They each came out with a squeak and pop. I put them together, held them out one by one and mentally stowed them into my system inventory. I watched them disappear from my palm each time and watched the numbers stack in one slot of my inventory.

Now that the quest objective was complete, I received a new notification.

[New Quest Objective: Travel to Lunstad and meet with brewery Neigh & Boars head brewer Mith Merrano.

Reward: Five rare brewer’s loot chests, Ten common adventurer’s loot chests, and a Brewer’s skill book.]

[Accept quest objective: Y/N?]

Nope, I thought.

The system notification went away and I received similar travel objectives in the next hour. Traveling was out of the question.

This is the true test to see if declining all these quest objectives works. If I end up getting one I can accomplish from here, then this quest path is worth it. If the only forward is to travel, then I guess it ends here.

Perhaps I should have more faith in what Dellia had said. I wasn’t a person who left things in the hands of others, gods or people. I always took everything with a grain of salt.

More like a brick of salt.

As the night wore on, I found myself slowly sliding down into my bed. I watched shadows dance on the ceiling until I fell asleep.

I slept harder than I had in many years. I’m fairly certain it was from using a skill book and using mana. I never used mana these days. I was also famished. Three hefty salads and a handful of roasted potatoes finally filled me up.

It continued to snow hard and I dug around until I found the bowl of food I’d set out for Thrush. Much of the squash had been eaten, but the fish and nuts were gone. I discovered a burrow and tunnel in the snow and realized chipmunks or squirrels had gotten to the food.

Good for them. This must mean that Thrush isn’t nearby.

As if on cue, birds sang in the canopy. Two blue jays. I don’t know how they did it, but blue jays were tough birds. They were always around from the beginning of winter to the very end of winter.

I took the opportunity to set out some nuts and fat for them on a small dish up on the cabin roof. I called good morning to them and set about my day.

I received a few more notifications for quest objectives that involve traveling. I declined them all. I chopped some more wood, organized my cellar. Then I took a pause to make some hot chicory tea with sage leaf and a cabbage salad with some baked potatoes.

I decided to pour myself a nice mug of ale before sitting to eat and drink on the threshold of my cabin. Snow fell on my clothes. The foam of my ale clung to my beard. Every sip brought me summer visions. I saw Dellia twice throughout the course of one mug of ale. There was never enough time to have a conversation with her. Not that I would have been able to with a mouthful of beer and sparkling foam.

On my second mug, I felt a haze in my head and a buzz in my blood. After my meal, I simply existed where I sat, halfway between the warmth of my cabin, and the biting cold of the world. I simply existed.

I do wonder where Thrush is and what he’s up to.

[New Quest Objective: Birch Syrup. Locate and tap five winter birch trees. Harvest fifteen and a half gallons of birch syrup.]

Reward: One barrel, two small brewer’s loot chests, one common brewer’s loot chest.]

[Accept quest objective: Y/N?]

I gave a heartfelt and mighty clap.

Now that’s what I’m talking about!

The closest birch forest was about a day's travel from here, but I was ok with that. They were still in my part of the world. That’s all that mattered to me.

I accepted the quest objective. I emptied a barrel full of cabbage from the cellar. Hoisting the barrel up the ladder proved quite difficult. It took me nearly forty five minutes until I managed to get it out. That barrel was going to be the one I used to measure out fifteen and a half gallons. I planned to use small five gallon barrels for collecting sap and then transfer them to the bigger one.

It took a lot of rearranging, but I managed to empty out four more five gallon barrels. At that point I had a very big decision to make.

If I bring the big barrel with me, I’ll have to roll it back home, while managing five smaller barrels. If I bring just the five small barrels, I’ll have to carry those a couple at a time. Any more than that would be too heavy. I might have to go back and forth. That could take me a week or more, depending on how fast I can collect sap.

There was a small window during this time of year to harvest winter birch sap. Unlike spring birch, the window for tapping a winter birch was two weeks at the very first sign of coming winter. I might not even have a week left of potential tapping.

This was going to be a hard one. The trip to the birch forest wasn’t going to be much of a problem. Transporting fifteen gallons of liquid back home was going to be a problem. If the weather worsened, I might risk really having to struggle.

I collected all the gear I would need for travel, and set forth.