Proofreader: Pre-rewrite: Kagenesti

Act I Chapter 2 - How to do this

Riin’s POV

Asperd Kingdom - Asperd Isles, Herbalist’s Hut.

After my nap, I wake up to the sight of a bearded man with a big smile on his face staring down at me. This man is also known as Ravel, the man that is seemingly my father now. I stare back at him, to which his smile just grows in size. At this I respond with a well-placed grunt. That removes his smile, much to my pleasure, since nobody wants bearded face, that close up to one's own face, ever heard of shaving?

He lets out a sigh. What is he complaining about? I’m the one who has to stare at his face!

“I swear dear; he doesn't like me.”

Ah, I forgot about the fact that Elisa, my new mother is very displeased with me grunting at Raval. I turn my head to find Elisa staring at me with that look that says, ‘now you have gone and done it’, I give her my best ‘I have done nothing wrong’ smile.

She too sighs at this. Okay, well I guess I do try my best at being friendly with my new father. The man himself doesn't seem to be a bad person. I turn back to face Raval and try my best to give him a convincing smile. Oh, dear now the guy is showing a beaming smile… What a terrifying sight…

“Ha-ha, do you see that, my sweet!? I just had to show him a father's loving smile”

Okay that seems to work. Elisa is also smiling widely, so I guess that I will have to smile whenever my new father stuffs his bearded face near mine as it seems to satisfy him. Did I end up in hell somehow?

The next few months, I spent on trying to learn to control this new body of mine. That being said trying to do the simplest thing is proving difficult. Elisa, which I have taken a liking to and begun think of as my mother in some small place of my mind. Spends her time in what seems to be herb garden, where she grows the natural occurring herbs of the forest. As spring come to us I finally got to see the outside of the house, she brought me outside to sit and watch while she works as she tells me stories. As I show some interest in her work she gives me a bright smile, while pointing at the herb she is handling, telling me the name of it and its properties. She seems happy that I show interest in her work. Even if my ‘interest’ is a happy squeal… What have you ever tried to sound excited without any control over your tongue and with only a few teeth that are more not of any use.

Mother who is normally humming as she spends her time with her hands in the fresh dirt is suddenly very quiet. I too stop my happy noises and hold my breath waiting for the humming to return, she stands and walk over to the fur that I’m laying on and picks me up before carrying me over to the garden.

“Riin, do you see that bush right there?”

I look at the small bush with her fruity looking berries on it. To which I give my best impression of ‘yes’ much to my displeasure it comes out to sound as any other happy sound I make, but I did my best what can she expect from a baby really.

“Look at it and burn that into your mind, it is a very strong poisons plant or rather the berries hold the poison don’t mistake them for any edible berries or you well sleep the sleep of the death. So, this is a bad plant, never eat them, do you understand?”

Sleep of the death? Is she talking about a coma?

I give a good sounding grunt if I have to say so myself. Bad plant, check.

Mother walk me back to the fur and lays me down again, yet even as she has stated that the plant is ‘bad’ she is not going back to her gentle humming. No, she wraps her hands in cloth before digging them into the earth beneath the plant while she gently loosens the dirt around the roots she speaks of the plant she is so gently handling.

“This plant is called Nightshade it has one other name and that is the more appropriate name for it, Deadly Nightshade. It only grows in the forest in the summer. While it is very harmful to humans it also has its uses, just like anything else in nature. The Nightshade is also very used by hunters for bigger prey like boar and elk. Arrows dipped in the liquid form of these herbs have a strong sedation power when it mixes with the bloodstream knocking about larger prey with the long hunt.”

She gently wraps the roots in the cloth she used to dig it up with as she turns and smiles at me.

If it is a poison, then why for you picking it up so gently… I might never get an answer as she soon after return to humming in a happy tone before tending to the next plant.

“This plant is called [Rose Campion], it grows on the forest floor or like this one here in a garden. This herb will protect against scorpion stings for three days. It will protect against only one sting. It will protect against `instant death' venom. It only grows in the summer but when it does grow it is wildly available and it one of the most commonly founds herbs in this season. It is also only found in temperate areas like in our kingdom. [Rose Campion] is a very strong anti-venom herb for all kinds of poisons. You have to be very careful went preparing this kind of herb as to not ruin it.”

She and her long talks is all done with a smile on her face as I sit there and listened to her. Hmm, so strong poisons and natural antidotes to those venoms exists. While I understand some of it, some just passes me by.

You have obtained knowledge from The Herbalist's Lore! Gain 1/10 more knowledge to unlock the full skill.

A pop up, window comes into view. Giving me quite the shock if I have to tell you the truth, I mean a free floating, see thru window that no one else seems to see but me… Yeah, talk about another world.

Hmm, lets see here… So, that means if I learn about and understand the basic of nine more plants I will gain a skill, interesting. So, that became my goal, for the time being. Whenever mother went out to her garden I would make a fuss until she brought me with her outside. I stared to do the only ‘happy’ sound that I could do… a baby giggle… Yeah don’t say anything. But the point is that it was working as planned. Mother began to talk more about what herb she was working with and what they did. I must admit that I might have missed some as I fell asleep a few times during her rather long talks. The times where we would go out to her garden started to become a highlight of my boring days of laying in the small bed or on pelt in the kitchen. As I expressed my joy over the small trips to the garden so did mother each time she told me of the herbs and their ability’s, her smile as she talked about the plants could light up the evenings with her laughter and smiles.

The next few months was spent with me sitting next to my mother while she tended to the small garden and spoke of the many different plants she grew there. So far, I have learned about the;

[Mandrake], The root of this herb sends the recipient to sleep. The sleep will last five hours, during which time the person cannot be woken except by a neutralise poison spell or potion. The root is said to bear a resemblance to the naked male form, hence its name. The plant has several dark green leaves which are about 1 foot long. The purple flowers of the plant are bell shaped. The root of the plant must be boiled on the night of a full moon and left to sit for an entire month before use. One of the reason I got to see this herb.

[All-Heale], a common herb that grows in autumn. It is one of the most common healing herbs, even with the herb having to be boiled for two weeks’ time.

[Dittany], This herb grows six or eight inches high with square stalks and sort round leaves. The leaves must be dried for two weeks and then be boiled in ale or wine. It is then applied as a lotion. Dittany can be used to draw splinter and bone fragments from a wound. It is also an effective antiseptic for cleaning wounds, and can therefore prevent infections caused by dirty water and the likes.

As winter closes in on us I get the rare chance to see some of the river herbs that mother grows in and around the small stream that run along our house.

[Sanicle], leaves should be crushed and left in wine, the strained through a cloth and drunk. It has the effect of binding wounds so that they are not reopened by action. It is a small plant with glossy green leaves, with long leaf stalks which are divided into three or five lobes. It has small white or pink flowers which sit at the top of a slender stalk.

[Delrean], The bark of this river root should be boiled into a paste and then smeared on the bare skin. It will then repel any insects from coming near the recipient, but the herb does give of a rather foul stench so should one try and court a lady it is best done after a very long bath to clean of the strong odor.

While she would many time work with the same herb for long periods of time, a new season always brought a new herb for me to learn about. Some herbs could not be grown in the same soil as they had been in before or in the same place as some winter plants had been in. Many things went into the tending and growth of her small garden and I eagerly took it all in. By the time, I had managed to learn about and remember seven of the herbs mother grew in the garden, I had rounded my second year in this world. I this point in time I was somewhat able to speak the language, known as common. The language spoken by human and most races that interacted with human in some way or another.

It was also around this point in time that mother slowed down with her tending for the garden. ‘The earth needs rest’ she had said. Whatever she meant by that, if she is talking about the rotation the farms do to their fields to makes use of it year around I don’t really follow her, I mean she has a forest around her free of use. But when I in my best way addressed this she only smiled and blabbered something about the god of the wild… Yeah, she completely lost me there. Or it might be that she really didn’t understand what I was trying to say… Not that I can blame her there really… I mean, me pointing to the forest and saying ‘ground’ is not such a strong point about why she should just use the forest around her.

Having my goal harshly taken from me by nature and mother I quickly found myself becoming restless. So, I set my sights on learning the language until I could complete my collection of herbal knowledge. My goal of learning to speak as fast as possible as also fueled by the idea of learning the words mother and father called [Shard Words]. Rather than mere words they where a type of commands that when mastered could be used on oneself or someone else, while the latter required much practice or in my chase on a younger mind where the [Shard] was still new. Learning the commands would let me interact with this worlds system, I had three words that I would need to master. The status command would let me see my most basic information; my name and age but what I found most interesting was that would show me my level, yes, I got a freaking level. The command to show this was called [Show Status]. The next command is the stats one, letting me know my strong and week points. This would let me know I need to improve easily, its called [Show Stats]. The last and most commonly used one is the command to see an induvial person’s skills with, [Show Skills]. There is one more but it is according to mother and father mostly nobles and the likes that have any use for this command, the command that lets you interact with spells, [Show Spells]. While saying the words, themselves are easy enough, getting them to work is harder, since you have to connect to your shard and ‘bind the words to yourself’ according to mother… I'm still working on that part.

I have come to address Raval as Father, since they kept making a big fuss whenever I addressed him as Raval… Do all people of a young age have to deal with this kind of stress growing up? ‘Father’ seems to be a trained bowyer, a craftsman of bows. I made the mistake of poking my head into his work place when I was taking a walk along the small river by our house. The man himself was overly excited about me stumbling into his workplace, me? Not so much, while I do have to admit that the work he does is impressive. You just have to give it to the old craftsmen they know what they are doing when they work. Of course, I was not released before hearing about his work and how he finds all the wood he works with in the forest around us. So, to sum it all up each bow he makes takes three years from the time the wood has been cut to the time where it is ready to be used, they are all crafted for it to be used for many years to come. As I stated, he takes wood from the forest - which I learned is named Asperd Forest, he finds the trees in the summer and cut them in the winter. The logs are then split into staves, where they are put in the water to soak until next winter. When winter then comes, they are brought into the shed to be worked into a raw shape of a bow. The raw bow is then put to soak a year more in the water. When I was finally released from his endless blabbering I felt that I had grown chest hairs.

I have finally after much hardship succeeded in connecting to my soul shard. Late in the night, when mother and father are asleep, I try for the first time to use the [Shard Word], [Show Status]. Taking a deep breath and concentrating I speak out in my small voice.

“Show Status”

Name: Riin Trovrar Age: 3 years [Child] Race: Human Sex: Male Level: 0 Health: 5/5 Stamina: 5/5 Mana: 15/15

To see my status for the first time was… Well to be honest kind of depressing. I mean five health really? And what is with a level of zero anyway? Well with that out of the way let's look at my stats and skills.

“Show Stats”

Experience: 0 Next level: 1000 Strength: 1 Dexterity: 1 Constitution: 1 Intelligent: 3 Wisdom: 1 Charisma: 5

Okay, so I can keep an eye on my experience to how far from next level I am. Next is skills.

“Show Skills”

Skill Name: Progression Level: Language: Common Master Lv. 10 Herbalist's Lore [Locked]

There's no need to check my spells since I have none. So, for now I will work on learning more on how stats work and when the time for mother to work in the garden comes again I will be ready to learn more about the useful herbs that grows around us.