There was only one new seed type I found along the way through the forest with my daughters, but I pocketed it. I didn't know what kind of plant it even belonged to, though. Sun thought it would have a lot of flowers. She didn't speak much at all yet, but her thought of some of the flowers we had seen appeared like a translucent image in her hivemind window. At least that's how it appeared to me; she was probably just seeing it in her own mind's eye.

Then again, if one gets distracted with their own thoughts, it does cloud or override whatever their eyes see, so I guess this made sense.

I hadn't found my club since I abandoned it when I found the first caterpillar. Who knows where it was, or what condition it was in by now? I could always make another though, so I guess it was fine. Djraine kept bumping into me, but only when we weren't surrounded by thick amounts of trees and other vegetation- she seemed happy about it though, so I guess she was just playing. She was always affectionate, so it isn't a surprise. I'm just glad we didn't get our legs entangled and fall all over each other. If something dangerous was around, then it would really not be a good thing. Luckily, that didn't happen.

After about half a day more, the trees weren't even half as thick, and there were even less bushes. More ground-cover like the mossy grass that seemed to be everywhere not covered in leaves, but that's about it. Shortly after, we reached the end of the forest. I knew it was close because of the decreasing tree density, but not this close. In front of us, spanning... well, a good distance. I wasn't human anymore, and neither were my eyes, so I didn't think my vision range was as good as it used to be. But spanning out in front of us was a grassy plain, though the grass was not very tall. At least it wasn't further out- it was in between.

The reason the grass wasn't so tall further away but it was closeby became very obvious- there was a wooden fence. The low-grass area must be some sort of marker for someone's property, or a farm, or something. The tall grass wasn't owned so it wasn't maintained. The fact that there weren't even patches of grass in the forest area made me wonder. Was it because it wasn't fertilized? Maybe it wasn't able to gain equilibrium with the moss-grass. Whatever it was, it at least made the borders of who owned what extremely recognizable.

Some of the grass had what looked like grass seed on its long and fluffy-looking tops, almost like normal grass that ends in pampass grass. I pet one of its stalks while squeezing my hand, and a few seeds came off. They were very flaky and flat, and if I wasn't looking at them, I wouldn't be able to feel it. I tried to put it in my pocket, but it was stuck to my skin, so I rubbed my hand on the inside of my pocket and hoped that would work. It did.

Sun and Djraine both started to climb over the fence, but I yelled... as quietly as I could... for them to get back and follow me instead. We won't go over the fence, but around it. It was around a mile or so in each direction, or at least it looked that way. I didn't see the other edges of the fence, so I had to just choose a direction and go that way. I didn't want to incidentally see those scalewolves again, so we went right. We soon came to a dirt path. It was very overgrown with grass, though not as tall as the untended stuff, and had a few boxes sitting there. The girls had an idea what they were because of me, but they didn't touch them. They didn't seem to want to.

Next to the boxes was another 90-degree angled fence, so we just tried walking down the dirt path. But we were too wide! Something smaller than us, maybe normal humans, had made this pathway, or so I assumed, and our spider legs made us unable to walk comfortably like that. I gave permission to Djraine and Sun to go over the short fence and walk with me from there. After only fifty feet or so, there were flat rocks in the dirt path, but not enough to be cobblestone. Another fifty feet and it still wasn't. Okay then, no upgrades the closer you get to the house, eh?

There was a house. Something like one, and it was big! There were four or five other houses too, or at least buildings, but none that size. The farm areas ended (if that's what they were, I didn't see domesticated animals or crops the whole time) and the rocky path was lined with a cobblestone wall, but only four feet high, if I judged my height correctly. There was a rusty metal fence-like addition on top of it. I took a better look, thinking that it had poles going into the wall like rebar is used in cement, but it didn't. In fact, it just seemed to be a stucco-like material clumped all over some of its support rod, keeping it in place. If enough force was used it would just fall over. I guess these people didn't get attacked, or I doubt that fence would even be there anymore.

I heard a sound of something crunching in the dirt, probably digging. I peeked over the fence rather easily, and there was a woman- a human woman- with a trowel, tending her garden. Now or never. I don't know how she'd react, but I guess since the only part of me she can see is from the shoulders up...

"Um, excuse me..." I said quietly, but out loud. I didn't want to frighten her.

No response.

"Hi!"

Nothing. Maybe she didn't hear me.

I tapped my obsidian arrowhead on one of the metal rods of her fence.

She shook her head and looked up. I wonder if we speak the same language...

"Shhk dnno flim!" The words... I didn't understand them at ALL. What kind of gibberish was this? Was it a language?

"Ekkish nu ah!" Sun smirked like I taught her to, but she didn't smile. Well, showing off her fangs wouldn't really be a great idea. Probably.

Judging by Sun's happy demeanor and tone of voice, the woman must have complimented her? She felt pretty. Aha! Well, she was the most exquisite of all my children. It made sense. Apparently I need to be tutored on language. Maybe that's why no one had really talked to me at home? Wonderful.

Djraine just looked at me, but I didn't pick anything up. Hmm.

She only said one or two words, but Djraine spoke this language too, whatever it was. The gardener woman and Sun seemed to chat up a storm, though. Not a real storm, just...

The woman brushed herself off and stood up, pulled her leather (that's what it looked like) hat back and started walking away. I tracked her with my eyes, and she was going towards an old wooden gate, to open it. Before she got the chance to, I heard a man hollar something, from behind us and to one side. I turned to look, and a couple other people came out of whatever door was closest, though one person seemed to just peek out of a window. The gardener woman looked surprised at the yelling and ran out of her yard even faster, and looked in the direction the man was pointing.

It was at us.

I don't know what he yelled. I'd have to ask the girls later. But the gardener woman started laughing really hard, and actually fell to her knees, holding her sides. The men that came outside to... whatever it was that was clearly going to be unfortunate for us, looked horrified at the woman's behavior. She looked at us, at them, then started laughing even harder. I figure I'd better do something so she doesn't die of laughter.

I gently put one of my hands on her back and use my other to hold her forearm so I can help her stand up again.