Going Herbal [M]

[Mamushi]

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{C-Rank Mission}Gathering - Local Herbs
Rank: C
Description: The local herbalist has a need for more herbs for processing into various potions and salves. However, several aggressive wildlife have been spotted on the outskirts of the village. Go and pick the herbs in question and slay any animals you may encounter.
Restrictions: No limitation
Rewards: 50 EXP, 1000 RYO

        Mamushi took a long gander at the lost of herbs the craggy old herbalist had given her. It was writ in the hag's spidery crawl, herb after herb after herb. Half of the fifty-herb-long list was just food ingredients! The other half were for potions and salves, but a lot of them would go well with noodles or a baked capon. She'd had some mitsuba-wrapped sushi with a serving of chawan-mushi just the night before.

        It was as if the woman wanted her to get eaten by an animal. Picking all these herbs would take hours, even with her intimate knowledge of the local forest. Every snake slithering through these parts knew her smell. She glanced up at the sky. The sun had just crested the darkening blue, still fringed in clouds, heat beating down from straight above. The blue was mottled with gray already. It was just after noon by her reckoning - it'd be well after dark by the time she was finished with this. At least she'd be getting a thousand ryo instead of a measly five hundred.

        Whatever animal was hunting near the village, it had better be tasty, or else she was going to be pissed.

        The storm clouds from earlier were steadily pushing closer. A couple hours away, now. She could taste the coming rain, smell it when she inhaled. She smelled the earth too, and camellias, magnolias, pine and oak, and she caught the faintest whiff of maple. The distant clouds rumbled, cracked, cackled, and split, and the heavens flashed. Birds roosting in the twisty boughs of a nearby great oak took off in flight, spurred to flee by the loud nose. A feather fluttered down from a wing, alighting on her forehead. She plucked it off, spun it about between her thumb and forefinger. The feathers were black and silky. A raven's wing. Raven's tasted okay. A bit too much like carrion though.

        Mamushi pocketed the list, tucked the feather into her hair, and pulled her mantle over her face. The hood was fashioned to resembled a snakes maw, absent fangs. The circular marks at her temple were supposed to be eyes, but Maya had once told her they looked like big head-phones from afar. Her cloak was woven from fine wool, thin enough for the heat but thick enough to keep off the night chill. With the rain coming, the night would most likely be hot and humid, but the cloak afforded other protections - she'd hate to absentmindedly bump into a poisonous plant and come down with a rash. That would be much too embarrassing.

        She oriented herself - there was a clearing relatively close by with at least a couple dozen different rhizomes growing in it, and another a couple miles beyond it with a nice supply of milkwort and mug-wort. And wormwood too, if she wasn't getting herself mixed up. She tightened her grip on the thatched wicker basket the old hag had given her and heard the jars inside clank as they shook. A smart woman, that hag was, for including the jars. Some herbs did their jobs better dry, and it would be days waiting for them to try out normally, let alone with they got wet in the rain.

        She turned off the path and dashed into the forest.

[Mamushi]

        The dense canopy overhead served to blanket the sun, until only the thinnest spears of light speared the brush to crash against the mossy earth. The forest was a realm unto itself, a thick green jungle of creeping things. Birds warbled down from above, and cicadas shrilled from the leaves. She hear crickets chirping, and frogs croaking, smelled the cloying fragrance of wildflowers and weeds. The boles were so wide ten of her could hide behind them, the bark rough to the touch. Oak, pine, and hickory shrouded her, rising straight up into the sky like pikes. Moss hugged the base of each tree, blanketing the great gnarled roots that buried into the earth.

        And there, just beyond the trees, in a shadowy meadow, were shoots of clematis and cnidium, cloves and bamboo, and a veritable sea of rhizomes; goldenthread, cohosh, corydalis, castrodia, and pinellia, all of which were on the list. Except the clematis - seems the old hag didn't care for buttercups, and Mamushi couldn't blame her. Too much clematis could lead to internal bleeding, but a small enough dose was good for migraines, and one of the extracts was great for anti-inflammation.

        She shrugged. If the hag didn't want any, she'd would just take some for herself.

        She hummed as she plucked the roots and flowers from the earth. She shook each root as clean of dirt as she could before she stuffed them in the jars; some she only clipped, collecting nothing more than the petals. The forest continued on singing around her, ringing calls, echoing hoots, and the continuous clatter of cicadas and crickets. Bees buzzed around her head - she opened her mouth and let her tongue snake slitter out to snap at the air, sending the fat yellow flyers scurrying. The snake flicked out his tongue, hissed, and swiveled its head to a shadowed hollow beneath one of the trees. Still plucking roots and cutting flower petals, she allowed her tongue snake to slither down into the whole to see what was underneath.

        She found a family of baby rabbits burrowed deep beneath the earth, all slumbering. Her humming sounded positively slobbery with her tongue turned scaly and hanging from her mouth, but her palette was much obliged for the discovery. Little bunnies were almost as tasty as kitties. Her snake couldn't eat them all - after she'd swallowed the first four the others woke and scattered, scurrying down one of the myriad tunnels beneath the ground and off into the forest. Good, Mamushi thought. Hopefully they'd live, breed, and have even more baby rabbits for her to come devour. Though eating them whole didn't impart all the flavor she'd get from just catching and cooking them.

        She regurgitated one rabbit and paused her collecting to field dress it for later consumption. If she could get her hands on some benidate and soy sauce, with a little almond milk, and she'd have a nice marinade to enhance the rabbit's natural flavorings. She might even share her meal with the hag. The old woman had seemed awful lonely.

        It didn't take long until she had a nice collection of rhizomes and other herbs. By the time she was finished, the few wisps of light that slanted down from the canopy had grown dim. The wind was picking up, and the rain smelled closer now. Next on her list were the worts. She had about three miles to run to reach the clearing. Maybe she'd come across the supposed beast hunting in the forest?

        Latching the basket closed, she ran up the tree and into the boughs. The thick branches would serve as her road, and she'd make better time through the trees anyway. Mamushi sprinted deeper into the forest, dancing atop the trees, hair wisping in the wind.

[Mamushi]

        The forest floor sped by below, a mottled swirl of brown and green, dotted with the occasional bright pink and white swaths of clustered azaleas and camellias. She ran quickly, but near silently, so that not even the birds were disturbed. She heard howling from deeper in the forest, and then, minutes later, an answering howl from somewhere south of her. Wind whistled through the boughs as the storm crept ever closer; she heard the faint patter of rain coming down from the north, growing louder with every step. Gaps in the canopy let shafts of light slip through - golden just moments, ago, the light had dimmed to brass. Soon shadows would reign in the forest, and if she was lucky, the beast would come a'hunting. 

        She ran for another mile, face spread in a half smile from the feel of the bark beneath her feet, the wind in her hair, the rain in her nose. Snakes were creatures of nature, and she was ever snake.

        The clearing was larger than the first, and already she could see that something had made its home there. The flowers that fringed the meadow half-trampled, and she could smell animal piss staining several of the trees. Then there were the tracks, spread out about the clearing as if the beast was given to meandering, and there, curled up beneath a tree, brown fur shivering as it snored, was the beast. A grizzly, male she reckoned, and big. He'd probably wandered up from the mountains, or maybe he was driven north by an ever fiercer predator. Wolves from southern Hi no Kuni were notoriously large, and she'd heard travelers complaining of tigers in the eastern jungles.

        Maybe there were wolves and tigers prowling about. The hides would be worth more than she was getting paid for the missions!

        She paused in the trees above the bear's sleeping form, watching him silently. Who ever knew bears could look so peaceful? Sure, his teeth were monstrous and wicked sharp, and his snout was bigger than her torso, but his thunderous snores reminded her of her grandfather, and his hairy back reminded her of him too. Grandpa Oroshimitsu had been a true Kage Hebi, like her. She remembered his snakes slithering about the compound late nights, terrorizing the children. Mamushi had never been afraid; not even a little; at seven, she'd managed to master one of his snakes and make it her own. Besides herself, her tongue snake was the only thing of his that remained in the world. War had claimed it all.

        Unsheathing her ninjato, Mamushi gripped her toes to the branch and swung until she was hanging upside down. Chakra glued her to the bark. Only a fool - or a reckless taijutsu master - would fight a bear . A ninja was smart, first and foremost, especially a relatively average ninja like herself. If she could kill it without awakening it...

        She took a deep breath, angled herself so that the point of her sword lined up with the grizzly's skull, and let herself fall. Gravity handled the rest. The drop was brief but exhilarating, and she might have let out a hoot if she wasn't trying to keep silent. The wind buffeted her cloak, making it ripple, but before the bear could stir, her ninjato was sinking into its skull like a dagger into salted ham. She felt the steel strike the skill, break through, rip through the jaw and bury itself in the ground. The bear died instantly, hot blood steaming as it leaked in torrents from its head wound.

        Now she could harvest herbs with impunity. A pair of howls sounded again. They seemed closer, now. Almost as close as the rain.

        Hurriedly, Mamushi set to collecting the worts - ragwort, mugwort, milkwort, motherwort, saw-wort, even snakewort, all in several variations. If she finished quick enough, she might be able to try her sword against a few wolves...

[Mamushi]

        The rain had finally reached her. It sounded like a million fluttering wings. The canopy was so thick that only a few drops fell every now and again, each droplet colder than the last. The bear carcass cooled behind her, brown fur matted read, massive head a mess of torn flesh and splintered bone. The birds had stopped their singing, but the cicadas and crickets still clamored on, and she still toiled. She had six jars of different worts, another four jars of various roots. There were only a few herbs left, and if memory served correct, she'd find what she needed towards the rocky northwestern borders where the hills grew into craggy mountains of sand and limestone.

        "Kosuuuurooooooo, to, satsuuuuuujin..."

        She was humming her favorites song and plucking  milkwort when a queer sound reached her ears, a low growl like rumbling stone. She paused mid-snip and tasted the air, tongue-snake slithering back and forth. There. She couldn't see them, but she could feel them. The hair on her neck bristled, and her heart started beating faster. A bear pelt, even one with a whole through the head, was worth a pretty penny - a few wolves and she'd be able to eat gourmet for two weeks! Quietly, she tucked away the last of the wort and sent her tongue snake slinking through the grass to circle around the approaching wolves.

        They hadn't noticed her, she realized. She was downwind, and quieter than a mouse, and the smell of bear dominated the clearing, completely overpowering her snakey scent. The first wolf that loped into view was huge, as big as a pony, with yellow eyes much like her own, and bristling dark grey fur. It shuffled closer to the bear, nudged it first with a paw, then its nose, and then, when the bear didn't budge, opened its maw wide to sink its fangs into the flesh. Ripping and tearing sounds filled the clearing. The other wolves took that to mean it was time to eat; no less than six of the massive beasts dived on the cooling carcass, ripping into the still warm flesh.

        Grinning, Mamushi yanked her ninjato free of its sheathe. The metal screamed, and the yellow eyes all snapped to her. Stupid wolves. The alpha was the first to die. Her tongue snake struck him with nary a sound, once, twice, thrice, the wound leaking endlessly. The quick chorus of mewls and whimpers made the other wolves pause. One glanced back to chance a look at the alpha - Mamushi capitalized on its negligence, sending a kunai sailing into its skull. The massive body gave a dull thump as it struck the ground.

        Rain pattered overhead, thunder rumbled, and finally, the cicadas and crickets ceased their racket. The wolves pounced.

[Mamushi]

        She dropped the first snarling beast with a well timed slash of her sword, catching it in the mouth. The steel sliced through flesh and bone like paper. Hot blood spattered over her face. She leaped into the trees as the rest swarmed her, feet hugging the bark. Staring down at the wolves as they snapped and growled, she wedged the herb basket between branch and bole, then dived back into the fray. A dozen snakes preceded her, fangs glistening as they struck.

        The great red wolf duck away from the initial strike of a black and gold spotted snake, but it could not avoid the purple hooded viper that coiled around its torso. The spotter reared back, watched the wolf strugge, and struck again, fangs catching the beast in its leg. The thick silver snake had no trouble twining about the black wolf it had chosen, and its fellow, a pale white snake, turned about and snap at a mottled grey and white wolf who dodged too close. Incisors like small daggers sunk deep into the wolf flesh, then another, and another. The remaining snakes coiled into a cluster, snapping and hissing at the three wolves who had wisely veered away, spooked by their sudden appearance.
   
        And then Mamushi was among them, and her ninjato flashed. She hadn't learned any specific kenjutsu, not yet, but she was athletic enough to make due without technical skill. The wolf backed away, limping. She cut left, blade carving through yet another beast. Her snakes attacked the last wold, a mangy old brown, coiling through and around legs, neck, and torso, squeezing, squeezing, squeezing, until the old wolf was yelping frantically, bones snapping with sharp cracks like bundles of twigs.

        Her snakes returned to her flesh, melding together to reform her hand. The clearing was a mess of fur and blood and meat. Her cloak was splattered with blood; she licked her lips and tasted copper on her tongue. But hadn't that been fun? Killing never lost its allure. One day these would be shinobi at her feet. She would be a famous ninja, one day. A fearsome ninja, even if she had to kill every wolf in the whole goddamn world.

        She bound her way back up the tree and through the canopy to the weeping sky above. Gray, blue, and black swirled in the sky, and rain fell like a wet sheet. She hadn't realized how hard it had been pouring, but the torrent was welcome. The water washed her cloak clean, pattering against her skin like falling pebbles. When she licked her lips, she only tasted water. The storm wouldn't last long, she saw. Already a swath of blue was yawning in the distance, growing as the storm moved south.

        Gravity took hold and she fell back to the earth. She stall had many hours of harvesting left yet, most of that being travel time. Some of those herbs grew all the way in the mountains, nearly ten leagues north of the village. She doubted there was anything left in the wood that would bother her now.

         

[Mamushi]

        The hours passed quicker than she expected. She flitted back and forth through the forest, collecting this and that from the marshes towards the east, and that and this from the caves athwart the lake that cradled the base of the shortest of the northwestern mountains. The sun had just settled beneath the horizon when everything on the list was crossed off. All the jars were full.
   
        She ran atop the trees, skipping from branch to branch. Moonlight splashed down over her skin from a great black sky, turning her pale complexion chalk white. White as snow and death and fog. Stars dappled the black, winking in the distance. As she had predicted, the air was thick and humid, remnants left of the rain. Her cloak clung to her skin, damp and sweaty, turning a muggy night even warmer. Mid stride, she yanked the cloak free and tied the sleeves about her waist.

        She glanced down at her tattoos. They seemed impossibly dark beneath the night sky.

        Konoha loomed ahead. The lights lit the sky in motes of orange and yellow. She had never paid attention to how tall the walls were, each as high as a mountain it seemed. In the wake of the rain and her bloody battle the forest denizens had started up their din, night birds calling, fat frogs croaking, cicadas clattering, crickets chattering. Here and there she heard a rustle in the leaves, saw a shadow flutter down below, but nothing came at her, and when she tasted the air, she found nothing amiss.

        She imagined that she could heear the trees whispering secrets in the night, but most likely it was just the wind tickling the leaves. But if they could speak, she wondered, what would they say? What great battles had they seen? What songs had they heard? Did they care if the living perished? How would they feel if she set fire to the lot of them, just to smell the smoke?

        Soon enough she was standing before the gates, basket hanging from her shoulder, cloak twisted about her waist. She flashed the guards a wide, gleaming grin, showed the proper documentation, and scampered off back into the village to take the hag her herbs. She'd manage to collect herself a nice bit of akajiso and boufo.

finite.

[Comatose]

+60 EXP