“I need you to give me a group of people.” He put a bunch of papers in front of Charles.

  The other man raised his eyebrows. He looked through them before handing them back. “Food. We have hunters. We have meat. We don’t have water close by, and not enough time as is till winter.”

  “We need more than just meat and the occasional nettle Harriet collects when she goes out for a walk.” Alaric tapped on the papers. “And we need to store food for winter. Silverweed roots, burdock, pignut and wild garlics can be stored. Same goes for rye-grass seeds and wild oats. Meat will rot. And we need time to collect these. People need to learn what they’re looking for.”

  “And being waterless will leave us in a terrible position too.” Charles scowled. “I don’t know if it’s right to prioritize food.”

  “I’m not asking you to prioritise food.” Alaric sighed. “Ten people can collect plenty.”

  “Which ten? Every able bodied man is working on clearing a path for the waterway.”

  “Laura, Sarah, Victoria, Clara, Elizabeth,” Alaric paused as he tried to remember names. “Reuban, once he can walk. Jason. Me. Hell, you.”

  Charles shook his head. “I’m working with Martin to get the bricks ready. Sorry. You can ask the women. Jason and Reuban can’t go, I need them for the waterway as soon as they are healed. Lochlan and Avery too.”

  Alaric gritted his teeth. “Fine. Arthur. And whoever else I can convince to get out of the castle.”

  “Arthur?” Charles’ eyes widened slightly. “He’s five years old.”

  “Yes. He’ll be safe. Ava too. I’m taking her with me.”

  Charles’ lips parted as if he was about to protest, but then he just sighed and nodded. “Very well. She could probably use some walking around anyways.”

  “Yeah,” Alaric turned around and left the small room. It was past sundown by now, but if they wanted to be efficient, they needed to leave shortly after dawn tomorrow. One by one, he visited anyone he could think of who wasn’t busy with the waterway, asking them to come along. Most everyone gave an enthusiastic yes, while Laura seemed somewhat skittish.

  “We won’t need to fight, will we?” She asked, again.

  “No. We’ll all be close by, and I’ll have Luna and Sol on the lookout. The forest has been relatively safe till now though.”

  She seemed somewhat relieved. “Oh, that’s good. They’re good dogs.”

  Dogs? Alaric almost laughed. “That they are. Do you mind asking your people if anyone who isn’t working on the waterway or something related to it is interested in joining?”

  Laura nodded. “Yeah, sure. I can do that.” She hugged her cloak tighter.

  He didn’t know her too well. Most of his communication with the survivors had been through Martin. He only knew a few of them by name. As he headed down to the main hall for dinner, he kicked himself for not spending more time to get to know people aside from those he interacted with all the time.

  As if I had time.

  Dinner was once again meat stew with a bit of nettles thrown in. It was bland, and it was the same thing the fifth day in a row, but it was filling. And that was what mattered.

  The next morning, only a handful of minutes after dawn, he stepped out into the courtyard to see a good fifteen people. Most of them were women, though two young boys also accompanied the group. They couldn’t be older than ten. Sarah, holding Arthur’s hand tightly, was smiling as she told him something in a low voice.

  As he walked down the handful of steps, the group quieted down. Too many gazes turned on him. His chest tightened. I hate speeches!

  “We won’t go far from the castle today. We’re looking for edible plants. Nettles, dandelion leaves, chickweed – you’ll recognise these easily. Silverweed, pignut, burdock, plantain, wild oats and rye grasses – these are valuable. Everyone takes a basket – if you find any one of these, call over Sol or Luna, ask them to smell it, and lead you to more.”

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  The wolves’ ears perked up when they heard their names. Their tails wagged. Luna circled around Sol playfully.

  “If you’re not sure, ask each other. If you’re still not sure, leave it. Let’s not accidentally poison ourselves. Any questions?” He waited a few moments, then smiled. “Alright, let’s move out. Remember, don’t go far. Stay around me, or one of the wolves.”

  With that, he handed them the papers and they left the castle.

  The foliage beneath the trees was dense. Pretty much as soon as they were a couple dozen steps away from the path leading to the slope down the cliffs, they came to a halt. People crouched by different plants, trying to find whether they matched the drawings Alaric made for them.

  It was going to be slow at first. People needed time to learn. After a while, they’d have these memorised. They weren’t going to need to check the pages for every little detail. But now, they checked the leaves, the stem, the flowers if there were any. If everything matched, they collected the edible part.

  “Should we collect the roots of some of these?” Ava asked as she passed by him.

  He hadn’t thought that far. He hesitated for a moment, then nodded. “Yeah. Grab the whole plant if it’s something that’ll grow back.”

  Of course, dandelions and the like weren’t worth collecting, but large stemmed plants whose leaves were edible certainly were.

  “Green onions!” Laura suddenly shouted. “A wild type, but I know these!” She stood up, holding a whole plant – root and all – in her hand. “These are healthy too. Collect them when you can.” Now that over half an hour had passed outside, she seemed a lot more comfortable. She was chatting and working without too much to worry about.

  We’ll have enough for tonight’s meal. He could see the baskets slowly filling up with a myriad of plants. Some had edible roots, others stems and leaves, while a few plants were wholly edible. Those that wouldn’t go bad would best be stored in the cellar beneath the kitchen. The others they could eat daily and try to dry the meat they saved.

  With a smile on his lips, and hope in his heart, he worked along with the others, while also keeping an eye on his surroundings.

  “Alaric!” Ava’s shout broke the serenity of the forest. Everyone froze, their gazes turning to where the young woman’s voice echoed from. She was standing by the cliff edge.

  His heart sank. He rested his hand on the hilt of his blade as he rushed to her.

  She pointed eastward. “Look. Castle Dorwan. I don’t think they got everything last time.”

  His gaze followed her finger and landed on the castle leaning against the eastern mountains. A sickly green light glinted atop the structure.

  “I think they missed a mana core.” She said with a scowl. “I don’t like that light. It makes my skin crawl.”

  Alaric breathed a sigh. “Even so, it’s quite far away. We’re good for now. We’ll keep an eye on it.” He relaxed his grip. I thought we were being attacked!

  Ava nodded. “Yeah. Let’s do that.”

  “Alaric!” Once again he heard his name shouted from across a small clearing in the forest. They had slowly moved away from the castle, westward. The foliage grew even thicker here, so they lingered for longer.

  He hurried towards the source of the shout.

  He didn’t need Laura to explain why she had shouted his name as he approached her. She was standing a good ten meters away from a tree, staring at it with her lips parted. It was gigantic, its branches stretching so far out that it covered what would have been a large clearing in the forest.

  “Magnificent, isn’t it?” She glanced at him with awe-filled eyes. “I’ve never seen a tree so old in my life.” She smiled.

  “Yeah. It’s amazing.” He couldn’t even begin to imagine how old it was. It had to be ancient.

  “I should show this to Martin some time.” She said with a dreamy voice. “He’ll love it.” She walked off to a nearby patch of large leafed plants.

  Alaric stared at the tree for a little while longer before returning to where he was before. The rest of their time passed by eventless, and shortly after noon, they headed back to the castle with full baskets.

  “The area in front of the castle is great for a small garden.” Sarah suggested as they approached the gates. “I’ll organise some people to help out with the stuff we brought back. We should plant them as soon as possible.”

  “These are amazing,” he heard Harriet say as he brought the last two baskets. “Oh, Alaric.” She smiled as she lifted two wild onions in each hand. “This is great.”

  “I’m relieved we were able to find enough.” He put the two baskets on the wooden table. “We’ll head out tomorrow again. If I remember correctly, Robert will also go hunting. I’d like to prepare a portion of meat to dry.”

  Harriet scowled. “We can smoke it, but I’ll need help. If you want it to last the winter though… Robert will need to do a lot more hunting.”

  “That he will.”

  It was the end of summer. They didn’t have nearly enough time to plant fields, and even if they did, they lacked the seeds to plant. Their best bet was to preserve as much as possible, and hunt and gather as much as they could through the winter. Of course, that was easier said than done.

  “And we’ll need salt.” She folded her arms. “You’ll need to find a brine spring. There used to be lots here…” she paused. “Before the fall.” She added. “There should be some around, I’d wager.”

  Alaric held back a sigh. “Salt. Noted, I’ll see what I can do. Thanks, Harriet.”

  “You’re welcome, dear.” She said with a motherly tone and began preparing the greens in the baskets.

  That will take her hours. As much as he’d like to help her, he needed to speak to Charles about the salt situation. He headed out, and as soon as he spotted Elizabeth, informed her than her grandmother could use some help in the kitchen. While the young woman hurried to find her sister for help, he headed to the study. He could only hope the witch had marked the location of a brine spring on one of her many maps.