>>Paul: Tend to Garden

[Soldier 75]

Light seeps in through the curtain, awakening you. You rise from the bed, immediately noticing a dull pain in your back. As you slide you legs off the bed, and hang them off the side, you feel a lump under the sheets next to your left hip. You lift the sheets up  and slide your hand along the mattress, until it bumps into what feels like soft leather. A groan escapes your lips as you realize that the book you were reading two nights before, "The Shipmaster's Apprentice", lay hidden beneath the sheets while you slept. You sometimes shift in your sleep, and you realize that you must have shifted your weight onto the book in the middle of the night. Pushing yourself up, you deposit the book on a table, scoop up your staff, and exit the bedroom. A wide yawn and a few stretches help wake you up, and you stroll down the hallway in a slightly better mood. Down the staircase and through the back door you move, picking up gardening tools along the way. Your beloved garden comes into view, and you begin your daily routine to keep all the crops healthy.

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Sweat runs down your back as you trek across the jungle floor, following a faint path between impenetrable swaths of plants. After finishing up your gardening, some exploration sounded like a good idea. With all the gardening tools restored to their proper resting places, you set out into the Green to explore a previously unexplored location you had stumbled upon in one of your many expeditions. Approaching the site, a tree blocks the entrance. This was a large and mighty oak, one that surely must have lived many decades. But now, it is simply yet another obstacle to overcome. A quick glance down the tree's length reveals where it had once stood. The undergrowth is thick, but you push through it nonetheless. The crater left behind by the uprooting of the tree appears, and you skim around the edge. Back on the path, you clear away the encroaching foliage, and enter.

A gaping hole confronts you. Vines venture into its depths, disappearing into the darkness. Picking up a rough stone, you release it over the pit. the seconds tick by. One... Two... Three... Four.. Splash! Peering over the edge, you inspect the darkness. Wow, it must be deep. You grab the sturdiest vine you can find, and start climbing down the hole to see if you can get a better view. Your adventure is cut short as the vine begins to show signs of stress, and you quickly clamber back up. I'll see if I can scrounge up some proper climbing gear. Maybe their is some in the basement. Exiting the small clearing, you skirt around the tree yet again, and set a course for home.