Road to Recovery Pt 3
(copost with Jaxx)
After three days of rehabilitation and walking, the lizard man made a lot of progress. He found it amazing that his wounds were recovering quickly due to Mallow’s stinky herbs. It never dawned on him that his body was also quick to recover as a lizard man. The combination of his new lizard body and Mallow’s potent herbs made for a much quicker recovery than expected. He did feel much better to be able to walk again, even if he was still sore. He was also doing his best to learn about his new environment.
Mallow came to the man before they set off to walk the near by area before going to town, just to make sure he had his legs under him. Mallow handed him a large sturdy cured branch. "Walking stick. Lean on it if you need some support but don't lean to hard, might still be a bit brittle." she warmed, "Just to get you somewhere to sit if you feel faint not something to support your weight. You are much heavier then me." she added. "No offence."
The lizard man chuckled for the first time at Mallow's comment. The image of of her trying to carry him was amusing in his mind. He accepted the stick and gave it a little stress test to make sure it was not to brittle before he used it.
Lizardman: Thank you. I think I can walk for a good while, but I will use it just in case. So what will we be doing today?
The lizard man did some mild stretching to warm up his muscles. Sitting down to long made him still so moving around did help a lot.
"Firstly we are going to check some of the yabbie traps, the fish nets and make sure no crocs got tangled up in them." She said, "Then pick some herbs, and veggies, then if you are feeling up to it we can go to town, Or at least as far as Gideon's pub." Mallow saw the slight confusion. "Gideon's the one that pulled those nasty arrows out of you." she told him, "He's gruff but nice."
The lizard man nodded as he he looked around to see his environment. He then asked.
Lizard man: So what are we bringing with us? How will we carry the stuff?
Mallow gestured for the man to follow behind the house was a few baskets attached on a yoke. "Just carry them." she said, lifting the baskets onto her back. We should get the stuff by the water done first, skeetos come up when it gets warm and I don't wanna get bit up." she said, "You'll likely be fine with that tough skin though." she added, "I'll show you the first few times." She said, then Mallow turned to her horde of pets, "You all stay here today." she told them and they seemed to fully understand. "Okay follow me." she said to the lizard man heading off in the direction of the water.
The lizard man then grabbed a few baskets to help out. Despite being sore he was a lot stronger than he looked. His lizard man body seemed pretty hardy even when less than ideal. He then followed Mallow towards the water. As he followed her he paid attention to the land and tasted the air without realizing it. He could feel the changes in the wind, heat, animal presence and even the pollen of the foliage around him. He was not sure if this was normal or something new in his life, but it did feel odd.
As they reached the water Mallow started speaking, not to the man but to the water. "Go on Shoo, I don't want to have to bop you with the stick again." she wasn't shouting but her tone was very commanding. At first it looked like she was shouting at ghosts or the air but about five feet from the the water a croc skittered into the water and swam off. "That's Bruce." she said, "He's ornery but give him a good boop on the snoot he'll go away." she said, and walked the rest of the way over to the water. "See these traps?" she pointed out with her finger, to some traps that looked like two cones made of reeds put together. "They climb in but can't climb back out." she explained how the trap worked, but before she pulled then she knelt to her knees, and started mumbling something to herself. Something the man couldn't make out. Then she stood again. "Okay, hand me the stick hold the baskets." she said, pointing the the stick with a slight curve on both ends.
The lizard man did as Mallow asked and watched as she did her preparations. He observed quietly since he didn't want to distract her since he already knew that this water had crocs and snakes in it. While keeping an eye out for danger, the lizard man he studied Mallow's techniques.
After her prayer and taking the pole from the man she reach out and hooked a trap and brought it in, inside were crawfish but Mallow called them yabbies. "Then you hold it up so the point is down pull the outer cone out then dump them in the basket, then do the next one and so on till you get them all, put the cone back and put them back in the water." Mallow said "I'll have to teach you the prayer but that'll come once you are used to helping for now you can just be my eyes." she told him.
The lizard man replied, "Understood.", as he kept a look out for any threats. He was getting more aware as he could see the water moving ever so slightly from a croc in the distance. He was not sure if it was the same croc as before since they all looked the same to him. He was not sure what Mallow saw when she looked at the wildlife, but just saw a possible threat and meal. From the corner of his eye he saw some movement and looked to verify what it was. It was a well camouflaged snake coming in their direction. So the lizard man picked up a good short and thick sized stick and hurled it at the head of the snake. This stunned and spooked the snake at first, then it slithered off back where it came from. The lizard man was trying to adhere to the rules Mallow warned him about earlier in reference to limit the hunting of animals. Since they seemed to have what they needed he would try to deter the threats before getting violent in self defense.
Mallow set to work pulling in all the baskets and dumping them, it didn't take long with all her practice. "When we get back we'll have to check for dead ones, nothing worse then biting into a rotten yabbie." She said. "Don't worry though that's easy just gotta look for the ones that ain't moving." Mallow told the man before picking up her baskets. "Plants will take you a lot longer to learn if at all. Even I gotta check notes sometimes. Plants ain't something to play with wrong thing thinking its the right thing'll make you real sick, or worse." Mallow said.
After watching Mallow farm her crawfish he saw that was the easy part. Apparently the challenge was keeping the gators away during the process. He scanned to see if any predators were coming close but they seemed to be keeping their distance for now. He wondered if they were avoiding him since he was new to the area. Perhaps it would change over time. So he didn't plan on dropping his guard anytime soon. The lizard man replied, "I see. So the yabbies have to be fresh. I am guessing if that die they might release some kind of poison?"
"Poison of sorts I suppose." Mallow said, "Not like a snake, or like a colorful frog." she said, "Just like anything that goes bad." She explained. "You don't have a way of knowing how long they've been dead in there. I only check'em every two days, and if it died on day one it'll be rotten, and make someone sick. An adult might make it through with just some waddles to the outhouse, but could take a child down a darker ending. So gotta make sure all of 'em are alive when we sell 'em." Mallow told Ripper.
The lizard man nodded as he understood. Though he didn't know why he understood, it did make sense not to eat anything that had been dead for a while. He remembered the meat turning green or black when dead to long. Only the buzzards could eat that kind of meat and not die. He wondered how he knew that but not his name or past. Perhaps his memory needed a trigger to come back in parts? Of course he in no hurry since he was in the middle of nowhere and no one recognized him so he felt content with that in a strange way. Though it was new and confusing he was not ready to be attacked in his current condition if he was being hunted like Mallow mentioned before. Then as he helped Mallow in her efforts as he asked, "So how many are you harvesting today?"
"We've pretty much got them all. We'll just have to take them into town after we collect all the herbs, no reason to make two trips if we can do it in one." she explained as the two pick through the crawfish throwing the bad ones into a wooden box used to make compost. "We just need to pick a few things. The doctor in town buys some of the herbs I pick and just need to drop a few off with him." Mallow said, "Then stop at the bigger inns and sell the yabbies." she told Ripper.
The lizardman nodded as he understood. It was a simple life but even so there was always some level of danger. He had spotted in the distance a few gators and snakes who seemed wary of them. He was glad he didn't have to fight anything at the moment since he was still recovering. Though he felt like he was in the body of a stranger he also felt a connection to his movements as if he was constantly doing a balancing act. He wondered if this was connected to his past since he had little trouble walking the unleveled ground with little issues despite being hurt. He made it a point to sort the "yabbies" into the live and dead piles. Seeing as she was using the dead ones for new soil, he wondered what herbs she was growing. Then he asked, "So what kind of herbs are we going to look for?"
"Black Sage, Plantain, Wild Garlic, Lemon Grass, and my name sake Common Mallow." Mallow told the man, "Black Sage for pain, Plantain for cuts, Wild Garlic for infections, Lemon Grass for food poison, and Common Mallow for the flu or colds." she explained. "I have most of them growing close to each other in sorta like garden patches, but a few don't grow like growing next to each other, I think its cause they take the same things from the soil and end up fighting over it enough none grow." she explained farther, leading Ripper over to a patch that was marked off with sticks.
The lizard man followed Mallow to her makeshift garden. As first look it seemed like plants in the ground, but after looking more carefully he realized there was a pattern to it and after hearing that some plants don't grow well next to each other he began to realize that this trial and error knowledge that Mallow had must have taken a long time to learn. He was very impressed by her patience and efforts in this difficult endeavor. "Interesting", said the lizard man as he looked at the garden. Then he had a thought and asked, "So how many farmers live in this area?"
"A few." Mallow said, "But it's mostly just people growing their own food. Like carrots, cabbages, potatoes and other root veg, bigger farms do about the same as normal people. Herbs need a special touch though." she told the man, "I grow some veggies in another plot but this one is just for herbs I sell." she explained while looking at the leaves of each plant before picking some and placing it gently in the basket.
After a few more minutes of picking the plants Mallow rose to her feet. "Okay. Ready to go into town?" She asked.
Mallow grabbed her things and showed the man what he'd need to carry and the two headed off towards town. "First top the Crooked Way." Mallow said, but saw his confusion. "Oh the place where you got the arrows pulled out of you." she told him, and the two headed off to see Gideon.