Chapter 16 New Discoveries
Her soul gourd had stopped rattling and she was ready to identify anything useful or edible in this forest so when Adler pulled out of the space ship, she willingly followed him.
"What type of soil is this?" she asked him.
She had noticed that black soil sticking to the bottom of the space ship earlier and she tried to scrape it off but it seemed to have hardened over time. It reminded of cement that had been mixed with water and stuck on something.
As she looked at the soil she was reminded about the poor quality of their house and she wondered if this soil could be used to build a better house.
"I don't know." Adler answered, "Beord, do you know what type of soil this is?"
"No." Beord answered with a shrug.
Scarlet looked at her Carolyn and she shrugged so she squatted down and touched it. "We should take a sample." She suggested.
They had three pods from the space ship; carrying back a bit of this soil could not possibly hurt.
Beord sighed as he collected the soil sample. As he did so, Scarlet had already moved on to something else. There was something white sticking out from the ground and in the forum; it was identified as knotted garlic. It was included in the edible section.
She decided to take it and check whether it was similar to the normal garlic. Her eyes continued darting around and she saw what looked like bamboo shoots.
"This too." She told Beord.
Beord used too much power and he cut some of the shoots into half. She glared at him and he shrugged.
As she was walking forward, something tripped her and she almost fell down but Adler caught her before she could land on the ground.
"Be careful."
"Thank you." She replied. Then she looked down to see what had tripped her and she saw some intertwined vines which she started pulling out but they stubbornly refused to budge.
"I will do it." Beord said and before she could shout no, he dragged a large vine and pulled it out of the ground by its roots. Attached to the roots were two very large edible yams as identified in the forum.
Very excited, she clapped her hands and said, "Take these too, pull out every vine you see."
"What the heck is this stuff?" Carolyn asked. Her face was wrinkled because of the large brown dirty things.
"Food, teacher called them yams." She replied. "You will love them when I cook them for you."
Scarlet jumped up and down, harvesting everything that could be edible at the edge of the forest and she would have wanted to go deeper if possible but her older siblings were unwilling to allow this.
She was sad that she did not find any onions or tomatoes but she managed to find a chicken nest and she saved it before her siblings could slice them into half. There was only rooster and the rest were hens so for now, she would not eat any of them.
"Can we leave now? It has been over four hours Scarlet. Our parents must be worried about you by now." Beord complained impatiently.
"In addition to that you are all sweaty and your face is flushed. I think your sickness is acting up." Carolyn added.
Scarlet wondered if these older siblings of hers had never seen an exhausted person before. She had been running around for hours, of course she was exhausted. But she still wanted to keep going.
"Justin will be worried." Adler reminded her.
She looked up at the sky and the sky was shining so brightly and it was getting hotter. Temperatures in this interstellar world were hotter than the temperatures on earth. Even if this body was used to it, mentally Scarlet was not. She was beginning to feel uncomfortable and she planned to use sunblock next time.
"Let's go back." She nodded in agreement. She did not want to keep Justin waiting plus her arm was beginning was also hurt.
They walked back to the bear shaped mecha and she felt the urge to throw up again. In her storage she had cars, bicycles and motorcycles. If she pulled one of them out right now, would they freak out?
Just then, her eyes captured the purple grass and the other smaller grasses around the area. In the forum, they were identified as purslane and prune onions. Both were identified as edible.
She forgot about leaving and excitedly started picking the wild vegetables. Carolyn had given her one of the pods and she started humming with happiness as she filled it.
She saw Adler walking back toward her with a determined gaze. "What are you planning?" she asked him worriedly.
Adler carried her and took her into the mecha against her wish. Just like that, the back and forth rocking returned and this time, the mecha was running at a faster speed than before.
"Can't this thing just warp or something?" she yelled.
"This is a low level land transportation mecha, it has no warping capabilities." Carolyn explained.
She had no choice but to endure the rough ride back to their home unhappily and just like at the edge of the blue forest, when she stepped out of the mecha, she vomited right on her father's legs. She had not even noticed him standing outside and waiting for them.
"Sorry," she covered her mouth and apologized. Her words were unclear that sorry sounded like 'shorry.'
Her father wore a very worried expression on his face that was quite similar to Adler's worried face. If Scarlet could see herself, she would understand why. She was pale, sweaty and throwing up, in every way, she looked to be terribly sick.
"Why is your sister bruised and in such condition, you know that she is sick and poor at decision making. Have your decision making skills also become so lackadaisical?" Dorian Su turned his anger on his three oldest children. "She is fragile you should have returned the minute she started showing signs of illness. We should hurry and put her in the med bed."
He did not even give any of them the chance to explain that the fragile daughter in his hands defied their orders of returning home when they noticed that she was not in the best condition. If Adler had not forcefully carried her into the mecha, she would still be in the blue forest looking for more food.
Nevertheless, they all followed Dorian and watched him place Scarlet in the med bed; set the timer to ten minutes and sealed it.
Med beds were transparent, one could see the patient inside clearly so they gathered around and observed as color returned to Scarlet's face.
"Next time, I am going with you, she is the only one of my children without mental strength and she has always worried me so much. I am happy she is back to her senses but she is pushing herself too much." Dorian said with a very serious look on his face.