My mother got drunk that night. I could hear her through the wall as I tried to sleep. I don't know why she did that. Normally, I could tell over dinner if she would drink, but I didn't see the usual signs. But there was that moment where I answered her question about what I wanted next year, that look, I had never seen her make a face like that before. It bothered me, maybe I should have asked about it, maybe not.
I turned in my bed to face the other wall in a small attempt to not hear her anymore. Just then, I noticed she went quiet. Not that it was weird, but the fact that she went quiet so quickly was a bit weird. After a moment of lying there with my eyes closed, trying to listen, I heard a faint creak of the floorboards. It was louder and closer than it should be. I sat up, and she was standing in my doorway.
We only had one door in our house, rooms were separated by fabric. We only had a few windows, and the closest one was just outside my room. I saw her silhouette against the fabric, standing there. I couldn't tell if she was looking out the window or looking towards my room. After a moment, I saw her reach up and move the fabric slightly as she peeked into my room. I sat, confused as to why she was checking if I was awake or asleep. She saw me sitting up in my bed, looking at her.
"Sorry"
She whispered as she let the fabric go.
"I didn't mean to wake you"
She left. Her voice was quiet, but there was something different about it. It was like she was breathless. I heard her walk back into her own room, and after a few minutes, I heard the distinct clang of an empty wine bottle falling off her bed. A sure sign she was most likely asleep. I lay back down and drifted off into sleep as well.
I didn't dream that night. Or perhaps I did, and it was one of those dreams I forgot upon waking. Most nights were like that, dreamless. It made the nights I did dream stand out more. What was that one dream I keep having? I can't remember anything about it other than I know I have it a lot. Oh well, one less thing to think about.
When I woke up, it was different today. I didn't wake up to the sound of mother calling out to me like I normally would. It was quiet, eerily quiet. I didn't even smell anything cooking in the next room over. Confused, I got up, dressed myself, and headed into the kitchen. She wasn't there. I peered out the window opposite my bedroom, and she wasn't outside. So I turned to her room, the thin hanging cloth that I never really went past.
She's probably still sleeping. Should I wake her? I realised the sun was high enough in the sky for breakfast to have been made and eaten by now. Did she sleep in? Normally, she's up early, even when she drinks. She has a window right by her bed with a thin curtain over it so the morning sun shines on her face to wake her each day. There's no way she's still sleeping, right? I gently nudged the cloth out of the way and poked my head in.
The room was long and skinny. From the entrance, there were two standing closets side by side that hid the bed behind them. From the entrance, I could see the top left corner of the bed. It was a large bed, so it's entirely possible she was on the other side of it and not visible from here. I was more hesitant to enter this room than I was the forbidden forest, so I snuck in, in case she was sleeping, or on the verge of waking. As I took a few timid steps into the room, I saw the bed, empty.
The bed was messy and unkempt, and there were stains from the wine. The empty glass bottle was still on the floor that I had heard last night. There was a strange smell in the air as well, not just the smell of wine but something else. The strange smell was stronger near the sheets, but even then it was hard to detect at all. The sheets look like they were kicked off, but last night was cold. Why would she kick her sheets away?
As I walked out into the main room again, and just then, mother opened the door, hauling in a bucket of water with great effort. I quickly realised she was just behind the house, and she probably wanted to do my chores this morning. Of course, my birthday celebration was yesterday, so today was my day of rest, the second half of any proper birthday. Even so, I hurried over to help with the heavy bucket.
We cooked the rest of the mushrooms for breakfast, and mother pushed me back into my bedroom, instructing me to relax for at least a few hours while she tended to the crops. Normally, it should be a whole day of rest, but she knew I would get bored. People like us didn't have such a luxury. Normally, on the day of rest, one would play with the gifts they had gotten the day before, and they would indulge in leisure activities, whatever they may be. For children, it was play, for teens, perhaps playing with a wooden sword or spending time with friends. For adults, rest, reading if one can read or spending time with a partner. For me, all I could really try to do was sleep more. Of course, more sleep sounded nice; my bed was still warm, and the air of the house was slightly chilly this morning. So I lay in bed for perhaps an hour, but got so bored I had to get up and do something.
I left the house with the basket over my back once more, like I had yesterday. Mother, who was tending to the new grapes nearby, saw me as I walked down the main path of the farm.
"What happened to resting?"
"I got bored, I wanna go into the woods and get more of those mushrooms for lunch."
She quickly dropped what she was doing and hurried over.
"I'm coming with."
I waited by the entrance to the farm for her to get ready. She brought along a hand basket with some small sacks in it, along with some water and a trowel.
"If we're going into the woods, why not go that way?" She pointed north towards the treeline that acted as our northern property line.
"I don't know the way" I turned and adjusted the strap on my shoulder.
We walked towards town side by side. After a few minutes, she poked my arm and told me to "walk properly". I always walked like this, my back hunched slightly, my eyes looking to the ground. She put her hand under my chin to lift my head up. "Look forward, not at your feet."
I did as she asked, I straightened my back and lifted my head. I started to look around as we walked, and I noticed things I hadn't seen before. Certain uniquely shaped trees, the shapes of the clouds, and how the sunlight shone through the leaves. I noticed that my mother seemed shorter than I remember, or I grew taller. Standing like this, my head went up to her shoulders now.
I walked a little closer to her and tiptoed to see how tall I could get compared to her. She noticed, smiled and slung an arm around my shoulders; the slight push downwards made me stop walking on my tiptoes. "You're not taller than me yet". She said with a slight chuckle as she ruffled my hair. Her hand sat atop my head for a moment, then her hand ran through my hair and grabbed a piece softly. "I'll give you a haircut when we get back, it's starting to get a bit long."
After a while, we reached the graveyard. Turning right would lead towards the market road. We turned left, up through some residences and towards the northern forest entrance. We entered the woods and travelled towards the forbidden forest.
"Just watch your footing, the ground gets soft here, stick near the trees."
"Those sinkhole things you mentioned, right?"
I pointed towards a patch of ground that was far from any tree.
"Yeah, probably don't want to stand there, for example. Besides, the mushrooms grow near the trees anyway."
The two of us wondered for a while, picking mushrooms and placing them in the large basket on my back. As we went, my mother examined things here and there. The soil, the trees and the roots around where the mushrooms grew, clearly trying to understand the type of environment they like to grow in.
After a few hours, we managed to fill the basket by about a quarter and decided that was enough for now. On our way out, we stopped by a small colony.
I watched as my mother used the trowel to dig up the soil around the mushrooms, scooping it up in her hands and very slowly and carefully, she placed it into a sack she had doused in water beforehand. She repeated this a few times, placing them into her basket and closing the lid on it. We began to walk home.
As we emerged, we found the sun was already slightly westward, and yet it didn't even feel like it should be midday yet. Time had slipped away from us again. I thought it was weird, but my mother didn't seem to care. Maybe I was actually just doing something I enjoyed, and I lost track of time.
We made our way home, and I dumped the harvested mushrooms by the door as my mother walked around to the back of the house. I followed her, curious about what she planned to do with the mushrooms.
"Where are you going to put those?"
I asked as I peered around the corner to find her standing by the well, looking around.
"I'm thinking maybe just a bit in the woods over there," she pointed north.
"But don't these only grow in places where the soil is rotten and the trees are hollow?"
She nodded and turned to me, her posture shifted slightly, her stance widened, I recognised the signs, she was transforming into teacher mode.
"The flora of the ironwood forest is unlike anywhere else in the world. As such, it's different in many ways. Most of the time, this results in plants and trees that are stronger than normal."
"Right, like ironwood."
"Yes, but more than just physical strength, they are also more resilient and able to grow more easily in unfavourable conditions compared to their non-ironwood counterparts." She began to walk towards the woods, and I trailed behind and she continued. "As you well know, flora is a product of its environment. Like you said, these mushrooms only grow in rotten and dead places. However."
She knelt at the base of a tree, took out her trowel and dug a small hole.
"The plants in the ironwoods can do one thing, nothing else in the world can. They can make their environment a product of them."
I thought about what she said for a moment, trying to understand. If I understand right, she's saying that the mushrooms can transform this area into a dead and rotten place for it to live more easily. But wait… "Don't only humans do that?"
She nodded back at me as she took out the mushroom, carefully scooping it from the sack and placing it into the hole. She started to fill it in.
"Yes, it's magical, isn't it? But only within the ironwoods does this work. If I tried this in Vilta or the Empire, it would die. Something in the water."
I, of course, knew this; the water from the iron lake flowed into the ironwood forest and vanished into the ground. They say the unique properties of the lake seep into the soil, and that's what makes this forest special. She began to plant a second mushroom.
"These little guys will get a new home here. They will grow and spread fast, and then we won't have to spend hours getting them."
She smiled back at me as she planted the second one.
"I'll head inside and cook some for lunch then."
She was about to stand up to object. Of course, today was still meant to be my day of rest, but she knew I wanted to do that rather than it being something I had to do. "Don't cook too many, I want to try and put them in a stew tonight."
I nodded and turned, heading towards the house.
We continued about our lives as normal, the only change was the addition of the mushrooms in the backwoods. Like she said, the mushrooms began to spread, winds caused them to rattle, releasing spores that spread. The grass died, and the trees began to discolour and grow darker. Like she said, the mushrooms were changing their environment. She said she was only guessing that might happen when she planted them, and was surprised herself that it worked so well. Aside from this small change, I continued to work in the village, cutting trees. The other workers were young and quickly realised I wasn't some devil like their parents had gossiped about. Seeing this, the older people began to warm up to me as well in their own distant way. Before I knew it, the year was coming to an end.
It was the tail end of the month of Alexandra, the last month of the year. My birthday was two months ago in the month of Laz.
During my time at work, cutting trees, a job I only did every other day, I had overheard rumblings of the upcoming New Year festival. Every year, they had one on Market Street. Most of the stalls that would normally sell general goods would pack away early, and food stalls would take their place. Everyone sold goods at a discount to promote the event, and travellers from Vilta would come to bask in the rural rustic charm.
"Hé Shinya, tu viens au festival du Nouvel An?" [Hey Shinya, are you coming to the New Year's festival?]
I snapped my head up and looked around, surprised anyone was even talking to me. As I turned around, I saw two people talking. It was Jakub and Lucas, the two identical twins in the village. I had talked with them briefly on occasion, nothing real though, just simple passing remarks about work, weather, food, pay, so on. All starting from simple hellos and good mornings. This was one of the first times they had ever instigated a conversation with me, though.
"Je n'y suis jamais allé auparavant." [I've never been there before.]
"Vous devriez y aller, c'est très amusant." [You should go, it's great fun.]
I thought about it for a moment. The main reason we never went was simply money. But with this job I've been working the past few months, I've saved up quite a decent amount of Franks, so why not? Well, there is one reason.
"Je ne voudrais pas gâcher le plaisir des autres." [I wouldn't want to spoil anyone else's fun.]
The twins looked at each other and then at me again.
"De quoi parlez-vous?" [What are you talking about?]
The look on their face said it all, that mix of confusion. Of course, these two didn't see me as an outsider, as the black sheep, as someone to avoid. I wondered if that sentiment had spread at all. I mean, all I've been doing is working here, being courteous to my fellow workmates and doing my best…is that all I really needed? No, that's ridiculous. But I suppose there goes my other reason for not going.
"Je vais au festival" [I'm going to the festival]