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[fromthevalley]

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[slightlyterrified]

[fromthevalley]

"Come along, Rake and be me careful by the stream. Some of the rocks are likely to be slick." Basket in hand, she turns and makes sure that her young, sort of apprentice is behind her.

Magical or not, he still can be taught to gather useful things in the forest.

[slightlyterrified]

And, to his credit, so far he's listened better than most wizards his age would. His practical knowledge of mundane plants is considerable, and he clearly loves his work.

Now, however, he's gaping. And tripping a little as he tries to avoid stepping on even the smallest plant as he gapes. The word 'sheltered' comes to mind, though it'd be nice if he stopped doing this every time he's taken out somewhere a little more wild than a vegetable garden.

At Helga's call, he jumps a little and clutches his own basket to his chest. "Sorry, coming!"

[fromthevalley]

"It is all right but try not to tarry too far behind." The forest can be dangerous. She cannot protect him for all unseen threats. It will be for the best if he learns to keep up.

"We are hunting mushrooms today, Rake. Let me know the moment you see one."

[slightlyterrified]

"No, M'Lady." Rake jogs his way over to her as quickly as he can without risking crushing anything underfoot. It's hard for him to remember that the world can be dangerous, growing up as he did in a sheltered castle garden. The only time he'd been in a forest like this one back home, he'd had a large, scaly, fire-breathing dragon nearby that'd scared off anything bigger than a squirrel before he even set foot on the ground.

"What kind, M'Lady? Truffles? Do truffles grow around here? What do they smell like? The mushrooms we're looking for, I mean. I have smelled truffles before. Pig and Smithy would find them, sometimes."

[fromthevalley]

"Truffles might go around here but that is not what we are after." Helga smiles patiently but fondly at the boy. "You need not be so careful about where you step outside of the stream. You will be all right." She is hoping to ease some of the shelteredness out of him. That trait will do him no good in the outside world.

"We are looking for whatever mushrooms we can find today. We may have to go deep into the forest."

[slightlyterrified]

"Oh, I am not worried about getting hurt! It would be just awful if I killed a plant, though." He hated weeding, let alone killing something growing where it was supposed to be. "I will keep my eyes peeled- hm?" He paused, actually sniffing the air for a moment, before looking up and pointing at a shelf fungus on the branch above them. "There's a conk, up there. Or... maybe you just meant the ones that grow on the ground?"

...he had a sensitive nose, okay?

[fromthevalley]

Helga stops in her tracks. She turns and faces Rake. "While it is admirable not to wish to kill a plant, it is highly impractical. What do you think you eat? What do you think I make potions out of." Even if he means he does not wish to kill a plant that won't be used, Helga finds the attitude a bit folly.

"Those will be useful. I will teach you how to make tinder from it."

[slightlyterrified]

Rake shrinks under her admonishment. Not that he's scared of her, exactly, but he's rarely even noticed by anyone more important than the squires, back home, let alone corrected. "Well, they're going to good use, then. I cannot say as much when they're victims of my clumsiness... I promise I will keep up better, m'Lady. It is hard to remember the forest isn't like my garden, in some ways." Where everything was neat, orderly, and deliberately planted, and he could walk through it blindfolded without so much as bruising a leaf.

But at least he found something useful. With a nod, he hopped a little and grabbed the branch - he was a tall, gangling thing, so it was within his reach - and broke off a good chunk of the fungus before he dropped back down. "Will I ever learn to make potions?" The idea was what made all the homesickness seem almost worth it.

[fromthevalley]

"The forest is not at all like your garden, Rake. It is a wild place. Plants will grow and find homes where they will. There are things here that can hurt you if you are not careful." Oh, they can still hurt him if he is careful but Helga will keep that to herself for now. In this moment, she would just like to get him to be less sheltered. It will be a journey, she knows.

"I can teach you to make healing brews and drafts but I am afraid that you will never be able to produce a magical potion."

[slightlyterrified]

"N-no, m'Lady. It's not." He tucked the shelf fungus in his sack, looking properly sheepish about the whole thing. "I will learn, I promise. And... and I never thought I could even do that much. Our wizard did thing like that, sometimes. And made fireworks." He was starting to wonder if the man did any actual magic, however. "I was always too scared of him to even think about learning what he did." But Lady Hufflepuff wasn't scary. Not usually, anyhow.

[fromthevalley]

Helga cannot teach him about the black powder Muggles use to make fireworks. That is beyond her knowledge. "You can do a great many things, Rake, if you only try. And you must try." It is one thing to not be good at one thing, is quite another to think oneself not good without having tried.

She collect some of the fungus. Helga carefully plucks them and places them in her basket, a basket that is not worried about overfilling. "What interests you, Rake?"

[slightlyterrified]

"I've just... no one would teach me anything else, back home. I didn't have time for it, anyhow. It's a lot of work, growing a garden well enough to feed even a small castle, and one very hungry dragon. I took care of all the gardens, too - and the topiaries!" He swells with something like pride, finding another little patch of mushrooms under some leaves as he speaks.

"I would have to say, though, that the vegetables are my favorite." Because of course she was asking what plants interested him. It didn't occur to him to think otherwise. "So useful! And friendly."