Chapter 30: Wolfwood Fur-Bark
“Heya.”
“Oh, hey!” Tulland waved from his farm, where he was working a fresh load of ant-flesh into the soil as best he could without disrupting his plants too much. Mostly, this involved poking a hole in the soil with his spear and just sticking the meat into it. In real life, he doubted that would have helped much. But the monster plants didn’t seem too picky about where they got their food, and he doubted there would even be a sign the food had been there when he checked back in a few hours. “How was hunting?”
“Pretty good. I was able to stay out a bit longer, and not buying food means I’m almost caught up with the time I spent on you already.” Shrinking as she crossed the border of Tulland’s farm, Necia glanced around. “Is this place bigger? It seems bigger than it was when I left.”
“Yeah, I may have done some expansion. I thought it would be a bit safer.”
“I’ll say. I saw your briars growing by that ant pit, by the way. I made the mistake of getting close before they started waving around. Why didn’t you tell me they could move like that?”
“Oh, you know. It just felt like I should have some secrets.” Tulland laughed. “Not really. It just didn’t come up. Did they look like they were holding their own, at least?”
Necia shrugged her shoulders and dumped her pack on the ground. “Hard to tell from a distance. But they’re not dead yet, at least judging by the sounds coming from the pit. They kept tussling the whole time I was walking by.”
Tulland had used the lull in the pit’s repopulation time to get some new briars going, and was still waiting on The Infinite’s notifications to let him know how that was going. Necia would have passed them a few minutes ago, which meant there was at least still a chance they might win.
In the meantime, he had a deal to make good on. Walking around his farm, he pulled down a couple handfuls of fruits from his higher-level briars, then tossed them to Necia.