Allister Hale's Story Graveyard.

When Jace stepped out of the residency office he glanced up at the sky; the sun seemed to be in its noon position. The official had referred Jace to an apothecary near the gate he had entered the city from, so Jace backtracked to the gate and exited the city showing his ID to one of the guards on duty.

The herb Jace was after was called Ice Leaf, it grew close to the ground spreading out from a central root, and the leaves when crushed are said to give off a cooling sensation. This made it similar to certain mints from earth, but there was one clear difference between this plant and any mint variety, the Ice Leaf grew a bell pepper like berry. Judging by the entry in the Manual the berries were safe to eat if incredibly spicy.

Jace had seen a large patch of the plant as he walked into the city so he knew where to head to find it. As he made his way back to where he had seen the plant he took mental notes on the local wildlife. One thing that stood out was a rabbit like creature that had a crystal horn in place of the a rabbit's long ears; the rabbit like creature seemed to be called a Sentinel Hare, it still had long ears but they were shorter than a rabbit's ears and the were held against the Hares head unless it was examining its surroundings.

On his way to the patch of Ice Leaf Jace spotted more plants the Official at the residency office had shown to him and added them to his growing mental map of his new home; other than these simple observations the trip was uneventful.

When Jace reached the patch he bent down and reached into his backpack for his mess kit. He pulled out the knife that was part of the kit and cut open one of the Ice Leaf berries. First he cleaned the berry as if he were preparing a hot pepper and then took a bite of the cleaned flesh. It was hotter than a normal bell pepper but the flavor was the same. Next he took some of the white vein and tasted it. As expected the spice factor increased dramatically. Jace decided not to try chewing one of the seeds as the vein was almost to the limit of his tolerance for heat. The local language did not have a word for the berries as generally only apothecaries dealt with the plant. Jace felt that Ice Leaf Berries would be a misleading name for the berry so Jace decided to call them Bell Berries.

Jace picked a few of the berries for his supper and put them in his mess kit. After he had returned the kit to its place in his bag he began filling the rest of the space with the Ice Leaf. If Jace returned to the city immediately he would be left with nothing to do for several hours, so without any other plan Jace decided to spend his free time gathering firewood to cook with later that evening.

There was a copse of trees nearby so Jace made his way to it; according to Alice he didn't have to worry about anything for the rest of the day so Jace allowed himself to zone out while he gathered the wood. Part way into the tree line Jace came to a small stream flowing through a mossy ditch.

Without minding his feet Jace slipped on a slick rock and fell face first to the ground. As his face hit the moss his mouth was forced shut causing him to bite down on a wild plant. Jace reflexively grimaced as he spat out the plant, the flavor of the plant stayed in his mouth however, and Jace realised the plant was some kind of a wild onion. Jace carefully unpacked the Ice Leaf he had collected and after pulling and cleaning some of the small onion-like bulbs he stored them in his mess kit and repacked his bag.

By this point Jace was beginning to feel warm and was a little sweaty. He looked at the stream and decided to take a break. After splashing some water on his face and rinsing his body in the water he sat down and idly examined his surroundings. Having walked through the trees earlier there wasn't much to say about the small clearing that he was sitting in.

What did draw his attention was the rock he had slipped on, it was fairly heavy and had a hole in the middle. After examining it for a couple minutes Jace stood up and started looking for a sturdy stick he could put through the hole in the stone, and a flexible vine. It didn't take him long to find a stick that would serve perfectly for the task he had in mind. Once he found a vine and used it to bind the rock to the stick he was left with a serviceable throwing club.

Rested and with a new tool in hand, Jace used some more vines to tie up the wood he gathered and then tied it onto his pack and started walking back to the city. On his way back jace started practicing with his throwing club. Jace had little luck in hitting any of the hares. The Sentinel Hares acted in a way that felt off to Jace. He wasn't quite sure what it was and he was getting close enough to the city that he was ready to give up when he finally managed to hit one destroying the crystal horn, the unlucky creature was stunned and jace walked up and twisted its neck killing it. Jace removed the head and tied the kill up by its hind legs so that the blood could drain out as he entered the Queue into the City.

When he reached the gates he showed his ID and asked for directions to the apothecary. Without saying anything the guard pointed down the road. The building was fairly nondescript and only had a plaque on the door to suggest what it was.

“Hello? I was told you might be willing to buy some Ice Leaf. I was referred by one of the officials in the Residency Bureau.”

“Yeah, I’m always buying Ice Leaf. Greg sent you?”

“I guess, I didn't catch his name. One moment…” Jace removed his frame pack and began placing the leaves on a convenient work table with a scale placed on top of it.

A man who strongly resembled the official Jace received his ID from stepped out into the main room of the apothecary. “Ohh, good work. This should just about fill my needs for tomorrow.” The man placed some sort of business ledger on the table and began weighing the leaves and making notes in the ledger. “I value these more in barter. If there's anything you need.”

“I wouldn’t mind some harvesting tools if you have any you could sell.”

“I know a blacksmith you can go to for that, I will write you a recommendation.”

“Could you specify the tools I should get in the note. Based on the herbs, uhh... Greg… showed me.”

“That would be… Ice Leaf, Balm Grass, Oil Root, Numbing Berries, and Wool Stem correct?”

“Yes.”

“Alright, Let me see your ID for a moment.” The apothecary copied down some information into his ledger and handed the card back to Jace. “Now just to treat your injuries and then we can settle your bill.” The Apothecary looked up from his ledger and then gave Jace an odd look, as if he were seeing Jace for the first time.

“You aren’t injured. Odd.”

“Is it?”

“Yes. Quite odd actually. If nothing else you should have gotten some scrapes. You can hardly step off of the road without some Shrubby grabbing your legs. Damn pests. Well if you’re uninjured then I just need to write the recommendation. He should give you a slight discount on the tools; I will give him a bit of a discount to cover the difference next time he comes in.”The apothecary then went into the back room to retrieve an iron strongbox.

“Alright, I owe you four Bronze Knuckles, I am paying you in two bronze knuckles and forty Copper coins.” Saying this he counted the money into a small pouch and handed it to Jace. “Here is your referral to the smith.”