If I were serious about my gardening endeavors, it would be a good idea to choose a location as close to the cave’s entrance as possible that also had easy access to water. I could imagine it would be quite tiresome to have to make a trek every time I wanted to water something. Selecting a spot close to the cave also meant I could return to my room and rest if I grew tired.
“I had expected there to be more places suitable for gardening than this...” I murmured to myself.
Alk glanced back at me. “Oh? Well, what about that open area over there?” He motioned with his chin to a wide patch of brown land with very little vegetation on it.
It looked spacious enough from our current altitude, so it would probably be even bigger from the ground. So while its size certainly wasn’t a problem...
“It does seem suitable, but...I daresay I would struggle to make it there on my own.”
“Really? It only seems to be a short trek through the forest.”
“Your ‘short trek’ is anything but from a human’s perspective,” I reminded him.
I was unexpectedly confronted with the difference in size between us. But regardless, now that we had spotted one empty plot of land...
“Oh, but look over there! Doesn’t that spot seem like it has potential too?”
There was a large empty meadow right near an opening that looked like the entrance to another cave. I pointed at it excitedly, directing Alk to look at it. He immediately made a nosedive for it, and the sudden change in elevation made the wind screech past my ears. Once we landed, the relief of being on solid ground again was like nothing else!
After that, though, I was truly sure that Alk hadn’t been intending to throw me off his back. Though I could see that he was struggling to fight back against his instincts.
“My heart won’t stop pounding!” I said. I put a hand to my chest to calm it and looked around.
We had landed just in front of the cave. A soft meadow spread out in front of me—an open space created by the trees seemingly avoiding the cave’s entrance. Though the vegetation beyond this area was rather dense, the meadow itself received a refreshing breeze and plenty of sunlight. It seemed like a highly suitable candidate.
While I was enraptured by the view before me, Alk turned his sharp gaze in my direction. “I am not sure how much space this ‘gardening’ of yours requires, but would this not be enough for the time being?”
“Oh, it’s more than enough!”
I supposed he was making himself look stern to hide the fact that he was interested in an insignificant human’s thoughts. We hadn’t spent all that much time together, but I had the sense that he was a trifle stubborn and easily embarrassed. Teiren might’ve described him as a “tsundere.” As much as he grumbled about it, he was doing a lot to help me. Perhaps he was just kind at heart, but that didn’t detract from how happy it made me. After all, wasn’t it human nature to revel in the kindness of others?
Alk was still looking away from me pointedly, so I left his side to explore the sun-warmed meadow. The grass under my feet felt amazingly soft.
“This grass is incredibly springy!” I commented.
More than that, the ground beneath was very pliant. It was as though it had been tilled to perfection, even though this area had never been touched by human hands. Delighted, I let my feet carry me this way and that. Alk kept his eye on me the whole time, even though he seemed exasperated. I supposed he really was considerate.
I hadn’t expected to find such a perfect stretch of land, so I was overwhelmed with joy. I laughed. “This is like a dream! It’s so soft! There isn’t a single vegetable that would struggle to grow here!”
The corners of Alk’s lips curled upward. “How do you know when you have never grown anything before?”
He just has to rub it in, doesn’t he? And just when my spirits were at their highest! His remark had been so perfectly timed and worded that I couldn’t help but think he might have done it on purpose.
I groaned. “Though it pains me to admit it, that is a very pertinent question.”
While it was true that I didn’t have any gardening experience myself, I had spoken with farmers at length before when my grandfather and I had carried out inspections of the duchy. I could still remember how willing they had been to answer all my questions...
“According to the farmers in the duchy, soft ground allows for plants to spread their roots more easily, allowing for better growth.”
The presence of earthworms was another marker of good soil, or so they’d said. The earth mustn’t be too coarse, nor too dense. Growing the same crop in the same field repeatedly would result in a bad harvest too, so one had to grow that crop in a different spot every year. A field was like a bed for vegetables, so it had to be made as comfortable as possible, and so forth.
The one thing that all the farmers had said was that a field’s soil had to be suitably soft with a good amount of drainage and permeability, but it also needed to retain water properly. Combined, all of these factors made for the best possible growing conditions. After selecting a spot that met all those criteria, one then needed to plow it on a daily basis, mix in fertilizer, and be willing to experiment a bit to see how to bring out the soil’s full potential. There was so much hard work going on behind the scenes to produce the vegetables we ate every day.
Anyway, I did believe that this meadow fulfilled all the necessary requirements! I was still giddy with joy at my unexpected discovery.
Alk offered me his hand. “Since we are here, Fran, would you like to have a look at the forest?”
“Are you sure?” I asked. “As you know, I’m completely unfamiliar with this island, so I would be incredibly grateful if you would offer to escort me.”
“You do not need to think of this place as some sort of exotic paradise. I simply thought it would make for a pleasant stroll.”
What a wonderful suggestion! I had just been thinking about how lovely it would be to take a brief walk while we were out here. Brushing the grass from my hands, I took his offered hand, and he raised his jaw slightly and gave me a smirk.
Oh dear. It seems that my escort isn’t very gentlemanly at all.
On the other hand, he did match my tentative pace as I entered the forest, and quite naturally too. I wondered whether it came from the patience he had for me as a younger entity or whether it was simply something that became common sense as one got older.
From outside the forest, it’d looked rather dense. But now that we were here...
“I had expected traversing a forest to be a struggle, but the ground is much more level than I had imagined.”
The paths that wove through the trees here and there were just a little too neat to be game trails while also being just a little too overgrown to have been created by human hands. I was wearing the shoes that Alk had fixed for me recently, and even with their low heels, I was able to walk quite steadily. His suggestion had been a good one indeed—this would be a lovely place to walk in between some gardening work.
Alk came to a sudden stop. “Oh? It seems that something rather rare has grown here during my slumber.”
“Something that you deem rare, Alk?”
If that was the case, it had to be something worth seeing. He was a creature who had lived for hundreds of years. His gaze sparkled with curiosity, but when I followed it, all I could see was more forest.
What is it that has captured his interest? Even when I strained my eyes, I still couldn’t see anything.
Alk must have noticed my struggle. “You still don’t see it? It is beyond that tree, the one covered in ivy.” With a slightly smug look on his face, he raised a long, slender finger to guide my gaze.
I followed the line of his finger and looked deeper into the forest. Something was weaving between the thick tree growth in short, erratic movements. At first glance, it looked like nothing more than a tree itself. I noticed the two thick, leglike roots that it was using to drudge through the forest. It also seemed like a face was protruding from its trunk, though in reality, it was likely just crevices in its bark. Dense, green leaves rustled every time it moved. If I had to describe it...it was like a walking green afro! I could see why Alk considered it a rare creature.