Ingredient Hunt!

Job Title: Ingredient Hunt!
Rank: D
Player Requirements: must be D rank, 500 words each
Job Requirements: An old man who lives near the edge of the woods on a clifftop requires someone to gather ingredients for him to survive off of for the month. He had an accident and cannot go out gathering like he normally does.
Job Location: Serene Cliff
Job Description: You will start the mission by visiting the old man Midora. He will tell you how he hurt his back a week ago and now he has to rest and remain in his home for the rest of the month until he is feeling better. Once he explains his injury he will offer you a few large baskets the size of your body and will ask you to forage for ingredients in the surrounding area. Midora explains that there are many things that are able to be eaten from aquatic ingredients to plants and fruits to even some rare spices that can be used. All you need to do is fill the baskets and bring them back to Midora full of food in exchange for your reward.
Enemies: N/A

The cliff were alive. Tall trees clamored for space on the cliffside. Brush and such crowded into what space the trees didn’t take up, and the rest was covered in lichen. Birds chittered high above, while other animals skittered about the tree branches and the ground below. Pivoine supposed she counted for one of them. She wasn’t very familiar with the forgeable foods in this area, and had even told the old man as much. But, then he’d just kept going on about his back pain and how he didn’t have much food left. Perhaps Pivoine was a bit of a sucker. A lady couldn’t just leave an injured person in such a situation. So there she was, outside in a foreign land, with several baskets as tall as she was. Some were full, mostly of berries that she’d seen in cafes in town and she was 100% positive were not poisonous. But, what about the rest?

It was too late for bamboo shoots. But, there weren’t even bamboo shoots in that area. In the end, Pivoine camped around a stream, and used a makeshift spear to catch fish. She wasn’t an expert at it, either. But, after a few hours of practice, even the mage could manage to capture a number of fish to show for her efforts. Good thing she knew the old man had a place to dry them out and smoke them. Otherwise she wasn’t sure what she was going to do.

Pivoine crossed her arms, and dug around her sleeves for a riceball wrapped in grape leaves. That was her lunch. She certainly couldn’t have predicted this is where going out of country would have lead to. Perhaps things really were different than they were back home. The people here certainly seemed to have no hesitance about asking a guild mage for any sort of help, even if it was just their chores! There was no way that such a thing would happen back in the motherland.

She paused, a small pang of homesickness running through her like a shiver. Guess that old man didn’t have any sons or grandsons to look after him. What a shame. Pivoine took a bite out of her onigiri, chewing thoughtfully. It couldn’t be that hard to find edible stuff, right? The fish would take up a good bulk of the baskets. But, maybe she could find some spring onions or potatoes or something. Even she knew what those plants looked like, and they seemed pretty universal. She did decide to pick up a book on the subject when she was next in town. If the old folks had no problems asking a mage to pick up their groceries, who knew what kind of information Pivoine would need to know!

After she finished her riceball, Pivione shouldered another empty basket. She was determined to see the job through to the end. After all, this rather sad old man was counting on her. And there was no way a real lady would just turn her back on someone in need.

Strength.

Kindness.

Beauty.

Wordcount: 513