#10 Collecting the Goods

Amber kept an eye out for the Algae, but it was difficult to spot. Often she thought she had discovered a patch, just to realise then her eyes had deceived her. Despite the cold, frogs hopped into her sight, annoying insects buzzed into her ear, constantly distracting her from her search.

But she finally managed to spot a large patch. Which of course wasn’t anywhere near the shore. Luck hadn’t been on her side, after all…

Amber sighed and put down her bag on a dry area, together with her boots and socks, rolling up the legs of her pants again. Her naked feet instantly felt cold upon touching the ground.

At least she wouldn’t need to swim through a sea of slime…

Amber put two jars into a pocket of her robe, then carefully walked to the shore. She took a deep breath before she dipped her toes into the water.

“Waahh! So cold!” she exclaimed, but she knew she had to continue, if she wanted these ingredients.

With clenched teeth she entered the lake and waded forward. While she tried not to lose the Algae out of her sight, Amber also had to be mindful of where she stepped – which was not easy to see in this murky water…

“Eep!”

Suddenly something brushed against her leg and Amber instinctively made a step back, just to realise it was just a fish. As soon as her heart had calmed down, she continued, trying to avoid frogs or more fish.

She reached the Algae patch, which was indeed quite beautiful, but Amber had neither desire nor time to admire it for long. The inhabitants of the lake were annoying and her legs felt icy cold.

Amber pulled out one jar and bent over the patch to scoop up some Algae with the help of her hand. It filled quite nicely and she exchanged the full jar with an empty one. However, when she started to continue with her jar, she caught a sudden movement in front of her.

But it was too close and sudden to react in time – and something green and squishy hit her face.

“Haah?!”

Amber stumbled back and was somehow able to save herself from falling with flailing arms, then quickly plucked the thing from her face, holding it out in front of her.

A frog. Which ribbited indignantly.

“Don’t look at me like this, it was not my fault that you chose my face as a landing platform! Off you go!”

With that, she put the frog into the water, which hurriedly dashed away, and redirected her attention to filling her jar with Algae. As soon as she was finished with it, she waded back to shore as fast as she could, her body starting to shiver.

Drying her feet with her robe, then casting a warming charm helped at least a bit against the cold, and the shivers started to ease. She speedily put on her clothes again before stowing away the jars in her potions kit.

Perhaps she should start to head back to the castle and warm up. But if she was here already, she still could take a Mud Toadstool with her, right?

Amber picked up her bag again and walked along the more grassy area, searching for her next ingredient. So, where did those toadstools now hide?