As Faelan talked, Yujin sketched away in a notebook.[break][break]

She was neither a digital nor analog person. The best tool is the one that strictly obtains the best results.[break][break]

That being said, some of the doodles… went off on a tangent. Faelan’s face made a few debuts, but they were just as clinical as the depictions of bulbous berries or tri-speckled mushrooms or half-hewn roots—clinical and cold, like a composite drawing.[break][break]

“If you had to give a generalization, Mr. Foxgrove,” she said with a bemused smile, “what are the major things I should look for in inedible or poisonous offerings?”

[attr="class","minicharh"]

Yujin Ha - berry patch kids

[attr="class","minicharentry"]

She asked for a generalization and Fox made a face, turning away from her to squint into the sun in thought.
[break][break]
“That’s no small task,” he said, bending to run a gloved hand through a small patch of weeds that all looked nigh-identical. “But I guess the first rule would be If you don’t know it, don’t eat it. Or touch it with your bare skin.”
[break][break]
All poisonous plants (and Pokemon species, of course) ended up that way because of evolution, and evolution’s prime catalyst for change was survival.
[break][break]
“The second rule to follow-- in a generalized context, of course-- is that ‘bright and flashy’ generally means unsafe. Hemlock, oleander, foxgloves, yew, and a whole host of other toxic plants are bright and look pretty. It’s why they end up in gardens or, for the unknowing forager, in salads.”
[break][break]
That wasn’t always the case, of course. Thistles and nettles, for example, looked much the same as your garden-variety (pun intended) grasses and dandelions. But. she’d asked for general.
[break][break]
“For mushrooms and fungus, avoid anything with a red cap, white gills, a skirt or ringed stem, or bulbous base.” Fox swept hair behind his ear, slightly agitated. “I feel like I’m doing you a disservice by not-- explaining. It’s hard to apply rules to nature.”

---

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The first rule arrives as expected.[break][break]

“Difficult, when one knows nothing,” she chuckled.[break][break]

“I feel like I’m doing you a disservice by not-- explaining. It’s hard to apply rules to nature.”[break][break]

“That is quite alright. Nature is regularly irregular. I don’t expect to walk away from this lesson as a new authority on biology.”[break][break]

The rolling hills of Verdanturf were peaceful. The birds had diverse plumages while the marsupials grew lazy and fat. With a casual sweep around the grove, Yujin could perhaps put three separate tidbits of Faelan’s knowledge to immediate, practical use.[break][break]

The diagrams continue.[break][break]

“I deal with geology a fair amount in my work. There are many rules in how rock and crystal form and grow. It can be beautiful.”

[attr="class","minicharh"]

Yujin Ha - berry patch kids

[attr="class","minicharentry"]

Fox dropped a shoulder and gave her an apologetic smile. “Sorry. You can take the man out of the lecture hall but, it seems, you can’t take the lecture out of the man.” How many hours had he spent in front of a Powerpoint talking to bright young minds and feeling like it was his job to pass down this knowledge to the next generation (even if they were all similar in age?)
[break][break]
The proximity to a long-ago life disheartens him, and he skates away from it by reaching down beyond the soft, down spines of a stinging nettle and grabbing it close to the root.
[break][break]
Miss Ha identified herself as a geologist, and Fox’s eyes lit up. He stood, pulling the nettle from the soil, shaking off clods of it as he tapped the root clump against his pants.
[break][break]
“Ooh, that sounds fascinating. Perhaps you could give me a lecture.” He grinned and tucked the nettles in his pouch, moving on in search of more flora. His tone was genuine and warm, and revealed the innate desire to learn in him that nothing-- not years of blood fighting Rockets back home or a lifetime of inner turmoil-- could ever truly burn out. “Such as, when to lick rocks, and when not to.”

---

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