Chapter 4: The food forest

Edwin thought hard on what he could do but could not think about anything. The rice with bread chips and eggs he had made for lunch had been too big of a serving, and he was pretty sure that it would be enough for dinner as well.

Normally, he would have done his best to eat up all the rice the same day he had made it, and then force himself to eat the leftovers the next day.

But this time, as he had searched on YouTube for ideas on how to get fed for cheap, he had ended up finding a street food video, and saw that one could simply warm up the rice with some water, add some meat and eggs, and maybe some seasoning.

Edwin had not wanted to throw the bread chips he had not managed to eat the day before, so it was a no-brainer to simply dump them in the rice.

And, oh, what a good idea that was. For some reason, he managed to get a creamy consistency with the rice from the eggs and bread chips, and the tiny bits of chicken, which he had made last Sunday for dinner and breakfast the next day, but had not gone about eating, were also a nice touch.

And now, the only great hurdle before him was boredom.

Edwin looked at the clock, noted that only five minutes had passed, and then buried his face in his hands.

"I can't be so shallow that shopping is my only hobby, can I?" He asked no one in particular. Sure, he could watch more meal plan videos, but he was getting bored with that.

With nothing better to do, he took his rune sketching notebook, and a pencil, and stared at the blank page.

Ah, the blank page. Edwin had been defeated by it more than once. How does he dare mar it, just to see if he could get a rune out of it? A tree had died for the slightly yellow paper. Then some rat or a rabbit, he was not sure, just so the paper could be soaked with life force.

He didn't even know what sort of rune he wanted to make. What right did he have to mar something so pristine?

Edwin bit his bottom lip, and then pressed the pencil to the paper. Ok, he was bored, and the rabbit or rat were dead already. The tree was chopped, or getting its branches chopped, and not to mention that the notebook had been on discount…

The pencil moved, as he started to think about what was happening to him. He drew the rune for food, then the rune for apple trees, then again, another rune for a nice rocking chair…

When he filled up the page, he was pretty sure that what he had created would end up with him summoning an eldritch abomination. There was no rhyme or reason to the rune. Just runes he knew, haphazardly glued together.

So, just to be safe, he went outside on the balcony, placed the rune down on the tiles, and poured some mana inside.

Edwin expected nothing, so when, instead of a giant spider with a bird's head charging at him, he saw a small cube, he just snorted, and picked it up.

Hm, maybe he could sell the cube to some shop? It looked finely made, no scratches on it, and felt cool to the touch.

Edwin sighed, poured some mana into the cube to figure out of what sort of metal it was made, and then felt a feeling similar to one getting sucked through a straw.

When he blinked, trying to keep steady on his feet, for he wanted to just curl up and throw up, he saw a forest.

No, it was not just a forest, it was a forest full of vegetables and trees.

But, just as the first draft of the rune, the forest had no order in it. It was so, as if the world had gone by instinct, and mother nature had taken up gardening.

"Ok," Edwin said, as he neared an apple tree. The apples were big, but green. Which was to be expected, they were not in season now.

But as he saw some squash and some cucumbers lining around the trees, he decided to risk it. He picked up a cucumber, brushed it clean in his clothes, thankful that he was wearing his brown "don't bother me, I won't go outside" pair of pants and his "if ketchup falls on this, then so be it" black T-shirt, and then bit into the cucumber.

He chewed, ran his tongue around his mouth. This cucumber was just a normal cucumber, but that was just fine. He finished the cucumber in a couple of bites, and then looked around.

There, in a corner, he could see some mint growing next to some bell papers. And there, in the opposite corner, was a fig tree heavy with fruit.

"Well," he said, as he poured some mana into the walls of the rune, so he could be let out. "Time to harvest!"

He was soon back with five shopping bags, for he stashed those in a shopping bag, and had tons of them, and with a rune which put his sickness symptoms on hold.

Edwin picked vegetables which looked ripe. All the fruit he could get his hands on, especially two bags worth of figs, for he had this idea about a jam, and then, as he filled up the bags, he looked around.

The fig tree was glowing, and he could see new fruit forming on it, the bell papers were also regenerating.

Which made him think.

The food was expensive. Sure, Forestia was not at war, but there were nations all around it which were. And since Forestia was a breadbasket, these nations wanted for it to deliver food.

Otherwise, the war would surely come to their borders. Edwin did not lie to himself about it all.

The question was: should he share this rune? He could single-handedly end world hunger with it!

But what would the farmers do with him afterward? Oh, it was all good to think like an altruist, Edwin knew, but the fact was, that those did not live very long.

And Edwin wanted to live until he was old and gray, a cat on his lap, in a house of his own, as he sat on his porch, and told everyone who passed that when he had been young, he had to fight bears to get to school.

He did not know why he wanted to do it, but the elders in his life had been very happy with that pastime of theirs. He could at least try it, right?

"Well, I could try something else, but I don't have the money for it," Edwin told himself, as he placed his heavy shopping bags on the kitchen counter. "Surely, there is no such thing as a food mafia which could buy my produce, is there?"

He blinked. No, there was no food mafia. He was pretty sure about that.

But he did have shopping bags. Enough to bury someone under. Collected since his college years.

And there were charity boxes for food all across town. He did not even have to tell anyone he was donating. Just drop off the fresh produce in the fridge and walk away.

Besides, he had used those donation boxes during his college years more than once, just so he won't be able to start seeing his ribs. It was time to give back to the universe.

With a smile, Edwin packed everything he believed he could eat up in the fridge, took his still mostly full shopping bags, and, after taking his phone and key, made his way to the charity box.

0000

Orion was livid. Him letting the chaos of a rune of the runesmith to produce everything the runesmith had wanted had backfired.

Not only could the runesmith now replicate the newly created rune, but he was also getting some good karma points along the way.

Orion stared into the crystal ball, as the runesmith carefully stocked up a fridge in the charity food drop off location with fresh fruit and vegetables.

But he was not ready to give up, no.

For Orion was ready to send the runesmith a hurdle. After all, if he had really wanted to help, he would have given the rune to the entire world to use, and ended world hunger, right?

Orion grinned a twisted grin, and sent a homeless man, who had long since sold his soul for a second of fame, into the drop-off location.

The memory of a handsome face could still be seen on the former actor, who had lost it all over a drug and sex scandal. The man entered the drop-off location, and then stared with wide eyes, as Edwin kept on stuffing the produce into the fridge.

"Hey, leave something for the rest of us!" The actor said, as he narrowed his eyes. "We don't get such good stuff often!"

The actor, Anders, did speak the truth. He did not like it when homeless people took all the food. Most of them had no roof over their heads, and thus, no fridges.

He made a step towards the young man, who was wearing designer clothes, and did not look poor in the slightest.

Orion watched as Edwin turned around and took a step away from the fridge.

"I wasn't taking anything," Edwin said, his braid waving around as he shook his head. "I was leaving some stuff from my… garden."

Anders blinked, but then, as he saw that the man was making no moves to take any of the good stuff, just went pass him, and looked at what was on offer. Without much thought, he took a fig, and plopped it in his mouth.

The sweetness made his eyes close in bliss, and he gave out a soft sigh. Oh, how long has it been since he last had a fig?

"Thank you. And… sorry I was so short with you," Anders said, as he took out his worn shopping bag, and placed some cucumbers and figs inside, deciding to search in the fridge for some bread to go with that, he ignored Edwin.

Edwin, for his part, took a couple of steps back. Orion focused on the man's mind. On the guilt, which was swimming there, thrown around by waves of self-doubt.

Oh, Edwin did know what he could have done for this man. What he could have done for all the homeless people in the world.

But Edwin valued his own life, and so, Orion watched with glee as the arrow of Edwin's soul, which had pointed at Heaven his entire life, twitched.

Moved just a tiny bit towards Hell.

Orion whopped with joy and knew what he had to do. Oh, Edwin was a tough nut to crack, but Orion had the perfect hammer for the job.

A hammer out of pure boredom, which would surely make the runesmith make another wonder rune, which Orion will even put together for him.

And then, after enough time during which the arrow twitched towards Hell, Orion would make his offer once more. But not to the Edwin who had breakfast with him, but to a different Edwin.

An Edwin who had been unhorsed from his high white horse, gotten his pink eyeglasses smashed to tiny pieces, and got disillusioned with life.

For Edwin had it good, and no one could dispute it. Orion hated people like him on principle, for they were not happy with what they had.

No, much like the Buddha, they wanted to suffer. Some people believed themselves saints because of their suffering.

But Orion had only one name for such people: fools.

He clasped his hands together, and watched on, as Edwin made his way towards the door, a frown on his face. Oh, Orion thought to himself, as he watched the doomed actor find a loaf of bread, frown at the fact it was moldy, grumble about it too, but still taking it.

He watched as Edwin's shoulders sunk even more, for he had heard it all. But instead of buying the homeless man fresh bread, he walked away.

And the arrow twitched once more, as Orion cheered.