Weeds Meads and Steeds PDF

W E EDS, MEA DS, & S T EEDS
Kicking at their horses, they rode at a quickened pace across rolling hills
that undulated up and down like a vast green ocean stuck in time. Every time
they strode over the pinnacle of a hill, farms appeared in the distance. They had
crops of wheat and barley, fruits and vegetables, or pastures for animals to graze
upon.
Dranden slowly remembered learning about this place from a long lost
school lesson as a boy; that the lands were incredibly fertile, able to grow ten
times the amount of food than normal. The only problem was how remote this
part of the world was, that siphoning those resources was made extremely
difficult by the terrain. Also, the people here were very protective of their lands,
controlling exactly what could be used and what was off limits. “Regulating
everything down to the very blades of grass”, as his school teacher put it.
Dranden overheard at the bar that merchants were the primary travelers to
this remote kingdom, and also the very rich who wanted an exotic vacation to
brag to their friends. The land was considered by them “untouched by the perils
of modern life” and that it still contained the charm of ancient magic when it was
boundless and free, but also fraught with hidden danger and an unsettling,
unquenchable darkness.
“I think I remember hearing about Tallamoor fertilizer,” Dranden said to the
others, still trotting along at a brisk pace, “especially when I was at the height of
desperation with fixing my lawn. But it was far too expensive and was only
traded in my kingdom's capital city by less than savory groups of people.”
“It's expensive because it's highly regulated.” Belfast nodded in recollection.
“I'm familiar with it because the farms near my home town use it to boost their
crops. But the unscrupulous can use it for warfare rather than growing food.”
“This place must be very remote,” Dranden continued, “ because I can't ever
remember meeting anyone who came from here, or even someone who simply
traveled here. I was never any good with maps or geography. How far north are
we?”
“We are very far north from where we were.” Zelendra answered, feeling
better from earlier. She quietly fixed up her appearance as they rode. “It's a good
thing we used the portal or we would have spent the rest of the year trying to get
here and trying to leave.”
After the midday sun crossed overhead, the landscape around them
dramatically shifted from rolling green hills, to jagged rocks that jutted from the
ground. The sharp rocks went up several stories high and spread out across the
length of many fields. Their path, which was made from beaten dirt, shifted into
gravel and large stones. These were remnants that had fallen from the heights
constantly surrounding and towering above them.
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