Iluba pressed a her nose against the a plant. It looked like the one that Mama Moo had described. She said to look for a small shrub-like plant with leaves that have 4 points and roots that pop up out of the ground in places. She also said that it would smell very distinctly, like fresh rain but more aromatic. She took a deep breath in, getting a whiff of the leaves... and nothing. It smelled like a plant. She scrunched her face up and sniffed again.

Still nothing.

She huffed a little bit, sitting down on slender legs. This was so hard! All the plants were green and all the plants were either shrubs or trees. How was she expected to smell every plant that was in this place?!

She looked around again, hoping to see something else, but all she saw were the fruits of her failure. Up the path, the way she came, was the first bush she thought was the right one. She thought she had aced Mama Moo's task. But as she brought her head in to smell the plant, she realized the roots were completely underground, and there was no way this could be the correct herb. Well, first tries usually aren't the winners anyways. She padded forward a few steps, keeping her eyes on the ground, at the roots of the trees and bushes.

After her first attempt, she finally saw some roots that darted above and below the soil's surface. They went behind the line of plants that were by the path she was on. She followed them past those plants, going deeper into the forest. They kept going, it seemed; the grey bark peeking through the cracked dirt in some places and erupting from the soil before splashing back in in other places. She followed the roots as they grew in width, as wide as her paw, then two paws... strange. She stopped and looked up, instead, now visually following them to the source.

... A tree. Much too big to be the plant she needed to find. She darted back out to the path and resumed her original search, still not let down by the failures.

And now she was here. Sitting in front of this bush with no scent, pondering if she just wanted to say screw it and run off into the distance and never return to the jungles again. But she'd feel guilty and weak for doing that, for not being able to follow through on Mama Moo's tasks. She'd feel guilty for deserting Mama Moo, after all she had done for Iluba. Mama Moo took in the poor girl after she fell from the trees and helped heal her with herbs and muds, and then so graciously agreed to help Iluba learn the same trades.

And now Iluba wanted to desert her? To leave her teachings and wisdom behind because a plant had eluded her so far?

She shook these ideas from her head. The sun was slowing hitting the horizon, sending orange rays through the tree branches. Iluba tried to remember if there were any other hints given about the plant, but was unable to. There must be something that she was missing! The tasks Mama Moo gave her were made to help her learn, not to cause her turmoil. This was her last task of the day and she couldn't just abandon it.

She thought back on the other tasks that day. This morning long before the sun popped up, which was particularly early even for them, Mama Moo woke her. She had her first task for the day. Mama Moo sent her to find some muds. She explained it had to be done this early because they were on the edge of the forest and if Iluba didn't leave early, then the heat from the savannah and sun would harden the muds before she got to them, preventing her from identifying the ones she needed or retrieving them. So Iluba gave a quick stretch and moved forward into the dark morning, led only by the glow of the sun below the horizon. When she reached the forest's edge, she quickly knew the substance Mama Moo referred to. The mud was almost green in color and gave off a foul odor. Iluba understood now that both these qualities would be gone once the mud dried. Sure enough, by the time she brought the mud back to the herbalist, the edges were a shade of grey and crusty and the odor had almost completely disappeared.

They ate breakfast and Mama Moo let the cheetah sleep for several hours before her next task. She still didn't particularly understand how felines slept so much, but she also didn't object to the silence it offered her. She told Iluba to gather water. This confused her at first since they were a stones throw away from a narrow riverbed. Mama Moo then explained she needed to take the water from the leaves. Droplets would form and she could gather them into a small vessel. This water was much cleaner than the lake and river water, and particularly cleaner than that of the watering holes (a last resort when dealing with the properties of healing plants and muds). So Iluba went around to the trees and smaller plants with large leaves, and even the bowl-shaped flowers, collecting their water for the baboon. Mama Moo told her exactly how much to collect, and it was a slow process. Luckily, in a jungle such as this one, the water gathered on the greenery relatively easily. On the savannah, this task would have been borderline impossible. She returned to the base camp with the satchel of clean water, and a smile on her face, though it did take her most of the afternoon to do so.

This was her final task today, to find this plant. As she reflected on the events of her past lessons, she realized a pattern. One day, her teachings were mainly about barks. The next set of teachings were all on muds. Another day, leaves that should be crushed. A day after that, leaves used for wraps... Each day, Mama Moo had a theme that was part of her lesson.

Iluba tilted her head to the side, almost confused. What was today's theme? Mud... gathering water... and finding the roots of this certain plant. The mud needed to stay mud to be found, had to be moist... The water could only be found in the jungles because of the trees keeping in the moisture.. This plant....

Moisture!

The pieces clicked together in Iluba's head like a small puzzle. She darted back toward the cave and their small camp.

As she came bounding toward Mama Moo, she was greeted with the usual casualties, "'Allo my chile. You be finding what we need?"

Iluba didn't even answer the baboon and instead ran right past her toward the small river bed. She stopped at the edge and looked in each direction. There it was! She trotted over to the strange bush, it's roots exposed by the constant thrash of water against them on one side. She took the sample of root she needed and returned to Mama Moo.

"Yes, I've found it."

"Why did ya come all da way back without the sam-pole?" Mama Moo inquired, almost like a lawyer since she already knew the answer.

"Because it wasn't where I needed to be. Everything is connected, I just needed to figure out where you were trying to take me."

((1262))