Word: Glean

glean
GLEEN, verb
1. To learn, discover, or find out, usually little by little or slowly.
2. To gather (grain or the like) after the reapers or regular gatherers.
3. To gather slowly and laboriously, bit by bit.
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     "The intrepid heroes made their way in the deep, dark forest, wary of any danger that might be lurking around any tree or rock, undaunted by the..."
     "Dude, why are you narrating like that?"  Td asked, stepping over a fallen branch.
     "Because it helps set the mood."  Phil said.  He had actually started narrating the small group's actions simply because he had always wanted to narrate something, and this seemed as good a time as any.
    "No, it doesn't."  Ted said, "It just gets on the rest of our nerves."
     "How do you know?  I bet everyone else is fine with it."
     "No we're not."  Jessica, the lone girl among them said.  "Trust me, we're not.  Now quit the voice over or I'll shoot you."  She said, waiving an arrow at Phil.
     "Please don't."  Said Dan,  "I'm running out of healing, and we kinds of need him you know."  None of the group would argue with that.  Phil was the only mage in the group, and for the task at hand, they did indeed need him.
     The group consisted of five people.  The larger boys, Ted and Greg, stood at the front as warriors, each carrying a sword and shield.  Jessica stood behind them as a kind of ranger, having both a bow and arrows, and a smaller, thinner sword at her waist.  Dan had to put up with them all as the healer of the group.  Phil rounded out the group as the mage.  They had been grouped together to cover all the basics in combat.
     "You guys are just jealous of my narrative skills."  Phil said, still very proud of his self perceived skills as a narrator.
     "What skills?"  Ted asked, grinning.
     "The skills that allow me to perfectly set the tone of our adventure here."  Phil said matter of factly.  The others just rolled their eyes.  He had been going on for a good ten minutes, most of which was the group just walking in the woods.  And even then, he wasn't very good.  At least, not nearly as good as he thought he was.  The rest just figured it would probably be best to let him get it out of his system, but when he didn't stop, it was time to get him to stop.
     "Trust me, you're not."  Ted replied.  Phil opened his mouth to respond, but was cut short.
     "Would you two just be quiet for a bit?"  Greg said, his much deeper voice running over the other two.  "Nobody wants to hear you guys going on about this.  Besides, we're supposed to be roleplaying here."  Nobody responded, each knowing that there wasn't much they could say to refute that.
     The group was part of a summer camp that specialized in LARP games, putting on elaborate stories and settings for the players.  Players were supposed to enter into roles of their characters, even going as far as to create back stories and character profiles for themselves.  Until Phil started narrating, they had been doing fairly well for the amateurs they were.  His sudden need to do a voice over out loud had broken the mood completely though.  None of the staff were around when he started, so nothing had come of it so far.
     "Ok, fine.  I'll stop."  Phil said, obviously disappointed.  The other four muttered their approval of his statement.  The rest of their treck was done in silence. since they were supposed to be keeping quiet so as not to alert any lurking foes. They all knew there weren't any around, since all those playing the enemies would be waiting around important areas.  Yet, they still put up with it, acting like they could be jumped at any moment.
     It only took them a few minutes to find what they were looking for:  a small pillar like platform with a small black object on it.  The group approached it slowly, looking carefully around at the woods around them.  They could potentially be jumped here, since this was a location of significance to the story.
     "Well, here it is; the second orb."  Said Jessica, trying tp act as much in character as she could.  Considering the 'orb' was nothing but a plastic vending machine egg that had been painted black, it was harder than she let on.
     "Well then, let's grab it and go."  Said Ted, already moving towards the pillar.  They had been tasked with gathering an unknown number of pieces of information that would help them advance the story.  Other groups were looking in different areas for other clues, all stored in eggs like the one in front of them.  It was a slow, tedious process, but at least the staff had tried to keep it interesting with the story and little tasks to do for each one.
     "Hold on,"  Greg said, grabbing Ted's shoulder, "it's probably enchanted.  We should be careful."
     "The let the mage look at it."  Ted said, gently pushing Phil towards the pillar.
     "What would you all do without me?"  Phil said, acting as haughty as he could after he had recovered his balance.  He went over to the pillar and placed his hands around it.  He looked it over and soon found what he was looking for:  a small envelop with the letter I.M. written on it.
     "Identify Magic."  He said, taking the envelope, reading the note that was written on it.
     "Well?  What is it?"  Dan asked.
     "There's a weight enchantment on the pillar.  We need to find something that's about the same weight and replace the orb with it, otherwise we'll be attacked, and probably killed, by monsters."  He put the note back in the envelope, returning it the way he had found it for the next group to pass by.
     "Great.  More monsters."  Greg said.  They had been attacked like that for the last one when they couldn't meet the conditions to safely get their prize.  It hadn't ended well, and resulted in Dan using most of the healing spells he could use before 'resting' for half an hour.
     "So, any ideas on how much it weighs?"  Dan asked, looking at Phil.  He didn't know, as there hadn't been any indication of that on the note.  He shook his head violently to show his lack of knowledge.
     "I say we take the damn thing and kill everything that comes at us."  Jessica said, already setting one of the large, bulky arrows to her bow.
     "That's what you said the last time, and look what happened."  Greg said.
     "What?  We're all alive, aren't we?"  She said.
     "Alright, let's just get this over with."  Ted said, taking the 'orb' and immediately begining to swing his sword wildly around him, hoping to catch any ambushers as they came out.  Sure enough, three people dressed as monsters jumped out of the woods and growled, advancing on the group.  Jessica let her arrow  fly as soon as she saw them, only taking a little time to aim  The arrow hit one of them in the face.
     "Ow."  The attacker said, pausing to nurse the no doubt bruised skin on his face.  He soon regained his composure, falling to the ground and laying motionless.  She would probably get chewed out later, but for now it was all taken in stride.  This group of monsters was probably being played by other campers who had 'died' and beed reborn as monsters, since they moved a lot slower and more clumsily that the last group, which was probably the staff in the suits.  As such, the remaining two were easily dispatched.  One fell to a combined attack by the two warriors, and the last was done in by a 'spell' from Phil (a small foam ball that had been declared to be a fireball.)
     "Well, that was easier than I thought."  Dan said, glad he didn't have to waste any more of his precious heals for this one.
     "Well of course it was."  Ted said proudly, "Nothing's too hard for yours truly.  Now, let' see what we have here."  He pulled open the egg, taking one of the slips of paper inside before shutting the egg and putting it back.  The group huddled around him, all of them reading the small piece of information on it.
     "Well then, let's get to it."  Greg said.
     "Indeed."  Phil said happily, "For honor!  For glory!  For small bits of information!"  The rest of them rolled their eyes, all silently hoping he wouldn't resumse his narration.
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     So yeah, we don't have an internet connection right now were I live, so this entire thing was typed up on a tiny smartphone keyboard.  I really hope  I don't have to do this again.  It sucks, and it' really hard to edit things here becuase theres no flashing line cursor thing to tell me where the editing would occur, so it's kind of hit or miss in that regard.  Hopefully it all came out alright.  So yeah, I hope your all having a better time with this than I did.