"So, what are we doing today?" I asked Ish, while chewing my breakfast.
It was early in the morning. Ish had just come by with some met to eat and we were chatting.
"Huh..." she thought for a bit. "We could just search for prey... But I feel like you want more."
"True." I nodded. "Have you heard of anything notable?"
"Expect the Legionary Ants?" she looked at me "Oh, yes the people who'd go for ants have already set off for that. Well, there's a big wolf pack in the east. At least I know is that small groups regularly show up, I've occasionally been attacked. Other? Would you like to travel to some other villages? Even Lebbos, maybe?"
"I don't feel like going far away... I'd like to get something usable out of this."
"What about the highlands or swamp? There are nice herbs."
"Hmm. Which is the closest?" I asked.
"The wolves probably ... I think their den mustn't be that far away."
"Well, let's start thinking what we will make out of their furs." I said.
In a bit we had set off and started searching for that den. Fortunately I was relatively familiar with the terrain, so we could move rather fast. To be honest, it felt weird discarding tracks we had found. I mean that everything
Eventually, and I mean the "six hours later" type of eventually, we found two dire wolves and a dog lying on the ground at the entrance to a den.
When the wolves noticed us, they got up and one tried to scare us off by snarling. After that proved unsuccessful they started howling. Eight more animals got out of the den: two dire wolves, two dogs and four normal dogs.
"Down!" I shouted at Ish as the closer dire wolf jumped at her.
She managed to dodge it and then I hit the animal with my scythe. One more swoop and I had killed the animal. Ish was also fighting, but I soon stopped keeping track of her actions. After seeing a dog jumping at me I killed it with one swing and then I slashed the back of another animal. I kept a constant distance from the beasts and hit them with my scythe as often and as powerfully as I could, thusly fighting without getting tired.
In ten or so minutes Ish and I had killed all the adult animals (probably there were other, at least one or two, canines from the pack, that were simply not present at the moment) and Ish started to skin them. Meanwhile I entered the den. Surprisingly I didn't face much problems fitting in that place. Considering the fact that dire wolves supposedly used to live there, that was actually understandable.
Inside I saw three little puppies: one mangrol of wolf and wild dog and two wolves. I killed them quickly and grabbed the bodies by the necks.
"Hey, Ish!" I shouted and showed them "See what I've got!"
"Okay, okay... Now come here and help me."
"Here I am." I said and started working.
"What do you plan to make out of your skins?" I casually asked a bit later.
"I can't say. Maybe simply experiment with making new stuffs?"
"As you say. Personally I don't plan anything yet."
"Better think then." she said.
In a few hours we were back at the village. I had a nice dinner and before going to sleep I dueled mother two times (she won both times). She appeared to enjoy them quite lot. I had fun testing my skills too.
Next day I went to the swamps. After a bit of arguing Ish chose not to accompany me. First she wanted to make a thick pair of clothes for Krol, which was actually quite understandable. I mean, mothers are supposed to support their children and etc. Krol, wasn't a bad guy at all. I remember one time I even got dinner from him in exchange of some little things.
The problem was her second idea. She planned to create several pitfals and use them to capture prey. Did she know how much time that'd take? Well, she did. I did too. And yet we were disagree. Weird.
At the end I chose to explore the swamps. They were quite far away. Once there I started searching for anything useful or interesting.
Although fish were passing by my feet, but I failed to catch them. There were also some clams, but not much that'd interest me. Probably the only thing of note were some weird stones that seemed shiny. I took one and tried clearing it from other rocks and mud. It appeared to be the same material as my dagger, but less... pure. I took one as a souvenir.
And then I sensed something moving about forty meters from me. I decided to check what kind of animal was I hearing. My eyes were wide open when I got to see it. I didn't even dare to move.
A drake was calmly walking by. Its gigantic body shaking the Earth. The monstrosity was about seven meters long, with short tail and a long, upstanding neck. It was three meters tall at the shoulder, almost four at the level of the eyes. Its skin was yellow green in color.
It looked at me. The drake made a step towards me and one more, and one more, and then quickly moved its head, in a manner similar to a snake, to bite me. I barely jumped in time to dodge the powerful jaws.
I found myself lying in the water, but I pushed myself up and quickly picked my scythe up. The monster's neck was above me, a bit to the right. I slashed it twice, but I could barely penetrate its thick skin. It moved its claw, hitting my shoulder (although here it is to be noted that if I were not to jump my head'd be no longer in connection with my body).
I started to run until I got at a sufficient distance from it and then calmed tried to calm down.
After that happening I decided to go back to the village.