Alice has a very nice night's sleep, as good as the ones she had when she lived inside her magic pocket, maybe better.
She wakes up much later than usual to the voices of those little girls playing outside the hut, the sun is already high in the morning, there is a pot of stew waiting for her on the table, it smells really good.
The taste is even better, when she finishes eating the woman walks through the door dragging the body of a goat, she doesn't look like a domestic animal and it has an arrow stuck in one of its eyes.
Alice gets up and helps the woman put the goat on the table, the woman hardly needs to push anymore with Alice's help. The woman is a little surprised and even more envious, in addition to being pretty, the girl is strong, woman thinks.
"You are strong huh? Now I know you can rob my husband very easily" Alice smiles and shakes her head, the woman continues to annoy her. "What is it? Is he not good enough for you?" Alice responds calmly.
"Absolutely not" the woman smiles. "I'm glad, I'm not young enough to compete with a girl with your skills" Alice looks the woman up and down.
"But you're still pretty, you don't need to worry about your husband, and speaking of him, where did he gone?" Alice looks a little worried.
"He hunted this goat before sunrise and left it there on the porch, and then he grabbed a lunchbox and said he'd be back in a few days, that he had to see something in Riverin, but he didn't say what, it must be another woman and he got out" the woman spits in anger.
Alice is amazed, that woman's husband is not ugly, but Alice sees no reason to be so jealous, if he were rich and Riverin still existed he could have found a prostitute or a cabaret, but that's not the case, maybe he didn't told her, Alice guesses.
Alice looks outside the cabin to see if the girls are distracted playing outside, she moves closer to the woman who is intimidated, Alice almost whispers and the woman tries to listen carefully.
"He didn't believe what I said, Riverin was destroyed, he told me yesterday that he would confirm with his own eyes, but when he sees the bodies of those who tried to flee, he should probably come back" the woman widens her eyes and when she starts to scream Alice covers her mouth with her hand, Alice make sign for silence with the other hand.
"We haven't said anything before so as not to scare the girls" the woman nods to say she got it and Alice takes her hand away.
"That stubborn idiot, he had no business going there" the woman whispers, trying not to scream in anger, Alice smiles.
"It's okay, if I couldn't notice him, even if there's some creature there, he can also go unnoticed." The woman's face seems calmer, but she continues with clear anger in her voice.
"He said what he's going to do?" the woman stares at Alice as she cuts up the goat's body.
"He said if it's true what I said, he'll come back to pick you and kids up and leave" Alice notes that the woman's skill with a knife is that of a first-rate butcher, the woman is not only quick with a knife, but it's also very accurate, it's almost as if the animal was helping to get butchered.
Little girls run into the house, Alice and the woman pretend to talk about how to prepare the goat for lunch right away.
Alice thinks if she should stay there until the hunter comes back, that woman and her two daughters wouldn't have a chance if one of the creatures that was in Riverin showed up here, Alice helps with the preparation of lunch and the hut's chores, then goes out in search of more a prey, if she decides to leave, she'll need some meat, and with the woman's help she'll be able to prepare more easily what she can to take on her trip.
She doesn't find anything for the rest of the day and she thinks maybe the hunter's seemingly suspicious habits had a reason, she usually has no difficulty finding an animal, animals in that area should be more skittish.
Alice returns to the hut empty-handed and the woman laughs at her, Alice spends the evening with the woman and learns that the hunter really knew the times to hunt with more success and where, Alice realizes that just like the hunter will need to get up early if she wants to hunt something in that region.
Alice goes out hunting once more in the early evening and even gets to see some good animals to kill, but they are really skittish.
Again she goes back to the hut empty-handed, it is quite late and she goes straight to bed, as the woman and children are already asleep.
Before the sun is visible on the horizon the woman wakes Alice up subtly, without making a sound, Alice looks to see that is still dark and the children are sleeping, she looks at the silhouette of the woman kneeling beside her, she waits for woman to speak.
"Now is a good time if you want to hunt, just be careful not to wake the girls" the woman whispers to Alice, Alice silently prepares and leaves again, now it's a matter of pride.
Alice sees that at this time it's really easy to track animals, especially near water, Alice spots a deer drinking water in the same stream she bathed in when she met the hunter.
She tries to imitate the hunter's stealth and successfully approaches the deer, she jumps over the deer hanging on the animal's neck, the animal runs off with Alice still hanging on its neck.
Alice strikes the animal in a cut somewhat hampered by the animal's movement, but it's a well done sticking, the animal falls on Alice the next moment soaking her in its blood, Alice takes some scratches by the fall, but she is happy.
Alice cleans herself a little in the stream and then takes the deer by the paws and puts it on her back, the animal is heavy and big which makes it a little difficult to carry, Alice doesn't hurry and she arrives at the hut at midday a little smelly because of the heat and the dried blood of the deer on her clothes.
"What happened to ya?" when the woman sees Alice soaked in blood she runs towards Alice, Woman gets more impressed than ever to see Alice carrying that huge animal.
"Alright, here's the prey" Alice replies happily, the woman seems to have a judgmental tone in her face, Alice notices this and realizes that despite having achieved her goal this time, she didn't do it masterfully like the hunter.
"Next time I'll be flawless" Alice mutters, Alice takes the animal into the cabin and watches the woman prepare it. Alice spends the next two days repeating her hunts against the animals she finds, and each time she is more successful.
At the end of the fourth day, she is living with the woman waiting for the hunter to return, she already feels that she has evolved a lot, including due to the woman's veiled respect.
At night they see the hunter enter exhausted with a small bag on his back, he sits down and he eats without saying anything.
"Get ready darling, we'll have to move" the woman starts to say something, but by her husband's face she just starts to get ready to move, so they see what to take or leave.
"I don't know if you were telling the truth, but Riverin really is destroyed" the hunter speaks in a low voice so as not to scare the girls playing with dolls nearby.
"I also took my share of donations from the ruins, I'll take the opportunity to move" the hunter takes a breath and continues. "This will allow me to spend some time and maybe I'll get a job, maybe I can open my own business, a small one" the hunter looks at Alice with a bit of fear, Alice is uncomfortable with his gaze.
"Speak, I'm not guessing" Alice is sharp and looks to the side in disgust, the hunter a little embarrassed, he admits.
"I'm sorry, if you did what you really said you did, I can't stop being scared of you" Alice acknowledges the situation, it's not the first time that her extraordinary combat skills arouse the fear of common people.
"I know…" Alice goes to sleep then, and the hunter thinks if it wasn't better to have told a white lie, he also feels a little joy in having met Alice at that moment, maybe she will really become the legendary heroine, he thinks.
Early in the morning Alice waits for them to finish packing their things and will accompany them part of the way, where she has to take the road that goes to the red mountain of Zackar.
They talk happily along the way without any problems and say goodbye to Alice where the road forks to Zackar's red mountain and the road that leads to Sertalinka, a city very influential in this kingdom, and which unlike Riverin has no privileges of autonomy.
"If you ever pass by Sertalinka, try to find us there, so you don't have to stay in some grumpy tavern" says the hunter with a smile on his face.
"Who knows, bye!" Alice is a little less friendly, still a little insulted at being seen scared that night, she feels that that was the hunter's pious insult, she turns her attention back to her journey in a few minutes, almost as if she has forgotten about the hunter and his family.