The past four years have been peaceful and not much has changed. I'm now six and mum started letting me go around town alone. I've always acted quite mature for my age so it was only a matter of time before she did.
I often go out and meet up with Lotte. Normally we just explore the small greeneries in town. I would have looked to make more friends but unfortunately, Lotte is the only girl around my age. There are three boys as well but let's just say they're a little loud for my taste. Plus a lot of the time I'm with Lotte and she doesn't like being around them. I'm not sure whether it's because she's shy or what, not that I'm complaining, it actually works as a good excuse to not be around them.
My most recent excitement has come from a hole I've found at the bottom of the north wall around the town because it will serve as a good access point so I can secretly leave the town. And after moving some of the earth with my spirit arts I'd made it was big enough to crawl through. Fortunately, I didn't need to do much to hide it as there were some sizable brushes and long grass around it.
Today is the first time I'll be sneaking out of town, so I'm wearing my work outfit along with a little bag packed with some food. I told mum I'm going to go play with Lotte and made my way north to my secret hole.
I tied my hair up in a bun like my mum's as it's down past my shoulders and I don't want to ruin it. My outfit is a brown boring blouse, jacket and trousers. I needed something dull that didn't stand out in a forest.
I do have a reason for this. My plan for today's adventure is to make a bow and do some hunting. I did a lot of hunting in my past life. Especially early on before I became all-powerful and had to start worrying about elven politics.
I could feel the smile curl on my lips as the excitement of going hunting was building up in me.
It is one of the greatest enjoys for an elf. To be one with nature and hunt for your food. As an elf you have a natural connection with all living plants, it's like you can feel their emotions and they would listen to yours. You could tell them to make paths for easy travel or get them to move in a way to shelter you. It was super convenient and now that I think about we definitely took it for granted. Not that I can even do that anymore.
The forest was right up against the north wall so as soon as I was through the hole I was in the forest. I quickly started moving deeper as my heart was racing. Being in the forest just made me feel free.
After running around for a bit I decided to put my plan into action.
First, I need to find a hardwood tree for the base of my bow. I would have loved to be able to ask a tree for the information as all the trees in the forest are connected and I felt a little bit of sadness knowing that I was never going to be able to do that with them again. However, it didn't take too long to find the perfect wood. A large yew tree.
Now I didn't bring any tools so you might be wondering. 'Hey Alice, how are you going to make a bow.' Well, let me tell you. Spirit arts. The arts can manipulate anything around you with enough practice that is. This means I can effortlessly pull the perfect amount of wood from this yew and form it into the perfect shape. You can also manipulate the properties of the material to whatever you want, whether that's stronger, more flexible, denser, lighter and so on. After mastering this, simple wooden swords made in this way can be harder, sharper and lighter than steel.
This is one of the advantages spirit arts have other mana magic. You can mould anything to your liking. If I wanted to could pull the small amounts of metals that are in the earth to make a sword.
With the base ready I just need to find what I'm going to use for the bowstring. It didn't take long to find a couple of large spider webs and with them weaved together my bow was finished. It didn't take as long as I thought it would. Just need some arrows which I quickly made from some wood and bark. Wood for the stick and bark for the fletching so it would fight straight even at long distances.
Now time to hunt.