The Sun had lowered across the sky by the time the bulk of the work on the farm had finished up.
"Get on out of here, you kids go and have some fun, your old man will take care of the rest."
"You sure old man? " I glanced over at the pile of rye that still needed to be stored. "it's not a lot of trouble to stay and help."
"You're too mature for your age kid, be annoying, complain about having to work and slack off like a normal kid." Old man Renata smiled as he gripped my shoulder. "It's too hard for me to be strict on a good kid like you."
"Just seems like the right thing to do, you've done so much for me."
"Aye, kid you got a good heart, try not to lose it when you grow to my age and anyway, shoo already, let an old man enjoy his peace."
I smiled, old man Renata took me in as his own since I was six, I don't think I can ever repay what he's done for me.
"Alright old man, just know I won't be taking care of you if your old ass can't get up anymore."
I glanced over at Lena as she came out of the house with her sword and traveling gear.
She gave me a 'hurry up look' and nudged her head toward the village exit.
Looks like today is hunting day.
Old man Renata shot me a funny look as I passed by, Lena sighed as she watched us bicker and grabbed me by the back collar of my coat and tugged me toward the village gate.
"Woah, buy me a drink first, lady."
"I would but I'd drink you into your grave like last time."
"Hey, I already had a couple drinks before you barged into my room that night."
"Ok, loser."
We continued to banter as we headed deeper into the woods, Lena had a freakish sense of hearing so she led the way and listened for danger while rebuking me.
"Shhh, shut up dumbass, there's something ahead."
And not long after she heard something.
Lena gestured toward some shrubbery in the far tree line and drew her sword, I quickly stood behind her and began channeling ether into my sigil.
"…It's leaving, I can't quite tell but from its footsteps it's a large animal, four legged."
I walked behind her as we approached the direction it came from, Lena knelt down and felt around for its tracks.
She gestured over at some overturned dirt, I quickly looked over her shoulder and brushed away the surrounding bits of grass.
It was a fairly large print, a bit larger than my hand, clearly shaped like some sort of paw but sharp indents in the dirt suggested it had extra bladed claws extending a few finger lengths.
Something this large had to be a predatory feline or canine but I wasn't exactly a tracker so I couldn't fully identity the track.
"Any guess what it was?"
"…No, but it was definitely a large dog or cat."
I looked it over again to find any recognizable details but couldn't really identify much.
"Haven't you… read about animal tracks or something?" Lena asked as she prodded the print with a stick.
"Nine out of ten times you see me reading, I'm looking through some dull magic textbook written by a third rate mage."
"Why do you like reading them so much then?"
"There really isn't much magic theory available out here, so I take what I can get."
"Or maybe your just a prissy boy who likes to spend afternoons at a time flipping through 'sophisticated' magic tomes instead of doing more fun stuff with me." Lena nudged at my shoulder and laughed.
"Maybe you could use some books to fill up that meat head of yours."
"Nuh uh, I don't have aptitude for magic and everything else I can just learn from experience." Lena prodded the animal print a few more times before looking over at the tree line and proclaiming. "Like this mysterious creature, I'm sure we'll run into it and I'll learn what kind of animal prints these are without wasting any time reading about it!"
"I get the whole 'live life instead of reading about it' mantra you got going but it's pretty useful to be able to learn from someone else's life while living your own."
"Downside being you are weak and lose to a girl every time we fight."
My mind wandered to when Lena challenged everyone in the village to fight and beat everyone, including the fighters.
"You beat everyone, that's a moot point."
"Of course, I'm just that great, but if you trained with me more maybe you could be kind of okay as well." Lena flashed a smug smile as she bragged.
"And you say you aren't arrogant."
"It isn't arrogance if I can back it up."
And with Lena continuing to brag and urging me to adventure with her more often we set off further into the woods.