(This chapter was uploaded on Saturday 24/August/2024 8:45 PM, timezone GMT+3)
('1), ('2), ('3), etc. means that there is some explaining for the thing in the chapter's footnotes.
"..." small moment of silence.
"Talking"
[Different Language Dialogue] (What language it is: Accent if necessary)
"He-" Someone was interrupted.
'Inner Dialogue'
{Skills' names, chanting, spell keys and spells' names}
(PoV)
(Flashback, including the text)
Don't shy from commenting on typos and/or inconsistencies. That and/or suggesting a modification to certain things that didn't make sense to you.
I hope you enjoy reading this chapter.
(Line Break)
(Parts of Henryk's Diary)
Saturday, 8/3/1057:
Today, I was accompanied by Old Mort, something he encouraged me to call him by with a huge smile plastered across his aging face, and Ronan, a quiet man, now that we spent some more time and I was able to gleam something of his character.
They guided me to the places where few to no monsters show up. That was because they ground up Grysia's leaves, grated its hardened sap, crushed the fallen pieces of bark and the fallen branches, then scattered them around those areas.
The amount of monster repellent they produced with the aforementioned ingredients wasn't enough, however, not without harming the tree's health. And so, they were content with what they have, as they realistically didn't need the rest.
That wasn't to mention the fact that monsters' magic stones and drop items sold well.
Anyway, where were we? Oh, yeah. The place that was allocated to me.
I was warned against placing any traps. From what they say, monsters like loup garou and goblins disassembled then reused those same traps against their predecessors in the past.
My area had some of the bigger prey, seeing as I could survive a chase by an entire pack of loup garou, while carrying all my gear and an adult wolf and its child at that.
An observation I missed noting down, a shame that was, is that the silver wolves seem bigger than the wolves I knew. As where Grey Wolves were 80-85 cm tall on average, the silver wolf mother, along with the similarly-sized corpses of her kin, were at least 92 cm tall, at the shoulder.
I'm thankful the one I picked up was a female wolf, the lighter of the two.
Thursday, 13/3/1057:
Fey has built her nest up Grysia. Grysia was transmitting displeasure and unrest at first, but I managed to calm it down after a day of mental work.
I was skeptical of this nest. The time of building it coincided with the arrival of fall.
Friday, 14/3/1057:
I decided to do something crazy. I wanted to change my genetic material composition to accommodate something huge.
I wanted to have compact muscles, simply put.
Why? I wanted to have a more compact musculature, since I can stuff more muscle inside it that way. That also comes with the benefit of not compromising my movement.
With the sound of reason talking me down, I backed off and delayed this experiment until I join a familia of Orario, or if lady Artemis decided that she'd update my falna without prompting from my side.
I settled down for lengthening Fey's life expectancy.
Monday, 24/3/1057:
It's gotten to my head, and I couldn't resist it. I had to ask. And so, I did.
While on a morning jog one day, I asked Shane if Grysia was a flowering tree, or if it ever bore fruit.
No, Grysia wasn't a fruit tree. I was disappointed. But the tree was a flowering one, at least. And it blossoms in the middle of spring, which is fortunate. I'll be able to see it for myself.
Tuesday, 25/3/1057:
Today, I was unfaithful to my duty as one of Preblica's hunters. For that, I apologise to them.
I used my time to conduct another test while Fey hunted nearby animals.
I spent some time recovering after the test, before hunting a few rabbits and a deer then returning.
Or so I thought. The deer I tailed wasn't alone. There were fresh prints of hooves nearby the deer, so I let it be. I wouldn't want some buck coming at me with its horns lowered.
Monday, 31/3/1057:
After all this time playing with the puppies and their mother, they started understanding some of our words and tried imitating us, with less than stellar results. We had a laugh at their expense, though, which was a win for us.
I decided to start using my skill on them, if they allowed it. From my trials with wild animals, that depended on the target. Whether their mind was weakened or not, and, ultimately, whether they were at all willing to have their minds linked to mine, as it was unpleasant.
Thursday, 3/4/1057:
I started getting some concerning looks from some of the village girls. Some of them took a look my way and squealed while looking away, flushed and all that. Some others would stare at Fey for a moment, take a look at me, and imitate the ones that came before them.
Then there are those that looked jealously at Shira.
I asked her, and it seems that women of this village were gonna fight over any suitable man like hyenas, agreeing that once one was taken, all abandon any further plans to attempt seducing them.
Honorable competition, I think. And I see no problem if none were sore losers that'd cause a wedge between her one-sided love and his fiancée/wife.
But that's none of my business. I'll be with none of them.
...
Hopefully. Otherwise, I'd be held back, what with most of them, with the exception being Shira, desiring to stay inside the village.
I told her of my opinion of this, that I won't be with any of them, and she chuckled.
Friday, 4/4/1057:
Although I wasn't interested in any woman of this village, I still got curious of why they looked at me like that.
From what she told me, it was because they thought that I cared enough about her and wanted her to be able to defend herself, in case I wasn't there for her.
They weren't entirely wrong, as she was a friend. Yes, I friend-zoned Shira.
Coupled with my success, my physical appearance, my apparent ability to communicate with the animals around me, and my carefree attitude that took things easy and solved problems calmly, at least from their perspective it was the case, all of that came together to paint the largest target on my back. A target aimed for by any single woman who wants a man to be married to, a man willing to settle down with them and form a family.
Nope.
Wednesday, 9/4/1057:
Two major things changed starting today.
The first one, the less important of the 2, I was given my own house. It was built to my size, with the furniture being bigger than in the chief's house and the places I ate out.
The second one was that Fey managed to talk fluently today.
Her speech still sounded the same, a choked parrot with a higher pitched voice than usual, but it's an improvement.
Thursday, 10/4/1057:
Due to my magic, Fey became able to talk like us. Now that she started talking her heart out, she started hurting our ears whenever we were with her. The only downside is her voice, which is still too shrill sometimes, so much that it may permanently harm someone's ears if she screamed right into them pointblank.
See the problem yet? We were with her from sunrise to sunset, even some of the night, sometimes.
Friday, 18/4/1057:
Two months after joining her familia, lady Artemis returned to Preblica.
She said that she wanted to cull the wyverns that still resided in the mountains nearby since they could cause problems if left to reproduce any longer.
She didn't let anyone know, or even be able to know, that I joined her familia. She completely ignored my presence, accompanied with her familia members.
Sunday, 20/4/1057:
I started to spent the day making wooden replicas of the weapons I know how to use. I planned to use them to train, so I don't forget how to use them.
There'd be nothing entertaining during winter, and opportunities of getting out to stretch are far and few in between. Winter here sucks.
Monday, 21/4/1057:
Since lady Artemis returned to the surroundings of the village. I was tempted to update my falna to see my growth, but I restrained myself.
Instead, I asked captain Rethusa about any news or information they know of Orario and its prominent familias. I was disappointed to know that they didn't know much, as they never really ventured close to Orario. They remained in remote areas, helping villages, donating a large sum of their earnings to help those in need.
Tuesday, 22/4/1057:
Today, we agreed to gather enough meat to last us through winter.
It was my time to accompany Bart and Fenton. It was fun to see them miss the mark with their bows or miss the fish in the river with their harpoons.
Later, I taught them a better way of using both weapons. For the bow, it was more a stance problem they had. The harpoons, though, was a bit trickier.
They weren't used to the displacement of their target after getting a feel for light refraction. I told them a simplified version of why the place where they see the fish isn't actually the place it's in and they started getting one in every few tries.
Old Mort sired some really promising sons. That just goes to show how good Old Mort was in his youth. Generations of doing this job made them faster learners than I was at their age.
It got me motivated to be better.
Thursday, 1/5/1057:
We started smoking and drying the meet we have, and it paid off. The village's storage was now stocked full of preserved meat.
Now, it was time we slowed down on the meat and focused on foraging for some fruits. Vegetables were already dried and salted in the storages long ago.
Wednesday, 7/5/1057:
I'm feeling cheated. From Preblica's supposed location in the northern part of the continent, I assumed some rain could come to us. What I saw instead was much lighter and shorter than I expected. It was in short bursts, with intervals of a few days between them.
I asked, and they said that rain seasons are only during spring and fall. Summer was a mild warmth while winter was a frozen hell.
Quite the unfortunate bunch, if not for the river nearby. It helped keep the area invigorated.
The river sprouts from a larger one that comes from the ocean and through the mountains up north. It's so small that it doesn't get drawn on continental maps.
Monday, 18/5/1057:
All preparations for winter are over. All we need to do now is to hunker down.
I played with the wolves, somewhat grown up now. They could barely dodge my snowballs.
(3rd person PoV)
Fall came and went. Following in its trails, winter arrived.
During winter, Henryk and Fey didn't get out often due to snowstorms passing by at any random moment. For reasons like this, a tunnel system was built under the village long ago, with stairs leading down from each house.
A new set of stairs leading to the underground tunnels was dug out for Henryk and Fey to be able to stay down, in the warmth of the heated underground.
They remained warm inside, funneling the smoke out from some very cleverly placed holes that did not disperse much of the heat.
To avoid rock expansion, leading to a collapse, the tunnels were wide and high. The rooms were also big. The heat of the fires was not reaching the rocky parts through the wooden walls until it was dispersed already.
The wolves preferred staying in the snow. They were playing hide and seek by diving under it while sniffing each other out when they were it.
They were a bit bigger now, nearly as long as Fey was tall before eating magic stones, which she still does. Henryk prioritised increasing her mental resistance once she displayed the desire to consume them again.
Three months of doing almost nothing but training indoors bored Henryk. He was getting used to physical activities again, when he was told that Preblica's winters were harsh.
(Preblica resides in the northern portion of the continent)
As winter went by, Shira spent more and more time with him. She was entertained by the light banter they had going. It reminded her of her older brother, though Henryk was... different.
For the few times he went out even when warned, she got antsy and her gaze went back to the door leading to his house every now and then.
Arnold sighed as he observed his daughter develop such a close friendship with Henryk. He would have a talk with her later.
(Parts of Henryk's Diary)
Wednesday, 6/8/1057:
I saw the villagers preparing for the spring festival, an event they hold when Grysia flowers in spring.
They were preparing all sorts of things.
Thursday, 21/8/1057:
Winter's snow's finally shown signs of receding! At long last! I can go out and move around, at long last! It sucked as all hell!
Saturday, 23/8/1057:
I played with the young wolves using what remained of the snow. They were now nearly grown up into adulthood. And oh boy, if they weren't agile enough to avoid my snowballs!
The mother wolf was watching in the distance, awaiting a moment of carelessness to pounce on top of me and assert dominance.
During the game, I received a bite. I was experiencing them being playfully bity.
I bit back!
(End of Chapter)
Greetings, dear readers... another time today
Anyway, I finished editing this one after dealing with some other thing quickly.
Originally, I wanted Henryk's falna to be updated here, and that bulked the chapter up to the usual range of 3k+ words. When I decided against it later, it resulted in this chapter coming at a meager 2020-ish words.
How do you see this chapter? Of course, I didn't elaborate on the months of winter as it was too stagnate for that. You'd be bored just as much as Henryk was if you had to sit through him writing the same bored/boring lines over and over again.
Have a great time until next chapter, ladies and gentlemen.