I had a plan in mind for the day, but I didn’t want to push Samya too hard since she still had her stitches in. I asked for her opinion. “I wanted to do some exploring nearby. Do you feel up to it?”
“Sure, I think I can manage that, but...”
“But...? Is there something you’re worried about?” I asked.
“We’re still in its territory. My injuries are healing, but there’s always a chance we could get attacked again.” She spoke quieter than usual.
Was that bear still roaming around the area? That would be dangerous indeed.
“We’ll turn right around at the first sign of danger,” I promised. “I just want to get to know our surroundings better. I’m clueless as a baby right now.”
“All right,” she said. “I’m sold.”
“It’s settled then.”
“Roger that.”
After breakfast, I made sandwiches for us to bring along. I’d baked some flatbread before, using a simple dough mix of only flour, salt, and water. For the filling, I’d used smoked pork chops that I’d already stewed. That might sound fancy, but it was really just the leftover meat from the soup we’d eaten for breakfast. The pork was lightly flavored with the root vegetable broth it had been stewed in.
Like every other meat we’d had, it was primarily seasoned with salt. At this point, salt was becoming pretty unappetizing; I definitely wanted to buy other kinds of seasoning when I journeyed to the city. There was likely pepper at least. Since the Nordic region was similar to Asia, maybe I could even find miso, soy sauce, and fish sauce. Would these ingredients be available in markets down here? Well, I shouldn’t get my hopes up.
I placed the sandwiches into a knapsack, but I figured that if we came back early, we could always eat them here too.
Before leaving, we both strapped knives around our waists. I considered bringing a shortsword, but decided against it in the end—it didn’t seem like it’d be useful if we ran into the bear. Rather than standing my ground and drawing my sword against that beast, it would be better to run.
When we left, I closed and locked the door behind us. It was unlikely that a petty thief would be slinking around a random cabin in the middle of the forest, but it was better safe than sorry. I hadn’t left the house vacant since the first day, so I wanted to be careful.
We headed into the forest, in the opposite direction of where I’d first found Samya, moving through the dense and lush greenery. This forest was home to a variety of animals. Other than the squirrel-like animal I’d seen and the bear that’d attacked Samya, there were also deer, boar, and wolves. The deer were docile, but the other two we’d have to watch out for.
I warned Samya as well, but she only looked confused. Finally, she said, “Why would we have to worry about boar and wolves?”
“Um, why wouldn’t we?” I asked the obvious.
She still looked perplexed. “You’re strong, aren’t you, Eizo?”
“Strong enough to survive in this forest...I think,” I said. To be honest, I wasn’t exactly sure if I was a good fighter or not. The Watchdog would’ve made me strong enough that I wouldn’t be killed immediately, but past that, I had no idea.
“Since you decided to move here, you must be strong,” she declared. “The wolves around here are cutthroat and will strike at the first sign of fragility. The weak have been long eaten up.” She spoke nonchalantly as if we were discussing the weather.
So if I’d been weak, I would’ve been killed already when I’d been stumbling around the forest on the first day, or when I’d gone down to the lake for water.
Thank you, Watchdog, for making sure death by wolves wasn’t in my cards!
We continued chatting as we wandered deeper into the forest. Today was sunny, and the light filtering through the canopy of trees overhead spotlighted the mossy undergrowth. Occasionally, we’d hear rustling noises, but they’d stop soon after. According to Samya, they were the sounds of small animals scampering around us.
We wouldn’t run into any bigger animals unless we went searching for them ourselves. “Large animals are generally sharp and intelligent,” she’d said. Apparently, the proverb “big head, little wit” did not apply in this situation. She’d piqued my interest, so now I wanted to meet a wolf or something—but of course, I didn’t want to put us in danger. I hadn’t brought my sword and I wasn’t prepared for a fight, so I reined in my curiosity.
When I asked how she could tell that they were small animals, she said she could detect them by their scents. Her sense of smell from her tiger half was miles better than that of humans and other human-like races. She’d said previously that canine and lupine beastfolk had even better noses, but from my perspective, her nose was plenty powerful, given that she could identify mood swings just by a person’s aroma.
After roaming around for a while, my stomach started grumbling about how desperately empty it was. Gotta love that internal clock.
“Do you want to eat?” I asked.
“Sure,” Samya said.
She quickly found a small glade for us. It was about the size of two picnic blankets, nowhere near as large as the clearing where the cabin was located. We sat down on the ground, and I took the sandwiches out of the sack. I passed one over to Samya and then started eating. It didn’t taste quite like I’d imagined, but it was delicious.
“Pretty tasty,” Samya said.
“It’s probably just because we haven’t eaten since morning.” Hunger is the best seasoning after all, or so the saying goes. Then, I took the chance to ask Samya something that had been on my mind for a while now. “What did you eat when you were on your own?”
“Mostly jerky,” she said.