Good morning everyone it’s been a month since Julius and Rufus tried to escape and I can now confidently say that they are perfectly happy being in my care. I know this because in the last month I learned how to speak Ilati fluently. Or none of that happened... I did however expand my vocabulary in Ilati the language of humanity in the city of Bellum. That’s right I am by no means fluent, but I’ve picked up enough to speak like a 5 year old. Julius and Rufus have also been learning to speak the Vuohian language aka Sprak, as I figured that Vuohians would be less likely to kill the two of them if they mispronounced a word, apparently some Susi can be kind of temperamental…

Anyway over the last month besides doing my best to learn their language I’ve also been training with them so that if they ever do run away again at the very least they won’t die fifteen miles into the journey. We’ve been sparring and I make sure to take them running every day. They’re still slow and get tired too easily, but then that’s in comparison to me, and I make Olympic athletes look like scrubs. Beyond training and teaching them Sprak I’ve also had them sit in on my etiquette and history lessons, their probably only getting one word in three, but I figure that’s better than nothing. Hopefully they learn enough so that they aren’t killed by someone because they said something inadvertently offensive.

I also managed to get the house done a few days ago, I was a little worried about getting it done in time to get my bonus, but I subcontracted some of the magical work out to Gurt and he did a great job. He has more power and magical stamina than me so it worked out fine. Plus this helped him improve his control which I know he’ll need if he wants to get into one of the magic academies. Sure I ended up with less money because I had to give Gurt close to a third of the bonus, but he’ll need the money while he’s at school so I guess everything worked out okay.

Raha left after the house was finished he said he needed to buy some furniture for the place now that it was finished, he also took most of the construction crew with him. I was kind of sorry to see them go as they made the whole place a lot more exciting. I’m sure I would eventually come to miss the peace and quiet of this little farm house, but now that everyone was gone it felt empty around here. Fortunately I was still pretty busy prepping for the journey, gathering everything that was easily transportable and putting them in a backpack my mom spent the last month making. She ended up using the Lehmakin hide in order to make the backpack so it was very sturdy.

Raha also left Muuntaa behind guard his new home, so I was able to continue my wrestling practice, the number of ways a Susi can kill you while wrestling is shocking. All it takes is a claw to an artery and your opponent will be dead in minutes. Never try to wrestle a Susi unless you have a skilled healer nearby as it’s possible for them to almost kill you accidentally. Let’s just say I got to practice my medical skills a lot during our training sessions and leave it at that.

I also had the humans practice wrestling with us, they didn’t fair too well until we started showing them some throws, and I showed them how to break joints. Once they picked up the basics of joint locks they started practicing on their own as often as possible. I’m pretty sure they realized that while unarmed this would be their only defense against a Susi that decided to get aggressive.

I also found a way to explain their presence without ruffling too many feathers. As a warrior society sometimes the Susi like to settle things with their fists… The loser of the martial display of dominance is then obliged to concede whatever point of contention lead to their exchange of blows. Should they refuse to concede the point they are then obliged to serve the winner for a year and a day. It’s an old custom and rarely is it invoked, but I figured I could use it to explain away the presence of the two humans.

With our cover story all straight I was looking forward to Raha’s return, I was excited to finally move on and start doing more with my life, but at the same time I was also incredibly nervous. I plan on changing a lot of laws and customs, you know really make a splash, which means I’m likely to gain enemies, I’ll have to either fight or out think. My safe little life on my parent’s farm was about to come to an end, it’s like I’m going off to college again… Only this time instead of going to a school with a lot of other people my own age, drinking and studying I’ll be going to the capital of a the beastmen races, fighting to change a social injustice all the while establishing my claim to the role of heir to one of the most powerful clans. Like I said, it’s just like college…

I decided to try and burn off some of the nervous energy that was randomly pumping shots of adrenaline through my veins. So I got off of my bed and started walking around my room looking for anything I might have forgotten. It was almost empty, there was a small table by my bed and a chair in one of the corners, both items I had built with some help from Dad. My dresser was next to the door and while I know I’d emptied it of any clothes that still fit I rummaged through it one last time to make sure I wasn’t forgetting anything. A couple of vests that were too small for me yet still too big for my little brother, along with some pants still in that useless size between the two of us. In the bottom drawer was a collection of my little brother’s clothes as he was currently staying in my room while we had our human guests. There were also still a couple of pencils in a clay mug on top of the dresser.

Oh did I never mention them, yeah, I made pencils when I was about six years old. I whittled some wood into the right shape then added the actual bit that would write. I couldn’t find any graphite so I used charcoal with a moderate degree of success. You could write with them, but it was messy and imprecise, and unless I found some graphite I would never be able to actually sell them. I decided to leave the pencils in the mug. Frankly they would probably break if I packed them and then everything in my bag would be stained black from the charcoal. They simply weren’t worth the effort.

In fact a lot of the things that were left in my room were failed attempts at recreating things from my original world. I had some pots filled with charcoal a sealed on filled with sulfur and then a number pots filled of different elements. I’d been trying to recreate gunpowder, but I never could figure out what Saltpeter was. I know it was the third thing you grind together in order to make black powder, but I hadn’t found any so far. Maybe in a city I could find some, but I’d still have to do a lot of experimenting since I couldn’t describe the stuff and no one would understand just based off the English word.

The only other thing left in my room was my chess set, that’s right I invented chess on this world, which means I am one of the best players in the world. Unfortunately I showed my dad how to play and well, he’s better than me. But I can still beat my mom and all of the Taikas so I have that going for me. I’d have to leave the set behind, as I doubt that the clay base would last through a journey of 500 miles over bumpy roads.

After one last look around the room it was time to wake up the adorable little bundle asleep under the furs. Auttaa was close to two and a half years old at this point and he kept getting bigger every day. I gently shook him to wake him up and after a little squirming and then tiredly rubbing his eyes he finally got out of bed. He frowned at me and said, “Why you wake me up?”

I smiled down at him and said, “Because it’s our day to play! Remember you and I were going to spend the whole day together.”

His frown turned upside down and his face lit up with excitement, he shot out of bed and gave me a hug exclaiming, “Oh yeah I forget. What we gunna do first?”

With a grin plastered on my face I answered him, “Well, first we are going to make breakfast for everyone, then I have a surprise for you, but I’ll only give it to you if you are patient and help me out like a good boy.”

He enthusiastically nodded his head up and down and said, “I’m a good boy!”

I ruffled the fur on top of his head and said, “I know you are, so let’s go make everyone some breakfast sandwiches. I’ll cut up the sausage and cook the eggs, you toast the bread okay buddy?”

He nodded and we made our way into the kitchen. I cut up a loaf of bread and handed the pieces on a plate to Auttaa. Then I started a fire in the stove. that’s right I’d built my mom a stove, it burned wood instead of gas but it worked and made cooking a lot easier for her. As I was saying, I started a fire in the stove, one of the few pieces of fire magic my dad had been able to teach me was the equivalent of lighting a match. It wasn’t powerful but it was useful as hell. Once the fire got going. Auttaa started toasting the bread slices over the stove while I gathered all of the other ingredients. I kept an eye on him while he was near the fire, I know you think it’s a little irresponsible to let a 2 year old cook, but short of killing himself within a few seconds I should be able to repair any damage he could possible cause himself. Besides doing things like this encouraged him to develop a sense of responsibility.

While he toasted the bread I thinly sliced some sausage links and then put them in a frying pan. Then I cracked a couple of eggs, mixed them up and threw some lard on another frying pan. With everything else all set I raked the coals out so they were spread out evenly at the bottom of the stove. Once that was set up I started cooking the sausage and heating up the lard. I spread the lard around the pan evenly coating the whole surface. Meanwhile the sausage began to sizzle and let off an amazing aroma. I flipped all of the pieces of sausage then poured the egg mix into the lard pan, not all of it, just enough for two egg and sausage breakfast sandwiches. I double checked Auttaa’s progress and saw that he’d managed to toast close to six pieces of bread with varying degrees of success.

I smiled and refocused myself on cooking. I grabbed a plate from the cabinet and said, “Alright Auttaa, it’s up to you to make the sandwiches, so start plating the toast on here and I’ll load them up. He put two slightly burned pieces and two slightly undercooked pieces on the plate and I loaded them up with sausage and the egg I’d just finished cooking. I then raked the coals over to one side of the stove and left the sausages on the grill to keep warm. Auttaa and I sat down at the kitchen table and began eating. I took the slightly burned sandwich and we began chowing down. I nudged Auttaa and said, “Good toast Auttaa, thank you!”

He beamed with pleasure and replied, “Your welcome big bro, thanks for the sausage and egg.”

I responded, “You’re welcome Auttaa.”

After we finished our breakfast I said, “Okay buddy, go wake up Mom and Dad and the two Huma, I’ll finish making their breakfast, then we can go get your surprise.”

Auttaa squealed, “Yay!!”

Then he ran over to wake up Mom and Dad, meanwhile I raked the coals back into place and started cooking some more egg, I also started toasting some more bread as Auttaa hadn’t made enough for everyone. I cut him some slack though since he wasn’t even three years old yet.

Just as I finished preparing the sandwiches my parents and the humans made their way out of their respective rooms, all being led by an excited two year old. He dragged my still sleepy parents to the table and I set their plates down on the table. I said, “Hope everyone enjoys their breakfasts, Auttaa and I are going to go play outside.” I then looked at Julius and Rufus and said, “Today is rest day. We leave tomorrow.”

They nodded in understanding and I grabbed my little brother’s hand and lead him outside. First I led him over to the barn and we greeted the horse before doing anything else. It was still a little nervous around us, but after a month of constant contact with various Susi it was mostly calm. After letting it take in our scent, I gave the horse a scratch behind the ears and a handful of whim that we kept in a bucket by its stall. After acknowledging the horse I took my little brother over to a darkened corner of the barn, for it was there that I was keeping his present. I pointed to two buckets with lids on them and said, “You take those two I’ll take these two and we’ll bring them outside.”

He nodded and said, “Kay”

We grabbed the buckets and carried them out into the early morning sunshine. I nodded at the lids and said, “Go ahead and open them up. Your present is inside the buckets.”

Auttaa smiled and tore open the lids of the two buckets he’d been carrying. Inside were a bunch of action figures I’d made out of hardened clay. I’d spent the last couple of days shaping them with magic and I think they turned out pretty good. I’d basically done my best to recreate toy army men, except I’d made three races worth. There were little Vuohians with hammers and staffs, Humans in armor with swords and bows, and large Susi with spears and swords. I’d made close to fifty figurines so I was really hoping he would still have some left by the time I returned home.

Auttaa’s eyes got really wide as he took in the sight of so many toys and he screamed, “Awesome!!!”

He then immediately started pulling out the little toys and lining them up by type. Each figurine was unique, well, almost unique I’d actually made another fifty that were almost identical to the original fifty. I wanted my little brother to have a backup set in case he accidentally broke some. I’d told Dad about them along with where they were stored. If the original fifty lasted the first six months I told Dad to give him the other set.

Once he had the toys all separated by species he then started looking at each individual piece. Apparently I’d awed him with the details I’d put into each piece because he spent a lot of time with each figure. I smiled and let him look at his new toys for a bit before I coughed to get his attention again. He looked up from his new treasures and I said, “Those aren’t the only new toys I made for you. Open up these buckets for your second gift.”

Auttaa’s eyes sparkled with excitement as he opened up the second set of buckets, but I could see he was a little disappointed by what he found inside. I was actually even more proud of this set of toys as they were mind numbingly boring to create and required a lot of precision. But I could see why he might be a little disappointed after all Legos don’t look exciting at first glance, but they were one of the most versatile and popular toys ever created. I knew I’d need to explain how to play with this set, but eventually it would be worth it.

We spent the next few hours playing around with my little brother’s new toys, I showed him how to build Lego forts and played the bad guys in a war between the humans and the Susi. After a few hours of playing we were finally interrupted by Mom yelling, “Lunch is ready!”

I got up from the crouched position I’d maintained to play with my little brother and said, “Okay Auttaa, it’s time to head home for lunch, then we’re going to go with Dad to the river and get some fishing done, okay little buddy?”

Auttaa nodded and said, “Kay, lunch then fishing, then toys.”

He stuck out his hand and I stuck out mine, we shook hands and I said, “Alright little buddy, after fishing we can play with your new toys again. But first we have to put them away so that they don’t get damaged.”

Auttaa nodded again and we spent a couple of minutes putting away his toys before returning home. Lunch consisted of Velocichicken sandwiches with a side of berries. We ate with gusto as playing with Legos and toy soldiers for several hours can work up an appetite. After lunch I gave Auttaa a piggyback ride all the way to the river. When we arrived at the river Dad handed me a fishing spear and then he headed downstream a bit while Auttaa and I went upstream. I set him down after we’d gone about twenty feet upstream and said, “Alright little buddy, here’s the plan, I’m going to go to the center of the river with this spear, you stay close to the bank, when you see a fish you scare it back toward me so I can spear it. Sound good?”

He nodded, Auttaa tended to understand a lot more than he could say and replied, “I stay over here, scare fish.”

I nodded and said, “Yup that’s exactly right. And if you start to get cold you let me know and I’ll start a fire.”

He smiled and we both walked into the water. Winter was coming on pretty soon, I could feel it in the water, it had already dropped a couple of degrees from when I had to chase down Julius and Rufus. It was still relatively comfortable for me, but a human would probably start shivering. Auttaa and I made our way slowly downstream, I did my best to avoid giving away my position until I was within striking distance of a worthwhile fish. Auttaa on the other hand had a different approach, he would make his way downstream and then pounce on any minnow, frog, or bug that came his way. I’d argue that his methods were less effective than mine, but he also tended to startle any fish near me, so while he caught a minnow and a frog, which were promptly put into a bucket Dad brought along, I managed to catch nothing.

I still had a good time though, it really warmed my heart to see my younger brother so happy. I tended to neglect my family whenever I had a project in mind, so it was nice to just take some time and enjoy the simple pleasure of their company. While I watched over Auttaa and basically scared fish downstream Dad got some real spear fishing done. After the first hour he’d already caught six good sized trout. The fish are actually called Taimen, but frankly the fish were basically river trout, so that’s the way I think of them.

After the first hour I built up a fire that Auttaa could sit next to while I began cooking the fish over the open flames. We actually got a decent assembly line going after I started cooking. Dad would catch a fish, Auttaa would go collect the body, and then I would clean and cook it. We ended up getting an even dozen before Dad called it quits. He brought in the last fish himself and sat down next to the small cooking fire. He handed me the cleaned fish to cook and said, “You know I’m going to miss you right?”

“I know Dad, I’m going to miss you too.”

He nodded and said, “You sure you want to do this? You can back out now, stay on the farm with your mother and me, you’ll be safe and happy here. Your mother and I did our best to ensure that, so if you want to stay just say so.”

I nodded, “I know Dad, and you guys have made me feel loved and safe my entire life. No matter what happens, where I go, or what I end up doing, this will always be my home. It’s actually a huge relief to know that no matter what I’ll always have a place I can come back to and feel safe. Honestly that’s one of the only reasons that I’m able to actually go out and try to change things, I’m actually really nervous and kind of scared. But I know I’d never be truly happy knowing that you both can’t visit your parents or your brothers because of some stupid custom. I also know I’d feel like shit if Auttaa couldn’t do whatever he wanted to when he grows up just because his fur is white instead of grey or brown or black. I don’t want his future to be limited in any way and the only thing I can do to change that is to go to the capital and fight for change. So even though I know I don’t Have to go, I still Need to do this.”

Dad smiled and said, “I know Son, I just had to offer one last time.”

We sat in relative silence for the next ten minutes while the last of the fish cooked. All the while we munched on some of the fish I’d already finished cooking. I personally went for the skin, it was crackly and delicious. There really is nothing like cooking over an open flame. At some point while Dad and I shared a comfortable silence Auttaa became a lot quieter, I looked over and found him asleep by the fire. I nudged Dad and pointed at his sleeping child. He smiled and then started packing everything up.

With all of our gear and food packed up and ready to go we headed back home, I ended up picking Auttaa up and carrying him in my arms, his head resting on my shoulder for the whole walk home.

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