Edited by Solyom

Just as I predicted, the following day was far less pleasant. My muscles were a little exhausted. Oh, it was nothing serious. I could move without any problems, my reaction time was pretty much same and I could lift as heavy objects as usually, the only thing that was bothering me was the fact, that each of my moves meant dealing with irritating, dull pain.

Each time I made a step, I felt as if dozens of little needles were poking me in my feet. Each time I lifted my leg, my thighs were burning a little, and all this time my back was sweating as I was wearing not only food supplies but also something extra. Stupid ballast. What was driving me mad even more was Gisele – and to be precise – her mood. SHE WAS SO CHEERFUL! WHY!? It’s hot! We are sweating like pigs and we still have a few more days to waste before we would get to the nearest city!

- “Ah, Zari!? Why such a long face?”

And she even decided to tease me. Bloody perfect.

- “Nothing.”

- “There must be some reason for your sadness!” she kept talking with that wide smile.

- “There isn’t. But at same time, there also isn’t any reason for me to be happy.”

- “You must be kidding! Look around! Such a peaceful day! The weather is perfect, the view is wonderful… and you are traveling with the most beautiful woman on the world! How can you be sad in such a time!?”

I only snorted as a reply… but she actually managed to make me smile a little. Silly girl.

- “Hey, hey! Zaaa-ri?”

- “Yes?”

- “… You forgot about !” That’s what you get for spoiling your woman too much.

- “Yes, sweetie?” I wasn’t in the mood to argue with her, so I decided to roll with her demands. Once again, she cheered hearing my response.

- “There should be a little village on our way to the border. I had quest there once. People started vanishing and suspected some monster appearing nearby… well, in the end it was just a bigger pack of aggressive wolves that attacked every lone traveler…” I coughed a few times, reminding her that she is losing the track of her own thoughts. “… W-w-what I am trying to say is that they like me there. We will reach it by evening and can stay there for night. They won’t charge us much, and it is always better to sleep on hay than on the ground…”

- “If they are liking you that much why won’t they let you sleep on a bed instead on hay?”

- “Be-cauuuse…” she said teasingly. “… I will ask them for hay.” She ended with delighted purr.

I see…

- “You know I am still mad at you, do you?”

- “This is why I want to apologize.” She followed trying to sound innocently.

I see. Indeed, I won’t mind stopping in a village. It means both food and beds… or hay, which was equal to not wasting the time required for setting a camp (and then packing it back as you would move on). It was idea I could get behind.

And just as the dragoness suggested, I tried relaxing a little and enjoying the “view”. And by view I meant that we get off the main road and started walking on a narrow path in the woods. And I let Gisele walk in front of me. Yeah. Those views.

But as always I got distracted easily. I needed to fight back the urge of getting deeper into woods looking for some herbs. Some parts had a nicely hydrated ground, thanks to a few lesser rivers and brooks, the trees were giving lots of shadow, which meant that it was an environment wonderful for shade-liking plants. Oh, how could I forget!? MUSHROOMS!

- “What are you doing?” Gis asked curiously, seeing me picking a few small plants and, yeah, mushrooms.

- “Something we may use during… the night.”

- “What do you mean?”

- “You will see.” I teased her. There is no way I would spoil that little surprise.

- “We agreed not to have secrets!” she yapped, irritated.

- “It’s not a secret if I am going to tell you. Just not yet.”

Oh, she was in the mood to have a little argument, but with the next few sentences, I cut the subject.

As we traveled, my mood was constantly growing worse and worse, mostly because my little exhaustion evolved into a medium fatigue. Also, now sweat covered my whole body and as you know, I consider myself a civilized being that enjoys baths (even while living in the forest I took as many lake-baths as possible)!

We were moving west, because of that I had a perfect view on the sun, that was slowly setting down. Very slowly. Very, very slowly. I did my best to restrict myself from asking “are we there yet” for 274 times. But my patience finally hit its limit.

- “Are we there yet?”

- “Almost. It should be over the next hill!” I decided to look over Gis’s shoulder to see how far the next hill was.

And once again, I swallowed a curse.

- “… maybe I will summon Kaito? He may have troubles carrying both of us at the same time, but it should be bit faster than…”

- “Absolutely not!”

- “But why?!?”

- “It’s another part of the training! Tell yourself that you are training stamina! The last part, the one that is the most exhausting is the most important! Bite those lovable lips of yours and count steps. It helped me.”

This time I didn’t swallow the curse, quite the opposite – I vocalized it. Loudly.

But in the next 30 minutes or so, we reached our destination. The village was pretty well hidden. If someone wouldn’t know about it, it could be easily missed. It was average at very best. Not rich, like some villages near the capital, that actually were resembling small cities, but it was far from being poor too. A completely average settlement that was living humbly. What I noticed, and what surprised me a little, was an altar exactly in the middle. An altar of three women standing in a circle, looking at the rest of the village. Three goddesses. That was rare.

- “Is that… Miss Gisele! Mama, miss Gisele is back!” some girl stopped playing with the rest of the kids, yelled to a group of women by the well and started running toward us with a bright smile.

With impetus, she hit the dragoness’ body as she tried tackling the warrioress down with a hug. But she stopped on her leg as dragoness didn’t even budge.

- “Katherine! Good to see you, little scrub! Look at you! You have grown up soooo much since the last time I saw you! How is Mathew?...”

Crap. She is really good with kids.

- “You think so? It is because when I am not helping mother and father I am training to become as strong as you! You will see, soon I will join the guild and join you on your adventures!” the little kid beamed with pride after hearing Gisele’s praise. “… and who is the man following you?” she asked.

- “Ah, it is my companion and mate – Zariel! Zariel, meet Kath, this little rascal has some guts! She actually may join the guild in a few years… if her parents won’t prepare an other future for her, that is…”

- “Nice to meet you.” I kneeled a little bit to be on the same level as the kid.

- “Tsk!” she gave me hateful gaze and refused to shake my hand.

Oh, you little!

- “He looks weak!”

… Hold me, or else I will do exactly the same thing that Anakin Skywalker did to certain younglings. I was never good with kids, but that little bitch is walking on veeerry thin ice.

- “Is that so?” Gisele asked. “…It means you are still not ready to become an adventurer.” She said letting out a sad sigh.

- “Eh? What do you mean by that?”

- “Zari is one of the strongest man I know. A-a-actually… he may be almost as strong as me in certain aspects…”

- “Almost?” I decided to tease her a little “… if I remember correctly we had a fight a couple of days ago. Mind reminding me who won?”

- “Pfth! You took me by surprise! In a real battle, I would win!”

She was right. I gambled turning into angel-form as I never used it before. I am pretty sure that in a real, fair one-on-one she would still proved to be a bit stronger than myself.

- “Jericho was teaching us that monsters will always try to take us by surprise. Demanding an honorable duel with a Manticora is pointless and foolish.” I quoted the old man. “… But I will give you that. It was a little fluke indeed.”

Still, it was enough to make Katherine’s eyes widen a little. She couldn’t comprehend that someone could stand on equal ground with her heroine.

- “Kath, darling, mind telling me if the elder is at his house? I would like to ask him a little favor.” The dragoness decided to get back to the main reason we came here.

- “Yes! I bet he will be happy to know you stepped by!”

- “Zari, can you please start taking our bags to the warehouse?”

It was clear that she preferred asking for the favor alone. I had no idea why, but I didn’t really mind it. I just wanted to get rid of the backpacks as soon as possible, so I headed towards one of the biggest building in the village, where hay was stored. But not only! There were also a few barrels (probably with beer), some packs of leather and a few other goods that were probably destined to be sold. I got rid of our equipment there and also started taking off my shirt. In the end it was hot as hell. I saw a few of the village males not bothering themselves with wearing upper clothes, so I was sure that I would cause some moral disturbance.

- “Hey! You! Sis Gisele asks you to…” the little bug Kath barged in the building, delivering a message, but her gaze fell on my body. Or to be precise – on my scars.

- “Adventuring is a tough job, you know…” I decided to educate her a little. “… each scar is a lesson, but also a trophy. It says a story of meeting a worthy opponent and leaving victorious. Gis also has quite few of them. If you would join us, prepare yourself of gaining a few.”

- “… did it hurt? When you got those?” what a silly question. She is still a brat thought.

- “You tell me. Would it hurt if wolf would chew off part of your body?” I asked pointing on my side. “… or would it hurt if bandit would pierce your calf with a spear?”

It wasn’t a bandit, but an inquisitor. Still, I didn’t feel like sharing my whole life history with that girl, so I decided to change few facts.

- “There are two kinds of adventurers. Those covered in scars and dead… Now. Once again. What did Gis want?”

The girl had that “hah?” expression for a moment, before she slapped her cheeks twice and answered.

- “Sis Gis said that she finished talking with the elder and wants you to come.”

… But I didn’t even manage to sit! Why did she send me away if she finished “negotiating” in less than two minutes? Groaning in my mind I headed outside.

As I stopped in front of Gis and some elder man that was… well, probably the Village Elder, she said to me.

- “Good news, Zari, I will tell you more. Perfect news! We can stay for a night in the warehouse and will be able to eat in inn for free…”

… there must be some “but”.

- “…but…” I fucking knew it. “… we will have to help them a little. And by we I mean you.”

- “Sure. What is it? Blessing crops? Summoning rain?”

- “Chopping wood.”

…

…….

……………

You little ungrateful wench. You did that on purpose! YOU DID THAT ON PURPOSE! Why else did you send me away while going for “negotiation”?! You had it all prepared! They love you here, if you would ask they would give you everything you wanted for free, just so they could listen about your adventures in the inn!

- “Young miss, your friend doesn’t have exactly happy face… maybe it was a bad idea, you must be tired after your journey and could use some rest, I will a…”

- “No need!” Gis stopped. “… This man here decided to go on that journey to train his body! What is better way of training body than the good, old fashioned chopping?!” She grinned at me.

I will get you for this, Gis! I promise, I will have my revenge!

I wanted to protest! I wanted to scream and kick!... But it would be a “little” pathetic. They love Gisele here and I didn’t want to make her embarrassed.

But I will talk with her about it! And for purpose of this conversation I will once again borrow Zanes’s whip!

- “Kay. Just give me an axe and point in which direction the wood is.”

- “Oh. Oooh. Thank you, young man. You give this old man the joy letting him know that there are still such a good younglings in the world.”

The older man’s face brightened a little.

- “Everyone is so busy lately because the celebration of three moons is coming. They started making decorations and gathering food. But the celebration won’t be possible without a huge fire! Once again, thank you!”

Three moons? It’s soon? I didn’t even know about it.

At night, two moons are shining on the sky, but in reality there are three moon floating around this planet. Simply one of them is hidden behind its bigger brother most of the times. It appears only for one day every few decades… or centuries. Of course, it is also a perfect time for Sabbaths. Witches are gathering, for that night magic in far more potent…

Still, I didn’t pay much attention to astrology. I have no use for it. Yes, those simple, humble people at the celebration will perform a simple, mana-less ritual that could possibly bless their land for some time… for them it may be a life changing event.

I moved behind the elder’s house, were villagers moved wood.

And then I almost got a heart attack. Saying that there was a lot of it, is like saying that there are a lot of grains of sands in the desert.

- “Just how many forests you destroy to collect this much of wood?” I asked with awe and terror.

- “None. But indeed, we have been gathering it for quite some time. Lumberjacks would cut trees down, then chop it in a bit smaller pieces and carry it here, so the wood could dry… But somehow none of them is eager to finish their jobs. Can’t blame them. Their wives must be occupying them with house cleaning… The-the-the, I can tell it from my own experience, that old hag - my wife isn’t giving me time to take a breath! The- the-the!”

- “Honey, who did you call “old hag”?” the man froze as he heard a voice behind his back. Behind him, a woman was standing, around same age as him. She was smiling brightly, like a kind grandma.

Don’t make this smile fool you, one could easily sense a bloodlust coming from that unobtrusive body. The man shivered.

- “Old hag? You must have heard me wrong! I said golden wife! I really did, right, right?!” he asked, looking in our direction with a silent cry for help.

- “Oooh, is that so? I seeee…” oh, she let us know that she didn’t believe that at all. “… darling, come with me for a moment. As those lovely people would help me, we should at least make them some tea. I could really use your help with that, darling…”

I will re-translate for you what she just said: .

Poor fool. He deserves that, mostly because of his foolishness. The same lady told me where could I find an axe and excused herself and her husband, telling that she will be back with tea in a minute.

I was left behind the Elder’s house all alone with the wood… an axe …. and Gisele. For a moment I wanted to use the tool on Gisele, but I decided to bravely start the task. Gisele sat near, watching me flexing my muscles as I kept raising and lowering the sharp object and dividing pieces of wood into eight smaller parts. Cut long trunks in two, then taking each piece to the chopping spot as I separated it into quarters.

- “Now as I am looking at you, I can tell, that you indeed could use having some more muscles…” she said, not to tease me, but to merely state her thoughts. And exactly because of that I cursed quietly.

- “Damn! How are you holding it! You can’t chop wood this way! It is not a beast’s head! Damn! You will break the handle! No-no-no! You are making unnecessary movements! On the one hand, it is good – because you train even more… But then once again I am happy that no one is watching you! Damn! When you are raising it, move your hand near the blade, this way you require less strength to move it! Then, as you are bringing it down put both of your hands on the opposite part of the axe! You will make the blow the strongest this way… Craaaap. If you would be living with your wife at some distant place in snowy mountains, and you were responsible for keeping up the fire, you would die because of cold!... Wait, in that case I would be your wife! I don’t want to die because of such silly reason! Zari, put your heart into th…”

I stopped. Put the axe aside and took a few loud breaths. In. And out. Iiiiin. And ouuuut. Iiiiiiin…. I started walking towards Gisele. She was looking at me confused, now knowing why I stopped after chopping just a few pieces. I put my palms on her cheeks and lowered my head to her. Right now we were looking at each other’s eyes.

- “Gisele. Sweetie. Darling. My love. My most-treasured-thing. Shut the fuck up, pretty please.” And I kissed her nose.

She indeed went silent after that, probably because she saw my gaze – the gaze of a man on the verge of madness.

I returned to my monotonous task, making my muscles roar in true pain. Just as I thought, yesterday’s training was nothing. I felt as if my back was about to tear into pieces. There is no freaking way I will deal with all that wood. The red sun was shining low on the horizon. I decided I would keep going either till it would get dark, or what was more probable –till I would collapse.

I will tell that once again – fucking ballast.