There’s unfortunately not enough alcohol to get me, with my massive tolerance, drunk. It is a pity. Kassa clamored to try a glass, but I stopped and told her she could do it once older.

The party ended up lasting the whole day. We started a bit past noon, and people kept having fun until time came to eat once again, and there was still plenty of food, so the women and girls got up from their seats and started preparing round two.

When it was done, we ate and drank merrily once again, even though the only drink was water. An hour or two later, Kassa is all tuckered out. It made me think.

“Uhh, Patir, where am I supposed to stay?” I ask. Surely there’s not a house up and ready for me.

“Esh fine, pick whereva empty” He has drunk from his keg throughout the day and appear quite blasted, though it ran out of liquor before the second serving even started.

“Empty? What places are empty?”

“Ohhh, vat one!” He says and exaggeratedly points at a house. “And vat! And vat!” He points to two more. Why are there empty houses? As if reading my mind, he explains.

“Told you, ve people here, no good at hunting. Many deafs through ve years.” It dampens my mood a little, but I pick up the already asleep Kassa and carry her towards the most intact-looking house. As I walk away I hear Patir shout “Oy, Vanna! Make shure our hero has shome skins!”

Once inside, it looks abandoned. The only piece of furniture there a shoddily constructed bed. One with no mattress or blanket. I heard Patir call, so I wait patiently.

Soon, a middle aged lady appears with skins and something resembling a bundle of hay strung together. A pillow? She spreads out the skin on the bed and puts down the pillow, while leaving another skin by the side. I say my thanks and she merely smiles and leaves.

I put down Kassa and cover her with the pelt. Now that we have settled down a little, there is a certain someone I should spend time with, but I don’t want to reveal more of my oddities, so I disappear out of the village as stealthily as I can, along with a book.

As I find myself a bit away I open her up. “Now, where did we leave off, Dixy?” I ask her, but no reply comes. “Dixy?” I suddenly feel anxious. “Is something wrong? Are you ill somehow?”

“Hmph” The book makes a sound and I feel relieved. Although she sounded dismissive.

“Dixy? What’s wrong?”

“Three days! Three days you have not said a word to me! And not even an apology?” When did she get this high maintenance? I briefly regret making my wish for her to have more of a personality, before shaking it away. Dixy has kept me company as the only thing for a long while. And someday, she will probably be the only thing once again. The thought depresses me a little.

“I am very sorry, Dixy. I will make it up to you! Starting with spending the whole night together!”

“Re-really?” Why does she react like that? It is what we always do.

“That’s right” I assure her. “And hopefully the following night, and the one after that too!”

“I.. I guess you’re forgiven! Now, last time we had reached the local spell, that grants resistance to compression” She guides me to where we reached. The chapter on hardening spells varies greatly. Turns out, hardening isn’t one thing, but rather a group of forces one can magically increase resistance to. Shearing, compression and tension. They are then further split up, so that there are unique spells that apply any two, or even all three together, apply them locally, for the whole body or even transferring the qualities of the spell to objects or other people, but they are somehow different. I feel it will still take a while before mastering even the basics, but I have confirmed there is some effectiveness by stabbing at my own body. I have also made sure I still remember the advanced heating, freezing and healing patterns. Wouldn’t do to forget the old ones when learning new things.

All the while, I idly chat with Dixy, tell her a little about the circumstances. She doesn’t really respond much other than with generic “I see” and “interesting” sentences, but I feel like I should fill her in nonetheless.

The night passes quickly and once dawn has come, I return to the village. I was about to check on Kassa, but she is already up and to my surprise, seem to playing with a girl and a boy around her own age, though there is a larger group of kids they are not part of.

I wonder if they are excluding her, or she just didn’t end up playing with them. I watch them a little, till men start gathering in the square. I feel pretty confident leaving Kassa in the village after their reaction yesterday.

Once again, the hunt goes smoothly, in fact, even more smoothly since I don’t have to care for Kassa. People are loaded with the magically reappearing goods to the same point as yesterday, but even faster. When we return, however, a weird complain comes from one of the wives.

“It’s all good that you have hunted so much once again, but we feasted the whole day yesterday and there is still foodstuff left over. We simply can’t use this much.” I feel slightly bad, but Patir is laughing, clapping my back and cheerfully declares.

“That just means we can take days off!” The men in tow start celebrating it a little and talking about the things they couldn’t do before. I feel Patir is a little suspicious, but he is also somewhat nice to be around. Really commands the atmosphere and mood.

I look for Kassa, but can’t see her anywhere among the playing kids. I try to cast read, and get a signal from inside the house. Better go check on her.