As I sat in my chair, I reached out across my bond with Blink. I was searching for her and felt that it directed me back into the storage room. I headed back in and found that she was contently asleep. I couldn’t see her because she was stealthed, but I felt her. She was in the corner of the room where I kept most of the food.

With her found, I went back to searching for Lannah. I spent about an hour checking the trees and bushes on both levels. Unlike my bond with Blink, I couldn’t communicate or sense Lannah. They were both bonded to me, but they were very different things.

Lannah being a Familial Contract, would let me draw mana from if she was in range. Yet, that was bothersome to do. It was, at best, a slight distraction for her and, depending on what was going on, could wind up getting her killed. When I pulled the mana, it would cause her to at very least be very slight pain. It might cause more if I was pulling faster but we hadn't talked about what happened to her while I was in the fight.

I was kind of mad with her that she hadn’t told me about this effect before we formed the contract. I wasn’t one to rush into relationships, and the more I looked at the contract, the more it looked like she signed up to be my wife and, if not that, then perhaps a mistress for life. Yet, she also said that she might still get married to the guy she was going to see. So I had no idea what was going on with that relationship.

Familial Contract (Lannah Dreamweaver)

Lannah Darkweaver offers access to her full mana pool and all duties of a Familial Contract per custom for the following:

Your Family name once found or earned to be hers and those of her children

Protection granted as able from all who wish her harm per custom

1 blank core from The Necklace of Cores per month of contract

4% of all earned experience until you reach level 10

.5% of all experience earned after you reach level 10

I had to find out what the customs of this meant. She was offering to do all duties of the contract per custom, and I had given her and her children my family name along with protection and provision.

My contract with her didn’t matter at this moment. She wasn’t here, and there wasn’t much I could do about it. I had no way of finding her. There were no Lannah-sized tracks in the mud, so she was gone before the storm ended. She was healthy, so that meant she hadn’t been washed away by the floodwaters in the river.

I could feel the bond to her, but I couldn’t tell where it went. She had told me that it would work for a few leagues. I wanted to see if I could draw mana from her. If I could, I would know that she was nearby. I started with a slight pull but couldn’t see anything happening. I knew from my fight that I should be able to overcharge my mana, but I just couldn’t get it to fill anymore.

Either I wasn’t pulling hard enough for it to overfill, or I wasn’t close enough. I almost felt like I could feel the bond quiver a little, but that might have been hope that I was near. So I tugged hard on the bond. I kept at it for a few moments, but I wasn’t able to get any mana at all.

Which meant that Lannah wasn’t near enough. So just as soon as I could, I needed to head out. She was out there somewhere but not within range, and she was alive. She told me that she felt she was moved north, so I would follow the river downstream and see where I got.

I sat down with my legs hanging over the edge of my cliff. I was trapped for a while because of the floodwaters. While I had done the climb out before, it was with a dry wall to climb, not a wet one. The waterfall’s spray had spread out as well and was currently misting about half of the wall. It was quite beautiful but also a clear indication of how dangerous the climb would be.

Once the river slowed down enough not to be spraying everywhere, I could make the climb out. It would take a few days of sun to dry everything, and even then, I would be dealing with a fine coat of sediment. All around, I was stuck for a while.

My yard was a mess; I had trees down and branches everywhere. My garden had a tree lying over it, and my whole training yard was currently covered in water. The good thing was I didn’t think I was going to get attacked right now.

With that thought in mind, I knew that I needed to get started on the storm clean-up. I had lived through enough big storms to know that I was going to be doing a lot of work. The best thing I had for the clean-up would be the hatchet. Of course, it would have been better if I had an axe, but I had what I had.

I would have had an axe, but it was somewhere under all that water. I dropped it when I started to fight the gremlins and never picked it back up. It would have been nice to have as it was a full-length axe with a light head. But it was what it was, and there was nothing much I could do about it.

I felt Blink through the bond as she came up behind me. Then I felt her nuzzle her head under my arm as she shimmered into view. She was huge now and gorgeous. She was now about four feet long in her body, and if you added her head and tail, you were looking at a lizard that reached around eight feet. Her scales had a shine to them like I hadn’t seen before, and the spins on her back had grown in length to be six-inch spikes that could lay down.

I rubbed her head and scratched her right between her eyes. She rolled both of them up and tried to watch my finger as she sent happiness through the bond to me.

As I was petting her, I said, “I was worried about you in that fight.”

I felt her respond across the bond, “Worried for you.”

I was startled enough to stop petting her.

“Pets, scratch” Came rolling through to me.

“Blink you can talk now?”

“Always talk, you listen now.” I felt as she rolled over so that I could get to her chin better. “Rub neck miss scratches while you sick.”

I started to rub her neck and belly enough to hear her give out her happy hisses while across the bond, I felt contentment.

“Blink do you know where Lannah is?”

All the contentment and happiness I felt in the bond vanished with my question. Blink rolled back over humphed, and turned away from me. She started to walk back towards camp with all the lazy slowness that apex killers have when they aren’t currently hungry. Across the bond, I got a jumble of feelings from anger and betrayal to joy and smugness.

I stood up and followed, “Blink! What happened?”

“Gone.”

“What do you mean gone?”

“One breath here next, abandon you.”

“She went downriver or did she climb out?”

“No, just gone.”

“Did you see her leave?”

Blink sent pouring over the bond emotions that were simple and intense. I got the feeling that Blink failed to protect what was mine, but the joy that Lannah was gone. Anger that she didn’t know what happened but the happiness it did. Frustration that Lannah stopped helping and worried that I would be mad at her.

Then I got some odd memories pushed across the bond of Blink storming out of the storage room, and then when she came back in, Lannah was gone. No sign of her. No trail to follow, just no more Lannah.

I reached out and hugged Blink. “I guess the rescue from her dad panned out. We just didn’t get taken along for some reason. I know that you don’t know how to feel about her. I’m not sure myself but we have to find her again. She is family. I think.”

I hated Sam with a passion, but with Lannah gone, he was my access to information about this world. At least specific questions. Right as I was about the cast my communication spell, I got an idea. Blink could talk; perhaps she just knew things that all creatures knew?

“Hey, Blink any idea why my intelligence score doesn’t effect the way that I think through things? I mean honestly with as low as it I shouldn’t be able to figure out as much as I have.”

“You bonds with Lannah, dumbs.” Blink sent across to me with all sorts of amusement.

“Yeah, I get it…” I replied with a bit of disdain.

It has been a while since I asked Sam a question, and I felt like I could take it again. Also, I was feeling safe for the time being.

Oh great and mighty greeter Sam, I the lowly Arn beseech you to answer my question. Why does my intelligence stat level not affect my ability to think through issues?

With that, I did my standard pass out. I knew that sometime tonight, I would wind up in Sam’s study and would have to be in his dream world wasn’t something that I looked forward to. But, that being said, I wanted to know why I could still think through things like I was able to before coming here, even with my intelligence stat too low to be able to read. It just seemed like something wasn’t right.

I once read a quote from Abe Lincoln about chopping down a tree. It was something like, “If I only had an hour to cut down a tree, I would sharpen my axe first.” So while old Abe was on earth, I figured that my goal would be to make my hatchet the best that I could to start with.

So the first thing I did was I carved a mounting socket into my hatchet. After I got the socket put in, I took the time to carve into it the runes for fire strike.

I figured that I would keep this with me whenever I went out, so I wanted to make it the best I could. After getting those runes on, I imbued it with power. The Hatchet drank in power. I spent a long time imbuing the hatchet, more than I thought that I would. It could be that because the head was bronze, it could take more of a load, but it felt more powerful than my staff did. Then I put in a core.

General

Showing up in all Orange.

Arn’s Bronze Magical Hatchet (Please name)

Level 0

Type Weapon core

Class Enchanted uncommon

Durability 100/100

Weight 3 lbs

Weapon type: Cutting

Damage: 2-5 non-magical, 1 Magical

>Growth

To level your weapon you must provide for it proper care and material.

Metal 0% Mana 0%

>Traits

These are the abilities or traits that your enchanted hatchet has.

Fire strike- Your Hatchet has been enchanted with fire strike. This will do 2-10 mixed fire and magic damage to the target This Hatchet has been Imbued with power and can hold up to 10 mana. It can recover 1 mana every day on its own. Durable- Your weapon is durable, it will not wear out from normal wear. Durability will only decrease with targeted attacks.

After the work of making the hatchet, I was drained. It was one of those catch-22s. I could have started the cleanup first and been too tired to work on putting a core in the hatchet, or I could make it first and then would be too tired to use it.

I missed having Lannah here. Not just because she gave me enough mana, I didn’t have to slow down. No, it was nice talking with someone who didn’t think they were better than you in all things, I thought as I looked over at Blink basking in the sun.