Chapter 30

A Fire and Hundreds More.

Every following sip of the gold rank mythic ale brought me back to the dead garden where I’d first seen the woman. She was no longer there and I had but half a second to get my bearings and search. She’d been wearing a soft sweater with a large hood over a simple linen dress. My guess was that she’d gone inside.

Thrush took his last gulp of ale and wiped the foam from his mouth.

“Excellent beer, Hawkin,” he said. “Let’s go fishing.”

I drained the last of the beer and nodded.

“I don’t know how much help I’ll be,” I said. “I’ll do what I can to help carry anything you catch.”

“We’ll use your inventory,” Thrush said.

I followed Thrush out of the cabin. Any melted snow had already frozen over. It was quite cold. Blustery.

“Here. Have a dreambon,” Thrush said, handing me a perfectly round specimen. Then he started on about how amazing it would be when he got an inventory system like mine.

We followed my trail to the sea. I broke the dreambon and savored the flavors: Honey-esque cream and vanilla, a tad of citrus, and notes of candied pollen. Quite different from the last time I had one. Were they always different flavors? The seeds crackled upon my tongue with a slightly bitter bite. A bitterness to savor. The shell of the fruit was wafer crunchy and tasted like the cream of a fresh pastry.

“Imagine all the things I could put in my inventory,” Thrush said.

“You can carry quite a bit of weight already,” I said. “If you had an inventory, I suppose you could put the world in your pocket if you wanted to.”

The closer we came to the sea, the windier it became. The cold felt like cuts on my face. The temperature was dropping. It began to snow.

When we arrived at the sea, Thrush did not stop. He walked out upon the ice that had formed on the water. Ice extended for at least a mile out to sea. The waters churned beyond the ice. Thrush didn’t go too far before turning and waving at me.

“I’ll be back, Hawkin,” he said.

Then he smashed a foot through the ice. Cracks sped across the ice with the sounds like that of a wiggling saw. The beast laughed as he fell into the sea. His splash threw up water and plates of ice. I knew how cold the water was and a shiver ran down my spine.

The wind buffeted me and I had to brace against it. While I waited, I sat at the base of a tree. The cold weathered my face but I still enjoyed my time by the sea.

When my mind began to wander, and when I finally acclimated a bit to the bitter cold, I decided to absorb some skill books.

I drank lots of water. I straightened my posture and made myself comfortable in fresh snow. I absorbed the first skill book, bringing my brewer skill up to level 4. Another one brought it to level 5. Another one to level 6. Before I absorbed the next 3, I needed to take a mental break.

The last one I had absorbed had taught me quite a bit on the act of dry hopping beers—adding hops to a second phase of the brewing process to develop more aroma. Ideas ran through my mind. I was newly excited to continue brewing. If absorbing more skill books didn’t completely exhaust me, I might even try dry hopping my next beer tonight.

I still have some beers I’ve got to try. The goblin beers, Ol’ Sludge, and the mana stout that I brewed.

There was a splash and commotion where Thrush had broken through the ice. When I stood up, I almost lost my balance, feeling faint from the effects of absorbing skill books.

There was another commotion followed by a splash. Thrush’s paw came out of the hole. Curved claws slipped out from his fur and locked into the ice. His round ears appeared next. Then his other paw came swinging up with a long swordfish in his grasp. He threw the swordfish and it flopped onto the ice with a smack. Two more dead swordfish came flying out and slammed down beside the first.

Without a word, Thrush disappeared down the ice hole once more.

It required a great amount of struggle and strength to drag each massive swordfish onto the coast. I stacked each one close to the trail and resumed my place by the tree.

While I recovered my body and mind, I watched the sun set. I felt the wintry cold of night drape across me with each gust of wind. I shivered uncontrollably. When the sun just about set, I gazed up at the northern stretch of sea, not having realized until then that ships had been sailing down the sea. Many ships. The number was startling.

It’s going to get much colder. The ice will stretch further out to sea and those ships will freeze in place until spring. Are they fools? Are they fleeing from a battle? Are they hoping to sail southward before the sea freezes? They’re too late to escape it.

The silhouettes of ships bobbed and passed between each other. Now that the sun had set, small fires began to glow on the decks of each ship. Vague plumes of smoke climbed the sky from each fire.

One of the largest ships had one of the biggest fires. The fire flared brightly a few times until I realized that large panes of metal were erected behind each fire to reflect the light upon the coast. The large beam of light scanned the coast and I realized too late that the ships were surveying the coast. I couldn’t hide in time. The beam of light raced down the coast and passed over me. I held a hand against the light and tried to sink down into the snow as far as I could.

Another swordfish came flying up out of Thrush’s ice hole just then. Then another. Thrush came up out of the water and shook the clinging sea from his fur. The spotlight fell upon him. Thrush’s mammoth eyes glowed in the light as he looked directly into it. Unblinking. Then he turned to me.

“Goblins,” he said. “Goblin Freebooters.”

“Let’s grab our fish and head back to the cabin,” I said.

“Put the fish in your inventory. I’ll carry you again.”

“Let’s not make a habit out of you carrying me.”

We rushed to escape the light that followed Thrush. I only started breathing more easily when we reached the copse of sumac on the trail.

“Are you cold, Hawkin?”

“I’m fine,” I said.

“You feel cold,” Thrush said, patting my legs that straddled his neck. “Let’s eat that soup stuff you make. Maybe we'll have time for some smoked fish too.”