When I woke up, I was sore and stiff. I had half my armor on and was lying next to the fire. It didn’t make much sense to me. Then my brain woke up, and I remembered the day before and the pain of the river.

I checked my debuffs and saw that I only had a single poor night’s rest which would drop my total stamina by 10% until I got a good night’s rest. I had that one before and knew there wasn’t much I could do about it. I stood up and looked over at Kasidy.

She was still sleeping in my fur. If I remembered her skin looked clammy and slightly blue when we got here. She now had a nice warm glow to her. She also was breathing deeper, which I took as a good sign.

Blink was in the hammock asleep. Her back left leg had blood on it, but it appeared that she had healed it, which was good. She had brought my standard up from below before locking the trap door.

I pulled off all my armor. While I was feeling better, I was still wet. I didn’t have the cold debuffs, but I knew I would be uncomfortable all day if I didn’t get my gear dried out. So I got my armor and clothes off to dry next to the fire. I put on the one change I had and then started to spread Kasidy’s bag out to dry.

Mine was magically waterproof. Hers, however, was just a crude bag with lots of stuff crammed in. As I went through her bag, I noticed that she didn’t have her mess kit. None of the things that were on the table were in her bag.

Then I looked out the window. The thicket was fully formed now, with the bushes and vines running the outer area. Down in the clearing was a body of a massive wolf that had to be close to five hundred pounds. It was every bit the size of a lion. It looked like Blink had gone head-to-head with it and somehow won.

I made my way down. As I came down the steps, I noticed two other bodies. Her condition started to make sense. They must have had a pack on this side of the river that we made enough noise to attract. Then she kept them away while I got Kasidy up.

After a few minutes of looking around, I started into my morning exercises. About an hour later, I headed back up into the tree house. Both Blink and Kasidy were still asleep, and most of the gear was still drying out.

I pulled out some of our traveling food and started to work on breakfast. It wasn’t going to be great, but it would be better than the day before. Soon I got a soup going. I was worried about Kasidy. I knew she was looking better, but I didn’t know what type of debuffs she might have. With the head hits and the cold water, we might be dealing with a few days of recovery.

I pulled out my mug and filled it with the light soup, and headed over to Kasidy. I sighed because I knew this was going to be the hard part. If she was feeling better, I was likely going to get an ear full for cutting off her clothes. If she wasn’t, then I was going to need to help her eat.

I knelt down beside Kasidy and laid my hand gently on her shoulder. “Kasidy. Kasidy how are you feeling?”

She moaned and rolled a bit. I shook her shoulder again. I needed her to wake up just so we could assess the issues. She groaned a bit more and then reached across her body to pull the furs closer in.

“Kasidy. Wake up.”

“Can’t I sleep a bit longer.”

“Check your debuffs for me. You took a beating in the river yesterday.”

She muttered something, but I couldn’t make it out. “What did you say?”

“Ugg hold on. I still have a few debuffs but I am should be okay.”

“How’s your health?”

“Mostly full.”

As soon as she said that, I hit her with a minor healing followed by another. “How about now?”

“Yeah. I’m good now. Just hungry and cold.”

“Is that a cold debuff?”

“No just cold.”

I nodded. “Okay I have a mug of soup for you. Should help you fell a bit better.”

I reached over her a put the mug between her and the fire. Then I headed back over to the skillet to serve up my bowl. I was happy that we could move on today and that we wouldn’t be left sitting around waiting for timers to run out.

As I settled down to eat, I heard Kasidy shifting. Then I heard a gasp. It was the one that I had been waiting on. The where are my clothes gasp, and the what happened gasp.

Followed quickly by her yelling. “Arn! Where are my clothes! What did you do?”

I was facing away, and so I smiled for just a moment. “I cut them off of you because you were soaking wet, and we needed to warm you. I was suffering from cold debuffs, and I hadn’t been in the water nearly as long as you.”

“But! But. But why you?”

“Blink was downstairs fighting some huge wolves. It’s a mess down there and she did great. So keep it down so she can sleep.”

I was blessed with a few minutes of not having to figure out how to move on. I figured with Kasidy’s personality and the way that Lannah acted that, there were going to be some awkward conversations in the future. I also was sure she wasn’t going to be happy that I cut everything off. If I wasn’t having problems, too, I could have saved most of it.

I didn’t need to go see if those beasts had cores. As those cores weren’t near as nice as mine but it wouldn’t hurt to check. So I stood up and belted on my knife. The whole time keeping my back toward Kasidy.

I cleared my throat. “Kasidy. I’m umm going down to check to see if those beasts have cores. I’ll be back soon. You might want to umm. Well I’ll be down there.”

I backed around to the trapdoor and headed down. Once down, I started to try to cut into the huge creatures. Their skin was harder than even orcs. But slowly, I was able to crack open the chest and start to dig through. I knew that I was looking for a flashing gem like last time.

I spent a good ten minutes pulling out the guts of the first before I found it. A greenish-yellow flashing gem with what appeared to be the heart wrapped around it.

Level 3 core

Core of toughness

+3 toughness

I set the core aside and started on the next one. Knowing that I was looking for something near the heart, I quickly dug it out. Then I moved on to the third. After looking through it for about five minutes, I gave up. The heart didn’t have anything embedded that I could tell, and when I cut it open, it was just muscle. I took a look at the second one that I found.

Level 1 core

Core of toughness

+1 toughness

I took a few moments to clean up the cores better, scraping the muscle from the gem. After that, I headed down to the river. The way this thicket formed part of it was on the bank. So I figured that I was at least mostly okay. I took some time in the cold water to clean up from my digging around, and then I headed back in.

I got up to the trapdoor and sighed. “I hope she’s gotten dressed.”

I knocked on the door and then opened it up. As I came in, I heard a yelp from Kasidy and saw her draw the fur back around herself. I quickly turned my head and closed the door.

I shook my head as I moved to the table. “I thought I gave you enough time. I found 2 cores on those beasts so Blink had quite the battle down there.”

“I my clothing still wasn’t dry. I was waiting on it to finish.”

“Yeah, I didn’t get stuff spread out until this morning.”

“Arn. I… Thank you. I know that you saved me.”

I was looking at the wall in front of me. “Well I kind of caused the problem too. My shield knocked you into the water.”

She gave a dry laugh. “Well you told me to walk beside you and I didn’t. It’s kind of hard talking to you while you are looking away. I’m under the blanket.”

I slowly turned around. She was right. It was all sorts of strange to be looking away while talking. I just didn’t want her to feel even more out of sorts than she was before. Sure, what I did was needed, but that wouldn’t change thoughts and culture. Honestly, I had no idea if in this world I just married the woman or if it wasn’t a big deal.

She said. “I know that you are powerful I saw that just from the first tree house that I found. Then I saw you make another one. This one you forged somehow if what you said was true while barely able to stay awake. I owe you my life. I don’t know how to replay you but I will.”

I was opening my mouth to respond when Blink forced a thought into my mind. “Mommy”

I choked on a laugh and sent back to her, “No just stop that and get up.”

I sighed and looked at Kasidy. “Look don’t think anything of it. We need to move from here as soon as we can.”

Kasidy nodded. “It will be a while before everything is dry. I know some people don’t like to but if we party up I might be able to pass through your shield.”

I schooled my face quickly as I didn’t want to give it away. I didn’t have a clue how to form a party or what it would mean. I needed to ask Sam, but I was also worried that if I just asked him how to create a party and that wasn’t the right word. He would just give me something about bringing friends over. I also needed to know what she would see. Would she get my level?

I stood up and paced for a bit. “I’m not sure if that is a good thing to do right now.”

Kasidy sighed and nodded. “Yeah, I understand. Like I said not everyone likes to so I get it. I just was hoping. Yeah.”

I thought in my mind, “party”; however, nothing happened. I kept gathering up my things. I got my mess kit added back into my bag and then started to pack my dry items. As I did, I kept trying to access the party menu somehow.

It wasn’t working, which was causing me to get angry. I wanted to know what all was here and how it would affect things. If I felt like I could trust Kasidy fully, I would have already told her about how I didn’t know anything. But Lannah reminded me that there are places you don’t trust people, and this whole world was one for me.

As I attached my armor, I said. “Hey, I am heading down for a while to scout about. As soon as things are dry, pack up. So that we can go. I’ll be back in like 15 minutes.”

Kasidy looked up at me from under the furs. “Okay. I’ll check on everything once you leave.”

I headed back down for the third time today. I was antsy about getting started but yesterday was a close call. Mostly because Kasidy didn’t listen to me, and I wasn’t firm enough. I should have reminded her and not just let her wander off. She might not have ever gotten attacked while hiking to me, but I did all the time.

So I headed out of the thicket. My hope was that I could move just far enough away from the river, and the trees would block what I needed to do. I sent a message asking Blink to guard me. Then I cleared out a spot from rocks and branches.

I triggered the worst spell in the world. Beseech a greater knowledge. My knees fell out from under me, and both my hands went toward the sky. Then I bent at the waist till my face was in the ground, and my arms were out in front of me. Then I pivoted at my waist and pulled up, and slammed to the ground again. My mouth opened, and I yelled.

Oh great and mighty greeter Sam, I the lowly Arn beseech you to answer my question. What are the steps to follow to form a Party with Kasidy?

I slowly rolled over and sat up. My face had dug itself into the dirt and sand of the ground. When I passed out from mana overuse, I managed to slam my head into the ground a good dozen times. I didn’t understand this spell. It didn’t seem to work like any of the other ones I had.

Blink came over to me and licked my face. I felt the little bits of torn skin on my head close up. Then I went and washed up in the river. I figured it had been long enough we needed to get moving.

* * *