Bored huntress

Ingrid Erikdottir; Ylri of year 1032 Ab Teoria Magica; Hamlet-nested-between-mountains-and-river; Bored out of her skull

There was not much to do, what with the cold starting.

I went fishing and hunting, but the shorter days meant that I could not go into the better areas without risking to remain out during the night, something which I did not wish to try with the snow falling.

I could survive out there, but why risk it for very little, when there was food in abundance, the pact Vic did with the spirits helping also with keeping the meat and the vegetable fresh as possible, and with the very real risk of a black limb outside?

So I helped Da taking care of the farm, and went visiting Grandpa training the strange alfar.

Not that it was strange if she was, and she probably was, from another dimension, like Vic was a strange mann.

Which made visiting him, and hearing his stories and narrating mine, or just pinching him and annoying him, a good way to pass these tedious times.

Hell, I was able to use Grandpa getting there due to a training mishap as a good excuse to get out of chores with Grandma.

So, between the scrunching of the snow, the feeling of my gun behind my back, and the few craas of the crows and the fiiis of the birds, I went towards that house, the fur I had as a jacket shielding me from the cool Ylri morning.

I rubbed my gloved hands, yet another reason for which I didn’t want to hunt during these times, already feeling the licks of the fire just before my fingers, and chuckling slightly at how the times had changed in but a few seasons.

I was young, barely in my sixth luster, a baby girl still as Grandpa would say still, and yet I had seen so much change with just one Vic.

Which was why, when I saw the smoke, I started walking faster, the crunching becoming almost a song under my feet.

Only to find Grandpa moving to the opposite direction, his cane, made of nine hundred and nine parts steel and one of something I could not understand, adding to the song he made by walking.

And he was leaning hard on it.

“Oi Grandpa! Did the alfar make you sweat this time!?” I shouted, getting closer to him, and he groaned when he heard me and my voice.

“Come on, little rock. It was just a moment of distraction, nothing else. Let an old dwarf be old in peace, would you?” He grouched out, but he opened his arms to be hugged.

I did so and even lifted him, something which made him ground and moan about me being too strong, and then after I asked, tilting my head and smiling while doing so: “So, what is the response from Vic? How annoyed did you make him?”

“Oh, he is just a worrier, little rock.” Grandpa spoke, rubbing the back of his head. So it was just a tad, good: “He put some salve for the pain and said to not train hard, which is why in two days we will continue.”

I laughed at that, knowing that da would have a strong choice of words for that, but then Grandpa started to muss my hair, his big hand messing with it under my hood.

I tried to take them off, but he was faster and more reactive, and he laughed and taunted me: “It seems that while you are strong you are slow, little rock! Maybe I ought to train you as well, instead of just teaching you how to hunt? You wanna let me see that gun of yours, I am sure that-”

“Nope, not that thank you!” I did have my gun, and it was mine, despite how for now the animals were either sleeping or too respectful of Vic, it was better to keep it on me.

“All right, all right, I will not touch your gun.” maybe I also had protectively hugged it, but I will not confirm it or deny it even in front of the jarl: “But if you want to get to the two, I would hurry up. It seems they have gone out, due to…something about Saturnalia?”

Wow, his hearing was still that good, uh? Will have to say that to Grandma, after all he has been using that lately to take naps.

“Also, if you say it to Grandma I will train you.” He added chuckling, starting to walk back to the hamlet.

Drat, my plan was foiled.

But now I had to move a tad faster, or at least find the traces, easy with the snow.

I waved at him and went towards the forest’s house, the smoke leading me there.

It was still there, and Vic was still not good at calculating how much wood it needed to remain lit, so it meant they were not far from there.

A good starting point for me, that I reached without sweating, my steps steady and, in that, fast.

Then, just out of there, there were several sets of footprints, but only two went away from the hamlet.

So easy, if I was hunting them…

Well, one was bigger the other smaller, and both didn’t go that much down the snow, so not heavy-

Come on, Ingrid, you don’t need to categorise the alfar and the Vic, just move towards there.

From the direction they took…it was probably close to the small river near the hamlet, if I had to guess.

But I would have known only by walking there.

Following those steps, I also saw, or rather noticed, that under the boots there were traces of the incense Vic sometimes took to the rock he asked Ivan to help make, and along with that some grape’s vine wood.

Vic was one to take anything that could be useful for his recipes, but I wanted to see this, because, even for how untrained I was, I could see the preparation for something interesting to see, any maybe even useful.

If it was similar to Vic’s, and if it was, unlike his abilities, repeatable by me, I could help more, and learn more after all.