Chapter 37: A Bit Dark

“yawwwwwn”

It’s not light out, but it should be soon. And that means one thing. Bacon.

I don’t feel a sloth clinging to me. I look down to see Liara curled into a little ball under the blankets. I can get up without waking her. I leave the tent and restart the fire, then retrieve sliced bacon from storage. The tripod I used to hold last night’s stew is being repurposed for this, allowing me to hang a package's worth of bacon over the flame.

Light starts peeking over the mountains as the bacon sizzles. I’d rather be doing this in my house, but I really can’t complain about these sights and smells.

“Alfred, what are you cooking?” Liara says from the edge of the tent, still wrapped in blankets.

“It’s a cut of boar that makes a great breakfast,” I reply without pulling my gaze from the bacon.

“It smells good..” Liara mumbles.

“It is good, how’s your arm?” I ask before looking back towards the tent.

Liara unwraps the blankets she’s wearing to extend and move her arm around.

“It moves well, and it doesn’t hurt. I think it’s fine,” she answers while examining it.

“That’s good, you can remove the splint then,” I say as I start taking the bacon off the fire, “come eat and warm up next to the fire.”

Liara sheds the blankets with a shiver and walks out of the tent.

“It feels colder than last night..” she says.

“Bacon fixes that, try a piece,” I say while holding out a number of bacon slices on a cloth. Liara grabs a slice and brings it to her mouth.

“Oh, it’s crunchy and salty,” Liara says as her eyes grow wide.

“It’s the only breakfast I’ll eat when out hunting, been having it since I read about it as a kid,” I reply with a smile. People enjoying my food always puts me in a good mood.

Liara finishes a few slices before turning her attention to the sun coming up past the mountains.

“So we’re crossing the mountain behind us today?” she asks with a grimace.

“Yes, we are, there’s a great forest for hunting on the other side. I’ll start packing while you eat,” I answer.

“Right.. Alfred, can I ask a question first?” Liara asks, turning her body from the sunrise to me.

Hmm, maybe she is traumatized about yesterday.

“Sure, what’s on your mind?” I ask with a raised eyebrow.

“I was pretty pathetic fighting those guys yesterday, but you seemed to handle them easily. I know you’re stronger than our friends and me – but do you take it easy on us when we practice?” Liara asks with a serious gaze.

Yea I fight like a child against them, but I don’t want to kick Liara while she’s down.

“The knights were probably scouting the region for an invasion of Sante, they would’ve fought anyone they met to the death.. so I fought the same way,” I answer while looking at the fire, “when we practice in the Kingdom, we’re all trying to improve our technique, so that’s how I fight with my friends.”

Liara’s eyes fall from me to the ground while I answer.

“Do you think I could’ve done more against the knights..?” she asks quietly.

“Yes, I was surprised you hadn’t seriously wounded or killed some of them when I came back,” I respond flatly, “did you realize they were dangerous before or after they attacked you?” I ask.

“Before..” she answers meekly.

“You should’ve gone for your sword and killed one of them the moment you sensed danger. And if you’re fighting a group, you should make your first kill brutal. Remove someone’s head or cut them in half, slice an arm off, and throw it at the others. Your first attack can make an opening for the second. Against three people like yesterday, you would’ve been left in single combat,” I explain.

“That’s a bit dark.. but I get your point,” Liara says with glazed-over eyes.

“Aha yea.. I can be a bit dark,” I reply with a chuckle, “but I’d like you to stay safe, so if we run into any more trouble, I want you to be just as dark.”

I pack our bags and dismantle the camp before putting out the fire. We start our ascent with the sun at our backs, which makes the felt temperature rather comfortable – for me at least.

“HHAA HEE.. Alfred, this mountain is way worse!” Liara pants.

“It’s one of the tallest in the area, the air gets pretty thin..” I explain as we near the summit.

“How.. ack.. how do you breathe normally..” Liara coughs.

At this point, I’m used to it, but when I was a kid, I would use wind magic to condense the air around me. Oh, that gives me an idea.

“Take a break, Liara, I have something in my bag that could help,” I say before motioning at a rock for Liara to sit on.

I drop my bag and make a storage opening inside it. I grab a small spell stone and fill it with magic that condenses air in a two-meter radius around a human-shaped figure before turning to give it to Liara.

“Here, it uses wind magic to make the air easier to breathe,” I explain.

“Wha- this would’ve been nice to have yesterday..” Liara pouts as she accepts the stone.

“I was saving it for the trip back, just don’t waste all your magic to use it,” I say.

Liara uses her magic to activate the stone and takes a deep breath before shooting daggers at me with her eyes.

“That’s so much better, I can’t believe you were just letting me suffer,” she says coldly.

“Activity in bad air is good training, but your breathing sounded painful..” I reply.

Maybe I should heal her lungs tonight?

Our pace picks up precipitously, and we arrive at the forest with the sun in the middle of the sky. I can sense a paddle horn with magic just ahead, but I don’t know if Liara can be quiet enough to approach one..

“Shh, Liara, get down,” I whisper.

“Huh – what’s going on?” she whispers back while ducking low.

“Paddle horn ahead, they have sharp senses.”

“I can’t see anything through the trees. How far away is it?” Liara asks.

“50 meters, straight in front of us,” I reply.

“Can we get close to it? How does this part work?” Liara mumbles with a hand to her chin.

I turn and face Liara with a ridiculous smile on.

“If a horse were running straight at you, do you think you could cut its head off?” I ask.

“Um.. probably, but why would an animal run straight at me? And aren’t paddle horns notoriously difficult to hunt?” she asks with a confused look.

“Good enough, back out of the forest and head north until you’re out of hearing distance to me. Walk in 50 meters and use fire magic to send up a signal once you’re there, I’ll scare it towards you,” I explain.

“R-Right ok, and I’ll just cut its head off..” Liara doesn’t look enthused, but I want to make this difficult.

Once Liara is out of sight, I put up light refraction and walk along magic footholds until I’m a few meters behind the animal. It’s a large paddle horn; next to it, a horse would look small. Walking back carrying all the meat from this will probably make Liara regret coming.. hehhee.

A few minutes later, I see a little ball of fire fly up from Liara’s position - that’s my cue. I drop my light refraction, grab a stick, and lunge at the animal. I smack it across the ass, trying to push it towards Liara.

“GRAHHHH,” it roars, then kicks its legs at me and takes off, straight towards Liara.

I run along behind it, ready to redirect its path, but it’s on a crash course for my favorite meat head. Liara’s just ahead, crouching behind a large tree with her sword at the ready. The paddle horn closes in as Liara makes her lunge.

Magic shoots from Liara’s feet as she accelerates, destroying the base of the tree she was hiding behind. She swings her sword down from overhead and connects with the paddle horn at the top of its neck. The sword cleaves the animal’s head off, and its body tumbles forward.

I walk up in the animal’s trail and find Liara jumping for joy.

“AHHHH! Alfred!! Alfred Alfred Alfred!! I did it!” Liara screams while bouncing up and down.

“Aha, yes, you did, good job!” I’m impressed, I thought she’d miss or give it a shallow cut, and we’d be tracking it for the rest of the day. I seriously don't understand how those knights got the jump on her..

“It’s so big! You said it was the size of a horse, but it’s way bigger than a horse!” she keeps yelling.

“This is one of the biggest paddle horns I’ve seen, and it’s male too, so you can sell the horns for a good amount,” I explain.

“Really!? I can keep them?” Liara asks, her eyes sparkling with gold.

“Of course, I’d like some meat from it, but it was your harvest,” I say, “but now we get to do the fun part,” I add with an evil smile.

“There’s an even more fun part!?” Liara asks excitedly, still bouncing around.

“Yes, now we cut it into pieces, put it in bags, and haul it back to the Kingdom.”

Hahahahah, the real training starts here.

“Wha- it’s so big.” Liara’s excitement crashes into a wall as she looks over the animal, “How are we carrying it all back..” she mumbles.

“The reason I had the stone to help you breathe was for the walk back with all the meat we’d be carrying..” I reply with an evil smirk. That’s bullshit, but it would’ve been smart.

“Alfred, the meat is going to weigh more than us..” she mumbles again.

“Much more than us, this is how you get really strong, Liara,” I reply while flexing one of my arms.

She turns pale like a ghost, realizing how much pain will fill the remainder of her weekend hunting.

“Right, let’s get to field dressing,” I say with a clap, “I’ll remove the innards and start skinning – can you get the cloth bags from my pack setup to the side?” I add, and motion to where I want the bags.

Liara nods, but she’s gone nonverbal. I clean and skin the animal while asking Liara to hold its legs on occasion. She does so without complaint, but she hasn’t spoken in ages.

“Liara, I’m going to start separating the meat we’ll keep. Do you want to try any butchering?” I ask while holding a blood-soaked knife out towards her.

“Oh um.. that’s ok.. I’ll learn from watching you..” she answers without meeting my gaze.

She’s never coming back, score.

“Sounds good, can you hold one of the bags open then?” I ask.

The animal really is large; it takes over an hour to break it down and bag it. I use water magic to clean myself and the knives I used before turning to Liara-

“There’s some sunlight left, do you want to try and make it back to yesterday’s camp before dark? Or do the whole trek tomorrow?” I ask.

Liara’s eyes are glued to the 200kg or so of paddle horn in cloth bags beside us.

“Right.. if we don’t make it to camp, will we have to sleep on the mountain?” she asks, but I shake my head.

“The wind would be brutal, we’d be better off continuing in the dark until we make the camp,” I answer.

“That makes sense..” she mumbles, “my legs still feel strong, I think we should start walking back now,” she finishes without breaking her eyes away from the bags.

I tie the cloth bags to our packs and attempt to place Liara’s on her back.

“EEK,” she yelps as she falls over backwards.

I redo the bags so some of them hang in front of her and balance the weight out.

“How’s that feel, Liara?” I ask.

She twists her body a bit, then takes a few steps to test the new configuration.

“Like I’m going to die on this mountain..” she grumbles.

“You’ll be fine, once we get moving, it won’t feel as heavy,” I explain.

I’m lying, halfway up the mountain, I’m going to have to take some of her bags. But this is a learning experience, that my me time is not to be intruded upon.

“If you say so.. let’s go, I don’t want to walk in the dark,” Liara says with a huff.

“Aha onward!” I yell, but Liara glares at me like I’m a demon.

By the time we reach the top of the mountain, I’ve taken most of the meat bags from Liara, and she sounds like a dying animal.

“HAAAAAA.. HEEEEEE.. Alfred.. tell my parents.. I love them..” Her words come out half panting and half coughing.

“The descent is easier, and there’s still a little light left. You’ll be fine, Liara,” I reply with a smirk.

“You’re.. not a human.. I don’t know what.. but not human..” she continues.

We make it back to the first camp just after dark, and Liara flops on the ground next to the fire she made while I remake our tent. I hang most of the meat from tall branches a bit away from camp before returning to cook a large paddle horn dinner. Steaks and a medley of roasted vegetables and potatoes are on the menu. I place everything over the flames before sitting next to Liara.

“How are you holding up?” I ask.

“It’s like I died.. but I’m still here,” she answers. She’s not dead, but the look in her eyes is.

“Hunting these areas is hard work..” I reply.

“You didn’t even sweat.. do I smell? Wait, don’t answer that..” Liara says before curling up further next to the fire.

“Keep an eye on the mountain we cross tomorrow, if there are any bath-like rock formations, I can make warm water, and I brought soap.”

“Really? Warm water sounds nice..” she mumbles.

“Yep, but let’s eat and sleep. If you don’t rest, tomorrow will be worse.”

Liara and I eat our meals in silence before making it to the tent. She falls asleep as soon as she takes sloth position, and yea, she smells a bit. I spend twenty minutes healing her from head to toe before turning in myself.

Liara finds me the next morning as she did the last, making bacon.

“Good morning, Alfred,” she says as she leaves the tent.

“Good morning, how are you feeling?” I ask while looking her up and down.

“Surprisingly good?” she replies in a questioning tone, “I thought my legs and shoulders would be on fire today, but I feel strong,” she adds while twisting her body and flexing some muscles.

I did give her a whole-body healing magic bath, but I’ve never tried to heal so many things in one go. I’m glad it worked.

“That’s great, let’s eat and find you a mountain bath!” I say with a fist pump.

“Ugh, I smell, don’t I..” she groans.

“No worse than me, Liara, and a hot bath will be a nice break on the way back,” I answer with a gentle smile. I bet girls are sensitive about things like this.

“You don’t smell.. but a bath sounds nice,” she says, puffing her cheeks up and watching the bacon cook.

We eat, load up, and head to the next mountain. It’s not as steep, and Liara is handling it much better than the last one.

“Alfred, do you think I've gotten stronger already?” she asks with slightly labored breaths.

“Maybe? But I think the body needs time to recover, Monday you’ll probably feel terrible,” I reply. The healing bath might’ve been overkill. I don’t think it was enough magic to line her body as I did with mine, but she’s like a different person today.

Near the top of the mountain, Liara’s panting returns to what it had been in past days, and I breathe a sigh of relief. Halfway down the other side, Liara screams-

“Alfred!” she yells while pointing to the side.

“What!?” I yell back. My magic detection goes a long way without trees all around, and I haven’t sensed anything.

“Bath rock!” she yells again. I look to where she’s pointing, and it’s a concave rock that looks perfect for a bath.

“Aha, right, get clothes ready and take a blanket out of my pack to use as a towel. I’ll clean it and fill it with hot water,” I say.

I approach the stone and make a stream of water strong enough to blow away anything inside. There’s a crack at the bottom, draining the water I’m using. I use earth magic to plug it while Liara gets ready, then start filling with hot water.

The sun feels warm, but the hot water mixing with the air makes a ton of steam. It looks like a small geyser is blowing out of the mountain.

“Liara, it’s ready!” I call back towards Liara.

“Yes! Coming!” she replies and runs over. She has a change of clothes, two blankets, and the soap from my bag.

“I’ll go down the mountain a little, yell if you need me,” I say with a wave.

“Are you going to take a bath, Alfred?” Liara asks.

“Nah, it’s a pain to make so much hot water, I’ll take one at my dorm,” I reply.

“Oh..” she says shyly, “we can both fit in here, if you don’t want to wait..” she continues with a squeak.

I walked into that one, but you’re a third of my age, Liara. I’m not taking a bath with you.

“Haha, that’s ok, I like my bath at home, you should get in before it cools off,” I reply and speed down the mountain.

This has been an eventful hunting trip; Alarian knights, Liara gasping for air constantly, and even taking down a paddle horn. I’d rather stay in my house and sleep more comfortably, but I thought this would be way worse.

Still, I don’t want to spend every weekend like this. I can’t hunt very far from the Kingdom, and I won’t be able to toss that Prince off his balcony if I don’t get a weekend to myself. I guess I could ape out on an incoming army as the old man, but that’s messy. I’d rather use magic to take on numbers like that.

“All set, Alfred,” Liara calls to me while walking down the mountain with a refreshed smile on her face.

“Great, was the water warm enough?” I ask.

“It was perfect, I know it’s hard to heat or cool water, so thank you for making the bath,” she says with a polite bow.

“Aha, cut the formalities with me, let’s head home,” I reply.

Liara and I finish the trek and walk along the eastern wall to enter the Kingdom. We walk through the merchant district and arrive at my dorm.

“Liara, how much of the paddle horn do you want to keep?” I ask while dropping my bags.

“I don’t cook or have an attendant here.. so I just want the horns,” she says while handing me the portion she carried.

“Oh, alright, my family should be visiting soon, I’ll tell them the paddle horn is thanks to you,” I reply with a warm smile and bow.

“I hope they enjoy it, and thanks, Alfre,d” Liara says with her own bow, “I understand why you hesitated to bring us hunting. I’ll work with Eric and the Princess so we can keep up with you better.”

“Right, you were going to train them on what you learned. Have any ideas?” I ask.

“Lots actually, we need to train in difficult terrain, develop a tolerance for weather changes, and most importantly – we need to be a bit dark,” Liara says with a crooked smile.

“The last one's a bit tough to train..” I say.

“You’re not wrong, but I’ll think of something. Thanks again, Alfred, I’d be dead without you,” Liara says with a big smile and a wave.

“Aha, you won’t be thanking me when you wake up tomorrow,” I reply and wave back.