What is Winter?

When everyone finished eating, Camara started ferrying the plates and utensils over to the sink, Yiksa swiftly helping her moments later.

As they did that, I fed Kalia, the young Dark Elf having awoken from the sound of Rhefia chuckling when Aethisia told her about today.

While that was all happening, I was watching over it all with a warm heart, enjoying the scene as it played out.

Rhefia was lounging at the table, her large frame slightly dirty as she had just come back from a fruitful hunt; she and Yiksa had brought home three Quetzalcoatls and two deer, providing the family with a large amount of meat.

Besides the meat, I had also gotten a large amount of the Quetzalcoatl feathers and scales, opening up some more unique clothing recipes, which I was waiting to craft tomorrow; I had noticed that they had a larger description then normal clothes, which was interesting.

Aethisia sat opposite her dama, her eyes flitting over to Camara as she informed her dama about todays happenings; Rhefia liked to know what we were up to during her time away, both because she cared and because she wanted to offer advice on how to be more efficient on some of the things we do.

Camara was now standing over the sink, scraping the excess food off each plate and utensil before using a rag to clean everything off, washing that rag off with a bucket of water.

Since I could get near infinite water from the pond outside, I had stared keeping large barrels of water inside the house for everyone else to use if I was asleep, away, or... preoccupied.

Finally, Yiksa was currently drying off the dinnerware and storing it away, though her movements were slightly stiff as she did so, likely the result of whatever Rhefia had demanded of her during the day.

Ever since Kalia had been born, the Dark Elf had started to turn over a new leaf; I could still see some of the old her here and there, mainly from her eyes when asked to do certain things, but those same eyes were how I knew she was slowly changing.

She was accepting where she was now, and whenever she got disgruntled or angry, her eyes instinctively found their way to Kalia, making them soften instantly.

From the little that Rhefia had whispered into my ear, she had been of immense help on the hunt, her skill with a bow proving to be rather impressive when she had sniped the three Quetzalcoatls from the sky, allowing Rhefia to finish them off.

So, as I looked over the bustling room, Kalia suckling on my tit, I waited for everyone to take a seat again, before coughing gently.

Turning towards me, everyone fell quiet, waiting for me to speak.

Smiling gently, I stroked Kalia's pink hair before asking "Rhefia, what exactly is this winter going to contain? Is it just harsh snow?"

Hearing my question, the Deerkin sighed as she leaned back into her chair, her arms crossed over her muscled chest.

"Not just snowfall and winds, which is already bad enough. Winters contain something... more. Something more dangerous than just nature."

Staring at the table, she continued on, her voice serious.

"Monsters are empowered only two times a year; Winter, and Summer. Both provide different... benefits to the monsters. Winter makes everything leaner, so monsters grow more agile and quick during these long, cold nights.

Besides that, their cleverness increases as well; with our location, the only things we need to worry about are Geri and Quetzalcoatls, and they start to work together to hunt anything they can find when the blizzards let up somewhat. So, if we are ever outside during one of those days where it's only flurrying, we'll need to keep our guard up, lest we find ourselves the prey for these monsters.

But other than them being more annoying to deal with, as long as we have the food and water for those three months, we'll be fine. We won't be eating as much due to lower physical exertion, and we can melt snow for water if the need arises."

I nodded, before meeting her amber eyes as I asked "Rhefia, how much food would you be comfortable having for us now?"

She pursed her lips, glancing at each woman around the table.

"Likely a pound of meat a person per day, so that's... 90 pounds per person a day? So 540 pounds... then we can add on whatever grain and vegetables you grow from now till winter..."

I nodded, instantly lowering the number by 90; while normal food was great and all, I could sustain myself on the semen of those here, and Rhefia was definitely calculating that number by assuming everyone would eat a full pound a day on top of whatever I made with it.

She was in for a rude awakening when she leaned that I planned on making stews for us to eat most of the time, and if I could get a large amount of grain, we would have breads as well to fill our stomachs.

However, we still had a month or so till winter starts, which meant I needed to get those crops up and growing, as well as invest more in my farming skill.

Currently, we had a decent amount of meat for winter, but I would always welcome more...

"Which is why I'll be taking Yiksa and Aethisia or Camara everyday from now on, to start getting more and more prey gathered. Whoever stays with you will help look after young Kalia while you tend to the crops, and hopefully we can rely on that for a good source of food as well. As things are, we should be good for winter in just a week or two, but better to be safer than sorry..."

Chuckling, I nodded, before hesitantly saying "Then... that means we'll have to-"

"Wait till after winter for child number three, yes. I would like to have her now, but it just wouldn't be smart currently. Once spring returns and we restock on everything, we can talk about expanding the family or traveling..."

With that, we all got up and finished whatever else needed to be done, before going to bed; I placed the crib upstairs with Rhefia and I, both of us spending the night playing with the small Dark Elf before falling asleep, our session gentler and quieter than normal.