The Warmth of the Fireplace

"Betty! Are you home? " His voice carried to the hut at the entrance of the village, his voice carrying through the golden waterwheel.

However, it was not the hunter's wife who answered the shout.

Several children stopped fighting and rushed forward, brandishing their weapons.

In order to pacify the group of "bandits", the hunter handed over some dried fruit.

"Betty! If you don't come out, our rations are going to be sacked! "

"Stop yelling! Damn you! The hens are laying eggs.

If you scare them, you'll have to pay for my eggs with the eggs in your pants! "

With a few curses, the house of a middle-aged woman.

The woman's shawl on the animal hair has shed a large, waist-tied dirty apron; her hair with a fork tied into a bun; the necklace around her neck has been blackened.

She put down the wooden spoon in her hand and came forward to hug her husband.

"It's a good thing you returned in time, or I would have had to remarry." Betty said.

Sanchi unloaded the frozen prey from his waist and said, "You also used to say that if I came back empty-handed again, you would remarry."

"If that were true, there just wouldn't be enough men in the whole village." Betty took the prey, "Cedar grouse.

You said they were hard to hunt."

"That's not true." These guys are all snowy white.

As long as they lie motionless in the snow, they are hard to spot.

But the glow of the Temple of the Spirits removes their disguise and makes them invisible."

"Enough about that.

Wayne (Wayne Lingle) gave me a jar of pickled beans because he was worried I was running low on food.

I promised to pay him back with freshly laid eggs." Betty noticed the silent boy beside her husband and said, "Is this little thing with you?"

"Yes, he is Ivar's (Ivar Eid) child.

My brother has been drinking since Morvin's death.

He is no longer able to take care of the boy.

I want to adopt him."Come on, let's go inside first.

The furnishings of the house are very simple.

The living room is also the bedroom.

The fireplace is also the stove.

The half-empty cupboard was empty.

Bales of hay were laid side by side as mattresses.

Animal skin quilts sewn from the trimmings were stacked there.

It seems that the bed is the only comfortable place in the room.

Betty looked at her husband sadly, "We're short on food and can't afford to feed a child." Remember our last child? "

"How could I forget?" He didn't make it through that winter.

We didn't even get to name him yet." Sanchi lets out a lament as he looks at the weak embers.

He held onto the fireplace and let the baking stones warm his hands."He didn't have a chance to grow, and that's because the first born is always fragile." But the boy has grown up, hasn't he? "

"Yeah," Betty broke the boy's jaw with a bitter smile, "he's teething and needs more food too." She turned to her husband and said, "After you left, the Highland (Hillen Highland) lords came back to collect taxes." They took the rest of our coins.

"Collecting taxes after winter?! That's just---" Sanchi was a little taken aback.

He looked at his wife, expecting a turn of events, and said, "Tell me you didn't give them food."

"No."After you left, I hid the food separately." Betty untied her apron and went to the corner, pulling out eggs one by one from the thatch on the roof.

Then she lifted up a wooden floor and felt underneath for a few potatoes with charcoal dust attached."I heard that the Lord of the Plains (Herend Plains) has relinquished control of the East Pass." Both the Lord of the Valley (Windrose Valley) and the Lord of the Highlands (Hillen Highlands) want to take over East Pass.

The conflict between them is likely to expand into war.

Even without a war, our days will be difficult to sustain."

They must have been too crowded in their longhouses to think of fighting a war.

But as soon as they have fought a war, the victors will again be too small to occupy the land they have seized.

I can't even find any animal to describe this kind of stupidity." Sanchi pulled the root out of his bag and placed it on the table."Look, this is what Keane found.

The new addition to our family is not just a mouth, but a hand.

Tomorrow I'll go hunting.

If I can put down a deer or a wild boar, it'll be a good day going forward."

Keane is all too familiar with the feeling of hunger and cold.

On long cold nights, he often shivered and could not sleep or woke up in a spasm.

In order to survive hunger, he has swallowed hay and chewed fur.

Compared with these torments, long sleep is a relief.

"I can help." The boy said

"Yes, of course you can.

It's still light out, so go around the village and get to know the people here." Betty glanced at her husband, "You'll have to get a bed for the boy." We can't fit three people in our bed."

After the nephew leaves, Sanchi can't wait to lift Betty's skirt and push her down onto the bed.

"Don't tear my clothes, or you'll go hunting naked!" The wife pulled off the fork tied to her head and tossed it aside.

-----------

Keane doesn't ask for more than his new home.

He arrives in the village with a silent "hello" on his lips, but is stopped by the cold stares of the villagers.

It was more intimidating for the boy than the unfamiliar surroundings.

For this reason, he did not go up to greet anyone, but left their sight and walked along the river bank towards the forest downstream.

"After the snow, the crumbs will dissipate with the wind, and the rest will be tamped down by the cold." Keane untied the leather rope tied to his body and made a few lassoes less skillfully."After the snow, animals that go out to feed will leave footprints in the snow." The boy wrapped the blanket around his body and repeated his uncle's words while searching for signs of animal activity.

Soon, an animal trail interspersed between several larch trees came into view.

The boy walked up, cleared the snow from the short branches and set a spring trap in combination with a lasso.

He immediately ducked down and followed the sound to find two wild birds fighting for food in the bushes.

They spread their wings and clashed against each other's throat sacs.

"Cedar grouse are delicious, but hard to catch.

If you have a bow and arrow in your hand—" The boy shook his head, "I don't have a bow and arrow." He casually picked up a rock and set it down again."Uncle Sanchi says it's more reliable to throw a crank than a rock; it has a larger striking area."

The curved stick spun and flew towards the wild bird.

Unfortunately, it landed a few steps away from its target.

The frightened wildfowl disappeared without a trace.

With a few berry-strung branches, Keane walks to a clearing.

He used the berry skewers to support a flattened rock and the snow to build a barrier around the edge of the trap, leaving only a gap.

The boy then used his hands to simulate an animal entering the trap through the gap.

When the animal tries to take the berries, it pulls down the branch and is crushed under the collapsing rock."Uncle Sanchi calls this a cave-in."

The boy was very satisfied with his trap.

He imagined the harvest a few days later and moved deeper into the forest.

He stopped in his tracks in front of a steep slope.

The words of his uncle echoed in his ears, "The golden waterwheel is at the edge of the Whispering Forest.

When hunting, once this forest stops you from moving forward, it means it's time to turn back."

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In the process of improving the traps, Uncle and Nephew gradually realized that a well-set trap was better than several poorly made traps.

However, they also had to face the problem that plagued all hunters, that is, how to avoid the trap's prey being stolen by other passing beasts.

For this reason, they decided to place the trap and the trap together.

After the trap seriously injured and trapped the prey, the sturdy trap provided additional protection for the trapped prey, and it also blocked the wolves and saber-toothed tigers that came to steal food and other beasts.

Given that small trap cages cannot withstand the damage done by predators, the uncle and nephew converted them into fish cages and sank them into the pond downstream of the village.

The process of breaking the ice is certainly arduous, but the fish cage brings a steady harvest of comfort, and it is very hidden from the other animals fishing.

In a small place like Golden Waterwheel, the harvest of one family often benefits the whole village.

Because of the scarcity of supplies, the Noahs will use everything they can from their prey.

In addition to fine meat and fat, they will eat most of the internal organs, make the skin and bones into household items, and the rest will be used as fertilizer and bait.

At dinner one night, the table was set with trout and squirrel pie.

Betty brought the root gruel to the table, then removed the fork coiled in her hair and sat down."This is the last piece of root, and I put a lot of water in it, so it's very thin."

"Uncle Sanchi."

"Hmm?" Sanchi brought a spoonful of porridge to her mouth and looked at her nephew.

"Why is Whispering Forest trying to stop us from moving forward?"

Sanchi put down his spoon and looked at his wife.

Neither knew how to explain to their nephew the dangers he had not experienced.

After a few moments of consideration, the hunter decided to lay out his insight and the truth."We are not the only inhabitants of Noah's ark." In addition to beasts, there are also elves living in the forest.

They don't like us, so they will use magic to stop us from going deeper into the forest, and will send whispers through the trees to warn us to leave."

"Come on.

You haven't seen any elves? These stories are made up by bards to scare children.

Just like some people say, witches attack children who go into the forest alone and eat the child's eyes." Betty laughed lightly, "Don't you think it's ridiculous to prevent children from wandering off in that way?"

"What I said is true." My father had heard a whisper while hunting in the forest.

He ignored the warning and was soon entangled in the vines and dangling in midair.

Sanchi gestured.

"And then what?"

And then, lad, I know you expect a wonderful story, but your grandfather was just a farmer who hunted occasionally.

He cut the vines with his knife and then ran home to tell us about the dangers he experienced."

"So the elves are the enemy?"

I'm not sure.

All I know is that they don't come to the village and cause trouble like wild boars do."

At night, Keane slept peacefully on the floor by the fireplace.

I don't know how long it took, but there was a creaking sound from the swaying boards and a few occasional whistles in his ears.

At first, he thought it was the cold wind outside pulling on the wooden door, but the sound grew louder and louder, and it was Betty's cry.

The boy sat up, only to see Betty fold her legs around her husband's waist.

Sanchi, resting on his wife's chest, was exhausted.

When she opened her eyes, Betty found the boy, and she took a few breaths for a change."Sorry I woke you up." "Go to sleep and there will be no more noise."

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The Golden Waterwheel is located next to a glacial river that is so small that no one has given it a name.

The river is wider near the village and the water flows more gently.

The pool of water not far downstream is rumored to have been formed by a meteorite hitting the ground, but the people playing in the water have never seen the meteorite.

There are only a few local houses, mostly made of stone and clay walls.

Two sets of side-by-side timbers are stacked horizontally and vertically on top, and then covered with a thick layer of thatch and clay for insulation.

Surplus furs are hung on the inner walls or laid on the ground as an additional measure of protection from the cold.

This is a common practice among the Noahs.

Those families with sufficient manpower would first build a wooden house and floor, and then reinforce the outer walls with stone walls.

The earliest public facility in the village was a waterwheel built by the former lord, Willie Dale, Sr.

As far as Keane can remember, the waterwheel was not gold.

The waterwheel was decorated with gold because of the desire for a good harvest.

The legend says that Varola (the goddess of agriculture and earth in the Wissane world) has wheat-colored blonde hair and wears a headband woven with sheaves of wheat.

Farrond, a blacksmith with broken fingers, and his wife, Mirei, provide people with iron products.

Like Keane, the blacksmith couple's daughter, Lillian, is in the process of changing her teeth.

With the blacksmith's help, the boy forges a dagger from the broken iron he gets from doing odd jobs, but the dagger looks like a toothpick to an adult.

The blacksmith could not understand this, because other children would ask for a wooden sword for fighting, and even his daughter knew that a longer weapon meant hitting the opponent first.

At first, the blacksmith guessed that the "toothpick" would be tied to a stick and used as a spear, but later realized that the boy was only using the "toothpick" to repair wood and make parts for a trap.

Selastasia, a pharmacist, arrived here more than ten years ago.

It took some time for the villagers to accept this woman from outside the village.

Sela, as she is now called, provides herbs for people's needs, treats villagers and livestock, and plays midwife when necessary.

Lili was delivered by her.

Both the men of the town and foreign travelers have fantasies about this pharmacist, but Sela never buys it.

For more than a decade, her face did not have a single wrinkle, not a single silver hair.

No one knows why this woman has always been so beautiful.

The villagers all thought the apothecary had some kind of magic potion.

Whenever she was asked, Sela always laughed it off.

Tavern owners Wayne Lingle (Wayne) and Sanchi Naard (Sanchi) are close friends.

In the past, they often hunted together.

Then, in an accident, Wayne broke his leg.

After recovering, he opened a tavern and made his own berry wine.

Wayne and Sanchi always exchange ideas, and he always leaves the strongest wine for Sanchi.

A minstrel named Ivan Rader (Ivan) is a regular in the tavern, living off vaudeville and singing.

His mother, the widow Hannah, always bragged about how tall and strong her son was.

In reality, the bard was a coward who was afraid of weakness.

Trivia aside, it was acknowledged that Ivan had a good voice.

He once wrote more than one song for Sela.

The current lord, Willie Dale (Willie), is not as charitable as his ancestors.

He believes that all villagers should thank their ancestors for their contributions to the village.

His son, Willie Jr., often holds others to ransom.

When asked, the father and son will show a kind side, and the villagers never miss these opportunities to return the favor.

In the fight between the children, Keane was always the underdog.

The couple both appreciated seeing the child bruised and battered.

"..."

"At least you've officially said hello, even if it's with your fists." Betty said so.

"You're always swinging blindly and fighting like a hare.

Be careful to protect your head." Sanchi said.

But I have very little strength...

"Then work more."

".

....."

Life is still hard, and it is the family's greatest happiness to sit around the fireplace and enjoy the hard-earned food.