Chapter 3: Another Hunt and a River

(This chapter was uploaded on Friday 19/January/2024 8:00 PM, timezone GMT+3)

('1), ('2), ('3), etc. means that there is some explaining for the thing in the notes at the end of the chapter.

"..." small moment of silence

"Talking"

"He-" Someone was interrupted.

'Thinking'

[Skills' names, chanting, spell keys and spells' names]

(PoV)

(Flashback)

Don't shy from commenting on typos and/or inconsistencies. That and/or suggesting a modification to certain things that didn't make sense to you.

I hope you enjoy reading this chapter.

(Line Break)

(Day 2) (Henryk's PoV)

"Pie" Fey couldn't hold herself. She started pecking my forehead again.

"Good morning, Fey" I greeted her.

"Pie" Fey returned the greeting by asking for a session of scratching her chin.

Both of us are peckish. I should go and ask the villagers if we can trade monster drops for anything.

Although, in many fantasy settings, monster drops like a goblin's are cheap, I may be able to get something with this many. Those purple crystals might be worth something to eat at least.

We came down the tree and I donned my quiver again. I didn't want to go hunting for game with my injury, but Fey might eat more monster crystals if left unattended. Maybe I will take her with me once we're done hunting, too. Just to make sure she isn't anywhere near a monster, or possibly a hunter who may want to hunt her.

We made our way into the forest again.

I follow my markings until a few hundred meters in. After which, I took a turn to the left.

I walked some distance with Fey acting as my radar. As we walked, I saw some apple trees with a few ripe, red apples on them. It seems that the forest's trees aren't equally distributed, but more like sectors that merge a little at their edges.

That solved my problem. Now, we try to find prey for Fey to eat.

We soon ran into some of those dog-like monsters. This time, even though they were all holding wooden clubs, I stayed at a distance. Getting too close might be a problem with their numbers.

I climbed over a tree for good measure and started aiming.

*Twang* The arrow didn't land in a critical area, but it still managed to injure one of them.

"PIE!" Fey charged in at the sight of a meal she was deprived from the day prior.

I didn't like it, the way they change her, even though it was a brief moment. I may not be able to prevent her from eating at least one today. I should be prepared for when that happens. And if I couldn't take her out of that trance anymore, I'll take the hard decision of not taking her out on hunts, for life.

As I was thinking that, I shot another arrow at the same dog-monster. This one got wedged in its left knee, making it stumble and fall to the ground, breaking the arrow on impact. A last, third arrow pierced its head, killing it.

By now, the other three split up. Two came my way as Fey bothered the last one.

The remaining two kept avoiding my arrows. I may need a bow that shoots faster arrows to fight them in the future.

I waited for them to come near the tree. And once I saw them start climbing, I shot one with an arrow it couldn't avoid. The arrow pierced the monster's head, as I was aiming down at it from my high ground.

The other monster jumped off the trunk and started getting ready to avoid my arrows.

I think they're a bit too smart. But then, they wouldn't survive otherwise. I guess this's to be expected of them to have since they survived until now.

From the corner of my eye, I saw the last monster, the one Fey was attacking, turning to my direction and rushing to me.

"PIE!" Fey saw the opportunity, as she dived at it and kicked the back of its head, giving it a concussion. That one fell to the ground, where Fey crushed its neck, and subsequently it throat, using her large talons.

As Fey did that, I fired an arrow at the monster that was at the foot of the tree. As expected, it evaded the arrow. But what it didn't know was that the arrow was a distraction. I used that window to jump off the tree without it being able to jump me.

As it rushed in to attack me, I grabbed one of its hands to stop it. That was not the best decision. It seems that these monsters have some strength in them. Although I caught and stopped the arm, it made me feel a painful strain on my arm.

I gritted my teeth as I used the edge of my knife to cut the path of its other set of claws. The arm it swung at my knife got cut near the wrist, rendering that arm almost useless for now.

I used that moment it staggered in pain to kick it into the ground. Once it was down, I cut its throat.

I turn to Fey and see her trying to dig the crystal out of the one she killed.

I quickly get the other ones before she's finished. I didn't give her the chance to eat more than one this time.

Once she swallowed it, she returned to that state, where her eyes became vertical slits again.

"Fey. Fey!" Seeing as the first call didn't work, I shouted her name.

Fey didn't return to normal yet. She kept staring at me as some possible prey.

I took a risk and got closer to her. I patted her on the head and scratched under her beak.

"Pie?" At last, she woke up from that state after a few minutes of headpats and gentle scratches.

Now that I look at her, she grew slightly bigger. I don't think it'd be noticeable to outsiders, who didn't spend a long time observing her. But to me, I can notice this size difference if I payed attention. And even then, it's such a small difference that I almost didn't see it.

Those crystals... They might be changing her both physically and mentally.

I hugged her to assure her. Or rather, I wanted to feel reassured that this's still my little girl.

"Pie!" She leaned her head onto me, asking for more pats and scratches.

I was elated and gave her what she asked for.

I'll take her out of the forest before we encounter any more monsters.

On our way out, we saw a young, small deer. I shot it with an arrow to the head while it was grazing. That did the job and the deer fell to the ground dead.

Fey started digging in immediately. I let her eat all she liked until only so much of the deer's meat remained.

She brought me the half-eaten corpse and pushed it my way.

I think I may start calling her an angel at this point.

I put an apple to my mouth then pushed the carcass back at her as I chewed the apple. It was a bit sour, just how I like it.

Seeing me eating something else while pushing the remaining meat her way, she got the message and resumed digging in. By the time she was finished, there was nothing left of it except for the larger bones she couldn't swallow. ('1)

As we were quite deep within the forest by the time Fey had her meal, we had to backtrack a lot. Good thing I left marks all over the place.

On our way out, I wondered why we didn't encounter a single monster. It may be due to the nearby settlement? I did notice their encounters getting scarce the closer we got to the edge of the forest.

"Fey, stay" I told Fey to leave me go to the village by myself and started making my way to its walls.

As I got closer, I saw that the walls were made of large stone slabs, not the smaller bricks. They were ready for more than these measly goblins and bipedal wolves, right? Because if it was just for these ones, then this's an overkill.

As I circled the perimeter of the settlement, I rounded the corner to see a gate where people were passing through. There were guards stationed there, examining those who want entry to the city.

"Good day to you, sir" I greet one of the guards as I got closer. I wanted to start it with on a light note, friendly you may call it.

"Good day to you too. What do you want?" The guard returned my greeting with a small smile. It felt like a business smile, one that's wary. 

I can understand that, as being a guard necessitates being wary of every person passing through the gates, not to allow the wrong person in.

"I want to know if there's anywhere I can wash myself. You see, I don't want to enter with monster blood all over me" I was gesturing at myself, all of me.

"There is a river in that direction. Be careful, women use it sometimes" He pointed me in a direction with his hand.

"Is that water safe fore drinking as well?" I asked, since apples weren't a sufficient source of water on their own.

"It is, if you take from upstream, where the water is cleaner" The guard's words reassured me. I can now drink water without fearing contamination. Hopefully it isn't something to do with humans of this world having resistances to the contaminants I may not be able to resist.

"Thank you, sir. And please, don't attack the eagle I'll be calling in a moment. She's tame if unoffended" I thanked him and walked away for a bit.

Having walked enough distance, I decided it was fine now. I took a deep breath and put fingers to my mouth.

*WHISTLE* I whistled loudly, loud enough to reach Fey at the place she was waiting in.

And true to what I expected, Fey rose to the sky and started flying in my direction.

"PieeEe!" She gently landed on my shoulders.

I left the guards behind, with their alert gazes. They knew Fey wasn't a threat, since they didn't come and attack us, but they also knew she could be dangerous with her size alone. Good thing I told them before calling her.

Just in case, I raised a thumbs up to assure them that this's the eagle I called.

I walked up to the river and stopped as I saw the slope, before the river itself was visible to me.

"Is anyone in the river right now!?" I shouted. I didn't want fall for that annoying troupe of running in on women bathing and then getting called a pervert. I don't want that kinda title, not the 'Lucky Pervert'.

I still don't know what easterners ('2) liked in this troupe. What do they enjoy in a character stumbling upon naked women by complete accident? This's one of cultural differences that I couldn't overcome. I can't relate to them in that one.

"There are women here!" Came back a panicked and hurried reply.

"Goodbye! Then!" I said as I turned away and sat under the shade of a tree.

Fey came down from my shoulder and laid herself in my lap. It was an unusual behavior in eagles, but she developed it. She also developed the unusual trait of not being temperamental.

Unlike other eagles, Fey doesn't grip at my body, not any inch of it. Whenever she stands on my shoulders, she only grips strong enough to stay balanced there. She doesn't put in the strength to crush my bones or puncture wounds into me with the tips of her talons.

I've experienced that from some of the other eagles. They didn't act as harmless and docile as she did. That was a charming point that she alone has.

She also doesn't fly far away from me when she wants to go play. It's always within distance to hear my whistles.

"Rrraa" Fey calmly reminded me to resume the headpats.

I patted her head as I waited for the ladies to finish washing themselves in the river.

When they're done, I'll clean Fey's feathers 'til they glisten under sunlight.

(End of Chapter)

'1:

Harpy eagles swallow everything that fits into their gullets. Bones, skin and fur? That is eaten by them. The only bones they do not eat are those they cannot swallow. If it was broken down, I doubt they might attempt swallowing any and all manner of bones.

'2:

Henryk comes from an alternate reality where there are only 3 continents.

The Americas had a thicker continental link between them, with south America stretching further south to be linked with Antarctica, making them one bigger continent.

Europe, Asia and Africa are one continent, as in one big landmass without big bodies of water separating it into three.

The land down under, as some would call Australia, is still its own continent.

The size of the world and its population are also different. Although, I will bring this up later, if I found it necessary.

Now, the point is that history flowed differently since the geography of the terrain on which it happened was vastly different to our reality's.

As a result, the number of countries, their borders, their cultures, their view on foreigners and much more, all of it is different to our world's.

(Line Break)

A shoutout to RikuKage for suggesting the line about the lucky pervert situation. He suggested I point out that Henryk wants to avoid the troupe by having him think of it as such, rather than him avoiding it solely out of courtesy.

The suggestion helped me pronounce Henryk's nature as a weeb a bit more. That nature would come into play with many things down the line. Just wait and see ^_^

Have a nice time, ladies and gentlemen.