Chapter 2

It's been four years since my attempted abduction. I've been living in a forest on the side of a mountain, isolated but close enough to a small village on the edge of my old tribe's territory that I can still get supplies and collect my meager salary. I live in a small log cabin I built my first year living up here and Nepril has a small stable I built for her. There have been no more abduction attempts, although that's mostly been due to the fact I keep myself as isolated as possible and hide my identity whenever I'm in town. If I had been careless I'd have been taken a long time ago. I've continued working on all the skills my father had taught me, preparing myself for the inevitable next attempt to bring me into servitude.

The fighting and weapons skills training is mainly for my own sense of security, I want to be prepared if anyone ever tries to come for me again. However, bow training does make my hunting much more effective, allowing me to save more of my salary. I built myself a target for bow practice, I've practiced to where I can reliably hit the target at 50 yards. I also sewed some leaf stuffed sacks together in a roughly human shape and put them on a makeshift stand for practicing vital point targeting with my daggers. Most of my dagger training is just technique drills that the dummy is useless for, but it's handy to have and it makes it look like a somewhat official training area. I use my savings from hunting to buy materials and supplies for my trade and to buy items to make my life more comfortable. The camouflage and disguise skills I use to help keep my existence hidden, as much as I want to be prepared for a confrontation, life is easier as long as I'm able to prevent it. I used the camouflaging to make my house and Nepril's stable blend in with the forest, they're almost invisible until you're right on top of them. In fact the first couple of trips to the village I ended up lost and had to search for my own house until I learned more about the geography of the mountain. The survival skills are the most useful, knowing how to build fires, find clean water, forage edible wilds, and natural remedies for illnesses and injuries are necessary for me to maintain my existence in the wild. I also foraged some of the poisonous plants in the area, while generally useless to me in my profession I never knew when they might come in handy. Overall I live a more comfortable life than most novice scholars and I have my freedom too, which almost no Scholar of any rank can say. The only real downside is the isolation I live in. The lack of relationships with people can be upsetting, but it's necessary to maximize my safety and keep my identity hidden to prevent another abduction attempt.

Looking around the cabin I realized it's time for me to go back down to the local village on a supply run. I packed my deerskin bag with the necessary supplies for a two-day trip. The village is only a day's round trip but I don't like being in the market place in the evening, that's when the majority of the people are there. To avoid the crowds I camp on the edge of the forest outside of town the night before I do my errands. This way I can go to the small Scholar's Outpost to collect my salary and collect my supplies from the marketplace before too many people started to do their shopping. After packing my bag I went out to Nepril's stable to saddle her, check her hooves, and tie her reigns to the post in front of the door. I put on my green hooded cloak, grabbed my daggers, slung my bow and quiver over my back, strapped my bag and my sleeping roll to Nepril's back, then saddled up and started down the mountain.

The lush green forest surrounds me while I make my descent. The birds sing their songs and the squirrels chatter away to each other. Occasionally a squirrel runs down and barks at me from a low hanging limb and every so often I spook a deer and I watch as it bounds away. I smiled as I watched the animals going about their lives, voicing their displeasure or running away like the deer when I came to close.

"If I was hunting they would have never seen me coming, their first sign being an arrow plunging into their chest cavity," I thought to myself.

I enjoy the rides down to the village, it gives me a chance to truly take in the beauty of the nature surrounding me and listen to the musical sound of the wildlife. Back at home, I'm to busy studying, training, or performing laborious tasks necessary to stay alive, like splitting wood or hunting for example. There's a small bubbling stream up ahead and I decide to let Nepril take a break and get a drink. It's no easy feat going up and down this mountain and Nepril is no spring chicken anymore. Upon reaching the stream I dismount. While Nepril satisfies her thirst I reach into the saddlebag nearest to me and pull out a carrot for her. Once she's finished her snack I climb back in the saddle and continue the trek to the Village.

I arrive at the edge of the forest in the early evening. I tie Nepril to a tree, take my sleeping roll and deerskin bag off her back, and unsaddle her. I set up my small campsite and started a small cooking fire to cook my dinner. The sun went down while watched sitting by the fire and eating my venison stew. I went over the things that I would need to get in the marketplace tomorrow. I needed ink to continue my notations on my research, salt and spices for preserving and cooking food, vegetables, a few bandages, candles, some new tools for making arrows as my old tools were worn and needed replacing, and if I could find and afford them some new research materials. Thankfully, I didn't typically spend much of my salary so I had the extra funds to afford a rather large purchase this trip. After the sun went down I unrolled my sleeping roll and extinguished my cooking fire. I laid on my sleeping pad staring up at the stars through the canopy above me. I drifted off to sleep with a dagger in my hand, prepared for anything that might come in the night, and waited for first light to signal my trip into the village.