The next morning started with a leisurely breakfast and happy chit-chat with our host. After breakfast, it was time for her to show us the map and explain it. We told her the locations for our tasks, the Barrow Den, Mount Yugid and the Gardens of Tegi.

She got out a scroll of parchment, slightly worn but still easily readable. On it, she showed us Neyto on a large peninsula, Yugan at the end of the eastern fjord making up said peninsula and further to the west, on the end of a mountain range, the town of Yari we had already heard about. With that, we had a rough outline of our position on the map and the distances involved. She first showed us that the Barrow Den which was maybe a day's march or so to the west north west of Neyto, at the sea. I had a feeling it would be the easiest-to-reach location. Next, she explained to us that Tegi was a grove close to the river that eventually ended close to Yugan. It was quite the distance, at least ten days march to the south. Mount Yugid was roughly equal distance south but further west, in the middle of the mountain range that ended close to Yari.

Looking at the map, I really wanted some swifter transportation, it looked like a serious journey. When I mentioned it, Kallista smiled for a moment and told us that going to the Barrow Den first would be a smart idea. Then she asked us for help with Tegi. Apparently she was quite miffed with the dryads there, as they used sacrifice to power the growth of their trees, something she felt to be heretical. Not because the sacrifice involved but because they used the power to buck the natural order. I was not quite sure I understood her point and asked about it, wondering if she’d feel the same about my Blood Magic.

“Well, no. The dryads of Tegi claim to be servants of the Cycle of Seasons, they draw their power from it. At the same time, they use ritual sacrifice to ignore the effect of the Cycle. In addition, they don’t respect their prey. Their hunters capture the prey alive so their priests can drain it at their leisure, back in their camp. You on the other hand, go out there yourself, hunting and fighting the prey and if the prey falls, you respect it by using as much of it as possible. You don’t just bleed them dry and discard their bodies.” Kallista explained.

With her explanation about her feelings for hunter and prey, her opinion was a little clearer so I had no problem to promise that we'd free the wild animals that were captured as sacrifices.

Quest Alert! Save the Sacrifices. Quest Difficulty Hard Kallista wants you to save all wild animals captured as sacrifices by the Dryads of Tegi. Quest Reward Surprise from Kallista

Afterwards, we headed out, first over to Praxi, looking for our cloaks. He had promised that we could get them this morning. He was outside, working on the Dire Boar pelt as we walked up. After a short greeting, he got our cloaks from the inside of his house.

Black Feather Cloak of Stealth Rarity Rare Type Cloak Base Protection 3 against Piercing Damage Base Protection 5 against Slashing Damage Base Protection 5 against Blunt Damage Special Effect Shadowmelt – Gain concealment while in Darkness Special Effect Enshade - Channelling Astral Power into the cloak allows for Improved Stealth A well made, warm Black Leather Cloak, trimmed with Black Wolf-Fur and Crow Feathers, It's embroidered with Concealment and Stealth-Enchantments.

The Cloak was definitely mine but with enhancements. The shoulder-area was trimmed with black feathers that gave off slight, black smoke and on closer look, there were small runes carved into the quill of each feather. I guess those were for the stealth-effect. I donned my cloak and reached out with my mind. I found the runes and let some Astral Power flow into them and looking down, I saw that the cloak was blending into it's surroundings quite well, even with the extreme contrast of white snow and black cloak, my eyes simply slipped off the boundary, as if there was no contrast there.

Imagining the effect in the darkness made those cloaks quite useful. Walking over into the shadows of the building and using Dark Magic I was even able to increase the shadow around me, making me almost impossible to see according to Sigmir.

"Now, I have something to ask of you. I heard that you are supposed to head to Mount Yugid, to the fire birds. The eyries of those birds get burned by their flames, producing a peculiar ash which is very useful for tanning. I want you to collect some of it when you are there. Consider it payment for my work on the armour. If you collect enough, I'll give you something extra."

I agreed and there was a quest.

Quest Alert! Ashes to Praxi... Quest Difficulty Hard Collect the Ashes from the Firebird Eyries on Mount Yugid for Praxi. Quest Reward Dire Boar-Armour

With that done, we headed to Thekk. For once, he was not bowed over his forge, but sitting relaxed in a corner, watching a complicated metal device in the fires of his furnace.

“Ah, there you are. I'm processing the Fangwood you brought me, that'll take some time, ya know. But I did manage to do what I planned. Here, look, I used true silver to plate the edges of your Lok'nar. It's a lot sharper than before and it will work even better against those that are weak against silver, like Nethersprites and Undead. It'll serve you well in the Barrow Den.”

Sigmir picked up the Lok'nar, weighing it in her hands, checking it's balance and the new edges. The smile on her face told me that she was quite happy with the work done. We both thanked Thekk and went on our merry way.

Walking by Kallista's House, she called out to us. “Girls, go, talk to Cisar before you leave. And if you help me this evening again, I'll make you some provisions for your way.” I agreed, the prospect of sleeping in a bed was quite enticing, not to talk about cooking in an actual kitchen. Campfire-Cooking would be necessary soon enough.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

At Cisar's Farm, he was easy to find, he was again splitting logs behind his house. My personal hope was to get the quest-reward from last time, but alas it was not to be. When we approached, he asked us to collect Clean Bones from the Skeletons in the Barrow Den. When we accepted, he smiled happily.

Quest Alert! Bones for the fields Quest Difficulty Hard Cisar wants you to collect Bones from the Skeletons within the Barrow Den. Quest Reward A pair of Command Crystals

Reading it over made me wonder what Command Crystals were, but asking simply increased the smile on his face, and he shooed us off his land.

Now, we just had to plan the rest of the day. Noon was upon us, so there were only few hours of daylight left, too few to actually leave the village for something useful. As a result, Sigmir and I decided to train a bit against each other in combat. Unarmed, I was almost able to match her due to my real life training in Wing Chun but as soon as weapons came out I was outclassed by her. Using Magic equalized it somewhat but not as much as I hoped. Even strengthened by Magic, I was unable to parry her strikes, forcing me to dodge. Using Rune Magic against her was honestly problematic I was completely unable to muster the will to hurt her, making my spells a lot weaker than normal. Ice Magic was better, I was able to parry with it but the amount of Astral Power it took was enormous. Soon it became a game of keep-away, either I had to try to stay far enough away that I could dodge or I had to step into her guard while she used the length of her weapon but that also had dangers, stepping into her guard meant step close to an axehead that could suddenly be used with little leverage but a lot of strength.

I managed to get to her a few times and used those times to throw her into the snow. Most of the time, our exchanges ended with her Lok'nar pressed against me after she stopped it short of hitting me.

At one point, I thought I had her but suddenly it wasn't only her flying through the air, she had managed to grab my arm and pull me with her making me land handily on her. Looking up, I saw her grinning “Look what tasty morsel I caught. Now, what to do with it?” with that she rolled us over burying me below her. “Maybe I should eat it?” with that she gave me a short kiss, then started nibbling on my lips. “It is a mightily tasty snack.” Only the freezing cold of the snow kept me from starting to rip off clothes. “Now, that is an interesting new technique, isn't it dear?” I asked. “But maybe we should continue this in the bath or later, in our bed?” The smile on Sigmir's face as she looked down on me could only be described as predatory. “Yes, I think we will do that.” with that she rose and offered me a hand to help me up, a hand that I gladly took and kept hold of.

Hand in hand, we went back to Kallista's house and snuggled up in front of the fire, something that Kallista herself watched with wistful eyes but said nothing.

I think I fell asleep in Sigmir's arms but far too soon, I was pulled out of my relaxation by Kallista's voice, calling for help in the kitchen. Today, Sigmir went with me into the kitchen and watched while I helped Kallista in creating our dinner. At dinner, Kallista asked us to watch out for each other, for without the other, our life would be diminished. Her sad smile said more than she could using thousands of words. My hand found Sigmir's and we clutched each other's hand, gripping tightly as if we could stave off separation by this.

Spoiler: Spoiler

After dinner, it was time for a bath. Before I could even start shedding my own clothes, my hands were gripped by Sigmir and my back pushed against the wall, not hard enough that it hurt but quite insistent. While kissing me hotly, my hands were pushed up, over my head and gripped within a single hand. Still holding me immobile, she managed to shed her clothes within moments, despite only using one hand and having her mouth attached to mine. When I looked into her eyes, I had to wonder if the stories about Giants eating humans had another connotation to them, for there was pure hunger in them. I was about to get eaten.

Lifting me up, into the air without even the slightest strain, she carried me to the bathtub and placed me into the water, setting my hands to the sides of the tub and telling me that I’d be a good girl and not move a muscle or she’d be unhappy. The look in her eyes fascinated me, so I decided to be a good girl as there was no way in hell I wanted to make her unhappy. So I kept my hands to myself, no matter how hard it was.

I guess I should not be surprised that her, let’s call it playbook, was quite similar to what I did to her, but she put her own spin on it. While I was sitting in the tub, she also got in, not sitting down but standing tall, not even looking at me while using a washcloth to wash herself. I’m not sure if it was deliberate but the her size and stance caused her delicious butt to be right there, in front of my eyes and when she bend over I was tempted, oh so tempted to take a nibble and start licking her kitty for all I was worth. But no, I would be a good girl and not move myself in the face of temptation.

Thankfully, she didn’t take too long and turned back to me, kneeling between my legs and letting her body hover above me. Next, she started caressing me all over, not even pretending to wash me, just soft strokes of her strong hands, sometimes nibbles on my lips or ears, driving me crazy with desire. As I was panting and trying to keep myself from squirming, she stopped with the caresses and used the washcloth to make me squeaky clean. Her vigorous scrubbing was a totally different sensation compared to her earlier ministrations causing my hypersensitive nerves to send all kinds of signals to my brain causing me to uncontrollably moan and plead with her. But there was no mercy to be had, only when she was sure that I was clean she lifted up, this time it was necessary, my legs had decided to go on strike and turned to rubber. Holding me up, she used clear water to wash away any soap, then lifted me out of the tub and dried us both.

Without ever letting me touch the floor, she searched for remaining soap using her tongue. When she came to my kitty, she simply held me by the butt and went to town. I think I managed to hold onto her head but I’d be lying if I claimed to have had awareness.

Her tongue wormed her way into me, turning my moans into incoherent screams. I don’t know how long she held me like that, knowing her strength it could have been hours but as I was still alive, I’d guess a couple of minutes. She let me gently come down from my high and wrapped me into my cloak, carrying me like a child, or a bride, back to our chamber, placing me into bed and holding onto me. I wanted to return the favor but before I managed more than a few kisses, I did what men are normally known for.

I fell asleep.