Anna swung the axe at the thick tree in front of her. It bit deep into the wood making a satisfying sound when it did so.

This is so much fun!

She enjoyed cutting down trees, and the colorful leaves, fall leaves, that fell from them every time she hit them with an axe made it all the better.

The others had talked a great deal about what they were going to do for winter shelter and had decided to build a cabin instead of trying to find a village in which to stay. Once that was decided, they found a clearing large enough for the wagon to be pulled into near a stream and decided to stop there.

She swung the axe again, and a large chunk of wood flew free. She was working on a wedge shape in the side of the tree that would guide it in the direction she wanted it to fall.

Just a few more swings, and I’ll be able to move to the other side.

She looked over at her friends. Thokri and Voekeer were hard at work cutting branches from the trees she’d already felled while Barika and Elaine cleared the site where they’d build their winter cabin. Lyreen and Rose were out hunting. Rose wanted to practice with her bow, and Lyreen offered to use her tracking magic to find game.

She moved to the other side of the tree after cutting a few more large chucks out. She was relentless, and after a few minutes, the tree swayed, and the sound of cracking wood echoed through the forest.

The tree moved slowly at first but built up speed, tearing the branches off nearby trees at it fell. It hit the ground with a thump. She moved to the next tree but didn’t start to cut it. She held up the axe to inspect the blade.

Getting a little dull. I should go sharpen it. A dull axe is more dangerous than a sharp one after all.

She started to walk back to the wagon. She heard the men stop working and looked over. They were following her.

“Seemed like a good time to take a break,” Voekeer said, noticing her puzzled look.

Elaine and Barika stopped cutting the brush down as well, joining them at the wagon. A tentacle poked out of the wagon holding the sharping stone. Anna took it and unwrapped the coarse cloth that protected it. She climbed up on the wagon and sat down, tossing the cloth over her leg, and then proceeded to rub the blade of the axe against the stone. It was a cheap axe made from wrought iron with a strip of steel welded to the front to serve as the blade.

Thokri had argued that they needed to buy quality axes, but she had argued that there wasn’t a point because she could just rip the trees out of the ground. Her argument won out, so they had a few of the cheap ones, and honestly, they’d only used them a few times in the months they’d been on the road, so she’d been right.

“We should have enough logs by the end of the week,” Voekeer said.

“Once we finish the cabin, we’ll need to cut more brush and dry it to feed the horses over the winter,” Barika added.

“Aye, better get some of that back cream ready, lass,” Thokri said.

“Got plenty,” Anna replied. She held the axe up and inspected the blade before gently rubbing her finger along it.

Good enough for an axe.

She wrapped the stone up and set it on the back of the wagon. She’d need it again anyway.

She slid off the wagon and walked back over to the trees. She found another one that was the right size and started to chop away. The others chatted for a while before returning to work. The only reason she hadn’t stayed is because she wanted to get another five trees done before they stopped for the day to make sure they could start building the cabin by the end of the week.

By the time the sun started to fall that evening, she had felled six more trees, and the men had cleaned four of them by the time they quit for the night.

Lyreen and Rose had returned with a fat deer and had prepped it for dinner that night. She put the axe back in the wagon and walked over to the stream to clean up. She just pulled her dress off and dived in, swimming around some before running her fingers through her hair, trying to get the wood chips out.

Once she finished, she used the sandy soil from the bottom of the stream to scrub the filth from her body before heading to the shore and picking up her dress. She washed the woodchips off it. She wasn’t sure if the cleaning ring would remove them or not. She walked back to the camp when she was finished and passed the men on their way to clean up.

The rest of the party was setting up the big tent. It was starting to get cold at night. No one was sure when the temperatures would drop below freezing, and they didn’t want to risk getting caught in the small tents.

She hung her dress from the side of the wagon and walked over to where the others were setting up the tent. A dozen tentacles appeared and took over. They had the tent up and staked in moments. Her friends just kind of looked at her.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“What?” Anna asked.

“Nothing. Do you mind unpacking for us?” Elaine asked.

“Not a bit,” Anna replied.

More tentacles appeared and started to pull things out of the wagon. Her friends walked towards the stream to join the men. She had everything unpacked and setup by the time they came back. She’d even dried and cleaned her dress knowing the others still didn’t like it when she sat around naked.

They sat around the fire and ate the deer stew Rose and Lyreen had made.

“I’m going to animate some skeletons to watch the camp. That way, we can all take it easy,” Elaine said.

“I don’t mind keeping watch,” Anna replied.

“I know, but I need the practice,” Elaine said.

“Okay,” Anna replied.

“It’s going to get boring out here. In fact, some folks get a little crazy when they are stuck in a cabin all winter. If anyone starts to feel restless, let me know,” Barika said. The others nodded as they ate.

“If it’s me, I’ll go for a walk. There’s nothing you can do for me anyway,” Anna added.

“We can talk, child,” Barika said.

“We talk all the time. If I’m getting weird, that means it isn’t working, so I’ll go for a walk,” Anna replied.

Barika gave her a look but then just shook her head.

“Well, tell me either way. I’d like to know if that sort of thing can even happen to you,” she said.

“I will,” Anna replied.

They finished dinner and then cleaned up before heading into the tent. Anna flopped onto her huge fur and rolled around a few times before resting on her side. Her friends looked at her. Their jealousy was apparent. They crawled into their own bedding before putting out the light. She pulled her trusty dire wolf pelt over herself and went to sleep quickly.

The rest of the week went by much the same as the first day. They cleared the camp site, felled trees, and cleaned up the logs to prepare them for use. She’d found large flat stones to set on the ground and placed the first of the logs on top of them.

A v shape was cut into the ends of these logs. They put reverse v shapes into the next set of logs and those were placed on the first ones. This was repeated until the cabin walls were eight feet off the ground.

After that, they built the structure for the roof using shorter lengths of timber at an angle holding up the center beam. Smaller logs were placed on this structure before being covered with wooden shingles she’d spent the last day making with a hatchet.

Despite her doing most of the heavy lifting, and well, just about everything else, it took three days to finish the cabin’s structure and several more to build the rest of the things needed to last the winter.

I’m just using my tentacles next time!

They packed the tent into the wagon. They would not need it for the rest of the winter. She walked into the cabin. Lanterns hung on the walls gave off a yellow orange light. The horses made happy horse sounds when they spotted her from their stalls nestled on the far side of the cabin.

You know, I thought this place was huge, but now that I look at it, it’s going to be cramped with seven people and two horses.

There was a huge fireplace on the north wall near the center of the room. It had been made from stones she’d collected from the stream and held together with clay they’d found near the stream as well.

After letting it dry, they’d had to fill in cracks that had formed several times before finally lighting a fire in it and looking for smoke leaking from any unseen ones. Once that was finished, they had built every person or couple a bed. They were simple slat beds covered in whatever the person sleeping on them used as bedding. Hers was farther from the fireplace than the others and covered with thick furs.

And one fat rabbit.

Lord Emerald was curled up on her bed sleeping, despite it being just past noon. She hesitated for a moment, wanting to join him for a nap, but she had a few things that needed to be done sooner rather than later, so she left the cabin and walked over to the wagon.

The others were hard at work doing their own winter preparation, and it was up to her to get the wagon ready for the winter. It had already been emptied with its contents placed in the cabin. Tentacles undid the canvas from the wooden ribs that supported it. The canvas was folded and placed to the side. The ribs were removed and placed to the side as well.

The wagon was lifted from the ground, and its wheels were removed. They were cleaned off and placed inside of the wagon, and the ribs were placed on top of them. After that, the canvas was placed in the wagon. A thick oil cloth tarp was wrapped around the top of the wagon to protect its contents, and then she placed it on several logs that had been carved into beams.

There, now the axles won’t sag, the wheels won’t warp, and the canvas won’t get damaged by the snow. That tarp should keep the water out of the cargo area too. Okay, time to get some firewood.

She left the camp and walked out into the forest, summoning eyes to look for dead, hopefully dry, trees she could tear apart. She walked a long way into the forest before finding a patch of dead trees. She paused at the edge of the patch and sent her eyes in to look. Nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary. It was just a large patch of dead trees in the middle of an otherwise lush forest. She shrugged and walked into the patch.

When she neared the center, something wrapped around her throat and squeezed tightly. She was lifted into the air and came face to face with a huge rotted tree. Eyes opened on the tree and looked at her.

“What are you?” the tree asked with a mouth that opened in its bark.

The stench of rotted plants filled the air when it did. She calmly pointed at her neck after it waited for a moment.

“Oh, sorry about that,” it said. It wrapped another branch around her waist and let go of her neck.

“I’m Anna,” she said when she could speak again.

It squeezed her tightly as if it was trying to crush her for saying her name. She tightened the muscles in her stomach and reached down with her hand, grabbing the branch and digging her fingers into the tough wood.

Foul rotted liquid poured from the gouges. It loosened its grip on her, and she let go of the branch.

“Now put me down before I tear you into chunks and use you as firewood!” Anna said.

It screamed and squeezed her again, far harder than before. Branches shot towards her. They were grabbed by dozens of tentacles that appeared out of nowhere. Branches were snapped off or held in place by the tentacles. A tentacle wrapped around her chest and another snapped off the branch around her waist. She was gently placed on the ground.

“YOU FOUL CREATURE! I WILL SQUEEZE THE LIFE FROM YOUR BODY AND CONSUME…” it shouted before several of the tentacles pushed their way into its mouth, wrapping around its tongue, before coiling up and filling the whole space.

The tree shook with fury, and its eyes rolled around as she wrapped a huge tentacle around its trunk and smiled.

“Firewood it is!” she said before a snap echoed through the forest.