The door opened, and a cold wind blew into the cabin. Thokri walked inside with an armful of firewood.

“Snow started,” he said as he headed towards the fireplace.

“How bad?” Barika asked.

“We’ll get a few feet this week,” Thokri replied.

“Normal for this far north then,” Voekeer said.

“Aye, lad,” Thokri replied.

He stacked the wood on a rack next to the fireplace and went to sit at one of the tables Anna made from wood left over from building the cabin. She’d made a few other tables and chairs and placed them around the cabin as well. She was whittling a piece of wood into a bugbear at the moment. Rose walked over, picked up the hobgoblin she’d already carved, and looked at it closely.

“Mind if I take a look at that?” Voekeer asked walking over to her bed as well.

She handed him the bugbear. He looked it over a few times before handing it back.

“It’s amazing how much detail you can get with just a belt knife,” he said.

“I use my fingernails too,” Anna replied.

She scratched at the wood with one of her nails, taking a sliver off. He nodded and walked away. It had been his idea for her to carve some of the scrap wood. He’d shown her the basics when she was making the furniture for the cabin.

He looks like he likes to carve stuff, but I think it makes him sad because of what happened with his family.

She went back to carving, thinking of the bugbear’s face that sold them the ground grease.

I really don’t know much about any of their families, except for Thokri that is. He loves to tell me about his children. The others told me a few stories back when we first met, and then again in the caves, but they haven’t said much since. I mean, I met Elaine’s brother and still don’t know that much about him. I guess I should have talked to him more at the time.

She looked over at Barika. The priestess was the one she knew the least about. Every time she’d asked, Barika simply told her that the past was the past, and it was best left alone.

She looked into the bugbears just carved eyes for a moment.

I wonder what it would have been like if I had been made to look like you, or maybe a hobgoblin, instead of a human? What would my life had been like so far?

This wasn’t the first time she’d had that thought, though it was the first time she thought about being a bugbear or a hobgoblin. There were so many ways things could have gone differently for her.

She focused on the carving. If she started to imagine all the different ways things could have been, she’d zone out, and the others would tease her about it.

Rose set the hobgoblin down and walked over to Thokri. She put her fists up and then pointed at the clear spot in the room. They had decided to practice over the winter, and Anna had placed her thick fur on the floor to help limit the injuries from being thrown to the ground.

It was easy to keep clean with her ring, and Lyreen had drawn a spell on the back to stop any dampness from the compacted dirt floor causing rot.

“Mind helping, lass?” Thokri asked, looking at Barika.

“Sure, I could use some exercise,” Barika said.

Usually, Thokri would talk through a training session while demonstrating the technique by himself before having his student go through the motions while he watched. He’d correct any issues he spotted before they practiced together.

Now Rose had a hard time grappling with Thokri. They were around the same height with Rose being an inch or two taller, but he weighed two hundred pounds more than her and had arms as thick as her waist, so she just had a hard time getting a grip on him.

Because of that, he usually enlisted the aid of one of the others. Elaine and Barika being the most common choices. The elves were far too tall to learn the basics with, and while Anna seemed to be the obvious choice, she wasn’t according to Thokri.

I still can’t believe he called me a broom handle with tits and ass!

“Alright, lass. Go for a throw. Don’t care which one,” Thokri said. Rose nodded, and Thokri looked at Barika. “Don’t make it easy, lass,” Thokri said.

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“I won’t,” Barika replied.

Thokri put his hand between the two women. They got into fighting stances. Thokri pulled his hand away, and Rose lunged forward. By the look of it, she was trying to use a back throw. It was a risky move to start out with, involving grasping your opponent’s clothing and then rolling backwards.

Barika saw what Rose was intending and immediately stepped to the side. Before Rose could react, Barika got a hold of her and slammed her into the ground, knocking the wind out of her. She laid there stunned. Thokri made a sort of pained half chuckle when he looked at her.

“Oh, lass. The horses saw that one coming,” he said, pointing his thumb over his shoulder at said horses. Barika reached down and pulled Rose to her feet.

“Child, what have I told you about rushing in?” Barika asked. Rose just shook her head and sighed.

“Lass, you can’t go fighting someone like her without thinking she’s too good for that,” Thokri added.

Rose shook it off and then got back into a fighting stance. Thokri clapped her on the shoulder and put his hand in between them again. Anna went back to carving her bugbear, having seen every move that her friends would be using. She heard another thump and a groan a few moments later.

She lasted a little longer that time.

The two of them went a few more rounds before Thokri thanked Barika who sat back down. Thokri took out one of the spears and handed it to Rose. Rose hesitated before taking the spear.

During her time as a slave, which had been her entire life up until the last year, Rose hadn’t been allowed to touch weapons, so even now, she seemed nervous around them. The only exception to this was the bow. She didn’t have any problem using one of them.

Rose was stiff, but she didn’t look like she was expecting to be beaten at any moment like she did the first few times she’d held a weapon.

She’ll be fine.

Anna set the bugbear down and stood up, wiping off the wood chips that covered her dress. She went over, picked up the broom, and swept them up, tossing them into the fire. Once cleanup was finished, she went to the pot of food that was bubbling over the fire. They had started an eternal soup the day the cabin was finished, and it was getting better by the day.

She took a wooden bowl from the stack next to the pot and then the ladle that hung on a hook nearby. She used the ladle to stir the soup a few times before filling the bowl. She returned the ladle to its hook and headed over to one of the tables.

Elaine was currently staring at an organ from the magical beast. One of its kidneys to be exact. She had the organ sliced in two and was drawing it in a journal she’d been writing in for most of the trip.

“What are you doing exactly?” Anna asked.

“Well, from what I had read, all the organs in magical beasts have some mana in them, so I’m going to do an experiment with these. I’m going to let one rot when we get back to Oldforge, and I’ll keep the other preserved. I want to see how much of the mana turns into death mana and how much just dissipates. That’s hard to do with normal flesh, so I figured this would be perfect,” Elaine replied.

She pushed the tray holding the kidney over, and Anna looked at it. She could see green-blue sparks of mana in the complex organ.

“The mana’s kind of greenish and blueish,” Anna said.

Elaine wrote that down before pulling the kidney back. She picked up a small crystal and held it over the kidney. It glowed whenever it neared a deposit of mana. Elaine had drawn a sketch of the kidney and was marking the areas with mana in them now.

“Want me to help?” Anna asked.

“No, thanks. I like to do my own research. Helps me remember,” Elaine replied.

“Okay,” Anna said.

She started to eat the soup, watching her friend. Elaine was dilligent in her work and seemed to measure every possible part of the kidney before placing both halves back into the jar.

Elaine got up and returned to her bed, stashing the jar and her journal before retrieving one of the creepy books she’d bought from the necromancer’s guild.

At least this one doesn’t look at us.

To be fair, even the ones that had eyes didn’t stare at Anna. They aways seemed to look away when she came near. Anna finished her soup and returned the bowl and spoon to the stack after cleaning them. She went back to her bed to start carving again. She spent a few more hours carving away at the bugbear before setting him next to the hobgoblin.

Thokri and Rose had finished training some time ago and were tossing dice with Voekeer. Barika and Lyreen were reading like Elaine, though she doubted any of them were reading about the same thing.

Anna reached in her own pack and pulled out her drawing supplies. She held them for a moment, looking at the paper, thinking about what she should draw. She smiled and started to sketch out the huge magical beast that she’d killed just outside of the bugbear’s village. She took her time and drew it perfectly, just how it had been when the monster hand smashed the trees out of the way and walked out onto the road.

Beth might get scared if I send this one to her.

Anna thought about it for a moment and then realized that Beth was fifteen, nearly sixteen now, and wouldn’t be frightened by a drawing. Barika sat next to her on the bed and brushed Anna’s hair from her face.

“What’s wrong, child?” she asked.

“Beth’s going to be grown up by the time we get back to Oldforge. She might even be married and maybe even have a baby, and I’m still the same as always,” Anna replied. She turned to look at Barika. “Do you think she’ll still like me?” Anna asked.

Barika smiled.

“I won’t tell you that she will because no one, not even the gods, can see the future, but I don’t see why she wouldn’t,” she said.

“What am I going to do if she doesn’t, though?” Anna asked.

“Think about it this way, child. She’s a girl from a small village out on the edge of nowhere who has a friend that has fought a goblin army, saved a princess, met the queen, found a holy relic lost to time, you even spoke to a god. I’d say she’s worried you won’t want to talk to a boring girl like her anymore,” Barika added.

“But she’s my friend,” Anna replied.

“And you’re hers, child, so don’t worry about it,” Barika added.

“I never told her about the princess and the queen. I’m not supposed to,” Anna said.

“It will be fine to tell her in person,” Barika replied.

“Okay, thanks,” Anna said.

“Anytime, child,” Barika replied.

She got up and went back to her own bed. The others were watching as well.

I really can’t hide what I’m feeling, can I? Oh, well. At least I have good friends!