Chapter 35

I sniffed miserably as I shivered and trudged slowly along the frigid road back to the forge. We’d been in the city about a month now, and we were well into the depths of winter. Even being only early afternoon, it was fucking freezing out here. I had massively underestimated the sub zero temperature when I had decided to spend the crisp sunny day hunting in the north woods, and to top it off I had almost immediately been attacked by a pretty good sized black bear. It wasn’t a massive monster critter like the twelve foot grizzly’s back home, but it was quite large for this area, and I’d get some decent coin for the meat and the pelt.

I’d managed to spear it through the heart quite easily when it reared up to attack me. The main issue had come when its juvenile cubs had come at me after I took out their mother. They were both easily two hundred pounds and had attacked simultaneously. I’d pulled my sword and my axe and managed to skewer one of their skulls through the eye with the sword while bringing the axe down on the other’s head, killing them both instantly, but it had been a near thing. If either of them had gotten past my first strike I would have taken some serious damage.

I’d constructed a makeshift travois out of some saplings that I’d hacked down along with some chokevine I’d happened across. It wasn’t nearly as prevalent in these woods, so I’d been lucky to find some. I’d skinned, gutted, and cleaned the vast majority of meat off the animals and packed it on the travois wrapped in their own skins to drag back to town, but fuck me if this wasn’t a terrible idea. Even without the bones and guts this had to be a better than four hundred pound load, and my strength was flagging as it had taken me most of the day to get them back here. I’d gotten a lot of looks as I dragged my heavy burden, scratching loudly against the stone road, through town while all but covered in frozen bear blood.

Finally, I reached my destination and turned into the smithy’s yard. Dog barked joyfully and ran over from the dog house that I’d had constructed for him by some apprentice woodworkers that I’d met when I was arranging our firewood needs back when we first moved in. We mostly left him to his own devices outside during the day since he seemed to know he wasn’t to stray from the yard, at night I’d bring him in and he’d either sleep in front of the fire or pick one of the four of us to cuddle up next to. Dog bounded around me excitedly as he barked and sniffed with interest at my load of bear meat. I dragged the travois nearly to the front door of the house and dropped it heavily to the ground as I made my way to the door. I could hear the ringing of metal on metal from the forge, so I assume Hammer and Knick are still hard at work over there.

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Dog followed me into the warm house as I closed the door behind us and stamped off the snow on my boots, took them off, and carried them over to the hearth to dry. Oh my god that feels so good, I thought as the heat from the roaring fire washed over me. Ahh, I set down my boots next to the hearth and just laid down on the floor with my back to the fire. Warm, yay. Dog lay down next to me with his back against my stomach, and I clutched him to me as we slowly warmed up.

“Is that you Nameless? You’re back pretty early today,” came Ara’s voice from the kitchen. She walked into the front room and then looked at me with concern to see me on the floor. “Are you alright?” she asked, cocking her head to the side.

“C-c-cold,” I chattered through my shivering teeth as I dug my fingers deep into the ruff of Dog’s neck to warm my fingers.

“Well, I’ll warm up some water on the stove and pour you a bath in your room in a bit. Did you have any luck out there?” she asked.

“G-g-got some b-bears,” I chattered, still shivering.

“Oh, that’s nice, we’ll have some…wait, did you say BEARS?! As in more than one?!” She yelped at me with a worried tone.

I held up a shivering arm and extended three fingers as I buried my cold nose in the back of Dog’s neck. He started whacking my legs with his tail, apparently enjoying the attention.

“THREE?! Three BEARS?! Are you ok?! You’re COVERED in blood, Nameless!” She seemed pretty concerned about me.

“M’fine, just cold,” I said, my voice a bit muffled as I was talking into the back of Dog’s warm neck. The shivering finally seemed to be subsiding as the warmth behind me radiated into my torso.

“Well…ok,” she said doubtfully. “I’ll get that warm bath ready for you as soon as possible then.” She pointed a finger at Dog. “And you, you’re going back outside when Nameless warms up a bit, Dog. You know you’re not allowed inside during the day.” Dog lifted his head and woofed softly at her before laying his head back down as she made her way back into the kitchen.

It is way too cold outside, I swear it was never this cold in the forest down by Tiga. I need to find a game of cards. At least that’s a way to earn money INSIDE where it’s properly warm. I’ve had enough of freezing for the rest of the winter if I can avoid it.