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Chaos (old)
I Don't Understand

I Don't Understand

Fenrir woke just before the first sun rose above the horizon. He had been offered a tent, but the Fae in him preferred to sleep with the earth as his bed and the sky as his roof. It was not yet anywhere close to what most considered day,[1] without even a single sun above the horizon, but Fenrir had never particularly needed sleep. In fact, the boy could go for eternity without a single wink of sleep, as long as he did not expend too much energy at once. He was technically a god, after all.

Collecting the rabbit pelts, Fenrir prepared for the upcoming journey in complete silence. He had stretched them around small, portable frames of wood, and intended to sell them to the merchants when they were finished drying. After stacking the frames and tying them together, he added two loops of rope to form a makeshift pack. Bringing the pack with him, he entered the forest to gather breakfast for the travelers. He didn't hunt anything; meat in the morning could upset the stomach. After approximately two hours, Fenrir had filled his satchel with berries and edible plants. Returning to the camp, he startled Yu, who was on sentry duty. The man hadn't noticed when Fenrir had left, as the boy hadn't made a single sound. However, the boy with a bundle of edible leaves and tubers in his arms was definitely Raz; he had lowered his hood to avoid any misunderstandings. After all, a hooded figure approaching camp in what most people would consider to still be nighttime would definitely raise the alarm.

Fenrir nodded in greeting, and the slightly confused sentry nodded in return. Yu mentally sighed in envy; it had taken him decades of training to become able to move silently, and even then he doubted that he had the same level of stealth as the boy before him. Upon noticing the bundle of food in Fenrir's arms and the smell of berries from his satchel, Yu could not help but smile. It seemed that the boy had snuck out of camp to avoid waking anyone, and then gathered breakfast for his fellow travelers. The guard thought that this was quite endearing, and his already good impression of the boy rose higher.

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Upon entering the camp, Fenrir quickly restarted the fire. "Borrowing" a pot from one of the sleeping merchants, the boy took some water from the many drums of water in the supply wagon and began to cook some soup. While the soup cooked, Fenrir piled the berries in his satchel onto a plate, along with several fruit he had found as he foraged.

~~~~~~

As the second sun began to rose above the horizon, a time which would be considered relatively early in the morning,[2] a delicious aroma woke Rokvur. As the captain of the guard exited his tent, he saw Fenrir stirring a pot of soup, with a large plate of fruites and berries resting beside him. As he approached the pot, Rokvur realized that Fenrir had likely gotten up early to search for the food, and had even especially searched for relatively light dishes for the traveler's breakfast.

Fenrir turned to face him, and Rokvur perceived (imagined) a glimmering in the boy's eyes that seemed to be saying "Praise me!"

The man smiled, thinking that the boy was a very cute child.[3]

"Good job," he said.

~~~~~~~

Fenrir cocked his head, perplexed. The man's words of "Good job" were slightly abnormal, as normally in this situation one would say something along the lines of "Thank you for the meal" or simply "Thanks." In addition, Rokvur's face had that same expression again, the expression that Fenrir's parents always had whenever he did something "cute". Yu had also had that expression when Fenrir had come back to the camp with food. However, he did not feel that he had been doing anything childish; he was simply repaying the debt he incurred by joining the caravan. 'I don't understand.' He thought, 'As expected, humans are weird.'