Hobins dying, or turning into one wind up showing up in my nightmares for the first time. I actually think I wind up scaring Maven out of his hole briefly during the worst of it, but I eventually make it to dawn the next day without waking constantly, so I'll call it a win for the night.
"Aria, it's morning," Emily shakes me gently.
"Yeah, thanks, Emily." I wake up kind of groggy, rubbing the sleep from my eyes.
"Rough night?" she asks. I nod. She leans a in a little closer. "Did something bad happen?"
I think about it, but... "Well, I can't say for sure if it's bad, but it is really scary." I try to laugh a bit but it's too forced. Emily just frowns.
"I guess you'll tell me about it today?"
"Yeah, I guess I... may as well show you...?" She opens her mouth a little, like she's not sure if she should ask more, but a new voice interrupts.
"Going out together today?" Eve asks, lying along her bed in an odd position while looking over at us.
"Y-yeah." Emily says while looking a bit embarrassed.
"I wish my little brother would go out with me like we used to," Eve sighs, shaking her head sadly. She's lying on her back with her butt right against he base of the wall, so her legs trail up the wooden boards.
"Your... little brother?" I ask, eyes still following her legs. I thought everyone here was an orphan, so is she talking about before she came here?
"He was always so clingy before, but now he's trying to be all strong and independent!" She puts her fists on her hips, even with her legs up in the air. "I want my cute little brother back!" she whines, flailing her legs in the air and kicking the wall lightly.
"A-ahhh..." I mutter, eyebrow twitching. I have no idea how to respond to her sudden outburst. Mary and Helen giggle from their beds.
"Be glad you still have a brother," Jannette scolds her quietly as she walks past to leave, flicking Eve lightly on the forehead. That shuts Eve up real fast, as much from the shock as the scolding it seems. We all stare at the door after she leaves. I still can't get a feel for her at all. When I look around at the other girls, it seems like they don't understand her either.
"W-well... let's get to breakfast, shall we...?" Emily says.
"Yeah..." everyone responds. At least I learned one thing: apparently Eve has a brother at the orphanage?
We go downstairs, eat quickly, and return to our room right after to get ready. "So, we're going hunting..." Emily says with a vaguely worried expression.
"Is there something wrong with hunting?" I ask.
"No, it's just... Most people don't because it's really hard to catch small animals. It's not stable enough to make a living..."
I tilt my head. "It's not hard though." Her eyebrows go up, but she doesn't really respond. "So what should we bring? Is there anything we can hang them on so I don't need to drench myself in blood again?" I try to ask in a light tone, but Emily sees right through it, so I admit, "It's was really unpleasant..." I shiver as the images from my nightmares play back through my mind one more time. Then it feels like Maven is kicking me in the head, telling me to stop doing that, it's freaking him out. I have to shake myself from how... strange and unnerving the experience is.
Why am I being scolded by a wild animal?
"We can just cut a small branch to tie them up," Emily says while pulling things from under her bed. "I'll also bring my basket, knife, and some bandages, just in case..." She's really that worried I'll get hurt again? I sigh as she takes a bunch of extra supplies, just in case.
Before too long, we head downstairs. I grab the basket from Mister Fredricson like usual, and we head out. I leave all of the various metals and things though, I won't need them today.
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I do bring a couple bandages with me, I'll want something to put the money in later. But I don't want them in the basket, I'll end up getting the dried up lele fruit on it, which might make Mister Fredricson angry later. Back during the week with the little kids, he yelled at me when I put in some berries that got crushed and they stained the pieces of the woven pieces of wood. Or... bark maybe. I'm not entirely sure what this basket is made of, actually.
While we walk, I work on finding a way to carry the bandages. At first I try tying them on my arms, but it starts itching uncomfortably after a bit, so I pull them back off as we're walking and use them to tie up my hair instead.
"A ponytail?" Emily asks when I tie it up.
"Ponytail? What does that mean?"
She blinks. "The way you tied your hair up. Why a ponytail?"
"There's a name for tying up your hair...?" I wonder aloud. "I'm just trying to tie on these bandages so I don't need to carry them, but I haven't washed the lele fruit off yet."
"Huh... So that stuff really messes with you..."
"Yeah..." I sigh. We only walk for a little while longer before I pull the bandages out of my hair. "Aah! That's no good either!" I complain while rubbing my head. Who knew I had mana in my hair too? I finally tie them onto some extra folds in my robe. I wouldn't say they look totally safe from falling off there since my knot tying isn't great, but that stuff feels awful anywhere it touches my body. Like poison.
We keep walking for a while until we reach the West Gate, then head south into the forest like I did yesterday. We head deeper in, toward where I gathered the tamarans, and I immediately wish I could use the bandages to tie up my hair since it still gets snagged on everything. Even so, it's really, really easy to find the right spot since I know it's right near Maven's burrow. However, the area around his burrow is pretty much stripped clean, we'll want to go a little way away from there to find more fruit for bait...
As we get deeper into the trees, we are finally away from all other people, and I can tell Emily freely about my weird discoveries yesterday.
"So uhh, you know how I said I accidentally discovered that people have some mana...?" I start. Maybe it's my nervous tone, but Emily already looks worried. "I figured I should test some of the... possibly dangerous things I had in mind on animals since I was going to kill the hobins anyway..." She gulps, clearly not liking where this is going. "Good news, I found out that animals do have some mana too. Or at least hobins do.
"Oh, that's not so bad." She shrugs, clearly having expected me to tell her something much worse than a random fact like that. It's not like she can really do anything with the information anyway.
"Well, yeah. It was cool finding out. I also tested a few, umm... other things?" This time her eyes narrow.
"You... said you wanted to... show me something..." Now she looks really worried.
"Don't worry, it's not scary or anything," I try to calm her down. I pull to get Maven to come over, we're not too far from his burrow now. "Well, the first thing I tried was taking their mana out, which seems to just knock them unconscious. Pretty useful actually. I didn't need to worry about getting attacked like before when I was killing them."
"That is useful," Emily agrees, probably glad for anything that makes me a little safer.
"Next I tried putting some of my mana into them instead. That uhh... is a little hard to explain. They woke back up, but kind of just ignored me."
"Ignored you?"
"Yeah, it was sort of weird. I could just hold onto them and they didn't seem to mind me. But they went back to doing whatever they wanted like I wasn't there if I let go of them. I'll show you a bit later when we catch one."
"Sure, it sounds, uhh, interesting." Emily looks like she doesn't really know what to make of it though.
"Then I tried kind of feeling around inside it..."
"Inside it?" she blanches.
"Not physically!" Why does everyone always think that? "Like, with my mana."
"Oh," she sighs, relieved.
"I don't really know how to describe it, but it was umm... new?" I'm pretty sure that's not the right word. It's more like, I learned a new thing that I never knew before, but I have no idea what word to us for that... Emily has absolutely no response to my claim anyway.
Finally, I finish off the explanation. "So then I did the, uhh, the thing that is sort of scary if I think about it too much..." I mumble through the last bit.
"And that was..." she hesitantly prods me to continue.
"Well, it seems that everything has a sort of... well of mana at its core. Or at least the hobin and I both do. I don't really know exactly what it is. I'm still working on that."
"Hmm..." Emily doesn't have much of a comment on this one. I didn't even describe it very well, so it's no surprise.
"Whatever it is, it's really important. The hobin's well had its original mana, even after I pulled its mana out. Even when I tried replacing it with my own." She nods slowly. I scratch my cheek a little, kind of worried just explaining this last part to her. "I just wanted to see what would happen..." I say slowly. "I tried pouring my mana into its well to see what it would do."
She just blinks a couple times. "Ok? That's it? You had me worried that you did something really weird or scary..." she sighs out.
"Umm, I think I actually might have..." I mutter. "At least, based on the results..." Her head snaps back up.
"The results? What happened?"
"That's what I wanted to show you." I pull a little, and Maven walks out from the brush. I can feel him twitching uncomfortably, too close to a human who could attack him. So even with my mana, he reacts normally to humans?
Emily's eyes stop on the hobin that appears from the brush. Her whole body goes stiff at the unexpected appearance. "Aria?" she asks, unsure what's happening.
"I uhh... call him Maven?" is all I can come up with.
"Maven?" That's her only response. She just keeps standing there, staring, so I lean down and put out my hand, tugging him a little more. He leaps easily into my hand. Emily jumps, lurching back a bit.
I hold him up for her to see. It makes him even more nervous. "Shush, this is Emily. She's not going to hurt you," I scold the nervous animal, making it calm down. He sits in my hand, the back of his body curled across my wrist. He's actually pretty light, and his fur feels really nice. I didn't notice that yesterday. I didn't really have a chance before he walked off.
"You're talking to it...?" she's stunned.
"Well you see, when I poured my mana into its well, it kind of uhh... I don't know exactly how to explain. It kind of feels like it made him... part of me?"
"Meaning...?" She tilts her head.
"Well, I can feel my mana inside of him, even when we're not near each other. I can basically control him like an extension of myself, see what he sees, know what he knows?" She shrinks back a bit more. "Yeah, like I said, it sounds... maybe possibly scary..." I mutter. "I had no idea I could use my mana for something like this. I don't really know what to think of it."
She shakes her head. "Yeah, I don't know either." She gulps, her hand twitching a little. "You can... control it...?" she asks.
"Yeah, you want to...?" I extend my hand with Maven in it. Mentally, I command him not to be afraid or attack her. I can feel him relax in my palm. Slowly, carefully, she reaches out. I can feel the natural instinct to draw back or snap at the larger, dangerous predator conflict with my command, but my command overrules it completely. Emily is not dangerous. I make this absolute declaration to the creature. Now he just needs to learn it for himself.
Her hand brushes his fur lightly. It sinks in until she touches his back. Her hand trembles a little as she rubs along his fur with soft strokes. See? It feels nice, I poke the small animal mentally.
She finally smiles, some of the tension going out of her shoulders. "I always thought hobins looked pretty and fluffy," she comments. "Its fur is so nice..."
"He... is proud of his fur...?" I raise an eyebrow as I inform her of his response.
"Wait, it can understand me?" She tilts her head with a kind of worried expression, but doesn't stop petting him.
"Sort of, I think?" I don't really know for sure either. That finally gets her to grin a bit. She pets Maven for a little longer.
"So, it's basically like you tamed a wild animal I guess?" Emily asks.
"Tamed? I'm not sure what that is."
"Uhh, it's kind of like what we do with horses. That's why they work for us and let us ride them. What's wrong?" she asks when I visibly shudder.
"Sorry, I'm just a bit scared of horses." Maybe more than a bit. When she raises an eyebrow, I explain, "They don't like me. I got too close to one once and it almost killed me."
"It... can't be that bad...?" she tries to cheer me up, "it was probably just spooked. Everyone says horses scare easily." I try to force a grin, knowing full well that the horse looked right at me and was immediately terrified. It doesn't leave any room for doubt that it was scared of me because I'm a rail unit, but I drop the topic for now.
"Well, we should get moving. Hobins are mostly active in the morning and evening," I say. Emily nods. Then I speak directly to Maven. "Sorry, we're hunting hobins today. Please be sure to keep your family away from the area we'll be in, search somewhere away from us today." I let him jump back to the ground, scurrying away into the brush.
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"I'm still not completely sure, but I think that's kind of cool," Emily says as we move deeper into the forest.
"I guess? The idea of making something part of me like that scares me," I admit, "but I learned a lot about hobins, so it's not all bad." We quickly move deeper in, a long way off from Maven's group. No need to worry about catching any of his friends. The area we end up in is pretty dark. Lots of brush with just a few open patches of ground. "Hobins should love this spot," I comment. "Let's look for some fruit." We're kind of far from the area I initially collected fruit with Jack, but there's stuff all throughout the forest, so maybe there will be some around here somewhere?
I gaze around for a bit. What sort of trees drop fruit? I look closely at the bark of a few trees until Maven tells me that this one does is a kind that does drop fruit he eats. I'm not sure if it's in season right now, but I start looking up anyway. Apparently I'm looking for green fruits? I'm not familiar with them, but I look up anyway.
It's hard to tell if there are any or if they just blend in with the leaves. Then I think I spot one. "Hold on, I think this might work." I jump up into the tree, climbing up to a branch near what might be the fruit. I walk up under it to get a closer look. Maven confirms this is the green fruit I'm looking for. It's kind of small and round, and there are quite a few of them growing in a little bunch. I don't recognize it at all. Can humans even eat this? I pick the small fruits and and drop back to the ground to ask Emily about it.
"The way you climb trees is terrifying..." she comments, rubbing her head. I don't really understand what she means, so I just shrug and show her the fruit.
"Do you know what kind of fruit this is?" Emily asks. "Can't say I've seen it before. Will it attract hobins?"
"Yeah, at least Maven says so," I shrug in response.
"Maven is helping you hunt hobins... Isn't that a little...?" She trails off.
"Yeah, it bothers me too," I admit. But it doesn't seem to bother Maven at all that we're hunting his kind... I guess that's not the sort of thing animals worry about? I shake my head. "Well, there should be some more of these around here, let's collect a few." She nods seriously, and we start climbing. It's really hard to spot the small green fruits, they blend into the leaves of the trees so well. Their size makes them a hassle too. Much smaller than tamarans, I can fit four or five in each hand. They might be closer to berries than fruits. At least when we do find them, they come in clusters.
Despite the pain gathering them, we eventually get a few handfuls. "Now what?" Emily asks.
"We use these as bait. We just have to leave them on the ground and wait for hobins to show up."
"That's it?" She squints little with a look that says she doubts this plan. "We just wait and they'll show up on their own?"
"Uhh, yeah," I respond simply. It's not complicated or anything. This is an area hobins would love to live, with food they eat. It's getting near the middle of the day, so there might not be as many out searching for food right now, but there should at least be a few. "We'll also need a branch to hang them," I say.
"Oh, right, right." Emily quickly cuts a rather thick stick from a tree and cuts off any little twigs attached. We place the fruit on the ground in a good spot, spreading the pile out a bit, and climb up into a tree.
"Now we just stay quiet and wait," I say quietly. I privately question Maven what sort of predators hobins normally have. Of course he can't give names or anything. He gives me impressions of rather large animals, but still smaller than humans. It seems there are two main types. One moves quickly and has claws, and the other seems to hop around. None that dive down from above though. So that's why they don't watch above them...
But if you don't have any predators in the trees, why do you search the ground for fruit instead of climbing the trees? I question him mentally. Apparently that never occurred to any of them. It's not like they are terribly intelligent animals. I can feel him finally looking around up above him. He easily spots a fruit, uses his claws to climb up to it, cut it off the branch without trouble, and return to the ground. It's so easy.
Of course, the fruit won't be ripe yet, I remind him. But with such easy access to food, they can stock up and wait for it to ripen. It also frees them up from worrying about baited traps, though it seems I'm the only one who's thought of it before?
"Hey Emily," I whisper. "There can't be any way I'm the only one to think of this. Why doesn't anyone leave bait to catch animals?"
"I don't know, how did you figure out something like this anyway?"
"All I did was put the fruit I picked in my basket on the ground, but-"
"You left your basket on the ground?!" she shout-whispers back, going pale.
"Yes? I couldn't climb with it." What's wrong with that?
"T-that's right..." Emily stammers a little. "You're still using a small basket. Normally by the time someone is big enough to climb, they have a bigger basket they can climb with... Normally you'd never want to leave a basket on the ground, they're way too expensive, it's not worth them getting stolen or lost."
"Really? How much did yours cost?" I ask.
"Mine was about five coppers."
"Seriously? That's more than I need for metal ingots..." I blink in astonishment.
"It's the main tool we need to make money, of course it's expensive. The ones big kids and adults use are even more expensive. They can cost three or more iron coins!" Those huge prices make me gulp. So that explains why no one leaves their baskets on the ground...
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"So normally anyone climbing would be bigger and have a basket like yours, so they wouldn't leave it on the ground... Of course they wouldn't leave their fruit on the ground either..."
"It's only because of your scary climbing that you can even get into the trees," she shakes her head when she mentions the way I have to maneuver to reach the lowest branches. I know it's sloppy, but scary? Isn't that a bit harsh? "It looks like you're going to fall and break your neck..." she grumbles.
"Hehe... don't worry, I think I'm pretty good at climbing now." Our whispered conversation hits a lull, and we continue watching the fruit on the ground. Well, I guess that explains why no one figured this out before, it's stupid to leave your stuff lying on the ground apparently...
It really isn't the best time of day. We end up needing to wait quite a while before the first hobin appears. Emily perks up when it finally shows up. I put a hand up so she doesn't move, waiting for the hobin to pick up a fruit. While it searches the ground, I lean out of the tree from above. Just like the other times, I come down on it without warning, pinning it, then quickly pull its mana out so it falls unconscious. I wave Emily out of the tree.
"This is what happens when I pull their mana out. They fall unconscious, but I still haven't figured out if they eventually wake up, or if they die from it... Can we leave this one to see what happens?" I ask. "I'd really like to know in case I ever need to pull mana out of someone again. I want to know exactly how dangerous it is." Emily looks kind of uncomfortable, but she nods.
"That's ok... for now, I guess." I use the bandages to tie the hobin up tightly, in case it does wake up. Then it won't be able to escape. We put it in my basket, wedging it up between two branches in the trees so it's not down near the ground where it might attract a natural predator, or warn off other hobins.
And then we wait again. I perk up as the midday whistle passes. Emily raises an eyebrow, but I just shrug and we continue waiting. After collecting a frankly absurd amount of fruit from the trees, Maven is a totally loved and adored by his fellow hobins back in his burrow, and they all settle in through the middle of the day. At least one of us is being very successful today.
We end up waiting quite a while for the next hobin. I knock it out like the first, and give it to Emily. "So, how long will the meat last? Does it matter if we kill them now or later?"
"Well, it's the middle of summer, so the meat will only last for about a day. It's nothing we need to worry about as long as we're selling them today.
"Then I guess it won't be a problem to kill and dress them when we catch them?" She thinks about it for a bit.
"Hmm... I'm not sure, I've never hunted before."
"Let's cover both options," I suggest. "First, if we leave them, they might die, and the meat might spoil before we get them to town. However, if we bleed them out, the blood might attract predators?" I know the guts will if you don't bury them, but I'm worried the scent of blood would as well.
"Yeah, attracting predators could be dangerous."
"Well, we could get around that by putting them up in the trees," I say.
"How does that solve the problem?"
"Oh, hobins don't have any tree climbing predators. As long as we hang them up there, we don't need to worry about them much." Well, the blood on the ground might attract them, but as long as the hobins are up in a tree, we don't need to worry about their predators stealing them.
"I see..." Emily rubs her chin. "I don't want our work to go to waste in case they die before we bleed them out, let's do it as we go. I nod. I slowly start to reach out for the hobin so I can kill it, but she turns away, drawing her knife as she moves to a spot nearby.
A flick of her knife cuts the hobin's throat. I blink a couple times in surprise, then release the breath I didn't realize I was holding. Emily sets it down and begins quickly cutting it open. She's really good at this! How? I thought they didn't catch them that often?
"You're... really good," I tell her.
"My father caught them at work sometimes. He showed me how when I was really young..." She smiles a little. Of course, she doesn't need to say any more. She has it all opened up, organs in a hole in no time at all. It's all so quick and easy. There's still blood, but it doesn't fly and splatter everywhere like when I had to practically tear them open with my bare hands. She's a little bloody afterward, so she just wipes her hands on her skirt to get them clean, and she's... just... done.
She makes it look so easy...
Even looking at the hobin. It's opened up, red and bleeding, but at the same time, the nice clean cuts make it look like, well, a dead hobin, rather than a terrifying corpse that will forever haunt my nightmares.
Emily is amazing...
With that finished, she pulls a roll of thread from her supplies. It looks a lot like what Marrianne used when she was sewing. Emily takes the thread, snaps some off, and ties the hobin onto the stick, hanging by its legs. She easily knots the thread so it will stay. Finally, she wipes off the blade of her knife on her skirt, then slides it safely back into its sheath at her waist.
After we climb back up into the tree to wait, I sneak a few glances at her, but she doesn't look freaked out at all. She said her dad taught her, I guess that's why. She's already used to things like this. I turn away, looking back out over our little trap and relax a bit. But an unsettlingly familiar scent draws my attention.
"Hmm, it kind of smells. We should probably dress them away from the bait, the hobins might avoid the area. Uhh... Yeah. Maven says hobins avoid areas that smell strongly of blood."
"Ahh, I didn't think of that," Emily says. "Sorry, I've never used bait before." I just tell her it's fine. It doesn't last too long before the scent fades anyway. We wait for a little while longer. It's slowly getting later in the day, when hobins will be more active. Even Maven's burrow begins to pick up in activity again, despite all the food they've already gathered today.
Sure enough, the increased activity sees another hobin appear before too much longer. We knock it out, bring it a short distance away to cut open, and string it up in a tree over there, with the other one.
From that point, the hunting goes well. Hobins show up from time to time, drawn by our bait, and we kill them easily. With them up in a tree, we don't see any predators walking around either. Emily does all of the dressing, and I keep watching, trying to get myself used to the sight and smell of the gore.
Even if I don't want to think about it, I'll probably see a lot worse in battle...
The sun begins to fall, and it's about time we get going. I check the pulse of the one we left in the basket. It's still alive, as if sleeping. So I still don't know what happens if I just leave it alone. I suppose I should find out what happens if I put its mana back in... except I absorbed it a long time ago. I'll just use my own then. "Oh that's right, I forgot to show you what happens if I put my mana in them," I comment as that comes to mind. Since it's about time to leave, I guess I'll just show her, then kill it.
I bring it back to the ground, pin it down, and push some of my mana inside. Like before, it wakes up without fighting. It's still all bound up, but doesn't seem to care. I pick it up so Emily can see from her spot overhead. She leans forward in the tree, wowed by how calm it suddenly is. However, it sees her looking right down at her, and immediately starts struggling, trying to escape. Startled, I pull the mana back on reflex.
"Huh, I guess my mana makes them ignore me, but not anyone else?" I just shrug. Emily comes down from the tree, also shrugging at the strange situation neither of us know how to explain. I untie it and hand her the unconscious animal to dress. I'm... really glad she's here for this part...
"Last one," she comments, counting them as she ties it up. "Ten in one day? This is incredible... Aria, you're a genius."
"Genius?" I tilt my head at the unfamiliar word.
"It's a compliment! You're really smart coming up with such a good way to make money!" she laughs.
"Oh, thanks a lot! I couldn't have done it without your help though. You didn't see how I mangled the ones yesterday trying to cut them up myself..." I still wince at the memory, but try to focus on how amazing Emily is with her knife instead. She just giggles while taking the stick down from the tree. We collect all of our supplies as well as the green fruits and get going. I toss a couple to Maven's burrow as we pass as thanks, not that they need them much anymore with all the food they've gathered.
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We quickly begin leaving the forest. We chat happily as we walk, covering ground fast. We make it all the way out of the woods and up to the gate. Today, the guard is dumbfounded by how many hobins we caught, still scratching his head when he informs us it's not long until the tenth bell. We thank him and head straight toward the central market.
When we get there, the first thing we do is ask about the green fruit. However, none of the shop owners are familiar with it. So we leave it for now. "We can take it to the buyer we normally go to," Emily says. "He knows everything we gather in the forest, so he'll be able to tell us. He'll be at the Northwest market on Shanaday, let's just take them home until then."
"Got it," I say, and we head further into the market, looking for the merchant from yesterday. Eventually I spot him and we head over to his stand. His eyes go wide when he sees all the hobins tied to the stick Emily is carrying.
"We would like to sell five hobins today," she says. She holds out the stick, and the merchant cuts five of them off after examining them closely.
"Looks like you got some help this time," he comments to me, "these look much better. Very nice knifework," he compliments Emily, and she puffs her chest out proudly. He nods a few times as he examines them. "Pelts like this, worth a copper and a half... a half copper for the rest. Two coppers each," he gives his final price. "Ten coppers total."
"Ten coppers?" Emily asks breathlessly. I'm pretty sure that's a lot of money, but I'm not familiar enough to really feel it like Emily.
"But..." the man says, suddenly snapping her out of it. He's not going to change his final offer for some reason, is he? "What are you little girls going to do with five hobins?" he asks with a concerned look. That one makes Emily think deeply. She grabs me, turning us around so we can talk privately.
"He has a point, the orphanage can't use this many before they go bad. We should sell three more and give the profits to Mister Fredricson. The last two I think we can at least use before they spoil.
"Ok," I nod easily. Emily knows so much more than I do, I'm sure she has a better idea of what to do here than I do. We turn back to the man.
"We'll sell three more," she tells him. The man nods, cutting three more down. After looking closely at them, he puts a stack of coins on the counter.
"Sixteen coppers. Thank you for your business," the man says with a big smile. We count them for a moment to confirm.
"Thank you!" we both call in unison. We take the coins and turn to leave. As we walk, we split the coins into three portions. We each get five, and six go to Mister Fredricson for the hobins we sold for the orphanage. We each wrap up our shares, as well as his, and get walking.
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We walk quickly. Instead of just my strange clothing, now we're receiving stares because we're carrying hobins on a stick all the way to the north end of town. It feels like we might get attacked at any moment... We rush back, arriving just after the eleventh bell, and go to Mister Fredricson's office.
"Good evening girls..." he says skeptically. I have a feeling he has no idea what to expect from me anymore.
"We caught ten hobins today," Emily informs him. That makes his eyes go wide. He glances over to the ones she has and looks suspicious.
"You're missing a few."
"We sold three on behalf of the orphanage at the market, since we can't use all of them before they spoil," Emily explains. I can see her trembling slightly, but she speaks confidently. "Two coppers each." She places the stack of six coppers on his desk. "This is the share for the orphanage." He considers the coins for a few moments with hands crossed in front of his face. I can see him glance over at me, then back to Emily.
"Smart. Good decision, girl," he says to her with a small nod. He picks up the small stack of coins and puts them into a drawer. "Salt that one, we will use the other for dinner tonight," he instructs her.
"Yes, sir." We turn to leave, but then I remember and turn back, handing him the small basket before we go. Emily drops the first hobin on the table where everyone is leaving things as they return, then heads into the kitchen. I don't know what salting meat is, so I follow along. It sounds interesting.
They aren't preparing dinner yet, so she uses the counter, except she isn't tall enough to use it comfortably. I suggest a chair, and drag one in for her. She stands on it, using her knife to quickly separate the hide from the meat, and puts the skin back on the table near the entrance while I push the chair back. It feels like the other kids here are all staring at us as we work...
Then we head to the storeroom. She hands me the meat and grabs a large container off of a shelf.
"This is salt, we'll use it on the meat," she explains. Then she uses her free hand to open up a door... in the floor? I stare at the new area I didn't know existed. We head down into a room underneath the storeroom. "I guess you've never seen the cellar before?" she asks. "We need to hang the salted meat in a cold place, and this is the coldest in the house."
I stare around in wonder. There are some chains hanging from the ceiling with hooks on them, and a table in the middle of the room. Nothing's hanging from the chains right now though. I set the meat down on the table as Emily tells me, then she wrenches the lid off of the container. It looks like there's some sort of white powdery substance inside. She pours some on the meat, then begins rubbing it in. She turns the meat around a few times, pouring more salt on.
Eventually, she nods when the surface is entirely covered. She scrambles up to stand on the table so she can reach the hooks overhead and stabs a hook through the meat. Then she climbs back down off the table. As she goes back over to the container of salt, I examine it closely. What a strange white powder...
I take a little pinch of it out of the container. It feels kind of pokey and gritty between my fingers. I roll it around a little, it's an odd feeling. Then I sniff it a bit. It... sort of smells like something? I can't really compare it to anything else though. It is just its own unique scent. Salt smell, I guess. I lick it off my hand. "Geee!" I squeal out, scrunching up my face from the incredibly salty flavor that hits my tongue.
"I swear, every time!" Emily exclaims. Then she just sighs as I flail uselessly until the taste fades from my tongue. She takes the time to force the lid back on the salt container with a grunt while I recover.
Then I say, "So that's why it's called salt? It's really salty!" Emily just giggles in response.
"Well, that's how it's done," she says with a funny smile. I nod a few times. Despite my blunder at the end, I think I followed the whole process well enough.
"I'm assuming salting the meat makes it last longer?" Otherwise I can't think of much reason for going to all this trouble if we still need to use it within a day.
"Yup, salted meat can last for months," Emily explains while we head back upstairs. She puts the salt container back and we leave the storeroom. I wonder why putting salt on meat makes it last longer? When I ask, Emily just shrugs and says that's how it works. Hmm...
----------------------------------------
We head up to our room to drop off our stuff. Then we both just sit for a bit. We didn't actually do a whole lot today, since we spent almost the entire time sitting in a tree, but I'm still a bit tired just from all the excitement. I lie down. I'm not all that sleepy, so I hold up one of the copper coins I earned. This is one of the metals I want to study after all, and I have some time now...
I sit back up and grab the nuvrite coin. I hold them close together, then push my mana through the nuvrite. Nothing? I don't feel any change in my mana. The copper doesn't do anything. No magnetic effect, no glowing, no temperature change. As far as I can tell, there is no change. "Hmm..." A metal that doesn't interact at all? Maybe I need a stronger effect. I place the coin on my wrist, since the only mollite I have is stuck in my arm.
It feels more than a little weird, using the broken tip of the knife I was stabbed with, but as long as it's stuck inside body, I may as well use it...
I remember how much stronger mollite is than nuvrite, so I start off slow, ramping up the power over time. I... think I feel something? It's like the little hairs on my arm are standing up. I stop, and my hairs slowly stop standing on end.
"Mmm, I don't get it," I sigh.
"Don't get what?" Emily asks, looking at me with interest.
"I'm trying to figure out what copper can do, but whatever it is, it's not obvious at all. Maybe I need more..." I try moving two coins around, kind of like how a piece of iron doesn't seem to do anything on its own, until it has another piece of metal to push and pull. I try creating a strong effect with the mollite, then move the two copper coins near each other, then apart. They definitely don't act like iron. No attraction toward each other or anything. I try tapping them together a few times. Still nothing. What am I looking for...?
"This is the hardest part, I don't know what I'm trying to find out," I sigh. Once more, I try ramping up the power. I can feel my hairs stand on end. Something must be happening, right? But there's still nothing I can actually observe. I try tapping the coins together again. Turning them around. Does the direction matter, like with iron? I put them end to end, in line with the direction I run my mana. Then I try reversing direction. How about perpendicular to the faces of the coins?
Nothing, nothing nothing. I turn their faces toward each other. I flip one around. Maintaining a strong flow while doing all of this is a bit tiring. My mana feels like it doesn't want to go through the mollite. At least I'm not building up any abnormal mana like this. Though I am burning through a good bit of it just going on and on like this.
I try rubbing them together, turning them around again. So is direction not important? Then how about motion? I try rotating the coins around my wrist. One coin, then both. Maybe I should try moving the source instead of the coins? I grab the other coins and set them down in a circle, a little space between each coin. Then I try moving my wrist along the circle to see if that does anything.
"Now what are you doing?" Emily asks with an odd expression.
"Just trying anything. I can't tell if direction or movement might be important. So I'm trying moving the source around now..."
"Huh, you really are just trying whatever..." she mutters. "This is how you figured everything else out too?"
"Pretty much, but all of those at least... did something. I had a specific effect I could mess with to see how they worked before. I can't figure this one out because so far, there's nothing I can actually see..." I grumble.
"Huh..." she answers vaguely. Part of me wants to just give up for now, but maybe there's one other thing to try. Maybe hitting it all at once will have some effect, like when I used it like a hammer? I have no idea how big the effect might be though... The other part of me is frustrated with none of my attempts finding any results whatsoever. I feel like I'm dangerously close to just... trying something. Like I did with the hobin.
"Mmm..." I mumble.
"Think of something?" Emily asks.
"Maybe, but it might be a bad idea..."
"If you think it might be a bad idea..." She sounds really worried now. I scratch my head. But... I guess I may as well try it. So far nothing has happened after all.
"I guess it's worth a shot..." I lean over the coins and press my palm flat on the bed the coins arranged across the bed. Emily shrinks back a little bit, sliding further toward the wall at the back of her bed. I take a deep breath, then swing hard, like I did before. I feel... something. And yet, nothing happens. I was pushing down toward my hand, how about I pull up toward my arm? With another sharp exhale, I swing again, forcing my mana through the bit of mollite backward, away from my hand. That would put the direction upward, away from the bed the coins sit on.
"Maybe perpendicular? I still have no idea if direction matters though..." I mutter. I lean back and take a deep breath, turning my hand so it faces toward the coins, and swing again. Once more, I can feel my hairs standing up, but nothing happens. Swinging like this is tiring. Every time, it takes a whole lot of force to push all the mana through the mollite all at once.
"Parallel?" I turn so my arm runs along the coins. Another deep breath, and a swing again.
BOOM!
The room goes white. It must be instinct, we both leap backward, pressing ourselves against opposite walls. We're blinking rapidly. I can still see it burned into my vision.
"W-w-w-w-w-was t-t-that l-l-l-lightning!?" Emily is trembling, her rapid, panicked words tumbling out. It's only moments later that our door slams open, a child I don't know looking inside.
"What on Loqa was that?!" the child asks. It already looks like a crowd is forming around him.
We're both in shock. We're shaking. We look at each other with wide, terrified eyes. We look back at him. Then we speak as one.
"Nothing!"
He looks at us, deadpan. The crowd of children release a collective groan and move off. The door swings closed. They sure are excitable. Or just nosy. We both take some time to recover from the shock.
It's not long until Mister Fredricson kicks open our door as well. We both jump to our feet in an instant, and I shift just enough to stand so the coins are on the bed behind me. He stands in the doorway glaring at us. "You again," he growls. "What happened?" he asks and looks around. Since there's no obvious damage anywhere in our room, we both shake our heads and continue to deny everything. He just narrows his eyes at us, but eventually sighs, and tells us to watch ourselves, before stomping back out of our room.
After we finish having heart attacks, I take a closer look at the coins. There are small scorch marks on the wood between each coin. I can still see the way the lightning moved in my head. It connected each coin, going in a circle. Or maybe, traveling around the circle?
"So copper produces lightning? Isn't that a bit much?" I ask quietly. "But wait, it didn't do anything until I hit it really, really hard. Isn't there any... lower power version?" I ask no one in particular. I try pushing the coins together so we don't get big arcs of lightning again. "Direction matters," I mutter. I put my hand the same way as before, pushing along the ring of coins. I push with some mana, but nothing happens.
"I won't be able to see anything if the lightning isn't arcing between two points..." I mutter. I think back to when I've seen lightning in the rain. Normally it only lasts an instant. Is that why I needed to hit it so hard? That was how much it took to create some? So how would I make a smaller version? The best first step I can think of is to just lower the power and make the gap smaller. I try pushing at half of the power as that big hit. It's still a lot of force.
"Let's see if this does it..." While pushing like before, but constant this time, I slowly separate two of the coins.
Zzzzzzz
A strange buzz emanates from the gap, with what looks like a smaller, constantly arcing bolt of lightning across the tiny gap. "It's working!" I gasp. I try increasing the power, and the lightning grows. I decrease it, and the lightning shrinks. I let the power drop lower and lower, the arc visibly weakening bit by bit, until it finally breaks. I increase the power again, but it doesn't start up again. I raise an eyebrow and increase the power further. I keep going back up, but nothing happens. I touch the coins together, bring them apart, and the arc reappears. So it needs far less power to get started if they're in contact...
"But why a ring?" I wonder aloud. "Wait, the lightning only traveled in a ring. I get it! It's so obvious!" I berate myself.
"W-what's obvious?" Emily asks, eyebrow twitching for some reason.
"It's a current! Like what I do with my mana. It has to make a complete circle. I didn't think about it because I always use myself to complete the circle when I'm using my mana. It must be energy like mana, flowing. But this only works with copper." I blink a couple times. "Who says it only works with copper?" My mind goes into overdrive. What else might this energy be able to flow through? I mean, mana can go through mollite and nuvrite. So far I only know of this... lightning energy going through copper. What else might it go through? I mean, it went through thin air, didn't it? Or maybe that's different. Can mana arc between two points too? What effects does this energy cause on things around it? The same ones as mana? Or different ones? I have so many questions to answer now.
But all of that will be even harder to figure out than mana. I can't feel it directly like I can with mana. Is there some way I can observe this new energy?
And before all of that, I need to find a better way of testing. My bed has scorch marks from the arcing lightning, so far my only way of observing this energy. I am not about to risk setting my bed on fire, I need a new place to test this.
While all of these thoughts spin through my mind, the twelfth bell suddenly rings out through town. Then the whistle. It brings me back to the present. I have so many questions. Which ones should I test for answers? Which ones might save my life?
"Aria, dinnertime," Emily reminds me.
I shake my head. "Yeah. Thanks Emily." Food is important too, my questions will have to wait.
"So are you going to tell me... whatever you've figured out?"
"Umm, I'm still working through it. Maybe tomorrow?" I shake my head again. "Actually, are we going back to the forest together? I kind of got the money I needed, but I also need more copper to use it for anything..." I briefly consider my options.
"I'm up for the forest tomorrow," she comments.
"Hmm, I really should pick up those materials I want so I can start testing them, but I should also go to the forest... why not both?" I shrug as I think.
"Both?" Emily questions.
"Most of the time is spent waiting, I can test things while waiting... probably."
"Mmm..." Emily doesn't seem so sure, but finally sighs. "Even if we end up missing some while you're off in your own little world, catching hobins like that is by far the best way of making money I've seen. Even if we just get a few, it'll still be worth it."
"Then it's settled, we'll head to the refinery first thing tomorrow, then the forest."
With that settled, we go downstairs for dinner. When we arrive, everyone is looking at us. We glance at each other. As we take our seats, a number of kids thank us. I guess word spread after we showed up carrying the hobins. I mean, this is the second day we've had meat in a row. I didn't even eat like this at Marrianne's house. We awkwardly accept the heaps of thanks from all around, giggling nervously to each other.
It looks like our work to make as much money as we can has some good effects for the orphanage too. After dinner, we go right to bed. It's going to be another full day tomorrow. Emily joins me on my now slightly scorched bed, and we fall asleep very quickly.