With the retreat of the Ogre party there was little else to do. Brunner had the Skills to make sure of the strangers truly leaving, and a few old hands stayed behind to partake in his hospitality, now that they’d dragged themselves all the way out here.
The rest of the mob made a trudging return through the winter evening, that was thankfully still free of snow.
A surprise on the way back was Mossy joining them and actually letting Harold touch him for a good couple minutes before stepping off the trail again, but tagging alongside them.
The mosswolf had been growing steadily, and although there was plenty more to go, they knew that soon enough he would have the frame of an adult mosswolf, if not the full weight.
There was probably some secret to what grew individual magic wolves to the size of alphas, but the fellowship was still holding off on figuring it out.
The thought did remind Livia of the conversation she'd had with the System earlier. "Hey Roldy, how's training been going?"
The new nickname caught them by surprise, but Roldy was used to rolling with the punches by now. "Yeah, it's good Livia. Brunner is teaching me all kinds of tricks, not to mention letting me know whenever I'm moving awkwardly in my new gear,"
The suit of wolf hide and sharpened bones was becoming like a second skin at this point, and since the garment was organic it was even possible to repair it using Roldy's magic, although it was still a laborious process.
Their presumption was that the soul did a lot of the heavy lifting when it came to regeneration.
"How about you Kalle? Feeling like visiting your old friend–the waterfall?" Kalle blanched at the suggestion.
Once was plenty for a memory like that.
"No, I'm gonna keep working on my [Telekinetic Push] and start to focus on my domain some more, and settle for that. So, nothing special. I’ll let you know if it changes, yeah." He nodded vigorously to emphasize his own suggestion.
"Alright. And you Oscar, any closer to figuring out what Class you're going to land on?"
Oscar had been following the conversation carefully, wondering if Livia was up to something, now he decided to play along: "No decision made, but I'm feeling closer every day, thanks for asking Liviaoldy."
"Don't do that."
----------------------------------------
Salcret held the funerals that night, and the whole town showed up to pay their respects to the fallen.
Sort of disappointingly for Livia; it wasn't some ancient viking ritual where they were venerably placed in a longboat and set on fire with sacrificial goats and horses–no, nothing that exotic.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
Although the people did still have legends of such things, even here on planet Ross.
Unfortunately all three of the deceased were from the same family, with two brothers and a sister having taken their final looks back at those left behind.
The parents stood stoic, hands resting on the father’s rather strange weaponry; it looked like some form of battle gauntlet. They were murmuring their goodbyes.
It was a great misfortune, but not surprising of one to the people of Salcret. The family in question was known for being reckless when their blood was up, despite having had twenty five children over the years only ten were known to remain alive.
Livia could barely get her head around how the woman had found the time, there must be some twins in there, but that hardly explained it. Are there birthing Skills? If they tell me it’s the [Farmers] who have them I’ll die.
The somber affair soon finished and the different groups split, with a large portion all headed back for a drink at the Hare's Retreat, those with some energy remaining to celebrate a life well-lived, even if cut short.
The part time innkeeper Lena walked up to the group of [Guild] members, right as they came on to the small hill. "Hey, did you guys hear about that rumoured pegasus that the Ogre mentioned to Brunner before we got there?"
They had in fact missed it, with Livia acting so curiously on the way back.
Apparently the Ogre’s cart had rumbled right by some other Human towns too, and recently gotten to hear about some adventuring [Guild] in Dormata who’d found a solid lead on a pegasus fjord.
Because where one such magical creature was found–there was bound to be many.
The news re-ignited Livia's childhood enthusiasm for the beasts with a vengeance, and even the rest of the fellowship were soon sharing drinks and talking about the news excitedly with any who had not yet heard.
Riding such things was a feat fit for legends, only believably told of from the golden era of Humanity when it was said such riders had been commonplace.
A couple of drinks in and Livia was going around the tavern–showing off her tiny pegasus tattoo–with the jolly cheer only proper apple brew during wintertime could induce.
She dreamed that night of a rugged prince charming who swept her off her feet only to start passionately kissing her hand. It was lovely at first, until the dreamy prince kept kissing and kissing, eventually turning it into licks.
When she opened her eyes the next morning, with a pounding headache, grumbling about Roldy forgetting to feed his wolf–since Mossy had been licking her hand until she woke up–she finally came to a conclusion.
"We badly need to get you a real name."