Knock!

Knock!

Knock!

After a few seconds, Bark opens the door.

"Hey, what's..."

"We have your round bears. That would be 400 quotes, yes?"

He looks at the bears in Mama's hands, "Yeah, of course! Wow, got a good haul today, huh? Just a second, I have a few notes..."

He turns around and rushes through his house, practically tearing the place apart. He quickly comes back with five pieces of paper scrunched in his hand.

"Here you go, three hundreds and two fifties. Mind if I take those?" he points at the bears.

Mama drops the round bears and takes the money, "Yes, of course."

"Gotta bring these back and get them cleaned up for tomorrow."

As he hoists two and brings them behind his house, he waves at us and gives a courteous 'thank you'.

The woman that led us here, who introduced herself as Tana, walks over to us.

"Do you think you could get that many every day?"

Mama nods her head, "That much is easy."

Tana starts laughing, "Every time I get off of work, I go to his stall to see if there are any sheen wraps left, but there almost never are. But now I can have a sheen wrap every day! You're awesome!"

Mama grins, and then she suddenly picks me up.

"She helped as well, her name is Lyna."

Tana pats me on the head, "Aww, Lyna, what a good girl."

I resist the urge to bite her hand, but still pout at her condescending attitude. She doesn't seem to notice though as she just smiles, waves at us, and then walks away.

Mama continues holding me, petting me incessantly. She can't seem to wipe away her proud grin, wearing it as we head back to the forest, and keeping it even as we build a campfire. Suddenly, as if she can't hold back anymore, she picks me up and hugs me as she lies down on the ground.

"Lyna, they said we are awesome! They appreciate us so much, for doing something so simple."

It seems Mama is really susceptible to positive reinforcement.

"Yeah, they must really like those sheen wraps here. I guess I can understand though, they are delicious."

"Yes, those were very delicious. And we have money now, so tomorrow we can buy some!"

"Right! If we get 400 quotes a day, that means we can buy like ten sheen wraps each, and still have lots of money left over."

"Only ten?"

"Well, I'm not sure if he'd even let us buy ten each. We'll have to ask him tomorrow."

Mama gives an 'ah', "Right, because he sells food to many people, it would be selfish of us to eat too much."

"Yeah, haha, it would be pretty selfish."

After a night of sleep, we return to Bark's stall. But for some reason, on the way there, many people keep staring at us.

'Did they find out?'

Most of the gazes are that of curiosity, but they still make me nervous. I do my best to ignore their looks, until we finally reach our destination. Bark is busy as usual, maybe even busier than he was yesterday, but he seems equally more energetic. He lifts his head up and, as he notices our approach, starts waving.

"Hey everyone, they're the ones I was talking about! It's thanks to them that there are so many sheen wraps today!" shouts Bark, pointing at us.

Almost everyone turns their heads towards us. After a few seconds, I hear someone shout 'thank you', while several other people actually start clapping and shouting!

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'Is that why people were staring at us? These people sure are passionate about their food.'

Wiping the non-existent sweat off of my forehead, I look up at Mama. Her proud smile has returned, but she doesn't seem to know what to do with herself as she looks between each of the applauding people.

Shaking her head as if to wake herself up, she starts laughing, "Thank you all, and you all are welcome."

The clapping quickly dies down after that, and we approach bark.

"So, are you able to hunt every day?"

Bark starts talking as soon as we get close to his stall, though he continues to work just as fast while doing so.

Mama nods her head, "Yes, we can hunt every day. I have a question to ask you."

"Yeah?" asks Bark, as he finishes making a sheen wrap and hands it to someone.

"Would I be able to buy 20 of your sheen wraps every day?"

Bark looks at us blankly, and several people around us release hushed laughter.

He quickly regains his composure, "Do you have a family to feed or something?"

Mama shakes her head, "No, ten for her and ten for me."

I hear people burst out laughing, while bark rubs his chin, seemingly pondering something.

"Tell ya what, as long as you can get four round bears a day, I'll make you each ten sheen wraps for free."

Mama shakes her head, "No, we will pay for them. And we will get four round bears every day."

Bark grins, "Then we have a deal! Your food will be waiting for you when you return."

With a nod of her head, Mama Bloodcat turns around and walks toward the forest. I nod my head at Bark as well, then turn around and follow her.

As I catch up to her, Mama looks over at me.

"What else can we buy with money?" she asks, still smiling proudly.

"Well, anything people sell, really. You can buy houses, tools, weapons-"

Mama gasps, "Like a halberd?"

"Well, yeah, but there are other types of weapons."

Mama shakes her head, "Halberds are my favorite."

With that, our conversation ends, and we split up to hunt again. I don't remember exactly where I went last time, so I decide to just pick a direction and go. Very quickly, I wind up at another canopied area.

After passing up a couple mama round bears with kids, I happen upon two more that are fighting over a bush.

'Are those bushes really so rare, that you would fight over them?'

After knocking them both over the head and storing them in a ring, I head back to the city, where it turns out Mama's waiting for me again.

"How are you so fast?" I ask her, as soon as I get close.

She just smiles, "We must take them out of our rings in the forest, remember?"

And so we do. As we head into the city with the round bears, I decide that one day, I'll beat Mama Bloodcat to the city entrance.

--

In the blink of an eye, several months pass. After a while, Bark found out that we were sleeping in the forest every night, so he pestered Mama to live in the city until she finally relented. He tried to convince her to rent a higher class house, but...

"Why spend extra for luxury, when all we will do is sleep there?"

So we're now staying at an inn that costs ten quotes a night, which was the cheapest place we could find. It's really a nice place. A bit small, but not at all what I think of when I hear the word 'cheap'.

Anyway, we seem to have fit in pretty well here. A lot of people know us, and they sometimes wave at us or even stop to talk whenever we go out. Lots of nice people, good food, a well paying job, I'm really starting to like this place...

"Lyna, we are heading out."

"Okay!"

I'm about to jump off of the bed, when Mama Bloodcat grabs me and picks me up. I glare at her, but she just flashes a mischievous grin before opening the door and exiting the room.

"How are you guys doing today?"

A young man, the innkeeper's son, greets us as we reach the bottom of the stairs. He and his dad take turns looking after the inn; he works the mornings and his father takes over later in the day.

"We are well, I hope you are too."

"Been better, but I'm doing just fine. Have a good day!"

He waves as we leave the inn and start our daily routine.

"Bloodcat! Got your sheen wraps here, you headed out to hunt?"

Bark holds up ten sheen wraps, while several people in the ever-present line in front of his stall wave at us.

"Yes, thank you for the food."

"Hey, so are the cultivating lessons still on for tonight?"

Recently Mama has been teaching Bark, as well as a couple other people that were willing, how to cultivate. They're all still in the Body Tempering stage, but they're making definite progress.

"Yes, we will start as soon as you close your stall."

With that, Mama picks up the food, and we once more leave the city. We set up a picnic of sorts, which has become the ritual, and start eating. I usually only eat a couple sheen wraps, while Mama Bloodcat wind up eating the rest of them. At first I thought she might get fat, and even warned her of such, but she still looks exactly the same as she always has.

I have to admit though, it's amusing to see her so passionate about something like food. She always acts so calm and cool, but when she's in front of good food, she becomes a glutton.

'She also acts funny when people praise her.'

In the middle of laughing to myself, Mama stands up.

"I am finished, I am-"

"Ah, me first! I'll beat you this time!" I scurry into the forest, in a direction where I know round bears are.

I've made it my goal to beat Mama back to the city after hunting, but no matter how fast I go, she always gets there first. But I have confidence this time. I looked around when we went out hunting yesterday, and located two round bears ahead of time!

'I bet she'll be surprised if I get there first!'

I reach my destination in moments, and find the round bear still there. With a single thump on its head, I proceed to the next spot.

"Still there! Perfect, hahaha!"

With two round bears occupying my storage ring, I make my way back to the city as fast as my legs will take me. Quickly approaching our meet up point, to my shock, I see...

"Nothing? I finally... I finally beat her! Hahaha! I can't-"

Boom!

My gloating is interrupted by the sound of an explosion coming from inside the city.