Living with Annabeth for a week and a half has given me quite a good understanding of what her life is like, at least on the average day. Of course, the fog still comes around in the mornings, but that’s apparently new. Most days, her life follows the same pattern.
Wake up just after dawn and make some food, start the hearth, etcetera. Apparently, she did a little work on processing stuff in the morning, turning some flowers into dye afterwards, but now with the fog, which still comes every day.
I did ask about that, you would think that an undead made of fog that could attack anyone at any time would be a genuinely horrific thing, but apparently, while it is unsettling, no one has died.
The fog does not attack them, nor does it attack Annabeth, it seems to want me specifically, which is somewhat scary; It would be scarier, however, if I was not living in a magical grove, just the thought that if I had left for one night like I had planned as a backup, I would likely be dead is quite chilling. Not as chilling as the idea that I might not die and what might have come of that.
So far, instead of picking flowers, she picks my brain instead, helping me learn new words that aren’t as simple as saying the word in a funny accent. After all, some of the terms have gone through multiple pronunciations, so I need to figure those out. And her figuring out new ways of getting the language to stick makes learning fun, instead of the chore it technically is.
Once the fog burns off, she can get on harvesting the herbs and flowers. She grows in her garden at a quite extraordinary rate while I fill up the keg and toss out the pots.
While she works on extracting the dye and oils, she seems to dry the herbs probably magically, and I check the grass to see if it needs to be scythed, which it generally does because, much like the herbs and flowers, the grass grows like it’s on the clock and wants its bonus. Hoeing is also more required for that exact reason, so I hoe until midday or until I’m done. Most of the time, I am done, so we take a break and have a light lunch, and we do some more back and forth. I don’t know how well I’m actually capable of speaking, she’s not reacting to my presumed butchery, but that just means she’s just rather kind, not that I’m good at talking with her.
After lunch, she will sometimes go to town with her herbs, dye and oils. But, most of the time, she just comes back with money, the little coins holding unknown worth, and sometimes she comes back with stuff. Most of the time It’s just coins though.
While she’s gone, or alternately while she reads or paints, I water and debug the garden. Then I come in, and she gets food going. We eat and do more back and forth before going to bed and repeating it the next day.
Yesterday, however, this cycle was broken. I have been here for thirteen days, and on day twelve, she gets a letter. This cycle almost immediately breaks down within an hour of getting that letter.
Instead of our back and forth on the porch with a midday snack and the slate board, I take my luncheon and water normally as she seems to confusedly go through the letter again and again.
Whatever it was, It ruined the whole day for her and me. When I come inside, she’s confusedly doing something, although I have no idea what it is; I watch her go start something, then stop and remember something and then start doing it over and over. She is doing something I can only imagine as panic scurrying, and I have no idea how to help. So, I do the only thing I can think of, I go into the kitchen, almost get brained by the pots and pans, duck a little so I can walk around without bashing myself over the head and find the tools I need to cook.
I doubt my host is in the right frame of mind to do it, so I do. I get a pot of water going over the fire and bring out the utensils I need. A [Ditchdigger] might be an evolved [Labourer] class for doing things like digging ditches, but I still get [Tool handling] for knives. Ah, good old skills overlap. I checked the pantry and found a loaf of bread and butter, and I decided to go out and find the vegetables I needed.
Looking around the garden, I follow my nose and find what I’m looking for, and while I’m outside, I decide to check the potatoes.
While I have been here, I have noticed the breakneck growth of the plants in my host's garden, it's like watching the seasons pass, but the only seasons are spring and more spring. And considering how fast potatoes usually grow, I think some might be big enough to eat.
Kobolds are similar to Goblins, were like cousins. Generally speaking, Goblins and Kobolds have animal traits, but where Goblins are small [Resilient] minded guardians of flora and fauna, Kobolds are taller and [Wisdom] minded guardians of the sky and soil. But amongst the traits we both share like ears and noses, the least noted are our claws. Kobold claws are not helpful as natural weapons, but we can use them like tools, digging burrows, splitting open nuts, and getting at the roots of plants; with such natural advantages, it's easy to see why Kobolds could never be conquered by others.
Extending my claws, I started pawing away the dirt quickly, [Tool handling] aiding my hands, and with it, all the other skills I could use with a tool. It takes less than a second to find the roots and see that they are close while they are not fully grown, which is quite mind-boggling. Then, I pull up the plant and gather the spuds and bring everything in.
From there, I make soup, it's not inspired, but even I can do it. At one point, Annabeth sees me cooking and tries to fly into the kitchen and cook, but I just gently pick her up, and gently deposit her just outside the ring of stone.
“I cook, you, ok?” I ask, or at least I think that’s what I asked. I’m not exactly sure if I said it right. To try and emphasize it I place my hand on my chest and take a big, exaggerated breath. The poor panting mess looks stunned before recognizing what I’m trying to say and starts controlling her breathing. It takes her a while before her breathing slows down enough. She’s still flushed but looks less likely to sprint to her next activity.
I crouched down a little to meet her glorious green eyes with my candle flames before I asked her again, “you, ok?” She took a big breath before letting out a sigh. She nodded, and I held out my arms to see if she wanted a hug. She decided to take it. It was a bit awkward, she was shorter than I was, so I had to bend over a little to not shove her head into my chest, but she calms down as I hold her. We stayed there for a while, her smelling like panic sweat and floral scents from her soap. I give her a pat on the back, before withdrawing.
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“I cook, you read.” I didn’t say it right, I verbed the book for reading but she nodded, and I returned to cooking.
It takes some time; I have to finish a broth and add everything else. I make sure to clean out my nails. And eventually, I produce a soup that is, at best, 6 out of 10. The tubers are a bit young, but my host doesn’t seem to mind eating the starchy soup.
After dinner, we fall back into the pattern, and I get her to talk about magic until we just start talking about it. I decided I would ask about learning a little, it was more gesture than vocal. It took her a little to get across, I didn’t know the words for, ‘I would like to learn a little magic if you’re ok with teaching me. In reply, she writes down a few pictures and eventually realizes that she won’t be here tomorrow, but she could go through what I assume are the basics and write down at the end simple steps to get started with magic on the slate.
That seemed promising, so I agreed.
As it turns out, it’s hard to explain when you don’t know the words associated with magic. Luckily, we were able to cheat a little. “[Druid] mana,” and she made a pushing motion, drawing on the board a stick figure, sans the ears I put on mine, and showed the figure making the push gesture. Around that figure wiggly lines were drawn, behind the wiggles were even, and in the direction, they wove around one another and into a leaf shape.
Next was [Cleric], “[Cleric],” which she followed up with a reach and drew a figure reaching towards a symbol. If the symbol was of a real god, it wasn’t one I recognized. The sign then reached down, with squiggly lines connecting to the figure and exiting and forming a shape.
Next, she separated the two, with an additional section and gestured that they were close. She once again showed a figure, then took a dramatically large breath. She drew a square then filled it with squiggles, then half that square, then half again, and again, with more dense and dense squiggles. Finally, she drew an arrow and made a fire like squiggle indicating away from the tiny square, then an arrow from the square to the figure.
We went through a few doodles, [Wizard] where they pull the magic around them to a stick, and from the rod to meet the magic square which projected out through a hand, arrows directing the flow of what was presumably mana.
[Sorcerers] were next, a figure with a ton of tiny spheres in their body with lines going from a big circular squiggle to the little spheres. A second figure was drawn from the prior, with the circles replaced with squares, they had one hand out, with lots of squiggles going in the squares, then to the center where an additional square was drawn. From there it was out and into a shape.
We filled the slate, top to bottom, with different methods. Annabeth put down the names of each in her language so I could learn to read them, and we walked through each word. And it wasn’t a tiny slate, I was the one that hefted it around, I doubt Annabeth could, it was close to the size of the desk in the study.
Then came the techniques, which were somewhat confusing. Meditation and senses and other things she had to walk me through. Trying to touch mana was… confusing. There were sixteen or so that she showed me, and each was so completely confused that I’m glad she wrote it down with a doodle because I knew I would forget it. They were on the opposite side of the slate, so I could go over them when she was gone.
When we finally went to sleep, my head was full of new words and ideas, clattering around in a heap of jumbled up thought's. But hey, if magic was simple, we would all be mages, right?
***
When I stretched away after waking up, and my mind began to turn on, I remembered what was on today’s docket. Still stretching I folded up and began to comb my hair. I began to make sure I was in tippy top shape, both inside and out. I even used the pot, which is something I disliked. I put the lid on it after to not stink up the room for the few hours it would be up here.
I peaked out the window, to check the fog. Its continued eddying just outside the border of the grove, thicker banks flowing through the low points, like circling wolf’s waiting for prey to slip up. I closed the shutters and shivered. What am I to do about them? There was going to keep being a nuisance, keep waiting around, until one of us was gone. I was the one they were after, and I would have to be the one to end it.
I headed down and got on to practicing the methods I had been shown. I began to do the simplest one, meditation. In doing so I attempted to let myself fall into the background, to try to feel the mana, both within and without. I wasn’t there, I couldn’t fall into it quickly, and thought’s continued to peek in. An attempt in progress; one that ended when Annabeth exited her room and started breakfast.
Our day started typically, up until the fog began to drift out, burning off in the daylight and slinking back into whatever dark hole it came from. After we finished breakfast, she put on a pot of water and gestured for me to get the tub out. She washed up outside, using the warm water, the well water, and the power of magic to get a warm tub she got to clean up warm.
I did my work on the other side of the lodge to give her privacy. I got half of the garden done by the time she was finished.
I laid the hoe against the cottage and made my way around to the front and into the cabin to wait and see Annabeth off. When she came out of her room, she looked significantly more fancy. She hadn’t dressed up in something ridiculous, mind you, she had just gotten on a very high-quality garment that was similar to what she had before. In fact, the significant change was she had multiple layers of it, a smock under a more poofy dress, it made her look a little like a fluffed up bird, just a little bit, but what was some kind of wavey fabric instead of plumage.
It was done in a green that matched the highlight of her eyes. “Nice” I said, like a mono syllabic barbarian. She flushed a bit at that, wow way to go me I have embarrassed my host. I stroked the back of my neck, now it’s going to be awkward, isn’t it? How do I not mess this up? Maybe I can deflect?
“You ok today?” I asked her, it was a cop out, half deflection half genuine ask; Whatever the deal with her family was, it weighed on her, even I could pick up on that.
She nodded hesitantly, “Yes?” She held her hands together and brought them up to her breastbone, and took a few deep breaths. Then she looked up to me with her armor of frill and asked, “I look nice?”
I nodded, what was I going to do, lie? She looked like a young noble woman, which she was after a fashion. I gave her a thumbs up, before walking over to her and taking her hand in mine. And I lead her to the front door, over the threshold, and down onto the shortish grass and over to the edge of the grove.
I looked towards her and asked, “I walk?” She looked conflicted for a second before nodding.
We walked in silence, it wasn’t an ominous silence, it wasn’t the same as when I walked with Ayme. A companionable silence, as I guided her out through the path she used to walk to ‘New Moarn’, over fallen twigs and between the leaf litter of her path until we got to the clearing. The village with a walled section in the distance. No one was in line of sight, so I kept my hand in hers as we walked.
She looked up at me and smiled, and I smiled back in a dopey grin. I kept my eyes open until we got close enough that someone might be able to make out my eyes, then I closed them and kept walking. I could feel the ground and see Annabeth in the berth the air made around her. I kept smiling. I had no idea if she was still smiling but nothing to it. I had no idea where any of the buildings were though, If I had a tool at hand… than I realized I was stupid. I literally had a tool at hand, or rather in hand. In my left hand I extended my claws. I grasped around for the skill, like holding a shovel, but it was my hand. The skill clicked in my mind, and I could see the stone in a radius around me. We kept walking until we could be considered in the city, and I stopped.
I felt around with my senses and felt no human shaped disturbances in line of sight, so I opened my eyes. She looked like she had run a marathon and like she loved it. Gently I took my hand from hers and pat her on the back.
“I cook, see you [Druid].”
“I’ll see you,” she said in reply.
And like that, she was off, walking down the road like she owned it.
I turned back towards the trees and lopped back to the grove to try and learn some magic.