Despite being on tenterhooks for most of the morning, even after getting back to the cave area, nothing bad happens. Well, nothing outside the normal, that is. In the end I don’t make more soup since I suddenly realise that the cubs are going to need water throughout the day and my wok is the only container I have that they can easily drink from. Nothing could persuade me to make repeated trips down to the river just so I can have a bit of hot soup in the morning.

Instead, I just get on with the pit, relishing the simple, relaxed physical activity. When Spike comes back, I get him to help me again and we make good progress. During my breaks, especially the elongated one over lunch where I recuperate from the sun and exercise, I watch the cubs. It’s a simple pleasure watching the cute bundles of fur and fluff play together, but a satisfying one. Far better than watching cat videos online as I used to, honestly.

For a while the cubs and Lathani are a bit stand-offish with each other – the cubs unsure about this large creature whereas Lathani is equally unsure about how to treat them. There’s a tense moment as the raptorcat cubs tumble together and accidentally knock into the larger nunda cub. For one long moment, the cubs are all staring at each other, and all the adults are watching them attentively – except for Spike who couldn’t care less and just continues snoozing in the sun.

Then Lathani jumps on top of Stormcloud and the other cubs ‘defend’ their sister’s honour. The whole stand-off turns into a mess of paws and ears and tails all flying which-way. But given that none of them runs squealing to their respective guardian, I’m going to count it as a win.

By the time I take my lunch-break, the cubs are exhausted, lying and snoozing together in the shade. However, when I bring out my skewer of freshly cooked meat – since I’d rather keep my pre-prepared stuff for when I’m out and about – the smell is enough to make several heads lift in curiosity. One of these being Lathani, I’m not surprised when a moment later a nunda cub comes bounding towards me, begging for scraps with liquid eyes.

A bit wary, I cast a glance over at her mother. Kalanthia looks at me for a long moment and then grunts, settling her head down on her paws. It’s enough permission for me, so I give Lathani a chunk of meat, making sure it won’t burn her first. She retreats back to the shade to gnaw on it and is soon surrounded by eager raptorcat cubs. Growling, she rebuffs their efforts to grab her food, and to avoid a diplomatic incident, I call them over.

“Ninja, Stormcloud, Trouble, come here.” They don’t pay any attention – unsurprising considering I only decided on their names this morning. Next, I whistle sharply, gaining everyone’s attention at the loud noise. Waving the meat around to catch their gazes, I repeat my instruction.

Trouble is the first over, and I reward him with a chunk of meat. Seeing that, his sisters bound towards me, receiving their own recompense with eagerness. I look at the few small bits of meat that remain on my skewer and chuckle a little ruefully. I guess I’ll need to put on another stick of meat, I sigh to myself fondly. Ah well, with any luck, if I repeat this sort of thing regularly and they start to follow my instructions even without the Bond, when I activate the Taming Skill, maybe they’ll be happy to accept the Bond.

*****

Wiping my sweaty brow, I stare at my pit with satisfaction. It’s two metres in diameter and almost a metre in depth. Thanks to Spike’s assistance, today’s work has gone quite quickly. Plus, once we got about twenty centimetres down, we got past most of the roots so it became easier to break apart the ground. Until we started hitting the stony layer, of course, but that was pretty much where I wanted to stop anyway.

I stretch, all my muscles complaining at the amount of exercise I’ve subjected them to today. Still, I feel like I’m getting fitter and my skin tougher – I only needed to cast Lay-on-hands twice today, and my hands only blistered towards the end of the day. Progress. I access my message box, noticing that I have a notification.

Congratulations!

You have worked hard on your Constitution and have earned a point. Would you like to apply this to your status?

Y/N?

Accepting the point, I move onto the next message. Unsurprisingly, that’s also offering me a point; Strength this time.

Congratulations!

You have worked hard on your Strength (Endurance) and have earned a point. Would you like to apply this to your status?

Y/N?

Again, I accept the point and then switch to looking at my status.

Name: Markus Wolfe

Race: Human

Class: Tamer

Level: 1

Energy to next level: 0%

Energy absorption rate: 11u/hr

Energy towards debt: 1%

Intelligence

9

Mana: 90/90

Wisdom

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9

Mana regeneration rate: 225u/hr

Willpower

15+3 (+20%)

Health regeneration rate: 18u/hr

Constitution

10

Health: 100/100

Strength

11

Stamina: 60/60

Dexterity

6

Stamina regeneration rate: 60u/hr

Class skills

Dominate – Beginner 3

Tame – Beginner 1

Fade – Beginner 4

Non-Class skills

Lay-on-hands – Novice 3

Stealth – Beginner 5

Animal Empathy – Beginner 2

Huh, it seems like stats above ten really do consume a lot more Energy – with my daily absorption rate and the snake-thing we killed this morning, I had about twenty-seven percent Energy towards my next level. Now I have zero. Since I doubt Constitution cost much more than the normal twelve percent, my Strength point must have taken about fifteen percent…

Still, I can’t deny the pride that rises in me at the sight of those three stats above ten. If I’m right in my calculations and ten is about Olympic level, I’m doing pretty well. Even if it’s not Olympic level, the visible and noticeable improvements to my physique are so much more motivating than the drudge at the gym used to be. My muscles are significantly more defined and I’ve lost a drastic amount of fat too. Not that I was paunchy beforehand, but I was certainly softer around certain parts than I am now. Still, considering I’ve been eating mostly lean, gamy meat and precious little carbohydrate, it’s not really surprising.

I’m still tired, though, and decide to relax for the evening. Since the cubs and Lathani seem to have got on fairly well, I decide to go out tomorrow leaving Bastet and the cubs here. I’d rather take Bastet with me, but I still doubt she’ll be happy to be separated from the cubs. At the same time, I need to really focus on collecting firewood due to not having collected nearly enough the day I re-encountered Bastet. Plus, if I’ve got a handle on Kalanthia’s pattern, which I think I have, she’s going to want to go hunting again the day after tomorrow.

With my head at stake, there’s no way I’d leave Bastet here alone with Lathani, however confident I am that she’s bound sufficiently by the Bond not to harm the nunda cub. Not to mention also by common sense. But you never know what could happen. No, better to go out alone into the forest tomorrow when Kalanthia is still here to personally keep her daughter safe. With the two adult feline-like creatures present, it should be fine. As for me, I’ve survived alone this far – hopefully that doesn’t change.

At least, that’s what I tell myself.

Grabbing a book, I sit outside to enjoy the last of the sun, the temperature now very pleasant. I really should go wash off in the river, but I really can’t be arsed. My personal hygiene has plunged since arriving here. I never used to be a neat-freak, but I would have at least one shower per day; two if I’d gone to the gym.

Here, I’m calling myself ‘clean’ if I’ve washed my face and hands in the river. I seriously hope that improved Constitution means improved resistance to germs as I’m really not practising modern-day cleanliness. Maybe once I have some soap I’ll be able to do a better job at cleaning, but for now it’s at the bottom of my list of priorities.

Speaking of priorities, I feel my stomach grumbling as it makes its emptiness known. I ignore it for a little longer, closing my eyes and just basking in the gentle touch of the lowering sun. It’s peaceful, relaxing.

Sometimes these days I find myself wondering which is the fantasy world: this one with magic and animals that can talk, if only mentally; or the one with books on electronic devices, ways of communicating instantly across the world, and cars that can drive themselves… When I consider such things, I feel an alarming sense of surrealism which is only comparable to how I felt after watching the Matrix.

My stomach brings me back to earth again. Trust hunger to do that, at least. Whether I’m living in a fantasy world or a real one, I need to eat. Closing the book, I head inside. At some point, Bastet shifted the cubs indoors, and they’re already curled up in the torn shirt. Well, two of them are at least.

I feel a swoop in my stomach as I realise that Trouble isn’t there. Looking around carefully, my thoughts racing, I catch Bastet’s eyes. She looks amused. More amused than she would be feeling if one of her cubs was actually missing.

“Trouble?” I ask softly. She turns her head to look at my bed. Well, the collection of jackets which make up my bed, anyway. I walk over quietly and peek under the top jacket. Seeing Trouble hiding underneath, curled in his own ball, I can’t help shaking my head. He’s well-named, that one, though I still think that maybe ‘Strife’ would be better.

Still, if I named him Strife and the others Stormcloud and Ninja, I might be facing a legal battle with a well-known video-game company. If I ever make it back to Earth, that is.

The thought depresses me a little, so I busy myself with making some more meat skewers and baked tuber. Heck, I might as well just call it a potato. It looks like a long sweet potato, acts like a potato when cooked, and even tastes fairly like a potato. Good enough for me.

I’m not tired enough to go to bed once I’ve eaten: despite my physical tiredness, I’m still mentally energetic. I sit there staring into the flames, thinking about everything and nothing at the same time.

I think about my life. My life back on Earth, that is. It’s still hard to make that distinction mentally – being here is a strange combination of feeling like I’ve been here forever but yet only for as long as a dream. I think about how boring it was. How despite seeming to be going somewhere with my career, even that could be kiboshed by a penny-pinching director.

I think about my family, regretting not making up with Lucy: before she was my girlfriend, she was my closest friend and I miss her. I think about my dad, and perhaps it’s the last few days of being surrounded by the dead and the dying – most of those by my hand – but I feel like I’m starting to come to terms with his death.

I even think about the despair that drove me to stand at the edge of my apartment building and dare myself to step over. It holds as much sway over me now as the despair of a dream would. If I went back to Earth now, would I fall back into the same rut as before? I doubt it: I’ve changed, and not just physically. I’ve learned the value of life in a way that I couldn’t have dreamed of before, living in the biggest city in one of the richest countries of the world as I did.

My eyelids are drooping, each blink lasting a little longer than the previous. I need to go to bed – I have to forage for wood in the forest tomorrow, and that’s likely to be peril-filled enough to warrant a decent sleep first. Switching into the cleaner set of clothes I’m using as pseudo pyjamas, I bury myself underneath my jackets, though being careful not to disturb Trouble.

As I fall asleep I can’t stop one question from nagging at me: if I could go back to Earth, would I?