They all fell into a routine working on building their home. Roughly 25% of the town was dedicated to building the new construction. That added up to 8 or 9 villagers at any given time. That number fluctuated sometimes all the way down to 4 or 5, and some days up to 15 to 16 people. With 4 children and 3 elderly it was a good sizable chunk of the working force dedicated to building the house. The rest were spread out doing the many small tasks needed to keep a small farming town running. Bjorn was the only one who consistently worked on building the house. Alaric spent his time going between building the house, helping in the fields, training the 4 villagers who stated that they wanted to learn how to fight, repairing the roads, and doing some stonework.
Tayla spent most of her time in the woods with a few of the younger villagers, the ones who spent their time hunting, and exploring the surroundings. During the weeks that followed their fight to free everyone Tayla and the hunters grew close. They taught her many things about woodcraft, and tracking, and how to survive on the land. In turn she taught many of the hunters how to move more silently, how to defend themselves with their small weapons, and how to better stalk people or monsters.
Meira headed a trip back to Vanta to sell of the weapons and gear that they took from the bandits, which took up around a week to do so. They sold the gear and with the money bought supplies that the town would need. Salt, pepper, ropes, a new loom, iron and steel tools, new draw knives… The list was intensive. In the end they bought entirely way too much for the 5 of them to carry so they splurged and bought a horse and cart to bring everything back to Lief’s crossing. Other than that Meira had quiet the affinity for plants and herbs. So she also helped out with the farming and care of plants, she also spent a good portion of her time the various gardens doing all the various tasks to help the garden grow.
All and all life was pleasant as they found a place into the populous of Lief’s crossing. The town took them in just like they said they would. As such their little community flourished as Bjorn got his first taste of a community since coming to the Eld. Of course the people of Nontorum welcomed him, but he didn’t belong, he was still just an outsider. It was the first time he felt like he belonged in over a year and a half. It was a wonderful experience and one he didn’t realize just how much he missed that feeling. The only bur in that feeling of belonging was on the nights where there was a full moon they would lock themselves in Aiko’s house to avoid the chance of one of the young werewolves trying to kill them.
It was a month and a half into them joining the community of Lief’s crossing when the crops were finally ready. On the day of harvest everyone stopped what they were doing and helped out in the fields. The entire process took another week and a half to harvest all of the crops and bring them into town. During which time the mostly completed structure that was going to be their house sat neglected.
Over the course of the harvest one of the spells that Meira knew came in handy. Her levitate spell was a godsend.
Spell: Levitate
Cast time: 15 seconds
Components: Verbal, Somatic
Range: Sight
Duration: Channel
Cost: Variable 3-150 mana per second
You can levitate any item you can see. The items weight is limited to 50 lbs. And move the object at a speed of a walk. You may expend extra mana to affect multiple objects within close proximity to one another. This spells mana cost is further increased by the distance the object or objects are from the caster.
The pure versatility and usefulness of the spell could not be overshadowed. Even with the 50 lbs. limit, and the speed limit she could do it almost all day. Paired with her carrying and hauling as well she did the work of three people by herself. Most of the crops that they brought in were not overly heavy, but most of it was awkward to carry. There were only so many burlap sacks one person could carry before it just became impossible to move them without dropping one.
Meira’s second ability was called flawless concentration. Normally when casting a channeled spell you were rooted in place, but Meira’s ability allowed her to focus on a channel spell while also allowing her to move around as well.
Overall the harvest, and moving of crops, and then storing crops took over two weeks to accomplish, and that was with everyone working on bringing the crops in. During that time many of the villagers filled the party in on the ins and outs of farming. All the various different kinds of crops, how to plant them, how to care for them, how to harvest them and finally how to store them.
Between the work, and the detailed explanation Bjorn gained a new skill.
You have gained a new skill: Farming. One core part of life is consuming something else for energy. As a farmer you have learned how to tame the land and different plants to provide an easy form of food for yourself and those around you.
Congratulations you have advanced your skill level in farming, reaching skill level 2… and 7. Crops and herbs that you cultivate from a sprout have 14% increased yields.
One secret Bjorn kept to himself was the effect of the bracers that the townsfolk had given to him, as such they were constantly surprised by his apparent talent with farming. No matter what task he did he was able to do it ever so slightly faster than what they expected. Gaining him alot of praise.
After those two weeks they set to finishing the building, at least on the outside. The amount of people dedicated to the construction waned as many were dedicated to preparing the harvest to be held over winter. That was where Tayla and Alaric went, while Meria and Bjorn helped with the construction. Once again the utility of Meria's levitate spell could not be overstated. With her magic and the labor it took another 2 weeks to finish the exterior of the building.
Of course work wasn't all that they did, as much as they would have liked to have a finished product a large portion of their free time was dedicated to other things. Bjorn got back to his evening runs, and through conversations with Meria he learned she actually spoke orcish as well as elvish. As they worked on the house and in the evening Meira started to teach Bjorn how to speak orcish, and elvish.
She also started to teach Bjorn how to cast weak haste. The lessons were just as frustrating as his lessons with Medera had been, but in this case Meira was considerably more patient with Bjorn's constant fuck ups.
Alaric spent his time either working, or teaching the villagers how to fight. The cantankerous little dwarf could be almost malicious as he trained the villagers, many of them got their asses handed to them by the dwarf, even though they normally had a foot and a half on Alaric at the very least.
Outside of training and working he spent a lot of time with all the different people in town. It was quickly becoming apparent that they cared for Alaric as a whole more than anyone else in the party. As such they kept him on his toes with jokes, comments, idle chit chat, or stories.
Listening in, Bjorn learned a lot about Alaric, where he came from, what he has done in his life, and about the various different cultures of dwarf societies in the serrated mountains. Alaric was born into a small mining village in the outskirts of the dwarven kingdom named the Iron fists. As it turns out Dwarven kingdoms are usually broken into the various different clans that have spread so large that they take up vast distances.
With growing up in the outskirts of the kingdom there was little aid from the more established parts of the kingdom. So the village had to fend for themselves. Fortunately for the village many of the dwarves there had lived hard lives as it was, so it was just the way of life for them. At a young age Alaric was taught how to fight by his elders. Every single person in the village knew how to fight, it was the only way to ensure their survival.
It was their way of life, and as such the villages often times form real tight knit communities that trust each other explicitly, and distrust outsiders. It is not unheard-of for dwarves to shun any outsider this includes other dwarves, and even sometimes their own clans.
It was the gnolls who captured him, it was a normal mining expedition that his village was going on collectively, only leaving a token force behind to defend their home. They had broken down a wall and into another tunnel. On the other side was a large party of deep gnolls. It was heartbreaking listening to Alaric talk about how any of his family who resisted were unceremoniously cut down by the gnolls, over half of the expedition died and the other half taken as slaves. From there he was split from his family and then ended up in various different gnoll settlements until he met Bjorn and Meira.
When asked if he wanted to find his family he answered “I would, but it has been over a year, and the survival rate of gnoll slaves is low. I would be surprised if out of the 70 of us taken as slaves there was more than 5 of us left alive.”
As for Tayla she was like a fish out of water, growing up in the streets of Vanta she had always been another face in the crowd. Being in Lief’s crossing was amazing for her and at the same time terrifying. Growing up in Vanta it was easy to blend in and not be singled out. While in Lief’s crossing there was no anonymity. The community helped her greatly, but some days she wished she was just a face in the crowd.
Her low cut and tightly fitting outfit, as well as her flirty and friendly behavior made her popular with the men in town. But at the cost of causing the women disliking her. She seemed to be determined to make her way through all of the single men in town. All except for Alaric. Including Bjorn, she continued to pursue him with a determination that would cause most to blush. Much to her chagrin though Bjorn rebuffed her time and time again.
One oddity was Meira, her hostile and cold attitude towards Tayla had turned and they were starting to become fast friends. It was starting to become apparent to everyone except for Bjorn that Meira had a bit of a crush on him. Which oddly enough didn't impact her opinion of Tayla. Every time Bjorn rejected Tayla's increasingly bold advances did nothing but make Meria fonder of Bjorn.
By the time their home was finished and the crops were processed and stored it was nearing middle fall. And with over half of the buildings in town out of commission because of the raid. Most of the townsfolk started to work on repairs in earnest. Many long days were spent repairing what they could of the town before winter hit. It didn't help that out of the month they lost at least 9 days a month getting prepared for the full moon, and then recovering from there.
At least being because each moon wasn't on a one month cycle. Many of them had longer or shorter cycles. On top of that with the two suns in the sky many of the moons had full moons faster than what was expected. For the air moon, one month it was full 3 times. Some part of the villagers could tell when a full moon was going to happen and so they had to prepare for it in the evening. As such it took a while for anything to get done. There were obvious benefits to being a werewolf, but there were drawbacks that weren't quite as readily apparent.
As it stood by the time the snow hit half of the houses that needed to had been repaired. The winter was long and cold, and cramped. With the town not being fully intact by the time the snow hit many people had to cram into each other's houses to protect themselves from the weather.
Bjorn, Meira, Alaric, and Tayla's house was used as a common hall, with almost ten people crammed into the building it was tight, but the large spacious rooms were perfect for people to meet. Bjorn and Alaric shared a room. Meria and Tayla both had their own. They also would have shared a room, but Tayla's night time activities made it hard to sleep in the same room. The last room was used for one of the families in town. Extra blankets were hung from the ceiling to help separate the large dinning room for more privacy.
All the while during the winter Meria tried to teach Bjorn air magic with no success. On the other hand they had success teaching him elvish and orcish. Alaric got in on the lessons and taught Bjorn how to speak dwarvish and common better.
You have learned the language of elvish to a basic level of understanding.
It is hard to believe but your mental capabilities is enough for you to learn 4 languages. You have learned Orcish to a basic level of understanding.
Bjorn also dedicated a few hours of his day every evening to training, two days a week he worked with his sword with Alaric. On another one of the days they worked on hand to hand combat. Two of the days he worked on his archery, firing arrows over and over into trees and targets. Whenever one of his arrows broke he would save them up until he had enough that it would take an entire day to create new shafts and then attach the fetching and arrowheads to the new shafts.
Every single day at the end of it Bjorn would spend it expending all of his mana to train his magical skills. For most of these days he would be alone in his practice, every once and a while Meria would join him to casting spells until her mana would come close to bottoming out. The intense headache that came from a lack of mana never went away, but it was becoming easier and easier to ignore and push through it.
It was on one of the days that Meira was trying to teach Bjorn air magic when she got fed up and gave up on teaching him. “I have seen more aptitude in a slug for air magic than you apparently have.” before walking away. That was the end of the magic lessons between the two of them. Their evening training sessions continued even after her outburst.
Using his new found spare time Bjorn started working on his alchemy again. His ingredients were limited, when the bandits raided they had burned the small hut that the village used to store their herbs. Which also held their seasoning herbs. Apparently the bandits couldn’t identify which herb would kill them and which herb would be good in a stew so instead of trying they just lit the entire building on fire. Taking the issue out of everyone’s hands.
Months started to blur together as they continued to live in Lief’s crossing. Their routine was great for giving Bjorn a bit of normalcy that he has been missing ever since he came to the Eld. It was great to slow down and go from one crisis to another. The break did wonders for his mental state. It was hard for his friends to tell based on the situation they had met him in, but for Bjorn it was apparent how his new life was affecting him.
Normally he was rather carefree and easy going. But ever since he came to the Eld the joy in his life had been eroded, he caught himself constantly having negative thoughts. He had been on high alert, jumping at every little sound. When people came to him he would unintentionally keep looking at their hands, preparing for them to attack him. He was like a bowstring pulled tight, ready to be set off and loosed on whatever threatened him next.
But the people of Lief’s crossing had none of those instincts. They were happy, and cheerful. They laughed, and cared for each other. Never once did Bjorn see any of them jump. Nore did he see their expressions break and fall, what he had grown to expect to see on faces of someone who was hurting, or in mourning. That laughter and joy did wonders to disarm Bjorn and he started to see the beauty in the world again.
Sometime a few months into winter everyone began to talk excitedly about next week.
“What is everyone excited for?” Bjorn asked one day while he and Zaine were doing some work on one of the houses that had been slightly burnt in the bandit raid.
“It’s a new year.” Zaine answered. Seeing Bjorn’s slightly confused face he continued. “Every year many of the enlightened races come together and celebrate a single day of the year. The new year is the only holiday that is universal with many of the enlightened races. Each different race has their own historical days that they celebrate, but everyone puts aside any differences to celebrate the coming of a new year.”
Kallie walked into the building in the middle of Zaine’s explanation and started to eavesdrop halfway through. When Zaine said ‘everyone puts aside any differences’ Kallie’s face scrunched up in anger. “Not everyone, those filthy goblins don’t put aside any difference.”
Zaine gave her a stern look. “I said enlightened races, goblins can hardly be counted as enlightened. They can’t even be counted as a race, they are a rodent.”
His words seemed to mollify Kallie, but only confused Bjorn. He couldn’t help himself and had to ask his next question. “What do you mean by enlightened races? And why don’t they count as enlightened?”
“We call any race that gets along with each other as a whole enlightened.” Zaine said. “As a general whole humans, elves, dwarves, gnomes, sprites, halflings, anthropomorph, orcs races like that are considered enlightened races. They are the races that are able to live together in relative peace. Other races like orks, goblins, trolls, drow, nagpas, hobgoblins, and the such are considered fallen races. Of course there are outliers in every situation but as a general rule they don’t mess well with others in living situations.”
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Wrapping his head around the blatant racism he was hearing come out of Zaine’s normally reasonable mouth threw Bjorn for a bit of a loop. “Wait, why did you say orcs twice for both the enlightened and the fallen races?”
“I didn’t say the same thing twice.” Zaine continued. “I said Orcs, and then Orks.”
“You are saying the same word.”
“It might sound like it, but I am not saying the same thing. Orcs are large, green, strong, and generally friendly creatures. Orks are large, tan, ugly, savage creatures. They are not the same thing.”
Zaine’s explanation did nothing but cause annoyance and confusion in Bjorn. “Well if they are two different things, and different races. Why give them the same name?”
“They don’t have the same name though, they are orcs and orks. One with a c, and one with a k.”
“Gah! Who came up with this stupid naming convention? So which one is the good orc?”
“The one with the c.”
“So the one with the k are the bad orks?” Both Zaine and Kallie nodded in agreement. “Whatever dumbass came up with that needs to be fired.” Bjorn ranted at the idiocy of the naming convention.
Standing there watching Bjorn seethe, Kallie waited for the rage to dissipate for a bit before speaking. “Well as Zaine was saying, we are celebrating the new year, so we will have food, dancing, tales, and drink. In many small communities people go all out for these celebrations. As such there is normally a cooking competition, that is what the buzz is all about, everyone is trying to figure out what they are going to make for the competition.”
“Oh. I guess that makes sense, am I going to be expected to provide something.”
Shaking his head, Zaine spoke up. “No, I think Aiko was going to ask you to be one of the judges this year. It would not be fair for you to submit your own food with you being a judge and all. That happened one year, and it turned out to not be a fair competition when one third of the judges had a bias.”
“Yeah it was not fair at all, especially when Borus bribed Jaine to vote for his food as well.” Kallie said, once she was done speaking she fell quiet and her face fell. Borus was one of the villagers who died in the raid. Clearing her throat she continued in a husky tone which quickly cleared up. “Anyways we all decided not to let that happen again. I expect this one to be more personal, as normally there is a community component and a family component. Well seeing how we have less living space I expect there to be more community and less individual family.”
“That is fair.” Bjorn agreed. “How do you know that the event won't be ruined by a full moon?”
“Ooo. That is a good question.” Kallie said. “It wasn’t until last year that I thought to ask that one.”
Zaine cut in. “It is really a simple question, but doesn’t seem straightforward. In all of my life the day leading up to the new year through the day after I have never experienced a full moon. And even though I don’t really want to admit it, In the last 35 years I have been a werewolf. It has never happened. To mean that says it can’t happen.”
Zaine’s answer made Bjorn think. “I believe you. It does make me wonder as to why though. Logically speaking it shouldn’t be possible. With the two suns shining on the 6 moons it should be at least possible for a full moon to fall on a new year sometime.”
The entire next week the town was abuzz with activity as people made decorations, and prepared for the celebration. Strings of rope decorated with bits of colorful dried flowers, or other plant material were hung out all over town stringing the houses together. The snow in between the houses were cleared away, and a large fire pit was dug for a fire. Houses were also a flurry of activity as people cleaned, or started preparations on their food submissions.
The day before was when most everyone did the cooking for their meals. That night every single house had a glow coming from either outside, or through the windows. A few of the homes were lucky enough to have internal stoves, most had to deal with a firepit inside or outside of their house. Not that the firepit inside the houses was a big deal, it was what was commonly used to heat the interior of the house. There was one house that had a fist sized stone that constantly radiated a soft heat that they used to warm the inside of the house. When Bjorn found that out he used Identify on the stone.
Fire stone
Rarity: Uncommon
Weight: 1.8 lbs
This stone emanates a fire attuned power. It is a common ingredient in making fire based potions and focuses. This stone also outputs a constant pleasant heat.
The morning of the festivities everyone was in high spirits. All of the kids were running around excitable as kids are. While all of the adults prepared a large breakfast. The day was clear, beautiful, and warm. Large snowflakes covered the ground, with the sky being empty, the light from the suns lit up their surroundings, making everything sparkle as the light refracted off of the bright snowflakes.
The weather had been cold and the sky overcast making everything seem dreary for the better part of a few weeks. But on the day of the celebration the cold spell had broken and a pale blue sky greeted them. Some of the decorations around town caught the light and set different colors dancing across the ground as the hanging bulbs spun slowly from where they hung. A large area was cleared of snow in the middle of the town and long wooden benches had been built and set up along the outside of the clearing.
The morning was pleasant, the food was a mixture of freshly baked bread, oats, and a strange fruit that came off of a common tree around the forest known as a squish tree. The fruit had green and purple flesh underneath the skin. The flesh was a mix of sweet and tangy, almost like tajin on an apple back on earth. When mixed with the oats for their oatmeal it sweetened like molasses. A common staple of new years parties, as Bjorn was told, due to the fact that the fruit ripened in the dead of winter. While everything else was dead, the squish tree was a vibrant green with its fruit hanging off the branches.
Much of the morning was spent in pleasant conversations, with everyone in high spirits it set quite a festive tone for the day. Bjorn was just finished up a conversation with Jaine when Meira plopped herself down on the bench next to Bjorn.
“Good morning Bjorn.”
“Well, good morning to you too! You seem awfully chipper this morning.”
Meira shot Bjorn a beaming smile. “You are right, it is a wonderful day. The sun is out, the clouds have broke, the food is good, and there is good company. Why wouldn’t I be awfully chipper?”
“I don’t know, it’s just nice. We of all people have less to be cheery about.”
The smile kind of froze on her face, and then slowly faded. “You know Bjorn, you have been focused on our past a little too much. I don’t think it is healthy.”
Bjorn just sat there for a second. “How can you not think about it? How do you get past the horrors we have had to live through? I wake up in the middle of the night in cold sweats dreaming about the gnolls beating me. I even sometimes have dreams that they are eating me alive? How do I forget about that? How do I get past that? I mean look at all of the joy and happiness around us. Less than 4 months ago almost 20% of this village died from other people. Look at them now, they are happy.”
Meira waited and watched Bjorn as he went through his little tirade. Towards the end he had started to raise his voice, to which Meira made a gesture and he lowered his voice again. Some time during his rant he had lowered his eyes. Once he finished he looked up and met Meira’s eyes. In them he could see worry, compassion, but most importantly care.
“You bring up some good points Bjorn. Most of the people here in town have little reason to be happy, and to celebrate. If you have been paying attention over the last 3 months we have lived here, every single one of them has mourned, many of them are still in mourning. But today is a special day. The new year is a time to reflect and celebrate what has come to pass. I expect tonight when the drinks come out many tears will be shed in remembrance at the friends and family lost this last year. But here, and now, it is not the time for mourning. This morning is to celebrate what has happened, and that they are still here.”
Meira stopped in the middle of her speech to take a long drink out of the cup she held in her hands. “To these people live hard lives. Because of that they have a strong sense of purpose. Sure they may have lost a portion of their town, but the rest are still here and to them that is worth celebrating. This world is a hard world, I don’t know much about your home, you don’t talk about it much. But from what I can tell your world and your life before coming here was soft and it was easy. I guarantee you that these weren’t the first that these people have lost, and I also guarantee that they won’t be the last. When you spend all of your time dwelling on what happened in the past you miss the beauty of what is around you.”
Meira gestured to the clearing, and the trees surrounding the town. The decorations and the light shining down making the ground sparkle, and all the different lights dancing across the ground. “You miss all of this. I know it can be hard to do, but if you don’t accept the reality of the situation you miss out on the life that you have struggled to obtain. I know that it is hard, but it is important. Not only for you, but for those in your life. If you spend your life angry and depressed it affects those around you, and it is not in a good way.”
“You are right, but I don’t know how to do it.” Bjorn said.
“I don’t have an answer for you Bjorn. I don't know what to say to get you to see the beauty in the world again. You don’t have to worry about me or Alaric leaving you, we have a bond that I don’t think can be broken. We have been through too much and suffered too much together for that. I do know that of all of us you are the one least accepted here in town, and there is a reason for that, Bjorn.”
Meira held Bjorn’s gaze until he dropped his eyes, from there they sat together in companionable silence for what felt like ages. Meira let him sit there, she could tell that he had a lot on his mind.
Meira was the one who broke the silence. “Does Earth have any celebrations like this?”
“Kind of, not really. We have a holiday called Christmas that has a little bit of this pageantry. A lot of people make a big deal out of it. They normally make it last a whole month. Usually two or three weeks before the day itself there is a thing called a stroll, and everyone gathers together in town and walks around town, there is food and drinks. You know, it’s funny, Christmas was originally a pagan holiday. But there is a religious group known as the Christians who wanted to convert a large population, so they took over Christmas and said it was the day that their lord was born.”
Bjorn scoffed at the thought. “But anyways they took a lot of pagan practices and rolled it into their holiday. The day of Christmas itself is normally a family oriented time. From what I have seen so far pretty much all of the month leading up to Christmas is put into a single day. So kind of, but not really.” There was a pause in the explanation. “You know, when I was a kid I was always super excited for Christmas, there were gifts that were given, and because of that and spending time with the family I was always ecstatic for it. As I grew older I started to hate Christmas because of what it started to represent.”
“Oh? And what was that?”
“I hated Christmas because it started to take over other holidays. There was thanksgiving, Halloween, and new years. Christmas kind of took all three of those holidays and wrapped them into one. Often time stores would put out Christmas decorations before even Halloween, which happened 2 months before Christmas. It ended up being shoved down everyone’s throat because of all the stores pushing Christmas.”
Meira started to move to stand, taking her now empty plate with her. “You know, that sounds both equally amazing and terrible.” She kind of stood there for a second, the look on her face said that she wanted to say something, but didn’t know how to say it. She took a deep breath and held it a second. “You really should think about what we talked about earlier. I think it will help you in the long run.” After that she turned and walked away.
Bjorn sat there by himself quietly slowly picking at his now cold food for over an hour. Aiko came over to him, sat down and spoke. “Are you ready to be a judge? You look troubled, we can ask someone else to do it if you’d like.”
Hiding his expression he plastered a smile on his face. “Yeah, I am ready and I can do it. Let’s go.”
They both stood and Aiko led him to her house, just outside her house they had moved her table outside and at the low table sat Tayla, and Kallie. Directing him to sit in between the two she ushered the first person to the table. It was Laine who had made a dish that looked like a tortilla, and had a spread that you were supposed to put on top of it. It was surprisingly sweet and the spread was a mix of sweet and salty, bringing the entire thing together.
The next hour was spent with people bringing their dishes forward. Each different dish that was presented the cook gave a brief explanation of where it came from, its back story, what was in it, and how they made it. There were dishes ranging from sweet, to savory, to disgusting. Almost all of them were recipes that came from the cooks family passed down from generation to generation. Once everything was sampled the entire village had gathered. After the last dish was presented it was pandemonium as everyone tried to get a try of the dishes. It became a potluck style meal as everyone grabbed a little of whatever they wanted to try. One oddity was that almost every single dish was served cold. With the preparation process and the lack of infrastructure to keep food warm without cooking it further, almost everyone tried to make a dish that would taste good cold.
By the time that everyone had their fill every single dish except for one was eaten. The dish was Alaric’s dish, which was a mix between mushrooms, a common root, and what tasted like dirt. There were actually only three people who had some of his dish, those three were the judges. Once the winner was crowned everyone dispersed into groups talking. Laughter could be heard throughout the crowd.
Alaric came up to Bjorn with a massive grin on his face. “So what did you think of my dish?”
“It tasted like dirt. It tasted like you just walked out and got a pan full of dirt.”
Alaric’s smile just grew larger which made Bjorn suspicious of something. “That is what it was wasn't it? You just did that to get the judges to eat literal dirt.”
The accusation made Alaric bust out laughing. “You are nearly there, it was actually a fine mixture of clay, silt, and dirt. I just threw a few mushrooms I found while collecting the stuff in there to make it seem like it was an actual dish.”
“You're a dick.”
“I know.” Alaric said as he clapped Bjorn on the back. “It is good to see you smile though.” Alaric then walked off to the nearest group, as he joined the circle he said something making everyone look over at Bjorn, and then they all started laughing. Alaric then moved on to the next group. As he was walking he kept eye contact with Bjorn with a large shit eating grin on his face. Bjorn just shook his head and flipped his friend off.
Unbeknownst to Alaric his actions didn’t make Bjorn feel included, it actually made him feel isolated. With each new group that Alaric went to Bjorn just felt worse and worse. Every time they found out about his antics they would laugh at Bjorn’s unfortunate situation, but they wouldn’t interact with him. The feeling of loneliness just continued to build, until he felt like no one liked him. Meira’s words earlier about being the least accepted weighed on Bjorn.
Bjorn entered into a doom thought spiral. First he would like about all the small instances over the last few months where something felt a little off, or the conversation ended awkwardly. Then he would enter thinking about how what he said in the conversation probably negatively affected who he was talking to. From there it was a quick jump to think about how it affected their perception of him. Which further made him feel isolated and alone. Which made him question more conversations that seemed perfectly fine initially, but now maybe he was reading the person and the situation wrong.
His negative thought spiral was unconsciously being projected into any conversation he had with villagers, or any group he joined. Which also led to more isolation, intentional or not. Soon no one was seeking him out for conversations, and he started to just go through the motions of the day. Going onto autopilot he followed as the village then broke up into smaller groups of families, or more intimate groups. After that they started heading towards the large fire pit that was in the town square as they lit the pile of wood inside.
The fire quickly built until it was over 10 feet tall, they had cut different types of trees and interspersed them in the pile of wood. All of the different types of wood burned a different color. There were pinks, blues, greens, and purples that would sometimes flare up briefly before fading away, or would stay as a long burn and turn a section of the fire a brilliant baby blue for minutes on end.
During the fire Bjorn sat by himself at the edge just looking into the fire. To anyone else it looked like he was watching the show in front of him in wonder, but in actuality he was barely seeing the display in front of him. He was stuck in his death spiral.
Right when Bjorn had enough of being around people and was about to stand and head to bed the next section of the celebration started. People started to get up and hand out small items to each other. Bjorn didn’t get a good look at what was happening, he was too distracted. Until Rose, the little 5 year old elf girl came up to Bjorn and presented him with a small dried flower. It had soft white petals which gave way to a vibrant almost neon green at the tips of each petal.
Her gesture was so unexpected that Bjorn just sat there and stared for a second. Rose had a bashful look on her face as kids do, with her head tilted down but with her eyes looking at Bjorn through her eyelashes. They stayed there Bjorn sitting and Rose standing until she reached out taking Bjorn’s hand and softly put the flower into Bjorn’s turned up hand, she flashed him a genuine smile that only a kid can give before turning around and quickly running away. Leaving Bjorn sitting there staring at the slower in his hand.
Next up was Paine, he walked over to where Bjorn sat and sat down next to him. Staring into the fire. “We do this every year.” He said with a deep voice. “And yet I never get tired of watching the colors dance in the flames.”
His words jostled Bjorn as he drew his eyes away from the flower in his hand and started to actually see the colors dance into and out of existence in the flame. It was beautiful.
“Well.” Paine said. “This is for you.” As he held out a small finely carved wooden figure, it was of a man holding a bow standing over a cowering woman and her child. “I am not the best carver around here, but it is supposed to be you.” Paine said as he plopped it into Bjorn’s other hand. He closed Bjorn’s hand around the figure, patted the back of his hand a few times before standing and walking away.
In the end he had 7 of the villagers who had made him or gave him some sort of gift. Each time it took Bjorn by surprise over and over again. Finally it was Meira, she dropped down next to Bjorn, leaning into him as they watched the fire. “It is beautiful.” She said, “It reminds me of home, we did this every year at the new years as well.” By this time the wood next to him and his hands were full of items given to him by the villagers.
“I don’t really have much to give to you, I wasn’t expecting this part of the celebration. So all I do have for you is this.” As she turned her head towards Bjorn and planted a soft kiss on his cheek. “I know it is hardly enough to repay all that you have done for me, but it is all I have to give.” After she stood and left like the others had before her.
Bjorn sat there for a few more minutes, stunned and touched by the care he was shown tonight. Stowing all of the items he was given inside his portable pocket Bjorn slowly stood and left the fire, heading back to the home that he and the town had spent countless hours building. Slowly he methodically made his way into the main room, bending down to take off his boots. The common room was empty, he walked into the room that he and Alaric shared. Walking towards his bed he collapsed into it. Not able to contain it anymore, Bjorn curled up into a ball and began to cry.
(If you do not care about advancement you may skip to the next part)
You have advanced your skill level in swordsmanship, reaching skill level 5 and 6. Your attacks with swords now deal 18% more damage over base value.
You have advanced your skill level in alchemy, reaching skill level 15. Potions you make will be 14% increased effect and 30% increased duration of effect.
You have advanced your skill level in hand to hand. reaching skill level 8. Blows you land with bare fists and legs now deal 16% extra damage.
You have advanced your skill level in carpentry. reaching skill level 2… 6. Durability of wooden items you build will be increased by 15%.
You have advanced your skill level in construction, reaching skill level 9. Buildings you build will have 18% increased durability.
You have advanced your skill level in bowyering, reaching skill level 2. The arrows and bows you create have an increase of 2% in quality.
You have advanced your skill level in archery, reaching skill level 13. Damage from arrows you shoot is increased by 39% over base damage.
You have advanced your skill level in light magic. reaching skill level 7. You have unlocked the ability to learn higher level spells.
You have advanced your skill level in earth magic. reaching skill level 4. You have unlocked the ability to learn higher level spells.
You have advanced your skill level in water magic. reaching skill level 6. You have unlocked the ability to learn higher level spells.