Inside the log house is a small lantern that can light up the entire room. The place is not big, but it could house a small family. Upstairs are Bob’s room and another for a guest that might come, usually for Bara or Nesbitt. The lantern is placed on the table where Bob and the young man sat, sharing their stories.
“So there I was, clutching my axe on my left hand and the machete on my right. I plunge at the monster and gutted it!” Bob is waving his hand around showing how he did it. The young man sitting across him is very amused and is laughing along with him.
“That’s all it took?” He asks with smile on his face.
“Well, there was a struggle here and there but that’s how it ended.” Bob laughs
“You said that was 3 days ago. But you don’t look injured at all.”
“That night I slept like a rock, then next thing I know, I’m all healed. Strange I know.” Bob said after drinking from his bottle of milk.
Laughter fills the place as Bob tells his story, from mundane tasks to just simply amusing events that have happened around the place. It’s been quite a while since he has laughed like this even with Bara and Nesbitt visiting him.
Bob offers for the young man to stay for the night, but instead that he will be outside by the woods. But after persistent pleas, he caved in.
The next day, Bob prepared breakfast. It was nothing more special than what he uses to have for his. 3 apples and a bottle of milk ought to make a decent meal he thought. The guest room where the young man should be staying is empty, the bed already made but no sign of him. He went out but still no sign of him. It is still before sun rise and he couldn’t imagine the him going out in the middle of the night.
Adventurer or not he could die out there, is his first thought. ‘I have killed the wolf that wanders here, and I have not seen any monsters beside it. He’s probably safe.’ Thinking no more of it he returns to his usual work, leaving the breakfast that he has set out on the table.
He went to the shed where he stores his harvest and took a look inside. After a few moments of his eyes wandering he gave out a sigh.
“Nothing much for Bara tomorrow. Hope this wolfskin ought to satisfy him.”
Bob grabs the wolf’s hide from the shed and inspects it. The thought from the time that he skinned it came back to him. He didn’t waste anything from his victory at the time. After skinning the wolf, he took the meat and had his own feast despite not having any flavor at all. At the time when he came to the peninsula, he didn’t think about eating meat, he has done so many times before but thought it useless as he would have an abundance of crops from his farming. The bones he buried somewhere in the field the next day.
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‘I suppose I could trade some salt for the meat, it’s close to rotting now.’
He thought of going down to the hill and fetch some water but then he remembers the contraption that the young man built for him. In order to improve it he was asked to build a bigger basin to serve as a container. Knowing that half of his field work is can be finnished in time because of the well, he immediately works at the requested item.
The first light of the morning came and he is almost finished, which surprised him as well. Building things have always been his hobby and almost always forgets whenever he cultivates the fields. Only then did he remember the lack of lumber that he has. He resorted in disassembling some of the barrels and used the scraps to finish his work.
Very preoccupied to his work he didn’t notice the young man walk up to him and just stood behind him.
“Top of the morning to you!” The young man blurted.
“Ah, Best, where were you last night?” Bob stood up and greeted him.
“Thank you for letting me stay, but I couldn’t stay put. I went to the woods and I found something.”
The young man showed him 3 pups which resembles the wolf that he had just killed.
“I thought about what you said last night”
“Did ya now?”
Bob’s eyes widened as he doesn’t know how to react. He just killed the pup’s mother a few days ago. Seeing it doesn’t give him anger just a hint of awkwardness.
“Well there were 3 of them and they look hungry and cute and I couldn’t leave them alone.”
“A monster’s child is still a monster.” Bob said while trying to advert his gaze from the pups.
“Or so you say, but look at them. Can you see a monster now?”
The young man holds the pups with arms and with those tiny eyes he felt something struck his heart.
‘They are cute I must admit.’
“But the mother killed Susan!”
“I know, I’m just saying they did nothing wrong. And the mother already paid for it.”
The discussion went on and the construction was halted. The young man did his best to convince Bob that the pups are not monsters. Bob let them roam the field with the animals while he finishes the construction. The container was not as big as they hope it to be since he ran out of material but it is bigger than he thought he would get from before the young man arrive.
They remove the tube and latched it to the new one which is being filled with water in a fast rate. Bob handed him the promised silvers and the young man thanked him.
“Thank you for this.”
“The pleasure is all mine.”
“I want you to keep the wolves, I think they will help you here. But I’ll take one with me”
Bob was surprised, he didn’t know he has to take care of it. He thought the young man just wanted him to let them roam while they do their thing.
“They might not be the monster you think they are.”
He ponders for a moment and considers the offer. And as an afterthought, it occurred to him to give the young man something in return. He went to the shed and gave him the wolfskin as well as some of the meat that he obtained that he couldn’t finish.
“I was about to sell this tomorrow but I can’t seem to thank you enough.”
“Wow, the 2 days it took to come here is really worth it.”
They both laugh and Bob saw him off. The young man was carrying his wolf pup in his arms, with almost all of his belonging aside from the sword dangling from his back is inside his burlap sack.