This village smelled of freshly cut wood.

Being a logging village, that wasn’t too shocking… but it was more than the sawmill or the rows of stacks of timber that made it smell such a way.

Watching a pair of men pass by, I wondered how they didn’t itch something fierce with all the sawdust all over them.

“Another drink, young lady?” the large bellied woman smiled at me as she walked over and went to filling my cup, before I even gave her an answer.

“Thank you,” I said as I watched her pour the bad smelling ale into my cup.

It was a very light alcoholic drink. Likely all they had to drink at the moment, since it was all anyone was getting to drink. Even the children’s cups were being filled with it.

“Never seen you before. Traveling through?” she asked once my cup was full.

I nodded. “Heading south,” I said.

“Ah, for work or pleasure?” she asked with a smile.

Pleasure…? Work I’d understand but why would I be heading south for pleasure?

Though maybe I was. After all I was running away. Looking for something that wouldn’t make me want to crawl into a hole and die.

“A bit of both, maybe,” I said honestly.

The pregnant woman laughed and nodded happily, glad to hear it. She turned away as one of the sawmill workers sat down at another table and waved her down. “I’m off shift, Suzie!” he shouted at her.

“You’re always off shift, you lout!” she shouted back, yet still went over to his table to fill up his cup.

Several people sitting around me chuckled and laughed over their interaction, and I felt… somewhat at ease because of it.

Humans were always the same, weren’t they? So gentle and calm… when they weren’t worried or concerned for their own lives.

It helped I looked like a harmless young woman. At least, I did as long as I kept my ears and tail out of sight. The hat I wore right now was a common sight in these forests. A typical rodent fur lined one. It was a little big for me, but that just helped even better with hiding the ears.

Taking a drink of the nasty stuff that had just been refilled for me; I hoped the next village I went to had a better selection of food and drink.

Maybe I needed to find a real town. Something that was big enough for trade. These last few villages have been small enough that most of the inhabitants were all related in one way or another. Even if I was willing to put up with the horrible food, I really wasn’t very safe in such small communities.

They were welcoming, because of my appearance, but I could never stay long in such places. It was too tight knit for someone like me to hide amongst.

Sighing as I put my cup down, I once again felt the slight shiver run down my spine and to my tail.

Yes. I was definitely growing sick. Or already sick.

A rarity for me. Yet it did happen. Though I hadn't been sick in years, as far as I could remember.

A pair of children ran by, chasing after a small dog. It yelped in a way that told me it didn’t feel as if it was playing as the laughing children did. It was running for its life, in its perspective.

Watching them run past the little tavern and around a larger building, I saw the memories of Lujic and Ginny.

They had been that young when I had found them.

Thinking of them hurt. It had been a few years since I had ran away from Lujic’s home… but my heart still burnt and sunk at the thought of him.

I wish I hadn’t run away. I wish I had been strong enough.

Burying him might have given me closure, of some kind. Even if it had hurt and…

“Need a place to stay, lass?”

Looking up from my cup, my eyes narrowed at the man standing next to my table. He was smirking at me, and his eyes made him look drunk… but I knew he wasn’t. Even if one could get drunk with these drinks, I doubted he could afford enough of them to reach that point.

“Leave’er alone Ben! I’ll tell your sister!” the pregnant woman who was serving food shouted from another table.

The sleazy man shifted and glanced away from me, to the one yelling at him. At first I thought he’d ignore her, but then he flinched and nodded… and stepped away.

Turning, I smiled and nodded in thanks to the pregnant woman. She beamed a smile back and nodded, then went back to taking orders from another table. The tables nearby snickered and giggled, as if used to such commotion.

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I’ll need to leave a few extra coins. She was a nice lady… though was likely being overprotective thanks to her own condition. Women became very… touchy, when it came to children while bearing one.

And that was undoubtedly what they saw when looking at me. A young girl. Young enough to almost be a child myself. Yet old enough that I often enough had to deal with men being fools. Though lately I’ve noticed I hadn’t really had any problems… It’s been a few years since I had to run away, or actually hurt someone, because they wouldn’t take no for an answer.

Either society was maturing, or maybe I had become uglier somehow. A part of me hoped it was both, if not at least the latter.

I sighed, and reached across the table to grab some of the dried bread they had given me. It wasn’t stale… but it was hard. The kind of hard that I wondered if I was supposed to dunk the stuff into my cup as to be able to properly eat it. How did humans gnaw on this? If I was having difficulty, then I could only imagine how hard I was for them.

Pulling a chunk of the bread off, I munched it loudly as I looked around. Yes. Other people were either pouring water onto the bread, or dipping it into their cups as to soften it.

Wonderful. Might as well make gruel.

Humans were sometimes so weird. They could make delicious food, yet so rarely did they do so. If I had access to such things, that would be all I’d want to care about. Why worry about putting metal coins into my pocket, when I could stuff my mouth with deliciousness?

“Ah who’re ya? That’s my table ya know!” a man said loudly to me as he passed, and knocked on the table I sat at with his knuckles. Yet although he spoke loudly, and acted so, he was all smiles and didn’t press it.

He stepped a few tables away, and dragged a chair over to another. “Don’t mean you can go joining me, Brad!” one of the men already sitting at the table complained as he sat down.

“Oh shush! I’ll buy you a slice of meat, what say you to that?” the man argued.

“Thinnest slice the world’s ever seen, I bet,” another man a few tables away added to the conversation.

Quickly the area became noisy as more and more men started to show up. Men who stunk of wood. Most were caked in the sawdust, and didn’t seem to care they were getting it all over the place as they sauntered in.

Some of them were so covered in the stuff, even their faces were littered. I wonder if they ended up eating some of the wood chips and sawdust, since they seemed to not care for cleaning themselves off first.

Most of the men ignored me. Maybe thanks to the earlier idiot and the warning from the pregnant worker, but most didn’t even seem to acknowledge me as they all ordered food and drink. By the sound of it the day’s work was over, and all of the men were now unwinding.

Odd they’d do it here and not at their homes… but maybe this was just how it was here. I knew from experience that these little hamlets were close-knit communities. For better or worse. If you didn’t join in their little… peculiarities, then you’d be ostracized. Even shunned.

Any logger or mill worker who didn’t join in such revelry or after-work get-togethers was likely not well liked. Knowing humans.

Lujic had the same problem. After joining his knight order, he had trouble because he had always hurried home whenever he could. To visit his wife and children. Although the knight order didn’t actually punish him, or do anything too badly, the other knights had commonly expressed their disdain for it. They were supposed to be brothers in arms, as Lujic had described it. Brothers beyond blood. So for him to ignore them for actual blood, was seen as something negative.

Which was ridiculous… but what was I to know about how the minds of human male knights worked?

“Here you go, lass.”

A plate of steaming meat was placed upon my table, and I frowned at it. “I’m sorry, I didn’t order…” I spoke up as to correct the man’s mistake, but he was already walking away.

“Wait…” I was about to stand up, to say something… but the man got into a heated discussion with another table. Something to do with how thick the ale was tonight. Not thick enough, by the shouts.

Ah. Was he the husband of the pregnant woman…?

Searching for her, I found her. She was busy near the counter in the back of the building, but after a moment she noticed my stare. She smiled and winked at me, and I felt horribly humbled.

I see. They were being nice to me.

Maybe they thought I was poor. I mean, I wasn’t wealthy by any means… but I had plenty of coins in my purse. I had happened upon a small wagon about a year ago, to the north, which had been destroyed and ransacked. Likely by animals, not people, and I had found a large purse full of this nation’s currency. It’s lasted me until now, and likely would for just as long still.

Sitting up, I went to eating the freshly cooked meat, and smiled at the thinly sliced cuts.

I see. So he hadn’t really been teasing that man in particular, but the shop itself.

As I ate, I wondered if this was somewhere I could live. Even if for a short time.

Long enough to relax, but not long enough to fall in love or make it a home.

Another man walked by, entering the rows of tables. My nose scrunched up at his smell. He smelled worse than the sawdust and wood, far worse.

The stink made me hesitate in taking another bite, as if the smell could somehow infect the food or something.

No. Likely not. Too smelly.

Humans always stunk… but sometimes too much was too much.

“So young lady, got a place to sleep tonight?”

This time it wasn’t an ogling man, but the pregnant woman who asked me.

“Is there an inn here?” I asked. I honestly hadn’t planned to stay the night, but it might do me good to sleep in a bed for once. I’ve been camping outdoors for a few weeks now.

A few of the men at a nearby table chuckled at me as the pregnant woman smirked and shook her head. “My place it is. Hope you don’t mind kids, though you’re still one yourself almost huh?” she teased me.

How kind.

But…

For the tiniest moment I debated turning her off down.

She seemed to be the kind of human I found pleasant. The nice, overprotective type. And if her family were even half as nice as her, I’d fall in love with them.

And I didn’t want to do that right now. If ever again.

But…

“You sure?” I asked after a moment.

She smiled and nodded. “Here that? She’s staying with me. I’ll shove the freshly cut timber you boys all worked on today up your backsides if anyone tries anything funny, hear me?” she turned and declared.

“Aye!” all of the men raised their cups in agreement.