I detached my boat from the dock and hopped into it, careful of the large burlap bag of wood pieces under the tarp, and I put the bag of learning things carefully under the tarp as well. I poled the boat over to the proper waterway to go back to the hut and didn't see anyone looking at me or following me. Once I was out of sight of the village, I stopped and stripped off all of my new clothes, even the new jacket, and tucked them under the tarp.

I took out the burlap bag of my old clothes and did my best to rub them all over myself to cover up the clean smell of the soap and things, then dressed. I would have to wait until I was a lot closer to the hut before I could get my hands on the proper scents to rub on my face, arms and feet. If I did it too early, it would be the same as not doing it at all. It wouldn't match where I wanted to go and I would be seen as an intruder by everything around.

I was really glad that I had my trusty knife in my thigh sheath, because I had a feeling that I was going to need it very soon. My prediction came true less than ten minutes later when I was assaulted by no less than ten poisonous snakes. I quickly dispatched them and gathered them up for soup. I didn't bother cleaning them, since I didn't want to distract myself from being vigilant.

I had to fight at nearly every intersection that I had to take to get back to the hut. Spiders, snakes, gripping vines, even irate boars that were so stupid to try and jump at me and charged off the banks of the waterway. I was pretty tempted to keep still or go back along the way to harvest even more beasts, especially when I saw a near-deer huff at me. I kept the boat's movement enchantment going, though. I needed to reapply the local smell as soon as possible.

I managed, barely, to fight off several near-beavers and raided their nest to get the stinkiest mud in the swamp, less than an hour from the hut. The endless creature attacks finally subsided, now that I matched the environment more closely, and I made it back to the hut without further incidents. The problem was, my wards had failed. Creatures of all kinds were crawling all over the hut and the dry area in which it stood.

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You have a choice to make. Will you do it or let the marsh reclaim the hut?

A) Fight for what's yours. B) Find somewhere else to live. C) Salvage what you can and leave.

I am not giving up on my home, not this close to winter. I thought. I choose A.

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I quickly drank a number seven potion to make my brain work faster, a number six strength potion, which was going to cost me later, and a number four to heal the damage from the first two. It took a few seconds for them all to take effect, then I quickly poled the boat up onto the head of a water beast that was poised to strike when the boat was close enough. The impact made it grunt in pain from the rough treatment, then I slid the boat over it and onto the dry area.

I used the Hag's infuse technique to make the pole have a metal end and beat the hell out of the water beast that had tried to eat the boat. After only fifteen very fast and powerful hits, the carcass of the beast floated up to the surface of the water.

I turned to the large spiders that were climbing over the hut. “Get off my home!” I yelled and then proceeded to fight them and the other creatures off of my dry area of land. I stomped on the heads of five foot long marsh lizards or near-crocodiles, used my knife to decapitate the poisonous snakes, then used the pole to swat at the three foot wide marsh bats that tried to dive bomb me. Having my mind running so fast helped me avoid a lot of attacks and I retaliated with deadly force.

The female near-deer scattered as soon as I started making headway into the other creatures and the lone male stared at me to make sure that I wasn't going to follow them. I was a bit saddened by that, until I saw a small hovel of rabbits. I nearly shouted in joy at their appearance and then quickly squished all of their heads with the long pole. The near-deer trotted off without a second glance.

The possums were next and it was simple to deal with the small creatures. The near-ducks were a bit evasive and I had to admit that it was impressive that they had all succeeded in making successful homes within a very short period of time. I couldn't fault them for trying to find new places to live, except that they were taking up my place to live, and that just wasn't okay in my book.

Surprisingly, I didn't have any trouble when the water beasts tried to come in and take my kills, including the other water beast. I beat them just as senseless as the first one and pulled them out of the water and onto the dry area. I ignored the poisonous bugs and flies that permeated the area and gathered up all of the things that I had killed. I sat down for several minutes and the only thing I could hear was the sound of water slowly lapping at the dry area.

I kicked myself mentally for not renewing the wards before they failed. I knew they were getting close to the expiration date and I had forgotten to do them before going to town with the latest delivery. I really had been in a rush and forgot essential things that should have been done before leaving. I sighed and cleaned up the carcasses as best as I could, then I went to the hut and sliced open the part I had sealed.

To my delight, no creatures were inside. The windows hadn't been beaten in and nothing was moved or damaged. Even all the cupboards were still closed and nothing had tried to dig at my supplies. Of course, I still bought the same amount of supplies that I usually did, even though the Hag was not around. I was happy that Diane was freaking out about me not having enough to live on, since it meant that she actually did care about me.

Or did. I wouldn't know what she really thought of me now until I went back to the village in the spring. With that slightly sad thought, I started bringing in all of the smaller things that I had killed. All the water fowl were easily cleaned and divided up properly. I needed to save some of them for later, so I took the marsh panther parts away from the smoking apparatus and replaced them with some of the fowl.

I took out the largest cooking cauldron I had and threw in the rest. I added water and increased the fire by tossing in one of the wildwood pieces. I laughed as the fire doubled in size and changed to a slight blue color. That was perfect, so I cut up another wood piece and added them to the smoker. The smoke doubled and the meat started to turn right away.

I nodded and went back to work after eating the stew I had in my waterskin. The smaller animals were next for me to clean and I took their pelts, removed the bones, then tossed the bad guts away and kept the good ones. With the immediate work done, I went to my blacksmith purchases and took out the woodcarving tool set. I almost drooled at them and how sharp they were, then I went to the stacks of wildwood coins I had made.

I quickly carved out the proper protection runes, added the proper potion with my gland excretions to fill in the cuts, then infused it with my magic. It only took a minute and it was done. There were immediate screams of creatures that I either missed or had tried to come back onto my dry land.

“Take that, you monsters!” I said loudly and hung the coin up where the old one was on the side of the hut. I quickly did three more and hung them up, even though it was a bit of overkill. One was enough when I did it; but, the Hag always did four, so that's what I did. I didn't hear any more noises and nodded my head as I went outside. Now it was time to deal with the bigger creatures, including the ones in my boat.

I worked all day and all night butchering the things. I had to expand my smoker to make room and I saw that my spices were almost gone. I sighed, because I wasn't getting more anytime soon. I would have to pick and choose what I wanted to save for later and then cook whatever was left. There was no way I could just leave them around for months as I waited for the cold weather and the snow to freeze them.

I shrugged and went back to work. I prepped vegetables, mushrooms, and fungus powder to add to the stew, then added a ton of meat. I didn't even bother trying to keep a good ratio and it was going to be the meatiest stew that anyone had ever had. I started using the frying pans on another fire and sliced up the meat into smaller edible pieces and cooked them.

By mid-morning, I had finally finished the gruelling task, went outside and turned the smelly burlap bag inside out to put the cleaner side inside, and stuffed my new clothes into it. I pulled the boat up to the hut and stood it up to keep the snow from building up inside of it, then I went inside the hut and pretty much collapsed onto my bed.

I slept for two whole days. The strains on my muscles from all the fighting and having two strength potions working, without using a fortifying potion to maintain my muscle mass, hurt like hell when the potions wore off. My head was splitting from the number seven potion, too. I sipped a number four healing potion and let it work, little by little, just so I didn't suffer all of the regeneration at once. I did that enough times to last me for the rest of my life.

I went to the simmering stew and tried some, and it was delicious. All the different meats gave it a great flavor and a texture that I hadn't had before. The mushrooms brought out the vegetables and the fungus powder made my magic sing. It was perfect.

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You have a minor choice to make. It will change how you do things in the future.

A) Read. B) Clean up. C) Make potions. D) Gather ingredients. E) Fix the hut.

I don't want to do anything right now, not after all of that. I thought with a chuckle. I think I'm going to relax for a bit and see what else Diane had in that bag. I choose A.

_______________

I noticed the small burlap bag next to my bed and went over to it. I picked it up and opened it, then dumped the contents out onto the bed. I didn't want to touch the nice things inside with dirty hands, so I went to the water bucket and rinsed them off.

I should have taken a sponge or even one of the rocks. I thought and dried my hands on my leather poncho. I should have taken a towel, too.

I went back to my bed and looked through the things on the bed. There were a few more books than Diane had the first time and I couldn't read them, so I put them aside and picked up one of the many wooden blocks. There was a big 'C' on it and a cat picture on the side, so I quickly pulled all the blocks out of the pile and when I was done stacking them, I had a full alphabet in order.

It was the same as the book and I smiled. I pointed to each one and sang the song, then I turned the blocks and said all the names of everything on them. I knocked them over and scrambled them up and stacked them up randomly. I sang the song again and it was a lot harder to find and point to the right letter at the right time. It took me three tries to get all the way through the song and then I laughed.

I turned the blocks again to the small letter side and put them back in order and did it again. I picked them up and stacked them randomly, then sang the song again. It was a lot harder with the smaller letters, since they looked a bit different than the big ones. It took me six tries to get them all. I sat down and thought about what I was doing, then remembered that I still had another number seven potion.

I looked at the blocks, then at the books, and nodded. I took out the number seven potion to make my mind work better and then drank the number four potion. It cut the returning headache off and I picked up the first book with the letters. I went through it quickly and then picked up the next book. It was a N-U-M-B-E-R-S book.

“Neh-oo-em-buh-eh-er-ss.” I said. “Noomberrs. Nombers. Numbers! It's a numbers book!”

I opened it and the very first page was O-N-E and it had an apple picture and a straight line. “Owe-neh-ee.” I said and frowned. “No, that's not right.” I said and held up a finger to count. “One.” I said and looked at the book. “That's supposed to say 'one'.”

I shook my head at it and flipped the page and it had T-W-O and two apples with a weird marking that looked like an upside down fishhook. “Two.” I said and counted on my finger. I did my best to remember the spelling and flipped the page. I could already count up to a hundred, thanks to Diane's help. I just didn't know what that was spelled like. On the opposite page was T-H-R-E-E.

I kept reading and a smile stayed on my face the whole time.