Chapter 15 – Understanding
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"You're looking a bit... bigger than before, Umbra."

 

Elvira stands at the edge of the woods with her arms crossed, looking down at me. I hadn't expected her to be waiting for me since, much as she had promised earlier, the sun has begun to set and the light is rapidly fading. I had expected her to be sitting still, sleeping, like she did back in the lair. Still, I had prepared something of a bribe to make her ignore my slacking.

 

Found food. Brought some.

 

I pull the hind legs of the deer out of my mass, holding them up for Elvira to see. The deer tasted better than the wolf did, so I had decided to save a portion of it to give to the elf. It had been tempting to eat the delicious morsels on my way back, but they will be more useful in convincing the elf to overlook me wasting time. I've even been so kind as to remove to hide in advance, so they're ready to be eaten right away.

 

Elvira sighs, dropping her hands to her sides. "Alright, thanks for bringing some back. Any ideas about getting everyone across the channel?"

 

Make a bigger boat?

 

"I don't think that's an option for us, not with now long it would take," Elvira responds. "Well, come on, let's head back. We started a fire."

 

Elvira leads the way to the beach where I see that they have dug a small divot in the sand and filled it with flaming logs. Really, what is wrong with them? The light finally starts to fade a little bit and they immediately build a new source of it. At least this one is small and stays in one place. I can see that the humans are huddled together under a blanket near the fire, sleeping. It seems that my bag has been emptied out and there's a pile of rope and cloth off to one side that doesn't appear to be serving any real purpose. Perhaps something to set up later?

 

Elvira makes her way over to the fire and motions for me to join her. Reluctantly, I move up to her side, pulling myself into a smaller shape to have as little of the light touch me as possible. Ignoring my discomfort the elf takes a few sharpened sticks and stabs them through one of the deer legs I'm still holding, hoisting it up so that it's balanced above the fire. Once that one is securely positioned she does the same for the other.

 

"There," Elvira says, looking over her handiwork. "I've never practiced preparing meat before, but this should be good?"

 

I begin writing in the sand, but quickly find that it does not work nearly as well as with dirt. Frustrated, I begin searching through my bag, returning to Elvira's side a moment later with my ink and notebook ready to write out a response.

 

Prepare?

 

"Yeah? Ah, right, you wouldn't know about this, would you?" She glances back at the meat for a moment, checking on it. "Humans can't eat raw meat. Or elves, for that matter. We'll need to cook it before eating."

 

Cooking, cooking... Understanding quickly provides the information I'm looking for, a process of searing food with heat to burn away diseases and parasites and making it more suitable for consumption. Hmm, I wonder if cooked meat tastes better? I'll have to try that some time, but first...

 

Cut into smaller pieces. Will cook better.

 

"Really? I guess that sounds about right... Well, better safe than sorry."

 

She pulls the legs off the fire, leaving them balanced on the sticks that impale them off to one side as the begins to search through my bag for something, glancing back at me periodically to read my responses to her questions.

 

"How do you know how to cook, Umbra? Done it before?"

 

No. Understanding told me.

 

Elvira gives me a strange look at that before asking, "Understanding? What understanding?"

 

It gives me information.

 

That gets another strange look. "How?"

 

I hear it. See it. But without hearing or seeing. Can't explain.

 

"Uh huh. That... really doesn't make any sense to me." She pulls a thin block of wood and kitchen knife out of the bag, placing them beside that impaled meat before turning back to me. "Can you tell me anything else about it?"

 

How it explains itself: Understanding. A skill that provides user Umbra with information.

 

Elvira seems surprised by that, absentmindedly tapping a finger against the side of her leg. "You have a skill? And it provides information? Understanding... never heard the name before..."

 

Yes. Is that unusual?

 

I have to reach out a tendril and prod the elf to get her attention, causing her to jump slightly. She seems much too surprised for having just been lightly poked, shying away from me and taking a few deep breaths before responding.

 

"Skills themselves aren't all that unusual these days. Most people have something, but usually they're simple stuff that being a bit stronger than most or being good at growing plants. And casting magic, of course. But something like that, that just provides information, especially if it's on a broad range of subjects? That's rare. Really rare." She continues under her breath, "I didn't even know Void creatures had skills..."

 

How many do people have?

 

"Huh? I don't know, I guess it depends on the person? At least two or three, probably. It's hard to tell since you have to get your skills appraised to know for sure, and items or skills that can do that are rare."

 

Two or three? That's less than I expected, considering that I have ten at the moment. Should I tell Elvira about the rest of my skills? She might be able to explain things to me better, but if I seem too unusual she might decide she's better off without me... Though, on the other tendril she may trust me more knowing that I'm a powerful ally. Hmm... She needs my help, doesn't have any way to deal meaningful damage to me, and her knowing about my skills will allow her to better advise me. Worst case scenario she tries to use something she learns against me and I kill her, best case I gain some crucial knowledge. I don't think any of my skills have any glaring weaknesses, besides the obvious of dark magic being weak in the light, so I think it's worth the risk.

 

Elvira, have you heard of Unique Skills? Or Hidden Skills?

 

"Um... No, I don't think I have. Wait wait wait, don't tell me you have something like that?"

 

Unique skills: Understanding. Black Core. White Core. Hidden Skills: Thrane's Blessing. Yehma's Blessing.

 

The elf's eyes widen, and she jumps to her feet. In a loud voice, on the verge of shouting, she says, "Wait, Thrane? YEHMA?! What?!"

 

Well, that's not the reaction I was expecting.

 

 

Hello, I'm back from my impromptu hiatus! I definitely was not planning to go that long without uploading, but this is how it worked out. Sorry about that. Since there was a comment about it I feel like I should mention that if I ever decide to drop this series, I'll change the description to let you all know. Don't want to leave you guys in suspense about that, unlike the cliffhangers that I seem to always end chapters with for some reason.

 

That aside, I'd like to take this chance to say thanks for reading. I hope you guys have been enjoying my weird little story so far.

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