I wake up at the first light of morning, I was a little nervous to bringing Nozomi, Ethan and Hope to the village, I wonder what they were going to think about that, I wake up them up except Hope then all of us debate whether to wake her up and bring her or being her while she was sleeping. No one wanted to deal with a crying child at dawn, so we decided to just bring her while she was asleep, I put her clothes on her while she was still asleep, a simple linen shirt, pants and a leather jacket. She was pretty darn adorable even with clothing that was sub-par at best. Guess I'll need to ask more stuff from old man Walter.
I turn into my human form and wear my clothes, then I carry Hope in my arms while trying not to wake her up. I leave the house where the other two were waiting for me, and then we all head off towards the village. And Ethan begins to engage in conversation with a three way telepathy.
"So what is the village like Rai? Come on tell us."
"Yeah brother, what is a village filled with humans like?"
"Remember that I am telling it to you from the perspective of a humanoid ok? But it is quite a pleasant place, I don't know how they'll treat you, but when I first arrived most people ignored me until I used a healing technique, which caused someone to ask for my help, after helping him I think the villagers started treating me with less animosity, there were also some boys that I sparred with, well it wasn't really a spar seeing that I beat him instantly. Ah right, they also have a problem with food supplies."
"Woah, woah, easy dude, that's a lot to take in."
"Ugh my head is spinning..."
"Might've rambled on a bit there, but oh look, it's getting in sight now, Nozomi? Did you put the illusion?"
"Of course."
The gate was now in sight, two different guards were standing in front of it, one of them had horns like a ram and the other had an eye on his forehead, but other than those two very defining features, their build was pretty similar. When we get closer, this time they don't point their spears at me, but instead show surprise at Ethan and Nozomi, the two of them start whispering together and then tell something to a passerby. I pay it no mind and try to pass them and enter, they don't show any signs of stopping me but I could see that they were afraid of Ethan. These two large men were afraid of a small rabbit?
"Ethan, I think you are scaring the guards."
"Hoho it looks like they understand how terrifying my power is. But wait are you serious?"
"Yeah, they're avoiding you and they look like they've just seen a monster."
Suddenly I see August running towards me, it looks like he was waken up by somebody and rushed here as fast as possible.
"Oh hey Augus-"
"What in God's name are you doing with a storm here boy?! Don't you know how dangerous these are?"
"He is my friend, I said that I was bringing friends with me did I not?"
"I mean I didn't expect you to have a friend, much less a Storm hare, and is that a child?!"
"No, it's dinner. Of course it's a child."
"Let me guess, another abandoned child that you are taking care of? And oh? I see that you also have a fox with you, could it be that you lied?"
"The child is indeed an abandoned one, and her name is Hope, as for the fox, she is Nozomi and she is not from that same family. As for the rabbit he is called Ethan."
"Another strange name for the fox, but Ethan doesn't sound too strange. But do you know how strong a storm hare is?"
"Well, he is pretty strong."
"Pretty strong is a serious understatement, a storm hare is a high C-tier threat, to put it in perspective, all of the guards here are equal to D-tiers, so a monster like that could wipe out the entire village if we fought normally."
"But can you still win?"
"Traps or any situation that favors us would balance out the difference, you can still win against stronger opponents if everything is right, unless the difference is too large though. But that doesn't matter, what I want to know is how did you tame it?"
"We talked and became friends obviously."
"Huh? You could do that? The chances of that happening are extremely low, you better consider it a miracle boy."
After a while of explaining I had finally got everyone to calm down from the appearance of the two, but overall more people were a lot more friendly to me now, although not everyone was interacting with me, some of the tailors had headed off to work to make some clothes for Hope, and some of the older women of the village had taken her from my hands, which was at first returned with a growl from Nozomi that scared them a bit, but I told Nozomi that it was fine, and told August to reassure them that it was fine and that she was just being a bit protective over her.
I now wanted to reach Walter's house as quick as possible to start the lessons, since I could feel that the villagers didn't trust or like Ethan and Nozomi that much, a fight wasn't likely to begin between them but I didn't want them to have any bad blood between them. I pull August and head towards Walter's house, I pass by the houses that had some villagers standing in front of them either watching us or trying to join the crowd of women that were taking care of Hope. We had finally reached his house and knocked on his door, and we waited until he opened his door, while we waited, August had told me this: "Where will you stay while you are studying? There is no free house here at the moment and I, unfortunately, can't let you stay at my house."
"It doesn't matter, I was going to return to my own home after every day, so I don't need to stay here."
"You have a home? Did you build it yourself?"
"Yeah, I also want to improve it, since that is why I want to learn woodworking."
While we had been talking, Walter had finally opened his door, except that it wasn't him, it was actually his daughter that had opened the door, she looked miles better than she did yesterday and looked pretty healthy, when she saw my masked face, she smiled, she had then said something while she was smiling, I didn't know what it was but it's probably something good. I then enter the house and I find Walter sitting there on his dinner table, I guess that was where we were gonna learn? August had also joined me in this one, I think that he'll be the translator or something. We all sit down, Walter winces when he sees Ethan and Nozomi then says something to August.
"He is asking you if you could let those two leave while you study."
"Tell him no, also tell him that I want to teach him telepathy."
August was surprised at what I had claimed but did so nonetheless, Walter was surprised that he was going to be taught a technique and practically forgot about Ethan and Nozomi, I told August to tell him to imagine that our two minds were connected and that he could give me information that way, we had tried for dozens of times and for nearly an hour before deciding to just do it later, perhaps I underestimated the difficulty of this technique? As walter taught me through August as a translator, I had given that knowledge to Nozomi and Ethan, and after some hours the lesson had finally ended, the language was sort of similar to english so I was able to grasp it a bit quicker, I had even learnt enough to be able to tell that girl "You're welcome." Although I need to work on my pronunciation, before we left for the next lesson I had asked Walter and August by telepathy about the forest of Naher, since asking about the kingdom of Almot was maybe a bad idea.
"He says 'The forest of Naher? You continue along the path through this village then you turn when you reach the Cloudsplitter mountains, then you reach it, but I don't recommend going there, since adventurers and slayers used to come through this village towards the forest, but lately, no one has ever returned or went there, there are rumors among the villagers that there is a monster there that is hunting humans.'"
"Really? Why did it not get exterminated yet?"
"I don't know, probably wasn't found yet, but high ranking slayers will likely try to exterminate it."
Well, I already got my information so I am satisfied, we had both left the his home in order to go to the next place to learn, but we were stopped by the bull beast dude that was with August, he was shouting something towards us with a fire in his eyes and an excited look. August looked shocked by what he said.
"August? What did he say?"
"..."
"August?"
"He said he wants to duel you."
