This time the night was much quieter than yesterday, no dreadful howls just the normal howls I knew from my previous trips. Maybe the Village is some kind of safe haven in this Forest. Well, it doesn’t matter to me that much anymore. Because this will be my last trip to this Village. Losing no time, I swiftly packed up my bag, secured it on my back and started the last part of my walk.

As I stepped out of the forest, I was able to see the Village once again, locating a welcome surprise. The normally deserted little house, the merchants normally use, wasn’t vacated anymore. The horse carriages in front of it marked the arrival of the Merchants and traders.

 This would speed up my departure a lot as I could by my first piece of jewelry immediately and didn’t need to wait for the opportunity.

Before that I needed to sell my prey, because sadly the merchants don’t take meat as a trade good. My best bet for trading for grains, which the merchants did take, was looking for Gina. She and her Husband owned one of the biggest farms in the whole Village. They were able to cultivate the biggest plot of land because of their two oxen, that pulled the plow for them. As a result, they were able to trade some of their grain for meat and had little to worry about getting though the winter. I had already sold some of my other prey to them in the past. Thus, I walked straight too their house and knocked softly.

After a short while a middle-aged woman with a little boy in her arms opened the door for me.  Her hair was off a nice and healthy green and she had strong arms, unlike me. Despite our differences she was always kind to me and greeted with a gentle look in her yellow eyes: “Oh, Merla welcome back dear, where did you vanish too, so shortly after your father passed away? You know I was worried? It’s not good if you were to hole oneself up at home?”

Slightly startled over her intense reaction I stuttered:” Oh well You know Gina, I really need to step into adulthood now and it was about time for the merchants too show up… and I, well, you know made a little trip into the forest…”

“Oh, dear that’s really not good for a frail girl like you, to go hunting like that, what if you got hurt? There is nobody to take care of you. And the Forest is real dangerous you know, remember Old Gerald…”

“Yeah, I know all that, but it’s the only thing I can do. For everything else though I need someone else and… And I want to earn my final step as a girl. Beside all that would you please take a look?” I interrupt her. Gina can really start rambling, about the old times or the people of the Village both alive and not. I really meant those words too, I want to prove to myself, that I’m more than a weak girl lacking life spirit or something. It really hurt to never be considered at all as a partner for live by the others. I doubted myself, but still was able to take pride, in what I was able to achieve despite my seemingly useless body.

Following straight up, I took my backpack from my shoulders. As i was about to open it up, Gina sighted:” Oh well, dear you do have appoint. You came back safely overall and maybe this will help you find someone, so that something like this won’t be necessary anymore. But before you open up this back off yours, come inside, it’s no good trading in the open like that.”

With a shrug I picked up my bag and followed her inside. Personally, I really didn’t care about such things, but if it means I could trade my game, it would be well worth it. After following Gina in too the house, I sat down on one off the stairs available. It wasn’t the first time inside this house, but the small but painful differences always stood out to me. The wooden planks that made up the floor were new and solid instead of old and creaky. One wall was full of shiny iron kitchen wear, compared to the mostly wooden or rusty tools, I had at home. Overall, this place was a lot nicer.

“That’s better Merla, now would you like a tea or something before you show me what you have in that bag?” “Um some tea would be nice, Thank you”

After those words Gina quickly took out two mugs from a nearby cupboard and took the kettle from, a small brick stove. The contents were poured over some herbs, she stored in a small box beside the stove. After placing the mugs in front of us, she asked:” Did you catch two rabbits instead of one this time? Your bag is bulging.”

I smirked confidently at those words:” No rabbits this time, I secured a small deer deeper into the forest.” “Oh dear, why did you take such a risk? I know the tradition is important, but why risk your life for it.”

“But Gina I’m sixteen winters old already and had my trusty bow with me, I would be able to scare away a wolf” “Still much stronger men did go missing in this forest it’s not good… Whatever I’m no one to stop you I’m not your mother after all. Even though I still have plenty of spirit inside me, it’s not enough to care about you in addition to my little rascal here” At those words I glanced at the boy in here arms even though he was less than two winters old he had really brown hair, with even more shine than his mother’s green hair. My hair on the other hand had no saturation or shine at all it was snow white giving of an unnatural feeling. In addition, it was already clear, that I wouldn’t nearly grow as strong as Gina or maybe the boy in the future. These were effects from the lack of life Spirit inhabiting my body. A little depressed I took a small sip of the herbal tea, its taste helping calm me down a little.

“With this out of the way let me show you what I got”, I came to the point of my visit. Not that I didn’t like the company of Gina, but I really wanted to push forward my plans, the merchant wouldn’t stay for long after all and I wanted to start my journey as well. I took out the antlers of the dear first. They felt slightly warm, but it might just be from the tea or me associating them with the warm dear. Certainly, the effect was way weaker, than when I cut them from the dead animal. It didn’t matter anymore though, as Gina picked them up with a surprised and impressed look on her face. As she was busy inspecting, I placed the hide as well as the meat of the dear on the table now that I took it all out slowly. The meat covered half the table, which was big enough for four or maybe six people to eat without issue, it was a lot more than I would get from a rabbit.

Gina was even more surprised than me:” That’s a lot of meat and big antlers for a small deer. It seems like really nice meat too from the look of it. Might be a little more than I need but that’s, Ok It’s you after all and you can consider it as a small coming of age gift. However, I will not take any more meat after this, I don’t want you to risk your life anymore and won’t encourage you. You should be happy that our harvest was good, and this meat is so nice.”

“Don’t worry this is the last time I’ll bother you with something like this.”, I was really relieved to hear that, my relation to the rest of the villagers was worse than to Gina, and they would probably not take all off it. I really didn’t want to sell the meat too different people that would just be unwanted attention, on top off a big hassle. After all, I still wanted to sell the rest of my belongings I couldn’t take away with me. To do that I would probably need to trade with the Villagers first and then with the merchants later because in Daren Money was rarely used. The popular opinion was, that it was distant and cold like the rest of the world and most merchants. I wanted to explore that world, most off the village was already cold towards me anyway, thus I needed money. As I mussed about what I could sell to the merchants and what I needed to trade first, Ginas voice woke me up from my thoughts.

“All things considered, what about 30 pounds of flour for all of it.”  “Uhm what?” “Don’t be confused dear. It’s quite simple actually, I can use this meat for about 15 nice meals, and this much flour would last us about 20 days or about 40 or so basic meals of bread or porridge. Then there are the antlers on top can’t really say much about these, but it should add up.” “Ah yes that’s fine for me.” Honestly it was really shocking how much I could get for my hunt, but if I believed her stories, I kind of risked my life a bit. The deer itself was really scary, now that I think about it, if it would have had the time, the hot air could have seriously hurt me. I’m clad it all worked out and I would probably do it again I gained so much from this trip after all.

While I was in thought, Gina left for the pantry and came back with a big sac of flour in her hands and handed it to me or rather placed it beside my chair. “Here you go dear make good use of it and buy yourself a good piece of jewelry. You can make a good impression on someone, if you pick wisely”, she added, as she smiled gently and showed me her earing. If I remember correctly, her husband chose this one specifically because of her. It was a brave move and seemingly gathered quite a bit of attention. I couldn’t do such a thing though, I hadn’t the courage to do something this bold, neither was there someone I liked and lastly, I wanted to leave and travel, probably alone for the time being. The only thing I could answer was:” Thanks for the advice, Gina I will think carefully before I pick something.” Gina nodded approvingly and asked:” Is there something else I can do for you, I should get to work on this meat.”

I quickly glanced at my mug, I had subconsciously emptied it, besides my tea there was one question that was important right now:” Do you know someone who might be interested in some of the things from my mom and dad I want to sell some of them, so I can start living by myself more confidently.” “Hm, I might actually know someone that might meet your requirements, I’m actually surprised you didn’t hear it already. Weland and Narna want to marry and move out they are in need for a lot of things.” This was indeed new to me, but it wasn’t surprising both of them are 4 winters older than me and we rarely interact with each other, as I simply couldn’t keep up with them when they were playing or working. Besides I didn’t listen to the rumors around marriages all that much, because it only made me aware about my bad perspective in that regard. The situation was really good for me though, maybe I can sell them the house, if this was possible, I would probably have enough money for my travels or well the beginnings at least.

With this plan in my head, I got up and picked up the sac, I wasn’t able to lift it nearly as easy as Gina, but I managed. With a final greeting and a smile on my lips I headed out of the house and towards the merchants’ shop.

Schnelli

Hi there,

I hope you liked Merlas interacttion with Gina. Hopefully i managed to bring the sitiuation in the Village across more cleary. I wanted to give you more persepective on how the Village sees Merla and why she decided to leave, aside from the point that I planed for her to leave :)