-Break-

Location: Orb’s mansion

A few days later

Φ Hopping up from her bed Maple opens her eyes yawns and looks to her left, where her husband Willow lies.

Looking at Willow’s face I am quiet, then a few moments later with my finger I poke his cheeks and say, “This is all mine,” With a smile on my face.

“His face really is big, and his cheeks are softer than I thought.”

Grabbing his hands, I say, “He is always wearing the bandages across his hand, so he can keep his hands soft. It makes the animals like his touch more. He really is adorable, makes me want to eat him.”

Lying down on our bed, I say, “Well he is my husband, so a little nibble won’t hurt.”

Closing my eyes, I open my mouth and try to bite Willow's ear, but I end up nibbling on something bigger.

Opening my eyes, I see I am biting his nose. Facing me with his eyes open, Willow smiles and then starts to cry profusely.

Shocked, I sit up and say, “I am sorry I didn’t think it would hurt a lot, I won’t do it again.”

Standing up as well, Willow says, “No, I am just so happy I get to experience this with you. I love you so much!”

Freaking out, I hit Willow in the chest, and say, “Don’t cry over such stupid things! I thought I had actually upset you.”

Hugging me, Willow says, “You could never upset me, as long as you remain you, I will always be in love with you.”

Facing him, I say, “Well you better, because if you don’t, I will kill you.”

Hugging me even tighter, he says, “Please do if such a tragedy were to ever happen.”

“I got your permission so no taking it back.”

“Oh course I won’t, but also I am your husband so you can ask permission to do other things for me instead of just attacking me during the night.”

Looking away, I say, “I don’t want to do anything!”

“You sure, because I have already allowed you to see me completely, so if you want to nibble me a bit you can.”

Turning red, and looking away, I ask, “Can I.”

Crying even more, Willow says “Yes, whatever you want to do, go ahead!”

Turning into his chest, I open my mouth and prepare to bite him, but then through the door, Orb walks in and says, “The day has begun time to work!”

In our compromising position, we stare at Orb and he stares at us. Then with blue hair, Orb says, “Wha-What did I say about doing unspeakable things in my childhood bed!”

Willow's face is filled with embarrassment, and I scream, “LEAVE RIGHT NOW.”

“NO, GET THE HELL OUT OF MY ROOM.”

“IDT’S MY ROOM NOW SO DASH!” Grabbing my bow from my bed side I activate my legacy and shoot directly at out.

When it lands it lets out a little explosion.

“Serves you right, bleh!” I say, sticking out my tongue.

-Break-

Since Orb didn’t get us a gift for our wedding, he decided that he would give us alone a room to ourselves. But he imposed stupid rules like we cannot do anything he doesn’t like in the room.

Walking out the main door of the mansion, I wave to Willow and say, “See you later.”

Hugging me, he says, “Bye darling!”

As we split ways I stop for a moment as I notice something in my peripheral. It is a girl wearing a fox mask, with 3 large white tails behind her; it’s Suzuka.

“It seems I need to get to it today as well.”

I start dashing towards her, and as I do, she starts to run away so I scream, “You're always stalking me, so instead of running away why don’t you try to talk to me!”

Using her tails she rolls up into a ball, and just like a hedgehog she rolls away faster than I can keep up with her. Stamping my foot, I say, “She got away again!”

Before I can catch my breath, someone says, “Hello chief.”

Looking at him, I see it is someone familiar to me, “Umm aren’t you the head architect.” Struggling for a minute, I eventually say, “Your name is Ned right!”

He pauses for a moment, and then says, “You're right. It is just that I wanted to talk to you about the plans for the building, so do you know where Orb is.”

Annoyed, I say, “Hey you can just ask me, I am the village chief anymore, but I guess we are a bit bigger than a village now. So I guess I am the queen!”

Maple is incredibly happy as she speaks about being the queen, so much so that the man in front of her goes along with it.

Grabbing, the paper out of his hand, I ask, “So what do you need?”

Ned says, “I just need you to get me more of the materials for the construction, I would also like some ideas because we need substitutes for the atlas eater hide we have been using.

If we start hunting too many of them, we might hurt the ecosystem around here, and wonderbeasts like predasaurs need balance or we might end up with more animals behaving like sonbits and overhunting.”

As he speaks my head starts to spin. I have killed thousands of wonderbeasts, and have seen their insides, but I don’t recognize any of them in this drawing.

This building in front of me just can’t be constructed from wonderbeasts parts it just can’t be. There are also a bunch of numbers on the page, isn’t building physical work, what is with all of this maths?

As I am about to pass out due to all this information, I hear Orb say, “Arend is everything ok?”

“Oh yeah, king would you be able to help us with this?”

With a face of disgust, Orb says, “Please don’t call me king, Orb is enough.”

“Sorry, just force of habit from hearing people talk about you.”

“So what do you need?”

Arend shows Orb, the paper and then in mere moments, Orb replies to him and solves the problem.

“Thank you, ki- I mean Orb.”

“No problem, just do your best.”

Seeing this, Maple hangs her head down low in frustration and embarrassment.

Turning to me Orb says, “Hey Maple I have a favour to ask you?”

Giddy I say, “What is it, tell me I will get it done!”

“Glad to see your enthusiasm. I need you to do some extra hunting during today's training, specifically, the monkey-like wonderbeast that I found, the Norka’s as Avram put it, we need some of its hide.”

“WILL DO!” I say as I run off.

-Break-

Location: Bottom level of Fimbulwinter.

During each day all of the warriors of Aplos, and some others head down to collect food, and now materials for building as well.

As a Spercera attacks one Coco, Buloke interrupts and strikes it with his spear.

Then reaching out his hand, he says, “Coco, are you okay.”

Grabbing it he says, “Yeah, but this spirit arts thing is hard to get down.”

Along with the usual hunting, we have also made sure to train everyone in spirit arts. Some people got it instantly while others have been struggling, though unlike when we were training in the Gaia sky caves, actual combat makes it easier to understand.

Someone behind us screams. It seems a waptor is attacking the man behind us, though before it does any serious damage Alis kills it in one blow.

Aea says, “It seems the new recruits are struggling to fight, I guess not all outsiders are as strong as Orb.”

Mango says, “We shouldn’t judge them, they were all still slaves until earlier this year, they need to build up strength. That’s why we should protect them.”

Seeing the man shivering, I start to move close to him, but before I reach him Atalanta appears at his side, and uses her legacy to create heat.

Looking at the man, she says, “If you want to be strong you got to stay warm.”

The man blushes as Atalanta looks at him and says, “Ok.”

Looking at everyone, Atalanta says proudly, “I might still be missing an arm but if any of you need to stay warm in her or at night just call on me!”

Cheers erupt through the area, and I notice how many people are simply getting on by themselves.

Due to all my squabbles with my father, I never got a chance to spend time with lots of the people in the village, even over the time Orb was gone I mostly spent my time with Willow.

So right now, strong, reliable figures like Buloke and Atalanta are behaving more like leaders than I am.

I need to change that and establish myself. I am not good at all of that paper stuff, but I can fight with my legacy.

From behind Atalanta grabs me and says, “Maple give your master a hug. Tell me you love me!”

Turning to her. I glare directly at her, and say, “I love you.”

“I am not feeling it with that murderous glare!”

Suddenly Buloke shouts, “GROUP UP!”

Everyone following his instructions comes together in a giant group, and then I ask, “What is the issue.”

“Those monkey wonderbeasts; the Norkas are here!”

Ever since Orb had a run-in with these wonderbeasts they have been appearing a lot more often, and they are a pain to fight. Their ability to swing from tree tops gives them a ridiculous amount of mobility, and if we spread out they will swoop down and start picking us off one by one.

Luckily no one has died from them, yet, but we have sustained some serious injuries from them in the past.

Buloke shouts, “Aea, Alis, Banya, Mango, Apur, Fir, Spruce, all of you will follow me into the treetops, the rest of you will stay here and be safe.”

Bringing the strongest among us to the treetops while the rest of us stay here, the best plan he can manage. But still, it would be hard without someone with enough power to break through their hide.

“Buloke why can’t I come along?”

“Princess stay here it is too dangerous for you to join us.”

“But you guys won’t have enough power without my legacy.”

“Sorry, but you are not used to fighting side by side with us, there will be some issues with coordination when fighting a deadly enemy.”

Yet again my mistakes haunt me, but still, I need to prove myself worthy, as a warrior, and as a leader.

“Then I will just fight by myself.”

Using my spirit bow I weave an arrow with a very long tail, shoot it and then grab on to the end and use it to swing high into the air.

Buloke looking in shock, says, “I thought her bow only shot arrows.”

Atalanta then says, “I taught her how to elongate the shape of her arrows, to make weave rope in the spirit bow.”

All the warriors of Aplos scream, “SO THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT.”

Buloke says, “Protect the princes-, I mean chief right now!”

As I swing to the treetops, a memory plays in my mind.

Activating my legacy on the soul book, I open it and say, “Vector messiah, Sagittarius?”

Orb then says, “It seems that is the name of your legacy, Sagittarius, just like Iancu’s Capricorn, and Anto and Mime’s Gemini, your legacy is named after one of the twelve months.

It must mean that whoever your legacy previously was, it was a great person who had an entire month named after it.”

My legacy improves my vision, but more than that it grants me the ability to speed up and slow things down.

Reaching the treetops, I activate my legacy and say, “I am going to take each and every one of you done right now!”

Name: Norka

Height: 375 cm

Type: Predasaur, Carnivore

Description: A giant monkey-like wonderbeast from the upper levels of Fimbulwinter, It has a giant cone-shaped body with thick skin, two giant arms that could easily crush a human body, and tiny feet.

Fact: They smile constantly not because they are violent, but because they truly love swinging from the trees with all of their heart