Jane’s eyes fluttered open. A roof… a roof!?

She staggered awake, flailing about.

“Ow…” the man groaned, who happened to be lying next to her.

He was of course at the other corner of the very small room. The Peachfluff was acting as the barrier between them but it was pretty much asleep. The man was asleep too.

Jane stared around and her body was pretty much the same. As in, no attempt at undressing or cleaning her were made. Which was good, cause she didn’t want to think the man took advantage of her falling asleep outside.

Small room, no bed, just bedding; wooden in nature with two, maybe three pots, a rag and nothing else.

But- ‘Since we’re here that means he carried me all night…. But why the same room?’

Maybe the settlement didn’t have any other open rooms or maybe the man was worried about their safety? Yeah, she wanted an excuse but, in the end, she stood up, unpacked some clothes from her bag, and started undressing.

The man and the little fluff were pretty much asleep. The door and window, locked. And she didn’t want to risk going outside in these tainted clothes.

She got changed. Now, with the dirty clothes and the robe in hand, she went out.

A large settlement.

When Jane heard something about a settlement, she instinctively thought it was small, maybe ten-twenty houses?

No, there was at least a few hundred here. Enough to classify as a typical village if not larger. Houses were really close, and separated by a footpath as wide as two grown up men.

There were people, all sorts of people but mostly girls. The men weren’t around, probably went hunting?

One girl in particular came her way. “Are you alright?” She asked. “I heard you two were ambushed by goblins and the field of Mags.” Pale clothes, dark skin, a different facial structure. Jane had never seen people like her before.

“Yeah…” Jane said. “We were. Its-” Jane stared up- almost midday.

She slept through the night till midday?

“I’m Milane,” she said. “This is a settlement-”

“I heard,” Jane said. “I’m Jane. Traveling to Silverstar. Thank you for letting us in,” she had no idea if it was this lady or maybe someone else but since no one else was coming to her, she figured it didn’t hurt to be a little courteous. “Is there any place here where I could maybe wash these and potentially wipe my body?”

Milane snickered. “Oh, sure. We have a well, so no need to worry about water.”

Jane let out a sigh. “Oh, thank heavens…”

***

For the first time in a week, Jane had a shower. A proper shower, not just a wipe. They even had a bath! But of course, she liked showers more. Less water wasted, plus quicker. Just the way she liked it.

Not just the shower, she also washed her clothes and for the first time felt refreshed in a long while.

Clothes drying, Jane sat next to her small room. Milane had given her a stool of sorts. It only had one leg and with the slightest hint of movement, tilted over. So, it was more work to sit on it than just standing. Jane still sat anyway. Kind of fun actually.

She watched the settlement. She watched the girls do housework and she watched it all with great interest. She watched the children playing as well. It reminded of her own childhood, or the lack thereof.

Jane never had these. She grew up in a house of four siblings. She was the youngest. Her elder sister was already married when she came around. And her brothers were always with her father doing business or whatever. They didn’t allow her to go to school or play with the other kids; in fact, she wasn’t allowed to leave the mansion. She was always home, either in her room or her mother’s room, learning etiquette. Once she became ten years of age, they assigned tutors to her, to educate her in state matters and noble etiquette. Neither of which interested her in the least.

She remembered an explicit conversation with her mother.

“Can I go play with Diana?” She was finally done with arithmetic. She’d been at it all morning.

Jane had been taught to be a good girl. And as a good girl often asked permission to do things. 

“Who’s Diana?” Her mother asked sweetly.

“Marie’s daughter… we’re friends and-” Jane stopped.

She saw her mother’s pale face grew dark right before her very eyes. Her mother summoned Marie and her daughter, yelled at them for several minutes and then fired them on the spot.

It was in that moment, Jane had realized, her happiness didn’t really matter. She had to just act the way they wanted her to. Despite her parents explicitly forbidding her to go play with the kids, she sometimes played with the daughter of a maid; and now that maid was fired because of her.

She was young, really young but she learned a lesson that day; the world was unfair. Especially her parents.

***

It took the man some time to wake up. By the time he was up, it was already afternoon. The sun was close to setting and things were looking rather lively.

The men were coming back with their hunts, and the children were playing, cooking started outside in almost all houses and people were very much acting like it was some sort of festival. Laughing, joking, dancing!

There was music, there was beer, and there was a lot of shouting!

Jane never thought it was possible to celebrate just the mere fact that their husbands and fathers had returned with food… yet Jane could understand the feeling. She could understand the tantalizing feeling of intense hunger. And she’d be drooling at the fresh scent of food right now if it weren’t for Milane who gave her some jerky earlier. She was still drooling though.

“Pleasant scent,” the man said, coming out of the room.

“Yes. Very.” Jane smiled almost leaning over to her side to get a better whiff. She proceeded to fall over with the stool.

Some kids saw her and chuckled like crazy. Jane laughed too but those weren’t laughs of joy….

“I don’t really have any money so didn’t go to the market,” Jane said. “We have no food.”

The man sneezed, blowing his nose on the ground without a second thought. “I see. I’ll go ask the locals. They let us stay, I’m sure they’ll let us have some food.”

“But I’m sure it won’t be for free. What do you think they want?”

There was no such thing as a free lunch and Jane understood that very well. So there had to be a catch to this whole thing.

The man stared her way, no particular emotion. “I don’t think they want anything to be honest. They know we have nothing.” Yawning he went over ahead, casually starting conversations here and there.

Jane stayed sat. She honestly didn’t understand how to even remotely start a conversation with strangers let alone keep talking. Earlier when she spoke with Milane, she was freaking out on all counts. The same thing happened when she first met the man. And to her, this anxiety was a normal phenomenon. And though she wanted to blame her parents for everything, she knew that wasn’t the whole truth and she was somewhat just running from it. Particularly why she wanted to change but didn’t really have the courage to do so.

Regardless, Jane stayed sat, and watched everything. She watched the children play, women cook outdoors and the men butcher their hunt. Somewhat chaotic, but, somewhat fun.

It wasn’t long before The Man brought some meat over. A large chunk of a deer thigh. “Our dinner.”

“Can we look like them?” Jane asked.

The people of the settlements had their own mud oven. They’d dug a hole in the ground, raised the walls of the hole slightly above ground and then used stones as stabilizers for pots. They also had a stockpile of firewood and fire starters, so they cooked fast, efficiently and without really creating much smoke.

Every mud oven Jane had ever seen or had the pleasure of using, were for the lack of a better word ‘smokey.’ So, this was a pleasant surprise.

“Or you could just cook it with some of your fire?” the man asked.

“If you want it charred, sure.” She smiled.

It wasn’t the first time the man had asked her to cook food with her magic. And no matter how many times she emphasized it was impossible to cook food with magic like it was impossible to create drinking water, the man never really gave up on the idea.

“This house is primarily for outsiders so they don’t have an oven,” the man said. “Once they are done, let’s ask one of them.”

“Right.”

Meanwhile, Jane pulled out some spices from her bag and started preparing the meat. She hardly ever cooked back at the mansion. Her parents had exclusively forbidden her from the kitchen but she still snuck in every now and then. But of course, with no one to teach her anything, she didn’t really learn much just from stealing glances at the cooks when they weren’t looking.

During these last few days, the man had actually taught her a few things about cooking and she was excited to put those skills and knowledge to full use. Or so she attempted but the man just grabbed the drumstick-

“We’re not cooking the whole thing whole. Would take forever and might not even cook in the middle. Instead, we’ll be cutting the meat in pieces and make a soup. Much better for ovens like these.”

“Right!” Eyes ablaze, Jane stared at the man with admiration.

The man chuckled. “If only you were so enthusiastic about the journey part…” he mumbled. “Alright, go get the cleaver.”

***

 Jane cooked. Milane and some nomads came over and watched the whole time.

They spoke to her and gave her advice.

She listened to everything and finished cooking without any issues whatsoever. The dish? Deer soup with some potatoes. Some actual fresh bread as a side, courtesy of Milane.

Since Jane ended up making a lot, so she offered some to Milane which Milane happily accepted and gave Jane a mug of beer.

Jane wanted to eat outside but the man dragged her inside the room, lit three small candles and started eating. Apparently, no one really ate outside; and they only ate with family. People didn’t even go outside during the night apart from the occasional need. They did have guards protecting the settlement at all times, however.

“Finally, some good food~!” Jane chirped, gulping down things quickly.

Warm, good, tasty~!

“Slow down,” the man chuckled but he knew she wasn’t listening. He ate anyway.

“Oh, and you can have this. I don’t drink,” she happily gave the mug to the man.

“Huh… it’s good you know.”

“I’d rather stay sober.”

Something was watching them however, and with a rather bored blank stare no less. The Peachfluff. “Spee…” it mumbled, catching Jane’s attention.

“Can you eat these?” she asked.

The Fluff didn’t even respond.

Fluffs in general were somewhat more intelligent than house cats but they weren’t on the same level as Goblins or any other intelligent monsters.

“I saw a small garden near the east,” the man said. “I’ll go ask them for a flower or two tomorrow.”

“Spee…” the fluffball almost frowned. It didn’t have any visible mouth so it was hard to tell though.

“Alright, alright, I’ll go ask after eating,” the man shrugged.

“Spee~!” the fluffball sat down with an audible thud and purr.

Jane couldn’t help but chuckle. “You two get along, huh?”

The man didn’t say a word while the fluff just swung its head in the other direction.

Jane chuckled again and ate.

The man ate, drank his beer and left. “Don’t unlock till I get back.”

Jane wanted to think the people here would never try to harm her but she wasn’t naïve enough to actually try her luck. So, she locked the door and waited. The man eventually came back and with five flowers. Two roses, two garden mums and one Dahlia.

“This is both dinner, breakfast and lunch,” the man told the fluff.

“Spee!” But the thing devoured everything in one go anyway.

For the first time Jane saw its mouth… and those thousands of needle like teeth….

“Wow…” she mumbled… definitely not sweating….

***

The next morning, Jane and the man restocked on their water, thanked everyone and left.

Although Milane did offer some food, the man just said- “I’ll hunt, no thank you.”

Jane wanted to yell he was being rude but she didn’t. He must have a reason- or so she concluded. She still didn’t like it though. “Thank you for everything!” She waved, they waved back.

Only once they were out of the village did Jane open her mouth again. “What was that? Why were you being so rude?”

“Do you know what happens to people who stay and eat with them for a while?”

“What?” Her face paled a little. “Do they eat them?”

The man chuckled. “What? No.” He shrugged. “They just join them. Their food is really good.”

Which Jane really did agree with. She could still remember that delicious aroma and taste of the jerky from yesterday. Actually, she really wanted some more and was even willing to sell her stuff for it! “Food so good, no one wants to leave…”

“Exactly,” the man said. “Plus, their water has a spell of sorts. That was magical water. So be sure to only use it for cleaning or other stuff. Not drinking.”

“But we drank a lot back then-”

“That’s fine. Usually nothing happens for the first couple of days but then you get addicted to it.”

Jane understood that. Magical water was really bad for people and if they got hooked, they couldn’t use any other water. And creating magical water was also quite tricky, and required a substantial amount of mana. Not worth it. Particularly why she didn’t risk using it before. What good a mage on the road if she didn’t even have mana remaining?

A sigh. “Well, I guess that just means we really have to find a water source and some food today, huh?”

“Yes. And Luckily, there’s plenty to go around…” he smiled looking back.

“Wha?” Jane also took a look and to her surprise…

Birds in the sky, bunnies and deers in the distance and even some lions hunting. Finally, there was life!

And monsters!

One of which was coming their way for a warm welcome. A two-headed bear.

Big, two-headed, and definitely not an herbivore…

“Fucking hell…” Jane sighed. “Why couldn’t it just be rabbits and squirrels and shit?”

“Ups and downs lady, ups and down.” The man snickered, unsheathed his dagger and dashed ahead anyway.