The bear was a double edged sword. Not in a catastrophic way. Just in a “I really shouldn't have eaten the entire bear in one sitting” type of way. Yeah. I, uh, straight up just ate it all. I did not think the first bite would be so tasty. After having bland food for three months straight, the strange gamey flavor of the bear awakened my taste buds to new heights.

How the hell did an entire bear fit into this little girl? It must have been some natural trick with mana. A child's metabolism is insane. I felt fuller than ever, but I still drooled for more. Perhaps a child's ravenousness is more scary than their metabolism. Well, I wasn't gonna carry around the leftovers for a long time anyway. It's probably better that it was a one and done indulgence.

The decimated bear aside, I was able to crudely fashion the bearskin cloak I wanted. The top of the bear’s mouth drooped over my head, and its front fangs fell down in front of my eyes. I made sure that the collar of the cloak remains fastened to my body through a simple clipping system sustained by a team up between my mana and the remains of the claws from the hind legs of the bear. The only problem was that I neglected my height. In my excitement, I failed to account for my size, so the cloak drags across the ground.

Eh. It probably makes me look cool so I'll deal with it and just be careful not to trip.

The bear’s mana channels remain present even in its new accessorized form, so my previous pondering on its use in battle proved to be founded. I can't really wield it all too well yet, but I made big sleeves out of the bear’s arms so that I can attack with its claws. And they're perfectly icy as I wanted them to be. If I ever wanted to get wild in my fighting style that's the option to use.

All that leaves is the bones. I've fashioned a makeshift duo of daggers and a small ax. I had to go off my sense of touch for these, so I'm sure they don't look pretty. The tools all rest within my cloak, inside internal pockets that are sealed by mana threads. I can easily take them out in battle if need be.

I probably look like a feral little gremlin, dressed in the pelts of my enemies, and covered in grime and snow and blood. Quite a stark contrast from the villainess noble girl I'm supposed to be, huh?

At this point, it's late afternoon on the day after I hunted the bear. I've ventured out of the forest and have been making my way northwest by following the stream I discovered. There's a dangerous mountain range there that is not commonly traveled. It's name is too annoying to remember, so I can only remember the general location.

It'll be quite sad for me to leave this forest, I was getting used to living here, but the world moves and so must I. My travel is fresh with a strengthened application of my mana pulse walking. Now that I am in unfamiliar territory, I'm moving slower than in the forest. These are new trees and new rocks, and the gradual incline of my route clues me in on the environment I am headed towards. I'm proud to say that I am walking at a faster speed when I did this on day 1, even with the tougher environment.

—

It takes me a week to reach a town. My heightened hearing warns me of its location as night starts to fall.

This is where many would rest, but for me, this is a roadblock. With my current appearance I think I'm more of a monster than a human. Plus, even if I were to clean myself up and change into simple clothing, I haven't interacted with anyone in three months, I am technically a lost child, and I… really just don't want to talk to anyone anyways. In the end, I could only use the amenities in this town in a certain way.

I guess I'm gonna have to steal from them, huh? I won't rob them blind, after all being blind is my job, and I understand the harshness of the wintery north, but I'll need to stake out this place and see what's up.

There's a few problems with this. Much like the Elderfrost Bear, my magic sense is useless. In fact, I think it's more dangerous than useless here. If I send out a mana pulse and there's anyone at all who can sense magic, a robbery is a bust. Obviously, I can't view my situation, which leaves me with sound once again. My ears really do put in some overtime work, I hope I can settle down in a quiet place so I don't need to keep doing this.

Before I put my ears to work, I spend a grueling 2 hours slowly worming my mana around what I assume to be the perimeter of the town. From a distant hill, I sent my mana into the ground and had it creep its way towards the noise and scout out the place. It was a mental game of tag, quickly retreating my mana when I was unsure of anything. Stretching my mana that far feels like pulling a muscle. It's weird, but throughout the process I become more accustomed to it. There seems to be a simple border around the whole place, probably made from wood or low stone walls. Everytime I felt my mana work upwards I added a section to my mental image of the perimeter.

From my position on the hill it seems that the town forms a crooked L-shape. It's small too. Which means I have stumbled across a developing village, rather than a town. It's hard to say if a smaller population is better or not in my current situation. There's a less likely chance of someone annoying to deal with, like a knight or magic user, but if I'm discovered once in a small town, that's the only chance I get.

Is it even worth it to be stealthy? Small settlements like these suffer from monster attacks all the time. With my hood and speed, I can make this a grab and go operation and throw the consequences to the wind if I escape fast enough. No one will follow me to the mountain range, and I feel as if I should be close to that point of no return by now. Perhaps this town is a checkpoint for travelers who wish to cross over.

Hm. I guess I'll wait a bit. For now, I am in no rush. I've traveled far enough from the forest to take it easy a bit. I'll meditate and tune in my ears to the sounds of the town for a few days, and then make my move the next night after some rest.

72 hours have passed. This town moves slower than a dying snail. The days and nights I've been here have been repetitive and dull. There are 7 children in the whole town, part of four young families parenting them. There are two elderly couples. And that's it. Not even 20 people. One of the elderly couples acts as the leaders, and the old man complains at least five times a day about how they have more town space now, but no one ever moves here. They have no standardized currency and everyone just shares everything. Old man, you're never gonna make it big with that situation.

Regardless, I've decided to join in on that sharing. Secretly. In the night. My biggest threat is the four fathers from the young families, who take shifts standing guard at night. They take them two at a time, at each side of the town. They fail to account for things that could scale the wall from the sides. In this case, me.

I keep my body low, and slowly tiptoe my way through the snow. Everyone in this town is manaless, so I can use my magic pulse just fine. The wall was indeed a low stone wall, which means I can climb over it easily after feeling for a foothold. I leave my own magical border around the town, with a special mark at my entry point, all embedded in the snowy ground, so I am aware of my location if I need to send a bigger pulse to determine my location.

It doesn't even take me 10 minutes to reach the town storage. I'm mainly here for some dry food, warmer clothes, and a backpack. I'll be hiking up this mountain for an indeterminate amount of time, so I'd like some advance preparation. I am unaware of the potential food sources in that area, and if I could spend less mana on keeping myself warm, then I should take that chance.

I take various jerky, a moderately sized leather backpack, and some sort of jam. It tastes sweet. Maybe I can spruce up my meals. I rummage through the clothing, trying to feel for the warmer outfits, unaware of what they look like, but I take two especially comfortable ones. One is my size, and one is the size for a late stage adolescent. If I stay in the North for a long time, this will be useful as I grow.

I'm just about to start changing into my new clothes, when a creak of the door reaches my ears. I stiffen my body. Someone entered? The manaless have very faint mana signatures, and it's hard to sense them, so even though I'm trying to identify the person behind me, there's no way to know until I hear their voice.

I make no sudden movements. I'd rather not give away any sort of hostility. I sense nothing on them, do they not have a weapon?

“Are you a monster?”

That was a child's voice. There’s a child here, at this time of night? What are they doing awake? I'm exempting myself from my own chastising, obviously. They seem younger than me by the voice and intonation. Maybe four or five years old. If I play this off correctly, then I won't need to engage in conflict.

I slowly turn around, my bear cloak still on, and face the direction of the child. I was debating whether or not to remove it, but right now the child doesn't need to see my face. It may be the better choice to appear as a mysterious monster of the night.

“Mr. Monster, can you not speak?”

…Must I really play along with this game? I guess I must.

Mr. Monster decides to shake his head.

“Aww, I think it'd be really cool if you could speak!”

Mr. Monster decides to remain silent.

Before the child can speak again, the door creaks open again. Another person?! The manaless continue to give me trouble.

“Avery, Mommy is tired, did you get the jam you wan-”

And then she shrieks. Perfect. Guess I need to make a break for it.

“Monster, monster! Get away from him!”

Yeah, yeah, scream away. I stuff the extra outfits I was looking at in the backpack, which is already filled with food I was eyeing, and then push past the child and the mother and channel mana to my legs, I’d really rather not fight anyone. It's a pain to try and defeat something without killing it.

And yet, it soon becomes clear that I'll have to do exactly that.. I can just barely sense them, but the four fathers of the town have made themselves known to me by their yelling. I don't pay attention to what they're saying, I'm just listening for their first attack.

It seems… that there's three in front of me and one behind me. The fathers yell as they charge. Never a smart move, you just gave away your attack pattern.

I haven't pushed my mana pulse into their weapons yet, which means I’m unsure of what weapons they wield, so I keep my distance. After a duck, I use all four of my limbs for an initial stabilization and jump down the path some more. Unknowingly, I have played up the monster act by using my hands like this. Perhaps that's just an inevitability at this point. I throw my bag to the side for now, leaving my mana traces with it. I'll retrieve it after this nonsense.

The four fathers are sloppy and uncoordinated. I hear them bumping into each other and their panicked shouting as they try to reach me. I focus on the sounds they make… they're forming a line now? Or is it some other formation? I can't accurately predict how they're going about this. They start moving, yelling once more. I grip my hand on my stick. It's the most blunt weapon I have, so it'll have to do. I'll attempt to touch their weapons so I can send my mana into them. That'll give me an advantage. I hear the men's footsteps.

Listen… listen… listen… listen!

Movement from the left! I lower myself dramatically and purposefully reach up to graze my fingers against the weapon that flew above me head. It's a sword, and a shoddy one at that. There was some rust on it, and the cut I just received from it was shallow. Hearing another loud grunt from the front, I roll backwards from my crouched position. A dull thud against the ground? And closer than I anticipated. That may be some sort of polearm. I quickly touch it as well. I have a better sense of half of my opponents now. Do I assume that this unit consists of two sword users and two polearms? It may be better to work with that theory for now.

I send out another mana pulse from my feet to reaffirm my location. As it bounces against my embedded border around the town, I realize I'm near the middle of the town now, a bit south of my entry point. I need to head north. Which means I was running the wrong direction in my initial panic. How annoying.

Time to label my enemies. S-1 is the sword I touched, and P-1 is the polearm. The unknown weapon wielders are U-1 and U-2 respectively. Better to separate the sounds I hear and the entities I sense. It worked with the bear, so I'll test it on these enemies. In fact, it might be more useful here, since my enemies are greater in number and more flexible in how they wield their bodies.

Oh? They've all stopped. U-2 is screaming about how he's the best sword wielder in this town, and probably name dropping his rank and title or something. Hmm. He's probably a failed knight that got too comfortable in the frigid countryside after trying to heal his wounded pride. There's a lot of those. I have no condolences to spare though.

I channel mana into my legs again and rush up to wack his head with my stick. I hear the surprised shouts of the other three. U-2 should be down. The talkative ones are always the weakest. Running their mouths means they don't take the battle seriously.

I hear movement as I attempt to run again. It's U-1. He's fast, surprisingly so. A scraping sound in the snow? Ah! Below! But I realize too late, and he trips me with his weapon. I land hard on my left arm. Yep, definitely a polearm. Seemed firmer than the other weapons too. It may be a proper staff. Unfortunately, in my surprise, I didn't course my mana through it.

It's safe to say that U-1 is the biggest threat of the remaining three. I'll take care of the other two first then. P-1 hits my back before I can get up, and I hold back my cry of pain. My back is still healing from the bear’s scratch, so that wasn't enjoyable. I didn't think I'd need a barrier for this fight, I guess I'll put one up now. It's haphazardly done in a flash, so there are some openings in it.

I magically feel the movement of the polearm, he's going for another swing at my back. I pay him in kind with an upward palm to the jaw, and then quickly duck yet again as S-1 goes for my head. P-1’s weapon is on the floor and isn't moving. I guess my counterattack worked. He must be done.

My ears catch scraping snow again. U-1! I jump up this time, not ready to literally fall for the same trick twice. I can commend you, U-1, for going with what historically worked though. As I come down, I swing my stick in the direction of the scrape. His head is probably around there, right? A dull clack echoes in the night, and I'm pushed to the ground. Damn. It was blocked. I missed touching the staff again too.

A yell from above, a tingle in the magic… S-1? I roll in the snow to the right. I hear a sword point hit the ground. Yep. I quickly get up and dodge again as I hear U-1 swing his staff and while it does hit my shoulder pretty roughly, I'm finally able to channel my magic into it.

Now, I can win.

I'm not sure if the other two were dead weight or not, but S-1 and U-1 have been performing much better as a duo unit. Well actually, U-2 was for sure useless, previous knighthood or not.

Anyways, dodging has become much easier. Sword swipes, staff scrapes, blunt pokes, overhead swings, all dodged with barely any scratches. Even with my oversized bear cloak, I'm not stumbling, I've mostly got my footing, and my barrier is doing a good enough job. If objects didn't have mana channels, I would not be having this easy of a time. I think my smaller size is also helping here.

I can hear the two men running out of breath, and I use the small window of recovery they gave themselves to punch S-1 hard in the abdomen, using just enough mana to where he won't get up for a little while.

Alright, now it's just U-1 and me.

I imagine at this point, U-1 has some pretty choice words for me, so out of lingering curiosity, I listen to the words they're saying for once.

“You monster-human! What are you?! I'll protect the village our forefathers granted to us with my life!”

Hmm. Could've had something more interesting to say, honestly. Were the four father’s forefathers like this too? Perhaps this village remains simple because of their inherited simplicities.

Regardless, it seems like U-1 is more motivated than ever. And now that he recognizes me as something human adjacent, he likely wants to give it his all.

So I'll scare him by becoming more monster-like. Time to test out those bear claw sleeves. I've fashioned my cloak so that these claw sleeves reach the ground when I stand up straight. Because of this, I mostly have been tucking the sleeves away, but as I grow, they'll be around my calves or knees and will be able to hang freely. I untuck these sleeves now and slide my arms into them. I send my mana throughout the cloak and mentally feel the sleeves become extensions of my arms. My reach is much longer now, it should be much easier to deal with U-1’s staff.

U-1 swings his weapon, trying to hit me in the head, but I use my cloak arms to catch it in place. Gotcha. How far can I swing you? One rotation, then a second and a third, and then release!

Going by the mana of his staff…. about 15 paces. Not bad, but definitely not enough. I take the initiative this time and try to go for a slam against his back, but he blocks my arms as he stumbles up into a standing position yet again. His breathing is heavy. At this point I could just make a break for it, grab my bag, and go… but something within is driving me to finish the job. Perhaps I want to prove myself again. Though, this battle has been considerably easier than my last notable one.

U-1 brandishes his weapon, and I my claws. He swipes low again and I jump to swipe at him, but to not cause any severe damage I unsleeve my hand and instead land a punch right on his head. I think I might've hit his nose too in the process. Sorry.

Either way, U-1 grabs his face in reflexive pain, and a whack on the head from my trusty stick sends him to the land of the unconscious. Nice.

That was a fun enough training session, though it was under unfortunate circumstances. I just took some jerky and jam, and I got into a whole different type of jam because of it.

As I head towards my bag, I send out another mana pulse. The four fathers pushed me in the opposite direction of the mountains, so I need to walk through the town to get away. It's a silent walk, and I'm able to retrieve everything that was “shared” with me.

When I reach the exit a voice stops me.

“Mr. Monster, are you bad?”

The child again? Where is their mother? Get your unpredictable kid away from here please.

“Oh, Mr. Monster can't talk, right? Mr. Monster, I think you hurt my dad and his friends. You took my jam too! I saw you with it!”

“Avery! Get away!”

That was… the voice of U-1?!

How did he get up so quickly? Did he falsify his unconscious state? Shit, I didn’t check him when he fell. Sloppy mistake. I don't want to admit it, but this whole operation was messy. I spent 3 days meticulously planning things only to get caught by a child wanting jam.

I receive a blow to the back of my head while I reel in my surprise and I get my bear cloak hood pulled back in further punishment. Great. That hit destroyed what was left of my barrier and now U-1 has a visual of my face. Thank goodness it's dark, or else he could have identified me better.

“You're… a child?”

Yep. That's me. How the heck should I deal with this?

“We were fighting a child this whole time… Not a gremlin or mountain goblin, but a child…”

U-1 puts me down and loosens his grip. I have a very strong and burning temptation to whack him again then and there. But if I can end this without any further conflict, this will be better for the both of us.

“Dad! Mr. Monster isn't bad, is he?”

“Avery, go to your mother, please. I need to talk with… Mr. Monster.”

“But Dad!”

“Avery.”

“Fiiiiiine.”

The child scurries away. It's U-1 and me. Again.

“Girl, how old are you?”

“...”

“Can you speak? Do you understand me?”

“...”

“Are you alright? You've got injuries all over.”

“...”

“Everyone else is hiding in their houses. No one else is going to attack you. You can talk if you want.”

“...”

“Nothing huh? Alright then. Do what you need to do. Take what you need to take. Stay if you need to stay. You clearly know what you're doing. We don't need to fight.”

I put my bear cloak hood back on as U-1 let go of me. I waste no time and run away outside of the town. U-1… he's a sensible and kind man. Definitely the type of person who should lead that town when the old man who complains too much croaks. I'll probably forget about him in a couple of days but I am grateful for that small act of kindness, at least. Hopefully that town forgets about me too.

I take residence in the tree branches that night, aiming to get a fair night of sleep, but before I do, I change into my new, warmer clothes. I spend a few minutes feeling them and adjusting them how I want.

It's nice. Very nice. I feel like I'm a bit more stable as a person now, even if I'm willingly choosing to ignore the violent methods of my acquisition of this garb. I dig into my new backpack and have a late night snack. My head and back both hurt from the blunt blows that hit me in battle, so I don't want to hunt right now.

I'll have… ten strips of jerky, dipped in that jam I took. Hmm. An interesting combo of sweet and savory. And crunchy too. It's definitely not something I've usually had throughout my lives, but it's making me happy just chewing on it. Is this the meaning of working for your food? The bear tasted great as well.

Maybe the meal after a battle is especially good. Or maybe I've just gotten lucky recently, and good meat is rare. Actually, I've only had meat and fish for over three months now. That's probably not good for my growth and development. I'll start scavenging for mountain berries or something similar tomorrow.

I reach for the next piece of jerky only to realize that the jam and jerky have finished.

Ah.

They were a double edged sword too. Damn.