Chương 6: Local Wildlife

It wasn't too hard to make money, for as small and unremarkable a place as Tiode was. After I tended my fields, the soil already healthy enough for rows of wheat to start to prod from the soil, I occupied my day with other actions. Usually this meant taking something off the town bounty board, which often had need of something or other. Whether it was picking bundles of flowers for the dye shop, or hunting wolves for their pelts for the tanner, I usually ended each day with extra coin. Was it glamorous? No.

Did I enjoy it? Also, no. But this was what it meant to live a normal and quiet life and I simply had to endure. It was better than dealing with war and slaughter on a daily basis. Recently I had started heading north west, where the River Io flowed. A sawmill had been erected upon it, and the whole place was usually alive with the sound of sawing and banging. They needed workers and were wiling to pay. Plus it gave me access to wood for home improvement.

"You wanna work for me, eh?" The owner was a one eyed old man who stood with a perpetual stoop, peering up at me with his wrinkled face set in a grimace.

"Yes, Shino." That had been the exchange when we had first met, and that was the exchange every other time I came up to the sawmill. I wasn't sure if the old timer had a short memory, or if he was just some kind of oddball. He grunted, turned, and spat a red mouthful of some chewable herbs onto the soil.

"Well, get to it then. I'll give you three gin for every ten logs you split." He jerked a bony thumb to a great stack of wooden logs, a square metallic chopping block laden with shallow cuts off to one side of it. An axe rested on the block.

"You got it, Shino." I don't know if the rate was bad, if he was conning me, but it did not much matter. I could do that work with ease and made plenty each day. One by one I set blocks on the chopping block, cleaving them clean in half with a single stroke of the sharpened axe. The heavy clunking sound of chopping wood filled he river valley, almost louder than the sound of the massive logs being sawn by the mill's waterwheel-powered blade.

The local workers, burly men who were decently tall for Tsukio standards, watched me warily in passing. My presence didn't impede their work but I could see some of the distaste in their stares. Perhaps they thought a foreigner didn't belong at their mill. Or, perhaps, they disliked an outsider taking work from them. But none of them said a thing.

When you see a man effortlessly split five dozen logs in quick succession, not even working up a single bead of sweat from the work, it douses any desire most men would have to pick a fight. I'd deny anyone who asked if I was a 'cultivator', but people could still tell easily enough that I was no normal man. Shino didn't care who or what I was, and that was what mattered. He watched me as I worked, chewing his herbs the way a cow would chew cud.

"Where'd you come from anyhow?" he asked.

"West," I said.

"What does it matter?"

"Ain't never had westmen working around here. Don't think I ever known a westman to live in Tsukio. Just traders on the coast, who come an' go as they please. You're an oddity."

"Oh?" The jolt of another chop ran up my right shoulder. I had to be mindful of my own strength so as not to drive the blade too deep into the scuffed steel.

"Nothing wrong with that." Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. Shino shrugged.

"Reckon not. You're a good worker, so it's not as if I can complain. You keep doing what you're doin', I keep paying. But there's a look of trouble about you, and I'd appreciate you keeping trouble away from my mill."

"Calm yourself," I said, glancing over my shoulder at him.

"Trouble's something I seek to avoid." The boar came rushing at me, squealing and frothing at the mouth. It was a big bastard, taller than my waist and able to charge with incredible speed. I dodged it off to the side, jumping off the dirt road with my bound stack of wooden planks threatening to tip my balance as I landed. The black furred beast kept going, skidding too late and smashing his tusks into a nearby tree. He gouged a thick chunk from the wood, snorted indignantly, and rounded on me.

I narrowed my eyes at it. I'd encountered wolves on the road, but a boar was a new one out here. Didn't even know they had boars in Tsukio. And this one was a monster, even compared to the tusked beasts back in the Paathia Mountains.

"You don't want this fight," I said, hoping the dumb beast would take the hint. It blew clouds of steam from its nostrils and rushed me again, moving so fast that its hooves kicked up great trails of dust. I sighed, bracing myself.

"Fine. Guess the tanner is getting a boar hide." It slammed into me with enough force to shatter stone, its skull far sturdier than any normal rock. But I didn't budge. I rooted myself in place, grimacing only faintly from the force of the impact. I felt the tusks against my gut. A normal man would have had his belly split wide open, but the boar didn't even break my skin. A hard thump to the top of the head killed it in a single blow, and the boar slumped bonelessly to the soil.

I let out a sigh, walking around to grab the boar by the hindlegs.

"Damnation. Animals are as stupid as people when it comes to taking advice." With the sun setting on the horizon by the time I finished with the boar, I decided it would be best to head home than to bother heading into Tiode. I left my great stack of wooden planks inside and set about making a fire after skinning my kill. Dry branches for kindling were easy to come by, and I sculpted a large branch into a spit upon which I skewered the bulk of the boar's cleaned carcass.

I'd done my share of boar cooking during the mountain campaigns, and I suppose it gave me a taste for what the lads had called 'angry pork.' I crouched over my kindling, dried branches and leaves woven into a neat pile. I glanced around and, once certain I was alone, I snapped my fingers and sent a spark of flame shooting from the point of contact. The kindling went alight, the blaze growing larger and brighter, warding off the encroaching night.

All too soon the scent of cooking boar filled the air, and I sat by the fire as I watched my dinner darken under the heat. And then, at that moment, I saw a shape move in the shadows beyond my flickering cookfire. I narrowed my eyes and stared into that shifting darkness. Two pinpricks of gold appeared in that gloom, drawing closer until the silhouette became outlined by the glow of the fire. A cat, I noted. A jet black cat who was about the size of a small dog despite clearly only being a cub.

It stared at me with massive and unblinking eyes, rounded ears twitching slightly while it watched me and then the dinner cooking on the spit.

"Careful now," I warned. The cat glanced to me, whiskers twitching slightly.

"Mm. Just hungry, I take it?" I raised a hand, power tracing up toward the tips of my finger. Fire swirled in my palm, taking the shape of a small knife before becoming a solid blade in my grasp. I reached casually into through the flame, ignoring the blaze entirely, and sliced a chunk of grilled meat from the central bulk. I clasped the steaming, sizzling meat in one hand. I blew upon it a few times to cool it and then tossed it to the cat.

They wasted no time, growling and snarfling as they chewed on the grilled chunk. I couldn't help but smile at the sight.

"And what manner of beast are you? Some kind of mountain cat?" I sliced off another chunk and tossed it over, and while the cat ate I silently moved around to examine it. A male cat, then, of whatever breed this creature was supposed to be. I stared at his paws, his claws barely poking out onto the dusty ground. Huge paws for something that was obviously only a cub. I had to wonder how large the thing would grow when it became an adult.

I'd seen war tigers back home, beasts bred and raised for battle, able to wrestle men effortlessly to the ground and rend steel with their teeth and talons. Well, this creature probably wouldn't get that big. But he'd likely outweigh anything but the largest breeds of dog. Once he had finished, the cat sat on his haunches and watched me with those big owlish eyes. Curious, I reached over and pet his silky soft fur. It hesitated, briefly, flinching a little. Then, when I paused, he leaned into my touch.

I let out a small sigh.

"My old ma used to say people don't choose cats, cats choose people. I take it you want to live with me, then?" The cat didn't answer, save for a rumbling purr in his chest.

"Fine, fine," I said, shrugging.

"I suppose I can tolerate an animal for company. Though you'll need a name." I examined the creature, his sleek black fur. Almost the same shade of the black cloud rising above my cookfire.

"How about... Smoke?"