Chapter 3 — A New Day

When Ria opened her eyes, the rain had passed, and the morning sunlight was peeking through the slats of her window shutters.

Ria opened the shutters and looked out over the deserted village. She liked that her room was on the second floor. A second-floor window gave her a nice view, and the window could be left open in the summer without having to worry about anyone sneaking in through it while she slept.

The sound and sight of two ducks waddling below came as a surprise. Apparently, not all of the farm animals were gone. She wondered how many others might have managed to escape.

Though even if there were others, she wouldn’t know how to properly take care of them, or how to butcher them for meat. Well… her mom had shown her how to prepare a chicken… so maybe birds would be doable.

First things first. Her favorite mushroom spot should be packed full of mushrooms after all of that rain, and those needed to be harvested before the insects got to them.

After dressing in her foraging clothes, Ria grabbed her wicker basket and set out. Passing through her now empty house and between the empty houses of the village was depressing, but she did her best to be brave and not let it overly dampen her mood.

Once again seeing all of her neighbors’ doors still ajar, Ria thought about how the rain had probably soaked the insides of their houses and affirmed to herself that she would make an effort to close everyone’s windows and doors when she got back. Nobody would want to return to a moldy house, after all.

The walk to the north woods was something that Ria did often. Jeni’s mom was an herbalist and her dad an alchemist, so Jeni was always foraging herbs and mushrooms and was happy to take Ria along with her.

This time Ria was on her own, which meant picking mushrooms was riskier, but the ones that grew at her favorite spot were easy to identify and were always safe. Tasty too.

Along the way Ria kept her eye out for edible plants and berries, muttering to herself as she foraged. “Edible. Not. Not. Poisonous. Edible. Umm… skip. Ooh raspberries.” Her basket was already half-full before she reached the large oak tree.

The mushroom scene around the gnarled old oak didn’t disappoint. A prodigious number of boletes had popped up.

Ria hummed to herself as she harvested the mushrooms. With this many, if she dried them, then she could have mushroom soup during the winter.

“Crap! I need a fire to dry them!” Ria exclaimed in realization. Her voice echoed loudly in the woods, and the sound of movement nearby startled her.

Ria’s eyes snapped up and toward the direction of the sound, her feet ready to take flight. Just a deer… she started to sigh out her sudden anxiety, but the antlered buck took an aggressive posture.

Berating herself for not bringing the crossbow, she scooped up the basket and ducked behind the tree just as the buck charged. It took some scrambling over the tree’s roots, but she was able to keep the large trunk between her and the surprisingly territorial animal.

The frustrated buck even struck the tree with its antlers a few times, but the antlers didn’t embed themselves into the tree like Ria was hoping. To her further dismay, the mushrooms she hadn’t yet harvested were being crushed underfoot as they danced around the tree.

“Aaaarrrrgggghhhhh!”

Ria yelled out her anger and frustration, causing the buck to jerk back a few steps in surprise before bellowing out its own challenge.

Dropping the basket and drawing the dagger, Ria charged the buck and swung wildly. Between the trampling of the mushrooms and the stress of everything else that had happened, she let her emotions rage with an uncomplicated desire to inflict equivalent or greater pain on another being.

The buck met Ria’s charge and caught her swing with its antlers, almost knocking her backward with the force, but aided by crazed strength and her two-handed grip on the magic dagger, Ria held firm, and the dagger gradually sunk further and further through the antler until it passed completely through.

The sudden release of force caused Ria to pitch forward and crash to the ground. She caught herself enough and rolled into a crouch in time to see that she wasn’t the only one shocked by the outcome of their joust. The buck was stumbling backwards in confusion and shaking its head in an attempt to come to terms with the unbalanced weight of its intact antler.

Ria thought about rushing forward to finish off the buck while it was distracted, but her head had cooled off enough to realize that she would be better off letting it retreat and returning another day to hunt it from a safe distance with the crossbow.

As Ria watched the defeated buck surrender its territory and turn to leave, a twang sounded out, followed by a slight whistling sound ending in a feathered arrow striking the buck.