Thanks to Shakira, those two were quick to pack up and head out. Cassidy watched it all from her front porch. Much to her surprise though, Shakira didn’t go with them. Which wasn’t bad. She could use her friend’s advice on possible threats and defenses. It was no trouble to swing down to the basement, grab an extra mattress for Shakira and bedding for both Alera and Shakira. The tall woman admitted she was staying mostly to taste more flavors of Cassidy’s tea and talk dress patterns. Just because she couldn’t take Cassidy back to the city didn’t mean they couldn’t start their business. Between Shakira’s supplies and Cassidy’s storage, they were able to scrounge up enough material to sketch out designs for the patenting to send off to the tailors. Not to mention, Shakira knew how to keep Cassidy in the loop while they were in separate cities.

Apparently, there was a specific messenger bird Cassidy could buy that would work only between the two of them. Cassidy just needed a couple of Shakira’s raven locks to feed it and all was good. Except that part. That part was just plain disturbing. Cassidy would also have to feed it some of her own too which didn’t help her view on the matter. But by this point Shakira figured its was better to let Cassidy buy and give her a better cut in the sales then to offer to cover it herself. Which is why Cassidy now got to keep a couple strands of her friend’s hair in her pocket. Cassidy tried to bring Alera in on the matter, mentioning a woman like her would probably know far more about dresses, but Shakira wasn’t having it. She refused to work with Alera. Cassidy was just glad Alera lay passed out in the house and missed all of this.

They went back to her campfire and Cassidy started a fresh pot for the two of them. Shakira, as always appreciated a fresh batch of black tea and even asked to see the bush from which it came. This then led to a tour of all Cassidy’s plants and a good workout for her Plant Identification. By the time they were done, Cassidy could feel a headache coming on.

“You’ll certainly have a good time playing with your Alchemy set and all those ingredients.” Shakira spoke up, dragging Cassidy back into the here and now.

“Normally, I’d say yes! But now it just sounds like more of a headache than anything else.” She said, rubbing her eyes.

She enjoyed Shakira’s company and was excited about all this business talk but she had too much to get done now. The fridge was nearly out of meat. Just enough to feed her dogs through tomorrow. She was still using a campfire. She needed to find that vein of Fire Rocks and figure out how to use them with her stove. She had Alchemic Recipes to try and ingredients to mess with. And there was always Alera to worry about.

Shakira wasn’t catching on. Her head still in the clouds of dress making. “You know, some of those designs we drew out were rather complicated. I don’t suppose you have any examples I could take back with me? Full disclosure, they’ll probably get torn apart as the tailors try to understand them.”

Cassidy sighed. And now she had to rummage through the storage for those specific dresses.

She spent the rest of the evening going through bags in the basement, analyzing dresses, trying to chose her old housemates’ over her own but she found enough examples. Even a few more, plenty to keep the designing people busy while she was away. Shakira beamed as she unceremoniously stuffed them into her Adventurer’s Bag. Alera never made a peep from her room upstairs. Cassidy had to knock and leave dinner outside her door along with the bedding Alera had yet to pick up.

She had other problems to worry about besides Alera. So, she left broken woman to be a recluse while she worked on providing food and practicing her Skills, sharing ideas with Shakira at night. She’d only been back a day but after getting Shakira to show her how to use fire rocks, she was hitting the trails. No longer being in a panic over credits, this turned out to actually be kind of fun.

Cassidy had been tracking this deer for a good hundred meters or two, waiting to get that perfect angle. She could always send her dogs, but she was tired of relying on that tactic. She was better than that. Her dogs were better than that. She just needed to figure out how to use them to the best of their potential. She sent a glance back to where they waited, like a gallery judging her every step. She shook her head. She had to focus. This was supposed to be a test of her Forestry Skills. She needed to be Still.

She wasn’t entirely sure where to go from here. She’d reach a precipice on the ravine top she’d been treading. The doe wandering below her. She breathed in and her heart was beating in her ears. She was too anxious. Too many thoughts. She waited. The deer wouldn’t go far. She felt the sun warm her skin before dancing away as the shadow of leaves chased it. She smelled the forest, a mix of mulch and faint swirl of a bark and flowers. Her mind calmed down. She breathed in and her world slowed once more. She opened her eyes to see the doe 400 meters ahead and 100 below.

The ravine continued sloping before her but she’d lost her flat path. She breathed out and a plan came to mind. A test. She had her dagger if she failed and her dogs too. Though she bet it was only her dagger that could truly save her in that moment.

Taking a breath, she leapt to a rock lodged firmly in the ravine’s side. Her eyes glided from there, ignoring the unstable, the crumbling, till she saw that next step and took her leap. They weren’t massive or impressive jumps, more like hops but a fall here meant a roughly 100-meter tumble facing an enraged predator at the bottom. Nothing like a good challenge. She smiled.

She continued her run along the ravine’s edge. Sometimes finding firm footing, others catching herself on trees to keep from sliding down. She reached the deer and continued on. Her footsteps were silent, even here, and her focus went from sure footing to averting any disturbance to the places she tread. Preventing rocks from sliding and leaving as little tracks as possible.

She moved past the deer and continued for a while more; the ground was too unsteady for her to risk a Moving Shot. Instead, she kept her mad run until she was far enough for her Far Shot and lined up, aiming for the eye. Her breath was coming in ragged and she had trouble focusing on the stillness so she was forced to wait as her body calmed and the blood stopped racing. It was taking too long. Instead, she relied on her Steady Hands and let loose her arrow. Even without the Stillness she was a capable hunter. The deer fell with the bolt lodged deep in its skull. Cassidy slid down the remainder of the ravine. Careful to keep an easy momentum and avoid sticking to anything. She reached the bottom on her feet and ran forward. This hunt had been for more than practice. She was out of meat for her dogs and her guests were missing it too.

As she reached the deer and began to extricate the arrow from its eye, the voice rang out.

~Congratulations! You have merged two Skills in Forestry! Ease of Movement and Silent Tread have become Leave No Trace—You can traverse even the most difficult of terrains without leaving a track behind you.~

Cassidy looked back at her ravine run and grinned. Training wasn’t for nothing. Now she just needed to figure out how to grow her dogs in the same way. She had a Training Skill; it shouldn’t be as hard as it seemed. She turned back to the deer, wishing she’d bought bigger daggers back in the Northern City.

She came back to the house a bloody mess but with 200 pounds of fresh meat to pack away in the fridge and freezer. Say what you would about those pesky fairies but the bastards refused to melt. Which meant she never lost her meat.

The blood had been a problem and attracted a few stags. Thanks to her dogs, though, she never had to drop her load. The Strength Attribute really holding up. Her dogs made an impressive show too. The first stag she barely noticed before Koda took it down in a single lunge to its throat, his teeth tearing its jugular right open and bleeding it out in seconds. The second was Sugarbear’s and she took it down methodically. Tearing its hamstrings till it couldn’t stand and once it was on its knees, making that killing lunge. They’d come a long way from the deer being a threat to any one of them.

Cassidy was busy washing the blood from her hands and everywhere else when Shakira came around.

“Knew I could smell blood.” She said, appreciating the large gory pile still on Cassidy’s counter.

“I’m just glad the woods repopulated while I was away.” Cassidy claimed as she stepped away from the bucket and went back to stuffing her freezer.

Shakira watched the bloody work for a moment before interrupting again. “I plan to head off tomorrow and wanted to know if you’d put your seal on the documents.”

“What?” Cassidy turned around to look at her.

“Your seal? I thought you might have one since you have a landed name.” She explained.

Cassidy was still busy processing. “You’re leaving tomorrow? I thought you’d give more warning.”

“I guess I should have.” She said, looking away. “But there’s been so much to do and I shouldn’t have even stayed this long.”

“It’s been 3 days!”

“And I was supposed to go back with Raylen.” A quirk to her mouth. She didn’t seem any happier than Cassidy. “But do you have a seal? That would make things a lot easier when it comes to splitting the business.”

Cassidy almost retorted back, modern day people don’t use seals, till she remembered her dad. Family history had been an important concept in her house. They owned their own cemetery after all. Dad and grandpa had always gone on about their family name and their history back in Scotland. She still remembered the kilt her father hung like a flag above his desk. He’d had a seal. No one ever used it. She looked back at Shakira. “Actually, I might have one after all. It may just take me a while to find it.”

A sigh of relief. “If you could just find it by morning then everything would work out perfectly.” Shakira was about to leave when she froze. “I noticed your house doesn’t have any enchantments. They can be expensive but I’ll make a list of ones you can look into in the South and leave it on the table.”

Cassidy thanked her but was unable to hug at the moment so she just gave a nod and then went back to her gruesome task, wondering again at how she was able to read this world’s language. Did the mana influx change her brain? Deposit knowledge? Then why was there so much crucial information she didn’t know? She should probably sear some steaks for Shakira to take on the road.

It had taken her all night of digging with a pathetic torch, one which she was certain would set something on fire, but come morning she’d found the beautifully carved box that held her dad’s ring. It was a deeply varnished mahogany with brass inlays. Shakira didn’t care too much about the box but what was inside and they soon had the designs sealed with the Lennox family crest. Shakira was still rolling them up to shove in her bag as she headed for her horse. Their goodbye much more brusque than their meeting.

Cassidy spent the rest of the week practicing with her dogs. Bertold had implied she could urge them with just her thoughts and she wanted to put this to the test as she tried increasingly difficult tactics with them, from hunting down the animals to running away from them. She wanted to have multiple choices available, be as flexible as possible, for when they came across true threats in the future.

Her dogs were quick. As the days went on, they fell into their routines, memorized the runs and were ready for more. She was appreciating their before realizing she really should check their Attributes and called them up.

Koda

Strength

6.3

Resilience

9.0

Reflexes

7.5

Speed

8.5

Perception

9.9

Stillness

5.2

Willpower

8.7

Intelligence

5.5

Sugarbear

Strength

6.2

Resilience

6.6

Reflexes

9.8

Speed

9.9

Perception

10.3

Stillness

5.0

Willpower

8.6

Intelligence

5.5

They’d certainly grown in intelligence. Must have been all the tactical training. But Sugarbear, Sugarbear had actually broken her bottleneck for Perception.

While she was at it, she called up her own.

Cassidy

Strength

8.1

Resilience

13.5

Reflexes

9.9

Speed

11.7

Perception

9.8

Stillness

12.0

Willpower

9.9

Intelligence

8.0

Cassidy just stared. She had way too many bottlenecks to deal with. She wasn’t even sure where to start and when she thought of her list of priorities… well, this didn’t make it. She was just glad to see her babies were growing.

Now it was time to focus on her Alera problem. The woman refused to leave the room unless it was to accept food her or clean herself. Which was going to make it hard to take the hermit South. She was starting to worry she’d be dragging the girl all the way down the whole two-weeks.

It was time to make someone grow a back bone.

She gave Alera until the next morning, mainly so she could relax over a blend of teas that night. But with the dawn, Cassidy came around to the front of the house, through the door, and up the stairs. The cheery blue wallpaper promising a wonderful day. She got to the door. When a knocking didn’t get a response, she opened it to find an Alera staring blankly at the wall while wrapped in blankets.

‘Hey.” No movement. “Hey!” Those lifeless eyes turned her way. She did not like the look of things. It seemed dragging WAS going to be an option. “Alera.” A blink. “It’s time to get up.” She waited. The girl didn’t move. With a sigh she strode forward, hauled Alera—blankets and all—off the bed, down the stairs, and onto the overgrown lawn where she dumped the listless woman. Alera hit the ground with a groan. Cassidy picked an edge of the blanket and pulled. Alera rolled out into the grass. A beetle landed on her nose and she screamed.

“Still alive, are we?” Cassidy asked as she crouched to get eye-level. Alera shuddered as she covered her nose but didn’t respond. Cassidy decided to resort to plan C and slapped her across the face.

“Wha-What was that for?” Alera asked through teary eyes.

“You don’t get to play dead girl anymore.” Cassidy said. “It’s about time you woke up and started pulling your own weight.”

Alera just started sobbing.

So, Cassidy slapped her again.

“We’re not in a world where that works anymore. If you want to survive you need strength. You need Skills. Wake up and start moving.” Cassidy stood and turned around. She’d had to grow up. It was time Alera did too. People wouldn’t always be around to save her. Hell, people might be the one’s threatening her. The soft life was done. If they were going to make it South, then Alera was about to undergo a little bootcamp.

Alera was still whimpering protests but she stood up to follow Cassidy. She tried to whine about walking across the lawn in bare feet but gave up when Cassidy didn’t so much as stop.

Cassidy finally did halt once she got to the campfire, but it remained unlit and she had no intention to bring out tea or even food this morning. Cold hunger was the best way to wake a person up from their memories. She’d had to discover this herself. She turned and began tapping her foot as Alera idly walk ed over. When the woman began to sit, Cassidy grabbed her shoulder and dragged her back up. The Strength Attribute really coming into play this morning. “We won’t be sitting today. We have too much work.”

The woman stared at her “Work? I need my shoes!”

Cassidy shook her head adamantly. “Nope. You didn’t get up to put them on; you don’t get to wear them now.”

Alera stared in open bewilderment. “This—this is hardly appropriate!”

Cassidy smacked her again and leaned in real close. “Maybe you didn’t notice while you were stranded in the woods for five days or when Shakira and I picked up your sentry duty because you were too afraid to be alone at night but THIS LIFE is hardly ‘appropriate.’ And it’s time you wake up and got to work like the rest of us.” She leaned back. “It’s do or die now. So, let’s find out what you can do.”