They had skinned the direbear and taken parts of its meat and entrails, removed the claws and some tendons. To her surprise Kharma had proven himself quite experienced in the task of utilizing their prey to the fullest.

After they had pretty much butchered the carcass, they distanced themselves from the spot and searched for a good site to make an early camp. Dawn wanted to cook some of the fresh meat and they had decided to take some time each day to train in preparation for further beast attacks, which Dawn suspected were pretty much inevitable in the future. Certainly she hadn’t been too fortunate with evading fights up till now. Half a mile away, they found a cozy clearing next to some craggy rocks, a small brook burbling along one side. The spot was nearly perfect, as long as it didn’t rain.

After a quite satisfactory meal of bear meat, it had been a little stringy but quite tasty overall, they rested for a while. Afterwards, they talked about training. Dawn took out all her weapons from her signet ring. One used sword, a beautiful bow with a very brittle bowstring, a quiver containing half a dozen arrows and a knife. The pickings were slim. Kharma had lost all of his equipment when he had been taken by the demons. He was running around in some formerly sturdy clothes made from leather and plant fibers, that pretty much looked like rags at the moment.

Kharma inspected the bow a little doubtfully: “Needs new string. Can’t use like that.” He told her. Dawn had suspected as much already. “Can we use the bear tendons to make a new one?” she asked. Kharma brightened, ears pricking up. “Yes! Will work.” He exclaimed.

“So we make a new bowstring and then that bow will be usable,” Dawn said “Do you have any experience with bows, Kharma? I have never used one in my life.” Kharma grinned, “yes, have used before. Though was smaller than this.”

“So you’re going to fight with the bow, from afar,” Dawn decided. “Though I would be grateful if you could teach me some basics there, too.” Kharma looked a bit doubtful. “Will try. Never taught before, not sure how.” “Well , we will all need to learn a whole bundle full of new things, I’m sure of that.” Kharma inclined his head, tongue lolling.

“I will try out the sword, though I’m pretty sure I’ll just be bumbling around with it at first. But it gives me a bit more reach than the knife and hopefully I’ll pick up the skill after a while. Always good to have some distance from your enemy. If there’s only one at a time, my lightning spell is powerful, but I can only use it once in a fight, it takes that much mana. If a whole pack of wolves or other beasts attacks us, we need something to fall back on. And I will have to knock together some kind of scabbard for the sword. Otherwise, I might kill myself with the blade by accident before I ever get the chance to use it on any enemy. So first order of business: crafting a bowstring and a scabbard.”

It took them quite some time to get it right. But finally they had managed it. Then Dawn fastened her scabbard (slightly smelly still, it was made out of nearly fresh bearskin) on her belt and tried out some moves with her sword. Hilarity ensued. As she had predicted she was stumbling around clumsily. The weapon was much heavier than her knife and she lacked the muscle to guide it with the necessary control. She just would have to change that. She tried out some blows against an absolutely blameless birch tree. After only a few, her arms began to hurt, her muscles unused to the exercise. Doggedly she kept at it, and was rewarded after a while with the skill sword fighting.

“Phew, I thought that would be easier,” she said, studying the birch tree doubtfully. Her feeble strokes hadn’t made much of an impression on it.

Kharma had meanwhile trained with his new bow, targeting a hanging bundle made out of twigs and leaves. He even managed to hit it with two out of every three shots.

“Not bad,” commented Dawn. “Certainly more impressive than me with my sword. But I’ll get better, just wait and see.” Ankou had settled himself on the rocks behind them while they trained, and was looking at the antics of his two companions out of slitted eyes with a mildly condescending air, tail twitching impatiently from time to time.

After the excitement of the day and their training, Dawn fell asleep like a stone that night. Only to be awakened very rudely, when Ankou used her body as a stepping stone.

“Uff, Ankou, what do you…?” Dawn’s question petered out when she realized there were several sinuous gray-green shapes moving towards them, apparently flowing seamlessly over the ground. They looked like some sort of lizards dog-sized and not very friendly. Ankou had already reached the first of them and knocked it back with a paw topped with fully extended claws.

Dawn fumbled for her sword, and awkwardly raised the weapon. When a lizard appeared next to her, she dropped the sword on its head rather than strike it. The weapon was heavy enough to lightly daze the beast, luckily. Tightening her grip on the sword she struck another blow. That one connected fully and almost severed the rump of the monster. Behind her, Kharma had taken his bow and scrambled up the rocks to shoot from an elevated position. Several of his arrows went astray at first, the beasts were moving quickly, not comparable to a stationary target, but finally an arrow pierced the flank of a lizard.

Dawn quickly took stock of her environment. Three of the beasts were out of the fight, another three were centered on Ankou, who was clearly hard-pressed, two of the lizards harrying his flanks. Kharma couldn’t target those, with his accuracy he might just as well hit Ankou as the monsters. The same held true for her lightning spell.

Dawn approached one of the beasts from behind and struck a blow on his back. It didn’t land hard enough to incapacitate the lizard. Hissing, it turned on her, sinking its needle-like teeth firmly into her thigh. Dawn screamed.

She fell backwards hard, stunned by the pain. Gathering all her strength, she feebly poked her sword at the lizard to hardly any effect. The beast let go of her leg and sprang for her throat. She brought up the sword, it seemed too slow, yet she managed to put it between herself and the lizard. With a quiet ‘clang’ his teeth bounced off the metal. Dawn simply grabbed the beast with her other hand and managed to hold it still for a moment so her sword connected properly this time. The blade cut awkwardly into its back just above the long tail. She scrambled backwards, leg bleeding freely, and put it out of its misery with a harder second stroke. Ankou had managed to slay his other two opponents in the meantime, casually biting down on the neck of the last one, breaking its neck with a hard crack.

Panting Dawn let herself fall on her back and just lay there for a moment. Her leg throbbed painfully. Lifting her head she examined Ankou. The lynx sported several scratches and bites, his flanks and back were bleeding, but he seemed not too grievously injured on the whole. Kharma had been spared any injuries, luckily.

“That could have gone a bit better,” Dawn commented breathlessly. “Thank all the gods for Ankou. He saved our hides once more .”

She rapidly cast her healing spell, first on Ankou then on herself. They would both need another cast or two, but now that the fight was over waiting a few minutes was no problem.

Level up!

Nature’s Shadow level 7

You have 2 free stat points to distribute.

“What a rude awakening,” she said after they all were healed up and calmed down. “But at least I finally got another level. On the downside, I just got my clothes in order and now look at me.” Indeed, her clothes were torn and bloody again. Kharma just grinned. “Clothes not important.”

“Easy for you to say,” Dawn retorted. “It just so happens that unlike the rest of you, I don’t come equipped with natural fur. At least we had breakfast delivered here free of charge, that’s a plus.”

And truly, the grilled lizard steaks they had for breakfast were delicious. It was still very early in the morning, dawn just beginning to lighten the surroundings. “Seems we’re off to an early start,” Dawn was stowing surplus lizard meat in her storage ring. She called up her status sheet and took a moment to look at it and put her free stat points in strength and intelligence. She needed the strength for sword fighting and between fighting and healing spells she never had enough mana.

Status screen Name Dawn Trakam Path Nature's Shadow Level 7 Exp 235/1400 HP 120/120 HP Regen 1.2 HP/Min MP 36/140 MP Regen 9 MP/Min SP 120/120 SP Regen 12 SP/Min Stats Strength 11 Willpower 11 Vitality 12 Perception 16 Endurance 12 Intelligence 14 Agility 16 Wisdom 9 Dexterity 10 Charisma 7 Class Skills Nurture Level 4 Call the lightning Level 2 Shadow Play Level 4 Dark Sight Level 6 General skills Cleaning Level 1 Analyze Level 1 Sewing Level 3 Hunting Level 1 Climbing Level 3 Trapping Level 1 Knife fighting Level 2 Cooking Level 3 Sword fighting Level 1

They set off at first light, on another cloudy and windy day. By unspoken consent they followed the line of the mountains, Kharma knowing that the area his tribe lived in was mountainous, at least.

The rest of the day was pretty unspectacular. No further beasts to fight at least. The scenery was beautiful, a high plateau covered with forests, dotted with streams and deep blue lakes. Late afternoon they decided to look for a good camping spot, preferably sheltered from overhead. The clouds had thickened and it looked like it would be raining soon. They trailed along a small rocky path leading upwards, higher into the mountains. When they rounded a bend, they saw a sheltered area underneath an overhang, easily large enough for their camp. But surprisingly, they weren’t the first to discover that spot. Around a large campfire three burly men were sitting, their dirty clothes and rugged looks attesting to an extended stay far from civilization. They were obviously stunned by their appearance.

Dawn was startled at first, but then elated to find unexpected human company here in the wilderness.

“Hello!” she called. “We were just looking for a good camping spot. Do you think you have some space for us?”

The men looked at her astonished, then the biggest one gave a short laugh. “If it is company you want, we sure can oblige.” The others grinned. “Such a nice tender morsel is just what the doctor ordered, don’t you think guys?” The statement was greeted with guffaws by the others. “Come closer, we’ll show you a good time, why don’t you?” The men were leering at her now, standing up and staring in her direction, their behavior predatory.

Dawn was taken aback, something wasn’t sounding right here at all. She had just wanted to be friendly and had hoped to share some talk around the fire. Then the men noticed Kharma. “And what do you say, there comes a furry one, brazen as you please. That pelt will sure look good on me, nice of you to bring it along so tamely.” Now the men took up their weapons, one of them carried a bow the other two swords.

As Dawn fully realized what the men had said, what they had implied about taking Kharma’s pelt, she felt a wave of black rage rolling over her. Without thought she ran to the men, brought up her sword and with a savage cry attacked them furiously.