[Year 351, The month of Flame, day 26]

“Careful, Careful. We need it tight enough so that nothing can get in, but loose enough for us to open when we get back.”

“For the hundredth time, I got.” Getting an earful from Ayiana wasn't pleasant at the best of times, but the sun hadn’t even come out yet and the late night yesterday… or earlier today wasn’t helping lighten my mood in the slightest.

With one final shove, I maneuvered the final boulders into place before stepping back and eying my handiwork. The entrance to the cave, our home for the last few years, had been completely sealed shut. Not even a speck of dust could get through the blockade I put together. There were actually two layers of boulders, with a layer of leathers in-between them to block any rain or mud from seeping through any crevice.

Since we didn’t know how long we’d be gone, Aiyana insisted that we be though in preserving our home. Even now, she was covering the sealed entrance with vines and other greenery, just in case some curious sort wondered across the cave while we were away.

I had nothing else to do, so I walked over and examined what we’d be taking with us while Aiyana went about her task. The largest two bags were filled to the brim with about half of the weapons, leather arm, and other pieces of equipment we’d managed to procure from the forest’s recent string of guest. Excluding the items Aiyana and I had set aside for our personal use, everything was left inside the cave for a rainy day.

Next to the equipment was our camping supplies. A couple mates and fur covers, ten days worth of food and water, and four sets of clothes. Then, there were our assorted items such as ropes, whetstones, spare canteens, bandages, and few blindfolds.

The final Item we were bringing was a small sack of metallic disks Aiyana had put together. I thought it just added unnecessary weight to our load, I didn’t even know why she collected them in the first place, but she insisted that the disk would be useful where we were going. Maybe she was planning to shape them into some kind of weapon or use them in one of her traps, either way, the disk had been tossed in with the rest of our supplies.

“Ready to go?”

I turned around and nearly jumped out of my skin when I found Aiyana standing behind me with a smug look on her face.

“Don’t do that!”

She was too good at doing that. While she’d always had a knack for blending into her surroundings, after the incident she’d trained herself to the point where I couldn’t find her if I didn’t know where to look. I swear she didn’t even make any noise when she walked anymore.

“You need to pay more attention to your surroundings. The place we’re going is gonna have a lot more people moving about, and if you don’t keep your wits, you’ll get lost in the shuffle.”

Despite the impasse she placed on the warning, for a brief moment, I saw longing swelling within the depths of her eyes. The desire was only there for a moment, but it was enough to validate this journey in my eyes.

“What? Is there something on my face?”

“No, not anymore. Anyway, let’s get going. Don’t want the sun to rise before our journey begins, do we?”

I reached for the heaviest items as I changed the topics. Better get going before Aiyana found another reason to delay our departure.

Her worries were understandable, but things would be different, those that tried to hurt her would be dead long before they could reach for the drugs.

…

..

.

“It’s smaller than I thought it’d be.”

It took four days for us to exit the forest after we left the cave. The trip might have been quicker if we’d followed the same route our last group of guest had taken, but we didn’t want to run into scouts, so we took a roundabout route to the edge of the forest. After another two days traversing the slightly hilling grass plains, we came upon the city(?) down below.

Well, I think it was a city. A log wall, separated the handful of buildings that I could make out from here from the circular field the town (?) sit inside. The three gates built into the wall were sealed shut, despite it only being midday. Certain sections of the wall were extremely faded while others appeared to be brand new. Even from yards away, most of the buildings weren’t much larger than the one I used to live in before I met Aiyana. The field wasn’t looking too good either, with the patches of overturned dirt scattered across the side of the field facing us.

I wouldn’t be surprised if this place had been abandoned, but that wasn’t the case. When I squinted, I picked up two distinct moving masses behind the wall. The larger one was gathered in the large open area in-between the buildings, while the smaller of the two were masses huddled around the gate facing the damaged part of the field.

Something had definitely gone down here, but what?

“I don’t think that’s Grerton.” Aiyana’s comment drew me out of my own head.

At some point, she managed to change into her combat vest, dark leather pants, and knee-length string-up boots. She had two belts of throwing knives wrapped around her chest. A slightly curved single edged short sword hung on her waist, and her father’s broken dagger sit comfortably above her hips. The hood that hid most of her face only added to the air of mystery and intimation she gave off.

“...Huh? Why do you say that?”

“Does that place look like it can afford to seen wave after wave of sellswords into our forest? I doubt the place has been there for more than a few years at best. If it weren’t for the field and storehouse, I’d call it a builder village.” Aiyana made that comment as she slid on her metal-plated bracers.

“A what?”

“Villages and cities don’t build themselves. Usually, builder villages are short-term housing for builders to stay in while they work on the primary stages of building. Anyway sto⎯”

The ground began to rumble before Aiyana could finish that comment. Our eyes were immediately drawn to the source of the disturbance.

“What the hell is that?” The words escaped my lips before my mind could process what I was seeing. Aiyana and I dropped to the ground and tried to make ourselves as small as possible before the creature saw us.

The creature appeared on a hill a few yards away from the one we were on. It stood two or three heads taller than me. Two short black horns topped the creature’s head. The monster’s box-like face ended in flaring nostrils that rested above its mouth. Its stout naked body was covered in matted gray fur. Wounds, both old and new, criss crossed over its body, with the long diagonal scar across its abdomen standing out the most.

A monster like that wouldn’t survive in the forest. Its size made not only low-hanging branches a hazard but also eliminated many options for shelter. Those muscular limbs looked powerful, but its beady eyes left the beast practically blind to surprise attacks or pounces, rendering any strength its had useless in areas densely packed with trees. If the monster stepped into the forest, a pack of goblins might be able to take it down under the right circumstances.

However, in this vast empty plane, few creatures could oppose a monster like that. Without any trees to hinder its movements, or block its sight ambushes were all but impossible. Given its supposed strength there were a few instances where it would lose in direct combat. If we came across the monster in its prime, I doubted we could survive an encounter with that monster unscaved.

Aiyana and I remained motionless until the creature descended the hill it stood on. We only rose to our feet after the monster was no longer in sight.

“That was unexpected. A moment slower and we would’ve… Geisai, why are you smiling like that?”

Seeing that monster put everything into focus. The damaged field, sealed village, and the monster’s newer injuries all of it fell into place. When pulled together, the disjointed pieces of information created an opportunity too tempting to pass up.

“Aiyana, can we kill it?” My question was simple and straight to the point.

“What are you going on about? Why would we do something so unnecessary?” While she was quick to voiced her complaints, I could see it in her eyes, she was already running the scenarios in her head.

“If we can kill it, we’ll have the means to conduct a trial run, gather additional information before we reach Greton, and test our abilities outside the forest. So can we do it?”

After a moment of silence, Aiyana answered,

“We’ll definitely lose some of our equipment in the process, but we can kill that thing. What do you have in mind?”

I couldn’t stop smiling even if I tried.

“We’re gonna save that village from the monster that has plagued it for who knows how long. We’ll save the village in as loud and obvious a manner as possible.”