After dragging everything up into the cave I take a break for lunch, which makes Kechara happy. Like any growing child the only time she isn't hungry is right after she finishes eating. I give her a drink from my endless waterskin and then she settles down for a nap.

I am really glad I have this waterskin because I have yet to see a water source anywhere near here. There must be one somewhere since the guardian lived here, but since she had wings it may not be close by. Before I leave I will need to find one and make sure Kechara can get to it, which makes me wonder when her wings will grow in.

She will have to learn to fly all on her own, no way I can help with that. However, once she grows a bit more I can totally start teaching her how to hunt and fight. Still, before all that I should worry about finishing this door, it is only going to get colder at night now that it has snowed.

After she finishes her nap, just out of curiosity, I lay out the woodworking tools and name them as I point to them. Then as I am working I ask for a tool by name, and Kechara will grab the tool and hand it to me. What is surprising is that even though I only named each tool once she doesn't make a single mistake.

That kind of memorization is really impressive, even most adult humans need more than once to memorize something. It is also fairly puzzling, Kechara's mother didn't show any signs of having a high level of intelligence like this. It also makes me wonder if Kechara has a father, and if so what species he might be.

Because the more I look at Kechara the more small differences I notice when comparing her to her mother. Probably the biggest one is where her mother had a main body similar to a horse, Kechara's is more like a cat. Kechara's tail is also more dragon-like and doesn't have a stinger like her mom's did, although that may grow in later.

In fact Kechara looks like she is just a mix of cat and dragon, there are no signs of other animal parts. Of course that could all be due to age, it is possible that her body will change a lot as she ages. For now it just makes her much cuter than her mother was and I kind of hope she doesn't change.

Once I am finished trimming and aligning the logs it is just a matter of connecting them together and making sure there are no gaps. Since I don't have a hammer and nails I am guessing the best way is going to be making cross boards and using wooden pegs to hold them. It is the best I can think of with what I have available, and it should hold against the wind at least.

As another test I cut a branch into small segments and the I use my claw to carve a segment into a peg. I set it down in front of Kechara and then make a second, making sure she sees everything I do. When I ask her if she thinks she can do it she chirps at me and starts working on one.

While she does that I work on carving down branches to use as connecting boards. When Kechara finishes her peg she rushes over to me to have me take a look at it. To my surprise it is almost the exact same as the two I carved, looks like I need to stop underestimating her.

When I ask her to do the rest of them she nods at me and rushes back to work. I watch her with a smile on my face, forget the girls I want to keep her. I think I will check in the library, see if there is any mention of the guardian, if there is anything binding her here maybe I can break it.

It is something to keep in mind once I make it to the library, but for now I should focus on the task at hand. Looking down I realize with my mind wandering I ruined the branch I was working on, so I toss it over by the fire and start again on another. As I am working I glance over at Kechara from time to time to see how she is doing, and because watching her is fun.

*DING*

Congratulations! Skill Woodworking has progressed to level 5!

Woodworking

Level 5

Agi +5

You can make tools or structures from wood.

'Huh, I wonder if Kechara can learn skills? Maybe she learned woodworking from helping me.'

There is no real way for me to know though, unless I make some sort of bond with her that would allow me to see her status. Which if I do end up taking her with me when I leave is a definite possibility. If I still had my magic I would probably try to make her my familiar, but since that isn't possible my best bet would probably be some form of contract.

Maybe when this is all over and I get back, I should track down Emily and ask her about her contract with Silveria. Come to think of it, the guardian's core was a sacred core, does that mean she was similar to Great Mother Wolf? This time I manage to catch myself before ruining another branch, I really need to stop letting my mind wander and focus.

By now Kechara is done with all the pegs and she comes over to me and whines at me. When I ask her what's wrong she looks over towards the fire, by that I know that she wants food. So I stop what I am doing and start cooking dinner for the both of us.

While the meat is cooking I manage to finish making the connecting boards and assemble the door. Once I hammer all the pegs into place it is fairly sturdy, it turned out better than I expected. So before we eat dinner I manage to prop the door in place, it isn't perfect but it should do for now.

While we are eating the temperature in the cave does go up noticeably, not that it gets hot or anything. But with the fire going the air does lose its frigid bite, which makes it much more comfortable. Tomorrow I will make a few more improvements to the door and then I will work on the rest of the cave.