Ch68: A Walk Through the Woods

The past week has been rather boring for Krvavy. That isn’t to say that nothing exciting happened. There were quite a few moments she wouldn’t give up for anything, but those were buried under a bit too much downtime that dragged on and blended together into a bit of a boring blur.

Not being able to go outside due to the rain has been affecting Krvavy more than she realized.

It has left her feeling rather pent up. And not in the usual way. It is kind of odd, really. She has spent almost her entire life indoors, never really wanting to go outside. But here she is, feeling antsy at being stuck inside this cave. This massive cave. A cave that has two lakes, numerous hot springs, and a grotto full of plants. Even if said grotto is a bit cold, damp, and misty right now...

Complaining about feeling cooped up in a place like this kind of makes her feel bad. Like she is being ungrateful. Especially since their unfinished bedroom alone is larger than any place she had lived in as Leanna...

“Are ya sure ya want ta go out there today?” Beryl asks, jostling Krvavy from her thoughts.

“Yeah.” The barbarian instantly replies. This isn’t the first time this morning that the Elf has asked that exact question. “I want to stretch my legs and be out under the open sky. Besides... it stopped raining yesterday, so I don’t really have anything keeping me inside anymore.”

“It’ll still be quite wet out there.”

“Eh.” Krvavy dismissively waves that off. “I’m not waiting a few more days for the ground to dry. So what if it is a little damp?”

Beryl presses her lips together and furrows her brow, looking as unhappy as she is concerned. “Ya sure tha’ ya don’t want ta just go huntin’ wit’ me?”

“Nope. We’ve been over this.” Krvavy almost sighs out, meeting her pushy Elf’s blue-green gaze. “I want something more than just a single day out there, and I don’t want to leave these two alone.” She gestures to Khalia and Thea, who are both doing their own things.

The Orc has a dopey smile on her face as she lovingly rubs at the bite marks scattered across her neck and shoulders, still visible despite it being more than a full day since they were left there.

Krvavy may have gone a little overboard with the biting. But, to be fair, she wasn’t exactly in control of herself. And it isn’t like her own body got away unscathed either. Khalia left bite marks all over her chest and neck, a couple on her arms, and even one right in the middle of her abs. Krvavy isn’t quite sure how that one got there... Plus, all of those bites are a lot more visible than the ones she left on her Orc, standing out against the barbarian’s pale skin. Those two little tusks dug surprisingly deep into her flesh...

“Can you just let that large lizard leave already?” Thea grumbles, sounding rather grumpy as she struggles with the task that Beryl left her: finding the center of balance on some simple wooden arrows, and ensuring that it is in the same spot for each one.

The tanned Wood Elf slowly sighs out. “Damn yer wanderlust...” She almost whispers.

“You don’t need to worry so much.” Krvavy reaches out and pats Beryl’s head, trailing her fingers through the tomboyish Elf’s short hair. “I’ll be heading south. Not towards the road in the west. I’m... not ready to go back there just yet.”

“Ya should train more before goin’ on another one o’ yer adventures.”

“It’s just a walk through the woods. I will be fine.” Krvavy curtly responds, beginning to get slightly annoyed as Beryl’s constant insistence wears down her patience. She understands the Elf’s concerns, but Krvavy isn’t going out there looking for a fight. Just a long, relaxing hike. “Besides, a little bit of training won’t change much.”

Throughout the last week Krvavy was just barely able to get enough experience to level up, most of which came from killing the Rock Bear. And in theme with the rather boring week, reaching level eleven was rather anticlimactic as well: she only just got it this morning while carving out some bricks. Krvavy put the five points into Insight, as she needs that stat for her Blood Magic, but it’ll still be a couple levels until she gets the milestone trait for it.

That said, there was one thing of note that came from levelling up: she got another point of Divine Favour. Hopefully she’ll be getting one with each new level from now on. That won’t be enough on its own for her to buy the more costly things in the points shop, like that Inventory she so desperately wants, but it’ll help her get some of the more affordable options, if she wants them.

Shaking her head, Krvavy puts those thoughts aside. “If it makes you feel any better, there are a few skills that I can’t level up in here but can out there. Seismic Stomp, for example. Also Tracking, Stealth, and Foraging, to list a few”

“Ah’m just worried. Ya know tha’.” Beryl sighs, slowly trailing her hands along Krvavy’s sides. “Ya are such a low level...”

“I’m a higher level than Thea.”

“Hey! What is that supposed to mean!?” The bratty girl snaps back in annoyance.

“Aye, but tha’ doesn’t mean much.” The Wood Elf responds, completely ignoring the increasingly angry noble girl.

“You horrid hag!”

“I’m not going to just head out with nothing.” Krvavy plainly states, placing a hand atop Thea’s head and idly stroking the silken locks of this silently fuming brat’s silver-blonde hair. “I’ll have a few javelins and a roll of the healing bandages. Can’t forget about those.”

“Alright, alright...” Beryl slumps her shoulders in defeat. “Ah know tha’ Ah can’t change yer mind... But... at least let me ‘elp ya pack up.”

“Sure, though I’m not going to hav–”

The barbarian gets cut off mid sentence as Beryl gently grabs onto one of Krvavy’s horns and leans in for a kiss. “Ah love ya, and Ah’ll be ‘ere waitin’ fer ya ta come ‘ome. Don’t forget tha’.” The Elf quietly whispers those words out as she pulls back.

“I love you too.” Krvavy responds, slightly flushed from hearing the genuine sincerity of her tomboyish Wood Elf. “But don’t act like I’ll be gone for ages. It’ll only be a few days. Around four, probably. Maybe more.”

“{Even a minute away from you is too much, my dearest love.}” Beryl replies in her native tongue, a sad smile gracing her face.

“{No need to be so dramatic.}” The barbarian smiles back, leaning in to give her wonderful Elf a quick kiss of her own.

“Ahhh...” A happy sigh escapes past Beryl’s lips as she pulls herself back, hands pressing into Krvavy’s bare chest. “Come on, my dearest love. Let’s get ya ready ta go.”

Krvavy nods before quickly turning to Thea and giving the girl a kiss as well. “See you soon.”

“Ugh, just leave already!” Thea grumbles and groans, though the blush creeping its way onto her cheeks gives away her true feelings.

Unable to keep a smile off of her face, the barbarian rises to her feet. She almost doesn’t want to go. Almost...

“Haaahh...” Krvavy slowly sighs out, leaning back against a sturdy tree as a deeply content feeling fills her.

Krvavy really needed this. Though she isn’t quite sure what this is. Did she just need some fresh air, some time under the open sky? Or did she just need some space, some time away from her girls?

She would like to think it is the first one, though she has never been one to appreciate the outdoors. Granted, she has never been one to walk around naked either, so that doesn’t exactly mean much. But... she also isn’t a people person. She could never really stand being around others.

Krvavy tilts her head up, looking past the canopy of trees. The sky is dyed orange as the sun sets behind a horizon she cannot see. Guess she should find a spot to settle down for the night.

As good as it feels to be out here, it isn’t perfect. The ground squishes beneath her feet with each and every step. It isn’t too unpleasant, but she could do without it. The main issue is that this wet and muddy ground is what she will be sleeping on. It wasn’t nice last night, and she doesn’t think it would have changed much since then.

She misses the patch of moss and furs back in her cave. And she really misses having an actual bed. If only...

< ERROR: SOUL-LINK CONNECTION LOST. UNABLE TO ESTABLISH CONNECTION WITH ORIGINAL FORM >

The pit of dread forming in her stomach tells Krvavy that trying that was a mistake. She does not want to think about... about being trapped here. Even if her life as Krvavy is, arguably, far better than Leanna ever had it.

She has been over this so many times in her head, desperately trying to rationalize what happened. But each day she wakes up, still in this body, it gets harder and harder to deny...

So what is so bad about it? Is it just the choice being taken away from her? If she had to make that decision herself, then she may very well have chosen to stay as Krvavy. The only reason that Leanna kept living was stubbornness and spite. Krvavy at least has a good reason to live now. Multiple good reasons. Still, she would have liked to say goodbye to her sister, face to face.

Not that the cold, metal jar has a face...

Shaking her head, Krvavy pushes off against the tree and walks away from it, trying to put those thoughts behind her. Nothing good will come from lingering on them.

Clear water lazily flows on by, beneath the trees and the cloudless sky.

Krvavy sits on a fallen log, watching the weak current pull away leafy little twigs while she chews away at one of the dried blocks of minced meat and berries that Beryl packed for her. Water drips from her body as she takes the chance to dry off a bit.

This river only reached up to her hips at its deepest, so it was rather easy to cross. At least compared to the other one. Though, thinking about it, she is pretty sure it is the same river. She is just a few days upstream from where she had crossed before.

It would be nice if she had a map of the area, so that she could know for certain, but nothing she can do about that. Nothing short of making her own map, at least. Which is a bit outside of her abilities.

Finishing up her snack, Krvavy rises to her feet and begins to tie the deerskin loincloth back around her waist. Not having to lug around her axe makes walking through this forest a whole lot easier. She has enough trouble keeping her head and horns from whacking into branches. It would be better if she had an Inventory, of course, but she won’t complain about being able to store her most cumbersome possession within her soul.

Granted, the rough javelins hanging from a strap slung over her shoulder take away some of the convenience that her Soulbound weapon provides. They keep getting caught on pretty much everything that she gets too close to...

That is really the one issue Krvavy has with this forest: she has to constantly stoop over and duck beneath branches.

Though, to be fair, that is more her fault than anything else. She chose to make this body of hers so ridiculously tall. Krvavy is just thankful that she had enough restraint to not crank that slider to its max... And not because that would make walking through this forest mildly more inconvenient. No, she cares more about the fact that her height already makes being with her girls a bit awkward. Not all the time – her huge size helps with hugging and cuddling – but for... other activities.

A smile makes its way onto Krvavy’s face without her realizing it.

Her girls... Just thinking about them makes her happy. She never thought that she would meet someone who makes her feel that way, and here she is with three such people.

Krvavy almost wants to turn around and head back home so that she can see them again. But she just crossed the river, so she might as well keep going on. Though that does mean this trip of hers will end up taking five or six days...

Hopefully her being a couple days late won’t worry Beryl too much. And if it does, well, Krvavy will find a way to make it up to her. The barbarian is definitely going to be a bit pent up by the time she gets home, and the Elf would be more than happy to help her out with that~.

The sun slowly climbs its way into the clear sky, shining down between the increasingly sparse trees.

Does this area still count as a forest, or is more of a generic woodland? The fairly dense concentration of trees has been steadily and visibly thinning out, with much bigger gaps between each increasingly skinny trunk. Which isn’t something that Krvavy is going to complain about. It makes it much easier for her to move around.

The barbarian pauses, glancing up at a patch of clear sky hanging far above. Her brow furrows. It is hard to tell exactly what time it is, but... Krvavy figures that she should probably start heading back soon. Or right now. To be honest, she probably should have turned around yesterday, at the river. This is her fourth day out here, and she is definitely going to have to apologize for being out so long when she gets back...

Her girls won’t hold that against her, but she shouldn’t make them worry for no reason either.

It’s just... Krvavy usually turns back when she eats through about half of her food, and this time she has hardly eaten even a quarter of it. Beryl made her bring way more than she needed. She can’t exactly blame the Elf for that though...

Krvavy’s distracted thoughts slowly trail off as an unsettling feeling overtakes her, making her skin crawl. She freezes, holding her breath and not making a sound as she cautiously looks around. But she can’t see what is setting her instincts off. And she can’t hear anything either. The forest is completely silent.

Wait... That is what the problem is.

The birds aren’t chirping. The wind isn’t rustling even a single leaf. Everything is silent and still. Almost unnaturally so. What is going on?

The quiet is briefly broken by the faint sound of thunder echoing from off in the distance, further to the south. The first crack is quickly followed by a second and a third, causing Krvavy to scowl. She doesn’t want to be caught out in the rain.

But that thundering sound isn’t actually thunder, is it?

The sky is completely clear, without even a single cloud in sight. So what is making that noise? If she didn’t know any better, then Krvavy would say that it sounds like gunfire. Slower single shot gunfire, like a line of muskets or some cannons.

Then again, it could just be something magical, like exploding fireballs. That... actually makes more sense, thinking about it. After all, that’s what it was the last time she heard an unnatural thundering boom in this forest, back when she found that sketchy fire mage fighting Beryl. Though that didn’t sound quite the same as this does...

Krvavy’s scowl deepens. There is only one way for her to figure out what the source of that sound is: go and investigate it.

She should be turning back, heading home to where her three girls are waiting for her. The fact that she is even thinking about heading towards the obvious danger of those mysterious thundering echoes kind of pisses her off. But she is just far too curious to simply ignore it.

Krvavy has to make the decision on what to do right now. This is her first, last, and only chance to ignore that noise and head home. The barbarian knows what she is like. If she goes to investigate, then she is going to investigate. She won’t just have a little look at what is happening, no, she’d probably do something stupid like getting involved. And she has learned the hard way that that isn’t always the best thing to do.

Though, to be fair, the only time that this sort of thing hasn’t gone well for her was the one time she tried to ignore her curiosity...

The barbarian bites her bottom lip hard enough for it to hurt. Should... should she head back home to her loving girls who are patiently waiting for her to return to them? Or should she do something reckless and head directly towards the sound of some random explosions that keep going off?

This... really shouldn’t be such a tough decision...