Frostbitten Wayfarer

Zoe and Emma both stood up and left to grab their certification. It was a simple sheet of blue paper with the school’s logo in the centre of it. Deer antlers that formed a spiked oval covered a red wavy line.

“Thanks a lot!” Zoe said to the clerk when she got it. Emma grabbed hers and thanked the clerk as well, then the two walked out to the street.

“Celebration dinner time?” Emma asked.

“Yeah, I worked at this restaurant a couple months back and I think they offered me some apple cider that I helped make too.” Zoe said.

“Ooo, I love apple cider, lets go!” She said excitedly.

“Well first I wanna check on my stats, actually. I haven’t really looked at them since we started school.” Zoe walked up to a bench and sat down.

“WHAT?! You don’t check your stats like, every day? I can’t help but check every time I have a few minutes to spare honestly. You haven’t checked in months?!” Emma shouted at her.

“Yeah, I dunno. I just like seeing lots of changes all at once, makes me feel good.” Zoe said.

“Weirdo.” Emma sat next to her on the bench.

Zoe pulled up her stat window, excited to see all of her new changes.

Name: Zoe Mara

Race: Human

——

Stat Points: 1

Strength: 20

Dexterity: 20

Vitality: 20

Endurance: 20

Intelligence: 50

Wisdom: 50

Health: 200/200

Stamina: 200/200

Mana: 500/500

——

Class 1: Earthian (8)

- Identify (37)

——

General Skills:

- Vampyric Regeneration (17)

- Vampyric Senses (34)

- Vampyric Resistance (15)

- Vampyric Immortality (2)

- Vampyric Charm (53)

- Vampyric Empathy (29)

- Gathering (7)

- Archery (34)

­- Meditation (55)

- Cooking (1)

- Dagger-fighting (23)

- Tracking (16)

- Stealth (15)

Resistances:

- Mental (7)

- Poison (14)

­- Pain (3)

- Heat (1)

- Fire (1)

- Cold (1)

­- Disintegration (2)

Feats:

- Patient Decider

- Winter’s Master

Most notable to Zoe was that her Vampyric Charm was no longer her highest level skill. She had turned it on a few times since the incident with Emma’s mom, mostly just because Emma liked seeing it change or to test how it affected animals.

It didn’t seem to do much to animals, at least not yet. And it was pretty high level already so she wasn’t sure if it would ever do much to animals. Maybe there would be an active component to it that she could play around with if she investigated it more, but the skill made her uncomfortable so she tried to avoid it as much as possible.

Seeing meditation overtake it made her feel very good, like she had finally corrected a mistake that haunted her for so long. She smiled at it, and brought up her new skills’ information.

[Dagger-fighting]

Master the dagger and dismantle your foes.

[Stealth]

Unseen, unheard. Present, yet unknown. Be one with the shadows and the land.

[Tracking]

Become more adept at identifying tracks.

“So?” Emma asked, “Anything exciting?”

“Yeah, my meditation is up to fifty-five now. Dagger-fighting made it all the way to twenty-three, too.” Zoe said.

Emma shook her head. “I can’t believe you get to overlevel your skills like that. That’s so stupid.”

Zoe smiled, “Maybe. But I can’t fire an arrow right through a deer like you can. Grass is always greener.”

Emma shoved her elbow into Zoe, pushing her aside a little. “Yeah but you’re gonna get a class, I’m never getting that stupid feat though.”

“I guess. Maybe there’s something else you could get. Wait fifty years with your first class and get it anyway.” Zoe said.

“Maybe.” Emma stood up. “So you know a good cider restaurant then?”

“Yeah. The Rotted Apple, they call themselves.” Zoe said.

“Really?” Emma asked. “The Rotted Apple?”

Zoe laughed and led her to the restaurant. The same fellow was working as the host and brought the two to a table. Zoe asked if Lou had a sec to talk and the man told her that he’d go ask.

“So you get free cider here or what?” Emma asked.

“Well probably not free, but I helped make it so I kinda wanna try it. See what I actually helped make. Also this is the damn job that ruined my spring master this year.” Zoe shook her head.

Emma chuckled, “So what would you recommend from here?”

“I’ve only eaten here once, but I had the grilled venison and it was really good. Not as good as the school’s cafeteria but that’s a little too high of a bar, I think.” Zoe answered.

“You gonna get the venison again then?” Emma asked.

“Hmm, probably not. Might as well try the stew since they only have the two options anyway.” Zoe said.

“Okay!” Emma said with a cheerful smile. “I’ll get the venison and then try some of your stew too.” She smiled.

Zoe laughed, “Fine. But only a bit, it’s my dinner, y’know?”

“You can have some of my venison!” Emma said.

“If I wanted venison, I would have ordered venison. You can try it but get your own if you like it.” Zoe said.

Emma stuck her tongue out at Zoe, “Pfft, no fun. Dinner’s always better when you share.”

Lou came out a few moments later and smiled when he saw Zoe. “Oh it’s you again. The batch of cider you helped with is ready if you wanted to try some?”

“Yeah, I would, thanks. Some for her too if that’s alright? We’re paying, of course.” Zoe said.

Lou laughed, “No, no. I wouldn’t make you pay for the cider you slaved over. Cider’s on the house today.”

“As much as we want?” Emma asked with a sly smile.

Lou laughed some more, “One glass. After that you’re paying full price.”

“Thanks Lou.” Zoe said.

“No problem, sharing cider’s why I started this restaurant in the first place. I can take your order if you two are ready now?” Lou asked.

“Yeah, I’m gonna get the stew today, please.” Zoe answered.

“And I’ll have the venison!” Emma said.

“Shouldn’t be long then. You want the cider first, or with the meal?" He asked.

“First, please. I’m honestly pretty excited to try it.” Zoe said.

Lou smiled, “Good. I’ll get somebody to bring it out right away then.” He walked back into the kitchen.

“Nice guy, huh?” Emma asked.

“He was pretty nice while I worked here. Gave me a free meal too after which was pretty cool.” Zoe answered.

The two kept chatting, the conversation drifting to their performance on the final exam, and a few minutes later a waitress brought out two large mugs full of cider. In each mug was a cinnamon stick and a single large ice cube.

Zoe and Emma took their ciders and tasted them. It was just as delicious as the rawbi cider Zoe had tried before, in a very different way. It was cold, with an intense cinnamon flavour permeating the entire drink. The ice cube rattled around in the glass as they tilted it, providing a satisfying noise to the drink as well.

If she had to choose, she’d say she preferred the rawbi cider. The sweetness from this world’s strawberry equivalent was too hard to pass up. But maybe that was just because she missed strawberries.

“Mmmmmm,” Emma drawled. “This is really good!”

“See? I told you. I had a rawbi cider last time I was here and it was just as good too.” Zoe said.

“Ooh, I love rawbi. A little annoying to eat though with the green tops, and it’s so hard to cut them off without crushing the rest of the fruit. But they’re super yummy!” Emma said.

Zoe nodded her head. That was not her experience of eating strawberries at all. She updated her mental image of rawbi to be much more strange than she had initially thought.

Their food came out a few minutes later. Zoe had a big bowl of brown stew and a big chunk of brul, while Emma had the same burnt looking grilled venison that Zoe had before.

Emma ripped off a piece of Zoe’s brul and dipped it in her stew and then ate it. “Mmmm, that’s really good too! This place is nice.”

Zoe shook her head. “That’s all you get. The rest is mine, alright?”

“Fiiiine,” Emma cut into her venison and tried it, looking just as surprised as Zoe had when she first tried it. “It’s not burnt!”

Zoe smiled, and tried her own stew. It was also delicious, rich and meaty with a pleasant mouth feel that coated her mouth. The stew soaked into the brul as Zoe used it to pinch up a piece of meat. The crunch of the bread’s crust provided a nice contrast to the soft textures of the meat. She sipped her cider, the sweet and spicy drink cut through the richness of the stew.

When dinner was finished, Zoe paid for both their dinners — 54 copper in total. Bit of an expensive meal, but worth it for how good it was. And Zoe didn’t have any money troubles anymore anyway. At least not when it came to eating, she wouldn’t be buying massive storage items or a new house any time soon but a handful of silver wasn’t worth as much to her as it used to be.

“Well, thanks for Dinner, Zoe.” Emma hugged Zoe as they left the restaurant.

“Yeah, no problem. You heading back home now then?” Zoe asked.

“Mhm. You got any big plans for today?” Emma asked.

“No, not really. Probably going to go visit Joe, the innkeeper friend I told you about? Haven’t talked to him since a few days before the exam.” Zoe said.

“Alright, see you next week then!" Emma hugged her again.

“See you around,” Zoe said.

Emma ran off down the road towards home, and Zoe started making her way to Joe’s tavern. Summer was just around the corner and she’d be stuck outside for another few months as she got back to working on the seasonal master feats.

Her mistake gave her a nice break, she found. The school was well worth the investment and as long as nothing catastrophic happened she’d just end up getting spring master the next year anyway with a lot more knowledge and things to work on now.

Joe was standing behind the bar chatting with one of his customers when Zoe entered. The customer seemed to want information on something, and Joe kept insisting that he didn’t know anything. Even without her vampyric empathy she could tell that Joe seemed a little frustrated with it.

Zoe walked up and sat on a chair at the bar next to the customer. “Hey Joe. Got a room tonight?”

“Excuse me?! I was already talking to him!” The customer screamed.

“Oh, I’m sorry. It just seemed like you were already done to me?” Zoe said.

“Done? Of course not! He hasn’t told me anything yet. Surely you know something, you’re an innkeeper!” The customer shouted at Joe.

“I already told you I don’t know anything. I’m an innkeeper not a damn lorekeeper. Go bother somebody else.” Joe slammed his fist on the bar.

The customer held his hands up defensively, “Alright alright, you don’t have to get so violent. I didn’t even do anything. Just asked a simple question man, could’ve just said you don’t know.”

“Get. Out.” Joe seethed.

“Whatever man, I’ll go take my business elsewhere then.” The customer got up and stormed out the door.

“What was that about?” Zoe asked Joe.

Joe sighed, “Honestly? I don’t even know. It happens sometimes. People come in thinking that I’m going to know everything about everybody. They want some rumours or odd jobs to do, or wanna question me about some random noble.”

He shook his head. “I just ignore them and tell them to get out. I’m an innkeeper, I cook stews and get people drunk sometimes. I don’t know what’s going on with this noble or that noble. I think he wanted to know something about some noble girl or something, but I don’t even know half their names let alone what they’ve been doing today.”

“Damn, that sucks. Asshole customers are the worst.” Zoe nodded.

Joe sighed again, “It’s just all part of the job. Anyway, your friends stopped by a few days ago to drop off a letter for you.”

“Ash and Lila?” Zoe asked, feeling a little excited.

“Yup,” He summoned a paper and handed it to her.

Zoe read the paper.

Hello Zoe, this is Lila. Ash wanted to write the letter, but they got a little out of hand. We’d absolutely love to escort you to our farm this summer.

We’ve checked our schedules and when our friends will be in town, and the best days that work for us would be the 23rd and 24th days of summer, or the 52nd and 53rd days of summer. We’ll have a nice big resistance party for you, and ask you plenty of questions!

We left a gift with your innkeeper friend. Please use it to let us know which days work best for you. Whichever you choose, we’ll come pick you up at your friend’s inn.

Lila and Ash

—==//||||\\\|||||==—

You can just ignore the scribbles. Ash was being a little inappropriate. I’ll make sure to keep them in check when you show up though. Look forward to seeing you soon!

Zoe looked up at Joe, “They say they left a gift with you?"

“Yup, returning paper. Fancy friends you’ve found for yourself.” Joe said and summoned another sheet of paper with a blue quill that seemed to ooze ink from the tip.

“Returning paper?" Zoe asked.

“When the paper is torn, it returns to the notebook it was taken from, along with anything that was written on it.” Joe explained, handing the paper and quill to Zoe.

“So I just write a message on this and then rip it up?” Zoe asked.

“Yup,” Joe nodded.

Hi Ash and lila, this is Zoe again. This paper stuff is really cool and I’m excited to see it work. Both times work fine for me so I’d prefer the 23rd and 24th. Thanks!

“And I just rip it? That’s it?” Zoe asked.

“Yup,” Joe smiled as he watched her.

Zoe picked up the paper and ripped it right down the middle. The paper vanished from her fingers. Zoe’s eyes widened in surprise. She knew that’s what Joe said it would do, but it was an incredible feeling. The paper didn’t draw any mana from her, so it must have been imbued with enough already. She wondered how much it would need for something like that.

“How long until summer starts, anyway?” Zoe asked. It was closing in on three months since winter ended, so she expected it to be pretty soon.

“Should be a week away. They’re already setting up for the celebration.” Joe said.

“Celebration?” Zoe asked.

“Oh yeah. We have a big celebration at the start of summer. Rolf comes and says a few nice words and then we all get back to work.” Joe said.

“Rolf?” Zoe asked.

“Ah yes, he’s Flester’s baron. Nice guy. He pays for most of the celebration out of his own pocket.” Joe said.

“And this happens on the first day of summer?” Zoe asked.

“Well, it starts the day before and lasts until morning, yeah. I’ll be going, you could join me if you like?” Joe asked.

“Sure, that sounds exciting then.” Zoe said.