Chapter 7: Volume 1 – Chapter 6

"It is time to try to make an enchantment." Troche said, putting a simple copper ring on the table. "A basic stamina enchant is the simplest and most widely used one."

"How do I do it?" Tal asked, inspecting the rings. They looked just like the ones Farruco sold almost every day. In fact, the storage area of the shop held boxes of unenchanted ones, sold for two silver each.

"Hold your hand over one and pour enough energy into it. Think of how good the body feels after some rest, and how energy returns after a good meal. This ring will give a similar effect when worn. We already practiced how much is needed to create a base-level enchant."

Tal put his hand over one of the rings and started pouring energy into it just as his teacher had instructed. A faint green light appeared around it. With a long breath, Tal removed his hand from the ring and looked up at Troche.

"Let's see…" She picked up the ring and held it for a moment. "Looks good. Seems you have a talent for these things, or maybe it's just determination. Either way, if you can keep this up, then you are ready to make these regularly."

"I did it?" Tal asked as a smile formed on his face. He had learned to make an enchant. From what he had noticed, one such ring now had a value of fifteen silver coins. Just his effort alone had added thirteen silver.

"Looks like it. We will make a few more, and I will show you how to know when the enchantment is successful, but it looks like your studies are over. Here, bring this back to Farruco. Due to the contract, it is his." Troche handed the ring to Tal.

He practically ran the short distance back to the shop. The first step towards a prosperous career was done. Now he only needed to make more than two each week to start saving up money.

Tal found Farruco sitting in his favorite chair by the fireplace and smoking his pipe.

"Back already?" he asked, puffing out a small cloud of smoke.

"Sir, I made it." Tal said enthusiastically and presented the ring to his employer.

Farruco took out glasses from the pocket of his vest and carefully inspected the ring. "Indeed, you have made a basic stamina enchant. As I promised, your workload will be lessened. Go rest now. Tomorrow you only need to help me with the morning preparations and then you are free for the rest of the day."

"Thank you, sir."

"Yes, yes. This is what we agreed upon. Just remember you will have to make one more this week." Farruco said and returned his attention to the pipe.

Being tossed into new circumstances, now with a lot of free time, was something Tal was not wholly prepared for. After the morning routine was over, he was on his own. The tiredness after the casting was still there, so a few hours were spent in a long and pleasant nap. After that, he was at a loss as to what to do next.

Just exploring the town sounded like an interesting idea, but currently he had only a few silver left and no real idea what to search for.

The only thing he could come up with was to buy a cheap notebook, a simple quilt, and a bottle of the cheapest ink he could find to practice writing. It turned out to be an immensely fulfilling pastime, as Tal quickly filled the pages of his notebook with the newly founded knowledge on how to use magical energy and how enchanting worked.

That gave him an idea for his long-term plans. He needed to produce enough rings to earn money and then search for books containing information about magic.

However, over the next few days, one thing became obviously apparent. He had enough energy to produce two rings per week, and with how slowly magical energy reserves grew, he would not be able to make more any time soon.

Neither Troche nor Farruco had mentioned this fact to him. Whether it was on purpose was hard to tell, but one thing was clear: he was trapped in his current situation due to the contract.

'I should have known there was some trick to the deal.' he quietly swore to himself as he lay in his bed. For a week he had felt constantly half tired. Not as much as when he worked on the fields, but the prospect of being like this for two years with nothing earned didn't sit right with him.

'I have to do something. Maybe if I meditated more the energy would return faster? Even one extra ring per week would make a lot of money.' For now, he had no other option but to try harder. The current life wasn't bad, but to remain the merchant's assistant for the rest of his life was not exactly a path he wanted to pursue.

He was already at the marriageable age, and there sure were many free girls in the city for someone of his stature to pursue. With his mind wandering to the prospect of having a wife, Mishi came to mind as well.

That what if never left him. What if he would have stopped her and asked more sternly to come with him? She was his only friend, a friend that ran off. The fact that he hadn't seen anyone like her while walking around the city only assured Tal that Mishi likely was right about how dangerous populated places were for someone like her.

'Maybe I should have just stayed with her? Did she even need me?' Mishi could survive on her own, and she surely was physically stronger and more agile than him. He wasn't her protector. If anything, it likely was the opposite. The only thing he provided was the stability that came with him constantly earning enough food to share some with her.

With his friend on his mind, Tal slowly fell asleep, for once in his dreams reliving memories of her, not the constant nightmare of his family's death.

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Mishi sniffed the air. She had to be extra careful not to be caught. A guard dog or lynx could hear her. She was assured that they could not smell her, as she took extra care to wash and mask her scent with grass.

After a moment of not smelling or hearing any animal in the nearby houses, she carefully moved closer, hidden by the darkness of the night. Her vision in the dark was better than humans but not by much.

With slow and careful steps, she crept into the barn and looked around. There were a few pigs and cows sleeping in an enclosure on one end and a large haystack on the other.

Touching the animals was far too dangerous and she would not be able to carry that much meat anyway, so her gaze fell onto the haystack. There was the tool she was looking for. Mishi walked to the haystack without making any sound and picked up a pitchfork with two prongs.

She weighed the tool in her hand with a faint smile. 'This one is perfect. Now I can hunt bigger prey.'

Just in case, Mishi looked around for anything else of use but found nothing. Seeing no reason to stay any longer, she quietly walked towards the barn's exit. Despite her best efforts to remain silent, she accidentally stepped on a small twig.

One of the pigs woke up and let out a confused squeal.

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'Dammit.'

There was no point in being quiet anymore. Mishi pushed the barn doors aside and ran with the pitchfork in her hand.

Humans were shouting and lighting lanterns. It didn't matter. She was already far enough away. Mishi continued running towards the forest, only stopping once she was at her cave.

The pitchfork turned out to be a wonderful weapon. Once the morning sun illuminated the forest, she went on a hunt. Adult wild pigs were too big for her to handle, but the adolescent ones shouldn't cause too much trouble.

There was a place nearby frequented by the pigs, which was the perfect spot to wait for her prey. Mishi quickly reached it, climbed up a pine tree, and sat on a thick branch.

The first few were adult pigs that casually passed without a care in the world. There were few natural predators that could take them on, making the large creatures rather fearless.

It took a few hours for the perfect victim to show up. Over a meter tall and one and a half meter long piglet walked by with the same carelessness as the adult ones, and didn't notice the predator on the tree branch ready to pounce.

Mishi jumped down aiming for the pig's neck. Even a young one like this was dangerous and could easily kill her if she wasn't careful. The pitchfork found its mark and dug deep into the neck of the pig, which let out a squeal of pain and tried to shake off the attacker.

Mishi quickly pulled out the pitchfork at an odd angle in order to tear open the wounds and jumped aside. Before the pig could decide to run, she went in for another attack and pierced its stomach, tearing two long lines along the base of it. Finally realizing the danger, the massive piglet ran.

Now all Mishi had to do was follow the blood trail. She caught up with the piglet in a few minutes. The beast was sluggishly walking forward, swinging from side to side.

It would have been safer to just wait till the pig died on its own, but Mishi couldn't just watch the creature needlessly suffer. With a few quick jabs to the neck of the creature, the pig finally bled out and collapsed to the ground.

Mishi walked around the corpse with a satisfied expression. So much meat. Her smile quickly faded once she started to plan what to do next. The meat needed to be preserved, and that meant she needed salt, and a lot of it at that. Drying such amounts in the forest was not feasible and would just attract wolves and other predators.

For now, she needed to bring the pig's corpse back to her lair. Mishi grabbed its back legs and started to slowly drag the corpse toward her dwelling.

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Cibran, the captain of the guard in Baron Aldana's service, stopped his horse at the entrance of a wooden house. Another peasant had sent a complaint about an animal attack, and it was his duty to investigate. He already suspected what sort of beast was lurking around, but it still needed more confirmation to formulate a plan on how to deal with the situation.

"Good day, sire." Roi, the master of the household greeted him. The short and somewhat bulky man was just as Cibran remembered him.

"Good day to you as well. I have come to look at the tracks you discovered in your barn." Cibran said as he got off the horse with his chain armor rattling.

"Some large beast was there, wolf or fox by the looks of it. Luckily it didn't kill any animals." Roi said as he opened the barn doors.

Cibran walked in and kneeled before the first footprint he noticed. He quickly looked up and asked. "Is anything missing from the barn?"

"I don't think so… Oh I couldn't find one of the pitchforks, but maybe one of my boys or girls just misplaced it. Sure thing a wolf didn't drag it away." Roi said.

"This is not a footprint of a wolf. Are you sure the pitchfork is just misplaced?"

"No, sire."

Cibran stood up and pointed at the track. "This here is not an animal's footprint. For now, leave someone on night watch. We have a halfbreed on the loose. Those are much more dangerous than mere animals."

"Sire, are you sure? We haven't seen any wild ones in years."

"Yes, and it is stealing tools. If I have to guess, its lair is somewhere near, in the forest. Uxio had some knives and grain stolen from his home."

Roi scratched the back of his head and said "Thank you for the warning, sire. What should we do if the beast shows up?"

"Better wait for me and my boys to deal with it, but if it comes to the worst, gather all your men before taking it down." Cibran said and mounted his horse. "Be careful, the baron will have my ass if he loses a good man like you."

'I will have to order nets. If we capture the beast alive, it should sell for a hefty price. I'm sure the baron will agree as well if I pay him his cut.' Cibran mused. Save for one owned by the baron, halfbreeds were not that easy to find in the countryside, and one running around stealing from the peasants was not a good thing by any means.

'The beast stole something that can be used for hunting larger prey. That means more than it could safely consume before the meat goes bad. Could I bet on its intelligence?'

A plan took shape in his mind. Surely even a halfbreed would know that it needs to be preserved, and that meant it would try to steal salt somewhere.

Considering that not every household kept salt around and mostly relied on drying the food, there were few houses that could be targeted for the valuable resource and one of them was close to the forest, a perfect place to set up a trap.

Edited by Edgy

Proofreading by placid_void

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