At the break of dawn, Millus began enacting his plan to build the cabin. However, there was one crucial issue.
He stood before the rocky ledge he had cleared at the side of the Lunar Mountain. The large stones had been moved aside, and the bedrock had been flattened, leaving behind a stable, though stark, foundation for the cabin.
The morning light spilled across the exposed surface, casting long shadows behind each remaining pebble.
"Alright, time to start..." he muttered, his voice betraying his confidence.
But after some time had passed, circling the clearing twice, and after scratching his plans in the dirt only to wipe them away with his polished shoes, the truth showed itself.
His admission cost him more than he'd care to admit, a man of his capabilities, was stumped by something as simple as a cabin. But it was better to voice it now than fail spectacularly later.
"I don't have the faintest idea where to start this," he admitted, resting his hands on his hips as he surveyed the empty space. "I said I'd build a cabin and all, but… I don't think it'll work."
Sensing a very familiar presence, he turned around. "And why did you follow me all the way here?"
Lina stood a few paces behind, having followed him in silence. The soft light caught the copper highlights in her hair as she nodded. "I'll help you in any way I can, and I'm sorry for following you without you knowing," she said, her voice as gentle as the morning breeze.
Millus looked at her face, his expression unreadable. 'Now that she's been eating properly, her color is returning… That's good.',
"Is there something wrong, Millus? You've been staring at me," she said, ducking her head slightly as a faint blush bloomed on her cheeks. There was a small smile tugging at the corner of her lips, hesitant but genuine.
"Oh, sorry," he said, clearing his throat and looking away. "I picked this location because it faces the sunrise, but..." He paused before embarrassingly admitting.
"But what?" Lina tilted her head, curiosity sparkling in her amber eyes that seemed clearer every day. She still remembered how capable he was when it came to cooking, but this hesitation seemed out of character.
"It's just... I don't really have that much of an experience building a cabin," he finally confessed. "Back then I helped my father and uncles build our house, but that was different."
He paused for a moment, his memories washed over him unbidden. The scent of sawdust hanging in the summer air, the rhythmic sounds of hammers on nails, it was an old practice based on tradition.
His father's firm voice that gave him instructions and advice that made him the man who he was, a strong foundation to support his family in place of his father.
He snapped out of his memory and said "A cabin is on a different level of craftsmanship compared to a house or a hut," he continued. "It'll take time. It may take weeks, or maybe months, plus, the weather up here may change without warning, so are you sure you're up for the task?"
"Yes, I will," she replied with a smile that seemed to brighten the clearing. "I'll do my best to help you."
"Well, alright then." He nodded, releasing some tension that eased his shoulders. "Our first priority is wood, the Ancient Forest should have more than what we need... but now that I think about it, I might need to reconsider the location of the cabin entirely."
"You're not building the cabin here anymore?" she asked, surprise widening her eyes.
"Yeah... Going up and down this mountain would be a pain, especially when getting more of the required materials, plus I can't just cut down a lot of wood as that would affect the ecosystem, not to mention getting up here." He gestured toward the steep path they'd climbed.
"And besides..." He rubbed his smooth hairless chin thoughtfully. "Kaela might end up hunting every last creature up here and wreck the fauna of this mountain."
Lina listened quietly as he rambled, her presence served as a steady anchor to his thoughts.
Snapping back to focus, Millus muttered, "Ah, sorry. I got lost in thought again. Anyway, let's move the location. Let me see, hmm, how about down the west side of the mountain, near the valley. It'll be easier to access, it's closer to water, and sheltered from the worst winds."
"Alright. I'll pack up the camp. When are we moving?" she asked, already practical in her thinking.
"Well, we can go now, but let's wait for Kaela to return. She probably found another monster to bring back, she's hungry as ever."
He shook his head, a reluctant fondness in his voice. "At this rate, she's becoming a menace to the mountain's inhabitants, but considering she's all about balance and stuff, she probably won't go overboard."
So together, they returned to the camp, their footsteps finding a natural rhythm as they walked side by side.
Along the way, their conversation drifted to lighter things, the cloud formations promising clear weather, a peculiar bird call echoing through the pine trees, then slowly, and inevitably, to the past.
Millus asked carefully, "Why did the Bearwolf tribe take you in?"
He kept his tone gentle and casual. He'd already seen fragments of her past through his skill, Blood Memory. But something about that memory unsettled him, it left him with more questions than answers.
"I was really young then," she began, her eyes fixed on some distant point beyond the horizon. "I remember my mother carrying me as she ran through the grasslands for days. We were being chased by shadows I couldn't name. But when we passed into the glade where the giant insects lived..." Her voice softened. "The people pursuing us stopped their chase."
Her hands trembled slightly as she clenched her fists, knuckles whitening with the pressure of her held-back memories.
Millus's gaze darkened. 'I could've seen everything through her memories... Good thing I stopped back then. Her mother looked at me, looked right at me, as if she knew I was there. Her face... it was blurred, as if cloaked in fog. It should've been impossible. Best to forget I ever saw it and respect her privacy, it's better to hear it from her.'
He listened in silence as she continued, giving her the space to find her words.
"Mother spoke some chants, her voice creating patterns in the air that seemed to bend the light around us," Lina continued, her fingers tracing invisible symbols. "The insects' massive mandibles would occasionally pass inches from us, yet their compound eyes would slide right over us as if we were nothing but mist. It was like we were air to them. My mother taught it to me, a cloak of mana that bends light that can hide my presence. It helped me countless times through dangerous situations."
Her voice was filled with quiet reverence and awe that mingled with the pain of loss.
Millus stared ahead, his thoughts weighing heavy as gathering storm clouds. 'What kind of woman was your mother...? And what does that make you, Lina?'
Lina continued, her voice sounding quieter now, it's as if almost blending with the whisper of wind through the mountain pines. "After a few days of fleeing, my mother and I reached the edge of the Ancient Forest. That's where the chieftain of the Bearwolf Tribe and his hunters found us." She hesitated.
It was clear that this part of her story left a sour taste in her mouth, the slight downward pull at the corners of her mouth, the tightening around her eyes.
Millus's thoughts stirred when he saw her expression. 'Oh, right... that beast wearing human skin who rescued them at that time... Wait a minute, I nearly forgot about them. I'll deal with that later, so for now, I should just listen to her.'
"After we were rescued," she went on, fixing her gaze on the path ahead, "Mother fell sick, a fever that burned through her like wildfire. The shamans and priestesses did their best to save her, but… a few days later... she passed away."
Her words hung in the air like ash, delicate yet heavy with grief.
"The chieftain..." she continued after a moment, "he was planning to make my mother one of his wives. But after she died, he lost interest. So he just ordered them to take care of me."
She didn't look at Millus as she spoke, but her hands fidgeted with the hem of her sleeve, betraying the discomfort she kept out of her voice, the traumatic memories she was carefully navigating through.
"I think he planned to wed me to either his son, Gabo, or even himself when I got older. So for years, I tried to avoid them. I found the smallest corners to hide in, learned to move without being seen." Her voice remained steady, but her fingers worked faster at the fabric. "But Gabo..." Her tone dipped low, laced with bitterness, but her eyes remained calm. "He was persistent, and back then, I could tell... he was nearing his limit."
Millus clenched his jaw slightly, a muscle twitching along the line of his temple. 'Persistent, huh...? I'll take care of him when I have the chance later. I'll have him suffer for every moment of fear he has caused you.'
She fell silent, her fingers finally stilling against the fabric. After a moment, her expression shifted, as if trading one memory for another, this one tinged with hope instead of pain.
"But before mother left this world, Mother told me that my savior would come, she said I should look to the heavens above... that they would signal his arrival."
Raising one hand toward the brightening sky, she whispered, "And then, I saw you, a blinding light falling from the heavens, just like she said."
She turned toward him, placing her hand over her chest where her heart beat beneath. The two of them stopped walking, standing in a patch of dappled sunlight.
"You saved me that day, so for that..." Her clear and earnest eyes met his. "Thank you, I owe you my life."
Millus blinked, he was taken aback by the raw emotion in her gaze. 'Even though I peeked at her memories through Blood Memory... that part, what her mother said to me, it's too much.'
Before he could respond, Lina's face turned scarlet, as if steam might burst from her ears. The vulnerability of the moment seemed to crash over her all at once.
Without another word, she turned and sprinted back toward the camp, her steps were quick and uneven, sending small pebbles skittering down the path.
Millus remained still, watching her vanish into the trees, the sounds of her footsteps fades into silence from the distance.
'Just what kind of woman was her mother, saying something like that to a child...? A prophecy? A desperate hope? Maybe it's all a coincidence, or maybe…'
He let out a long breath, raking his hand through his hair, pushing away his thoughts that threatened to spiral into the territory he wasn't ready to explore.
"Prophecies and dreams…" he muttered to the empty air, his voice steady despite the unease crawling up his spine. "First, we build the cabin, then, everything else comes after."
Millus arrived at the camp where Kaela and Lina were waiting. Upon his arrival three fire pits were already raging, but this time instead of wood as fuel, they burned with elemental fire stones, casting a deeper crimson glow that threw dancing shadows across the clearing.
Millus sighed and thought, 'This gluttonous excuse of a spirit... I might as well indulge her since I've been feeling hungry lately anyway.'
But then Millus noticed Kaela more fully, 'Ah yes, she's at it again. It's not that I have a problem with her being like that since she's technically a spit wolf and a habit of her's, but still, she should wear something...'
He rolled up his long white sleeve, revealing his forearms that seemed almost to glow in the firelight. The majestic blood red gem brooch near his neck caught the flames, scattering points of light across the camp. He cracked his fingers methodically as he prepared to cook a different type of delicacy today, his crimson eyes assessed the ingredients he laid out.
The wind stirred his soft white hair as he worked, his movements displaying the lean, precise build honed for dexterity and speed. His upper clothes, paired with long black pants paired with his black sleek shoes maintained their sheen despite the rugged mountain terrain, another subtle indication of enchantment.
After cooking, the three of them ate together, their conversation flowed more easily with full bellies. Millus took the opportunity to scold Kaela about not wearing the cloth he gave her, his tone was firm but measured. Kaela, predictably, scoffed at him, tossing her wild hair back while looking at him with her defiant golden eyes.
With a sigh of exasperation, Millus threw another coat to her, it's the fourth one he'd given her. The others she had lost, abandoned, or destroyed in her travels across the mountain. But unlike most people in this era, Millus had invented a magic formula to find his lost items. Like all his possessions with his mana signature, the clothes remained pristine even after being dumped in literal mud pits, crushed by rocks, or submerged underwater, the self-mending and cleaning enchantment ensures that they stayed in near perfect condition.
Kaela had attempted to mimic his Void pocket, but with slight differences. Hers was smaller in terms of capacity, and instead of time completely stopping within it, time merely slowed down inside. Not bad for a spirit's attempt, but still imperfect.
"We're moving down to the valley to set up our cabin," Millus explained between bites, his body was not sweating despite the heat of the fire, but instead gave off only that characteristic mild sweet scent that clung to him. "The location here isn't practical for building the cabin which is why I'm planning to build it in the valley."
Kaela's face immediately darkened as she heard him, her objection was swift and loud.
"Don't worry, It's still within your territory," Millus added, raising a placating hand. "You can visit whenever you like."
He paused, a knowing smirk touching his lips. "Though I suspect it's my cooking you're truly reluctant to lose, not our company."
Kaela huffed with her arms crossed, but the way she eyed the remaining food confirmed his suspicion. Lina watched their exchange with quiet amusement, her earlier embarrassment seemingly forgotten in the comfortable familiarity of their mealtime.
End of chapter