Chapter 2: Gaius

“I can’t let you out in broad daylight, or else it’ll cause a big fuss. So just behave yourself and tonight I’ll untie you again. You’ve got to wait until then! Got it?!”

“I understand.” Gaius nodded obediently. Fog tied him up once more, then left the hut.

The difference between the darkness inside and the brightness outside made her squint. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, and it looked like there would be no need to worry about rain today. “All right then,” she said to herself as she took a look around.

She turned to the west and saw the two small, rocky mountains at the edge of the plain. The mountains basked in the sunlight, showing off their craggy skin—not only were they a pleasing sight to the kobolds’ eyes when they’d discovered this place, but they’d become something of a symbol of the village as a whole.

Next, she looked to the north. If you continued a long, long way in that direction, you would reach the heart of the Greatwood. Mountains loomed in the distance. Some were sharp and craggy, others blanketed in greenery. A mountain known as the Great Anvil sat in the heart of the forest, but it wasn’t visible from the village.

Of course, Fog had never gone that far into the woods. She only knew the name from the village elder’s stories. If someone went out there, they’d certainly become food for much larger, stronger magical beasts than bugbears or tree-eating lizards.

As one went deeper into the woods, the trees became strangely tall and sinister. It made Fog realize once again that the place they all lived in was only the barest edges of the Greatwood.

The kobolds could never survive in the depths of the Greatwood. That being said, there was nowhere for them to go outside the forest, either. The only place they could exist was here, this place that was neither inside nor outside.

We’ve gotten pretty used to this sight by now, Fog thought to herself as she made her way to the village square, leaning on a cane to compensate for her injured leg.

She was soon stopped by an older kobold calling her name. “What do you want, Elder? I’ve got places to be.”

“Fog, when are you going to kill that human?” the village elder asked, looking over to the storehouse with eyes filled with hatred.

“...I was just thinking about how to finish him off, so you can shut it already.” Fog glared at him, hoping to stop any further questioning along these lines. “You’re not even our chief or anything. I’m the one who caught him, and I’m the one who brought him here. At least let me decide what I’m going to do about him.”

The village currently had no leader; the previous chieftain had been killed in the human invasion. Ever since then, they’d survived by combining their strengths to come to one another’s aid rather than deciding on a new leader. Perhaps they felt hesitant to elect someone new, and in doing so say farewell to their old village, lives, friends, and families.

They called this kobold “Elder” because he was the oldest of the survivors, and out of respect for his position as the strongest shaman in the village, but he was not a real leader.

“Even so, Fog—”

“I’ll convince the others. And if they don’t listen, I’ll beat them up until they do. You think anyone in the village is stronger than me?” She bared her fangs in a grin.

“‘Caught him’? He brought you along with him. You even thought he was a troll.” Fog’s irrational argument failed to sway him.

“Shut it already, gramps! Don’t sweat the small stuff! That’s why your farts stink just like your breath!”

“Wha—Everyone’s farts stink!”

“Excuse you! Mine smell fine!” This time, she bared her fangs threateningly. She growled at him for a while, before turning away with a hmph! and walking off, leaving the elder behind. He continued blathering on about something or other as she left, but she ignored him.

However, Fog did have to concede to herself that the elder did have a point.

Fog herself had lost her husband at the hands of humans. Not just him...her family, her friends, her neighbors. She’d lost so many. If the village hadn’t been attacked, many of their children would still be alive. She understood how the elder felt.

And yet, despite that, Fog didn’t see Gaius in the same light as the humans that had attacked them.

It wasn’t just because he saved her, or because he had troll blood.

The elder, everyone in the village...any kobold should understand. Yes, they should understand. They should understand, and yet...

Will I have enough time? It looked like Fog would have to let Gaius escape while keeping everyone, especially the village elder, distracted. Fog thought about all this, and as she clumsily limped along on the still-unfamiliar cane, she considered plans to let Gaius escape that night.

＊

A group of kobolds had gathered in the village square, where a pair of deer carcasses had been laid in the center.

The kobolds, who only knew life at the fringes of the forest, didn’t realize that deer weren’t a native species—they typically lived outside of the Greatwood. Magical beasts and enchanted trees dominated the further you went into the woods, but in this area, so close to the edge, plants and animals would crossbreed with outside species.

“Yo, Fog!”

“Morning, Rain Grass.”

Rain Grass was around the same age as Fog. He had been given his name during his early childhood—whenever he got caught in the rain, he wouldn’t even attempt to dry himself off. His parents had decided that his wet fur looked like rain-drenched grass.

Kobolds often named their children in their infancy after their physical traits, behavior, or personalities. One only had to look at White Fog to see why she had been given her name. As a child, she used to sulk over not having a more imaginative name she liked better, but ironically enough, she ended up giving her own child a traditional name as well.

“What’s the news on that human?”

“He’s been behaving himself ever since yesterday. I got someone else to take over watching him...but forget about that. This is a great haul for so early in the morning. Isn’t this amazing?” she asked Rain Grass, dodging the subject.

“Yep. Fell right into the traps we set yesterday.”

Fog nodded emphatically. “Then no one has to go out hunting today, huh?”

“We’re going to go cut some trees down instead.”

“Ah, right. That needs to be taken care of.” Fog agreed, considering the current state of village housing.

The village’s houses were all makeshift and crude, having been built hurriedly, and there weren’t enough to go around. This meant that, depending on the size of the home, several families had to crowd into one dwelling. This was their first summer in this place, so although they’d managed to get by, winter was not that far off. Building proper homes was their second-most important task, right behind acquiring food.

At present, most of the kobolds’ houses were tent-like structures made from thin trees and branches. The next step would be to cut trees into support pillars, build frames from them, and turn the tents into pit-style dwellings. That would allow them to endure the wind, snow, and cold.

“You don’t have to come, not on that leg. You wouldn’t get very far if some magical beasts showed up.”

“I’d feel bad, though...”

“You’d feel even worse if you pushed your luck too far and died on us. And then we’d all be in a real bind.”

This was certainly a critical time for them. The survivors had to survive long enough to begin cultivating fields, hunting for food, and rebuilding their homes. They also needed to have children, and raise them. After all, the village was still down to one-third of its previous population. Losing any more could mean life or death for the rest of the village.

“We need every last bit of help we can get.”

“Yeah, that’s true.” Fog slowly nodded, a glum expression on her face.

＊

There was a tree native to the Greatwood called the black shina. It was unusual in that its wood was pitch-black all the way through to its core. Naturally, so was its bark. As lumber, it was too brittle to be of much use for building, but its bark was traditionally sought after by kobolds. They made thread from it by finely shaving the bark’s fibers, drying them, then twisting them together. Unlike typical tree bark, they didn’t treat it by boiling or soaking it in water, because the kobolds were after a very special substance contained within the bark. That substance repelled water and lasted a long time, despite being an organic material, so it made for exceptionally durable rope.

Back at her home, Fog twisted some of that material into rope. Her young son and slightly older niece were sound asleep at her side. They were the three residents of this small abode.

Fog reached a certain point in her ropemaking and said, “That’s enough of that for now,” with a big stretch. As she exhaled, she strained her ears for any strange noises, but all was well; all she heard were the sounds of earth being dug up and chatter about the day’s work not too far from her house. It seemed Gaius was quietly waiting for night to fall, which helped Fog to calm down. With one last glance over at the sleeping children, she carefully left home without making a sound.

She made her way toward the area where new houses were being constructed, walking stick in hand. Kobolds young and old alike were working together to build foundations for new homes. With the help of the forest-clearing group, they all worked together like a well-oiled machine. Having already finished digging out the pits, they’d moved onto preparing the soil that they planned to pack onto the roofs.

One of the middle-aged kobolds working there explained to Fog that they didn’t have enough of the dry, straw-like grass they would normally use; at this time of year, the stalks still contained a significant amount of moisture, so they had decided on earthen roofs instead.

“Got enough rope handy? I made some black rope if you need it.”

“It looks like we’re set, but we’ll take some if you got it. Thanks.”

“Just trying to make myself useful, since I can’t do much right now. Maybe I’ll head back home and make some more. I’m sure we’ll need it sooner rather than later.”

“Sounds like a good idea... Oh, looks like they’re back from tree-chopping.” Fog turned to follow his line of sight and saw the group that had ventured out into the woods making their way back to the village, carrying a log on their shoulders. They’d stripped the bark on-site, exposing the white fibers inside. Apparently they’d had to travel further into the forest than usual in order to find a good, straight tree, but fortunately, they’d gone without running into any magical beasts.

“Looks like they found a good one. That’ll make some nice support. Shame we have to use green wood, though,” he said, narrowing his eyes. Ideally, they would let the wood dry before using it, but with winter so close at hand, the most important thing was to have shelter from the cold. They’d have to wait until after the winter before making more permanent homes.

“Right, well, good luck.” Fog handed the rope over to the middle-aged kobold, waved, and left the others to their work.

She went past the makeshift prison on her way home. Gaius was still patiently waiting there, just as she’d ordered him to. The puppy-faced young guard sat nearby, yawning periodically in boredom. Fog walked past without stopping to go inside.

When she returned home, it seemed her son had wet the bed while he and his cousin had been curled up together, asleep. The two of them were now locked in a childish brawl.

Fog sighed and smiled, even as she reached for the water jug to wash them off.

＊

Gaius sat obediently in the cramped hut, as Fog had told him to, when he heard a creaking noise outside, followed by a thud! Then came screams of female kobolds, and shouting from the men.

“Did the supports fall?!”

“Maybe we didn’t drive them in deeply enough?”

“Red Eye’s son is still in there!”

“What?! We have to move these, hurry! Go get some more men!”

Though Gaius could not see the commotion outside, he could easily guess what had just happened.

He looked toward the entryway of his little jail. The young guard looked back and forth, conflicted over whether he should stay to guard the prisoner or go to help his fellows.

“What’s going on?” Gaius asked. The guard looked over at him briefly, but did not respond. He was likely under strict orders not to speak with the prisoner. Gaius tried speaking to him again, but once more received no response. All the guard did was continue panicking, his gaze flicking back and forth between the site of the accident and Gaius.

“Answer me!” The guard let out a gasp and fell backward, as though stunned by the anger in Gaius’s voice.

“A-A house collapsed, and a child is trapped under it.” The moment he heard this, a fire lit up in Gaius’s eyes.

“Why didn’t you say so sooner?!” he roared, and with a flex of his muscles, he tore through the ropes that had bound him. He crawled out of the storehouse—past the guard, who shrank away from his approach, eyes and mouth agape—and sprinted toward the commotion.

The villagers screamed even more at the sight of Gaius, but he ran past them and soon reached the collapsed house. Several kobolds were frantically scooping away at the earth beside it, attempting to get below the collapsed roof. There were few adult men; the women and children who had remained in the village were doing their best, but it was clear they were short-handed and short on strength.

He drove his hands into the wreckage and began to clear away the roof, which was made of bark, piece by piece. He pulled up the pillars, now little more than scraps of building material held together by rope, and flung them to the side. In the very next moment, he saw a small, young kobold who had been trapped beneath the fallen roof.

The child, who had black and white fur, lay motionless on his side. For a moment, Gaius feared he’d been a second too late...but when he checked and saw the child’s chest rising and falling, he sighed with relief.

“I apologize for startling you. If you’ll excuse me.” And with a quick nod, Gaius quickly walked off back in the direction of his prison cell.

...The villagers stared, dumbfounded, as he crawled back into the small storeroom. After a moment, Gaius’s face popped back up in the entryway, causing the kobolds to jump, then freeze. The air was thick with tension.

As they held their breath, Gaius slowly looked around at the crowd, and carefully opened his mouth to speak. With every single kobold’s vision trained on him, the human took a deep breath and said, “I’m, er, terribly sorry, but...I tore the rope you used to bind me. If someone could tie me back up...?” He scratched the back of his head awkwardly.

＊

“...and Fishbone got a real lump on his head, but he woke up right after that.” Fishbone was the name of the child Gaius had rescued from the collapsed house.

“I’m glad to hear it.”

“Sheesh, you’re so reckless... But thanks to you, my son’s best friend is all right. So I’ll let it slide that you didn’t follow instructions.”

“You’re too kind.”

Gaius quickly lowered his head in a curt bow, and Fog burst out laughing. Gaius joined in.

“Did they finish building that house afterward?”

“Yeah, some of the villagers got together and got something standing. We can worry about the details later. For now, we just need roofs over our heads, so we’ve got to build like crazy.”

“Is that so? It sounds like difficult work.”

“You’re one to talk! You’ve got nowhere to stay. Doesn’t that mean you’re going to go look for somewhere to build a new home, too?”

“That’s right.” He laughed again. After their brief chat, Fog collected his dishes and headed for the entrance.

“Oh, yeah, by the way. No one’s touched your wagon, or the stuff inside.”

“I appreciate that.”

She said it, which meant it must be true. Gaius believed that strongly.

“See you later, Gaius. I’ve got to go put the kids to bed, then ‘accidentally’ fall asleep myself.”

“Mm-hmm. Good night, Fog.”

“Night.” Fog gave him a small wave. She stood up carefully so as not to put weight on her injured leg, and took her leave.

＊

“...So.” The next morning, Fog stood in the storeroom, pressing her fingertips to her eyebrows.

“Why aren’t you trying to escape? Am I not making myself clear, Gaius? Or are you messing with me?”

Fog began to growl. Gaius held up his palms and did his best to pacify her.

“Hear me out, Fog. Come on, don’t bare your fangs at me. Wait a minute. Stay. Sit.” Chomp.

“Ow!”

“So are you going to answer me?” Fog asked, releasing her teeth from his fingers.

“I thought it over last night.”

“Thought what over? Didn’t you get any sleep?”

“No, I slept quite well.” That earned Gaius another bite. He gently pried Fog’s teeth off his arm, then set her down in front of him.

“You told me there aren’t enough homes here.”

“Hm? Yeah, but so what?”

“Would you allow me to help out?”

Fog had been scratching her neck, but she froze at the question.

“What’s with you? Are you, a human, feeling sorry for us?”

“No. Well...perhaps. But that’s not all. I’m not very good at explaining myself. I just want to help.”

“So, what, you want to make up for the fact that your fellow humans destroyed our home? We don’t need your pity.” Her gaze had turned into a glare.

Gaius looked her in the eye. “We may be of the same race, but I’m not one of them. I can’t atone for their crimes, nor do I intend to try.”

“So why, then?”

“How should I put this? I...no, hmm...it’s...that is...” Gaius’s eyes were closed and his arms were crossed as he hummed in thought. A moment passed, and then he lifted his head.

“Let us talk about this again when I get better at explaining myself,” he declared to Fog. She took in his words, her head tilted.

“...You’re serious about this.”

“Indeed.”

“Well, I’ve already smelled the kind of person you are. But what are you going to do about everyone else? I don’t think many of us are gonna take you up on your offer if you just go around volunteering to help.”

“I thought as much as well. What do you think of this?” And Gaius laid out his plan to her.

“Hmm... That’s some act. I mean, it does make some sense, but...”

“Isn’t constructing more homes your top priority? As long as there’s a human—an enemy—here, the village will never be able to relax.”

“I guess,” Fog mumbled, her arms crossed.

“So once everyone has calmed down, then I will escape. But not until then.”

“I’m okay with this, but are you sure?”

“What do you mean?”

“Your wagon’s full of stuff that’s really carefully wrapped up—most of it’s weapons, right? I don’t know a lot about life outside the forest, but you’re some kind of warrior, aren’t you?”

“I was something like that, once.”

“And you still don’t care?”

“About what?”

“Come on, I mean...pride, shame, things like that. Won’t those be a problem?”

“Why would they?”

Fog stared at him, ever-so-slight disappointment on her face.

“...Okay, I got it. Let’s go with your plan.” And so, the two began their preparations.

＊

A band of kobolds had gathered to gather some more trees—but at the moment, they were all standing dumbstruck.

“Uh, so. As part of his sentence, I’m putting the human I caught to work.” Fog stood in front of the group, and made her declaration with a sigh. Beside her stood the giant man in question, a collar around his neck. Fog held onto a rope leading to the collar.

“Starting today, I think I’ll make him do all our heavy lifting, sunup to sundown. Go on, say hello to everyone!” she said, her voice flat like a poor actress reading from a script, then tugged hard on the rope. She smacked him across the backside with a stick she held in her other hand.

“Yowie! That hurts! Have mercy, ma’am!”

“No backtalk! Hurry up!” She gave him another smack. The kobolds froze at the sharp crack! that rang out—it sounded like Fog was swinging the stick with a fair bit of force.

“Ow ow ow...” Gaius rubbed his rear, then turned back toward the kobolds and put his fist against his chest, his elbow straight out. It was the royal salute of Igris, although normally he would be holding a sword.

“My name is Gaius Beldarus! I pledge to you my eternal devotion, so I beg of you, spare me from execution!”

For a while, the kobolds could only simply stare, utterly dumbstruck.

＊

“Fog! We’ve stripped all the bark off this one, bring us another!” shouted one of the young kobold men, as he and the others lifted a bare tree trunk now devoid of bark and branches to their shoulders.

“Right! You heard them, get over there,” Fog said from her perch atop Gaius’s shoulder. She tapped her stick against his head to urge him on.

“Ma’am, yes ma’am!” he replied, his voice full of cheer as he hoisted the tree onto his other shoulder. With his strength, carrying a tree small enough to make a kobold house was no trouble at all.

The kobolds were still unused to a human’s presence, and still occasionally raised their voices in both fear and amazement, but by now they no longer trembled at the sight of him.

The sight of Fog steering him around the village, having seemingly tamed the beast, was also gradually causing them to lower their guard. Less because she’d made a human submit to her, but more because the pair of them looked so ridiculous.

Fog immediately wanted off his shoulder as soon as she realized this, but when she thought about how Gaius was deliberately putting himself in the role of prisoner, she felt like there was no choice but to persevere.

When she asked Gaius how he was holding up, she got a high-spirited reply. “I feel like a new recruit again. It’s so refreshing.” What a carefree man.

They’d made several, no, dozens of trips between the woods and the village, carrying items here and helping out there. Gaius was hauling the trees at such a pace the tree-clearing team eventually were unable to keep up.

After all, even though they were a group of men, each of them was still only around half the size of a human. Their tools, like the stone axes most of them wielded, were also somewhat primitive.

“Do you have any axes or anything like that, Gaius?”

“Yes, ma’am! They aren’t for cutting trees, but I do have several!”

At Gaius’s cheery response, Fog looked at him in amazement, and asked, “Really? Ones we can use?”

“They are somewhat heavy.”

“Somewhat, huh...? Heeey, Rain Grass!”

Rain Grass looked up from the tree he was stripping the bark from and called back, “What?”

“I was thinking of letting this guy have an axe and making him cut down some trees. What do you think?”

“Don’t be stupid! Who’d give a weapon to a prisoner?” Rain Grass said, waving a hand in front of his face as if to wave away the idiocy of her suggestion. Nearby kobolds also voiced their disapproval: “Yeah!” “No way!”

“I agree, ma’am!” said Gaius, which earned him a smack on the head. Instead, Fog ordered him to go and carry the bark that had been stripped away back to the village. They could put it to use by making fiber from it, or using it in foundations. Trimmings, too, could be used as kindling. The trunk wasn’t the only important part of the tree.

“Shall we load it into the cart and have Claudette take us back?”

“Now there’s a good idea, Gaius,” Fog said, wonder in her voice.

“Over my dead body! That’s where his weapons are!” Again, another kobold shot down their suggestion.

“Why not just take them out of the wagon, then?”

“They’re way too heavy for us to move!”

“Then make Gaius do it.”

“What are you saying, Fog...?” Their back-and-forth continued a while longer.

“Lizard! A lizard’s comiiiiiing!” a voice cried out from the trees.

The kobolds’ ears instantly pricked up at the sound, and after looking around frantically their eyes all focused in the same direction. Several kobolds came running from that direction, their faces aghast.

“Get out of here! There’s a lizard!”

“A lizard’s coming!”

“Run! Hurry! Hurry!”

The kobolds all broke out in a run, shouting at each other to flee, their tools still in hand.

Gaius, on the other hand, did not budge. He asked Fog, “By ‘lizard,’ do they mean a ‘tree-eating lizard?’”

“Is that what you humans call them? Yeah, sounds like that’s the one.”

As far as magical beasts went, tree-eating lizards lived relatively near the outskirts of the Greatwood. The oversized reptiles could grow to nearly 12 feet long from head to tail, and just as the name implied, they fed on trees, particularly those native to the Greatwood. Vegetarian reptiles were a rarity.

Not only did they feed on live trees, they were able to sustain their massive sizes on this diet alone, defying human understanding of biology. Perhaps they played a role in maintaining the forest’s ecosystem.

Unlike bugbears, tree-eating lizards did not prey on humans or other beasts. However, they were violently territorial by nature; they would attack if anything so much as approached their territory. Fog had once seen one use its powerful teeth and jaws to kill a bugbear, which should have had the upper hand in a fight.

And once or twice, they had attacked the kobolds that ventured into the woods. For the villagers here, tree-eating lizards were one of the more familiar and predictable threats.

However, they didn’t attack to hunt for food, so as long as one was able to make it out of their territory, they would be safe. However...

“Fog, over there,” Gaius said and pointed, back to his normal self. She looked in that direction.

“...He’s not gonna make it!”

One young kobold was still up in the swaying branches of a tree, hanging on for dear life. The tree-eating lizard had stopped at the base of the tree. It slammed into the tree again and again, trying to shake him down. Another minute more and the trunk would surely break from this punishment.

That kobold had most likely realized that he could not outrun the beast, and instead had tried—and failed—to avoid its charge by hiding in a nearby tree.

“Gaius, hurry, go get a weapon!”

“There’s no time. I’m going just like this.”

Fog, still on his shoulder, yelled in surprise as he headed for the beast.

Sensing another presence, the tree-eating lizard’s eyes looked all around. It could not twist its relatively narrow neck far enough, so it had to turn its entire body around to face him. As soon as Gaius could see the reptile’s emotionless face, he sprinted at it without so much as a wind-up.

He charged at the beast at a surprisingly high speed for a man of his size. While he likely would not be able to make quick turns, he was a powerful sprinter.

Gaius dodged out of the way of those powerful jaws, and in the same motion, wrapped his arms tightly around its neck. He crouched, bringing himself down low, then twisted his body sideways and sprang upwards, throwing his weight backwards as he did so. The beast’s head hit the ground with the full force of Gaius’s weight and speed, snapping its neck instantly.

He jerked its neck back and forth, twisting it, again and again, as though trying to tear its head off. Eventually, he dropped the tree-eating lizard’s body.

...The kobolds raced back to the site of the attack, armed with spears. They were greeted by the sight of the lifeless lizard, the stunned young kobold sitting on the ground, and Fog, who was tending to him.

“Ah, welcome back, everyone! I’ll get back to work right now!”

The band of kobolds simply looked on as Gaius walked past, as though nothing had happened.

＊

“Timmmmm-beeerrrr!”

As Gaius yelled, the kobolds cried out too—“Waaah...!”—and ran for cover.

Creeeaak creak creakcreak...thud. The tree crashed to the ground.

With a cry, the kobolds gathered around the fallen tree and set about removing the branches. Once that was done, they moved on to the bark.

Gaius leaned his battleaxe against a nearby tree, ready to lend them a hand, but an older kobold waved and called out to him.

“Oi, Gaius! We’re fine over here. Why don’t you haul some bark back to the village?”

“Once you get that done, let’s have us a nice break,” Rain Grass chimed in, carrying the tree bark to Gaius’s cart.

“Understood,” Gaius replied with a smile.

Three weeks had already passed since the incident with the tree-eating lizard. Since then, Gaius had helped the villagers out of several predicaments, and had continued helping with construction. By now, he had completely dropped his act, hunting and working alongside the kobolds like it was the most natural thing in the world. Only the village elder objected to letting Gaius carry an axe or any other weapons.

To kobolds, who had lifespans shorter than that of humans, three weeks seemed like a much longer stretch. Gaius had turned his situation around in that time, from “captive” to “guest.”

Gaius left the branch-stripping work to the others, and as soon as he returned to the village, he was immediately mobbed by puppies...or rather, kobold children.

Black, brown, red—surprisingly, there were even blue kobolds. According to Fog, one’s fur color and pattern were determined at random, so even the same clan would contain families of many different shades.

“Carry me, carry me!”

“Welcome! Back!”

“Play with us, play with us!”

“Guess what? Guess whaaat?”

Kobolds can’t run very well on two legs when they’re young, so they often run on all fours, making them look exactly like puppies. The first one to reach Gaius was the blue-furred child: a boy, one of the older children. He always made a beeline for Gaius at times like these, sprinting at full speed. It seemed he was extremely fond of the man. As Gaius bent down to pet him, the other children immediately pounced on him, clambering up his back, arms, and into his lap. Gaius couldn’t move anymore, as any motion might cause him to fall over, and the children took advantage of that stillness to climb all the way up to his head.

“Are you all done with work?”

“No, he’d have more tree bark with him if they were done.”

“Do you have presents for us?”

“No, no...”

“I gotta peeeee...”

“Wait now, stay—”

“Lookit, I caught a grasshopper! C’mon, eat it!”

“I don’t eat insects...I said, I don’t eat—”

“I gotta peeeee!”

“Can’t it wait a little longer?”

Tug, tug.

“Come now, don’t pull at my hair. Aah, now see here! Don’t pull on an older man’s hair!”

“I don’t gotta pee anymore.”

“Oh, dear...”

After getting in a good laugh at the spectacle, the adults went to gather the children. But whenever one puffball was pulled off of him, they would immediately climb back on. It was quite a while before Gaius could move again.

＊

“Right, I’ll go wash this for you, then.”

“My apologies,” said Gaius to Fog as he changed his clothes.

“Kids will be kids. No helping it. And I can draw some water from the lake once I’m done.”

She gave her left leg a slap. Running was still difficult, and she hadn’t been out on any hunts, but Fog’s leg was healed enough that it didn’t interfere with her everyday life. A walk to the lake would be no problem.

The lake, an important source of water, lay a short distance outside the forest, to the northeast of the village’s meadow. Because it was such a short trip, there was little risk of being attacked by beasts. On top of that, for whatever reason, beasts rarely came close to the twin mountains or the plains near the village in any event. Gaius once asked the villagers why that was, but they didn’t know the reason for it either, and all he got back were guesses. “The smell, maybe?” And since humans were of no use when it came to detecting scents, Gaius had left it at that.

“Hey misteeer!”

“Uncle!”

After changing into clean clothes, Gaius was sitting on a woven mat when two children sidled up to him. Fog’s son, Fluff, was pure white, still very young, and looked just like his name. The golden-colored girl beside him, only a little older, was Fog’s niece, Amber Blossom.

Now a full-fledged guest of the village, Gaius had moved from the storehouse into Fog’s home, under her supervision. The four of them were now in a pit dwelling that had been built especially so that a gigantic human could fit inside.

“Hnnngh...hup.” Fluff clambered up Gaius’s leg, pushing Blossom off of Gaius’s knee and stealing her seat.

“This spot’s mine!”

“Waaaah! Big Sis’s pickin’ on meeeee!”

“That’s enough now, Blossom.”

“Hmph...”

“Yaaay, Big Sis is in trouble! You’re stupid and dumb and stupid.”

Fluff’s fake sobbing quickly stopped.

“Fluuu-uuuff!” Blossom pounced on her cousin, annoyed by his teasing. Gaius pulled the two apart and sat them down separately on his left and right knees, holding them in place. This had become a common scene at Fog’s house.

“Don’t be silly, now. We’re having lunch soon,” Fog called out as she walked in, setting down skewers of meat in the sunken fireplace.

“Ah, I have something to tell you, Fog,” Gaius said, holding the two growling cousins in place.

“I’m thinking of going into town within the next few days, and I would like to discuss the trip with the villagers.”

“Town? A human one?”

“Indeed. Everyone here uses tools of stone and wood, right?”

“Well, what else are we supposed to use...? Oh, you mean metal, like your strange weapon. We don’t know how to make stuff like that.”

“Neither do I. I plan to commission some tools that you can use. Seeds and seedlings for planting, as well.”

“Red Eye said something about that while he was working on the fields, didn’t he?”

“Indeed.”

“Our potatoes and vegetables just won’t grow here—not at all like in our last village. Maybe some different crops would work better...yeah...” Fog rubbed her chin as she thought aloud.

“That’s fine and all, but it’s not like you can just get tools for free.”

“I have items I can trade them for. It will most likely be enough.” Gaius still had plenty of the money he’d left the capital with. The kobolds were a bartering society, and explaining it that way got the point across better than trying to explain the concept of money.

“And we still have some of the bugbear liver that the villagers dried, correct? That’s a prized medicinal ingredient among humans. If I can take that with me, I should be able to exchange it for the supplies we need.”

All of the magical beasts living in the outskirts of the Greatwood were abnormally resistant to poison, venom, and illness. Bugbears were especially hardy as their organs were able to efficiently break down most toxins. Their livers held powerful medicinal properties, and were in high demand for their use in medicines and restorative tonics.

“Got it. I’ll explain it to the others, then. But you know, you’re going to an awful lot of trouble...do you really plan to live here?” Fog’s voice was a bit exasperated—and somehow pleased.

“Uncle’s gonna stay here forever? Yay!” Fluff had been listening closely, and cheered at the news.

“Be my dad, Uncle! You can do that now, right? Right?!”

“D-D-D-Don’t be stupid! Y-Y-You snot-nosed little brat!”

“Yeah! I’m gonna marry him, too! You dumb bed-wetter!”

“What?! You still wet the bed, too!”

“H-Hey!” The two broke free from Gaius’s grip and began another wrestling match.

“This is so stupid,” Fog muttered under her breath, her hand pressed against her forehead. Gaius laughed as he pulled the two fighting children away from each other once again.