Ch39: Some More Wandering About

The sun is beginning to set on the first day of Krvavy’s little adventure. Literally. It will have fallen completely below the horizon in around an hour or so, if she had to guess. Kind of hard to know for certain without a proper way to tell the time...

Krvavy kept a pretty decent pace for most of the day, only really slowing down when she had to deal with those annoying thoughts. Or when she wanted to have a snack. It isn’t easy to eat when jogging through the woods. Even less so when her food is this crumbly.

But still... it is getting a little dark. So she should probably find a place to set up camp... Then again, it isn’t like shehasto. Krvavy doesn’t have anything that needs to be cooked over a fire, and it won’t get cold enough at night to really bother her. Or at least not cold enough for her to need a fire. Beryl made her bring one of the blankets with her, so if she really needs to keep warm... well, that’ll do the job well enough without any of the effort.

So no point stopping as soon as the sun sets.

Besides, as long as there aren’ttoo manyclouds in the sky then the moonlight should be more than bright enough for her to see by. Krvavy has no idea if that is just because her eyesight seems to be pretty good – she can see pretty well in all but the darkest parts of her cave – or if that is just a normal thing. She doesn’t exactly have much experience being outside in the real world to compare it to.

Krvavy’s thoughts trail off as she simply enjoys the freedom and peace of being so surrounded by nature.

Despite it only getting later and later, the soft sunlight filtering in through the canopy above seems to grow a little brighter with each step she takes. And the reason for that is quickly made apparent.

The sound of flowing water reaches Krvavy’s ears before the treeline thins out enough for her to see where exactly it is coming from. It only takes another minute or so of walking before she finds its source. A gently flowing river cuts through the forest. A rather big one at that.

The barbarian kneels down at the rivers edge, hardly paying attention to the orange sky reflected in its remarkably crystalline surface. She takes one of the waterskins off of her hip, downing the last few mouthfuls of the leathery tasting liquid within before going to refill them both.

While rather convenient, as shewasrunning low on water, this river is also a little bit of an obstacle.

How is Krvavy going to cross it?

There aren’t any conveniently felled trees reaching from one bank to the other, and frankly it is too wide for that anyway. Which means that there is only one option left to her. The obvious one.

Krvavy will have to swim.

“Tsk.” The barbarian clicks her tongue and looks across the calm, slowly moving water. Shedoesknow how to swim, even if she has never done so in this body. Or in real life. But... that isn’t the problem. It isn’t justherthat needs to cross this river. She has a rather large two-handed weapon to bring across. And a few days worth of food that will almost certainly be utterly ruined if it gets soaked.

Not to mention that this will leave her feeling pretty cold too. Right as the sun is setting and the warmth is fading, too...

Guess she’ll have to make that campfire after all.

A faintly pinkish colour tinges Krvavy’s cheeks as she takes off her loincloth, leaving her utterly naked out here in the middle of the woods. Alone and without an audience. Without wasting much time, she secures both the blanket and her one piece of clothing onto the head of her axe, really making sure that neither will accidentally fall off.

Taking a deep breath, she steps into the river.

The water is cold enough to immediately make her regret doing this now, but she isn’t going to just give up. Each step brings her deeper and deeper, with the chilly water slowly rising up her scaled legs. She winces as her hefty sack and meaty rod get submerged, though it isn’ttoo badonce she gets used to it...

Before she even knows it, Krvavy has made it halfway across the river. Without even having to swim. The wateronlyreaches up to just below her armpits, deep enough that Thea would be completely submerged. She spares a glance at her raised axe and... decides to just keep walking the rest of this river’s width.

The chilly water drips and flows down her body as she slowly rises out of it step by step. A shiver runs through her as she makes it out onto the other bank, kicking her legs a little to try to shake off as many droplets as she can. Which works surprisingly well. Guess her complete lack of body hair means that the water doesn’t have much to cling onto...

And Krvavy isn’t feeling too cold either, so... she doesn’t need to set up camp right away. Honestly, there is a good chance that she’d be dry by the time she even got the fire going. So she’ll keep on walking instead. Just a bit further.

The sun is still in the sky, after all.

A blanket of twinkling stars hangs above the barbarian’s head. The gentle sound of a small fire crackling away fills the air, accompanied by some chirping and buzzing insects. She leans back a little, resting against a rather large stone jutting out of the ground.

Krvavy stumbled upon this idyllic clearing shortly after the sun set. And it just looked too perfect to pass up, so she decided to spend the night here. That there are a few berry bushes nearby also helped her make that decision, as she actually recognized them as one of the many foraging opportunities that Beryl described to her. Honeyberry is a real apt name for these little golden things, as they just straight up taste like honey.

Just as Krvavy expected, she dried off pretty quick. So shereallydidn’t need to make a campfire. Especially since it is a pretty warm night without much of a breeze. But she still made one anyone, thinking it would add to the mood. And she was right.

There is just something about sitting out here beneath the night sky... the soft scent of woodsmoke lingering around... a nice, solid rock to lean back against... staring up at the colourful stars... and the two moons.

“Huh...” Krvavy slowly breathes out, blinking in disbelief.

She isn’t seeing things. There aretwomoons up there. Both of them are pretty big, but one is much larger than the other. And... Krvavy is pretty sure that she has never seen that bigger one before. How...? Hopefully it was on the other side of the planet, or something, because otherwise... well, she isn’t sure how she is only just noticing it now...

Though, to be fair, she hasn’t had that many chances to look at the sky at night. This is, what, thethirdtime she has even seen the stars here? That is probably the biggest downside to living in a cave.

Still, that just makes this sight even more beautiful. So she isn’t going to complain.

The sun is high in the sky once more as Krvavy wanders west, the gentle wind blowing at her back. The forest has thinned out considerably, so she must be reaching the edge of it already. That isn’t much of a surprise though, as she knew that the woods didn’t extend as far west as it does to the south. She saw as much when she climbed to the top of her little mountain.

The ground out here has gotten rather hilly again, though not nearly as much as the rocky area she has made her home. It just means that Krvavy is having to climb up and down grassy hills interspersed with patches of trees and lots of shrubberies. That really slows her down and makes it a lot more tiring than it would otherwise be.

It is around midday now, probably just a bit before noon, so maybe she should start heading back? After all, Krvavy is really looking forward to coming home so that she canravishBeryl like she promised, and the sooner she turns back the sooner that’ll happen.

That said, she isn’t feelingtoopent up right now. Krvavy was right when she said that it’d be easier without thetemptationsall around her. She could still use some relief though, but that is more due to the fact that she pointedly ignored her morning wood. Just jerking off out here in the woods feels a little too weird. Maybe if she got desperate, but why bother masturbating when she has some good fuckholes just waiting for her back home?

She shakes her head clear of all that, hoping to keep herself from getting worked up. Krvavy makes it to the top of yet another grassy hill and pauses. She might as well take a break and have some lunch before heading home.

Turning around so that the gentle wind blows across her chest, Krvavy leans back against a tree and reaches into her pocket. She is starting to run a bit low on jerky, but that isn’t a problem as she still has plenty of the travel food that Beryl made her bring along.

It really is weird how good those taste, considering that it isn’t exactly fresh and has been sitting inside a leathery pouch for a while. She can’t really describewhyit tastes so good either, as the meat is satisfyingly meaty, the berries are nice and sweet, and the nuts are nutty. Though it could do without the mushrooms. They are a bit rubbery and kind of annoying to chew, but they do taste alright, if a bit tangy.

Some loud neighing and stomping snaps Krvavy out of her thoughts, pulling her attention away from her lunch. “Hey! Settle down!” A worn voice calls out from just over the hill.

With her curiosity piqued, Krvavy carefully creeps around the trees and hides behind a large bush.

Just down the hill from where she is hiding is a beaten dirt road. One with a single wagon drawn by two horses heading down it. Or at least the wagonwasheading down the road, as the two horses seem to be panicking, rearing back and kicking into the air.

Is this Krvavy’s fault? Beryl did say that she has a bit of adragonysmell to her that’ll keep most animals away, and the windisblowing from her down to these horses. She doesn’t really know how to feel about apparently smelling enough to scare some horses that aren’t all that close to her...

But... This does provide a pretty nice opportunity. The wagon has quite a bit of stuff but only a single person on it. An old human man, with a spear and shoddy looking crossbow resting by him. Compared to the previous encounters that this game has dangled in front of Krvavy, this one looks really quite easy.

So... does she want to have a little bit of action before heading on home. Does she want to do some raiding? A bit of banditry? Classic highway robbery? Though is it stillrobberyif she kills the guy...?