Somehow I got the impression Midnight had eaten recently. So we went straight to walking after a little scritchtival. It feels completely natural for her to just walk with me to where we’re going. But from anything I would have logically expected, it should seem really freakin’ bizarre. After all, even if we overlook that we met with her pouncing on me and trying to eat me – and even if I totally can’t help but question how it could be anything but irrational for me to feel like overlooking that – we only just met like two days ago. And I haven’t really done anything for her, unless you count being a chew toy for a bit or cooking a bird she could have eaten raw. OK, I did fix her up after that goblin’s arrow. So not nothing. But still. I just kind of asked her to be friends and “bam!” … friends. No spell. No hours of training. How does that even work?

We walked through the forest near the road a bit, till it would have taken us away from the road because there was a farm in between. I’ve only ever seen farms before from riding in a car and looking out over some huge sea of corn stalks or whatever mysterious kinds of vegetables. I wish farmers put signs up on their fields so we cityfolk could know what the heck they’re growing there when we drive past.

I’d unconsciously stopped and stared at a particular plant in a field. Didn’t notice I was staring till an indicator popped up over the plant with a label “wabbiocado”. Apparently, the label will come up with the Selkiri name when there is no English equivalent. Somehow, I don’t feel particularly more informed than when I didn’t have a name for it. Maybe because I’ve got no idea what’s edible on a wabbiocado, what it tastes like, or really anything but a name for a plant. On the other hand, apparently I can figure out the name for something by staring at it for long enough. That’s neat.

Moving from crop to crop, there were a bunch of names in Selkiri, two of which I recognized from the game. And then there was “green beans”. So those are here too, huh?

We moved off from the farm when a farmer walked out the door of a shed, screamed, bolted back inside and shut the door.

I said, “It probably wasn’t you, Midnight. They probably thought I was scary.”

Pretty sure Midnight didn’t believe a word of it though. Not that she looked bothered. Maybe a little pleased with herself. Who can blame her? She’s awesome. But I didn’t really want us to scare random farmers. So I guess we’ll have to be a bit more careful about sightseeing the veggies around farms so we don’t give some Farmer Joe a heart attack.

A bit later we saw a patrol of guards coming down the road the other way. We pulled off the road to give them plenty of room to pass. As they got close enough for me to be sure Midnight was drawing some stares, one of them who looked like he might be the patrol commander hailed me.

Guard: “Ahoy! Everything OK traveler?”

Maeve: “All is well. Just on my way to Ilki’s temple with my pet.”

He looked kind of at a loss for words for a bit, but then recovered.

Guard: “Oh, uh, OK. Fare thee well. Beware ogres in the woods.”

And with that he looked over his patrol and roused them to move on. One of the guards had been pointing at Midnight and whispering to the one next to him but promptly stopped under the commander’s gaze.

Yeah, stalkers definitely cause a commotion. Apparently even among guards out patrolling the road. Trying to bring Midnight into a town might cause a mass panic. Oh well. It’s all good as long as I can find some place for her to be, right?

Though maybe the idea of a person other than local farmers traveling alone on this road might seem odd too. Maybe they figure I’m some great warrior. Or a nut. Also possible.

The mountain range that’s home to the Ahurn Dwarves lies east of Enatus. A river runs out of those mountains and flows west past Enatus on the southern side of the village. That’s why we took the road to the west to go south. There’s a log bridge several miles west of Enatus. Heh. Log, eh?

I sing to Midnight, “It’s big. It’s heavy. It’s wood.” 

OK, the river’s maybe 10 feet across so it’s not that big and I doubt it’s all that heavy for a bridge that could probably fit a carriage. But log. So … yeah. Yet another cartoon reference that nobody from here would get. At least Midnight doesn’t seem to be judging me for dorking it up.

We made our way miles into the forest before running into anything all that noteworthy. Just walking through the woods is a bit of a novelty for me. But we did that for a while a couple days ago so it’s no longer my first time in a long time. I could hear birds and maybe squirrels or something along the way but it seems they were doing a pretty good job of avoiding us. Getting the hang of moving less loudly, let alone silently, through a forest isn’t as easy as they make it look in the movies or games. 

Finding berries is easier though. Not just every clearing has them, but I’ve found several. And one of the bushes was even one I recognized, so I didn’t have to skip eating it for worrying over whether it was poisonous. I also picked a bunch of the others and put them in Inventory in case I figure out a way to use them later. Because why not?

But then a bit after stowing the latest berries, we stepped around a rather large tree and found an enormous beetle gnawing on a tall tree that looked about to fall over next to a bunch of others that already had. The beetle was about half as tall as me and maybe longer than Midnight.

I whispered, “Hold up.” to Midnight and she crouched looking about ready to spring but stayed still. Then I equipped my bow and arrows again and took aim.

*Thunk!* The arrow bounced right off the broadside of the beetle.

It started turning, but not all that fast. So even though I’m not the fastest gun in the west – or bow in the forest as it were – its plodding pace still gave me just enough time to be ready to try again by the time it was mostly facing us.

*Schick!* This time it looks like I managed to hit it at the joint where the head attaches. Can we call that a neck on a beetle? Anyway, the arrow sank in pretty deep and the bug lurched. It wasn’t dead, but it seemed to be having a heck of a time figuring itself out.

*Thunk!* Another one bounced off. From the head this time.

*Thunk!* Same.

*Schick!* Hit the eye. The beetle stopped moving aside from its legs which kept twitching.

As I lowered my bow, Midnight came up and sniffed around the beetle. And then the mess began. It started with pulling out my arrows which as you might imagine needed some cleaning. Then while I was clearing the arrows, Midnight pulled off the head and started gnawing out the inside … uh … bug meat, I guess?

Long story short, it was hard to pull it all apart and I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to dealing with insides like that. But with the parts that I could convince myself were meat, they grilled up OK. Tasted a tiny bit like crab. But with a nutty flavor. And aside from the really hard shell and such, Midnight took care of most of the rest that I didn’t grill. I’m not sure how well things keep in Inventory, but I stuffed in all the fresh grilled meat that I couldn’t eat. I wrapped it in leaves so that hopefully I’ll be able to pull it out like that instead of just getting a handful of bug meat. So I guess I’ll find out whether it stays fresh when I pull it back out.

Then. Well, I don’t know if it’s a novelty here. Or useful. But what Earthling wouldn’t think a cleaned out giant beetle shell is kind of cool? Imagine if I could deliver this thing to a museum or something. So I tried stuffing it into Inventory. And in it went. Though it was heavy. So putting it in was hard because I had to get the huge thing moving a bit. I wonder how much I can carry around in Inventory like this. Is there a limit other than whether I can move things?

The end of the day waits for no forest-wandering alien though. By the time I finished my cleanup, it was getting dark. And Midnight was already asleep.

This time when Midnight stood up from our rest, I woke up too. It was still dark, but Midnight seemed to be on high alert, peering out through the trees. 

*Crack!* The sound of wood breaking, maybe a fallen stick?

As I squinted out into the darkness, I caught sight between the branches of something moving in the moonlight. Focusing on it, an indicator popped up: “ogre”.

Yikes! Probably level 4. Midnight is likely a 3. I’m at 2. If we’re going to face an ogre, I’d rather have more experience or more party members first. Preferably both. But it appears to have spotted us and is headed this way.

It brushes through the nearest branches just as I’m nocking an arrow. These things are all sorts of big and ugly. Around 8 foot tall, pale skin that reminds me of a naked mole rat, and built like two big football players smushed into one. Instead of a football, it carried a huge club. The face lacks symmetry. One eye is at least half an inch higher than the other. The forehead slants in the other direction. The hair is a scraggly green the color of mold on bread. The nose is smushed in like a pug except I don’t think even people who like pugs would find this cute. And the mouth … it’s oversized and the teeth are way too big for the size of the head even with how big it is. My thoughts are split between aiming and dressing it with my eyes, because it’s only wearing a loin cloth and that ain’t nearly enough.

*Thwip* My arrow hits it in the right pec and sticks.

Sadly, that didn’t seem to slow it down at all. Its Health indicator bar … I don’t know, maybe it dropped a bit.

That was all I had time to think before it took it’s club and batted me to my right like I was a straw dummy. That sent me flying about 10 feet or so until a tree stopped me, which hurt almost as much as the club. 

Health 9,980 / 10,010. Thank gods I have a lot of Health.

But ow! You can probably imagine the hearty swearing I was doing while peeling myself off the tree roots and trying to stand back up.

Midnight was on its back. It was wobbling around trying to keep its feet – because apparently a stalker is a bit of a burden even for an ogre’s back – while also trying to hit Midnight with its club.

I have no idea what I was thinking, except maybe “help Midnight”, but apparently I was approaching it because when it lurched backwards into a tree and Midnight let out a yowl, I was right in front of it.

{[flame]} … still standing

{[flame]} … still standing

{[flame]}

The ogre dropped over sort of sideways and Midnight rolled away.

{[flame]}

Hmm. Maybe that last one was overkill. I think its indicator Health bar was already empty when it dropped.

A pair of text messages showed up in the lower left of my field of view, “Level earned.” and “Pet Midnight earned level.”

If I weren’t in pain and exhausted, that’d probably be really exciting. Not only is Midnight seriously hurt, she looks exhausted too. So I healed us up and searched for anything worth looting from the ogre. Found some coins in a pouch with … probably human ears. Took the coins. Buried the ears. Then we stumbled off through the woods for a bit to put some distance between us and the ogre’s remains before sleeping.

This time I managed to read it when I woke up:

“Level increased.”

“Pet Midnight increased level.”

“Pet Midnight increased level.”

Midnight’s displayed twice. Two levels? Or some kind of glitch?

I stared hard at Midnight to see if I could tell. At first, I just got a basic indicator with a Health bar and “Midnight (Meave’s pet)”. But after like half a minute or so it expanded to show

Level 5

Health 60/60

Mana 10/10

Wait, what? Midnight has Mana. Could she use spells somehow?

I pulled some of the beetle meat back out of Inventory. Not only did it still seem fresh, but it was even warm like I’d just put it in there after cooking it. Whole new meaning to hot pockets. Does time not pass in the Inventory? Or … maybe … I kind of remember something from science class about heat transfer … maybe it doesn’t have anything for the heat to leak out into? Vacuum chamber pockets?

Regardless, we chowed down on beetle leftovers for breakfast while I cooked up some carrot-ish roots. Midnight had a little bit of veggie too, before turning up her nose at it and rooting around my clothes till I got the idea she wanted more meat.

This time, my leveling options had arrows next to every attribute. I picked Strength, Agility, and Sensory. Skills still didn’t have any option for using the Interface to increase them, but Archery went up to 2. Can’t really complain about that.

The next two days went by relatively smoothly. It was mostly forest, occasionally broken here or there by a clearing, a stream, or even a small meadow. We alternated between just walking and hunting for birds, small mammals, berries, mushrooms, and the herbs that I recognize from the game. I’m just saving up the mushrooms because for all I know they might all be poisonous.

It’s still subtle, but by the morning after leveling I think I could feel the difference from my latest attribute picks. Vaguely. Maybe.

Then we came upon some goblins. Five of them. And this time we saw them first. I had Midnight circle around to the other side of them. Then I tried out my Grasping Vines spell for the first time. Vines sprang from the ground and tangled up 3 of the goblins. Before they saw me, I hit one of the others with an arrow. Right after they turned to face me, Midnight pounced on another from behind. My second arrow took down the one I’d hit before. And the rest was over pretty quick after that because the 3 tangled ones were easy prey. Speaking of prey, while Midnight showed no interest in chowing down on ogre, she seems to have a taste for goblin … so I had to wait for her to snack for a while. That gave plenty of time to loot the others and I found a few copper coins and a reasonably decent hatchet that might make the campfires easier. In a game, looting is second nature; players think nothing of it. Actually being here, it feels a little weird. On the other hand, the local religions say these monsters are wholly evil. And I need the coins if I’m going to stock up on things in towns or stay in inns. So here I am going with it.

Then we got back on the southward walk again for another day or so.