Childhood Friends – Something Interesting
Leo built a simple house outside the village.
This forest belonged to the Uena tribe, and they had established several small villages for mushroom cultivation.
Successful mushroom cultivation depended on good wood and humidity control.
They roamed the vast forest, searching for suitable trees, which they would fell during the winter. Trees that were full of sap in the summer were avoided, as the moisture made the mushrooms susceptible to diseases.
Mushrooms were a particularly demanding crop in the summer. They needed a cool, dry place, shielded from direct sunlight, while ensuring the wood didn't dry out.
Since places that met these optimal conditions were scarce, the Uena tribe built villages in various cool and dry locations and traveled between them.
Leo borrowed tools from the villagers.
The outsider, with the strange symbol floating above his head, aroused suspicion among the tribespeople, but they didn't drive him away.
As a tribe that engaged in agriculture, they were peaceful, unlike the more aggressive hunting tribes like the Einar.
He borrowed discarded logs, stripped the bark, and chopped them into small pieces. The tribespeople watched in amazement as Leo effortlessly twisted the bark into ropes. They knew how to make rope, but his dexterity was extraordinary.
A boy approached Leo, curiosity brimming in his eyes.
“Why are you making ropes?”
“To hunt.”
“Don't you hunt with a bow?”
“I'll use the ropes to set traps.”
“Traps? How do you make those?”
“Usually, you tie a knot like this... Sorry, but I'm busy right now, could you move aside for a bit?”
The boy continued to pester Leo. He followed him around even while he was building his house, bombarding him with questions.
“Why is there a hole here?”
“...I'm going to connect it to the fireplace. I probably won't be here until winter, but just in case.”
“Where are you going after this?”
“......”
He was pestered by the boy all day long.
The next morning,
Leo woke up in his barely-roofed house.
The mark remained, floating above his head in the same shape as before. It seemed like it would be a while before it disappeared.
He planned to go hunting today.
He still had no weapons. No matter how peaceful the tribe was, they wouldn't readily hand over weapons to an outsider.
However, he had plenty of rope, which he could use to set traps.
He just had to set traps in various locations, carve a spear out of wood, and finish off any prey that got caught.
Once he earned enough money from hunting, he could buy weapons.
Having organized his plans for the day, Leo stepped out to wash up, but stopped abruptly, sensing a presence.
The boy who had been following him yesterday, Euta, stood before him.
‘Does this kid have something on me? He's incredibly bothersome.’
The boy was only guilty of watching and asking questions, but for someone as efficient as Leo, it was a major inconvenience.
Just having his workflow disrupted made tasks that could have been completed quickly take several times longer.
Unaware of Leo’s inner turmoil, the boy greeted him cheerfully.
“Hey, mister!”
“...Hey.”
Leo returned the greeting halfheartedly. The boy had brought a companion.
“Hello.”
“......”
A girl, who seemed about a year younger than the boy, stood beside him. They seemed to be siblings, their shy eyes holding a similar sparkle.
‘Looks like I’ve got a pair of them today.’
Leo tried to ignore them as he washed himself in the stream, but the girl's presence made it difficult to even do that.
What was he supposed to say?
He had just arrived in the village two days ago and had been cautiously accepting scraps of food from the wary villagers. He was an outsider clinging to their community.
‘Do I have to watch out for these kids too…’
They weren't that far apart in age.
He had come of age this year, and the children were only a few years younger.
However, it wasn't like they were close enough to be friends. Despite the small age gap, these kids were still too young to have initiated anything significant on their own. They probably only knew how to follow instructions from adults.
Thinking back, Lena was amazing.
From a young age, she would run around gathering food, determined to help their family's dire financial situation. Leo often joined her, but his primary task was to learn hunting from his father.
While working, Lena nurtured her own dreams.
He reminisced about Lena as he gathered his ropes and headed into the forest.
“How far are you two planning on following me?”
The children were boldly trailing behind him.
“Can’t we watch you hunt, mister?”
“Sorry, but no. If there are too many people around when setting traps, it leaves traces and scares away the animals.”
“I want to learn how to hunt…”
The dejected boy was scolded by his sister.
“Come on, let’s go. What kind of hunting can he even do? Let’s go back before Grandma gets mad.”
“Yeah, go on back. Little kids only get in the way.”
“I’m not a little kid! I’m Euta!”
“Yeah, nice to meet you, Euta. Now go.”
The boy stormed off, slightly offended, and the girl quickly followed.
For some reason, the image of the street beggar siblings, Lena and Leo, came to mind, making him feel a little guilty.
However, having a complete novice tag along and potentially ruin his traps was out of the question. Maybe later, but not now.
Leo made sure the siblings were gone before continuing on his way.
* * *
The next day.
He had set traps in various spots yesterday. He was still unfamiliar with the area, so the chances of catching anything were low. But he hadn't eaten anything since yesterday, and his stomach was growling unbearably.
‘Should I ask for another meal? I don’t want to…’
He had already received several meals from the villagers, promising to repay them with his hunting spoils.
Asking for more would be pushing his luck.
‘The traps probably haven’t caught anything yet anyway. Should I just gather something to eat? But I need to make a spear too. And build a house.’
Grumbling to himself, he emerged from his makeshift shelter.
“Mister, here…”
Euta, the boy he had shooed away yesterday, was back. He shyly held out something to Leo.
It was a rice ball mixed with finely chopped mushrooms and Tort tree nuts.
Leo accepted it without hesitation. There was no need to refuse a kind gesture, and he knew what the boy wanted in return.
As if he had come prepared, Euta, after Leo finished the rice ball, took out a small pouch of water.
Leo, feeling a mix of gratitude and slight annoyance at being won over by a single meal, spoke.
“You want me to teach you how to hunt, right?”
“Yes!”
“But what are you going to do after learning to hunt? Your tribe cultivates mushrooms. Isn’t that skill more valuable?”
“Growing mushrooms is boring. All we do is look at trees all day… Hunting seems more fun. I even know how to shoot a bow.”
“Is that so?”
It seemed the boy thought hunting was just about running around with a bow and arrow. Lena Einar had a similar misconception.
Of course, there were times when that was the case, but more often than not, it wasn't. Unless you were a legendary archer, hitting a moving animal in the forest was no easy feat.
To hunt with a bow, you had to get close without being detected and take the shot quickly. If you failed to bring down the prey with one shot, it would flee, and you'd spend half the day tracking it.
While there was a thrill in the moment of releasing the arrow, the rest of the time was spent wandering through the mountains, not much different from “looking at trees all day,” which Euta found so unappealing.
Determined to set this misguided lamb straight, Leo decided to give him his money's worth.
He used a nearby tree stump to demonstrate a simple trap.
“Look, this is called a ‘Sky Nose’ trap. When an animal passes by and touches this part… like this, it gets caught in the snare and hangs in the air.”
“Wow! That’s amazing. How does it spring up like that?”
“It utilizes the wood’s elasticity. If you bend and tie a branch like this… and make a small cut at the bottom… it becomes more flexible. It maintains its elasticity that way.”
Euta fiddled with the trap in fascination.
“I need to go hunting now. Try making one just like this. I’ll leave the rope here.”
“Okay! I’ll make one right here beside it!”
Leo grinned, watching the boy.
‘It won’t be as easy as you think.’
It would take him days just to make one of these.
If he kept fiddling with it instead of crafting the trap in one go, the wood would lose its tension and become useless. Mastering the technique required a lot of practice.
Leo left his eager apprentice to his task and resumed his hunt.
As expected, it took Euta several days to create a functional trap. His younger sister would often visit, watching her brother struggle with his clumsy attempts and teasing him mercilessly.
Thanks to them, Leo was never bored. Euta's grandmother, however, visited a few times, each time with a frown etched on her face, seemingly intent on dragging her grandson back home. She shot Leo disapproving looks, accusing him of teaching her grandchildren dangerous things.
Despite her disapproval, she didn't forbid her grandson from learning. Instead, she even brought food as a gesture of gratitude for looking after them.
Summer was passing by peacefully.