A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor

Chapter 64  The Colour Red - Part 5

It was an impossible ask. Whilst she was right that the pine wood would burn a good bit faster due to the resin in it being so flammable, these were pine forests. There were next to no other trees besides them.

"That's not happening," Beam told her. "I'll just get more wood to compensate."

"Oh?" Nila said, putting a hand to her cheek, imitating a maidenly gesture that suited her far too well. Now that her hair was combed and behind her head, she looked even prettier than she had this morning. But it did nothing to cure her personality. "Well, since you clearly can't do your job properly, why don't you go running over there and pretend to cut wood? Your stench is scaring all the animals away."

She fired back the same dig that he'd gotten in earlier, and Beam let out another sigh as he shook his head. He'd resolved not to bicker with her too strongly. If it was in her nature to be so prickly, then let her be, or so he thought.

But… He couldn't hold himself back entirely.

"You know that's just one rabbit, right? Are you so new to hunting that you'd be happy over just one rabbit?" He said. In truth, Beam knew basically nothing about hunting. His foray into Goblin slaying was his first stab at it. But he did know that when hunters went into the woods, they'd come back with several pieces of small game. That, or they'd work together to take down something larger, like a deer.

She swished her hair in annoyance. "I normally would, but I'm being conservative, seeing as I'll have to help you carry your wood back."

"Oh, don't hold back on my account," Beam said with a smile. "I have my sled. You won't need to help with the wood at all. In fact, why don't you go ahead and hunt more, while you've got the chance? Anything you can't carry you can just put on top of the sled and I'll take it back for you."

"Grr," she screwed her eyes together in annoyance, getting that he was obviously poking holes at his belief in her skill. What kind of village girl - and a girl her age at that – could really be a competent hunter? Even boys her age would still be lacking somewhat, given that they didn't yet have the arm strength to draw the more powerful hunting bows. "Well, fine, I suppose… You're stupid, after all. Just because I'm a girl, you think I can't hunt. Hah… And I thought the world was getting more modern."

"Yeah, yeah," Beam said, wandering deeper into the woods, looking for any dead-standing wood that he could cut down. He couldn't just chop down whatever tree he pleased, because the majority of them were alive and the wood wouldn't burn very well, not until it was left to dry for a couple of seasons.

He marched about, carefully observing the branches. Nila watched him a few seconds before running off.

He turned to watch her go, a little surprised by how well she moved through the trees. She had more athleticism to her than her appearance suggested, especially with her hair tied back. It was her wild morning hair that more suited her personality, with its bright orange making it look like a lion's mane.

By observing the branches of the trees and which ones still had nice green needles even at the top, Beam was able to locate a nice dead-standing tree about the width of his palm. He tended to go for trees about that thickness, else the wood would be too hard to cut down and process.

He swung with his axe once, chipping off a solid piece of wood. Then he swung again, aiming a few fingers slightly higher up than before, aiming to create a wedge, so he could more easily weaken it without his axe getting stuck.

Now that he'd been cutting down trees for a short while, Beam was growing rather good at it. That, and as a result of his training with Dominus, he had more strength and more endurance than he'd ever had before. He wielded the axe easily, working away at a steady pace until the wedge was deep enough that the tree began to creak.

Beam stopped his chopping then and grabbed the trunk to pull it down, taking care that he wouldn't be underneath it as it fell. It dropped with a clatter, sending up a cloud of pine needles and splashing the water of a stream a little ways away.

"Mm," Beam murmured to himself. He'd have to cut it down into smaller bits so that it would fit in his cart, but otherwise, it was exactly what he was after. Another few trees like that and the cart would be full and his work done for the day.

A bird took flight in a panic after the result of the commotion it caused. A grouse, it seemed. Beam spared it a glance as it took to the sky, just in time to see an arrow puncture its side and send it clattering back down to the floor again.

Nila walked past him, even more smugly than last time. She barely spared him a glance, but from the smile on her face, Beam could tell that she expected a compliment. n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

He sighed, but said it anyway. "Nice shot."

Nila shrugged. "I guess I was lucky, huh?"

"Mm, now I'm not so sure," Beam said back, but his tone was full of disinterest. He had his work to do. He dragged his log towards where three young trees together formed a clamp for it.

Sliding one end inside of the clamp, ensuring a pretty tight grip – as tight as you could get from a natural formation of trees – he then walked to the other end of the log and pushed it forwards.

It took hardly any effort from him before the tree snapped at the pivot. It was a little trick he'd learned through doing it the past few days. If one was lucky enough to be in a part of the forest where there were trees close enough together for him to do a bit of leverage-helped snapping, then the job was much easier and quicker.