Frozen Summer

Chapter 4

Two weeks after her encounter with the lycanthrope, Isabella was cleaning her home and thinking that the place turned all right. " to think all this was only an old tree before ". Most people have this weird feeling when they first step into her home, this feeling that her house is alive, as if the wood was still a tree and not just planks. They aren't completely wrong.

4 years ago when Isabella first wandered into this forest she found this incredibly sturdy but old tree, she decided this place was where she wanted to live, the soil was rich to make any type of herb sprout, the river wasn't that far, it was far enough from the village, it was the perfect location. She traced runes around what would be her future territory and also put one on the tree.

As all the runes were in place she closed her eyes and started focusing her energy and pictured an image : the tree expanding and distorting itself to the shape she wanted it to be, the foundations of the house were the roots deep in the ground, the sides of the house were covered in vines and thorns. " might as well be fancy " she thought as she pictured a porch with wood pillars.

Once she opened her eyes, there it was, the house. She decided to enter it, it had space, she could put a fireplace right at the center that would be the cooking station and the main source of light. Directly to her left was a crooked stairwell that led to what would become her bathroom and bedroom. Downstair would be cooking, relaxation and herborist preparations. The following years she acquired furniture from some of her visits in town or made them herself by wood manipulation.

Now that the home was cleaned up, she could focus on preparing future potions but there was a slight problem, she was missing a specific type of liquor, she had one of her mental sigh " uhhh i have to go to town, why now ? If only i had someone that could just bring me what i need ", and then as if fate itself heard her, someone knocked on the door. She wasn't waiting for anyone, that's odd, no one ever visited without announcing themselves. But if they were ill intended they wouldn't have been able to go this far without her noticing it, but once again she was feeling uneasiness " why didn't I sense them before they knocked ? ". Her guts was telling her it was alright, so she decided to open the door.

And behind the door was standing someone she wasn't thinking about seeing so soon again : Richard.

" Hey Isabella, told you we would see each other soon ! " he said with his usual smile, his damn smile.

Now that he was just in front of her she realised he was actually quite tall, around 6ft3, an old scar under his right eye, probably a sharp object that missed him, didn't look like a claw scar. His hair was arranged better this time, he had his long cape with a hood, he was wearing a full armor of cured leather, sturdy but light. Many knives at his belt, a few pouches and one huge knife strangely curved, one like she never saw before.

" How did you find where i live ? " she asked as she managed to break out of her observation state.

" I'm a hunter in case you didn't notice, tracking prey is what I do " he said.

" So i'm a prey ? " she asked as she took a step back .

" No no no ! That's not what i meant ! I meant you are easy to follow, you have a particular smell ! "

" You don't talk to many women do you ? " she said as she found his clumsiness a bit charming

" I'd like you to know I'm quite popular ! "

" Sure you are, come on in "

She closed the door behind him, in her presence he looked like a giant, the fire was being reflected from all the pieces of metal he had on him. Richard was slowly looking around, slowly walking into this place that looked like nothing he ever saw before.