I've Liked Listening To You For A While

I stood up from my rest as I couldn't help but shake the feeling that something was off again. There was something right there, beyond what I could see, something staring back at m- oh wait never mind that's just the mirror I made.

I rubbed my eyes and got off of the floor and groaned a little bit extra from popping the stiff joints in my body. Looking towards the hole in the wall, I could already tell that it was another day with clear skies. Which is mostly odd, since as far as I could tell, this was supposed to be nearing the end of spring, and signalling the beginning of the summer.

Ah summer, what a wondrous season, the days when I ran out of school and got my parents called over since I came out from the school's closing ceremony an hour early because I wanted to go and swim in the local creak.

Except I wasn't going to the local creak, I was headed to the bleeding slammer, because I may or may not have left a couple explosives near the cornerstones, and may or may not have rigged them to explode at the very end of the ceremony.

Look my case as a child wasn't that great, or was it?

I'll stop with that for now, I'll do some more of it later. I got out of the tree shack and promptly let gravity do the work for me. The little one was snacking on some jerky that she keeps on top of the fire just to keep it crispy and warm.

I also noticed that the deer was still being a lazy shiteball and staying right over there on its regular spot, sunbathing. I walked over to the little one as she grunted and handed me a stick of meat.

"Well, I don't suppose I could trick you into not giving me a cut, can I?"

She just shook her head as I lightly chuckled at her insistence for me to eat.

"I'll be fine lass, you know how long I could go without food. But you however-"

I went and picked her up and let her climb on top of my shoulders, where she sat as she continued to nibble on the jerky, which made me feel that I should sigh, since the crumbs would fall into my head.

I need a razor fast, this hair is nice and all, but it's such a bloody issue having to keep it out of the way. As much as the concept of being bald may invoke certain parties to react negatively or perhaps even violently, I like to feel the air on my scalp.

So, I was going to make another list of things that I would make use of, and I was going to get them from the realm.

"-you need a bath young lady! What would your brother think if you stunk all the way to high bleeding heaven?"

She looked down into my eyes and blinked before she tried to jump off. I grabbed her ankle and left her hanging upside down, as she seemed to look scared.

"It's fine lass, it's just some water. You'll be clean afterwards. It's good to be clean, it means you're not as likely to get killed. Or more likely, it depends where you're at really. But for here? Yep, yer in a for a good scrubbing and soaping."

I laughed a little bit as she tried to bite off her ankle. She acted so oddly feral at times, it was a little bit peculiar within my sort of view. But to be fair, I have this sort of thought process since I didn't get that many chances to get a good bath, since, ya know, I was on the run.

"No! Old man! Bad taste water! No bad taste water!"

"Well you're not supposed to drink the bath water! Well, unless you're a degenerate, then I suppose reservations are gone. But you're still gonna be getting your bath missy!"

"Never had bad tasting water back at tree! Bad tasting water is bad tasting water!"

"And what have I been telling you? You're supposed to use proper words! A proper sentence now. The day when others like me come, is the day where you-"

It was at that moment that I was getting even more thoughts. What happens if there are more humans? What sort of madness would this world go through if there were more of the foulest orders of creatures that come into this world?

I'm more than certain that there would be chances for the world to allow the propagation of hominids, but, do they really deserve to come into existence? But what if I culled them beforehand?

What if I disallowed the evolutionary line to continue? The end of humanity before it even began?

'No no no, that'd be impossible to pull off perfectly. There's already a system in place, and the "normal" animals are already the size of bleeding Volkswagens. They're also a fucking cockroach type of a species, always getting somewhere deep enough to survive.'

I shook off the idea of disallowing the human race to propagate. It's not gonna work out unless I was actually that bleeding strong, which isn't exactly all that possible, since despite me having nearly all my teeth filled with life gems, they're not making me feel like I'm that much stronger.

Yeah, I named them life gems, it's simple enough to grasp and remember, plus I kept on experimenting on them. I haven't learned all that much about them, but I'm sure that I'll keep getting fresh information as time passes.

The lass grumbled as I dragged the giant pan that was for holding in rainwater whenever it was pouring out. It was still very very very clean water, and I was going to make sure that she scrubbed every single damned part of her clean.

"Alright then lass, you have your soap, and I'll use the scrubbing stick. You know what to do this time. And don't drink the soap water again! Ye nearly gave me a fright when you got that stomachache."

She looked at me as if I just sentenced her to capital punishment, as she grabbed the soap and begun cleaning herself up. I whistled a different tune this time, opting for a song that I didn't think I would ever sing again.

And once all of the waterworks were finished up, I handed her a towel and kept her hair within it while I grabbed another one.

"Old man, I have a question."

I got the towel as I hummed to show that I was listening to whatever it was that was in her head.

"Why do you still take care of me? You're strong, not as strong as me, but very strong. You could leave anytime you want, and it wouldn't bother me or the friend down below. So why are you still here, taking care of me?"

I looked at her from behind as I was slightly relieved that she didn't look like skin and bones, at the very least all that meat was helping to keep her body healthy.

"You want a reason for why I ever decided to keep you safe. You want a reason why I shouldn't leave, but I myself child am not that certain as to why I keep trying. Why I keep going out of my way to take care of you. I don't have one child, and I don't believe that I'll be getting one anytime soon.

But if you want a small reason, one that could be counted as one of the reasons, it's because you're still young. You still haven't seen how bad things could get. And I hope I'll be around long enough to teach you why I'm here."

She didn't seem all that convinced by what I told her, and neither was I. We sat in the silence as the water dripping out of the wet towel was slowly starting to get less.

I grabbed a good bit of some normal looking clothing, lighter clothes to ensure that she wouldn't begin panting like a dog in this weather, and handed them to her.

"You already know how to properly get changed up. So that's what you're gonna do, in the meantime, I'll be heading back to scout out the watering hole. You make sure that you're dry and properly dressed. These clothes are good, so don't go immediately off into the dirt and get them all soiled up, alright?"

She just stared at me for a moment as she nodded and started to climb up the tree. I never had the idea to give myself a name just yet. An identity isn't something that I would go out of my way to forge for myself just yet.

After all, what's in a name? Nothing too important, for the time being. I grabbed the pan and threw out the water before I let it dry up in the sun, walking my way back over to the watering hole.

It was finally beginning to clear out from being reddish brown, and thankfully it didn't taste metallic. But I spat out the sample all the same, since I had little to no clue about what I could catch from taking a mouthful of the water.

Still, at the rate it's going at, I'd say that the water should just about clear out in a week if not, then a couple days. Things, funny enough, were looking up. Sure the fight with that would was sketchy, and I suffered a lot from it, but I didn't die in it that time.

And now it's almost time for me to get myself an extra life. There was this old little riddle I recall. Forty White Horses Stand On A Hill, They Champ, They Clamp, And Then They Stand Still.

The answer to that one was teeth, but for my case? They're not exactly just forty. So I groaned again as I felt the discomfort of my clothes sticking to my body again.

It was always such a bleeding hassle to have to let my clothes dry off every single time. Now I know what you're saying, why in God's beautiful name did you even wade all the way out into the middle of the pond?

Well the shore water isn't really that good of a point of reference for how clean it is, plus most of the blood and murk was near the middle, where I fought the beast.

I got out, took off my clothes and had nice deep breath to calm me down. It was annoying at more times than I could ever begin to count, but maybe we'll get a nice boring summer where nothing goes to shit.

Leaving the area, I went back closer to the clearing and walked over to the deer, and sat right next to it.

"Wakey wakey you right bellend."

'Hmm? Ah, Foreigner, how goes your plans?'

"Not terrible, no thanks to you. I think we're clear for now. The bear tracks I found near the watering hole was more or less an issue I'm kind of concerned about, but we'll burn that bridge when we get there."

'What is a bridge?'

"I'm not going to answer that. And I just came to talk to you since it's easier to talk to a psychic and gravity controlling magical deer, than it is to talk to a child that lost its sibling. I can speak to her just fine, but she keep asking about whether or not I made a mistake to take care of her."

'Was it? A mistake?'

I scoffed at the deer and smiled a little.

"Nah, I'm fine with this. It's more effort, but if this is what breaks me in this world, then I never bleeding deserved to have a chance in it in the first place.

I've went through some terrible shit, you even saw me getting skinned and flayed by that nature wolf. If my physical could handle that, then my psychological needs to be just as strong and flexible."

It just kept laying there as I get my ass up again and began to work on more bricks. They were more or less mud bricks, I knew that now, but they did have a decent chunk of clay within them, so classification can later on.

I grabbed another handful of a couple of ingredients and made about ten more bricks before I went to tend to the fire. The little one was already dressed up as I hummed in affirmation.

Light clothing keeping her cool for the summertime, good stuff, very comfy. The headaches that I got from trying to make it just right was more or less worth it in the end.

And as for my "realm"? Well, it's coming along nicely. The life gems seemed to be allowing me to make use of more sophisticated materials as more and more of them were found within my mouth.

The "penthouse" I've made for myself is just absolutely stunning at that point. I don't quite know what else to do with it, but furniture would most definitely be a thing that I would prioritize when I get there.

But right as of this moment, I just wanted to make bricks, make and live in a home that wasn't in the trees, and eat some meat that didn't come from my own body. And I was getting two of those things, or two and a half, considering the second one is two things mixed into one.

I kept a good pace with getting extra wood for the fire, making sure that they'd be dry enough for me to throw into the fire/smoker. The little one went over to me while I was humming again and just kept watch of me.

She just stood there, not saying a single thing, while I toiled with wood.

"When are we going to train, old man?"

"We train later little one, when the sun is lower. It's not a good idea to go and fight within broad daylight, but if we do, I suppose it would give you an idea of how to not get caught off guard, clanging steel and spilling blood while the sun scorches your skin."

"....Okay."

She didn't say anything much after that as I answered her affirmation with a simple grunt. She was getting better, even as I had more strength, she also grew both alongside me, and beyond me.

Eventually, I'm pretty damn sure that she'd be able to tussle a bloody wyvern at this rate. Well, that's hyperbole, I don't actually have confirmation, and confidence would be idiotic in this scenario.

I glanced over and saw that she was already going back up into the trees to probably sleep again, and smiled a little.

'She's getting some extra advantages, good. I suppose one should always get as many of them as you could before something terrible occurs.'

And so I stood in the sun, chopping more wood, piling it up before I went into the shade to keep cool. This wasn't so bad, and eventually I'll be able to make a proper home out of this place.

'Or just a house. A home and a house are different in certain aspects.'