Chapter 2 - What's Around
After her much needed rest Ilena took off the armor and shoes she fell asleep in. Her body still didn't feel back to its regular self yet. She stayed in bed for a little while longer before tidying up the place since she had nothing else better to do. For more light, there was a window by the bed that she pushed and propped open with a stick. It took a little while for her to sweep up, clean the ashes from the fireplace, and get rid of cob webs, but it wasn't too troublesome. She inspected the outside of her new home just to see if there was anything that needed to be repaired. Nothing seemed to be broken or worn out. The wood stack outside wasn't very high, but winter wasn't close, so she had plenty of time to stock up.
The garden that was there needed attention. Aside from watering it, Ilena didn't know how to save it. This was a good source of food, so she needed to have better knowledge of gardening. Everything from care to what she could grow here. Hopefully what she could learn would be through trial and error; just not with too many errors. The gardening tools she found weren't in the best condition but they were still usable.
Ilena found a few apple trees a little distance away from the cabin. They were all of decent size and seemed to yield enough fruit for her to survive on. The lake that was there was satisfactory in size. It looked clean enough to use the water for whatever reason. She circled the lake with her bare feet on the edge of the water. Ilena found it so peaceful here. It helped calm her nerves and clear her mind. She logically thought about her situation. This place she found was sufficient enough for housing but not so much for food. Not only did she need more than one food source, Ilena needed to learn about farming. The apple trees were good to have but if something happened to them, Ilena would be out of luck. At this point, there was a need to travel to some sort of town. Would she even be able to find one? If she did, Ilena would need to go unnoticed by most of the people. Then there was also the concern of trust if she got help.
On her way back to the cabin, Ilena came across another entrance. Upon closer inspection of it she noticed there was a number etched in the stone by it; four. Realizing this, Ilena spent time looking for the others. There were five total entrances and one of them blocked off from a cave in. Her security was important and luckily for her, all of the entrances were well concealed if someone every came through the area. They wouldn't think to look for tunnels behind thick over grown vines, hopefully.
One of the entrances had promise behind it. A tunnel marked three led to an overlook of a small town in the distance. If there was anything that Ilena could need, it would be there. She couldn't sense anything in that general direction so traveling there would be a good idea. For the next couple days Ilena ran down in her mind everything she needed. Sneaking in would be simple along with creeping around during the time people are heading home at the end of the day. The only problem was going from shop to shop for supplies during the day as a deserter wouldn't be wise. The next best thing would be to ask someone to run errands for her. Ilena went through most of her life as a warrior not having to rely on humans for anything. She would have to find a human she could trust to run errands for her. Likely at some form of cost but it would be worth the trouble.
It was dusk when Ilena arrived into town. She stayed hidden in the shadows of the alleyways. There were people out, but not many. Most of them seemed to be heading home or closing their shops. As Ilena scoped out the town's stores, she found two that she would need. First, she found a plant nursery, The Green Thumb, but there were no lights so the owners were probably already asleep. The other store was Magic Threads, which luckily wasn't very far from the nursery. This store likely just sold sewing materials, but if she had a chance to ask questions about them she would. She was in the alley next to the store when she saw that there was something left outside, some kind of small bin with scraps of fabric in it. Ilena saw that there were lights still on above the ground floor of Magic Threads, so she waited on the side of the building to see if someone would come for it. It didn't look very important, so the owner probably left it outside for anyone to take. After some time Ilena had decided to leave, she heard a door open. A rather short dark skinned woman came out. She looked tired and had a grumpy look on her face. Her hair was wrapped up in a red scarf and she was wearing what seemed to be her pajamas.
The young woman started digging through the bin looking for something. Ilena called out to her, "Excuse me," The woman jumped, almost knocking over the bin, and saw Ilena around the corner. Ilena looked straight into her green eyes. She had a startled look on her face. Ilena made sure not to act too suspiciously since she didn't want to alarm her. The young woman looked back and forth between Ilena and her sword. "Don't be frightened, I don't intend on using it. May I come inside to discuss business with you?"