Homesteading in a fantasy world

POV Michael

Everything was so hazy. I felt so weak. But I could feel my strength returning quickly. I looked around and saw that everyone was in the same situation similar to me. It looks like we are all alive.

What troubled me was how Bert looked. He looked so starved and weak. How long were we under his hibernation spell? Then I heard someone speaking from outside.

“Can someone please answer me or otherwise I will have to treat you as hostiles.”

Who was that and why would we be hostile to each other? I saw everyone else stop moving and we all looked towards Bert, but he was out of it, barely conscious. My mind was finally able to catch up and my merchant training kicked in.

“You can relax good Sir. We mean you no harm and I hope that we can have a civil conversation.”

None of us was in any position to fight and our strongest fighter was currently too weak to do anything to help us. I so hope that whoever was out there would have a thread of honour. Hopefully, we are not going from finding a powerful beast but it turning out to be the child.

“That's good to hear. I want you all to get out of the basement and stay in the inn's common room. Just to make sure no one gets any ideas about attacking me.”

After a short pause just before I wanted to answer him, I hear him speaking again.

“There's no real hurry but let's not make this too long, soon the sun will start to set.”

It seems that he is a reasonable one. I hope that his companions are the same. The question is were they the ones that cleared out the undead or perhaps the undead had left the village and they are just scavengers looking for anything that was left behind?

Unfortunately, we were truly in the hands of whoever was out there. But before I follow the man’s demand I started to look over everyone here. Bert’s hibernation spell was truly wonderful and kept us safe for way longer that I thought possible. He was still quite out of it, but it looks like he's slowly recovering.

I went out first while everyone else prepared for a possible fight. If they were going to attack it would have been better if someone weaker went out there to find out their intentions, but I wasn’t going to sacrifice my friends or family. It’s better if I was the one to do it.

Just in case I hugged my wife and my two children. I prepared myself for my possible death and climb the stairs outside. The first thing I noticed was the cold wind and the snow beyond the broken-down door. For earth's sake, how long have we been here?

How was Bert able to keep us safe for so long? From the summer solstice to winter. So, many months. Hopefully, it’s just the start of it. How bad must the situation be that even my company didn’t come in search of us? But even more surprising is that they didn’t come in search of Bert who was at the top unlike me.

The inn looked untouched with a layer of dust covering everywhere except where the door was kicked in. I looked around but I didn’t see anyone and before I got to do anything else I saw someone wearing a helmet peek in from the doorway. After a moment he asked me to come outside, and I did.

When I got outside, I was surprised that there was no one else around. There were many undead bodies strewn around and by the look of it they were all done in with a clean hit to the head.

A huge pile of them was around the seemingly broken gate but no one else besides that man was around. As I was trying to make sense of what happened I put my entire focus on him. But my thoughts were scattered by the man offering his hand for a shake.

“Greetings my name is Rich Dirt. You wished for a civil conversation and so do I. Since I can understand that the water bolt might have been an instinctive reaction. I am willing to give your group the benefit of the doubt and put this unfortunate event but behind us.”

When I looked at his face there was a comfortable smile on it, and I was honestly quite pleasantly surprised at how reasonably he was acting.

So, a scavenger is definitely out of the question perhaps a knight of some sort or a mercenary, but from the quality of the armour, I would have to say an expensive mercenary. I extended my hand and shook his.

“My name is Michael Frederick Dukenhime the second. I am a merchant and have been for over 20 years. It's good to meet someone so honourable as you. The one that shot you with the water bolt is the one that has kept us alive in hibernation and he was a bit out of it. I regret the incident and I am glad that we can put that issue aside.”

He just smiled and nodded, and my confidence grew that we might actually live through this. It would be kind of rude to outright ask him who he is, some knights are kind of sensitive about that but here goes nothing.

“I am glad to see that you have cleared out the village, but may I ask for what reason are you here? Has someone hired you to eradicate the undead?”

He gave a hearty laugh to that while shaking his head. “No Michael I was not hired by anyone. If I had to put a name to what I was doing here I guess you could call me a scavenger.”

Why would anyone admit that? Scavengers are not looked at favourably in our society and I finally took the time to truly look the man over. He was taller than me but only by a little. His armour was covered in red blackish blood of the undead.

Underneath I could see good-quality armour that was not enchanted in any way but was still excellent for protection. Only a full plate would offer better. The design was interesting and would fetch quite a good price if sold to noble children.

I could not see any family crest, so he did not belong to any noble house or any other association as well. Perhaps he was an adventurer but even they usually display their association with the guild.

We spoke some more as I kept asking him about what was happening elsewhere after the Kingdom fell. The news was quite worrisome, and I hope that our company was still intact, but I was no longer confident in that.

He quite quickly noticed that I had started shivering from the cold and told me that we should continue talking inside the inn.

I quickly went and said to everyone that it was safe to come up. When I turned around, I saw that he had picked up the door and pushed it back into place and got a chair to prop up the door so it wouldn’t fall again.

I went back to helping everyone get out and the next moment I looked towards him he was actually working to start the fire in the fireplace so that we could get some warmth. That was quite welcome because we were not dressed for winter.

Lastly, my brother and I helped the now-conscious Bert move up the stairs so we could finish bringing everyone out and hopefully find some food so we could eat. When we got out, I didn’t expect the completely shocked look on Rich’s face. I hoped that he wasn't one of those human supremacist nut jobs.

POV Rich Dirt

I got the fire going and looked around at the people that had come out of the basement. They seemed to be families, looked like three of them. I sat on one of the stronger-looking chairs and waited until the final person was brought out.

When I saw what they were bringing out I was completely shocked. Holy shit! That is an actual bear person. What were they called; I know that I know their proper race name. Ursine? Yeah, that’s correct I believe.

He was quite tall if I had to guess 6 foot 5 and brown fur was covering everything just like a bear except, he had normal-looking hands although they were quite big with cut claws.

He looked so starved and barely conscious. Unlike the other people that looked like they just had a really long nap. I guess he had to be awake for the hibernation spell to work. And how awesome is that? He could put people into hibernation if they were willing.

I realized that I must have had quite a shocked face, so I put on an easy smile and took off my helmet. I moved with purpose as I made it to them just as they put him down against the bar counter.

I gave him my water skin and after gulping down the entire thing, he looked quite gratefully at me. Next, I took out some rations from my belt pouch for him. He was still too weak to do anything else but eat.

I did warn him that if he had been starving, he shouldn’t eat too much otherwise his stomach might reject it. He give me a big but slow nod in return. I looked around at the rest of the group and even though they all looked unharmed I could still tell that they were all quite hungry.

So, I told them to stay here as I went to get some food from the village hall. I wasn’t gone for long so basically the situation had not changed. It was a good idea to use the back door, this way I didn’t have to mess with the broken door every time someone wanted to go in and out. The question was what will happen next.