Snow Witch'S Journey
The Life of the Hunter

And here I am. Lives in the house of a man I've just met while I'm trained to be ready. How did that happen? Yeah, I didn't expect it myself either. At first I refused and wanted to leave. I still can't trust that guy because of what happened last night. But instead, I ended up obeying him and being trained by him.

The man taught me all the things necessary to survive in the wild. After I think about it, I think such knowledge is quite important for me who want to travel. I did not know what would happen, and so I was not sure I could live within the walls of comfortable cities. In the worst possible situation, maybe I should find shelter in the wild.

After I think about it, there are a lot of things that you didn't teach me. But, mother said to allow me to get out of the house and explore the world because I was strong enough. I guess I should scold Mom later.

For days I trained very hard by him, reminding me of mother training. On the first day it was still not too difficult, I was invited to get acquainted with the forest nearby and understand the ins and outs. Afterwards, the man left me and told me to find a way out on my own.

Indeed I had a hard time at first, because all sides of the forest looked the same to me. I got angry for using magic to light my way. He said that such a light would invite wild animals. He scolded me so loudly like a god who cursed humans for breaking his orders. If told to choose, I'd rather have mother's tantrums. The words the man spoke were always piercing right in my heart, like ‘lemah’, ‘dependence’ and ‘penakut’.

The next day, the man explained how to look for food in the forest. One of them is mushrooms. He showed me how to identify edible and non-edible mushrooms. Toxic mushrooms usually have a color between red, orange, yellow, white, and gray. But, identifying poisonous mushrooms from their color alone is not enough. The man said that I should stay away from mushrooms that had rings on their stems, mushrooms that had white gills under their hats, and mushrooms that were red. Indeed I will miss the edible mushrooms but more importantly I will not get the poisonous mushrooms. The place where the fungus grows and its aroma should also be considered. He then said that if I wasn't sure what kind of fungus I found, I'd better not take it.

There are a lot of things I need to pay attention to. Especially about food. I also had to stay away from all the glowing plants, as most of them contain luminous bacteria that are harmful to the human body, such as the Pollymoon plant.

My trust in him increased when I realized that he had a lot of knowledge about the wild. I asked him about it and he said, “I'm a hunter. It's only natural that I should know a lot about the wild.”

He also reasoned about helping me because his life would not be quiet if he let me travel unprepared. I really don't know if he's a caring person or not, his face doesn't show anything like that. He looked like a grumpy old man and was always pestering me about anything. His rough face and thick eyebrows prove that.

He always scolded me for mistakes I made, whether small or big. Like when he told me to get him some mushrooms, I was wrong and was carrying a poisonous mushroom, and his anger exploded like a mountain erupted. I was even locked outside by him, but a few seconds later he told me to go back in. His eyes turned away from me. I think he's the kind of person who can't hold back his emotions and can't hide his attention either.

“Snow storm will arrive soon,” he said. There are many ways to know when a snowstorm will appear. Generally, the sign of a blizzard coming in the form of wind gusts will be faster, visibility is thinning, and the temperature suddenly drops very cold. However, there is one way that I have just learned from the hunter, which is by looking at the extent to which the petals of the Northern Flower dangle.

Northern Flowers are one of the typical plants of the Orelum continent, in addition to the Snow Drop Flower. The plant has a unique feature, where it will bloom more if the surrounding temperature gets colder. The more the flower blooms, the more the petals will dangle down. If it had been like that, then a snowstorm would have appeared soon.

Training must be stopped. While waiting for the blizzard, the man gave me a blanket of animal skin and a glass of hot milk to warm me up. Thank God besides his grumpy nature, he still understood what I needed.

“Do you not want to ask the villagers to help you find your daughter?” I sit with my feet on a chair and hold hot milk. I then observed the skins of the animals hanging along the walls of the main room.

“It's too late. Back then, I was hunting but due to a heavy snowstorm, I was stuck for a few days. Maybe my daughter was worried about me and looking for me, but the world took it from me.” Although the wood made the fire burn so brightly, but his face remained dim.

I didn't want to make her continue to grieve, even though I doubt tears could be shed on her fierce face. I close the blanket that was wrapping around me and sip hot milk little by little. The tip of my tongue was flushed from the burning heat.

“The blanket you wear is my daughter's favorite. Warm, he said.” The man continued to look at the blaze, although there were no more wooden chunks left in his hands.

It's warming, but if I may say this blanket is a little rough on my skin. “Is that why you're worried about me and helping me? You pretended to think of me as your daughter,” the remark suddenly came out of my hot mouth.

The man just stood up and did not answer. He glanced at me for a moment before going to the room on his left. While I still enjoy a glass of milk under a warm blanket, and accompanied by the sound of fire splashing in the night of the storm.

After that, the exercise happened as usual. There's nothing different. He still scolds me when I do the wrong thing or forget the most important thing in survival. He said that if I had to keep my body temperature warm, even though the Northmen were resistant to the cold climate, there was a point and condition that would still affect me in traveling. Like soaking in cold water, being at the top of a mountain, or being trapped in an ice cave.

Magic will make all that easier, but I have to understand it completely if there is a worse possibility. I was only allowed to use magic when encountering threats that were outside my physique or related to magic, but as long as it could still be completed without magic, I was not allowed to use it.

The exercises have been going on for one week, and the most grueling field exercises. I had to pierce the forest to find what he assigned me. Most failed, and his chatter always greeted me after I got back. Every day, every moment. Even though I had enough rest, my body still felt all the pain. Is this how it feels if I have a father? If so, I would rather stay with my mother.

A trail shaped like two eggs with taper tips looked fresh in the snowy ground. The tracks continued to pass through the bushes in front of me. Today, the hunter only told me to track down the deer tracks. He said I wasn't ready to hunt.

As I walked through the bushes, my eyes kept on the footprints like that was all I could see. Too focused, so I didn't realize something was tripping me up and falling forward.

I saw that the piece embedded in the snow was more shiny than any jewel I had ever seen. Not twigs or stones, it is made of metal and is circular in shape. On the back was engraved a strange shape and symbol that I had never seen before. As I opened the lid, a white disc with a pointer moved left and right behind a glass, with signs on each side. That thing is a compass. I can feel my eyes widen as big as a compass. However, I was shocked not because of the silver compass, but because of the warm red liquid dripping from my palm.