A Woodcutter's Surprise

Wyrian and Luisa ride on Sabah; a runewolf, a creature almost akin to a divine beast galloped in the forest, going to the town of Cilimma.

Wyrian was holding the handle for dear life, but most importantly, he is suspiciously curious about the valley, about having a huntress who tamed a runewolf have a home in Lativia without anyone noticing.

"Luisa!" Wyrian called, with the wind pressed on his face.

"Yes, milord?" Luisa responded casually.

"I remember you mentioning the old duke." Wyrian said, "Have you met Duke Krestus before?"

Luisa was silent for a little while after replying, "Yes, we did meet with the old duke before."

"We?" Wyrian said confused, "You mean with Sabah?"

"Yeah, he made us our hut and shed before as welcome." Luisa explained, "I'm still grateful he accepted us in this valley five years ago."

*"Five years ago?"* Wyrian thought, her reply led to more questions than answers. The war between Lativia and Gleathany started three years ago, which made Wyrian question, *"Why did the duke hide the fact that there's a runewolf in his territory, and its owner has a favor for him?"* He thought, *"Having a runewolf in the ranks is more than enough to win the war."*

Wyrian was in deep thought, trying to piece together the clues he doesn't yet understand until they heard a shout.

"Luisa!" A somewhat feminine voice boomed from the forest, stopping Sabah in his tracks and Wyrian who zoned out, dived directly into Luisa's muscular back.

"Damn! That's hard as rock." Wyrian remarked, not knowing if he intended to praise or insult Luisa's back, as he checked his nose if it was broken or not.

Luisa froze, as she looked too stunned to even say a word, one can assume that she saw something of a scary enemy, but Wyrian saw was not fear on her face, but a warm and gentle smile.

Out of curiosity Wyrian looked over Luisa and saw a short cute girl, short hair with shades of indigo, eyes of deep violet, cute and wide as a puppy. She wears a strawhat, brown leather trousers with leather suspenders and red tunic designed for men to wear, with a large bag on her back and was holding an axe made for tree cutting, to simplify: All Wyrian can see was a short tomboyish woodcutter in the middle of the forest.

The woodcutter ran towards Luisa, "I'm glad to see you so early, Luisa." The woodcutter energetically beamed, Sabah bunted the woodcutter in glee, "And you too Sabah..."

"Good morning to you too, Mekel." Luisa responded, but with her voice soft and gentle.

Mekel; the woodcutter peeked over Luisa and saw Wyrian behind her back.

"Who is he, Luisa?" Mekel asked, more cautiously than curious.

Wyrian tries to open his mouth to reply.

"He is Lord Kepper, the new lord of Liefnin, Mekel." Luisa announced, interrupting Wyrian's self-introduction again, he was a little irritated about it, but remembering Lady Kethel's words of having servants introduce him to others, he stayed composed. He doesn't like it, but it's his aristocratic duties.

"I-I'm sowwy if I-I disrespected you Sir Kepper." Mekel dreadfully apologized, bowing profusely.

"There's no need." Wyrian declared, feeling another dose of deja vu, "You haven't done anything *crude* yet." Wyrian eyed on Luisa as he emphasized the word 'crude', where she looked away in return.

"Anyway, where are you going, dear Mekel?" Wyrian asked, Wyrian knows that the valley is dangerous, from the werewolf and the existence of the runewolf. But seeing Mekel, who's small and delicate with only an axe made of woodcutting as a weapon alone in a forest is suspicious, even Luisa is not concerned about it.

"I'm cutting a tree in the Coperpine Forest, the townsfolk needed wood in preparation for the festival." Mekel replied, sounding shy and nervous, "H-how about both of you, milord?"

Mekel realized that asking a noble about their affairs is said to be disrespectful and bowed again profusely demanding forgiveness.

"Keep your calm, Mekel." Wyrian sighed, "We're going to Cilimma, I guess I should talk to the townsfolk about this incoming festival." He replied and Mekel calmed down.

"I see, have fun and may your trip be productive, milord!" Mekel cheered as he bowed and walked away onto his duties.

Wyrian then noticed that Luisa was silent for once, but he noticed a hint of gloom in her face when Mekel ended the conversation. While flirting with girls was his habit, he preferred teasing couples he thinks are good together, no matter the gender or race.

"On second thought." Wyrian announced, Mekel stopped, "I suppose we should get a detour, I am curious about this Coperpine Forest since I'm still going to explore that place sooner or later, and I would want to see how our lumberjack works, don't you think, Luisa?" Wyrian eyed Luisa as he hiddenly elbowed her hip to reply.

"Ye-yes I suppose we should." Luisa's voice cracked nervously.

"Are you sure, milord?" Mekel asked worriedly, "Are you sure I won't be a burden?"

"Don't think about it, Mekel." Luisa noted, "Just accept it."

"Then I'll be in your care." Mekel bowed and started to walk towards the forest, where Sabah alongside Luisa and Wyrian followed.

Moments later, they reach the Coperpine Forest, the trees are so humongous that one can carve a home from inside the trunk, and so tall that there are barely any branches, but for a woodcutter of Mekel's stature, Wyrian assumed there's a special tree Mekel's going to cut down somewhere.

Wyrian noticed Luisa who keeps on staring at Mekel and looking away from time to time, as if trying to imitate giving glances like a girl in love, which Wyrian thought was creepy.

"Luisa." Wyrian whispered, ignoring his prior thought and getting Luisa's attention, "You should go and talk to Mekel's side."

"W-why?" Luisa asked, fidgeting. While it doesn't fit her image, it was fun for Wyrian to see her squirm like a gullible noble woman.

"Wouldn't you want to hook Mekel up with you before any guy takes her away from you?"

"I-I mean..." Luisa responded fidgeting like a child until she realized something after hearing Wyrian's sentence, "Wait. Why would a guy take Mekel?"

"I mean Mekel is cute, anyone with the right mind would love to have her, you know?" Wyrian replied, confused about Luisa's question.

"Ohhh..." Luisa expressed as if she realized something funny, making a teasing grin on top of that, "I'd love to see the guy's reaction seeing Mekel's surprise."

"What do you mean?" Wyrian asked, even more confused.

"Mekel's a guy, milord." Luisa announced casually. Her seeing Wyrian frozen in shock made Luisa's day.

Wyrian couldn't believe this fact, HIS looks, HIS personality and HIS mannerisms for a short amount of time he observed Mekel made Wyrian assume that HE was a girl.

With Luisa's sudden good mood, she climbed down Sabah and went to Mekel's side, and started to tease him where he reacted like a lovestruck girl.

A few moments later they stopped, Wyrian climbed down Sabah. Wyrian looked around wondering why they stopped since they were only surrounded by these large trees with no smaller sized trees in sight.

"This is a good tree to cut." Mekel said as he touched a large tree, one of the largest trees in the forest, "I'll take some of this home tonight."

Wyrian heard this and thought, *"Such a big tree for such a small person."* Wyrian was skeptical and doubted that Mekel could cut such a large tree as of today. Luisa slumped over Sabah who curled around Luisa in return, they relaxed as if preparing for a theatre play to start.

"Shouldn't we help him?" Wyrian asked Luisa.

"There's no need, milord." She said casually as if relaxed, "He can cut it down himself."

"I doubt he can do it immediately." Wyrian commented, sounding very skeptical.

"You'll see." Luisa chimed.

Wyrian then witnessed Mekel holding his axe like a staff with both hands, but it was nothing more than an ordinary axe. Mekel muttered silently, Wyrian assumed that he was activating a spell but there were no sigils appeared, Wyrian then realized that what Mekel was doing a ritual akin to a swordsman swinging their sword or a brawler pounding their chest in intimidation. He later struck a stance, a stance that will result in a large swing from his axe towards the trunk, given the size difference, Wyrian assumed it did little damage.

A strong gust of wind exploded as the head of the axe landed on the trunk. Wyrian almost flew away if he didn't stand his ground, crossing his forearms against his face to protect himself against the wind in time, but Luisa and Sabah laid there peacefully as if they were relaxing from the morning breeze. As the wind eroded, Wyrian saw the damage of the tree, the swing cleaved the fourth of the large tree.

"What the hell?" Wyrian voiced out, unable to contain his surprise.

"Told you so." Luisa commented, like a proud parent.

He later saw Mekel standing there without doing anything, one might think that he was exhausted from that blow alone.

"Is he tired?" Wyrian asked.

"Not at all, milord, he's just checking if the animals were scared away." Luisa replied.

"That looks good enough." He said cheerfully after he scanned the forest, as he struck the same pose and swung his axe towards the cleaved part again resulting in another explosion of wind. He did the same two more times and the only thing left supporting the rest of the tree was a small part that only a mere kick could make it fall.

*"With power in such a small body, there's no way the kingdom is silent about this."* Wyrian thought, thinking how ridiculous the scene he witnessed.

"TIMBER!" Mekel shouted energetically and despite having a soft feminine voice, his shout boomed across the forest. He kicked the trunk from the opposite side of where he struck the tree, and the large tree fell gracefully away from where Wyrian and Luisa rested. The fall of such a large tree made the ground tremble and rumbled loud as thunder. A majestic display of power for a lumberjack.

After a few moments, a loud thunderous roar was heard deep inside the forest, as if it was a response from the loud thunderous fall from Mekel's fallen tree.

"Ah." Luisa blurted out, as if she remembered something important, "I totally forgot about that."

"What did you forget about?!" Wyrian screamed, concerned about the sudden situation, such a dangerous sounding roar must be from a dangerous beast, but Mekel wasn't at all bothered, he continued his work and chopped the fallen into pieces slowly but surely.

"I just remembered that I actually accepted an important hunting request a few days ago!" Luisa informed, her lax personality surfaced, "Uh, milord... I would like to ask if I can just hunt it down for a while?"

"..." Wyrian cringed, not knowing if he wanted to feel disappointed, disrespected, both or neither for Luisa's 'laziness', one can assume that she just found a perfect excuse to run away from her job.

"I'm not trying to abandon my quest for you and I'll be swift." Luisa reassured, with conviction in her voice, "As proof, I shall leave Sabah on you for a while as your bodyguard, for the time being."

Sabah whined sadly, his ears flopped in sadness.

"Don't worry about it, Sabah" Luisa chimed as she comforted her runewolf, "I'll make it up for you that you'll get a whole round of Zayne's meaty pie."

After Luisa mentioned the meaty pie, Sabah's ears stood up, getting interest from said treat. Sabah pulled away from Luisa and began to circle around Wyrian and sat beside him, acknowledging that Sabah is going to guard Wyrian for the mysterious meaty pie.

Wyrian sighed in disappointment.

"Yeah, you can go, Luisa." He said reluctantly, motioning his hand as if to shoo Luisa out.

Luisa bowed, acknowledging Wyrian's permission, she took a mysterious wooden bow and ran towards the deep forest. Wyrian was confused that Luisa only took a dark wooden bow yet she brought no quivers, even within Sabah's saddlebags there were no signs of quivers nor arrows.

Wyrian wanted to chase Luisa because he thought she forgot her ammunition, witnessing her lax personality. But there were already no signs of her, she was already deep inside the forest before Wyrian realized it.

"Do you think she'll be fine?" Wyrian asked Sabah, who tilted and whined in confusion in response.

"Yeah, you think so too."

"Milord, may I ask where is Luisa?" Mekel asked shyly, after a few moments.

"She went to hunt something." Wyrian replied, laying on Sabah's silver fur the same manner as Luisa recently, "Maybe it was the roar we heard just now."

"I see..." Mekel scratched his cheek shyly, as if he wanted to say something, but was too afraid to say it to him.

"You can speak freely, Mekel." Wyrian informed, "I'm no fan of formalities anyway."

"I-I see..." Mekel commented, twirling his indigo hair shyly, Wyrian still cannot believe that the one who's acting like a young tomboyish girl in front of him, was in fact a boy, after moments of thinking, he bowed respectfully, "I shall ask you, milord, if I can go on first."

"Any reason why you must go first?" Wyrian asked, "You haven't even stated your farewells yet."

"Uh... Madam Keira wanted these logs ready to be processed for tomorrow, for... for the festival, milord." Mekel explained, wondering to himself if he accidentally disrespected Wyrian, "I would love to stay for a while and escort Lord Kepper with Luisa, but I have my responsibilities first."

"I understand, you have my permission to leave." Wyrian accepted, "Forgive me that we decided to accompany you against your will."

"N-not at all, milord!" Mekel exclaimed, waving both his hands frantically trying to deny Wyrian's comment, "I had fun coming here, I feel more comfortable with you than any other noble."

"More than Duke Krestus?" Wyrian raised an eyebrow with a teasing smile.

"Slightly, milord." Mekel replied, making his comment respectful both to Wyrian, who is the new lord of the valley and to Duke Krestus, "I must be on my way."

Wyrian nodded in return.

After Mekel is out of sight, Sabah began scratching the back of his one ear suddenly with Wyrian in between.

"Careful with the lint." Wyrian warned, but he already accepted the fact he will be covered with lint. One of Sabah's saddlebags opened while Sabah was scratching, and what fell was the envelope Lady Kethel gave Luisa with.

After Sabah finished scratching, Wyrian saw the envelope with its contents out, Wyrian decided to pick it up and wanted to return it before Luisa returned. Wyrian accidentally saw the contents and was horrified.

It was a parchment paper with a clear picture of Mekel almost naked, in questionable poses and angles. The paper was enchanted with a [Photography] spell, a spell often used by scouts and spies in their reconnaissance, which Wyrian also used before. It horrified Wyrian, not because of the contents of the spell but because someone used said spell in such trivial perversions, despite how hard and expensive such spells are.

Wyrian, in a panic placed the paper in the envelope into the saddlebags.

Luisa returned with a pair of horns Wyrian did not recognize.

"Did you wait long, milord?" said Luisa, with pride in her voice.

"It was, Mekel already went out first." Wyrian replied, understanding Lady Kethel reaction with a subtle smile as if he touched something disgusting.

"Oh that's a bummer." Luisa responded, without her noticing Wyrian's emotion, "Then let us go milord!"

Onwards to Cilimma.