Limits

Frosty soon appeared in front of me. I asked "When we visited that small Lizard, did you try to absorb the coldness?", to which Frosty nodded its head. I said "Alright, now more pressing matter. Why were you scared to come out in Olrad?". Frosty started motioning something, but I didn't know exactly what it meant. I asked another question "Did you do something wrong in there?", but Frosty shook its head, and declines strongly. 'Hmm, weird. Frosty obviously has been in Obsidian Mountains in the past, so why it didn't want to show its face around there?' I thought.

I asked again "If you did nothing wrong, why hide? Obviously you've been there in the past. So what did you really do?". Frosty became angry, and again motioned something. I understood one thing from it. Apparently, I was stupid. I also got a bit angry and said "If you don't want to tell me, then don't! Whatever, let's go", and walked towards the east. Frosty became even more angry, and used its breath on me. I turned around and blocked it with my right hand. Frosty stood there angry, shouting "Mah". I then noticed sadness in its eyes, and realised what I did.

'What the hell am I doing exactly? I always treated Frosty with distance, as if it was simply a dead weight. I always ordered it and demanded something, yet almost never gave something back. I'm an idiot indeed' I thought, and walked over to Frosty. It was still shouting "Mah" angry and sad. I kneeled on one knee in front of Frosty, and patted its head. I said "I'm sorry. It seems I'm an idiot. It's alright now, I realised what I did, was wrong". Frosty stopped shouting, and calmed down.

"I distanced myself from you, due to my late friend. I didn't want the same thing to happen to you. So… " I said and looked at Frosty. It nodded its head, and brightened up a bit. I decided to no longer be that way, I would no longer force Frosty to do anything, or treat it as a dead weight. There was still one problem though, it was communication. Shelly could draw, and in greater details later on, so I could easily guess what it meant. But Frosty always motioned, and didn't want to draw. I understood some of the things that Frosty meant, but most of the time, I was clueless.

I came up with an idea, and asked "You are very intelligent, so how about I teach you the human language? You may be unable to speak, but reading and writing should not be such an issue. We could communicate much better. What do you say?". Frosty thought for a while, and seemed hesitant. I added "I know you don't like to learn stuff, and I will not force you. It is a suggestion, and if you know read or write, we can communicate more freely. Tell me when and if you want to learn it, you can take your time". Frosty nodded his head, and released a "Mah" sound. Then again thought for a while, and nodded. I asked "You want to learn now?", it nodded again.

I said "Alright, I will make things easier for you. You understand me no problem, so you know what the words I speak mean. You probably don't know how the letters look like, right?". Frosty nodded his head in response. I continued "Then it's simple. You already know the human language, now you just have to learn the letters. It's not going to take you that long as well". I then took out a piece of cloth, and started writing all the letters. After a short while, I passed that cloth to Frosty, and said "These are all the letters humans use. As you can see, there aren't that many of them. You should be able to learn, how to read and write them, without any issues".

Frosty took the cloth, and looked at it. A short while later, Frosty nodded its head, and seemed satisfied with that amount of learning. I said "Just practice whenever you want. If you want to write them, tell me and I will teach you how. For now, you can just memorize the letters". Frosty nodded his head, then looked at the fabric a few more times, before giving it back to me. I asked "You want me to store it for you?", but Frosty shook its head. It pointed at the fabric, then at its head.

I asked "You already memorised them?", to which Frosty nodded. I said "Alright, then do you want me to tell you, how to speak each letter?". Frosty nodded again. I sat down and motioned at Frosty, to come and join me. I said "This letter is "A" when spoken by itself, and in words like "Allow". The pronunciation may differ a bit, but you will be able to spot those differences easily. The next letter is "B"...". I went through the whole alphabet with Frosty once, then said "Alright, this should be enough for one day. If you want to spend some time with me, just come out whenever you want. I also have some Extract for you, tell me when you want it. Alright?".

Frosty nodded its head, and climbed my shoulder. It licked my face, then changed back to the tattoo. 'I should take better care of Frosty from now on. I don't want it to feel sad, due to me' I thought, and moved on towards the east. The road ahead was uninteresting, so I practiced my Stringed Hidden Weapons skill on the way. My goal, was to first get accustomed to the manipulation aspects. I needed to be able, to control the trajectory of those daggers at my will. When that step was accomplished, I would need to move on to the real purpose of that skill. It was called Stringed, but also Hidden Weapons. Hidden Weapons, was not a mindless attack, with some manipulation of my daggers. It was a skill, where my daggers were supposed to be hidden and deadly.

'When my daggers become visible, they should've already taken the life of someone, or something. The real skill, will be to use those strings, and constantly hide my daggers while attacking' I thought. It was the sole reason why, Nick was so impressed with that skill. Not because I would have 10 daggers flying around, changing directions at my will, but because they would do that and stay hidden.

Besides the training, I also spoke to Frosty from time to time. I didn't call it out, as I used to. I simply talked to my hand, and if Frosty wanted to come out, it would. I also didn't push the language learning onto it. Whenever Frosty wanted, I would teach it something for a while, then give it some rest. I also told Frosty about the South. That was the name, creatures from the North used for the Endrosian Empire. Frosty always listened attentively, when I shared some stories and general things, I knew from the Great Forest and the areas.

'Frosty seems to be very interested in the Endrosian Empire. No doubt, there are many things, that Frosty never heard of. I also don't know that much, I never visited a city before, so this should be a new experience for both of us, when we do' I thought.

After about 10 days of walking, the environment started to change, to that of rocks and sand. There were very little trees in this area, and the sand itself, seemed weird. It was very fine, and greyish yellow in colour. From time to time, I saw some larger stone formations, with openings. Those things looked like caves, but were free standing. There were no mountains in the area, and those cave like systems, although large and spanned for many metres, were never connected to anything, but the sand.

I visited one of the caves. I wanted to look for those Lears, in order to increase my supply of the food. Inside the cave, I could sometimes see holes on the ground, and on the walls. At first, I wondered what those holes could be, but then the answer came very quickly. 'So, these holes are Lears' nests. I should try and catch one' I thought. Lears were quite slow, I had no idea what they fed on, but when I picked one up, it seemed not dangerous at all. I was wrong. Multiple blade like legs, extended from the bottom of the Lears, while its mouth opened with the "O" shape, with many razor like teeth inside.

'What an ugly creature this is. I don't remember seeing these blade like legs on my plate. This means, those needs to be extracted, in order to eat them. I also don't recall seeing any teeth in there. Perhaps those are extracted too. No wonder Lazar said, that I could eat them, if I knew how to cook them' I thought, and severed the Lears' head.

Something I didn't expect happened. All the insides of the Lears splattered outside, together with its head. 'So, I can't kill them like this. As far as I'm aware, the Lears in the tavern were whole. No parts were severed, besides the blade like legs. I will need to study those creatures a bit more' I thought, and searched for another one.