Despite knowing he'd be back later that evening, kissing Samantha goodbye once more was one of the hardest things he'd ever done. Thankfully, the hunter was a bit of an early riser, so at the very least she saw him to the edge of the village.

"Remember, don't do anything reckless," she said, rolling her eyes at his expression. "…Overly reckless, I mean."

"I'll do my best," he agreed, giving her one last hug for the road. "I'll see you tonight!"

"You better!" She grinned, waving him off as he turned and finally began the long trek back to Whikoga once more.

The journey from the village of Horntho to Whikoga usually took three or four days via carriage, or just over a week on foot.

But that was for people who weren't able to bend the very fabric of reality to their whims.

Focusing, Asher began compressing tunnel after tunnel of space ahead of him as he jogged down the road. To him, he was moving at a rather leisurely pace. But to anyone watching, it probably looked like he was little more than a blur travelling twenty feet at a time with each step. Using his skill in quick succession like this wasn't easy, however, and Asher had to take frequent breaks to give himself time to rest and recuperate.

Thankfully, Samantha had provided him with quite a few spare waterskins that he'd stored within his Personal Rift, and he was pleased to find that her minor healing effect still worked even if he drank the water the next day. It didn't do anything for the rate at which he recovered skill-energy, but the water combined with his Eternal Regeneration meant that he didn't have to rest nearly as often as before, and he managed to make it much farther in a single day than he had the first time he'd made the trip to Whikoga.

When night finally fell and it became too dangerous for most people to keep moving, Asher decided to call it a day. While he could in fact see in the dark courtesy of his evolved darkness resistance, spending an entire day running was rather tiring, even for someone with multiple sources of healing.

Moving off the road, Asher picked a nearby tree and imbued it with his Eternal Mark. Based on the strain the skill was beginning to put on his core from having a third mark out in the universe, he had a hunch four would be his current limit. A quick test of placing another mark on a nearby rock confirmed that theory, as he suddenly felt as though he'd overfed his very soul. It wasn't necessarily painful, and he was sure he'd get used to the sensation if he had to, but it wasn't all that pleasant. He quickly removed that mark, not a fan in the slightest of that unique sensation.

Curiously, while focusing on his latest mark, he could actually sense the health of the tree in almost the same way he could Brian and Samantha. For example, while the tree was overall healthy, he now knew that there was a deep hole some critter had carved out about halfway up its face.

Eternal mark - lvl 14

Making a mental note to see what other things his mark could tell him about stuff, Asher focused on his mark on Samantha. While he could tell that she was located close to the cabin, the understanding he received of her location wasn't accurate enough to inform him of her exact position. For all he knew she could be refilling the water barrels out in the yard, or skinning some carcass in the living room.

Hoping he wasn't about to interrupt anything important, Asher activated Recall, stumbling slightly as the entire world shifted around him all at once. In an instant, the colors and objects around him reformed, and he blinked as he realized he was standing beside the dining room table.

Recall - lvl 4

"Asher!" Samantha exclaimed, carefully setting down her skinning knife and wiping the blood off her hands before jumping up and throwing her arms around him. "I wasn't expecting you back so soon! You mentioned you could see in the dark, so I figured you'd try and run a bit past sunset."

"I can only run for so many hours straight before I start going crazy," he chuckled, squeezing her tight and glancing over her head at the half-skinned deer on the table. "Any chance it's venison for dinner tonight?"

"Lucky guess," she giggled, giving him a quick kiss before going back to her work. "Sorry, I want to finish this before I get started on dinner. You're welcome to snack on some jerky or whatever if you're hungry though, you know where everything is. And not like I need to tell you, but Brian is out playing with his friends."

"Nonsense, just carve me a chunk of the deer and I'll start cooking," Asher said, his mind already flicking through different recipes. While he wasn't anywhere as good a cook as Samantha was, he'd already used Incorporate to memorize her father's old cookbook, and he could follow step by step instructions as well as the next person.

"You're the best," she grinned, doing just that and letting him take over meal prep for the evening as she got back to work.

By the time Brian ran in, quickly tackling Asher around his waist before launching into a story about how Logan had shown him a cool rock that they were pretty sure was a cat that had been turned to stone by an evil monster, Asher had finished cooking and Samantha had cleared the table of her deer carcass. The three of them sat down to eat, and Asher got to hear all about their days.

"You already saw what I did with my day," Samantha shrugged. "After bagging that deer, I helped George with an old pest problem he's been having. Moles have been going after his crops, so I got to lounge around and shoot at any that popped their heads up out of the ground. Not the most exciting, but he said he'll bring one of Martha's famous homemade pies when they stop by for dinner tomorrow. He had to call a rain check today unfortunately."

"Oh yeah, I totally forgot about inviting him to eat with us," Asher admitted, his face turning red at the realization. Some host he was.

"I realized when you only made enough food for three," Samantha giggled. "Don't worry, I would have said something if he'd been stopping by. And I think you get a pass for forgetting you invited him seeing as what happened immediately after…"

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"What happened?" Brian asked around a mouthful of meat, his inquisitive eyes darting between the two of them. "Is that why Asher had to leave again?"

"I got a letter from a friend in the city," Asher explained, going with the excuse Samantha and him had decided on ahead of time. Obviously, they weren't going to tell the twelve-year-old someone had made an attempt on Asher's life. Or that said attempt had technically succeeded. "I need to go take care of some things, but now that I have my new skill, I'll only be gone for most of the day at a time."

"I think I want skills like yours when I grow up," Brian decided, spearing another piece of venison with his fork and nodding his head. "Samantha's Forest skills are cool, but yours are weird. Good weird."

"Brian!" Samantha frowned. "We don't comment on people's skills like that."

"Why not? They are!" he argued, pointing at Asher with his fork. "And Asher doesn't mind!"

"Asher might not, but what if you get in the habit of talking like that and accidentally offend a passing Slayer, or someone not quite as friendly as Asher?" she asked, looking pointedly at him.

"Fine," Brian grumbled, going back to shoveling food into his mouth and mumbling an apology. "Sorry."

Asher spent the entire exchange sitting quietly, watching the two siblings. He wasn't sure if she even realized it herself, but sometimes Samantha would almost subconsciously slip into a more motherly role, going from fun older sister to worried parent as she tried to ensure Brian was prepared for the real world. Asher supposed it only made sense seeing as she'd been taking care of Brian since he was only four years old.

Deciding to help the mood, Asher asked Brian about the supposed petrified cat once more, and Brian immediately lit up, diving headfirst into another retelling of his adventures that afternoon with his friends. Asher caught the grateful smile Samantha shot his way, and he was more than happy to return it as he nodded along and laughed from Brian's exaggerated storytelling.

After dinner, Asher let Brian try to teach him how to fire a bow, and quickly came to the realization that he was not very good when it came to archery. Stabbing something with a dagger was easy, but consistently hitting a target at range with an arrow was a hell of a lot harder.

At the very least, Brian got a good kick out of just how bad of a shot he was.

He spent the rest of the evening cuddling and chatting with Samantha, and after getting a goodnight's rest in a comfy bed as opposed to a bedroll on the hard ground, and eating a warm, hearty breakfast, he Recalled back to the tree he'd marked and continued his journey to Whikoga.

His second day on the road ended up not being quite as productive, as the dirt road he'd been following merged into the actual main road and he began spotting the occasional horse-drawn carriage or coming across other weary travelers. Asher already didn't like showing off his strange skills, and that went doubly so now that he was trying to keep a low profile. He didn't want whoever had sent him that blue powder to know that he was still alive and coming for them, which meant he had to be even more careful than usual.

He didn't come across any more overturned carriages either, and he made it only a few hours out from the city before night fell and he decided to call it a day.

Recalling back to the cabin, Asher helped Samantha prepare dinner and get everything set up to host George and Martha. He got the feeling that despite her excellent cooking skills, Samantha didn't host very often, as the hunter frantically ran around trying to make the place look more impressive.

"I don't think George is going to care if the blankets aren't folded properly," Asher called from the kitchen as Samantha unfolded and refolded the blankets.

"You sound just like my mother!" Samantha called back, giggling despite her nervousness. "Whenever my parents had anyone over, my dad would try to clean everything up and try to make the place look spotless, while mom would always argue that it was okay if our house looked like people actually lived in it. I'm nowhere near as bad as my dad, but I haven't had anyone over in a really long time, and I want to make a good impression on George and Martha! They've done a lot for me over the years."

"I'm sure they'll just be happy to see you and Brian are doing well for yourselves," Asher reassured her, plating the roasted bird Samantha had shot down that morning and helping her with the blankets. "Though if it means they'll bring over baked goods more often, I'm more than happy to help."

"Good to know pie is one of your motivators," Samantha snorted, giving him a quick kiss for his help before tackling the rest of the blankets.

Sure enough, George and Martha didn't say a single thing about the blankets when they finally arrived. Martha gushed over how big Brian was getting and pulled Asher into a tight hug, and George complimented Asher on his cooking skills as he smelled the bird from the living room. According to him, his minced pie was what made Martha fall for him in the first place all those years ago, and he said perfecting the recipe was the only reason she kept him around.

It wasn't long before they sat down and dug into the food, and Asher got to listen to George and Martha as they took turns telling him all about Samantha when she was little, much to the hunter's chagrin. Despite their clear curiosity, when Asher didn't offer up any information about himself, the two farmers kindly withheld their questions. He had the feeling they'd be a bit more inquisitive the next time they all ate together, but for now, they were content seeing just how happy Samantha and Brian were with him around.

The five of them talked long into the evening, enjoying Martha's phenomenal apple pie that didn't quite have the same consistency as apples back on Earth in Asher's opinion. After making promises to do something like this again sometime soon, the couple finally said their goodbyes. Brian conked out on the couch almost immediately after they were gone, leaving Asher and Samantha to clean up.

"That was nice," Samantha smiled, bringing the plates over to the sink and conjuring up a stream of water with her skill as she began washing them. "It's been so many years since I did something like that, I'd almost forgotten what it felt like."

"Have you ever hosted like that before? After you lost your parents I mean?" Asher asked, taking the wet plates and drying them one by one.

"Yeah… Early on, right after it happened it felt like we had people over more often than not," Samantha nodded, a sad smile on her face. "Practically the whole village came together to make sure the two of us were doing alright. They brought over food and made sure I knew what I was doing when it came to Brian. Hell, one nice couple even offered to take Brian in and raise him as their own, but I refused. Perhaps a bit more harshly than I should have…"

"I'm sure they understood."

"I hope so," Samantha sighed, leaning back against the counter. "Eventually, it all felt like too much. I kinda snapped and told everyone to just leave us alone. I think I ruined a good handful of relationships, but there were a few people like George that never quite gave up on me."

"You'd just lost your parents, Samantha, I'm sure everyone understood," Asher said gently. "I bet if you tried to reconnect now that things are better, the other villagers would be happy to hear from you again."

"Maybe," she muttered, biting her lip in a way that made his heart skip a beat. "Anyway, regardless of all that, thanks for all your help tonight. You did a wonderful job of playing host with me."

"It was fun," Asher grinned, putting away the last of the plates before taking her hand in his own. "I definitely wouldn't mind doing it again sometime. Especially if there is more pie involved."

"You and your pie," she snorted, shaking her head. "Come on, help me get Brian into bed, and then if you're not too tired, I'd love to relax together for a bit. After all those embarrassing stories, I think it's only fair that I hear some of your own from when you were little. It'll help ease my mind knowing what you're about to get up to tomorrow when you finally hit Whikoga."

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