Snow fell upon the old trees. The ancient trees, Oaks and Birches, that made up the deep forest of Gammellys. And yet, sunlight somehow fell through the leaves and branches, and the fallen white powder seemed to glimmer.

Janne loved the snow. It made her job easy. She thanked Glim once more for her light and her snow. This hunt would be easy.

She went deep into the woods with his hunter dog by her side. Deeper and deeper, wending through the trees and underbrush. The tracks were easy in the snow - it was a Pracian hind. A female. Young. It must have come from Hortskave, its home being made for ships. A shame for it. A dinner for Janne.

She jumped over a log before her as quietly as she could. She shivered, and peered through the underbrush. A prayer to Glim left her lips, and then she saw it. The hind. She aimed her crossbow and…

CRACK

And the hind was off. And her HOUND was off, running after it. Damn it, Janne thought, damn it! as she looked for what was responsible for the crack.

It was a northerner. Janne could tell by the way he was bundled under countless layers, almost like a ball of hide. Probably from Fluss, or Straharia, or even Vloddam. All too common nowadays. People who couldn’t farm and couldn’t mine, so they came south to hunt, only to find that they knew little of hunting either. She relaxed, and stood up straight, and called out.

“Hallo!” She said. The simple northerner looked shaken, and turned and saw Janne. Even from under his whiskers, she could see the northerner’s frozen smile.

“Ehum, hullo! Hullo!” said the Northerner. He was from Straharia. Definitely. No doubt, no question. Janne heard all too much of that accent lately, but she doubted hers sounded any less queer to this Straharian. “Hullo, my name is Lukas. Lukas Habs. It is cold today, quite, quite!” The Straharian was shivering.

“I am Janne. It is cold, yes, but beautiful, and where the sun shines it is warm.” She looked around, took in the beauty.

“Ah yes, very beautiful, yes, yes. Well, I must be going to get that deer, then.”

“You’ve scared it off. I was hunting the hind too.” Said Janne, annoyed. The Straharian frowned.

“Oh… my mistake, miss Janne. I am new around here, came in from Straharia just a few weeks ago. I signed on with a logging company, but I decided I would try to hunt.” Said Lukas.

“Some advice, then.” Janne said, now slightly upset. Loggers, in her woods. “This is an old place. An old, old place. It should be respected. I’m not asking you to stop your logging, but you need to give back to the land what you take – and pay respects to Mother Glim. Or Achintya. Whichever you prefer.”

Janne’s dog came back from the deep wood. Lukas looked thoughtful.

“Thank you, miss Janne. I’ll… I’ll keep that in mind. Tell me, where do you come from?”

“I come from here, Lukas. We all do.”

Well, wasn’t that nice. I might have gotten a bit too hokie at the end, but ¯_(ツ)_/¯.

The time is Winter, 813.

Things I developed in this post (spoilers for the future btw):

• Glimmer is integrating the Pracian Expanse
• Logging is a thing southerners hate about northerners.
• People from the north are moving south in search of jobs
• Farming is being done by fewer and fewer people up north (because fewer people can make more food)
• Mining is a big profession up north, while logging and hunting are big professions down south
• Glaunism spreads, and Gammellys is a holy place for it.

Now that that’s done, it’s been real. Please go fuck yourselves.