After visiting the healer’s hut, Theo and Serena went back to preparing for the cold season. They headed out to the north side of the forest to get wood. They needed it for a few projects, like fixing the old ladder, as well as for their firewood stockpile.
Theo had spoken to her about his idea for keeping a few wild birds for eggs and at and Serena was intrigued by it. The original owner had a few mories about keeping wild birds since her parents had done it.
They kept them in so kind of place called a coop and would give them vegetable scraps and grains. As a child, the original owner loved going to collect eggs with her father.
Thus, Theo and Serena decided to try making a coop as an extra way of collecting food. They planned to build it next to their vegetable garden and had checked with Elder Samuel about building the coop.
The rabbit beastman didn’t mind them doing it, however, instructed that they make sure the birds couldn’t get out to ss with others’ gardens. Which was reasonable enough for them.
It was a bit of a walk to the north side of the forest, taking them about ten minutes to get there. A few rabbit beastn were also there to collect wood and told them which trees would work.
Theo set about felling a tree while Serena and Kiro walked around and collected twigs and bark for kindling. Occasionally, Serena would find a familiar plant and harvest it too, sotis adding it into her subspace.
However with Kiro glued to her side almost all the ti, she landed up just adding it into her basket. She would sotis tell him what the plant could be used for so he’d learn.
After about two hours of roaming the forest and collecting kindling, Serena and Kiro had several bundles held together by thick vines. They headed back to where Theo was cutting up the tree.
He already had several logs cut up and Serena began making them into bundles so it would be easier to carry. After getting several bundles tied up, Serena picked them up, strapped them to her back and headed back to the village.
Kiro followed along with their bundles of kindling. The siblings repeated this three more tis, going back and forth between the forest and village. In between each trip, Serena would create more bundles allowing herself to take a small break.
Theo did try to stop them, but Serena put her foot down on this one. She wanted to build up her stamina and this was a perfect excuse to do it. Of course, it did raise so eyebrows, but by now most were used to it.
By the third trip back and forth, Kiro was completely wiped out, so Serena left him to rest inside the hut. She too was tired from walking up and down, her leg muscles beginning to protest but she ignored them.
Instead, she grabbed two water skins and headed back to the forest. When she returned, she found Theo cutting the wood with the axe he had borrowed from Elder Samuel.
Her guess was his claws were starting to hurt from all the wood chopping. He was using an old tree stump to split the wood logs before leaving them in a pile for Serena to bundle them up in.
She watched as sweat beaded across his forehead, biceps straining as he swung the axe down, chopping the wood in half. A few pieces splintered off as he cut the wood, going everywhere.
Serena made a ntal note to collect the bits of splintered wood since it would be good for the vegetable garden. At least that’s what Rico had told them.
"Do you want so water?" Serena offered as she walked up to Theo once he set the axe down.
"Please." Theo replied, taking the one water skin from her.
Serena watched as he gulped the water down, his Adam’s apple moving up and down as he drank. He then lifted it up and splashed water all over his head to cool down.
Once he was done, he handed the empty water skin to Serena and said, "Thanks. I needed that."
"No problem." Serena murmured, taking the water skin from him. "Do you need more water?"
"Please." Theo nodded his head. He was quiet for a mont before he added, "You should let do the rest. Walking back and forth must be tiring."
"It is, but we’ll get things done quicker like this." Serena retorted with a frown. "Don’t try to start arguing about this with . I’ve already gotten most of the firewood to the village."
"Which is exactly why you must be tired." Theo grumbled. "How in the Beast God’s na did you carry so much firewood?!"
Serena gave him a tight smile, not going to say that she cheated a bit adding a few bundles in her subspace to carry more when no one was looking. It made the process faster because while she was using the firewood as a stamina training exercise, she was also realistic enough to know that by six or seven trips, she’d be done.
And feeling the muscle pain tomorrow.
"If you’re worried about carrying firewood, then let’s swap." Serena said instead.
Theo frowned at her. "No way. You could easily injure soone or worse yourself using this axe."
"Then I guess I’ll be carrying firewood back to the village." Serena mused.
She didn’t bother telling him that she wouldn’t get hurt because she knew how to wield an axe. If anything, others would get hurt if she used that axe against them.
Theo grumbled at her words so Serena added, "I can probably do two more trips and then I’m done. You can do the rest if you’re so desperate."
Theo was quiet for a mont before she sighed, "Fine... Just don’t overwork yourself."
"I won’t." Serena stated before she went back to bundling up more firewood ending their conversation.
She soon headed back to the village, getting Theo more water along the way, before heading back. All while Theo continued chopping wood.
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