Chapter 1: Meetup in the Post Town
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Things were nice and peaceful for the next few days after the friendship banquet. Three days before that, there had been a festival of the hunt for the Fa and the five clans that neighbored us, all of which were still in their break periods, so there wasn’t even any hunting going on. During their last break periods, the men and women of those clans had been quite busy providing bloodletting and cooking lessons for the clans that lived farther away from us, but this time they could focus solely on deepening their bonds with family instead.
The Sudra clan in particular had the twins who had been born about a month ago, and from what Yun Sudra had told me, it sounded like they were all still completely overjoyed because of it. On top of that, Cheem and Ia Fou Sudra had just gotten married, and the Fou man and Ran woman who were expected to marry members of the clan had been making frequent visits, so things had been livelier at their place than they’d ever been before.
As for the Fa clan, Tia of the red people had completely adjusted to life alongside us at this point. With me and Ai Fa, our hunting dog Brave and guard dog Jirube, Gilulu the totos, and Tia, there were six of us now, which was making our household much livelier too. Coming home from doing business in the post town and having them all greet me together was its own unique kind of happiness.
Ai Fa was spending her days at the house for the time being, so there wasn’t any need to have the Ruu clan look after Tia. Instead, our young guest was keeping up with her training, playing with Brave and Jirube, and just having fun in general. At times, Tia would climb trees with her arms and left leg alone so that she wouldn’t get rusty, though apparently that was more like some light rehabilitation than the sort of hunting training Ai Fa engaged in. Still, rest really would have been the best medicine for her until that bone healed back up.
“The red people seem to possess tremendous power. The townsfolk would likely have trouble believing you were a fellow human,” Ai Fa stated. I wouldn’t have been surprised if that were true, given that Tia was able to leap higher than her own head with only one working leg.
On top of that, Tia was also exceptionally skilled with a bow. With Ai F