I Will Be the Greatest Knight Chapter 286: From the Top

It had been such a long ti since she was last able to use her bow. While she had practiced a few tis at the Duke’s Tower after the war, there was nothing aningful to the practice other than to make sure she still knew the chanics and motions to get the purest shot.

However, a moving target was sothing she hadn’t experienced recently. The last ti she had one was during the war, since the practice yard and its small storage sheds had been destroyed, so there weren’t good targets to use. She wasn’t going to force a knighthood that was slowly rebuilding itself in other ways to make special accommodations for her.

Felix wished she would demand more, but she preferred to demand less.

The girl had to take a slow, deep breath and narrow her eyes as she focused on the white wolf. She pulled the bowstring taut, preparing for the wolf to lurch forward and cause danger to herself or Sammy. If she lost her horse, she would certainly have to turn around. It wasn’t wise to do the journey on foot and would likely take months longer than she had prepared for.

Her green eyes were adjusted to the distance the wolf was at, allowing her to notice a bit more in its nearby surroundings. She was squinting so that the starkness of the environnt around her wouldn’t harm her vision.

The girl’s eyes widened when she saw movent behind the wolf. Two fuzz balls sprinted away, one tackling the other when it got ahead. The wolf she had been aiming for turned to snap at the pups and quiet them down because they were making more targets for the possible opponent to strike. The wolf’s golden eyes turned back to her, cautiously waiting for her next move.

A mother.

For so reason, despite having been in a similar situation with a mother dire wolf and her young, Irene had great hesitance at the thought of taking this one’s life. Even though it might get her nice fur that would sell for a lot once she returned, she found it hard to kill sothing that was showing her no signs of aggression.

It was watching her, making sure she didn’t close while Irene was doing the sa thing to the mother wolf.

They were at an impasse for a few monts as Irene internally processed the situation.

It was true that the wolf wasn’t hurting anyone. It was also true that this area of the mountain was its ho, which ant that it wasn’t near any of the villages. No people were at risk because of its existence except for her. And even then, she was at no risk because the wolf wasn’t doing anything that even showed it was trying to cause her harm.

Irene released the tension on the bow, but not because she had taken a shot.

"Don’t hurt and I won’t hurt you," she called. "I will leave you to care for your young if you leave to go on my way."

For so reason, it felt like there was a millisecond of understanding between the two of them. Her grandmother’s insane belief that she could communicate with wolves or coexist with them was brought up, causing Irene to smile lightly.

The wolf turned away and nipped at her young again, which sent them northeast and far away from her as they ran off.

Rather than watching her for a mont more, Irene squeezed her knees and put away her bow and arrow as Sammy galloped on.

Just as when her grandmother told the knights not to harm the wolf who lived behind her house, Irene felt divided in her duties as a knight, mixed in with the Sünstoian life of living alongside and appreciating nature. She continued to remind herself that she wasn’t exactly in Chemois anymore or even the kingdom at all. Things were different out there.

It was a decision she was going to have to live with.

Without another disturbance, she and Sammy pressed on, only taking a break once when she found a few grasses he could eat that seed to have been a small pond or puddle at one point. Rather than being dry and brittle, the grasses were surprisingly frozen solid, but green and vibrant once she dumped water on them to thaw them out. After that, the horses didn’t mind licking and biting to get a small snack.

It caused Irene to realize just how awfully things must have frozen out there—how quickly winter ca even further north than Chemois. All she had done was climb up, it felt like. She hadn’t made it a great distance forward, only higher.

With this in mind, the girl tried not to be impatient as she finished jerky and dried bread, washed down with a bit of water. She wanted the horse to eat what he could before it was ti to go. While she was able to conserve her energy and not eat very much, the horse needed all of the food he could get.

Feeling guilty, she reached into one of the pouches with oats that she used for porridge in the morning and offered him two handfuls, which he gobbled down in no ti.

"I feel bad that this is your first true journey with ," she admitted to the horse. "I have been working you hard, yet you get up each morning with such energy." The thought caused her to think of Sorrel, who was living out his life in her father’s large and warm stables. "Or perhaps I had gotten used to having an old horse. It is quite nice to be young and energetic, isn’t it?"

In response, the horse huffed at her now empty hand and kicked rocks and snow on the ground.

"Let’s go then if you’re feeling that way," she stated.

He seed to take off with a bit more energy than she requested by the squeeze of her knees. Although she wouldn’t complain, considering he was so eager to get further in the cold with her.

They went on like that for a while, her having to slow him down after a certain point so he wouldn’t be spent by the end of the day.

The only other life the two of them saw all the way to the end of the plateau was three birds that flew overhead.

"Grouse!" she called as if soone other than a horse was listening to her.

She felt relieved to see at least that. While she had hunted birds just like that the entire ti she was an apprentice, her father told her that those were a sure way to get a al. They still had enough food to remain plump even in the winter, while other ga would be starving at this point in the season.

It gave her hope that her supplies would last because, once they got off the mountain, she was going to spend most of her ti hunting.

The rest of the day, the flatness of the space around them seed to be rising little by little. By the ti they got to the end of it, Irene was completely unaware of the view that waited for her at the end.

As she and her horse stood at the edge of what would take them down a ways and into the northern lands, she recognized the view that was much closer than it was when she was on the largest peak during the monster subjugation as they prepared for winter.

She recalled how young she was and discouraged, yet Sir Gunnar showed her sothing that was a fond mory to her when things were feeling bleak.

While the entire area was a blanket of undisturbed white, there were frozen oceans to the west and a massive peak northeast that sparkled in the sun that had already started dipping towards the western horizon that day. If she looked a bit closer, there were signs of life all around. Little tracks of creatures covered the expanses of white. She could also start to pick out rocks from snow, but certainly plenty of lumps that were things yet to be discovered, since they were covered in snow.

As her eyes traced up towards the mountain, she thought for sure she saw evidence of a township, but it would take her another few days to get there and then another week to get to the highest point she would reach.

Unfortunately, the reality did strike her that in any of the lumps of snow or traces of humanity, there was no sign of chimney smoke rising into the air.

Her father warned her of the possibility that all human life in the north had ceased either because of the circumstances or simply because everyone had moved away as it seed to get colder and much harder to survive.

At least the path was down from there and they only had a couple of days left of traveling through rocks.

"Another phase of this journey," Irene uttered. "I hope you’re ready to see where your family ca from, because I sure am."

She scratched Sammy’s mane and smiled.

It was ti to camp or she was going to regret getting in too late.