"Oh! Look who made it back. You look like you grew a little. And your scales are shiny as ever. I''m sorry I don''t have much good for you to snack on right now but there are some leftoverbeef bones over there. I was going to make soup but there''s no time now." Walker could hear his mothers'' excitement to see Midnight. He knew that she would have spoiled her rotten if she was able to.


    "Already giving her snacks and she hasn''t even been in the room for five minutes?" Walker saw his mother and was greeted with a flour covered hug.


    "You took your sweet time getting back. I wasn''t sure if you would even be able to ake it in to the city with that demoning to cause trouble. But we have very good protectors. I knew everything would be fine." There was not a single shake in her voice. She believed that they would have been safe no matter what.


    "I would havee back sooner but I had to stop at the cathedral. Elise and Ste are here to visit since they marked a path for the demi-humans to send supplies. There are some demons who will stay with us to learn a few things. And then I also had to speak with some nobles and the king. Not to mention even before all this I was at the dwarven kingdom too. I''m d to be back and smell your cooking, even if it''s not for me." Walker spoke in a flurry of words. He was more excited to be home than he had realized he was.


    "All the way to the dwarves? That is almost to the mountains! How could you have gone all the way there?" Hilda was stunned. She hadn''t imagined they had traveled to more than one ce. The king had already announced the forming of a new alliance and the new city but not that her son had left to meet with dwarves.


    "It wasn''t really nned. It was another demon causing trouble. I just hope that we solved the problem. Although, I am not too sure it will be solved very well at the moment. It will only be known with time." Walker shrugged a little knowing that he could only hedge some guesses for now. "Anyway, I brought you some ingredients. The forest elf city had some vegetables and there were frog type monsters around that taste really good. We managed to find some more horned rabbits. I will omit the orcs because they are gross. But other than that, I will just get them in the storeroom for you."


    There were countless dough balls rising on the counters and even another batch mixed and waiting for Hilda to start to divide it. Walker knew that there was no time for him to distract her since all of the tasks were time sensitive. "Thank you for bringing me new things to try cooking with. I will remember them when I go to experimentter. But for now, get your butt out of the kitchen and let me do what I do best. Oh, and take Midnight with you, I don''t have anything good for her right now." Hilda looked sad since she couldn''t feed Midnight. However, this was to help feed the farmers that had lost everything, it was eptable.


    Walker was shooed out of the kitchen to find that the mansion was surprisingly silent. He wanted to get everyone together but he knew that they would most likely be resting. In any case, he chose to head toward their dining hall. Midnight and Onyx would be able to nap in front of the firece which was their favorite spot. Walker could also have easy ess to the training field and throw together a quick fire to roast some meat and leave it for everyone who came by the dining hall along with some of the leftover bread and cheese from their travels.


    Upon entering the dining hall, Walker and Midnight found the old master alchemists sprawled out on a chair asleep. "Brother, it appears the alchemist was exhausted." Onyx could pick out the signs of exhaustion after working with Su. He had been learning a lot about healing and injuries which made home much more knowledgeable than most.


    "We won''t bother him then. I bet he sent off all of his potions to help heal people and now he is facing the fact that he was studying something and suddenly needed to rush potions away." Walker was d to have such goodpany and bonds with people. He could only imagine that Remey most likely found him this way too and was the one to leave the nket on him.


    Walker headed outside to find that Elise and Ste were both using a book on basic monsters and how taming was performed to teach the demon woman the ins and outs. Walker nned to ask Elise to show him too since he was also a little lost on the basics. He had just happened in to bing somewhat of a tamer and never truly studied the basics. This also reminded him of just how many books he had still yet to read in the library.


    In the distance, he could hear the hammering of the forge and knew that the wandering cksmith must have found something interesting to make. Walker knew he needed to speak with him about the trip to the mountains. It would be an interesting journey because Walker had not been to the mountains before.


    There was also the fact that the wandering cksmith wanted to go there so that he could learn and experiment with different forging methods in the cold of the snowy mountains. Not to mention the many different and unique materials that they held hidden whether it was a monster or naturally urring materials. It was sure to be something exciting.


    At the moment though, Walker started a fire and made his meal before heading off to rest and recover from his journey.


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