OCT 9 Saturday.

I slowly concentrate my life magic onto a single small area to grow more steel wood from the back pieces of my armor.

I'm currently working on modifying my armor a bit to improve it, in this case, I'm growing out a few steel wood handles to secure straps too. I normally can't wear my saddlebags and my armor at the same time, this will fix that to an extent, although I should probably try and buy something better for this later.

I like my saddlebags and would rather not get them damaged so they will be staying home today, but my old saddlebags are coming with me. They are lighter and being unneeded I can modify them to work with my armor without caring. After the small wooden handles are in place I start to equip my armor piece by piece.

Once I have everything but the helmet on I start to work on the old saddlebags. I take my dagger and start to cut off a few of the individual bags and straps. Saddlebags come in a few forms, but both of my saddlebags are in a style I prefer above others. They consist of one large bag on either side of my body, connected to each of those are two medium-sized bags and a few pocket-sized ones mirrored on both sides.

I have some needle and thread so I start by cutting two of the medium bags and several small ones out of the old saddlebags. Because I'm rusty it takes a long while to stitch it all together, but when I'm done I have two medium bags and all the small ones sewn together with some straps. They attach in a single piece that straps onto the upper back of my armor.

I test it several times by trying to pull or yank it off, but my needlework is decent enough to get the job done. I'm definitely going to do something better later, but this works for now. After I'm done with that I start to take off my armor pieces thinking about how to improve them more.

The Steel wood doesn't have much magical capacity, and some of that is taken up by the sticking spells that keep it together, but there is still a good amount to work with. I can't do something like a protection spell, but something small is possible.

After a little thinking, I decided to try something small but challenging and new. The idea is simple, but the implementation is a bit more complex, so I need to explain a few things. The spell I use to embed a spell into an object and enchant said object is very common, and something I've never modified, it simply has no room for improvement.

Unlike many spells, this one is worked on consistently by amazing inventors trying their best to improve it constantly, but back to my point. This is not the only enchanting spell I've found, most are simply variations that change little things, and this one is no different, all it does is let you put a single spell on multiple objects at once. It's called the Group Enchantment spell.

The normal enchanting spell lets you embed a spell in any object, but only a singular object. The best way to visualize this enchanting new spell is that it's taking a spell apart and putting those parts in several objects at once to achieve the same effect, but as you'd imagine this has some heavy downsides.

First, when I made the analogy of cutting a spell into pieces it was not literal. An enchantment is a metaphysical construct that has no physical form, so while that metaphysical structure is inside multiple objects that doesn't mean it's in pieces. It's a little hard to wrap your mind around honestly, but it is called magic for a reason.

The spell inhabits multiple objects while still being a single spell, it's odd, but back to the downsides. Second. To properly activate any enchantments with this method you need all the objects to be within a certain distance from each other, the more magic available in the object the more distance you have to work with.

Three. All enchantments with this method are weaker and a little less stable, also if any of the objects are destroyed or missing it won't work. On the upside, the spell does let you connect some of the magic capacity of the objects used, not by a lot but it's something.

The only other thing worth mentioning is that the spell is also much more complex to cast. Now for what I'm enchanting my armor with, I have a very weak water-repelling shield for a past project, and out of everything I would rather not get wet in my armor, or covered in snow. The problem is that none of the individual pieces of my armor have enough magic capacity for a spell like that, but if I Group Enchant them then it should work.

I could use gems, but that seems like a little much for such weak armor that I'm still working on improving. The water-repellent spell also still has to be very weak, it will only be able to repel water and snow but that's enough for me. I start with the water-repellent spell which doesn't take long.

I've made shields to conform and follow my body before so I just combine that with the water-repellent shield spell I have and go from there. It takes a full hour to make it efficient enough, and when I'm done I have to take off my armor again. I don't include my helmet as I don't want to be rained on when I take it off.

My wooden armor sits in a loose pile on the floor before starting to cast the spells needed. A three-ring spell materializes around my armor before a second one-ring spell appears inside that matrix, I start to dump my magic into the spells and a moment later there is a soft flash from my armor.

I then have to start snapping the pieces back together on my body, it takes a few minutes but once I'm done I quickly activate the armor's new enchantment. I made the activation method tapping a specific plate of my armor, one of the leg segments on my front right leg.

There is no visual difference so I settle for going to the kitchen and turning on my sink, I stick my hoof inside and it slips on an invisible shield an inch away from my armor mid-air. I smile at my success, "Perfect, I have everything then." I keep my small bit of pride as I place the new bags for my armor on my back.

I take another moment to remove a piece of my armor while keeping the water running over my hoof. After a single plate is moved a few inches away the shield stops working, it seems the range is very small, but that is to be expected considering the low magical capacity of my armor.

After double-checking my armor I turn to Entropy sleeping on her perch. "Hmm. Maybe not now then, heh." I smile at her and decide to wait a little longer and make sure I have everything I'll need for today.

Lunchtime is soon so she should be awake by then, she always is, for now, I just start to sharpen my blades a little more. For this trip, I'm taking my frost dagger and a steel wood greatsword. The frost dagger is still something of a mystery to me, but one that I found a lead in recently.

The rune that is used to apply the frost effect to others has proven difficult to find, much more than any other rune so far. When I started looking for it I found nothing and eventually just gave up, but recently I found a somewhat similar rune so I might be able to find it soon.

As for my greatsword, well I have two of them now. One is just for practice and stays dull, while this one is actually sharp and ready to be used. I slowly move my V-shaped sharpening block over the blade several times until it's properly sharpened. Beyond my weapons, I'm bringing a medkit and a few days of food just to be safe.

You may be wondering what the hell I'm doing? Well, I'm taking another trip into the Everfree, this time to study Timberwolves, at least that's the hope. That's why I'm preparing so much, I take my safety seriously. This trip has a few goals, first and foremost I want to try and find where the pack I often see lives.

Not much is known about Timberwolves, they are as dangerous as normal wolves, and I've learned a few things but overall they are a complete unknown. I want to learn more, but doing so is dangerous and that's why I'm preparing so much. I spend the rest of my time organizing some of my old notes on Timberwolves.

By the time I'm done, Entropy is awake and flies over to me looking over my armor. "What?" I turn to her as she looks over my appearance.

I smile at her. "We have a trip to go on, but first lunch." That gets her excited as always. It's a quick and easy meal for both of us and I don't even bother to leave my armor while cooking. Once we're properly fed I have Entropy take me to Gaia's Eden, and we appear inside my shack.

I take a moment to make sure Celestia is not here, I would rather not have her know about me doing this. She isn't here so I turn to Entropy again, "Remember Girl, banana." She looks up and nods before merging into my shadow while I leave my shack and put on my helmet.

Over the meal, I told Entropy that banana is my safe word, if or when I need to quickly retreat all I need to say is banana and Entropy will take us away immediately. The thick snow crunches under my hooves while any snow that falls on me slides right off of the shield. I walk over to the river, which is mostly frozen by this point, only a third of the river in the middle is still unfrozen by this point.

Last year it froze over entirely, it's something of a hole in my defenses that I will need to look into sometime. I test the ice with my hoof and try to stand on it, it's stable enough but the ice is thin and it's not going to be easy to walk on. Instead of walking on it, I cast a slow fall spell on myself and backed up to get a running start.

I take a running jump and clear the river easily but almost tumble as I overshoot it, luckily flying has made me skilled enough to not eat shit completely. After I have my hoofs under me again I start to look around for tracks. This river is one of the few places with easy to access fresh water so even in winter they come here.

There are a few tracks but they are hard to spot and I'm not skilled in tracking, after a few minutes I just decide to move in the direction I normally see them coming from as I move into the forest from the small riverside clearing the terrain changes.

The Everfree is much brighter than normal as many trees have lost most or all of their leaves. It lets more sunlight through, but even then there are still many shadows cast from the thick trees and cover of intertwined branches. The good news is the snow is only three inches deep most of the time so walking is easy.

I have no idea where I am going, but getting lost is no concern, so I take my time and explore this side of the river. It's mostly more of the same, but eventually, I find more tracks. They are half-filled with snow but they seem similar enough to the others so I start to follow them.

But after a while the trail ends as more fresh snow covers them up. I pause for a moment and decide to try something else, I reach out with my space magic and try to sense any difference in the snow. But as I do something feels off, it's a slow movement not too far behind me that I haven't noticed until now.

I spent a few minutes focusing on the snow with my spatial senses, but kept my life magic senses on watch around me, still when I quickly drew my blades and turned around I only had a moment before something was inches away from me. I'm not able to block in time so I try my best to move out of the way, but as I do that something clamps on my front right hoof and starts to pull.

I get my bearing and try to keep my balance while I see a white Timberwolf trying to bite through the armor on my leg. My mind is in full panic at the sudden attack and I do the only thing I can think of, I stab my greatsword down and try to make it let go. But it lets go before I hit it and my greatsword only hits the cold ground.

The Timberwolf has backed off a few feet and has its maw open in a snarl. Backing off gives me a chance to let my mind catch up with my new situation, and the first thing my mind remembers is that Timberwolves don't hunt alone. I get lucky as the moment I sweep my spatial sense around the area I'm able to move out of the way just in time for a second Timberwolf to fly past me as it jumps at me from behind

Although I've been caught off guard I didn't train for years for nothing. As soon as the second Timberwolf lands I move the greatsword still in the ground near them to strike one in the side while simultaneously casting a Firebolt spell at the second one.

The fire seems to spook both of them while I'm able to deal a glancing blow to one of them before quickly bringing my greatsword back to my side and getting into a proper stance. It's not very damaged from the blow and recovers fine, and just as I've gained some breathing room I sense another Timberwolf moving in quickly.

This is bad, I'm not used to fighting these things and three is too much for me. A faint memory pops into my head and I get a crazy idea, but I don't have time to hesitate so I take the risk and dump out a large amount of life magic around me. The effect is immediate as the two that were startled by the fire freeze for a moment.

I take advantage of the freeze and move forward quickly, they try to react and one even tries to lunge with its maw open, but they are a second too late. I slam my greatsword into the side of the one lunging at me and slashing at the front leg of the other with my dagger. I hear an odd sound somewhere in between a whimper and creaking wood coming from their mouths.

The pain seems to be enough for both of them to really start running, so they scramble away from me quickly. The one hit by my greatsword is knocked over and back a few feet onto the snow, but it quickly tries to get up and run away. The third Timberwolf arrives but just quickly joins the other two in a hasty retreat. It's now clear to all three that I'm not something worth the risk of trying to hunt further.

They don't try to attack me again and just run out of sight, the two injured ones moving slower than the rest as I breathe in deeply and keep my guard up. I keep my senses on high alert for a full minute and keep myself at the ready, but nothing else comes towards me and the Timberwolves are definitely not coming back.

I take a few more deep breaths before finally lowering my guard, I still keep my weapons drawn though. "Well, fuck. The hell was that?" I ask myself for a moment then try to get to work and calm myself down more. First things first, my leg, I look down and start to take off the armor.

The armor has several grooves in it from the Timberwolve's teeth, it even clipped my leg a bit. Just a slight cut and some roughed-up fur, most of it is a bruise, it seems the armor did its job well. The wound is barely even bleeding so I just clean it with a cloth, put the pieces of my armor back on and start to check my weapons and the area around me.

The weapons are fine, they didn't do much damage though. The Timberwolves only had shallow grooves in the wood that made up their bodies, although I think I heard a few cracks from the greatsword's weight hitting them. The ground is a mix of roughed-up snow and prints, and a few other things.

There is a dark watery sap soaking into some of the snow, it seems Timberwolves have something like blood. I activate my bracelet and start taking notes of everything while it's fresh in my mind, I also remember to keep my senses sharp and at attention.

I'm able to collect some of the bloody snow in a bottle, I also found a few splinters of wood and some white bark. I collect everything and decide to mark a tree and write down where I think I am before turning to my shadow. "Come on out Girl, it's over." She does just that before immediately looking my body over.

"Ok? OK?!" She demands while looking at the leg armor that was damaged.

I smile and take off my helmet to let her see it. "I'm just fine Girl, you don't need to shout." Her glare is enough to show she disagrees. "Fine. Banana." She still looks worried and takes to my instruction with some vigor, she moves quickly and in a second we are both back at Gaia's Eden.

I take a moment to remove my armor fully before showing Entropy my leg is just fine. She looks it over before looking back up at me, "Worry! ... Love." She bumps her head into my hoof and I start to pet her. I take a moment to reassure her while cleaning the scratch some more and applying some ointment to keep it sealed from the outside. It should heal in a day or two with proper care, it's also not very noticeable as it is only a very small cut.

"I know Girl, but it happens. I'm fine though, now how about we get something to eat." I think she knows I'm bribing her with food, but she still lets me pick her up to start making some food. It's just fruit and some jerky but it gives me some time to think over the small fight I just went through.

I'm not too shaken up by the events, I was looking for Timberwolves so I knew it could end like this, but getting ambushed was not expected at all. Several things stand out immediately, but above all else, I can't understand how they snuck up on me, I was keeping watch with my life magic senses the whole time.

I had my spatial senses focused on the snow, but I've sensed the life magic inside of Timberwolves before, yet during that attack I couldn't feel it anymore. Somehow they were hiding from my senses, I know they can feel life magic much more than most other animals so maybe it's more than just that, but that's a wild guess at best.

After I'm done eating I curiously place the splinters of wood and bark, along with the blood-like sap on the desk in my shack. Unlike a lot of trees, these pieces of wood have already lost all of their life magic, even though it's only been half an hour at most since they were detached and they are already completely dead. I don't think it was dead before detaching, which means the remaining life magic dissipated out of the wood and bark very quickly after it broke off.

In contrast, the deep brown sap still has a life magic left inside, which I quickly add to it, to prevent any more magical degradation. I'm not sure how long it will last, but the bottle is enchanted to keep things preserved so if I keep giving it life magic it should last at least a while so I can study it.

I watch the liquid in the bottle while taking more notes. It seems this is a bigger mystery than I thought. What are you?

Author's Note

Thanks for reading. :D
Current year is 994

I decided to give us a little action, not much through. But this I can promise this is not the last time you'll see of the Timberwolves.

Also, I find it on point that this is the first time Shade got hit be an opponent, even if it was just on his armor.