We only had to walk a little more to reach a stream, where Jeanette started to set up a camp. The one thing I could do was to set up a proper fire pit and start the fire.

  When Jeanette noticed my attempts to start the fire, she told me to move aside, and then with a flick of her wrist, a spark leaped from her hand and lit the tinder. “Oh, you did mention magic, I guess that wasn’t a joke.”

  Soon, the smell of the Rabbits roasting got my stomach rumbling. It wasn’t too long before we were finished eating, and then the elephant in the proverbial room made itself known. There was only one, rather small tent. “Um, I don’t mind the snuggle factor, but could you resist going further than that? I’m going to need a little time to deal with that part being touched. I can touch you there, and enjoy everything, but I’m just not ready to accept that part yet.”

  A fierce blush covered her face. “I think snuggling is fine. I can be patient. I’m new to this, too.” With that, we went to bed, and after some serious kisses and a little talking about how the world works, sleep took us.

  In the morning, I somehow managed to wake first, and as much as I wanted to stay right where I was, my Bladder wouldn’t allow it. I made my way to a convenient bush to relieve myself. As I squatted there, I started to look around in earnest. The grass looked much as I would expect, though slightly pink-tinged. The trees were all slightly altered from ones I might recognize, though admittedly I knew very little about trees in general, with the bark being blue-tinted, instead of brown, it did strike me as wondrous. Needle-type trees had longer curved needles, while the broad leaves were perhaps pointier. It would take some time to identify one plant from another, I thought.

  Once I was done and had situated my pants, I heard a rustling and cracking coming from some ways behind me. I whirled to find something akin to a Boar, only with pronounced spines along its back, and the tusks looked nearly razor-sharp at a glance. It noticed me, and instantly charged, exactly as I would expect. Luckily, my instincts were able to guide me as I moved to attack, of all things. I simply knew that attacking was the only correct course. Making no noise, I charged right at the Boar. At the last second, I yelled as I slid on my back. The Yell startled the Boar, making it rear up, and as it did so, claws erupted out of my raised hand and effortlessly tore through the flesh of the Boar’s neck. Perfectly slicing through its vocal cords along with the Jugular vein and windpipe, it couldn’t even scream as it died. However, it wasn’t instant, and I rolled over, leaping in a new direction before it could attempt a final attack. A few seconds later, it collapsed, unable to move anymore. Ten more desperate attempts to breathe, and it finally lay still.

  Jeanette, having heard the commotion, approached to find the Boar already dead. “Well, that’s convenient, not only did you get Breakfast, but that’s the very target of my subjugation quest!”

  I looked at her, with my left hand covered in blood, claws still extended. “You were out here for a Boar?”

  She chuckled. “Not just any Boar,…THAT, Boar. It has some distinguishing markings, and the Damage to the Tusks is unique as well. That Bastard has been attacking Travelers in this area for Months. Didn’t expect I’d find it; I was honestly ready to give up. We only need the Tusks for the reward, but your kill was so clean we can eat the Meat, and even take the hide with us. You saved me on this trip!”

  I looked closer at the Boar and noticed it did have rather distinct damage on its tusks. I imagine anyone who had encountered this beast could probably have described it fairly accurately.

  Jeanette noticed my Claws then. “Oh, you even got the Tiger Claws, that’s the reason they’re the Ruling Class. Other Cat Clans don’t have Claws, not even the Lion Clan. So it’s not easy to win a fight with a Tiger.”

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  I suppose that makes sense. “Just one problem, how do I retract them?”

  She blanched a little. “Oh, they must be excessively dirty, so your cat instincts won’t let you retract them. Let me get you some water to clean them.” She ran off to get her water skin and came back before I could even realize she had gone. In my Stupor over the realization I had Claws, it seemed like she had teleported. Sure enough, once the blood and tidbits of Boar flesh had been removed, my Claws retracted properly.

  I marveled at my hands, which looked completely innocent now, no sign I even had Claws. “This is weird, how can I move my hands normally with Claws? I’d love to see an Anatomical sketch of my hands sometime!” She looked at me quizzically, and I couldn’t help but chuckle."Anatomy is the study of living things. Where the organs are, how the bones are laid out, how the muscles and tendons attach to the skeleton, all of it is covered in Anatomy. An Anatomical Sketch is a drawing that displays how something is put together.”

  Now, a look of Wonder is on Jeanette’s face. “Your people had such sketches? Parchment is rare and expensive.”

  “Well, we use Paper, which is made from pulped wood. It’s much cheaper, and can be dyed in just about any color from pure white to pure black. We also have Printing Presses, which can copy texts at amazing speeds. Daily Newspapers are printed out in the millions every day. The average run on a Novel is between five hundred and five thousand copies.”

  Her eyes widened. “So many people can read?”

  “In fact, with very few exceptions, everyone can read. Public Libraries exist in almost every community and allow free access, though they aren’t cheap; anyone can buy books. A typical Novel ran around twenty-five dollars in hardback, and that’s roughly five hours' worth of pay.”

  Jeanette was practically giddy. “So then can you teach me to read?!”

  I held up a Hand. “Problem is, I only know how to read and write in English, unless that got changed in my head anyway. Do you have something written on you? If I can read it, I can write it.”

  Jeanette rummaged in her pack till she found a wooden tile. She handed it to me, and I quickly understood that this was her Quest Tile. I could read the characters and confirmed that indeed this was the exact Boar on the tile. Yet at the same time, it wasn’t English. I knew it. I found a twig and went to a patch of bare dirt. I attempted to write the English Alphabet, only it wouldn’t come. When I instead just tried to write the Alphabet, I quickly scribbled out a list of characters more than twenty-six. I instinctively knew each character, and how to combine them, and in some cases, overlap them to make words.

  “Well, it looks like the knowledge of reading and writing in this world has been implanted into my memories, and my language has been removed. Still, that means I can teach you, at least to some extent. Hold on, let me try writing something else.”

  Saying that, I quickly jotted down some numbers, discovering that they were what I was used to. I looked at the tile again and noted that the numbers were written out whole. Specifically, the reward. “Are there specific characters for numbers, or are there only words that you have to recognize?”

  She came to me and pointed to the reward amount, saying that it meant twenty, and the word next to it was Gold. She knew those two words because they were used so often in rewards.

  I pointed to the numbers I wrote. “Have you ever seen these characters?” She shook her head, indicating that she had never seen the numbers I wrote. “How do people do math?”

  “With a calculator board. It has beads on rods, and once you’ve calculated the total, you write the word out.”

  I groaned at that. “Well, I can teach you Math then. Using these characters. These are numbers. Each character here has a different value on its own. String them together, and you can create any value with these ten characters. Then I’ll show you some symbols that indicate the Math you’re doing. If you think that adding and subtracting are all the Math there is, you’ve got another thing coming.”

  Jeanette was practically star-struck at this point. “However,…Boar first, eat breakfast, pack up camp, and let's get walking. I imagine that turning in this quest is important, and earning money isn’t something to put off.”

  An embarrassed blush took her face at that, but we both got to work. Despite the Boar’s size, it didn’t take long to deconstruct it. I suggested using the hide as a pack for the meat, and I could carry some that way. About an hour later, the camp was broken down, the packs were ready, and we were finally eating breakfast. Once we were done eating, we doused the fire, hoisted our packs, and Jeanette led me off in a confident manner.