[h3]Kadoka[/h3] [hr] The hum of thousands of bees was almost deafening at times as Kakoda moved carefully through the cone shaped hives. The air around him was thick with small yellow and black bodies that occasionally bounced off him as they zipped through the air. None stung him, that rarely ever happened; only when they felt their hives were in danger did they lash out. Around the hives, spreading in reckless abandon from the rear of his house, right up to the edge of the forest, were meadows of flowers that crawled with more of the industrious insects. It was a beautiful thing to behold, the workings of nature. His late wife had loved flowers and he did not have her skill with them. The bees had taken over the roll for him and as long as the rain fell and the sun shone, the flowers grew. It was a simple time. He made his way back into the house. His bow and quiver were racked by the door, along with a short spear and a longsword. Kita, her shaggy tail thumping on the floor, eyed him from a nearby sunbeam. She licked her chops as he knelt and scratched her belly; she stretched out at the touch, all four legs pointing into the air. A last scratch of her ears and he was headed into the cellar. Unlike many, this one was above ground. He had obtained a scroll of freezing from a wandering mage and cast it on a stone that sat in the middle of the floor. The temperature in the above ground stone room, mixed with the freezing stone, was ideal for storing both honey and mead. Two dozen barrels sat neatly to one side and he selected the one closest to the door. It was mead from a month ago and in its prime now. The barrel itself was not much larger than a Pudge, who hooted from a room behind him, likely at a passing person. The dog never moved, and the owl hooted, whenever someone came by. An odder pair he did not think existed. Lifting the barrel he shrugged it onto his shoulder, closed the cold cellar behind him and made his way outside, pulling the door closed behind him. He took a breath of air and made his way toward the tavern.