Now why did Hickory go and punch that Angel? Sure it spooked him, popping up right there at lunch, and yet, it wasn't fear that balled his hand into a fist -

Cause wouldn't you? Wouldn't anyone - with a sick Ma at home, Da long dead, buried, all them prayers piling up on bruised knees, unanswered?

Hickory was angry, all right. He was fierce, now - cause that Angel didn't show up to give no help, that Angel came by asking for it - with all that power just plain to see, the power to fix the world and all that ails it!

And now look what poor Hickory has to do - to save the world? Now how is he supposed to do that when its taking near everything he's got - just to keep them chickens safe, Ma fed, and himself out of trouble -

All he wanted was maybe just a dance with May, maybe a bit more, to hold her close? That she's sweet, now, a voice like an angel, but now she's over there lookin at him like he's more than a man.

And that's not to say Hickory is bad, not all the time, not ever on purpose - just there are things a man has to -

That drinking and fighting ain't wrong just as long as the chores are done proper first, that those parts of life that make it worth living ain't no sin, that loving a lady is proper and Hickory just has so much love to give!

And May is special, right, sweet and soft, now she's sophisticated. That she wears her passion like a pearl necklace? That certainly Hickory would notice, naturally - that she's already spoken for, perhaps taken?

That ever since Hickory came back, that all she can think about is swallowing - those strange feelings, because it wouldn't do, would it? For a Lady? But certainly she can worship him and still be seen with Weston Covanger?

Because Weston needs May, that what happens in the Study is only half the battle, the Men's Business, and he's far too proud to settle for half of anything. That if he wants to move up the ranks of his family, to be more than a Covanger, to become the Covanger? He's going to need a woman in the Kitchen as well - he's going to need May.

And if that seems a bit old fashioned? A bit too much like the Wild West? Well the West is starting to get wild again now that everyone starts to Drink.

A different take on LitRPG where answers aren't given - they must be earned, discovered and fought for, one at a time. An orator style, a long read, filled with magic buildings, crafting, alchemy, but most of all -

This is a story about the human spirit. About understanding what defines a person, their morals, their beliefs, and also faith when everything they understand becomes challenged - changed.

So do they. People can change. They will. Just not always for the better, not always - sometimes. Sometimes that's enough.

Sometimes that's even everything.