It was a hot summer day and the midday heat was scorching the grass that was watered just last night by the pregnant dark clouds. In some places, it succeeded, evaporating every last bit of moisture present, in others not so much. This process did give a lot of diverse coloring to the flat landscape, turning the otherwise mostly monotone savanna into something with more life.

In the distance the grey and green monoliths towered over the flat land, rising suddenly like swords accidentally stabbed there by some passing deity, with their white caps that were occasionally obscured by clouds, where sky and earth met. Somewhere over there the river that made life possible in these parts starts. Tercius sat cross-legged on the wall that circumvented his house and observed the distance.

For kilometers around it was possible to see everything, with an occasional solitary tree or a rock formation jutting out here and there. Just down the mound of earth, that people around here called a hill, some distance away from their house a collection of a dozen houses and a couple of additional buildings made the village of Fress. Over the river, some two kilometers away, a single house stood.

The land here was a mix of yellowish sand and reddish earth, suitable for some bushes, an occasional tree, and the kind of grass that would survive without water for months. After the rain, they thrived for a few days but he could already see they were going back into their sleep, waiting for the next opportunity to show the world new shades of green.

All of this could be seen from where he was sitting in his backyard. Now if only his parents had had the good sense to buy a property somewhere where your first neighbor wasn’t a prowling lion. Well technically, their first neighbors were the villagers, but…the point still stood. The village was founded a few months before he was born, and over the four and a half years since, over twelve families both large and small called this village their home.

Tercius was just over four years old by now, a boy that was until just recently under one meter in height. The latest measurement his grandfather performed put him a tiny bit higher than that. He liked to enjoy his freedom whenever he could, and that usually meant sneaking out of his house and exploring the surroundings, much to the objection from his family. In his mind, he thought it only fair after all those years where he had to be taken care of.

The reason why he was sitting on the fence today and did so for the past few days, was quite simple. Fear. Three days ago he sneaked out of the house and went to a tree he usually frequented when he wanted to be alone and maybe feel like taking a nap. It was not far, a mere 300ish meters from his backyard, he used his developing legs and ran the whole way there.

That decision turned out to be a mistake. He was resting in a canopy of the tree, snoozing actually, his mind barely awake, when he heard the first growl. The fog of confusion left his mind in an instant, his spine paralyzed, his arm gripping the branches that held him there. That sounded close. he thought. What is that? What do I do?

He did the first thing that came to his mind. Nothing. He played dead. Looking back now that was the right decision. The growling continued and it got louder by the moment. His heart threatened to leave his chest and his spine cramped itself even further. Even if he wanted to run he could not go. Not now. I am too short to run away from my aging grandfather, not to mention a predator of the open plains. So he did the only possible thing he could, he waited and hoped for the best.

Right now there was nothing else he could do. The house was not too far away, so while they would probably hear him if he screamed, the problem was so would whatever was making that noise, and he didn’t know if whatever kept making those growls was able to climb up a tree.

And then he saw them. A pack of felines, close in likeness to lions, passing by. The fur, or whatever that was, they had was black and grey, uniform over their whole body. They were a bit far away, some 50 meters away from his position, so it was difficult to see, but he saw plenty to realize in what shit he stepped in this time. Seven big cats slowly strutting across the savanna, as if daring their watchers to question them.

Then they would show these doubters why they were wrong.

He waited on that tree for close to an hour before he made a beeline towards home. Ever since then, he had dreams that made him wake up drenched in sweat and he kept thinking about what could have happened if any small thing went wrong. Probably only a few pieces of bone left to burn. A horrible way to go. He liked going to that tree and just relaxing.

So he decided to do something about it.

An idea was born.

***

He decided to build a wall.

Somehow in his mind, that seemed like the perfect solution for the problem. Because every wall in the history of the world did its purpose, right? he thought. Well, it is a solution and I am bored, spending my time like this. Do I need to find more reasons to do it? He had been pestering his grandfather since then to teach him how to work with stone. His grandfather was a stonemason by trade and it was he who built their house with his own two hands.

Oh and he dabbled a bit in farming. But everyone dabbled a bit in farming. There were those who were exclusively farmers and from what he heard those with high-level skills could maintain whole fields by themselves. Their food tasted better and lasted longer, all-around healthier.

Anyway, after clinging to him for a few days, his grandfather promised to teach him how to get stone in the correct shape for building. His first lessons were this afternoon, and it was about the tools the stonemasons use, those other than skills of course. His grandfather hinted that if he was proven a quick study some examples of real work were in the picture. He could already see a new Chinese Wall surrounding this property, no predators capable of scaling it, with him standing at the top in a heroic pose, staring back at the world with a smug smile of victory.

Well, no land-based predators at least. he thought. Tercis saw some birds of large wingspan circling those mountains in the distance, but he was told those kinds of birds don’t leave their peaks easily.

After lunch, his grandfather took him to where he worked. It was a large open area with stone any way he looked, a small shed made completely of stone was used to store tools. His grandfather worked outside, under a tree his grandmother personally planted and cared for. Placed around it were blocks of rough stone in various states of progress, some carted here recently with no work done on them, others were almost finished, their sides flat but marked with tools of the trade.

"I get this stone here from a quarry near Nurium," that was the town where he was born "when we moved here your father made a deal with a quarry owner that we don’t have to pay for it if half of the carted stone is returned ready for building. So the other half is essentially paid for by my skills." his grandfather explained.

"The best part is that Ftir, that’s his name, the quarry owner, carts everything here and back, so I only come here to work and nothing else. It has made a difference over the years, let me tell you. Your father is good when it comes to making these deals, he makes sure both sides profit." he listened intently to everything told.

"Little Ter I thought that today we would start with lessons on tools, but old age must be getting on me. You will first need to get a skill, so we will begin as I was taught." they walked behind the shed when his grandfather pulled out a red rag from his belt and extended it to him. "... now put this on over your eyes." then as an afterthought he added "And no peeking!" with a small smile.

"Is this necessary grandfather?" doubt thick in his voice.

"Grandson, if I tell you to jump, you will ask how high. Of course it's necessary, do you think your grandfather would pull a prank on you?" asked the older man, sounding almost offended.

Yes, you would. his mind replied in turn.

But it was his grandfather's prerogative to teach how he wished and on him to decide if it suited him, so even at the chance of a joke at his expense, he put the rag carefully folded in half over his eyes and tied it behind his head. Grandfather checked the knot and satisfied with the work he proceeded to guide his grandson into the shade. Once they were sitting on the ground his grandfather began.

"I brought over something special for you to practice with. It will help you to get the skill sooner." Grandfather took his hands and pulled them slowly over to a wooden bowl. His fingers went over the bowl, getting the feel of the substance inside. It was a putty of some kind, wet and easily molded by his fingers, changing shape whit each move he made while giving some resistance. Some sort of clay probably. he thought.

"So what now?" he asked after he played a bit with it.

"Now you make that into a block, like those finished ones you saw back there." his grandfather answered slowly. So he slowly molded the clay into a rough brick shape, smoothing every edge with his hands until he could tell, even without his eyes, that everything was as it should be.

"Not a bad start, not bad indeed." his grandfather approved. "Now I know and you know that that is not a stone, but imagine it is. Believe it is. Put into your mind the thought that there is a white stone you dug up. You tolled a whole day to get it out of the earth. You picked it up and smashed it into the ground. It is the heaviest stone you ever lifted. Now that you have it in from of you, you see it is of the wrong shape. It too big, too malformed." continued his grandfather. "So what will you do? Will you go get a new one, hoping that it will be the right shape you need? Or will you make it the shape you need?" it was strange hearing his grandfather this serious. There was a hardness there he heard for the first time from the jovial elder.

"Now answer me Tercius, what will you do? Go dig and toil again or will you rip that stone with your bare hands. With your fingers like claws, will you split that stone into the shape it needs to be in? Tell me!" snapped the elder.

His brain did not even realize what his hands have already done. One hand grasped the rag, and took it off his head, pulling hair and leaving filth over the face.

But I did it. I did it!

You have learned the skill Stone Shaping (1)! Obtain Yes/No?

Allows manipulation of stone in minor volumes. Every skill level increases the effect by a small degree and lowers the cost of its use by a small degree.

"But how? Grandfather how is this possible? Tell me!" he grabbed the elder by his hand and started tugging, everything in him demanding answers. His mind was filled with possibilities of all manner of skills. They were racing over his mind like a stampede of wild horses, fierce and so easily spooked.

When he got a hold of himself, his heart beating, his hands clamped onto his grandfather's hand, he saw the older man smiling down on him. "Well done little man, you have made me proud. On the first try! Ha! Now, this is a story to tell." His grandfather was in a world of his own, muttering about some jealous old men.

So he searched for the bowl and its contents. They were right there, where he left them, on the ground in the low dry grass. The bowl was overturned, but he was quick to get to it and quicker to turn it over. There was no clay or any other mixture inside, only two small cube-like objects on the ground beneath it. They were solid and cut in half with finger marks embedded on both halves.

"It’s is a type of mortar. My father got it from far northern lands. I was told it came from over the sea. I am sad to say there is not much left." Tercius jumped from the voice behind him.

"It starts as a powder and by mixing water and sand with it it gets that way you felt. Like clay. It's solid now, and it usually takes a few hours to harden, but my father made this to get it dried almost instantly." showing him a small leather bag with a powder of some kind. It was white and had some larger granules in it.

"You just spread it on the surface. It leaves the mortar easily broken so it never seemed to have a good use. But my father was always a man with some ideas. Everything has its use, he used to say, you just have to find it. This is how I learned the skill Stone Shaping, and now so have you."

"So I didn’t cheat?" He had hopes of making skill of great power. Flight. Magic. Anything and everything.

His grandfather smirked "In a way you did, in a way you did not. Maybe I was the biggest cheat this day. I hope you won't get cross with your grandfather. No, it was easy this time, because you had no skills prior to this." he told him and continued after some thought.

"I don’t rightly know why it worked even in my case. I can guess, as did my father, but we never learned anything besides that it worked. This is a shortcut I both wanted and could give you, and so I did. I think you will see its value and I know you know of the consequences should someone learn of this." he groomed his beard of pieces of dirt lodged in there while he talked.

"Thank you grandfather, for this gift. I will not tell anyone of this, not without your permission," he answered as his brain went over what his grandfather told him. But…this is not my first skill… he thought.

"You see little one, there are people out in the wide world who know these shortcuts for many a skill, but they guard them fiercely. They go to great lengths to get new ones and keep those that they have in small circles." he looked troubled "I know not the true value of mine, so I thought the most prudent action to think its value immeasurable. So tell no one and one day maybe you pass it to someone you think deserves it. I thought mine will die with me, your mother never showed an interest in my trade you see, and I am getting on in my years. So it makes me glad that I have someone close to me to teach and that you have your head about you." he smirked. "You will see one day how many fools roam this land."

"So what now?" Tercius asked him.

"As with everything else, now we practice."

***

They returned that night late for dinner and both of them were tired, hungry, and dirty. But above all satisfied. They were greeted by the rest of their family and promptly chased away to the river for a good scrub.

He was intrigued with the way this skill functioned. He could make stone part or fuse, but he did not know how he did that. He just did it. It was instinctual in a way a cough was when your lungs were filled with dust. The size that he could meld or separate the stone was about the width of his closed fist. Considering he was four years old, the size was not much. But he did gain one more level today and his grandfather assured him that he had considerable talent in the field, for that to happen. He was asked to think about it and should he wish to, the old man agreed that he would teach him everything he knew about stone masonry.

He agreed on the spot. It was always satisfying for him to work with his hands, but he never got many opportunities, and he enjoyed today more than he would ever admit. Maybe this is what those with a calling felt every day. At the same time, this work evoked a feeling of peace and excitement. It gave you grounding to weather the storm and wings to survive an earthquake. How curious.

So he told his grandfather about his plan for a wall, and one thing led to another and then he had to tell about the lions, and then the whole can of worms got opened and his bare bottom was beaten both for not telling anyone immediately and for being out alone.

And he just started to like the old man.

***

Over the course of the eight months, he learned how to use the hammer, that his grandfather insisted to be called a mallet, a chisel, and what was essentially a ruler. He told him that for now, those were the only tools that he will need. The skill Stone Shaping at higher levels could do all of the tasks these tools were meant for, except for the ruler that was used for measurement, but the skill also used energy called mana. That energy was in a limited supply in one's body and so the tools still had their uses.

He spent about five hours every day with his grandfather working on new stone blocks. Some of those were satisfactory enough that his grandfather used them when building new buildings in the village. He did get a brother-in-craft about six months ago, a boy from the village, that had a remarkable talent for shaping stone. The skill Neiran got was called Stone Sculpting and using it he could make some masterful shapes after only two months of training.

In these eight months, he learned some interesting things. First of all, is that it seems that with every new skill it got exponentially more difficult to get new ones. His parents thought he had only Stone Shaping and Gardening he got five months earlier while his grandmother showed him how to care about plants. Most took some kind of skill that made it easier to farm so that was a natural choice.

It seems that once you got somewhere around five skills it took months, sometimes even years to get a new one. Leveling was also slowed based on how many skills you have. His grandfather at 59 years of age had eleven skills and that was considered above average.

He was urged to practice skills now because it was common knowledge that it was easier to both get a skill and level it faster the younger you are, so he took the advice and practiced like crazy. He did not want to tell his parents or grandparents about Language Acquisition, but he was thinking about telling them about Meditation and Visualization. It was some time ago that all three skills got to level twenty and just stood there.

Meditation was first over two years ago, followed by Language Acquisition and finally Visualization. He tried broaching the subject of how to level over twenty for some time now, yet never got a clear answer. He didn’t want to have to lie to them and preferred not knowing at all than asking. So he waited for Stone Shaping to get in the same spot to ask, and the time was nigh. He did not have any chores to do around the house so all of his free time he devoted to these two skills.

Stone Shaping (19)

Allows manipulation of stone in minor volumes. Every skill level increases the effect by a small degree and lowers the cost of its use by a small degree.

Gardening (11)

Increases the speed of growth of flora and fungi. Every skill level increases the effect by a small degree and lowers the cost of its use by a small degree.

Any day now, just one more level, and I will learn the answer!

Tomorrow! ...Or the day after!