I went outside to the old small boat and sighed at the sorry state it was in. We hadn't used it in years. Even though I did my best to keep it water worthy, it had suffered the ravages of time.

_______________

You have a crucial choice to make. This will decide whether or not you survive the winter.

A) Stay home and forage. B) Take the boat. C) Try to fix it. D) Improve it. E) Make another one.

Jesus! Okay, thanks for the warning that I might die. I thought and shook my head. Staying home is out, since we would have done that years ago if it was a viable option. Taking the boat like this is a mistake. Fixing it is an option; but, it can only take four crates of potion and I would need to make a bunch of trips to get all the crates to the village.

I read the last two options and sighed. I didn't know anything about making a boat. Both of them seemed like I was putting my life in unnecessary danger and I knew I had to try one of them.

Aw, screw it. I've got tons of the number ten potion. I'll choose D.

_______________

I took my time and cleaned the boat out and checked on the enchantments that the Hag had added to it. It had taken her a long time to trust me with the secret. Under the seats of the boat and glued to the boat, were two of the one foot wide wildwood engraved coins. One was for ease of movement and one was for lightness. I had been using them by mistake for a long time and she couldn't figure out how I could use them without knowing I was using them.

I tried to tell her that I just wanted to go faster in the boat and she didn't believe me. She broke three of my fingers before she realized that I didn't even know where the coins were, let alone what was on them. I was pretty shocked when she showed me where they were and what they did. I didn't accuse her of lying to her face; but, I did think it. She smacked me good for that one, then she showed me what they really did.

“I deserved that.” I had said and rubbed the damaged side of my face as I stared at the boat moving by itself. I had seen her do it a few times and thought she was using her own magic to do it.

“I am using it, stupid.” The Hag responded and then taught me how to properly use them.

Now, I had a particular problem. The coins were melded into the wood of the bottom of the boat. One on the bow and one on the stern. I wasn't sure what would happen to them if I cut the boat up. Would they still work or would the enchantment break because the boat was damaged? I sighed and picked a spot about a third of the way back from the front of the boat. Either way, I needed to modify the thing.

I used the hand saw and carefully cut down the short side of the boat, flipped it over and cut all along the bottom, then stood it up on the other side and cut the other side. The front third of the boat dropped to the ground and I nodded. Now the hard work would begin.

There were a lot of normal trees scattered around and they had flat pieces of wood inside of them, so I just had to cut them down and get the wood out. I used my knife to split the wood the way she taught me and made several planks the proper length. I needed it about ten feet longer, so that was how long I made the planks. It wasn't going to be as big as the other boat, though. I could take a lot more crates with it, which was what I wanted. Making only a couple of trips would be a lot better than making a bunch of them.

I worked for nearly half the day and used both the fortifying and glue potions liberally on the new wood, then I applied the waterproofing potion and glued the new section into the old boat. I applied pieces of fortified and waterproof wood across the joins between the boat and the new section, patched up the other damaged and worn through areas, and glued everything in place. I let the potion sit for an hour to let it do its work, flipped it over, then applied it to the bottom.

When I was done, it looked like an abomination of wood pieces and could sink at any moment. It was a mess and it didn't look water worthy at all. I knew better, though. The whole thing was now a single solid piece of wood. It wasn't streamlined or smoothed down very much, even with judicial cuts with my knife to take the corners off. I flipped it up to the right side and eased it over to the waterway. I tied on the rope so that it wouldn't float away on me, quickly used the prodding pole to see if there were any water beasts in the water, then put the boat in.

It floated, like I knew it would, and I secured it properly by pulling it half onto the dry area. I used a bit of my magic to activate the two enchanted wood engravings and they didn't work. I tried infusing them again and nothing happened. I sighed and used my knife to cut them away and had to make two new ones. It was late afternoon by the time the boat was ready.

I tested the enchantments and they worked, so I quickly loaded the boat up with the potion crates. I was careful of the weight distribution, because the last thing I needed was to get partway there and suddenly tip over and lose everything. I thought about adding wood to the side of the boat to try and prevent that, then sighed, because it would catch up on everything if I did. I was going to have a hard enough time with the modifications I already did to it.

I went into the hut and grabbed one of the strength potions I had hidden behind a false panel in the work bench. There was no need to have them out in the open, even if I was technically the only one out here. You never knew who... or what... could be lurking about. I drank the potion and let its familiar feeling fill me. I had been using it only when necessary, since some of the ingredients were rare, even in a marsh that was pretty much designed for growing them.

I didn't over-harvest them, either. I had taken the Hag's advice and only took just enough for my needs and never more than could grow back by the time I came back to get more. It was a delicate balance that I had maintained for years with the fungus blooms and the mushrooms, so I had no trouble applying the same technique to other ingredients.

I made sure I had everything I needed, shut and locked the hut door with a little bit of magic, then went to the now long flat bottomed boat. I pushed it into the water, untied it, and picked up one of the two poles that I had prepared for it. I would never make the mistake of not having a backup pole, just in case. One spider swarm incident was enough to teach me to always have a spare.

I pushed off from the shore and poled through the water as I remembered the Hag fighting desperately over the top of me. Her powerful strikes were debilitating, her knife swipes lethal, and her graceful fighting technique was a sight to see. At the time, I was much too young to appreciate it for what it was. I only saw the act itself and not the work that went into it.

It was only with hindsight that I could admire what she did that day. It was still terrifying, because I had been so lucky that she had never hit me that hard. She could have killed me at any time if her scolding had been serious at any point. In fact, she did almost kill me by accident a couple of times. That was more because of her hunger to stay young and beautiful and for any pleasure that it had given her at the time. It was not because of anger or intention on her part. She needed me.

Or so I thought.

I activated the enchantments on the boat and poled along at a very fast pace as I tried to go over everything that the Hag and I had gone through over the years. She taught me a lot during all that time and not once did anything give me the impression that she wanted to leave. In fact, I had thought that she was going to stay living in the hut forever.

I mulled over everything and still expertly guided the boat along the proper waterways to take me to the village. With the strength potion boosting me to aid the boat's movement enchantment, I sped along very quickly. I didn't notice that I was travelling much faster than I normally did, though. It wasn't until I approached the break in the marsh and stopped the boat's enchantment that I realized I had made the trip in almost half the time.

I pushed that information aside and saw several other boats at the large dock. I had to go along the other edge of it to find a spot to tie it up.

“I can't believe that thing even floats!” A man's laughter filled voice said from the actual boat next to where I stopped. I say actual boat, because it wasn't a flat bottomed one and had a keel, a small mast, and everything a normal boat had.

I ignored the taunt and tied my boat onto the dock. There were several people moving up and down it, which meant that something was going on. I didn't know what, though.

_______________

You have a choice to make. Will it be a good one or a bad one?

A) Stay. B) Unload onto the dock. C) Leave. D) Sit and watch for a while. E) A&B. F) C&D

Finally! You're giving me better options. I thought. Let's see now. If whatever is going on is important, I don't want to be here and trying to carry crates of glass vials with people on the dock and moving around like they are. I also can't leave, because I need supplies for the winter. I let out a sigh. I can't sit here, since I'll be in the way of the other boats, so I better choose F.

_______________

I started to climb off the boat, then changed my mind. There were too many people for me to safely move my delicate cargo from the boat to the general store. I liked it a lot better when it was nice and quiet in the village and there weren't a lot of people around. I decided to wait to do my business and untied the rope securing me to the dock. I pushed off and used my pole to push my boat back along the shore.

“Hey! I didn't mean to scare you off!” The laughing man's voice said and a few others joined in.

I ignored him again and went over to a different waterway and made sure I was far enough away to be out of sight of the dock, then I turned the boat around and sat down to wait. I just hoped that whoever the people were on those boats cleared out before the general store closed, because Mack wasn't going to be happy with me if I didn't make at least a partial delivery today.

I looked up at the sky and guessed that I had a few hours left to make it on time, so I would try again in a little while. If the boats haven't gone by then, I might have to try going right up to the shore and ignore the dock completely. The problem with that was the general store was up the road from the end of the dock. I would have farther to travel and the cart I would need to use didn't work well over rough ground, especially with potions in glass vials.

If the Hag was here, she would have terrified everyone and no one would dare cross her. I thought as I sat back to wait, then I thought about the men on those boats. Hurry up and get out of the way! I need you to leave as soon as possible, so I can get to the dock and make my delivery safely!

I felt the enchantments on the boat try to activate and stopped them. The last thing I needed was for someone to see me putting around on a flat bottomed boat without pushing it with a pole.

I closed my eyes and thought about my magic. The Hag claimed that I started to develop it because of her treatments to make me who I was. I kind of knew that was a lie and didn't know why. My magic didn't feel like hers. Hers was like a spider's web that was almost sticky when she used it. Mine was like a gush of fresh clean water and I suspected that was why she fed from me so much. She liked the taste of it.

I looked down at my hands. Even though it had been about six months since the Hag left, I could only now feel my magic starting to get stronger. I hadn't made the connection until my birthday, when she gave me an extra dose of fungus powder and I felt my magic surge in response. She had sliced open my wrist and sucked in the entirety of my magic, surge and all. I nearly passed out and she gave me a number four potion, then the true festivities began.

Six months. I thought and made fists with my hands. It took me that long to heal what she did that day.

I opened my hands and crossed my arms as I looked out through the waterway to watch the small harbour. My thoughts went to all the times she fed from me, the times when she tried more complicated potions and she failed because she didn't have enough magic after taking mine, and the times she ate my flesh. I rubbed my sides as a chill ran down my back from those memories.

How strong would my magic be if she hadn't eaten it all these years? I asked myself and saw one of the boats floating by. It was the one with the laughing man on it and I smiled as he was ordered around to do tasks. Another boat soon floated past as it deployed its sail and I readied my own boat for travel. At the speed they were leaving, the dock might just be empty by the time I work my way back over to it.