The dawn came, but not nearly fast enough for me. I estimate that I had been awake since 4 in the morning, and I usually sleep in to 7am. That was three hours of me freaking out, just praying my preparations were enough for the thing I could not see. Sarah was less of a comfort than I hoped she would be, not that I really expected anything else. My magic told me that nothing had changed with her, and my gut was telling me that time was what she needed. The last hour of me waiting for the sun was quiet. No scratching or shrieking. I had pretty much calmed down, or at least wrangled my nerves to a manageable level. [Breathe in, breathe out]. I went and got my acorns from the basement. They were full to the brim with magical energy, almost hot in my hand. I went outside, after checking for zombies and weird invisible scratching monsters.

Earth sorcery made burying the acorns exactly where I wanted them a piece of cake, and water sorcery made them wet. Then I turned the soil around the acorns from Virginia clay to perfect black loam. Going back inside to the basement, I put my hands on the generator on the right. I turned it on and split the energy into four streams, each connected to an acorn. At the base of the power link, I put a growth limiter so that when the acorns sprout, their growth wouldn’t be literally explosive. I could feel the little acorns quiver with my nature magic. I created a structural enchantment in my head for the acorns. The trees would grow up the corners of my house, like towers on a castle, and then branches would grow out from each tree to connect to the others, eventually making one giant house covering tree with four trunks. Time to get this baby started. I pushed that structural enchantment into the base of the powerfeed and let it flow to the acorns. I could see it starting to work. The acorn shells split and tiny roots began to make the soil their own. The growth limiter was mainly there for my peace of mind. I would be easier to alter the plants if something went wrong while they were small. By my estimation, it should take around a week or so for this to become a reality. I can work with that. Now, I’m just one acorn short for my next plan.

Getting that acorn was easy. In two days, I had made great strides with my magic and I was feeling pretty confident. I walked across the street, leisurely selected a fat acorn, and walked my butt to my front porch and sat in my rocking chair. I was still geared up and armed to the teeth, but I was chilling on my front porch. I even had a soda there. I felt a bit silly. No one was outside. There were no threats that I could see. The street looked abandoned. Day three of the Ripple reality and there is nothing here. Perfect. I took that fat acorn and I conjured a quarter-sized disk of iron, another disk of silver, and a dime sized disk of gold. Now this would grow to be my weapon. What does every good wizard or badass sorcerer have? A magical staff. Something that can help you control magic beyond your normal means. The lever for your magic that can move ridiculous obstacles. The dragon slaying stick. That’s what I was going to make. And I was going to invest everything I had into it. If I did it right, then this staff would be more powerful than I.