"If you put too much force into it, you might break it, or hurt yourself," Ms. Aliuen repeated as she carved into a small block of wood.

Summer was fast approaching, and it I celebrated my 2nd birthday half a year ago. I've started doing laps around the house, and my results are good, but not good enough.

Still, I've begun running throughout the village, instead of just around the house, because it looks weird to run in circles on my own.

Today, I came by the Aliuen household, mostly out of curiosity. More specifically, I was curious about Mr. Aliuen. He's the town smith, and practically the only one who knows much about metal, so he ends up being the one people pay a visit to when they need some metal work fixed.

He had two daughters and a son. The daughters were already married, but the son was the youngest of the three at 12, and was learning from his father to be a smith.

I was curious about it, so I ended up watching him work on something for about half an hour before I was noticed. I watched him work with quite a lot of focus, on some... thing. A tool? A decoration? I couldn't tell, but he worked on it as though his life depended on it. Or maybe that's just an exaggeration. Ultimately, I got the impression that he was a very passionate guy when it came to his work.

He didn't notice me until he was already done, and set the item he was working with away.

The reason I came here, was because I've never seen something like this before.

Out of curiosity, I asked him to teach me.

He smiled wearily, not sure what to do, and rejected me. With a pout, I asked why.

"Because young ladies shouldn't be working at a forge nor with a hammer," He stated.

"Then teach me about metal," I asked. I knew quite a bit of chemistry and physics, from both being very attentive at school, and from personal research on the web. But I didn't know any real details about any particular subject.

For instance, metals and metallurgy as a whole was a mystery to me.

Somehow, I got him into talking to me, and I listened to his lecture intently, as I tried to absorb the new interesting information.

At some point, his wife came outside, and seemed to have a misunderstanding.

"Ah, little Toya?" She asked, seeing my ears and tail. "I see my husband is filling your head with nonsense. Why don't you come inside? I have some tea if you'd like."

—I of course tilted my head in confusion.

Nonsense?

Before I had a chance to ask, and before her husband had a chance to retort, I was quickly dragged inside.

After being served a snack and some tea as "promised" she began talking to me a bit, and dotting on me at the same time. I feel like this wasn't really a way to treat a 2-year old—dragging them into your house and feeding them. However, it seems some of the villagers who know about me have realized that I'm quite aware of my surroundings compared to others. Even my sister who sometimes seems pretty smart was still quite single-minded.

Even though I often played with kids my age, I didn't always act my own age around adults, but that was attributed to my being a Fox Spirit. I don't really feel "spirit-y" but I'll go with it if it excuses my odd behavior.

Anyways, after a bit of talking, I bring up the subject regarding her husband, and she seemed a bit surprised that I was interested in his work.

"Oh my, proper ladies shouldn't involve themselves in that sort of dirty profession,"

"But, I'm not a lady—" I stopped myself before correcting my next set of words, "—I'm a girl!"

She seemed to laugh a bit at my comment, apparently finding my stubbornness cute.

"Girls are just very young ladies, is all," She eventually said after getting over it. "If you want to learn something interesting, how about carving?"

I tilted my head at her for a moment, before taking a quick peak around the room. I hadn't noticed it at first, but it did seem like the house's decorations were rather good for an isolated village like this one. The door frame, the small table in the center of the room, even the seat I sat on looked to have some decorative carving done on them, all with similar styles.

A family of artisans, huh?

Well, it's not as interesting as smithing, I think, but I decided to nod.

Her smile beamed as she got up without another word, and quickly returned with a box of neatly organized tools, and a small block of wood.

"I can't really let you use and of the tools, but I'll tell you how to properly hold them, and how to use them, and about the different kinds of material—" And that's how I ended up falling into her trap, as she explained her... hobby to me.

I call it a hobby, because this village doesn't have enough people with enough money to be buying from her. As such, this could simply be called a hobby. Well, no, she does occasionally get work, or sell some of her creations, but the bulk of the money in this household comes from her husband.

Perhaps this is natural though. Gender roles are quite an important aspect of life here, and even in my old world they influence the type of professions people usually gravitate towards.

In this world, the bread winner in the family NEEDS to be the man, or else he does not seem competent, and seen as lesser. It was the same in my old world, less than a hundred years ago.

But now a days it's normal for the reverse to be true. My single mom made enough to feed myself and my younger brothers, with some extra for entertainment.

This also goes into how, because they believe I'm a girl, I'm not allowed to work on things they perceive as "men's work".

I thought Carving might fall into that, but maybe it's because carving doesn't really need much strength that it's acceptable for women?

Ah, whatever. I'd rather not be infected by this bizarre way of thinking.

Injecting some progressive ideologies into this society will also be a pain in the ass, so I'll refrain.

As I watch her work, I feel a strange sense of excitement. How odd. I felt the same when watching Mr. Aliuen working, but I somehow thought that it was because of my former (although slight) interest in metallurgy. But instead, it seems like I'm just amazed to see something new.

Is this new?

No, it shouldn't be. I had an art class in high-school where we did some carving.

And yet, remembering that, I feel nothing. But seeing this—I suppose I'll add this to the list of evidence for now.

But putting that aside, this woman—this craftsman, is really skilled.

"Can you teach me?" I asked, reaching my hands out, as though expecting to be handed some tools.

She looks at me with a warm smile, but shook her head, "No no, I certainly can't do that. Ms. Arii will kill me if you return home with a scratch,"

Mother's name is Arii? Or is that the family name of her husband? No enough information.

But... I let out a disappointed sigh at those words, as I looked at the tools and block of wood in her hand longingly.

It seems that, for whatever reason, she took pity on me, and made a suggestion. "How about coming here?" She said, patting her lap after she set her tools down. I tilted my head, curious about what she meant, before it suddenly clicked in my head.

Getting up from my seat, I scurried over to Ms. Aliuen, and as I turned around, I hopped up onto her lap. After a second or two of straightening my dress out under my butt, I looked up at her, "Now what?" I asked.

"Now, hold onto this, and this," She said, as she placed the small carving knife and the half-carved block of wood onto each of my hands. However, she ended up cupping both of my hands, as she guided them, controlling them something like a puppet.

"Now, move your hands like this and be careful—"

Like this, I obtained something like a hobby.

Author Notes:

So here's another chapter of this story.

In the last Author notes I made a declaration about how I have an idea about how the world will be. I hereby retract that statement.

I decided I would try to put this story into the same world as another story I previously made up, but never really posted anywhere (or even wrote much of). Mostly because the ideas of magic from that story match up with some ideas I had for this one. I'll likely end up introducing characters from the other story; might be interesting to write about a character I intended to be an MC, from the perspective of a different MC. Some of these characters you may like, and some you may hate.

Also, it means that I now have a plot I want to follow, but the plot is more serious, so within a few chapters, expect the tone to shift. I might even end up adding the Mature tag.

As always, I Suggestions and Feedback are appreciated.