The scene before Pali impressed him. Not only had the Terran child constructed part of a building by herself, albeit small, she had also built a working water wheel. He did not understand why she would need a water wheel, but he hoped it was for something new and exciting Terran innovation she knew of.

Pali looked at the child herself but was still too far away to get a good look at her. Upon moving closer, the child noticed his approach and stepped outside of the building. He watched as the child look first at him, to Eliz, then finally scanning the rest of the area. From what he could tell she seemed disinterested in him, though if he remembered correctly she did not show emotion at all.

Now that Pali had a good view of her, he looked her over. She had the classic white hair and skin of a Terran, her long hair also having a purple tinge near the ends that gradually got darker the closer it got to the tips. She had, from what he could tell at this distance, beautiful pale blue eyes.

The one thing that interested Pali the most was that of her physique. He had read about all the peculiarities of Terrans before and this was the one he wanted to see the most. This was the fact that her body was more squat and her arms were shorter and thicker than normal. He had also heard that Terrans were capable of greater strength than those of Calorin.

***

I had been working on some wiring for my heater when I had heard a noise behind me. While dangerous animals rarely came this close to the village, I always looked. I didn't want to become Salis Chow for some random bear. So, I got out of my future abode.

What I saw was probably worse than a wild animal. It was a man and, from the looks of him, he was pretty well off, even if his clothes were sloppy. My best guess was that he was a two-legged leach that was here to steal my knowledge after he dragged me off to some fancy place and making me fat with good food and probably some bribes. The thought disgusted me. Being used by some noble for mere food and good clothes while they made tons of money and conquered the world.

I couldn't let that happen. If anybody would do that, it would be me. No way was I going to let a noble use me. Either I would use them or I would stay away from them as much as possible, but first I had to deal with this guy.

I knew he would soon make a case for me to come with him or something, but it was also possible that he was merely a distraction while others moved in around me and then kidnap me before I could do anything.

I quickly looked at the surrounding area. Standing next to the man was Momma Eliz. She seemed to consider me and the man who was studying me. No one else was there as far as I could see. Just in case I looked at the forest behind them and then to the river on either side of me and found no one.

I soon brought my attention back to the man. He had finished looking at me and was now ready to say something.

"Hello, Salis. I am Pali Candrar Bo, a representative of the Kein School of Magic and Knowledge."

So it was a school that wanted me.

"I am here to offer an invitation and a scholarship to my school. It would be wonderful if you would come with me and attend."

The man finished with an expectant smile, waiting for my answer. Since I had no desire to go back to school and probably be interrogated and studied, I used my plan.

Saying nothing, I entered my house and grabbed the wires that led to my generator. Armed with the wires, I then put them in a conveniently placed pile of kindling and made the wires spark, causing a small fire that would hopefully become a big fire soon. I then detached my generator from the water wheel, placed it inside my bag, left my soon to be burning house, and after looking once at the man jumped into the river.

***

Pali was stunned. With no warning, the child had jumped into the river. He had been uncertain of what to make of her going back inside the water wheel, but when she had come back out and jumped into the river… He did not know what to do. Why had she run away? A life at the school was much better than life in this poor village.

Sadly, he could only watch as she swam to the other side of the Porre River, which was fast flowing and surprising deep this far into the mountain. He also could not swim so he would be more likely to be swept down than she.

Pali heard a gasp behind him. When he turned around, he saw Eliz looking at the water wheel. He saw smoke and some flames starting to engulf the small building.

Pali was amazed once again. The child had set a fire before leaving. Why would she do something like that? Was she trying to hide something? No matter why she did it, he knew some things for certain. One was that if he wanted to get the child to come with him, he would have to become very lucky. The second was that she was in danger of being alone on the mountain at her age and size. Third, was that he had a fire to put out and if he was lucky, he might find something interesting.

***

It was not a fun swim across the river. While it wasn't deep, it was fast-moving and wide. If I had taken any longer I would have been swept into some rapids. Not fun. But I had made it and there was no sign of the guy from whatever the name of that school was.

While not having that guy follow me across the river was good news, there was also some bad news. I had to drop my bag in the river. It was just too heavy for me. My life was more important, anyway. Still, all my money I had was in that bag too so not only did I lose my generator, I didn't have any money either.

All I could do was move on. I had a long walk down the mountain ahead of me so I had plenty of time to think of ways to get me some food and money. I just wished I had spent more time practicing how to catch fish and other things. Salis is smart though, she'll think of something ingenious.

I had been running for a few minutes. Getting out of view from the village was all I could do at the moment. It was still a long way down to the nearest city and there was no way I would get there before nightfall and I was in no hurry so I took my time. Maybe look for some food, scare any innocent animals I could find…

I heard someone yelling in the distance. I wasn't too sure who it was, but it sounded slightly male and wimpy. Probably was Mr. Recruiter. I was surprised. I thought he would scour the burning wreck that had once been my house for treasure. Still, if he hadn't crossed the river yet that meant I had some time before the river slowed down and became easy to cross.

I ignored Mr. Recruiter for now. Food was much more important. I wasn't hungry yet, but I didn't know how long it would take me to find any.

I started looking for berries. Momma Eliz would go into the forest from time to time to get some so I knew what they looked like. I just hoped there weren't some poisonous berries that looked the same. I also hoped that they were still in season. If they weren't, I would be in trouble.

So began my search. I found a bush pretty quickly, but it was too late. The berries that still left were rotten. Since I wasn't hungry enough to eat rotten berries, I left them alone and started heading downstream. Hopefully, there would be some ripe ones down where it was a little warmer. I needed to head that way, anyway.

***

Pali had been walking down the river looking for a way to cross. Fortunately, he had put the fire out quickly. He had hoped to find some interesting things but all he had found was a box with some wires in it. Just in case he had taken it with him. Maybe he could ask the child what it was for when he found her.

So far the river was still too much for him to cross. He hoped the child would not get too far ahead of him, but she would most likely be heading to Stutra. Since the city was at the bottom of the mountain and the river led to it, it was the most likely place for her to go. He figured that she knew he knew this so she might go to a different city, but the next nearest city was far away on foot and she most likely did not have enough food to get her there, if she had any to begin with.

If Pali missed her there were only two cities close to Stutra, aside from a few tiny villages. These were Soli and Kein. Since the Kein School of Magic and Knowledge was in Kein all, he had to do was contact the school and have someone look for her for him. If she went to Soli… That would make things difficult. Soli was on the border next to Toa Mirr. If she escaped from Flaern to there, then there would be no way to find her since he could not cross the border himself.

Pali was also worried about what Toa Mirr would do to the child if they caught her. Toa Mirr was not only militaristic and had terrible relations with Flaern, but they treated any outsiders as potential spies and often executed them or at least put them in forced labor camps.

The child, being a Terran, might not get as bad a treatment but it would not be a good life. Pali had heard that any Terran found in Toa Mirr was forced into the military. This was because Terrans not only had stronger magical abilities than a Calorin, but if they were not deformed badly, then they also seemed to be slightly stronger.

Pali did not want to think about this any longer so he concentrated on finding her on the mountain. He just needed to find a way across the river. Since he could not see one yet, he continued down the mountain.

***

I had had no luck finding any food. It was just too late into the year for berries, and I had no way to catch an animal or fish. So I would need to make a trap or weapon. I wasn't confident in my ability to kill an animal and I didn't have fishing equipment.

Night was falling so I wouldn't have time to make anything until tomorrow. Since I had lived with a poor family I had become used to going with an inadequate supply of food, especially in winter when the road was blocked by snow. I wasn't looking forward to missing dinner, but it was how things were.

Since there was nothing I could do about food, I covered as much ground as I could before it got dark. I also did this because I knew it would be harder for me to go on when I started getting weak from hunger. Unfortunately, it probably wouldn't take long.

Thankfully, I was in good shape. While Porra-Kel wasn't the most populous city it was spread over a wide area and since I lived on the side of town opposite of the mine, I had a respectable distance to cover. There was also the fact that there was a steep hill between where the village ended and the mine.

Then the thought hit me. I would probably never have to see that dirty town and mine again. I hadn't been ready to leave that place yet but now that I had left I felt relieved. I knew it would be hard on my own, especially at my "age" but it didn't matter to me at the moment. All that mattered was that I was gone. What I would do next I could think about tomorrow.

As I thought about this, night finally started to fall. I knew it would be hard to navigate through the forest when it got dark so I needed to find a place to spend the night soon and since I worried about animals; I decided it would be in a tree. Preferably one with a limb large enough that I wouldn't easily fall off in my sleep.

Being in a forest, it didn't take me long to find a tree good enough for me. In no time I climbed that thing and wedged myself in good. Ignoring the ants and other insects as best I tried to sleep. I had never slept in a tree before so I had a hard time falling asleep. Not only did the insects keep bothering me, but trees are hard and I was worried about falling.

I decided to pass the time doing something until I was more tired. I didn't have a good view of the sky where I was but I noticed Nirca, one of Calorin's two moons, glowing a pale red through the branches. It was still weird for me whenever I looked up at this moon. While it was about half the size of Earth's moon, the fact that it was red I had never gotten used to. There was also the fact that Nirca supposedly belonged to the most evil of Calorin's Deities.

I heard wolves howl. They weren't too close at the moment so I wasn't worried. I only hoped that they would stay that way… Wait a minute. Wolves couldn't climb trees and I was in a tree so I would be fine, but there was someone else on the mountain and he most likely had not chosen to sleep in a tree. Maybe I could lure the wolves to wherever he camped.

I had never tried to lure wolves to me before so I had no idea if I could even do it. At the moment I could only think of two possibilities. I could either try imitating wolf calls or lure them with food. I didn't like the idea of using the wolf calls mostly because Mr. Recruiter would hear them if he was still awake and might figure out where I was, so this left me with luring them.

First, I had to find something to lure the wolves where I wanted. Since I was not willing to lure them with juicy Salis steaks, I had to find something else. Unfortunately, this lead back to the problem that I was no good at catching animals. So where would I find food? Either I would have to learn immediately how to hunt tonight or I would have to… Maybe there was an easy way to get some food.

I quickly climbed as high into my tree as I could. Since it was one of the bigger trees, I barely saw over most of the other trees. With this view, I could see down to the still distant Stutra and the faint light from the refineries in it. Besides this, I saw one other light, a fire, just a bit down the river on the opposite bank. I could even see a figure, a man resting next to it. It was Mr. Recruiter, and he was sure to have some food on him.

I now knew how to fix my biggest problem. All I had to do was go to his campsite and search his bag for food while he slept. If he had enough, I might even try using it to see if the wolves would follow a food trail or something like that. All I had to do was swim across a still swift river in the middle of the night and risk freezing in the cool night air.

When I had climbed out of the tree, I made my way to the nearby river. There weren't bad rapids in sight so this would be a good place to cross. Fortunately, the water wasn't too much colder than it had been earlier in the day when I had swum across. The water was still moving just as fast though so I was concerned. I also was never a strong swimmer so there was that too.

On the other side I wasted no time. I knew that if I didn't want to freeze; I needed to keep moving. I also didn't want this to take long so I could find a new tree and go to sleep.

Since there wasn't much to obstruct me on the river bank, it didn't take me long to come upon Mr. Recruiter's camp. From a distance I could tell he had already fallen asleep, so I stayed by the river where I could move more easily and with less noise. I could also quickly jump back into the river if he saw me.

Before long I crouched behind a bush where I could get a better look at the campsite. Mr. Recruiter was asleep, and aside from the fire all I could see was his bag. Seeing the bag, I crept closer to him. He was not sleeping on the bag so I wouldn't have any problem getting it.

I soon sat behind Mr. Recruiter and was looking through his bag. I saw clothes, some smelly worn shoes, a money pouch, a thin slab of crystal, some food, and my incomplete heater. I immediately took out the food, ignoring the fact that he had my heater. There wasn't much food. All there was was a half-eaten loaf of bread and some smoked meat. Not the most healthy diet, but he was a man, so it was to be expected.

I immediately set myself upon the bread. While the smoked meat looked good, I had other plans for it so bread was all I got for now.

When I had finished eating, I looked through the bag one last time. Seeing nothing new, I started to get up to leave when the thought hit me. I couldn't just leave just yet. That would be too boring. Mr. Recruiter was sleeping so defensively in front of me. No, I had no plans on hurting him or tying him up. I wasn't that mean. I knew that taking the last of his food should have been more than enough but I couldn't bring myself to leave just like that so I got to work.

A few minutes later I regarded my handy work. First, I had put rocks in his bag. I had wrapped the rocks inside his clothes so he wouldn't notice quickly. I had also replaced all the coins in his coin pouch with some flat pebbles about the same size as the coins. No, I didn't steal the coins. I had mixed them with some mud and shoved that inside each of the smelly shoes, as unpleasant as that had been. As for the other thing I did… Let's just say that Mr. Recruiter easily slept through my application of mud on his face.

Now that I had finished that business, I turned my attention to the wolves. From what I could tell from their occasional howls they had been getting closer. It was a coincidence or something was drawing them near. I was fairly certain I had heard that wolves were attracted to fires but wasn't sure if that was true. I just hoped it wasn't that they smelled fresh Salis, though I had also heard that wolves rarely attacked humans so I might be safe. I was about to find out either way.

When my eyes had adjusted to the night, I found it rather easy to move around. Not only was Nirca nearly full, but the second larger moon Samma was also now in view. It was not as full as Nirca, but it cast off enough light to nearly smother out the reddish glow Nirca would have otherwise made. Thankfully, Samma gave off nearly the same glow as Earth's moon.

In what I guessed to be about forty-five minutes I had gotten uncomfortably close to the wolves. Not wanting to go further, I pulled out the smoked meat and threw a piece as far as I could towards them. Having done this, I began making my way back the way I had come, occasionally dropping a piece of meat. I didn't know if my meat was working but the occasional howl told me they were heading in the direction I wanted them to be going.

Strangely, I made it back to Mr. Recruiter's camp faster than I had gotten to the wolves. Since they were just as close as ever, I decided that my job was done. When I had climbed a tree, I threw one last piece of meat into the bushes closest to Mr. Recruiter and waited.

In a few minutes they arrived. The biggest wolf even went to the bush I had thrown the meat into and ate. Two of the wolves came to the tree I was in and gave me a look. Seeing this I took out another piece of meat and dropped it, which was quickly eaten. When I had done that I broke some twigs off the tree and threw them at Mr. Recruiter. I had taken me a few tries, but I finally hit him. It took more throws and a second hit to wake him up.

Now by this point the wolves had stopped and were moving around the campsite, watching the fire. I wasn't sure if Mr. Recruiter knew that there were wolves so close to him so just in case I threw a branch into a bush next to a wolf. It startled both the wolf and the man.

"Salis, is that you?" he called out. "Please come close to the fire. It is not safe in the forest at night."

It certainly wasn't safe, and I was about to prove it to him. Pulling a chunk of my now nearly depleted meat supply, I threw it between three wolves. They fought over it before one ate it. The fight wasn't long, but the wolves had growled at each other while they had.

Mr. Recruiter immediately backed towards the dying fire. He then noticed how low it had gotten and he had prepared no extra wood so there was no way for him to build it back up. I had expected him to panic, but he held out his hand and made a glowing ball of light appear above it. There was only one thing it could be. It was magic.

It was the first time I had seen someone use magic. Porra-Kel was too poor and out of the way so no traveling performers ever came. The only thing I could think of that I had seen before that was possibly magic was those strange floating flames that surrounded me when I came to Calorin.

I noticed that the wolves seemed just as drawn to Mr. Recruiter's magic as I was. They had all stopped moving around and were now staring at the floating ball of light. If I was lucky, they wouldn't leave until he put it out and they would be like that all night.

Since I was getting tired, I decided that I would wedge myself in and at least get a nap while this standoff was in boring mode. If anything happened, then I was sure it would make some noise and wake me up. If not, then it was nothing worth staying awake for. I just hoped that I had concealed myself well enough that he wouldn't be able to see me in the tree if he woke up before I could get away.