The midday sun burned brightly at the peak of a busy day. Schorlwood Village was a bustle of activity as its populace went about their everyday lives to the betterment of their community.

“I’m bored.” Vwyxzrihqaeli of the Bhyiqiexhaez family put down her tools after finishing yet another schorlwood bookshelf. Deep within the woodlands of the same trees their village had been named after, there was nearly an endless supply of the wood her family had devoted generations in cultivating and making use of. Vwyx herself had been handling the same wood from a young age, to the point that she was skilled in the craft even though she was only eighteen. However, it wasn’t as if she found her talents the most fulfilling pursuit, no matter how good she was with it.

To her, the problem wasn’t the wood, but what she did with it. A bookshelf here, a table there, even a bed, a dresser, and a nightstand. All things she could make almost in her sleep, and they were about as disinteresting. The last time she was given something interesting to do was early summer last year, when she helped with making a waterwheel for the village. It was something that moved, that did stuff, that held even a fraction of interest.. and then it was done. Since then, she had tried to make smaller gimmicks from wood. Her latest project was to try and make a music box, something that would chime a little tune on demand. She had the casing for it completed, but had reached a bit of an obstacle after that.

A box that would create music would be itself an instrument. More than just from the perspective of musical instruments like flutes and harps, it would be an instrument of the gift. For over two centuries now, the Instrumentation Era has produced instruments of the gift as tools that allow for a person’s innate gift to produce effects they would be unable to achieve alone. Everyone had access to the world’s gift, after all, but that wasn’t enough to just simply be able to accomplish anything the whims of a person might desire. So just as how a ladder could help a person reach new heights, a variety of instruments could help a person with reaching new goals.

The tool Vwyx put down was actually also of her own design, an instrument that helped her to get her carpentry work done much faster than anyone else in her family. The others all relied on mundane tools to fasten wood pieces to other wood pieces, but her wood melder actually meshed the wood pieces into other wood pieces, as if a new whole. It saved their family the price of metal bolts to fasten pieces together with, but it did make it harder to take apart properly without the right instruments. Such was why she was rarely ever allowed to use her own creation. It was fun while it lasted, but making use of her gift and instruments to shape and meld the wood, the bookshelf she had started just after lunch was already done, and she would have to return to the more mundane solutions.

Still, she was ahead of schedule, maybe she could find something else to work on, some new form of inspiration. The music box wasn’t cutting it, because she could not complete it. She simply didn’t know how to make it work, how it might be designed to complete the task she had imagined it for. It would have to accept a constant flow of the gift, as no instrument could ever keep going after it was cut off from the person providing their gift for it. That alone might be tiring after a while, but even for a short period, it still involved things that were beyond her. Making the right notes with just wooden implements wasn’t working, she would need either complicated metallurgy to get the right tones or if she wanted it to play like a wooden flute.. she would need it to be capable of influencing the air around it on demand. She had no idea how to accomplish either, unfortunately, not with her resources alone. Unfortunately, she had no one else she could turn to in times like these, so she would need to find another project to work on.

“Sis! The delivery guy is here from the city!” Vwyx’s younger sister burst into her work room without warning, startling her suddenly. “Hey! Don’t do that! If I was working on anything important, you could have ruined it on me like that!” “You’re not doing anything important? Awesome, mother wants you downstairs. Oh great, you finished that bookshelf already, father will love to hear the news.” Vwyx was disappointed to find her tranquility had been all shattered by her sister. So much for having time to herself for figuring out a new exciting project, it was back to the regular boring already. Her sister ran off before her, already spreading the news to her parents well before she could arrive.

“Vwyx, could you be a dear and help bring in the boxes from outside?” “Yes, mother.” As usual, her mother was assigning all the important tasks to her independently, with her younger sister escaping the responsibilities. Vwyx went outside to meet a familiar face she met on sparse occasions. The delivery guy only showed up every couple lunar cycles, bringing her family a supply of metal parts from the city. Sometimes, he even brought them instruments produced from the city, stuff they could use in their everyday life, though she was the only one who appreciated such generosity. That might in part be why she had once again been assigned to this chore, it was only the metal parts that interested her family. They might have easy access to wood around here, but there was no other way to acquire the metal pieces needed for their daily work. The gentleman was already counting the supply of wood that was being offered in exchange.

“Ah, the young Bhyiqiexhaez daughter again. Still hard at work I see.” “Young? I think you confuse me with my sister, I’m the older one.” “Well, yes, quite, but still young for this line of work. I hear it was you who personally prepared this batch of wood for today’s exchange, which again is of a better quality than would be expected of one so young. I would not be surprised to hear for my next trip that you had moved on to run your own workshop.” The delivery guy clearly didn’t understand how things worked for Vwyx out here in the country. One does not move on to start their own venture, not around here. The village was small enough that there wasn’t any point to it either.

“I wish things were that easy around here. You’re lucky you don’t understand how things work out here. Seriously, some days I wish I could just move to the city instead, and finally be free of this place.” “Sorry ma’am, I just transport supplies. I’m not one for ferrying people back home with me, you would need to find a different service for that one. But are things really that hard around here? I heard your village had taken in a family from the city, people who picked out here over the city life, so I’m sure there has to be some value to it.” Vwyx was familiar with the family the delivery guy spoke of, the weirdos who had moved in just a lunar cycle ago. She knew about them, but generally avoided them.

It wasn’t just her, but most of the village had kept them at a distance. She mostly just didn’t understand why someone would choose to move here willingly, but she could understand how everyone else felt the family was weird. She couldn’t place what it was, but there was something creepy about their family, something that made everyone keep their distance. Sometimes, it just felt like the family was insane or something. Their home wasn’t even inviting, and it was built at the outskirts of the village, as if it didn’t even want to be included in their community. Even a lunar cycle later, she had only seen them outside once, when they were first moving in.

Vwyx shrugged, seeing no point in arguing over the matter. Instead, she turned to the wooden boxes containing the metal supplies being offered. She pulled out her melder and focused upon the metal bolts that held the box fast. Forcing the wood to reform in place of the bolts caused the bolts to simply fall out of the wood and clatter to the ground. Even this was better than tearing or breaking the bolts to open the box, they could be reused this way. The delivery guy watched her work, himself impressed by the results. Vwyx looked over the contents of each box and gave her approval as a nod, the stock was suitable for their usage. She was however disappointed, the selection this time didn’t include even a single instrument. She was honestly hoping to be given some new inspiration for a new project to work on.

“Well, I’m sure your.. newest neighbours would love to meet someone as talented as you. I would still recommend at least dropping by and getting to know them, if you haven’t already. Meeting new people is always hard, that’s something I’ve learned in my travels. If you’re even considering trying to visit the city, being scared of strangers like that won’t do you any good. Either way, I should be going, plenty of distance to cover before the sun sets. Looking forward to hearing about your first meeting with that new family when next I come around here. Who knows, by then you and their daughter might become friends or something.” The delivery guy laughed at his own idea as he finished packing up the wood.

Vwyx was perplexed, she didn’t even know their family had a daughter. Actually, the delivery guy here would have only spoken to her family for his arrival, and it had been over two lunar cycles since his last delivery. Did her sister share all of this before Vwyx herself showed up? She would have to confront her sister and find out how much the little twerp knew. First though, she had a job to complete. She resealed the boxes and started bringing them into the storage shed. As she went to bring the last two boxes, she found the delivery guy had already left. She picked up the last boxes and headed towards the storage shed, to find her sister peeking her head out watching her.

“I see you there, you’re not hiding from anyone.” Vwyx scoffed at her sister’s shyness, who in turn came to watch the conclusion of her task. At her age, Vwyn was already helping with stuff like this, she knew that the little twirp wouldn’t be able to get away with avoiding things much longer. It would be a blessing to finally get some help with some of these tasks. Sure her parents were still doing stuff too, but it still seemed like she was completing more projects than they were.

“So I hear you were having a nice chat with our delivery guy.” “Huh? No I didn’t. He’s still scary, I don’t like him much.” “Ah, yeah… Wait, if you didn’t talk to him, who did?” “Only you.” “Then who told them about that strange family that moved in recently?” Vwyx was perplexed, the whole matter didn’t make much sense. There was always the chance her sister was lying to her, but her sister was honestly shy.. that wasn’t a lie. The only other chance was that the delivery guy heard about it from whatever caravan had brought them here originally. It wasn’t like she understood how things worked very well beyond her village, maybe that was a thing. If so, it wasn’t something for her to worry about, she already had a task at hand. Vwyx set the last of the boxes into the storage shed and sealed it up tight.

“Speaking of that family, you did finish the bookshelf, right?” “You saw it for yourself, it’s done already. Why does that matter anyway?” “Mother says that she wants you to bring the bookshelf that the Ymheqxhya family requested to their home personally. Something about not wanting to take the blame for making a strange bookshelf.” “Wait! They requested the bookshelf?! By the divine, why me?” Vwyx was losing hope in any opportunity to make the most of the day. Carting the bookshelf over would be plenty of work, but it only got worse to hear that she would have to step into their creepy abode. Still, maybe she could salvage the situation. The delivery guy earlier did personally recommend meeting them, this would be a fine opportunity to measure the value of his words.

Vwyx returned to the bookshelf in question and started preparing it for transport. After meeting with a delivery guy, it seems it would be her turn to become the delivery girl. Still, the bookshelf was about 8 and 0 Uyn tall, making it even taller than her. That would be around 165cm tall, or 65 inches, though those were not measurement types she understood. Meanwhile, she was only 7 and 7 Uyn tall, around 8cm shorter, and had to cart this giant thing across the village. She struggled to get the bookshelf downstairs and out the door, setting it safely upon a cart. After ensuring it was sufficiently tied down, she set off for the other side of the village. She caught her mother watching her leave in the last moments, clearly not wanting to confront her with the bad news directly. No one wanted to be in her shoes right now, she would still be working independently.

It didn’t matter, she would be making the most of her circumstances either way. She arrived at the front gate of the creepy mansion as the sun reached into the horizon.