Niall was wrong of course. It was not going to be just one long day. It was going to be several long days. After the first few logs, he had to stop to catch his breath and rest his muscles. Panting with his hands on his thighs, he was forced to admit that Pobble had been correct. He was undoubtedly physically weak.

However, after some time he found himself falling into a rhythm, losing himself as his body learned to put its whole self behind the swing of the axe. It was undoubtedly the hardest physical activity that he had ever done. If he was honest, it was pretty much the only physical activity that he had ever done. But, the ache in his muscles, and the growing pile of logs that silently bore witness to his effort was strangely satisfying

It was mid-morning when Niall felt Pobble’s presence. He finished carrying his next log over to his chopping area and stood up.

“What is it, Pobble?”

“Niall has done it.”

“Done what?”

“Niall is slightly less weak and slightly less clueless. Slightly.”

Unbidden Niall’s Testimony appeared in front of him.

TESTIMONY: Niall Vendra

ATTRIBUTES

Strength: 4

Endurance: 3

Agility: 3

Will: 0

Perception: 2

CLASSES

None

UNALLOCATED SKILLS

- Steelmind 12

- Telepathy 1

- Woodcutting 1

Since your last review, these general attributes have increased: +1 Strength, +1 Endurance.

“I got a skill.”

“And because Niall used his body for the first time in, well, ever, that’s why his Strength and Endurance went up. Congratulations! Niall is now like a bigger baby.”

“Yes, but more importantly, I’ve actually learnt how to do something.”

“Well, Niall has started to learn how to do something. Look.”

Niall felt Pobble guide him to concentrate on the Woodcutting skill. As he did so it expanded:

Woodcutting 1: You have the ability to prepare a fallen tree for use in fires. Well done clueless human.

Niall’s eyes narrowed as he saw the description. “Pobble, this description is a little on the nose, isn’t it?”

“Niall does not like it? Pobble thinks that it looks perfect. What is wrong with it?”

“Wait, did you have anything to with writing this?”

“Of course, that is Pobble’s job. Pobble takes what the Spirit is doing and translates it so that it is usable and understandable for Niall.”

“Was it necessary to be so rude?”

“Yes.”

Niall ignored the Fae shard and looked down at his body. Except for being a bit dirtier and sweatier than when he woke up it looked the same. He was oddly disappointed. It had not really been very long and, from everything that he knew, a few hours of physical labour would not change someone’s body. Nonetheless, it would be a nice perk of this world if he could lose his wobbly belly in a day.

But, had anything actually changed? He could not quite believe that he was stronger. The only thing to do was to test it out. He picked up the axe, and tried to remember what it had felt like when he picked it up first thing that morning.

He could not be sure but it did seem a little easier to lift. With a swing, he started to chop at a log. This was definitely easier, and faster, than before. By the time the log was in pieces, he did not even need a break; he was ready to start on another. The changes were so instinctive that he was not sure that he would have noticed, had he not been actively trying to feel them out. However, it was undeniable that the changes were real.

He put down his axe and ran over to the smithy.

“Devon, it worked!”

Devon looked up from where he was working and gave a slow smile. “Woodcutting?” Niall nodded.

“Good work. With all that effort you must have got a Strength boost as well, right?”

“Yes, and Endurance.”

“Well, congratulations, you have yourself your first skill. Now to level it up. Crack on. There’s still a lot of morning left.”

Niall picked up the axe and continued his work. After a few minutes he found that he was losing himself in the repetition of the actions. The movement of the axe rising and falling was the only thing that he was aware of. Occasionally, his mind would drift but he would gently pull it back to the chopping. At certain points, he even felt as if he was one with the axe, part of him merging with it as he swung. Man, wood and metal as one. He smiled to himself at the fanciful thought and carried on working

Another couple of hours passed and Niall paused after completing another log. The morning was well underway and the sun shone brightly through the gaps in the clouds overhead. He wiped his forehand and looked around to see Devon stood next to him holding out a waterskin. He took it and drank greedily. Devon let him drink before speaking.

“You’re getting better.”

Niall, nodded unable to talk, drained now that he had stopped working. He could feel the ache in every one of his muscles, most of which he did not know he owned.

“In fact, I think that you were starting to channel spirit through yourself into the axe. That’s good news. The sooner you can do that the better.”

“I don’t really know what you’re talking about, but I don’t think that I was.”

“Yes Niall was, Pobble was helping.”

Niall looked at Devon quizzically, and took another mouthful of water

“Have a look at your Testimony.”

With a weary swipe, Niall brought it up.

TESTIMONY: Niall Vendra

ATTRIBUTES

Strength: 4

Endurance: 4

Agility: 3

Will: 1

Perception: 2

CLASSES

None

UNALLOCATED SKILLS

- Flow 1

- Steelmind 12

- Telepathy 1

- Woodcutting 1

Since your last review, these general attributes have increased: +1 Endurance, +1 Will.

“Hey I have a point of Will.”

“I told you that your Attributes would increase.” said Devon

“You were right. But what’s Will? All of the other Attributes seem to be self-explanatory but not that one.”

“Think of it as mental strength or your ability to concentrate. You’ll use it when you learn to heal. It’ll determine how fast and effective you’ll be.” Devon paused. “It also effects people like me when we’re trying to make high quality craft items, and also people who do magic, but I wouldn’t get hung up on that.”

“Why?”

“Magic, real magic, is pretty rare. Those who know how to do it guard their secrets jealously. People like us with no connections don’t have a chance to break into their inner circle. And, if you want to be a craftsman you have long road or training in front of you, if you can even find someone to take you on. Sorry.”

Niall was disappointed but nodded slowly in understanding. “Oh, and I have a new skill. What’s Flow?”

“Niall knows that he can just look, doesn’t he? Niall does not appear to have a very good memory.”

Pobble’s snark did not bother Niall as he concentrated on the word.

Flow: Moving meditation. You’ve just gotta groove with it, baby.

“Really?”

“What? Pobble was trying to use the language of Niall’s people to make him feel at home.”

“That tells me nothing at all. Devon, can you explain this Flow thing to me?”

“Do you remember the time disappearing as you chopped the wood?” Devon said?

Niall nodded.

“That was you entering a state of flow. It’s a type of meditation. You can achieve it when you lose yourself in any task, physical or mental. The higher that is, the longer you’ll be able to do things like heal. Of course, when you get a chance, you should also practice normal meditation; that’ll also help you extend you healing time. Now, talking of healing, how are your hands?”

Niall looked down. His hands were mostly used to swiping on screens and tapping on keyboards. They had objected to the unaccustomed indignations that they had been subjected to and were blistered and torn. Now that he was aware of them, they stung, a lot.

Niall held them out to Devon. “How did I not notice that before? They hurt.”

“Only to be expected. Want me to fix them for you?”

“Yes please. Thank you so much.”

“Well, I’m not going to. Do it yourself.”

Niall looked at him. “Well, I can’t do what you do. Do you have a first aid kit I can use?”

“Stop being so defeatist. You were channelling Spirit into the axe earlier. Now find that feeling of flow again, and channel it internally into your hands.”

Niall was about to make a pointed retort before biting his tongue. Devon had healed his hands last night so it may just be that he knew what he was doing.

He shut his eyes and took a deep breath.

“What are you doing?” Niall opened his eyes at Devon’s question.

“What do you think? I’m trying to find that feeling of flow like you said.”

“Why did you shut your eyes?”

Niall could feel himself turning red. “Because you said it was a type of meditation, you shut your eyes when you meditate right?”

“Tell me you didn’t shut your eyes when you were chopping wood? Even a city boy like you wouldn’t be that stupid.”

“Pobble is not so sure, Niall is pretty stupid.”

“Of course I didn’t.” Niall ignored the fact that he had, in fact, shut his eyes every time the axe head hit the wood at the start. He only stopped after he had embedded the axe in the earth worryingly close to his boot.

“Good. Don’t try to do something new, just visualise what you were doing with the axe. You’re trying to take the ambient energy into you and release it with your spirit.”

Niall took another deep breath and tried to recapture the feeling that he had had when he was lost in the action of chopping. For long moments nothing happened and then he felt something inside him. He grasped at it, and it was gone.

He shook out the tension in his shoulders and tried again. It came easier this time and he felt it as a warm current inside him that he could steer in some fashion. He tried to direct it to his hands and felt some of the pain ease, then the sensation was gone again.

“Look at your hands”

Niall looked down. His hands were still torn and blistered but the wounds looked less angry and the pain had reduced. He smiled at Devon. “It worked.”

Devon smiled back and touched Niall’s arm. In seconds, the pain vanished as did the blisters on Niall’s hand at his touch. “Barely, but, you did it. Look at your Testimony.”

Minor Healing 1: You can heal small cuts, blisters, burns and bruises. What did you think it meant? That you could now kill dragons? I’m wasted in this job.

Niall did so and grinned. “I have a Minor Healing skill now.”

“Yes you do. Now don’t forget to use it as you work. Right, let’s get some lunch. Plenty more to get done after that.”

It took Niall until late afternoon to complete chopping the stack of logs and then into the evening to stack the logs to dry out. He would have finished sooner had Devon not taken one look at his initial attempt at a log pile and then told him to start again, showing him how to stack them so that they would dry rather than rot. It was only then that he could even start to tackle the whole tree.

Over the next couple of days, Niall realised quite how much he had to learn about wood cutting. Under Devon’s guidance, he stripped the felled tree of extraneous leaves and branches. Once complete, with a combination of saws, wedges, hammers and axes, he turned it into usable logs. He also learned how to create usable kindling from the logs that he had already cut, as well as learning how to look after the tools. While each day his eyes were opened to his ignorance, each day also pushed back the frontier of that ignorance, just a little.

Each morning during that period he would still wake up with that feeling of being out of his depth, but each morning that feeling would last a little less time. Of course, the fact that Pobble would goad him until he rose helped with that. The physical labour, fresh air and good food, combined with the early starts, meant that he was physically exhausted when he went to bed and would fall asleep immediately.

It was all a far cry from his past life. Less than a week ago he was still in his routine of drinking coffee and using screens until much too late at night, then wondering why he was lying awake staring at the ceiling when the birds started up to welcome the dawn.

In this place, it did not take too much to get him out of bed. The little rush every day as his woodcutter skill, or his strength or his endurance ticked up was enough to get him down to breakfast, ready to see what new tweak to his Testimony the day might provide.

A week in, at lunchtime, Devon and Niall walked over to the outdoor table where they helped Alana lay out fresh bread rolls, a side of honey roasted ham ready to be sliced, and cheeses alongside a wooden bowl filled with salad leaves. There was a vinaigrette in a small glass flask and a jug of freshly squeezed apple juice to wash it all down.

Niall was surprised at how hungry he was. He had not been lying when he said to Alana on his first morning that he normally skipped breakfast. Lunch was usually a slightly tired sandwich from a shop near his office. Now, even after his hearty breakfast, he reached for his third roll. He could not remember when he had last eaten so well and, despite the quantity of food he had been eating, the paunch that he had been embarrassed about since he was a child was smaller than he remembered.

As Niall tucked into the ham bap that he had put together, Devon sat back in his chair and looked over at him. “Now listen Niall, you’ve been here for a week or so. How are you doing?”

Niall’s excitement at learning the Woodcutting Skill faded. He knew that this point would come. Devon had been unbelievably generous to open his home to a stranger but this was his way of getting rid of him. He decided to head it off.

“I know Devon, you’ve been incredibly kind, but it’s time for me to go. Now that I know how this all works, I’ll try to find some work somewhere and a place to live and then try to find a way home.”

Devon looked confused. “Don’t be ridiculous. You’re going nowhere. Unless you want to, of course. You can stay here for as long as you want. The room you’re sleeping in is my daughter’s and I’m not expecting her home for months. Even when she does come back, we can build an extra room for you over the summer. I remember how disorienting everything was when I arrived. I’m not just going to abandon you.”

“Thank you, but I don’t want to impose.”

“It’s not an imposition. I’m just paying back what was done for me. You’ll leave when you’re ready; not before. Also, just because you know one skill and the word for ham doesn’t mean that you are going to survive more than ten minutes out there.”

“But I have no clue about how to start to get home. I’m not sure how long I’ll be here.”

“Look, I lived with Patrick and Lucas for years. I even stayed with them after I started my apprenticeship. When I finally moved out, I would still go and have dinner with them on each of my days off. There’s no rush.”

Niall let out the tension in his stomach that he hadn’t realised he was holding in. “In which case, thank you very much.”

“That’s settled then. Just help around the place like you’re already doing by chopping the wood. There are a few other things that you can help with as well. Do those and we’ll call it square.”

Niall stood and rolled his shoulders to let out the last of the tension. “In which case I should get back to it.”