After several minutes of gentle verbal coercion, the woman sat back down on the log and allowed me to observe as she went through the process of lighting the fire. My attention was laser focused as she held out her hands, keeping them around three centimeters away from the wood pile, and began her process. She began the chant, which was in a language that was quite similar to Uwrish but somehow not the same. Approximately four-fifths of the way through the chant the first vestiges of embers began forming under both of her palms. There was no visible mechanism for transferring the required energy, it was as though the wood simply decided to set itself alight.

“I-I need to go!” the woman said suddenly, standing up and dashing off towards a section of the field with more people as I stood, stunned, in front of the fire she had created. How did she do that? I kept asking myself as I went over the memory again and again. It can't have been the chant, that's just... ridiculous. The presence of the anomalous healing effect that seemed to imbue most life I had encountered since awakening on the island with extremely fast regeneration had to have something to do with it, I assumed. There's almost no chance that the two things that are most strange about this place aren't somehow tied together, I reasoned.

I sat down in the woman's spot, warming myself by the fire as I watched the other humans going on about their business and partying. A few humans, mostly women by my estimation, were watching me from some thirty meters away in the direction that the fire woman had run off in. Suddenly, something fell into place in my mind. The hunter! I thought in a wave of realization and excitement, That's how he got out of the ropes! He must have burned them using... whatever this is! It also told me something about the strange phenomena: it wasn't specific to wood, nor was it a unique talent of the woman. Svihytaazmoydh, I recalled the name the woman referred to her skill by, the village leaders also used a word like that when speaking about my fighting skill.

I waited, judging the atmosphere of the celebration and looking for an opportunity to pull someone aside and ask them more about the fire-lighting skill. Unfortunately the humans were far too preoccupied with their dancing and singing, and I couldn't find the faces of anyone I recognized either. At some point the humans brought over an entire carcass of one of the rhino-gator beasts, to many cheers, and then they began to cook it. While I was curious what the beast would taste like, I was also becoming fatigued and wanted to head home. Once the campfire in front of me died down I left the party, walking across the dark village with only the sounds of singing and cheering in the distance to break the silence.

In the morning, after taking a walk up to the creek to wash myself and my clothing, I ate a large amount of fruit and then headed into the village. Somebody is going to know what I'm talking about, I thought, I just have to find someone who can take the time and explain it to me. The stares I got from the people had grown more cautious after the previous night, and some of their whisperings contained words that I hadn't heard before but certainly sounded scandalous. Oh how the human mind loves to contort the truth, I mused, it's a wonder they even make distinctions between fact and fiction. One of the hardest pieces of information to acquire from a warbreed was their actual number of kills. Over time the accepted estimation method became taking their stated number, dividing it by three, and then adding one kill for each year they had been alive.

“You,” a voice from behind me called out in my direction. I turned around to see the guard from the village leaders' building walking towards me with an upset look on his face. “What did you do last night?” he demanded.

“What do you think I did last night?” I asked back, curious as to what was being said about me. The guard narrowed his eyes, but then exhaled and shook his head.

“Rumor has it that you tried to assert your will onto Yayaoey,” he said, more quietly than before, “however, the woman herself has said nothing about it.” Assert my will onto... No that can't be the right translation, I thought, trying to piece together the meaning of what was clearly a euphemism. The exact words used were teyynahv gow zahvs awl, meaning "to give an order or compel", "you", "self or your body", "on or in contact with". Do they think I was trying to fight her? I wondered, I suppose I may have appeared overly aggressive by these people's standards.

“I was attempting to find out what method she used for lighting her campfire,” I stated, “whatever else was said is not true.” The guard, whose name I was now trying to remember but couldn't, looked at me carefully.

“I'm going to ask her if that's what happened,” he said. “Assuming she agrees with you, there won't be any problems.” Great, I thought, my fate is in the hands of a coward who ran away from a conversation. Displeased as I was, it wasn't the worst possible outcome. I saw movement behind the guard, and glancing to the left showed a familiar face on an adolescent. Seeing my sight line change, the guard looked behind him at Mihvay.

“Hello Vowteyz,” Mihvay chirped happily, reminding me of the guard's name.

“Hello Mihvay,” Vowteyz replied, “could you do me a favor and keep this... individual out of trouble for a little while?” Vowteyz was clearly thinking something less respectful, but paused and adjusted his speech mid-sentence. A good sign, I thought to myself. Mihvay looked at me, and I at him, and he shrugged.

“It's not true what they're saying, right?” he asked Vowteyz.

“That's what I'm going to find out right now,” Vowteyz said. “Consider this a part of your training, keeping a mpeyngeyvzeyy individual from disrupting the town.” Mihvay nodded with a grin and Vowteyz talked off, presumably to go find the woman in question and speak to her. Mihvay, who I now noticed was dressed in a smaller version of the guards' uniform minus the leather chest piece, walked up to me and tapped me on the chest.

“I knew you didn't do it,” he grinned. “You look a lot more human when you're dressed in clothes and washed up.” The boy's confidence in me made me smile. It was a transparently manipulative reaction, made to influence him to believe there was some relationship between us, but I did it anyway.

“Mihvay, do you know what svihytaazmoydh means?” I asked. Mihvay laughed.

“Glad you're alright too,” he scoffed, “why do you ask?”

“The woman, she lit a fire with her hands just by chanting,” I explained, “she said she was using svihytaazmoydh. I don't know what that means. The village leaders, they also said something similar about me when we were negotiating the deal between us.”

“She didn't light the fire with chanting,” Mihvay laughed, “she used taazmoydh to create svihy, to make the fire.” His explanation did nothing to help me, and he saw it in my face. “Svihy is... you know, the things in the fire. A fire is made up of many svihy. A single svihy is what's in a lantern... you know what I mean right?”

“A flame,” I replied, “a single plume of superheated gas rising up from a material which is on fire.” Mihvay thought about it, then nodded. “More importantly, what is taazmoydh? How did she create the flames?” I asked.

“Are you messing with me?” Mihvay asked with an uncertain smile.

“Why would I do that?” I asked back. Mihvay grunted, then hummed, then took a deep breath, then looked at me again more suspiciously. Is it that strange of a question? I wondered.

“You used taazmoydh to deflect the darts when, you know, the thing with the merchant happened,” Mihvay said. “Taym, the farmer who was there, attested to it personally. Besides that, there's no way you're so strong if you aren't using sehpztaazmoydh, so I'm not sure what you're asking.” That raises more questions than it answers, I sighed, I should try to get off of this topic before I end up saying something which damages the fragile reputation I have even more.

“I can't light a fire just by chanting,” I said, “I wanted to learn how to do it.” Mihvay, not recognizing the deflection for what it was, smiled.

“I know someone who's learning right now,” he offered, “if you have some time we can go visit them.”

An hour later, after walking across the entire village multiple times looking for another adolescent named Yaevb, Mihvay and I arrived at a house in what I was coming to understand as the “outer ring” of the village. The village itself was arranged in such a way that the oldest, and consequently most important, buildings were placed in a rough circle at the center of town along with a clearing for gatherings. Around that a newer set of secondary buildings, mostly dwellings, was built. Then around that a tertiary scattering of cabins and farmhouses dotted the rest of the lowlands the village sat in.

Mihvay knocked at the door and waited, and I listened. Counting footsteps by pitch and apparently volume I counted at least four people inside the building in front of me. The wooden structure was two stories tall and most likely had an interior floor space five to six times larger than the floor space of my cabin. Eventually one of the heavier individuals came to the door, opening it up while speaking a greeting. He paused once his eyes fell on me. The man was older, somewhat bloated around the midsection, and had a bushy beard and short hair.

“What do you want?” he asked curtly.

“Hi sir,” Mihvay began politely, “I was talking to my friend Yuwniht here, and he happened to mention that he didn't know how to use svihytaazmoydh and wanted to learn. I figured since Yaevb was learning right now it might be okay if he watched him practice?” I want to do more than just watch, I thought, but a little bit of deception goes a long way.

“No,” the man grunted, “I won't, be having that thing anywhere near my grandson.” The door began to shut but Mihvay made a noise and approached the man to stop him.

“Please sir, he's not dangerous or anything,” Mihvay pleaded. “He's just a bit... strange is all.” The old man scoffed and looked at me, our eyes meeting above Mihvay's head. I did my best to look non-aggressive in order to avoid a confrontation. If I can get what I want just by asking, that's better for me, I thought as the man's left eye twitched.

“Looked plenty dangerous when he was strangling a man to death with a sword run through him,” he spat. “Even now he's looking at me like he's just oythoydh for a fight. That thing isn't a man, it's a wild animal in the shape of one, and I won't have it near my home. You won't bring it back if you know what's good for you.”

“The village elders trust me not to cause trouble,” I said, “I simply want to learn a skill I do not have.” The man looked as though he wanted to snarl at me. Now this is more the kind of behavior I would expect from a human, I thought, this I can work with. “Is there some kind of trade that can be done to allow me access to this information?” I asked. The man broke into a mocking laugh.

“You might speak politely,” he said, “but I know that look you have. I half expect that you'll just try to break into my property or watch from a bush nearby or something now that you know that what you want is here, won't you?” I said nothing, knowing that it was pointless to deny it by the man's tone. Besides, I thought, he's entirely right. “You're pretty big, and you're damned strong,” the man continued. “There's a cart around the back of the house. Fill it with wood, bring it back, chop it up so that it can be used as firewood, and I might let you sit back and watch as I teach my grandson a thing or two.”

“By what deadline?” I asked.

“Tomorrow morning,” the man replied, then he headed inside and slammed the door behind him. Mihvay looked at me with a dejected face, but I was less discouraged. I motioned for him to follow me and headed to the back of the house. Sure enough, a basic wooden cart sat at the back of the house, empty and ready to be taken. A simple two meter wide by three meter long box with wheels and a handle, it looked sturdy enough to carry at least a few small trees' worth of logs in it.

“That old npoyt,” Mihvay swore quietly, “he knows you probably don't have any money to buy wood. He's just making fun of you.”

“Who said anything about buying wood?” I asked, letting a hint of amusement slip out in my voice for effect. “This whole village is surrounded by wood.”