Chapter 26: 025 Knots Of Wood

As I poled my flat bottomed boat down the waterway beside the Addams farm, I saw several people working in the fields. Even though I hadn't said anything, they must have heard the boat going through the water, because two of them that were the closest stood up to look over at me. They were both women and I couldn't tell how old they were. I was never good at that sort of thing, unless the woman looked really old or really young, then it was easy.

One of them gasped and jogged over to look at me. “J-J-James? Is that you?”

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You have a crucial choice to make.

A) Stop the boat. B) Keep going. C) Deny it. D) Go faster. E) Lie. F) A&C. G) B&C. H) C&D.

Thanks. This is much better. I thought and read the options. I don't know these people, so I'll go for G.

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“My name's Boy... I mean David.” I said and kept moving the boat by poling along the waterway.

“N-no, you... you look just like...” The girl stammered.

“Hope!” The other girl exclaimed and interrupted whatever she was going to say.

“It's him, Linda! I know it!” Hope said and kept staring at me. “The hair is the wrong color; but, it's him.” She said and stood anxiously at the edge of the property twenty feet away. “It's him.”

“We haven't seen James since he was two.” Linda said and walked over to her sister. “It's been seventeen years since then.”

“It's not me, then.” I said confidently and poled at the same pace as I drifted by. “I'm only seventeen.”

“When was your birthday?” Hope asked me.

I couldn't remember the day the Hag told me. “Uh... early spring.” I responded.

The two girls fell silent and didn't say anything else. They also didn't try to follow along as I moved past their field. They stared at me right up until I left their sight behind the trees at the edge of their property. They were probably still staring and I just couldn't see it.

The lumberjack's place should be around here. I thought and poled along at a steady pace.

I saw a small wooden dock sticking out of the treeline and pushed my boat over to it. A small normal boat was tied up to the other side of it and I slowed down and gently bumped into the dock and tied on. I climbed onto the dock and used the Hag's vigilant technique to see, hear, and smell. I didn't find anything moving around, so I walked up the dock and through the trees.

I followed the short path and saw a huge house made out of trees without bark. It was massive and had rooms and things all over the place. It had angled roofs and I couldn't tell what the roof was made of. It had windows everywhere and it had piles of wood all over the place. Some were covered in tarps, some were cut up, and some were cut into straight pieces. Pieces of bark and wood chips were everywhere.

“Ho, the house.” I said and walked over to what I thought was the door. It looked like a door. I knocked on it and waited as I used the vigilant technique to stay alert. I heard someone walking in the woods and I turned around to see a muscular guy come out of the trees with a large double headed axe over his shoulder and a rope over the other.

“Why are you knocking on my storage shed?” John asked and let the rope go. A tree on that rope dropped to the ground behind him with a thud.

“I thought it was the front door.” I said. “I just came up from the dock and...”

“...you can go right back down it.” John said and lifted his axe from his shoulder and held it with both hands, one on the end of the handle and one near the axe head. “I won't have anything to do with that blasted old Hag.”

“I just want...”

“I don't care what you want. That bitch cost me...” John shook his head. “You're her apprentice, which means you're just as bad as her.”

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You have a choice to make. Will it be good or bad?

A) Intimidate. B) Leave. C) Spit. D) Deny it. E) Fight. F) Plead. G) Beg. H) Show off. I) Cry.

He thinks I'm like the Hag, so some of that won't work, especially denying, pleading, and begging. I thought. Crying would make him laugh, I think. I need to know how to build a house, so I can't leave. I read the options again and shook my head. Do I show off or try to intimidate him?

A timer popped up and gave me ten seconds to decide.

He's a big man, I don't think intimidation would work. I'll chose H.

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I walked over to one of the large logs that he had piled off to the side of the house. It hadn't been peeled of bark, so I took out my trusty knife.

John took in a sharp breath and I glanced over to see him tense up and grip the handle of his axe tightly.

I laughed at him. “If I wanted to fight you, you would be dead already.” I said and picked up the end of the large log easily. The strength potion would last me another day and a half, so I had lots of extra energy to show off. I quickly ran the blade down the side of the log for about five feet.

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I saw him wince at the sound of the blade and smiled as I spun the log and used the knife to cut vertical slits in the bark. Each piece popped off as I cut it and cleaned off half of the log, then I switched ends by picking the huge log up. I turned it around and peeled the bark off the other end. Now that the log was bare, I looked at him.

“Are you making the straight pieces or chunks with these?” I asked.

John didn't say anything and just stared at me.

I didn't say anything and made the blade glow with my magic, even though it couldn't really be seen in the daylight, then I proceeded to use my knife to slice up the log into the same length pieces that he had chunked up for firewood. I split them into four to make them perfect wedges, then tossed everything over near the pile. The whole thing hadn't taken me five minutes.

“I need to learn how to build a house.” I said and looked back at the lumberjack.

“How did you do that with just a knife?” John asked.

“Magic.” I said and he frowned. “Watch.” I said and went to one of the already peeled ones. I stuck the blade into the end and swiped it up the middle. The log split directly in two, then I cut flat pieces out of it, exactly one finger width deep. The log had been a foot wide, so I got three nice pieces from each half and the rounded parts remaining, I chunked up and threw over to the pile of firewood.

“Did the Hag teach you that?” John asked.

“She taught me that I can use a knife for pretty much everything.” I said.

John stared at me for several moments. “My answer is no.”

I stood there for several moments more and didn't move.

“If you don't leave right now, I'll see how the Hag deals with her own loss.” John said and stared at me with his axe still in his hands. “You tell that bitch if she ever comes near me or my family again, I'll kill her.”

I let a tooth bearing smile appear on my face. “You? Kill her? Are you joking?” I asked and he didn't say anything. “She killed an entire nesting brood of attacking marsh spiders. By herself. With a knife and a pole.”

John's face drained of some of its color and he gripped the handle of his axe so tightly that I thought I heard the wood creak.

“I'll be sure to tell her your very funny joke.” I said and turned away to start walking towards the path to go to the dock. I both felt and heard him shift his grip on the large axe, thanks to the vigilance technique. When he threw it at me, I was more than ready. I turned and had my knife up as the axe flew towards me. Instead of dodging completely or trying to block it, I held my knife perpendicular to the approaching blade and swiped it across the axe head with an upward swing.

It didn't quite work like I thought it would. Since the axe was rotating, my slice went from the top of one side of the axe head to the bottom of the other, rather than cut it in half like I wanted it to. It was still in two pieces, though. The axe would probably still be usable, since my knife had missed most of the central handle part. The damaged axe pieces stuck into the pile of wood behind me.

I walked over to them and pulled out the part still attached to the handle. “I broke your little axe.” I said and looked at him. “Do you want it back?”

The rest of the color drained from his face and he shook his head.

I smiled and used my knife to slice off the head, then sliced up the handle into small chunks. I pulled out the other piece of the axe head from the wood and did the same thing. “I don't think this wood is usable anymore.” I said and pat it with one hand to distract him, then used my other hand to quickly pour a number ten potion over the stack of wood. “All that work you did to gather them up and clean them. Wasted.”

John stood still and didn't move. “I have more axes.”

“You better keep all of them on you for the rest of your life.” I said and laughed for only a second, then I stared at him. “I don't think she'll find your joke very funny now.”

We stood there and didn't move. I waited for the potion to do its work and didn't speak until it was done, then I just walked towards the path. John didn't move towards me and he didn't try to pull a knife or chase after me. I walked down the path and stayed vigilant, keeping all of my senses focused.

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You have a choice to make. The last one didn't work out too well. Will this one?

A) Just leave. B) Cause more damage. C) Pretend to talk to the Hag. D) Kill him. E) Burn it down.

That asshole tried to kill me because he was scared that his empty threat to the Hag would get back to her. I thought, angrily. I'm choosing B!

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When I reached the dock, instead of going to my flat bottomed boat, I used my knife to slice up the dock and severed it from the shore. I then went to each post that held it up and out of the water and sliced them off. Its own heavy weight kept it in place and I went to my boat. It was still attached to the dock, so I used a little bit of number ten potion to fuse a bit of the boat to the dock.

I activated the weight enchantment with as much magic as I could and then the movement enchantment. My boat with the dock attached and the lumberjack's boat floated out into the middle of the waterway. I brought us to a stop out there and went to his boat. It was easy to make multiple slices all along the outer hull and the boat started to sink. I cut the rope and watched the thing lower into the water.

I deactivated the enchantments on my boat, then I cut up the dock into pieces, just like I had with the axe handle. I finished by cutting off the small bit still attached to my boat, activated the enchantments and looked back at the spot where the little dock used to be. The lumberjack was there with a shocked look on his face.

“I hope you're a light sleeper!” I said loudly. “No one tries to kill me and gets away with it!”

John watched me float away in my boat without poling it along and the shocked expression never left his face. What I didn't know was that it was because I had made a huge pile of wood into a single mass and not because I had easily destroyed his boat and his dock.

I was quickly out of his sight, thanks to the trees, and I deactivated the enchantments. I wasn't going to show off magically moving my boat to everyone. I poled myself along and back the other way and I hoped that enough time had passed for me to go looking for Diane without her asking me any questions.

Maybe I can ask around and see if anyone knows how to build a house? Diane said that a lot of people know how. Maybe one of them would tell me how to do it?

I passed by the Addams farm and the fields were empty of people. I had expected the girls to still be there, for some reason. I shrugged and pushed those thoughts aside as I poled along past the farm and headed back to the village.

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