Bookworld Online: Marsh Man

The swordsman groaned when he woke up and realized he was bound and gagged. “HMM! MHM MMM!”

“I hit you a bit too hard and knocked you out.” I said. “I'll do better the next time you block me.”

He glared at me. “Hmm hm.” He mumbled and rolled over to shake his bound hands at me, then rolled back to glare at me again.

“I didn't want you attacking me as soon as you woke up.” I said. “I'll untie you when we get back.”

“Hm?” He lifted his head and looked around. I grabbed his shoulder and sat him up so he could see over the three foot tall walls of the boat. “HMM!”

“Marsh magic.” I said, as if he asked me what was going on.

He didn't try to speak again.

Two and a half hours later, I pulled the boat up to the dock. I tied the boat up and then ignored his grunt as I ran up the road. I passed Diane's place, ran down the main road past the garrison, and down to the dock there. I grabbed the large hand cart and ran back up the road. I made it back to the dock by Diane's place and the swordsman glared at me.

His glare became a look of disbelief as I loaded up the cart with the things I bought, including the large stone bases. Those I put over the wheels for balance and then I added the crate of number ten potion that was sealed and still in the boat.

I untied the swordsman after that and took off his gag. He didn't say anything to me and stepped out of the boat. I secured the boat and stepped behind the cart's pull handle and walked. He followed me without saying anything, then he stared with a blank expression when I stopped by Diane's place and starting cutting up logs with my knife.

I did that for an hour and he didn't complain once. I put all the choice planks on the stack of other planks there for Michelle the boatbuilder to use and loaded the rest into the cart. Unlike them, I could use every scrap of wood for the things I did. Except for the bark. That I usually discarded or used for the fire.

That reminded me that I needed firewood and thought about cutting up a few logs for it, then remembered I should probably use wildwood, so I could keep the same temperature with a magic enhanced fire that burned ten times as long. I also knew just the place to get a pile of it, too. There was a huge stump at the back of Diane's store property and I could harvest a bunch from that.

I took the cart up the road to the main one and pulled it to the garrison. The guards opened the door for me and laughed at what I had in it. They didn't ask what I was doing with it and just waved me through. My guard stayed silent as well and followed me. I brought the cart over to the spot beside the maintenance building and parked it there.

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You have a major choice to make. Will it be the right one or will you fail in your chosen course?

A) Build it yourself. B) Get the guard to help. C) Get Gary to help. D) Get someone else.

I don't really know anyone else and the guard definitely won't help me. I thought and looked at the first option. I could build it myself; but, it goes so much faster with an extra pair of hands. Plus, if I'm going to be working in the maintenance department, then Gary's going to see me use the number ten potion as we build the walls. I smiled. I'll choose C.

_______________

I walked into the maintenance building and Gary saw us.

“There you are.” Gary said and came over to me. “You sure took your time going to the village to buy supplies.”

“I can't buy supplies from the village.” I said and he looked surprised.

“You can't? Then where did you go?”

“To the next town.” I said and he stared at me.

“How... how in the world... it's three days by boat!” Gary exclaimed.

“Not for me.” I said.

Gary was silent for a moment and looked at my guard. “Tell me what happened.”

“I wasn't awake for most of it.” The swordsman said and glanced at me. “From what I saw, his boat moves on its own and doesn't have to be poled, paddled, or used a traditional sail.”

Gary looked like he was thinking about something. “Does the CO know?”

“Yes.” I said. “She allowed me, Lt. Smith, Sgt. Simms, Marine Sgt. Russell and Sgt. Sanders to get supplies for the town.”

“Hmm. Good. Good.” Gary said. “I'll have to put a few things in order to prep for her decision when it comes.”

“What decision?” I asked.

“Don't worry about it.” Gary said with a smile. “I assume you got what you needed this time?”

“Yes. I just need a hand putting the building together to set everything up.”

“You're in luck, because I've already finished everything else for today.” Gary said and rubbed his hands together. “Let's get to work.”

I nodded and we went back outside.

“You better step back and stay out of the way. We have serious work to do here.” Gary said to the guard and then looked at the pile of planks in the cart. “We're gonna need nails and hammers.”

“No, we won't.” I said and he gave me a disbelieving look. “Help me hold the planks in place.”

Then we got to work and started building the walls. Gary started telling me that I was doing it wrong and that I needed to build an internal structure first before making the outside of the wall, until I used some of the number ten potion to stick two of the planks together. I waved my hand over it for a split second and mumbled a word, just so he would think that he can't use the potion by himself. It was too dangerous to let anyone else use it unsupervised.

“WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!?” Garry yelled.

“Marsh magic.” I said. “I'll be doing the same thing when I'm building the inner wall the CO ordered.”

“Kid, I'll be right there by your side putting the thing up.” Gary said and tapped the two planks that were now one. “You can keep doing this, can't you?”

I nodded. “As long as I have enough potion to get the building built.” I said and nodded at the sealed crate in the cart.

“That's full of vials?” Gary asked, surprised.

“Yes, and it can only be opened safely with my knife.” I said and then we went back to work. We went fast, because I was more concerned with getting it up and in place than I was with making it perfect. I could worry about that when I had more number ten potion made, which meant that I needed my place built and a roof on top of it.

“Kid, this is going to be really flimsy with only planks holding it up and no braces.” Gary said as we finished attaching the back wall on the 12 foot by 20 foot building.

“Only until I get the potion made.” I said. “Then we can fill in the spaces.”

“The spaces?” Gary asked and then he stared as I started making the inside wall. He helped right away and in only an hour, the walls were up and ready for potion.

When I explained what I was going to do with the roof, he shook his head.

“I think you better go for just a single angled roof. Trying to put a pitched roof on that is a waste of time.” Gary said. “A single angle will achieve the same result.”

“Okay.” I said and he showed me that it was a simple matter to add a short one foot riser with vents to one wall and then it was just straight planks to the other side of the building. The planks were exactly the right length, so we completed the bottom part of the roof and then the top part after another half an hour. It went really fast with only having to lay the planks in place.

I couldn't put a wood floor in, since I needed the stone bases for the fires. I had made the building exactly four stone bases wide and just over six stone bases long. With that long rectangular design, five stone bases could go along the walls and two could go on the end in between them. That left me five feet by twelve feet for living space and a nice walkway between the two rows of pots and racks. I placed the blocking stones all along the walls and the walkway, attached them to the stone bases with potion, and then set everything into place.

“Good lord.” Gary said as he looked at the setup. “How in the world are you going to keep all of this going? The firewood you're going to need will be more than a squad can cut down in a day!”

“I don't need normal firewood.” I said and he gave me a strange look. “I am going to need a lot of water, though.”

“I'll have someone gather some up...” Gary started to say.

“No, that's okay.” I said and quickly made up two large square water barrels, just like the ones I had at home. I applied the last of my fortifying waterproof potion to them and put them on the hand cart. I realized then that I could take the pots and half fill them with water as well and added them back to the cart. “I'll be right back.”

Gary stood there and stared at me as I left with the cart at a jog. My guard came right along with me. The funny thing was, he never offered to help once, not even when I was at the water and he could have filled up the other barrel with water while I filled the first one. I finished that task and filled each pot to half like I wanted. I took my time with the cart going back, now that it was heavy with water that I could easily spill if I wasn't careful. I dropped the water off at the new building and then took the empty cart all the way back to the village.

Once there, I stopped at Diane's store and ran behind it to the back of her property to the huge wildwood stump that was there. The part that was cut down was still in the woods, its magical properties long since dissipated. I used my knife and hacked at the large stump to get nice chunks of firewood from it that would fit under the racks and give me a nice even fire. I carried piles of it back to the cart and didn't stop until I had enough.

Just like other resources that I cultivated, I didn't take too much from the stump. As long as it stayed alive and had lots of roots and things, it would keep trying to regrow itself. It took years for them to start growing back, though. Even now, the ones I had cut down in the marsh eight years ago were only just making sprouts pop up in the center of them.

I took the cart back to the garrison and to my new building to start loading the firewood under the racks to get the fires going. To my surprise, there was a nice bed tucked into the corner across from the door and a work bench next to it.

“You'll want to put up a dividing wall to block the bed from the door and the heat.” Gary said. “Unless you stay just in your underwear, because it's going to be really hot in here.”

I nodded and we quickly made a dividing wall. I didn't bother trying to hide it when I used the fire lighting magic to get the wood burning. Gary would be seeing it a lot, if I was allowed to go and gather ingredients to make more potions. He didn't even blink an eye at me when I did it... then he saw the bright blue flames of the wood and that it didn't burn.

“Dammit, kid! What else are you going to surprise me with?” Gary asked with a chuckle.

“Watch.” I said and went to retrieve my pack from his office and the bags of ingredients I had.