The Roaming Mage (3/4)
While Haalfrin is eating his food, he notices that Tanya piled up a huge portion of meat for him. It's like she was afraid of taking a large portion of the deer for herself and for her child.
"Mommy… What's this?" little Kamyen says as he puts the meat in his mouth. "It's really good! Can we have this every day?"
"No, dear. We're going to have to take this deer to Mr. Deli's house and get him to salt the meat for us. Then we're going to have to save it up."
"But… I want it every day! I'm so hungry!" the toddler looks like he's about to cry and throw a tantrum. He even starts thrashing about and kicking his legs.
Rather than fight back, Tanya just looks tired. She tries her best to wrestle her son down while not being aggressive to him.
From Haalfrin's point of view, this woman seems like the overly agreeable type who can't bear to make people feel bad.
'That's certainly a strength in some areas. I mean, if she wasn't so kind to strangers, I wouldn't feel compelled to stick around and fix her roof. However… People with her personality don't know how to be stern with people. Sometimes, you have to be stern…'
Haalfrin thinks this as he watches the child get more and more rambunctious. After a few seconds, the boy ends up kicking his mother's rib, and she drops her plate of food on the ground.
"Kamyen!" Haalfrin growls in very low, threatening voice, "You're hurting your mother. Calm down and eat your food."
Something in Haalfrin's eyes must have scared the boy witless. Immediately the boy goes stiff, and he shuffles back onto the log beside his mother. He hangs his head low and stares at the ground.
After the meal is over, Haalfrin stands up and says to Tanya. "I don't know enough about carpentry to properly fix up your house. However, I'm a pretty strong mage, and I figured it would be much simpler to just tear the house down and build a stone house in its place. I know stone a lot better than wood."
Tanya opens her mouth, and it looks like she's about to say something… She then closes her mouth; it appears that she chose to not say what was on her mind. "Ok."
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Haalfrin ends up sleeping in the same position under Tanya's window as yesterday. Tanya tries giving him a corner to sleep in in her house, but Haalfrin shuts that down by saying, "You're an unmarried woman. I can't go in your house alone. It's inappropriate."
"Kamyen's here."
"A three-year-old doesn't count."
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The next morning, Haalfrin wakes up a little late, and Tanya has already moved her things out of the house. Knowing that everything is ready, he gets straight to work.
The first thing he does is use a simple anchoring spell to hold the entire house together. Then, he uses his other hand to levitate the entire house up – yanking it out of the ground in the process.
"Ah!" ~ Tanya
"Ah!" ~ Kamyen
Haalfrin tries to ignore the two terrified people. Heck, even some of the neighbors are coming out of their houses and staring at what Haalfrin is doing.
The mage feels himself get a little hot and itchy; being stared at by everyone IS a little uncomfortable. Plus, he doesn't like to feel like putting on a show for people. 'Let's just get this over with.'
Once Haalfrin sets the ruined house to the side, he calls, "Dakka!"
A few seconds later, a bone ax hurdles down through the air and lands in Haalfrin's palm. 'Dakka,' Haalfrin telepathically says, 'Dragons have a great connection to elementals, right?'
'Sure, bro. What do you need me to do?'
'Find me a vein of sturdy stone. I don't want the bricks to be mixed and unstable.'
'Nah. Too much trouble!' If Dakka had a body, he'd be picking his nose right now. 'I'll just get the earth elementals to expel everything except for the limestone. That stuff is easy to find. If there's no limestone, I can look for granite instead. Then, I'll have the elementals reshape the stone into a house.'
'No, Dakka. I'LL do the shaping. For all I know, you'll make something far to big for a mother and daughter to live in.'
Once Haalfrin is done talking to Dakka, he sets the ax on the ground, and the ax starts glowing red. The earth starts bubbling underneath him. Limestone starts emerging from the soil – seemingly on its own.
Then, with both hands working in unison, the stone seems to liquify and remold into the shape in Haalfrin's mind.
Not even a minute later, a brand new house is lying in place of the old one.
Haalfrin steps away from his completed product, and he stretches his aching fingers; using his fingers to remold stone certainly puts some stress on them.
He then turns around and sees Tanya and a few other villagers staring at him in shock. Most of these villagers haven't even seen Haalfrin's face yet, and all but the eldest among them have never even seen a mage before.
"T-tanya? Who is this man?" one of the young men in the villages asks.
"Oh? He's…"
While Tanya gets to explaining the story behind this, Haalfrin pivots on his heels and walks briskly away – giving an excuse that he's going to get his things and eat some of the leftovers.
For some reason, he was starting to feel a little nervous back there.
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Once Haalfrin comes back, he finds that most of the villagers have dispersed, though what remains is mostly the old folk.
Just as Haalfrin is about to bid Tanya goodbye, one of the old men present looks at Haalfrin and says, "I heard that you don't have a place to live. Have you considered living here?"
Tanya glares and slaps the old man on the shoulder. "Elder! There's nothing here! We can't make a powerful mage stay!"
The old man shrugs off her light slap and says calmly, "Well, Tanya, it's worth a try. Having a mage live here would not only make our village safe, but all the surrounding villages. As the chief here, I need to at least try. Yeah?"
"He's right, Tanya," Haalfrin says. "It's his job. He doesn't have to care if he's asking for something a little dumb. What's there to lose from asking?"
He then turns to the chief and extends a hand. "Fine. I got nowhere to go anyway. I'd mind as well stick around for a bit. I warn you, though. I'll probably be gone before the next spring."
The old man bows his head gratefully and says, "There's no vacant houses, here, but I can have my son's family move back in with me… Though, I imagine you can probably build anything better than what we offer you."
"It's fine. I'll take a look later."
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Over the next several months, Haalfrin gets to know the people here.
Being such a small village in the middle of nowhere, the people here are understandably wary of strangers. The first people to warm up to him are the children in the village. Most of them are curious about his magic, so the boldest among them follow him around all day and ask him to "show them his tricks".
Many of the adults warm up to Haalfrin when they see him humor the kids, though a few are still anxious about his presence here.
In the meantime, Haalfrin spends a few hours a day helping the villagers out with various problems. One day, the village carpenter offers to pay Haalfrin in furniture if he brings back some sturdy lumber from the forest. Just to be sure, the carpenter follows Haalfrin into the forest to show him which trees are suitable for lumber.
After he finds the right tree, Haalfrin easily yanks the thing out of the ground and carries it on his back to the man's house. The older man then shows Haalfrin how to prepare the tree for use.
For the first time in a long time, Haalfrin actually has fun. 'It feels nice to learn new things.
The next day, some of the village aunties offer to make him some new clothes if he digs a ditch between the pond and their garden. Sure, this took two seconds for him, but it would've taken a magicless person hours or even days to do it. The ladies are grateful, and they get to work on his clothes.
Just like this, Haalfrin ends up getting to know everyone in the village, and they all become comfortable around him.
You'd think a mage would act a lot like a noble – stuck up and distant from everyone. However, this man seems friendly enough!