I ran back to the general store and Mack was just putting the cask of alcohol on the hand cart. “Is that it? That's it, right? It's all loaded? I can leave now, right? Right?”

Mack stared at my panicked face and very slowly reached out and touched my arm. I jerked a little and didn't pull away, so he put his other hand on my other arm and stepped close.

“Take a deep breath, boy.” Mack said and I did. “Another. Keep going.”

I started taking deep breaths and didn't stop.

“I'm not going to ask you what's got you so spooked, since if it's something that can scare you, I doubt I could do anything about it.” Mack said.

“Sh-Sh-Shelly.” I said and tried to point down the dock.

“No! What happened to her?” Mack asked and shook me a little. “Speak up, boy! Tell me!”

“I... I... I... she... down by the...”

“Spit it out!” Mack nearly yelled and shook me again.

“SHE KISSED ME!” I yelled.

Mack looked horrified for a moment, as if he expected me to say something else, then his horror turned to delight and he laughed. He laughed and laughed. He laughed so hard that tears rolled down his face and he let me go to try and wipe at them with both hands. He kept mumbling something and I couldn't make out what it was.

“M-Mack, what are you saying?”

“D-don't... s-scare me... like that.” Mack said between guffaws. “Oh... oh, that's... such a relief!”

I stood there for several minutes and didn't know what to say.

“Take this load down to your boat.” Mack said when he finally stopped laughing. “I marked down what I still owe you and I'll give you the rest when you come back in the morning.”

I wanted to ask him what he thought was so funny about Shelly acting like the Hag, then decided he wasn't going to understand. Even though he knew... that everyone knew... what the Hag was like, none of them had ever done anything to stop her or to help me.

I nodded and took the hand cart, careful of its weak state, and rolled it down the road and over the dock to the boat. I transferred everything to the dock and then into the boat. When I had it all under the tarp, I climbed back onto the dock and brought the hand cart back. Mack always got mad if you left it where someone could break it.

I ran back to the boat and untied it, picked up one of the poles and started pushing. I activated the weight enchantment to lighten the load and then I heard a whistle. I turned my head to look and Shelly hung out the window on this side of the boat builder's house and waved to me. I quickly turned away and activated the movement enchantment with as much magic as I could and I poled as fast as I could away from there.

I moved along so fast that a few of the snakes that tried to hang down from the trees and drop into the boat or onto me, missed and splashed into the water. I didn't know how I was going so fast and I didn't care. I had to get home as quickly as possible and then I did. I rode the boat right up onto the dry part near the hut and didn't have to tie it on. I stopped feeding my magic into the enchantments and the boat made a thump sound.

I assumed I had been on a bit of an angle or something when it dropped, so I jumped out of the boat. Instead of unloading it, I dragged the whole thing over to the hut. When I turned to open the door, I saw that it was partially off the hinges. I immediately froze still and used the technique the Hag had taught me.

I took in a breath through my nose and smelled a damp wetness, like fur. I listened and heard a thick and slow breathing inside the hut. I used my eyes and let more light flow into them and saw claw marks near the door's edges. I recognized them right away as a marsh panther. I took in another breath through my nose and I could tell it was across the hut and in the corner. My old corner.

_______________

You have an intruder in your hut. What will you do?

A) Fight. B) Flee. C) Burn it down. D) Wait it out. E) Be smart. F) Be stupid.

There's no choice at all there. I thought. I choose E.

_______________

I let a feral grin show on my face, because there was only one way to deal with a marsh panther. I very carefully knelt and took out my trusty knife. I slowly tied it to the end of the pole, perpendicular to it, then wedged one end in the dirt and the other against the door frame at waist height. With that in place, I took two steps back, braced my shoulder, then ran and jumped through the damaged door.

I smashed through it as if it was only thin wood and not the planks I had used to make it. The sound was loud as the wood splintered and I tumbled to the floor, rolled over to the cooking pot, then started rattling everything around as much as I could.

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“RRWWWWOOOOOWWWWW!!!” The marsh panther yelled out in fright, scared out of its wits by the sudden loud racket, and it scrambled around in circle as it tried desperately to find a way out. It saw the completely open door and darted as fast as it could to escape the cozy and frightening place. It didn't see my knife at all as it only sought the outside, and it ran right through the eight inch blade. Or more accurately, it ran past and the blade sliced deep into the marsh panther.

It let out another ear splitting howl as it bled out and collapsed just outside the door. Its own movement and momentum made it slide another foot before it came to a stop. I walked over to the doorway and waited as I used the same technique to see, listen, and smell if there was anything else. I stayed there for several minutes before deciding that the marsh cat was alone. I reached down and retrieved my knife and flicked it to get the blood off, then put it back into my thigh sheath.

I walked outside and checked the large cat to see if it was really dead. It was, so I checked the nice clean slice it had from its mid-shoulder, through its side, to its hip. I wouldn't be able to save the pelt on this side; but, at least it was a nice clean slice.

Maybe I could extend the other side under the belly to this side, rather than cut it off completely? I asked myself. It would look off-center, though. I looked at the head. Maybe if I leave the head intact I might be able to sell it for more?

I shrugged and picked up the dead panther and carried it into the hut. I would have to fix the door before I left. I could still feel the effects of the strength potion, so I made quick work of skinning the beast, chopping it up into usable chunks, and then using some of the expensive spices to prep and keep most of the meat. I set it over the heat, and not the fire, to smoke it.

It was usually tough to chew; but, I had strong teeth and had no trouble eating it, even if it did taste more like frog than near-deer. With that thought, I prepped the large stew pot and set it to simmering, then chunked up some of it and tossed it in to let it cook with tubers, vegetables, tasty mushrooms, and a dash of fungus powder.

While I let that cook, I transferred all of the supplies from the boat to the hut and put them away. Unlike what the Hag used to do, I now had cupboards for everything. I had seen Diane use one in the back of the shop and she let me look at it. I easily figured out how it worked and thanked her. She knew she had a sale with those words and so I bought several door hinges from her.

I put the supplies into the cupboards they were supposed to go into, then I went outside to look for an appropriate sized tree to rebuild the door. The hinges were fine. It was just the main door part that I had pretty much smashed into splinters. I almost laughed at the devastation I had left when I slammed into the door like I had. Splinters were everywhere.

Luckily, I hadn't had anything brewing or had any ingredients out to be contaminated by foreign material... namely, fortified wood. It didn't take me long to find a good sized tree that I could cut down and make into the wood planks I needed to replace the door. The number ten potion was a godsend and let me mould any number of wood pieces into a solid mass. It only took me half of one tree to replace the entire door. The rest I used for firewood.

All things considered, it was a good day. Despite the intrusion, I found lots of meat to eat, a pelt that I could possibly sell for a good amount to help pay for the new boat, and I proved that I could use the number ten potion to fill in all of the empty spots that existed in whatever I was building.

Of course, that got me to thinking. I knew that if I had enough number ten potion, it would fill in the space between whatever I had in place. I immediately thought about putting two carved stones a good distance apart and took my time to set it up. I obviously couldn't leave the sides open, since that would let the potion flow out freely. Instead, I filled the outer area with rock that was easily found all over the place, then I filled it with the very simple potion that I had tons of.

I ended up with a four foot solid block of stone when I was done.

I was amazed at the versatility, even though I knew it was the best potion to ever exist. The best part? I could make several of them and then pour the potion in between and it would fill up with stone as the potion adapted the things it was touching. I tried to not get too excited over it, since that would lead me to making a mistake with it. So, I relaxed and calmed myself. I could use this to replace the run down hut with something that wouldn't wear out over time. Solid stone.

I didn't have time currently for flights of fancy, though. I had a delivery to complete and quickly loaded up the boat with the remaining crates of potion. I dragged the very full boat back over to the waterway and activated the weight enchantment and then hopped onboard. I didn't question my strength potion not weakening, despite having it active all day and half of the night.

I poled the boat all the way back to the village. I fought off several snakes and a nest of spiders as I passed near them. Unfortunately, they had time to prepare and wait for me in ambushes, so I had a hard time fighting my way through. I kept the puttering movement enchantments going while I fought, though. Coming to a stop anywhere in the marsh in an unsafe area, meant certain death, especially if you didn't have a built up immune system like I did.

By the time I reached the village dock in the morning, I had killed two dozen spiders, eight snakes, and I didn't even bother to count the tangling vines. There were just too many to remember. Night time was not really a good time to travel. At all.

I only did it because I didn't want Mack angry at me for not showing up when I was supposed to. Of course, I was very early in the day, so no one was around and I tied up onto the dock and transferred the potions onto the dock without anyone around. That was exactly how I liked it. I ran for the hand cart and loaded it up, then took my time to go down the dock and up the road to the general store.

The door was locked, so I sighed and sat down beside the door and waited. I knew that Mack would eventually get up and open the store for his normal day's business. I sat there and looked around the town that I could see and wondered what a normal person's life was like. I had completely forgotten about Shelly and the incident the night before. The marsh panther had definitely put things into perspective for me, that was for sure.

I sat there and watched the sun rise over the open water and realized that my life wasn't like a normal person. I'm a man of the marsh. I thought and then smiled. I'm a marsh man.

I lived and could possibly die by it. My actions could easily kill me as they could keep me alive. I took several deep breaths and gazed out at the water. I saw the telltale water beast breaks in the water and smiled. This was my home and I wouldn't give it up for anything.

Or so I thought.