Sometimes you wake up, and your entire body feels fresh out of its packaging. Having never been in a coma, I’d imagined I had an idea what it was like when I’d rolled off a wolf pelt that crazy morning in February.

Yes, February. Not that I knew I was in a new month when I’d first opened my eyes. Proctor had to tell me that, when he'd found me sitting by a fire in the village’s north end.

Oddly enough, there were only two people sat fire side. It was only me, and one other villager I'd not met before. Normally, there’d been large groups each morning in these parts. But, it seemed most of the villagers were elsewhere. Not to mention, the shabby huts close to the fire pits were gone.

“He lives!” Proctor said, a wide smile on his face as he approached.

Definitely had me confused.

“I’ve had the sleep of my life,” I said. “I feel rested down to my bones.”

“I’d hope so,” Proctor said. “It’s been more than a week.”

My jaw hung open. “You’re kidding,” I said.

He shook his head, and his smile remained etched on his face.

“Simulated time,” Proctor said. “A lot of it.”

“The soda,” I murmured. “So, the plan worked?”

“Whatever the plan entailed,” Proctor said. “I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised. Stunned, in fact.”

“Do tell.”

“We had a lot of takers for soda cans,” Proctor said.

“But, only twenty coins,” I said.

“Nineteen, actually,” Proctor said. “But, we didn’t count on the System’s intervention.”

This caused me to chuckle. “Probably should have,” I said.

“Perhaps,” Proctor said. “Anyway, they put their thumbs on the scale. The Boop machine distributed more than one can for each gold coin. We had a lengthy line of villagers waiting for their own dose of magic.”

“More than one can?” I said. And, Proctor nodded. “What, like two cans per coin? That’s a lot of magic.”

“Try six,” Proctor said.

“Six!”

“Mm hmm.”

“Six cans of soda per coin?” I said. Adrenaline stabbed me in the gut. “That’s more than a hundred cans!”

“Indeed.”

“How can you be so calm?” I said. “I’m surprised the village’s still standing. I’m surprised we’re still alive.”

Proctor chuckled. “It is a lot of magic, I’ll grant you,” he said. “And, there was a lot of interest.”

“So I simulated several days, basically,” I said.

“Correct. To let you know, we handed out a can of soda to more than one hundred villagers,” Proctor said. “I realize you’d have no memory of this. It’s… uh… changed things.”

My legs began shaking. I wanted to burst up from the log where we sat. Yet at the same time, I was afraid to look around for fear of what we might find.

“First and foremost, you should know we are flush with gold now,” Proctor said. He stood up from the fire, and I followed suit.

“How did that happen?”

“Let’s take a look.”

We walked from the fire, and didn’t make it a few hundred feet when we encountered several concrete houses with clay tiled roofs.

“Nice,” I said.

“Aren’t they?”

We received a lot of kind greetings from villagers cheerfully going about their chores.

I could see Proctor in the corner of my eye watching me, gauging me for a reaction when we came upon a wide concrete trench which split clusters of homes. There was a small river of water flowing south at the trench’s base.

It was the very thing Kestrel and I had talked about several days before. The trench was connected to portals emerging from the various structures on either side.

“Aqueducts?” I said.

“Amazing, isn’t it?” Proctor said. “Just wait.”

We walked north, and as we closed in on the wall, my eyes were drawn upward. There was a structure, a silhouette in the shape of a house’s roof which poked above the top of the wall twenty stories up. Against the bright sun, I could see the outline of a large bell atop the roof. It resembled a church bell.

The top had caught my attention first, but as we neared, it was then that I noticed an entire square, wooden tower which descended to the ground beneath that rooftop structure. In all, this thing had to be two hundred feet in height.

“He did it!” I shouted. In awe of this huge watch tower. “Kestrel got a tower built. I can’t believe it.”

“Eight in fact,” Proctor said. “I told you, you were in for a surprise.”

“He’s built all eight towers?”

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Proctor nodded slowly. “Magic is as magic does.”

“What’s with the bell?”

“Alarm system,” Proctor said.

Just as impressive, as we stood in the shadow of the tower I could see square windows cut into the wood at intervals all the way up the tower, and I could see movement inside.

“There’s people in there!”

“Remember when I said we’re flush with gold?” Proctor said. “Moonlight’s eight wealthiest families are paying us for a commission to man the towers.”

I let out a loud breath. I put a hand on my forehead, feeling a bit dizzy.

“I wasn’t ready for this today,” I said. Emotion stirred within me. Imagine waking up to an entirely new outlook on the place where you live. True optimism… for a change.

“Just wait,” Proctor said.

A half hour’s walk, and we were in the common area near the grand archway. Many villagers milled about, and there was a line of steady traffic in and out of the gate. Both on foot, and by horse drawn wagon. But, the most important thing was the portcullis. The gate was open, but as I gazed up, I could see the massive wooden construction hanging many meters up from the wall’s opening. Heavy chains held it in place.

“Amazing,” I said. My breath was taken away. “Simply amazing.”

I gawked at the architectural marvel, and we passed dozens of smiling locals as we passed beneath the hanging gate, through the archway, until we found ourselves on a broad expanse of shaved spruce wood.

“Look at this bridge!” I shouted. My exclamation drew quite a few looks from the people around us.

Kestrel and his people had constructed a beautiful, wide bridge spanning the entirety of the trench. It wasn’t a draw bridge, but I didn’t care. It was tremendous.

I had a tear in the corner of my eye.

“Are you alright?” Proctor said, with a kind smile.

“This is just… too much,” I said. “More than I’d ever dreamed of.”

“Just wait,” Proctor said.

I had to laugh. “Quit saying that,” I said. “I feel like I’m on a game show. Or one of those extreme makeover shows.”

“Indeed.”

It was an apt comparison. After reluctantly leaving the wonders of what Kestrel and friends had accomplished at the village’s grand entrance, we walked west to the site of the proposed ball park where I found Denton had come through on my shipping container house.

“Oh man,” I said. In this heightened state, I wasn’t all that articulate. I couldn’t find the words to express how I truly felt when faced with such upheaval, and drastic changes to Moonlight. “Look at this!”

The inside of the container had a clean, shaved wood floor. It was otherwise completely empty, but I loved the potential. I looked forward to truly customizing it to my own specifications.

“Me too,” Proctor said, and he motioned toward the shipping container sat next to mine.

They were in a line as they had been before, but now out in the middle of a pasture of long, dead grass as opposed to along the western wall. All four in a line like before. Proctor had a container home. Then to the right of his, was another container home made into a duplex, shared by Dillard and Denton, and then another duplex shared by Gak and Torag.

Denton himself came around, as Proctor and I exited the container, and I mightily shook his forearm. I made sure to thank him profusely, but he shrugged it off as if it was no big deal.

But, I didn’t even realize the surprises in store.

On the backside of the containers, the vast expanse where we’d proposed to place the ball park… well… there was the freaking ball park!

Lorne, the seed merchant and cultivator, had laid endless portions of sod. They fit together seamlessly, and there before us was a beautiful, short grassed outfield.

My mouth was open, and I emitted sound, but I couldn’t form a word. It was like walking up on Kevin Costner’s converted farm land in ‘Field of Dreams’. Minus the corn.

I ran to the middle of the outfield. I let out a belly laugh. My voice returned to me.

“I can’t believe it,” I said. “Is this real?”

“Impressive, isn’t it?” Proctor said.

“The dirt!” I said, noticing the infield several feet in front of me. “We have an infield! Look at this!”

It was a proper ball park. I sprinted in from center field, and stood atop the pitcher’s mound. It had loose brown dirt on top. There was a rubber strip at its crest.

“The dugouts!” I yelled. And, I pointed at the two stone structures at opposite sides of the infield.

There were four sets of bleachers too. Wooden stands of bench seating. Each had ten rows of benches roughly twenty feet in length. They were situated in a U-shape around the infield from third base on the left, around home plate, and ringing around to first base on the right.

“We still need a backstop fence behind home,” Proctor said.

He was right, but in that moment I was beyond caring.

“We’ll figure it out,” I said, still struggling for air. Every word came out as a gasp.

I’d noticed the outfield was in need of a fence as well. I wasn’t worried. We’d get it built soon.

“Denton!” I shouted to the builder standing near the right side dugout. “You’ve out done yourself. I don’t what to say.”

“Wasn’t only me,” Denton said. “Many hands were here. You can thank the magic tea, too.”

“We’ll have to talk about the outfield fence,” I said to Proctor. “In terms of height, distance from home plate. All of that. We could customize the shape of the outfield too. Make it unique from what other villages will have in terms of their ball parks.”

“Indeed, we have much to discuss,” Proctor said. “Would you like to see more?”

“What else is there?”

Proctor and Denton led me to an underground bunker, for lack of a better description. It was a torch lit concrete room underground, and it’s where the baseball equipment had been moved from the wagon’s horse master Pete had left for us before.

“This is quite clever,” I said.

The storage bunker’s entrance was located behind the third base bleachers. I’d imagined in the future we would place a wall around the entrance. Actually, what I’d rather was to completely enclose the entrance in a club house of sorts, under a roof.

I wanted the same for the Boop Soda machine too. I wasn’t sure leaving it in the open for public use at all times, was a good thing. Though it was hard to argue the benefits of wide soda distribution amongst the villagers in the wake of all this change.

“There’s another one of these as well,” Proctor said.

“Another underground bunker?” I said.

Proctor nodded. “If you’d like to call it that, sure,” he said. “One’s been made for our friend, Trevor.”

“Ah, great,” I said. “That’s a good idea. I was wondering about what could be done for his housing. A shipping container wasn’t going to work.”

We ascended from the cavern. I was eager to get back to the ball field. I pretty much wanted to just stay there. It was like an island of modernity. Well, really, the entire village was becoming such, to be fair.

I stood on the mound once again, and for once the frigid breeze swishing around me felt like heaven.

Minutes later, a horse drawn wagon arrived. It was Mora, and Hag. Trevor emerged from his new dwelling, and greeted his mother with warmth.

“We’ve something for you,” Mora said.

They stepped down from the wagon, and walked to the back where there were two wooden crates. They each opened a crate, and removed bright white baseball uniforms.

“For the team,” said Hag. And, she handed me a set of eye pleasing cotton whites.

Pants, and button up shirts. They had a midnight blue ‘M’ stitched upon the shirt fronts, and a small ‘B’ stitched on the shirt’s right shoulder. Paired with the midnight blue ball caps, we had a sharp uniform for the Moonlight Magic. True class.

“What a job you’ve done,” I said to Mora.

“Nothing to it,” Mora said. “Thanks to your lovely brew.”

Our warm moment broke jarringly, when the echo of bell chimes swirled around us.

I picked up on the bell’s pattern. Four quick chimes, then a small gap in time before four more sounded.

“Riders!” Trevor shouted, recognizing the code. “Riders on approach!”