Garnedell suddenly looked up in shock, blurting out, “Master! You can speak!”

“HA! Yeah! And why are you calling me master?”

Garnedell blinked a bit, a slight feeling of hurt confusion coming over him, “You… Master… You… You do not want me?”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“I thought… I thought you wished… I thought I was your apprentice?”

“You’re my apprentice?”

“You… accepted me?”

“I don’t really remember doing that,” Joe muttered with a bit of confusion, more to himself but easily loud enough for Garnedell to hear.

“I… um. I see. Then…”

“Hey, don’t worry about it kid.”

Despite Joe’s reassurance, Garnedell did not seem too happy, “I will … I will be going, then mast… Joe.”

“Huh? What?”

“I’m… you don’t want me. I’m leaving,” Garnedell had by this time dropped his head and refused to look at Joe.

“Garnedell! I… we… Among my people, we do not usually have slaves and masters. It’s not something we really … we do not like slaves or approve of it.”

This time, Garnedell look up in shock, his face showing something like anger, “Mas… Joe. I’m not your slave!”

Joe’s eyes flickered a bit, “Then why call me master?”

“I… you are my teacher!”

“Oh! That kind of master! Guess more of an Asian thing then? OK. But I’m a bit young to be considered a master like that.”

“So… you do not want me,” Garnedell’s statement was now more of question tinged by hopefulness and hurt.

“What? No! Look, Garnedell. In my world, a master is someone much older. We are almost the same age!”

“But, master, you’re … you’re so strong! And you have seven digits!”

“Seven? Strong,” Joe sighed with a bit of confusion before dropping his questions to focus on Garnedell, the boy needed him now.

“Garnedell! I would love for you to stay with me. Hunt with me. Be my friend. I’ll even teach you and help you with what I know. But I’m not your master or your better. We are equals.”

Garnedell sat stunned, shock freezing him and left him without any thing to say.

“Garnedell? Garnedell! Are you OK?”

“I… Mast… Joe… We…”

“Did I break you? Are you OK?”

Garnedell sat frozen for a bit before shaking his head and rejecting Joe’s statement, “I… I cannot be your equal, Joe. It is just not right! Such a thing would not be acceptable. What could I give you in repayment for what you give me?”

“Your friendship?”

“My friendship? You already have my loyalty! What use is my friendship!?”

Joe stopped a bit, frustration overwhelming him slightly, “Friendship is much greater than any loyalty.”

“How could friendship trump loyalty!”

“Friendship expects and demands loyalty. It also gives me love, concern, and care!

“Loyalty does as well, and guarantees it!”

“Friendship makes the relationship enjoyable.”

“For who? What does the master need with friendship with his students, followers, and servants? He only needs loyalty.”

“And he would be an incredibly lonely master!”

Garnedell shook his head, frustration also starting to burn in his chest, tempered by his obeisance to his master, “Mas… Joe, how could a master like you be lonely? You will have so many others who will wish to be your friend. What use is a friend who can offer you nothing!”

“A friend who would demand nothing from me as well! Those others you speak of, why would they wish to be my friend? For my betterment or for their own? What care would such friends have from me?”

“So? They would seek you out for their gain, true, but you could easily use them for your gain as well! It is the way of life? Why are you struggling with this so?”

Joe palmed his face softly before brushing up and through his hair, his voice falling to a soft sigh, “Garnedell. It is hard for me to explain, but I desire friends who truly care for me and nothing else. Such friends as you describe do not care for others; only themselves. They are friends only as long as they can gain. Once the gain is gone, you are no longer their friend, and they will even use or abuse you, offering little in return, even ruining you. I do not hope for nor will I ever seek such friends. I will offer them nothing, and I will take nothing from them in return. To do so is to set yourself on the road to ruin as they will always seek their gain to your loss. Always! Do you count those people friends? People you must always be cautious of who may, at any moment, destroy you?

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“Even the best of such people, people who might not destroy you and truly maintain a mutually beneficial relationship with you will abandon you the moment you fail or fall. The moment you no longer offer a return, they will abandon you. Do you want such friends? Do you desire such people in your life? People who demand from you only equal to what you must return to them and if you ever truly have need, they abandon or destroy you? Is this the friend you seek, Garnedell?”

Garnedell sat silent, a bit of shock leaving him speechless for few moments before he finally replied, “Uh… but… such is life. How … is there any other way?”

Joe smiled, a bit of humor coming to his face, “Of course there is another way. Truly care for one another!”

“Who would live such a way! It would destroy you!”

“Yes! It could. But no more than the way you described. You must simply choose your friends wisely and well.”

Garnedell pondered for a few moments, eye’s actually glassing over before he finally shook his head and rejected Joe’s vision of society, “I cannot even see how such a people would live. It… It’s impossible. It would not… It...,” Garnedell petered out and let his sentence die.

Joe watched silently for a few moments before he nodded then came to a decision, “OK, Garnedell. Then I will pretend to be your master, as this seems to… satisfy and comfort you. But I will not treat you as a master. I will see you as my friend and equal. I will treat you as my friend and equal! But you can see me and treat me as master, if this will make you feel happy; comfortable… safe. But, I’m not your master. I am your friend and you do not need to fear that I will abandon you. I do not abandon friends!

“I will also teach you what I know, and can. Normally, amongst my people, a teacher is paid for such work, but I will not charge you simply because you offer your help in hunting, companionship, fighting, and teaching me this world. We are teaching each other! We should be equals,” Joe finished on a sigh.

Garnedell immediately shook his head, “What I teach you, any can. What you teach me, very few could! I give you a slightly easier way to live in this world. What you offer me is strength, power, and the chance to become a Power! Such a thing could never be repaid with simple knowledge of this world.”

Joe sighed once again, this time in defeat before simply nodding his head, “Alright. We’ll leave it as it is. But Garnedell, I’m being serious. I seek friends, not servants or slaves.”

Garnedell smiled, relief flooding him but he simply nodded before accepting Joe’s renewed acceptance as his teacher, “Master, I will do well by you. I promise!”

Joe grimaced slightly but then nodded a bit before trying on last thing, “Could you… at least not call me master? Just call me by my name?”

Garnedell blinked a bit before speaking, “Is that OK? Do you approve?”

Joe smiled brightly, “Of course! I’d very much prefer it!”

Garnedell then seemed to shift nervously before asking once again, “You wish to not acknowledge me?”

Joe’s smile darkened, falling from his face, “What does that mean? What are you asking?”

“Uh… you do not want others to know I am your student?”

Joe’s discomfort turned to confusion, “What does it matter if others know you are my student? It’s fine if they know or don’t…”

“I… so I can tell other’s you are my master?”

“Yes?”

Garnedell’s trepidation quickly changed to a bright smile, “OK!”

“That’s it?”

Garnedell glanced down with some embarrassment before glancing up again and nodding shyly. Joe wasn’t quite sure how to take Garnedell’s shy happiness, but took it as a positive and reached across to rub his head. Well, I did something right! Not sure what, but he seems happy enough as it is! Ooh… maybe… shouldn’t rub his head… not that… well… didn’t seem to bother him, though? But… Joe struggled with the strange dichotomy he felt between his mental assessment of Garnedell’s age and his actual age, sighing softly to himself.

By then, their supper had come and cooled a bit, the seriousness of the conversation having reduced the plates of food to inconsequential background clutter as they focused on redefining their relationship in as positive light as possible. They quickly dug into their meal and continued the conversation on a much lighter note and Joe started digging up basic information so he could learn about his surroundings.

“OK. Allow me to find some basic information.”

“Yes, master.”

Joe quirked an eyebrow at Garnedell, “Master?”

“Ah… sorry. Yes, Joe,” Garnedell offered shyly.

Joe’s bright smile reinforced Garnedell’s response, “Thanks, kid. Alright. What is the name of the country here?”

Joe felt a feeling of pressure well up around them, a visible heat wave seeming to form a slowly expanding bubble around him before it seemed to reach a threshold, holding there for a moment before seeming to simply… leak … fade?... away like gas from a balloon. Huh… what was that?

“Country? Country… What’s a country?”

“Ah… well… hm,” Joe found himself stuck, floundering as Joe’s question brought him back to the conversation and his mind began whirring through the ramifications. He spoke softly to himself, listening carefully, and realized that there wasn’t even a word for country. When he spoke the word, the English word for country was what came from his mouth. He tried the several synonyms for county that he knew and all of them came out as English.

“Nation… kingdom… empire… um… state?”

Huh! Only English? What…? Joe came to a frustrating end to his vocabulary and struggled before he decided to simply change the question.

“OK… then not country. Um… Who owns this area? This land, and city or cities here.”

“Oh. Who claims this land?”

“Yes! Yes.”

“The Galgandar Clan owns this region and the cities here. This city is called Coushar. It used to be owned by the Sharnorn clan before Galgandar took it for their own. That’s why it has such a weird name. The plane has no name but is owned by the Great One, Aelthron, as no clan or people claim this plane. The entire Cradle is that of Aelthron and thus is named simply Aelthron, or Aelthron’s cradle.”

Joe wrinkled his brow a bit, realizing a lot of information had just been dumped into his brain, but realized he had no idea what Garnedell actually meant. Plane? Cradle? Great One? Lots of weird words here. Lot’s to learn!

“Right… more questions. I need you to tell me what some words mean. What is a plane?”

“A plane. It’s… a plane. Um… where we live. Um… it’s everything around us.”

Joe still was confused, “I still do not understand. Please explain more.”

Garnedell thought for several moments then tried again, “A plane is everything. The sky, air, trees, earth, land, oceans, seas, rivers, lakes… Everything!”

Joe’s eyes blinked, and a hint of realization came to him, “Oh… do you mean the planet?”

Garnedell seemed to pause a moment and Joe realized something odd seemed to be going on, a feeling of pressure oozed around their table and a visible heat wave disturbed the light surrounding them in a sphere, almost like a mirage. The pressure and heat wave increased over a few seconds even as silence began to descend on the room. Suddenly, the pressure and heat wave ceased, a pressure wave instantly dissipating out through the room but left no physical impression behind: no hair swayed in the wave, no clothing rustled, and no light objects flittered. It seemed to be a pressure wave without physical existence. Joe found the event fascinating but incredibly disconcerting as it went against everything he’d expected. Joe glanced around, watching the event carefully but then Garnedell suddenly interjected, distracting Joe from what had happened.

“Planet… Planet… yes! Plane is like a planet,” Garnedell nodded excitedly.