The boy was playing in the mud. His mum was busy with the washing and he’d snuck away while she was scrubbing the clothes.

This was his spot now. Sometimes the older kids were here and didn’t let him play. But for now, for now, this place was his and his alone. He didn’t have long to play, his mum would find him soon and then he’d get smacked for making his clothes dirty. 

The boy found a good, smooth, round pebble in the play pit and idly rolled it back and forth in the mud. It picked up a layer of wet dirt which built up until the boy had a sizable chunk in his hands. 

The boy plopped it down on the ground, twisting and cupping his hands to fashion the mud man, for that’s what he was now, a mud man, a pair of arms and legs. The legs were short but stout and the arms trailed down the sides, with round spherical hands. He’d learnt that word yesterday from Tan. Spherical. 

The boy gave the mud man a spherical head as well, but no neck. Mud men were bad at having necks. They tended to snap.

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The boy leaned back to admire his work, clapping his hands together and smiling with glee as he looked it over. It was smooth in form with no visible deformations or specks of poo coating his surface. That had a tendency to get into the play pit. There was just something missing though … what could it be? 

The boy thought and scrunched up his face in consternation. What was it! He hated it when a thought would get stuck in his head like this. It just went round and round in his head until he could put a name to the-

A name! It needed a name! What would a mud man’s name be though? It would have to be strong, it was made of the ground. That was extremely tough! It also had no neck and it looked silly. Something strong and silly. Groblo.

“Your name is Groblo.”

Congratulations! Your level has increased to 5!

You have gained the skill Golem Creation!

At his feet, the mud man stirred to life, it’s head slowly rotating as it took a few faltering steps toward the boy, while simultaneously looking at its surroundings.

The boy sat there, stunned, unable to react to the mud man, no Groblo as it took its first steps. 

A sharp intake of breath made the boy look up-, only to meet the eyes of his mother, who had an expression on her face that the boy had never seen before.

It looked like fear.