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     After returning to the cave with more fish than they could ever possibly eat Gray soon realized he had made a horrible mistake.  The fish were boiled where they had swam, in their own skins.  Stewed in their own guts, the enormous heat had caused not only their skin to rupture, but also their stomach and intestines.  Basically the meat, while still edible tasted horrible.  Actually horrible was understating it, it was bad enough that words couldn't convey it well.  

     Eri was still eating with gusto though, she paused a moment and said, "I've never seen so much meat; this is a rare chance to eat your fill.  Why aren't you eating?"

With a frown Gray answered, "I am, its just...  Gah, its horrible.  A handful of sand would probably be tastier."

Eri only snorted and said, "Go a week or so only eating grass and muddy water then tell me again how bad it is."

     Gray thought a moment then sighed aloud and made a suitable excuse, "Ill take first watch, if I eat too much Ill be tired.  Ill eat my fill before I wake you for your watch."

     She nodded slowly in response completely accepting his excuse and continued on a different track, "You are a Traveler.  I was told your kind come from different worlds.  Where you a mage in your last world?"

Gray snorted.  "A mage?  Magic didn't exist in my world at all.  I was an engineer."

Eri paused again, a curious look on her face.  "Enjin-near?  What is this?"

     He frowned in thought a moment, then spoke again, "The easiest way to describe it would be someone who solves problems.  Usually complicated and specialized problems.  An engineer uses his understanding of the natural laws to..."  At this point Eri's face already showed she was hopelessly confused, so Gray relented his explanation in favor of an example.

Standing he picked up a fist sized rock and showed it to her. "This rock, if I strike it with my fist what will happen?"

Eri frowns a moment and then says, "Since that rock has no way to defend itself your fist should smash it."

     Gray frowns and says, "Really?  Well lets see shall we."  With that he balls his right hand into a fist and strikes the rock held in his left hand."  The result is the rock is pulverized to dust and his fist is completely unscathed.

     "What the fuck physics? "  Gray cleared his throat loudly and continued, "Well.  In my old world if we repeated this experiment my hand would be hurt and the rock would be undamaged because its mass exceeds that of my fist."  That was overly simplified, but mostly true.  

Eri, laughing cutely in disbelief said, "No way.  Anything that has no way of defending itself from an attacking force will just be destroyed."

     Gray nodded and stooping down picked up two more smaller stones, one sandstone and one a piece of granite.  Holding both up to her he said, "Then how about this, if I smash these two stones together what will happen?"

Eri's brow creases in thought a moment before she says confidently, "Neither can defend itself so they should both be destroyed."

     Gray nods saying, "If everything else is equal In my world the sandstone would be destroyed by the granite.  Since its mass exceeds that of the sandstone."

Saying that he slams the two stones in his hands together.

The result is what Gray had expected.  The sandstone was crushed by the granite.

Eri pouted a bit at being wrong and said, "It must have have some magic in it or they both would have been broken."  

     Gray smiled at her and said, "Well anyway, understanding things like this and applying that understanding to solve other problems is what an engineer does."

     From this experiment Gray had surmised that physics did indeed operate here.  However something else seems to be interfering in some cases.  Magic was the only thing he could think of capable of disrupting something as basic as the natural laws.  Understanding and using his understanding to get the results he desired were part of what made Gray himself.  He would need to experiment here as well until he thoroughly understood the mechanics of this world.

Gray continued with a question, "So lets say a man swings a blade at an armored foe.  What happens?"

     Given a chance to redeem her earlier wrong answer she smiled and replied confidently, "Well, it depends a bit on the type of armor.  But basically unless the armor is a type weak to blades unless the blade is stronger than the armor then it will get damaged a bit but protect the man and the blade would take a lot of damage."  She pauses a moment to take a breath and then continues,  "If the armor's defense is weaker than the blade then the armor will be damaged a lot and the man wearing it would also be hurt.  In this case the weapon would not suffer any damage at all."

Gray rubbed his temples as he listened to the nonsensical description.  When she finished speaking he said simply, "Is that so?"

Eri nodded happily.  "Yes.  This is why soldiers and adventurers always try to use the best armor and weapons they can afford."

"How about this then.  A suit of really nice armor is sitting on a chair, and another man with a cheap sword attacks it.  What happens in this case?"

Eri frowns again, her cute face furrowing.  "The armor would be destroyed I think."

     Gray nods and says, "From what I've observed so far I'd say you're likely correct.  It seems that my world's laws still apply here but there is another system superimposed over them.  Magic is the only thing I can think of that could do such a thing."

     If his hypothesis was correct everything to date could be explained.  The sling rock breaking his finger was because he had no defensive equipment.  Then the tree branches smashing against the Myrk, if you assumed their bark-like skin was a type of inherent defense then the weapons smashing made sense.  Further if they were swung hard enough to damage the defenses to the point of breaking then it made sense that the remaining force would pass into the monster itself.  In his case the force was immense, enough to break their defenses and kill them in a single strike.

     The same had likely occurred with the Traveler he had killed, his offensive force had just been enough to both break his opponents armor as well as kill him.  Everything was fitting together now.  

Another frown crept onto Gray's face though.  "If it were that simple, even a farmer who wore exceptional equipment could be a match for a highly trained but poorly equipped warrior."

Eri nodded thoughtfully and said, "Indeed.  This has happened, a farmer finds or is gifted powerful armor or arms.  Many of the songs of heroes of the common folk have this type of beginning."

"I see..."  Gray nodded and lapsed into thought, but Eri was unwilling to let the conversation drop.  She prodded with another question, "You were an Enjin-near then...  What about your family?  Won't your wife and children miss you?"

Gray couldn't help but chuckle at the girls obvious intentions,  "I had no children, at the least none I knew of."  

Eri looked up hopefully, "Then what of your wife?"

Gray smiled and took the opportunity to tease her, "My wife?  She is also here.  We are to meet in Harshe."

     The hope on the young girls face collapsed  and with a downcast look she said in a depressed voice, "Oh, good for you.  I'm... sure you miss her."  As Gray was about to let her off and expose his own lie she continued, looking back up into his eyes with a mixture of sadness and hope on her face she said, "Even if its just as a mistress, please don't throw me away.  I... I can still serve you."

     Gray moved over and sat next to her near the stone she was leaning against.  "Sorry Eri, I was lying.  I have no wife.  Apart from you I am also alone in this world."

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     Eri twisted to look up at him and sniffed, "Why would you lie..."  Gray interrupted her with a loud sigh.  "Seriously, are you doing this on purpose?  You are just too cute, I had to tease you a bit. In all honesty now, I have no desire to marry.  Never have, and likely never will."

     Eri giggles a bit, leaning into Gray's side she says, "No man does, its something a woman wants.  Common folk often wed but great men rarely do, even those that settle down usually have many mistresses.  After all this world is dangerous, the only way to ensure the survival of your line is to have many children."

     Gray extends an arm around the girls shoulders drawing her closer to share warmth and says, "Enough about that.  This is neither the time nor the place to talk about children.  Rest.  Ill wake you when its time."

     Eri pushes him away a bit saying, "I stink like fish, let me clean up a bit first."  Saying so she gets up and washes herself with water from her waterskin.  Then returns and shyly looks down at him.  "You don't mind right?  The nights are cold this close to the ocean."

Gray can only grin and reply, "Its fine, it'll be easier to wake you if you're close."

     With a nod and a blush she lays herself down, back facing him and head and shoulders on his lap.  Gray gently brushes her hair with his left hand and in moments the girl is fast asleep.

     After Eri falls asleep Gray's thoughts wander back to his earlier forays into magic.  If this frail girl was going to accompany him he was going to need to come up with magic that could be used with her around.  Just being near the flame-tongue he had used earlier while fishing would kill this poor girl in a heartbeat, he needed something surgical but no less powerful.  Flame was not going to work, just the heat in the area around a powerful flame would harm her.  

     The most mundane element seemed to be the best, with this in mind he began the process of condensing earth and the concept of expel into a disc, after a moment the disc formed in front of him.  Moving it to his hand he attached a thin thread of power to it and pressed some power into it.  Nothing was happening.  With a frown he widened the thread to the size of his thumb and tried again.  Again no result.  It felt like something was missing, like the disc was waiting for something.

     Grey frowned a bit and reconsidered.  Heat naturally existed in the air as friction between molecules, but there was no earth in the air; the dust kicked up from moving around had long since settled.  Perhaps the magic needed something to start from?  He gently shifted so as not to wake Eri and placed his palm on the sand to his side.  Reducing the the thumb size hose to a thread he tried once again channeling his power into it.  A muffled sound was heard from the sand as it bounced slightly.  That worked but its not terribly useful he thought.  

     "Hmmm..."  Gray reconsidered, perhaps directly manipulating the air itself would be better.  Lets at least try it.  With that thought he began the work of condensing a new disc, and in moments it formed in front of him in his minds eye.  As he thought to move it to his hand a new thought occurred to him, why place it on his hand?  Why not just leave it where it was and try it.  He quickly connected a thread to it and channeled a bit of power.  The air in the cave shifted, slightly stirring Eri's hair.  Success.  

     Then if it could be used without touching him, what was the range of it?  He willed the disc outward, obediently it moved out towards the entrance of the cave trailing a thread of power stopping roughly thirty feet from him.  Channeling power again he felt the air of the cave shift once more, there had been resistance in the channeling though.  Much like how it would take more force to pump water through a pipe as the distance grew.  He pushed it further, stopping outside the cave he channeled again.  Success, but more resistance this time.

     A small smile formed on Gray's face.  He began condensing a new disc, this one with earth and expel again.  Once it was complete he sent it out into the sand at the far side of the cave and channeled power into it.

     A burst of sand surged six feet into the air over the disc.  Better, but still not what he needed.  Seeing the shape of the burst though had given him several new ideas.  The small smile changed to a grin, as he began a new disc.  This time he chose to change the type of force, instead of expel, he would try extrude.  Further he had an interesting thought, the element that was expelled from the disc seemed to try and keep its shape.  What if the shape of the thread were changed, this time the thread he created was a square.  It took a bit longer to form this as it was not something he had tried before, but after a few moments the disc and thread were ready.

Again Gray willed the disc outward to the far corner of the cave and channeled power into it.

     Where before sand had simply been tossed upwards this time a square column of earth quickly jutted up from the ground.  Very good Gray thought, but still not quite perfect.  He focused once more and the square thread connecting to the disc returned to a round shape, but this time it had a distinct taper as it entered the disc.  Once more his power was channeled.

     A sharp protrusion of earth ripped from the round in the blink of an eye.  Perfect.  With this even if Eri was standing right next to it she would be fine and the force and sharpness would be more than sufficient to kill.  Even the square version could have uses he thought.  All in all he was quite pleased, with these discoveries even his flame would be less predictable.  He could cause it to burst from the ground, his hand, or anywhere he liked really.

Again he couldn't help but think how ridiculous magic was.  

     Gray froze.  It was not a loud sound, but since it occurred in near silence it was impossible for Gray to miss.  Something near had just moved.  Whatever it was was already inside the cave, but he was completely certain nothing had entered.  

     Suddenly the rock he and Eri had been leaning on was gone.  With his support suddenly removed Gray's upper body fell backward landing on the sand.  There behind him, the rock he had been relaxing against had grown six sharp legs and before his eyes seams formed on its surface and a long barbed tail and a pair a large claws unfurled from it.  Quick as a thought the barbed tail launched at Gray who, in his prone position could not react in time.

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Howdy folks.  Been a minute since the last update, but like I said in the last note this is to be expected.  I wanted to get this one out earlier this weekend but couldn't due to the damn evil people over at CDProjekt Red.  In other words I've been playing Witcher 3.  Heh.  Sorry about that, but its good.

Ah for those of you unfamiliar with extrude (as a verb) or the concept of extrusion in general: it basically means 'to force out'.  Its used a lot in CAD and design/engineering in general.  Feel free to google it if you're interested in learning more.  Anyway I've nothing else really important to say this time around so I'll just say thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed.  For my fellow Americans have a nice Memorial Day, and everyone else...  well have a nice Monday.

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Ah forgot to mention there is no PR on this chapter either.  My PRs are both on holiday this weekend.  Soooo if you notice anything horribly bad please do let me know.  Thanks guys.