I woke abruptly to someone pounding at the door. While I hadn’t felt tired the night before, as soon as Batuhan had left me in the small room set aside for travelers I had collapsed on the bed almost immediately. I groaned as I sat up and wiped the sleep out of my eyes. I hadn’t gotten a good look at the room last night, but now as the soft light of dawn filtered in through the solitary window I was able to see how truly small it was. Barely large enough for a bed, with no chests or wardrobes apparent to store personal belongings, it had more in common with a cell than a bedroom. The bed was more comfortable than I’d expected, though. I half remembered my medieval history professor in college talking about lice and straw stuffed ticks. This bed seemed to have more in common with an old feather bed that my great-grandmother had during my childhood. Just another reminder that I wasn’t home on Earth, I mused.

“Coming,” I called, as the unseen terror that interrupted my sleep continued to bang on the door. Moving a to the door and opening it, I was greeted with the smiling face of Batuhan.

“Irma set out to see the Hermit this morning, I figured you’d want to know. Also, I’m working on breakfast if you’re hungry,” he said.

I was about to protest that I was not, indeed, hungry and would prefer to get more sleep when my stomach let out a low growl. I also realized, right around that time, that my brain was fully engaged, and more sleep probably wasn’t in the cards. I’d never been a morning person but once I was awake I tended to stay that way.

“I suppose I could see myself eating. What’s on the menu this morning?” I asked.

Batuhan grinned, “Leftovers! We didn’t quite finish off the stew last night, and you seemed to enjoy it, so in the name of not letting it go to waste I thought we could finish off what was left. I did make some tea though, cider is a bit much for me in the mornings.”

“Tea sounds fantastic. I don’t suppose there’s any coffee to be had around here is there?” I questioned as we made our way into the dining area.

“Coffee? What’s in it? I’ve never heard of it before,” came the sadly expected reply.

I explained to him what coffee, and by extension caffeine, was while we were inhaling our food. The same energy surge zipped through me as I ate the stew. Last night it had banished my fatigue, even though I was able to sleep within an hour of eating. As I plowed through my bowl for breakfast, however, it seemed to clear my thoughts and energize my body. I needed to run, or lift weights, or go do something to burn off the energy. I felt like an over carbonated soda that somebody had shaken up, like I was about to fizz my way out of my body.

When I questioned Batuhan about the feeling he cocked his head at me and answered, “It’s spirit beast meat. Have you never had it before?”

I finished my bite and answered, “Not until last night, no. What makes it so different than regular venison?”

“Well, spirit beasts, yeah? They’re steeped in Qi, we absorb small amounts when we eat the beasts. No substitute for actual cultivation, of course. And there’s the fact that they just taste better,” he said. “How do you not know this? It’s common knowledge.”

I sighed, filing away the comments about Qi and cultivation in the back of my mind, “There’s a lot of common knowledge that I’m going to be missing. I’ll be happy to tell you whatever the Hermit tells me that I can. For now, just think of me as an adult with the knowledge of a child.”

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He nodded slowly, “You seem to be very sure that the Hermit is going to take you as a student, or even meet with you at all. I’ve lived here most of my life and I’ve only spoken to him at length a handful of times. Say what you will, but the fact remains that the man likes his privacy. Otherwise he wouldn’t be here or be called the Hermit.”

Stew finished, I pushed back my bowl and toyed with the wooden spoon for a moment before answering, “He may not take me as a student. I just have it on very high authority that he will. Maybe he’ll change his mind and I’ll have to make a go of it on my own. He has free will, same as anybody else.”

Batuhan nodded, “Well, we’ll find out soon enough. Irma left just before dawn and it’s only a few hours out and back. She should be back with your answer in time for lunch. Which will be another bao, by the way. Room and breakfast were included in what you paid last night. Lunch is extra…although if he says yes to taking you in as a student I’ll feed you on the house.”

I grinned, “I’ll take you up on that offer. Anything I can help with until then? That spirit beast has me feeling energetic.”

“Figured you’d want to cultivate it off, but there’s always firewood to be chopped if you feel like physical labor. Anybody good enough to apprentice to the Hermit could likely go spar with the guards, but Tarkhan didn’t seem to be too taken with you last night and he’s the guard captain. He’d likely beat you half to death and call it a training accident. Good guy, but he’s very protective of this village.”

“I’ve chopped plenty of firewood. Point me to the wood pile and lend me a splitting maul. Sounds just like what the doctor ordered” I said as I stood.

Batuhan gave me another puzzled look, “Never heard of a spirit doctor ordering a patient to chop wood, but the pile is out back and there’s a maul in the tool shed along with some wedges.”

I gave him a nod and went around the back of the inn. True to his word, there was a rather large pile of wood ready to be split and stacked. I grabbed the splitting wedge and got to work. A few hours later I had made a rather sizable dent in the pile and was pondering taking a water break when Irma came around the corner with Tarkhan, Batuhan, and an older man that I didn’t recognize. He looked to be in his late forties, or perhaps early fifties. His hair was a dark red and was kept in a long ponytail. He wasn’t tall, 5’6” at the most, but was built like a tank.

She pointed at me and said, “That’s him. Karlus, he said his name was.”

The older man looked at me. I suppose I could lie and say that his eyes were a piercing shade of blue or green and that they held the secrets of the universe as they bored into my soul. In reality, they were a sort of muddy brown and he just looked vaguely uncomfortable, like he wasn’t completely relaxed being around people. I cannot deny, however, that he had a presence. It was a vague sort of aura that tickled at the edges of my senses and made the hair stand up on the back of my neck. This man was dangerous and my subconscious was doing everything it could to announce that fact to me.

I rested the maul on the stump I’d been using as a splitting pad and wiped my forehead. “Time for lunch already? I suppose you’re the Hermit? I’m Karlus,” I said, extending my hand toward him.

It instantly became apparent to me that I’d made yet another faux pas when all three villagers made a sharp inhalation. The Hermit didn’t miss a beat though. He gave me an old-fashioned wrist-to-wrist handshake and gave me a nod.

“I was on my way to meet you here when Irma met me on the road. I understand you caused a bit of a stir last night when you arrived,” he said.

I nodded in the affirmative, “I didn’t know what to tell them. She said I could tell you, but that I’d have to trust you on who else I could talk to. Made for a rather awkward evening. Will you teach me?”

“I will,” he said, “but first we’re going to eat lunch. I think you’ve chopped enough wood to earn it, and if I know them you probably didn’t start with much.”

I shrugged, “There was a bit in my backpack, but I don’t know how much. Doesn’t matter though, lunch is on the house.”

As I moved to put up the splitting maul I noticed the three villagers looking at me with incredulous expressions.

“What?,” I smirked, “Batuhan said lunch was on the house if I ended up as his student, and you all just heard him say he’d teach me. With how well Batuhan can cook there’s no way I’m going to pass up a free lunch.”