Chapter 3

A few hundred years earlier.

Lord Mitten was not thrilled, not thrilled at all.

With every catastrophe and its aftermath that he had to deal with, it became clearer to him - he had been ripped off when the job as Guardian was sold to him as a career opportunity.

He had been told in the most beautiful colors what it would be like if he accepted the job as protector of the continent of Amanth.

The Guardian, admired and revered by all. Exciting adventures that would end in glamorous battles and a triumphant victory. He would be the savior of the world and the last bastion that could save all life from darkness and destruction!

His future seemed glittering and promising, so he had accepted the offer without giving it much thought. The advantages just seemed too obvious.

Naive!

Inwardly, he slapped himself on the back of the head for the thousandth time for his stupidity.

He should have been suspicious when no one else on his continent was considered for the job.

'He was the most powerful being, no one could match his might! If he accepted the job,' he was told, 'then the security of the region would be guaranteed'. An assessment that he fully shared at the time - and still does today.

In the end, he had to admit to himself, his pride had not served him well in this respect.

On the other hand—,

at this thought righteous anger spread through him,

— it would have been only right and proper to warn me in advance how inglorious and dull much of my work would be!

Frustrated, Lord Mitten mentally grabbed the nearest object, a big boulder, and hurled it towards the distant Frost Mountains rising high into the sky. Faster than the human eye could see, the rock shot off into the distance, only to smash into the first obstacle in its path with full force a heartbeat later.

KRABOOMMHH!

A cloud of dust rose from the impact site and spread over the once green mountainside that was the gateway to the Frost Mountains.

Krakrakra! Panicked by the sudden impact, the crows left the gron trees bordering the mountain in flocks and fled to the southern part of the forest.

!!!!!!!! BBRRKRRRAOAAKRRROOOSH !!!!!!!!

In the distance, an avalanche of debris plummeted into the depths.

Large rocks tumbled down the mountainside and bounced over the steep cliffs, seemingly as light as a feather. After their fall, they shattered and thundered further down the mountain as smaller chunks. Only the forest bordering the mountains with its massive gron trees slowed down the massive rockfall at the expense of the first rows of trees. Slowly, the avalanche came to a halt, with only a few small rocks rolling down the mountainside as stragglers.

"Oh."

The boiling anger cooled as quickly as it had come, instead an embarrassed silence spread through Lord Mitten.

Glacial Doom won't be amused about this. Not amused at all, he thought.

He sat down in the sickly yellow grass, licked his left paw - a little tic that helped him think - and thought about how he could get out of this in a good and face-saving way without hurting his friend.

He couldn't think of anything.

Which didn't mean that he wouldn't think of something in the future. So he would entrust the problem to the future himself, he decided. A good decision.

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Time for a change of scenery.

He turned and set off briskly south. After all, work was waiting there too!

*****

In front of Lord Mitten stretched crystal-clear water that sparkled in the sun. Another lake had been cleared.

Great.

He sat on a hill and slowly raised his eyes. Before him stretched a lake landscape with hundreds of lakes of different sizes. Most of them resembled a murky broth, the stench of which wafted over to him. Sweet and sour, thanks to the dead fish that had been fermenting for a while and rotting sea plants.

A fine cat's nose could be a real curse under certain conditions he decided, not for the first time that day, and once again deliberately sealed it with his magical energy.

Only 315 more, then I'm done here... really great.

Inwardly he slapped himself on the back of the head for the 2341st time.

Purifying water was a boring and monotonous job. If those same machines hadn't contributed to the poisoning themselves, he would have had the dwarves build a machine to do the job for him.

He closed his eyes. Not because he needed it to concentrate, of course, but to take his mind off the wretched sight for a moment.

In his mind's eye the entire surroundings were bathed in a glowing gold.

Much better.

His magical energy stretched to the horizon and was connected to every single drop of water, every grain of sand and every blade of grass. He felt the deep connection to the ground around him. Every movement of the water created an echo inside him.

He was the w a t e r. He was the g r o u n d.

Lord Mitten‘s magical energy bathed everything in a beautiful golden light. He took a deep breath and exhaled.

If it were only for his magical reach and power, he could have cleansed all the lakes of their stinking evil at a stroke and with the blink of an eye.

"Ugh."

Lord Mitten sighed into the dead silence that surrounded him.

Unfortunately, he was inexperienced in setting large quantities of small objects in motion and separating them from one another at the elementary level. He had not yet seen the need to hone this skill. And why should he?

If I had known that I would end up as a landscape gardener, I would never have taken the job!

Degraded to a walking sieve, a four-legged filter machine. What a tragic fate.

He briefly considered whether he should ask Maribold for support. Telekinesis was one of her strengths and nature was close to her heart. If he asked, she would come. A tempting thought, and for a brief moment, pride and comfort battled and were evenly matched.

No, he decided.

My continent, my responsibility.

He had taken the job under false pretenses, but that didn't mean he would sink so low as to simply resign. At least not yet. An Ancient Being was true to his word.

Lord Mitten took a deep breath, stabilized his mental state and focused on the nearest broth.

No one needed a second rock avalanche or, in this case, a flood. Although as far as he knew, there was no life left to speak of here. What the stinking broth hadn't killed, the poisonous mud had. You had to give the poison that, it didn't do things by halves.

Focus! Otherwise you'll still be sitting here in 500 years, he admonished himself.

Slowly, he used his telekinetic abilities to extract the poisonous components from the life-giving water and let them break down into harmless parts and reconnect with the environment.

Bit by bit he cleaned the lakes and rivers, the meadows and abandoned fields, the forests and moors - ridding them of the poison that had spread in them. Initially limited in the scope of his ability, Lord Mitten became faster and more comprehensive over time when it came to filtering out the poisons.

The first century was the most laborious, with hardly an end in sight. In the second century, he had the hope of not having to act as a sieve for the rest of his life. And In the third century after the catastrophe, he had involuntarily become the most effective 'landscape gardener' in the world.

After a minor incident with a debris avalanche, he had quickly abandoned the plan to work his way from north to south. Instead, he had started in the south of the continent and worked his way north. When he finally arrived at the Brent Forest, the entrance to the Frost Mountains in the third century after the catastrophe, his skills were so advanced that he had cleaned the entire area within a few days.

After that he had offered Glacial Doom a landscape transformation according to her wishes using his highly developed telekinetic abilities.

She was initially confused as to how she had earned the gift, but then gratefully accepted the offer. A few centuries earlier, an avalanche of rocks had fallen near her lair and ruined her carefully landscaped front garden.

*****

Glacial Doom's thoughts wandered back to the time after the last catastrophe. Unlike her friend, she remembered the time fondly.

She smiled inwardly.

She had slept through the dwarf debacle softly bedded on her treasure. The avalanche of debris that had woken her from her sleep was quickly forgotten in the face of the beautiful view that awaited her now outside.

She glanced across at her guest out of the corner of her eye.

In recent years, she had developed a few new ideas for her front yard. Perhaps she could persuade him to join her project after a particularly good meal.

"I think Cold Dawn has finished preparing the kraken now. Let's start the meal," she said.

The cat had seemed slightly absent minded and seemed to be dwelling on old memories with a furrowed brow.

The era really seems to have taken its toll on him, she thought pityingly.

At the word "meal", however, he suddenly focused, stretched with relish and rose from his golden cushion.

"Yes, let's start the meal," he said.