[I'm a Lumberjack] skill acquired!

> You cut down trees. You eat your lunch. You should wear proper safety gear at work.

The alert nudged Lexie to consciousness. "Wait. That's a forestry skill."

Apparently being a farmer was more than just growing plants. Or raising chickens. Hopefully it would help her with her fency, anyway.

For breakfast she made a full sized peanut butter sandwich and had another apple. She fed Winston the dry crunchy food from the bag she'd bought at Sprübeck's. He looked at her, as if to say "And the fish?"

"Sorry. This is it until we can afford a preservation box."

The cat sighed. Lexie would sweat it was an actual sigh, and lowered his head to the shallow bowl, and ate.

Finished with her own breakfast, and on her second cup of coffee, Lexie put on her work clothes. "Time to build a fence," she said.

As she left the house, she saw the hare, or another that looked just like it, was back in the field.

"No! No! No!" she shouted, running toward the field, waving her hands. The hare made a dash for the undergrowth of the forest, and Lexie surveyed the field with dismay. It had definitely done more damage.

She sighed. "I've got to get the fence up today!"

The first step was to clean the saplings, removing the branches so she had just the trunk. There was an old stump near the treeline, close enough she could keep an eye on the field while she worked.

"Sapling prep station east!" Lexie informed Winston as she moved her pile of saplings from where she'd left them by the field. She began stripping the branches off with her hatchet. Chop. Chop. Chop.

The work was rhythmic and not especially challenging once she got the hang of it. She could definitely feel the improvement in her swings. The new skill must have a passive.

Once she got into the swing of things, Lexie's mind wandered to her plans for an orchard. Her new skill would probably help with that too, right? Trees needed pruning.

She'd decided on cherry and apple trees around the cabin. The fruit was the goal, but the flowers would look nice in the spring.

"Why not make it pretty?" she said to herself, as she processed the pile of saplings.

She turned a critical eye to the cabin, also, which she decided could use a fresh coat of paint. She'd have to see about getting the bathroom and kitchen added on. Then paint. It would be silly to paint before. But maybe she'd see what colours Mrs. Sprübeck had. The cabin had been painted a brown, or possibly dark red, at some point in the past. But now it was scoured by sea winds, and faded, with grey weathered wood showing through.

Lexie thought a dark green with black trim would look nice.

With some apple and cherry trees surrounding it.

She finished cutting the branches off the saplings and took the pile back to the field. Every meter, she drove pairs of saplings into the dirt as far as she could. At least two meters still extended upward.

By the time she finished, it was time for lunch.

She fed Winston a saucer of dry crunchy cat food, much to his disappointment. "Sorry, dude," said Lexie. ""I can't run errands for you until I get a fence around that field."

She made herself a sandwich, and splurged on another cup of coffee. There was no chance of it keeping her up, not after she spent all day working in the field.

Well, on protecting the field. She ate her sandwich on the porch, and drank her coffee, and saw no sign of the hare. Or hares. Just because she only saw one at a time didn't mean there was only one.

She also checked the book for the next step. It was back to cutting down saplings. This time, though, willowy and pliable was what was desired. She was going to need a new pair of gloves pretty soon too.

Well, time to get back at it. She put the book inside and left her coffee mug on the table, pulled on her gloves, and went back to work with the hatchet.

Fortunately she had a lot of time to decide where she wanted to put the orchard while she was cutting off branches and putting stakes in the ground.

It was good to have the field close by the house and the well. And it was important the trees in the orchard not block the sun for the field. Not that it would bea problem right now. But that was the thing about trees-- they got big.

So the field would stay next to the cabin, and the orchard, Lexie decided, would go across from it. She would double check, watch the sun one day and see exactly where shadows feel. But she was pretty sure that would only cast a shadow on the field in the evening when the sun was setting. If at all. And it wouldn't matter then.

She started by cutting down the saplings, all the birch and pine that had sprung up in the past few years.

Who had made a clearing around the cabin anyway? Lexie decided to ask Phyllis next time she was in town. The [Librarian] was the de facto town historian.

It clearly wasn't Martha's doing. She wouldn't have been bothered by trees if she came here to write. Lexi wondered who the cabin belonged to before Martha.

Whoever it was had cleared a large area. Martha had maintained some of it. The clearing around the cabin, where the saplings were smallest. Further away, the trees were taller -m- though not so tall as the surrounding forest. Martha had probably never kept that cleared.

Once she'd gathered a good bundle of saplings, it was back to the chopping station. The work was fast, at least, but tedious. Chop. Chop. Chop. Next, Lexie was eager to try weaving them into the fence.

She inserted the base of one of the saplings between the first two pole of her posts, and began following the instructions from the book, winding it out and back in, and at an upward angle.

Another sapling, another weaving. The book said to angle it slightly, to stagger where the ends of the saplings hit. The weaving was clumsy at first, and more than a few times, Lexie had to pull out the sapling she was working with and start over. But it was quick.

That was her afternoon, chop down a bunch of saplings, strip their branches and leaves off, and weave the stems into what was turning into a surprisingly sturdy fence.

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By surprisingly sturdy, Lexie meant, not collapsing under its own weight.

She took a break at dinner time, fed Winston, ate something herself, and then got back to it. She was determined to have that fence up and keep the hares away. Then she would assess the damage tomorrow.

The sun had set by the time Lexie wove the last sapling into place by the light of the battery powered lantern.

Her arms and back ached, and she was sticky with sweat and sap. But she was done. The woven part of the fence came up a bit above her wasit, to the bottom of her ribcage. She hoped that was enough to deter the hares. The sprouts might be tasty and tender, but there was plenty of other fresh growth around. Hopefully the fence was too high for them to jump over.

If it wasn't she'd have to make it so.

Her desire to just collapse into bed warred with her desire to be clean when she collapsed into bed.

The deciding factor was that she still hadn't had time to work out a solution to laundry, so the cleaner she kept the sheets, the better. She sighed, and boiled the hot water she'd use for her sponge bath by the pump, and while the water heated, she brushed her teeth and collected her towel and pajamas. It was warm enough that she was sleeping in a tshirt and shorts. Especially since she was still using the fireplace to do all her cooking and heating water.

That's another thing she needed to sort out. Maybe get a camp stove or something. She definitely didn't want to have to start a fire indoors in the height of summer every time she wanted to make a cup of tea or fry an egg.

She should get some pots and pans too. Maybe she could cook a few more things than just fried eggs.

The kettle whistled, and Lexie gathered it and the rest of her things, and headed out to wash up.

She brought the lantern, though she probably didn't need it. Strictly speaking. The moon was full, and hung huge and round and glowing in the sky. She couldn't see the sea or the trail from where she bathed, that spot chosen deliberately for the small privacy it afforded.

When she finished bathing, she left her things on the porch and walked over to the trail, and the cliff's edge, looking over the sea. The moonlight glinted off the surface, casting every wave in dark relief.

Returning to the house, moonlight poured over the field and turned the grasses silvery. The forest that surrounded the cabin and its clearing on three sides seemed darker, in contrast with the light of the full moon.

In the distance, something howled.

A long, ululating howl that sent shivers down Lexie's spine. A hungry, hunting howl.

She hurried toward her cabin, and seeing Winston was inside for the night, she closed the window.

"I'm sorry if you have to pee tonight, you'll just have to hold it. I'll get you a litter box tomorrow," she promised him. No way was she going to leave the cabin window open while whatever was out there howling was out there. And she wasn't letting Winston out either if she could help it. It had sounded... big.

The sea wind cooled everything as soon as the sun set, and Winston was lying in his favourite spot non the rug by the fireplace, enjoying the residual warmth of the last coals.

The inside of the cabin was warm, but not uncomfortable, and Lexie dropped on top of the bed, not bothering to climb under the blankets. Within minutes, she was asleep.

As she was waking the notifications came in. Wow, building that fence had really done something for her.

Level up [I'm a Lumberjack]!

New Skill [Primitive Carpentry]!

New Special Skill: [Aura of Defense]!

> You've done such a good job defending your farm and crops from pests that you've unlocked the special class skill Aura of Defense.

> All crop bothering critters are now more likely to look elsewhere for their noms. Your crops aren't safe, bute they're safer from the predations of local wildlife, large and small.

Lexie's eyes opened wide. A special skill!

She knew they existed, of course. Everyone did. People who were at the top of their classes always had some. Lexie didn't have any.

Or she didn't have any before this.

And she got it for... building a fence?

There had to be more than that, or it wouldn't be a special skill.

She rolled out of bed and reached for the book on the table, even before lighting the fire to boil the water for her coffee.

> Special Skills.

> There are a number of special skills associated with farming. Some are specific to the kind of crops or animals you farm, others are more general.

There was a paragraph of as-you-know-Bob about special skills, summarising what everyone had already known from grade school, and then career path counseling in high school.

In a world with skills and classes and levels, no basic education would be complete without covering those things.

The thing about special skills,what made them really special, was that there was no formula for unlocking one. Some were more common than others, and maybe nine out of ten people could follow a formula and get the skill, but the tenth just... wouldn't.

The systemologists were divided about why that was. The most widely supported theory was that there was an incomplete understanding of the requirements. That there was an unknown factor, a requirement that the people who had received the skill had met that those who failed to unlock the skill hadn't. What that requirement might be was still a mystery. Systemologists referred to the unknown requirements as the "X-factor".

Systemologists split into two schools -- those that thought the system must obey a set of rules, and that the failure was on the part of the systemologists to fully identify and describe the system -- and another faction, who believed that no matter how close Systemology came to accurately describing the system, there would always be an "X factor" because there was always an element of chaos. In their own circles, they sometimes called this chaotic element "luck". But that didn't sound very scientific, so they usually didn't say it in public or write it in papers.

Lexie read on. Aura of Defense was a pretty good skill. Uncommon, but not super rare. The unlock condition was you must successfully defend your crop or livestock against a pest or predator without harming it. Trapping or shooting or poisoning would bar you from getting the perk.

At low levels it wasn't very powerful, nothing more than a deterrent. If there was plenty to eat, the critters would look elsewhere. But if there was a drought or they were hungry for some reason and food was scarce, the skill wouldn't keep them at bay.

At higher levels, though, you could apparently divert a plague of locusts. Well, as long as it keeps the hares out of the crops, thought Lexie.

She was stiff and ached in her muscles from all the chopping and building yesterday, and she was still tired. But there was no going back to sleep now. She started the fire and Winston opened one eye. When he realized she was up, he stretched and hopped to the floor, and wound back and forth around her ankles, purring.

"Good morning, Winston," said Lexie.

She poured some of the crunchy dry cat food into a saucer for him and went about her morning business, making coffee and brushing her teeth.

After breakfast, she watered her plants and inspected the damage from the hares. Two patches had been completely eaten, down to the ground. There was nibbling in other places, but nothing she couldn't fix. The tiny seedlings had begun to sprout real leaves now, and according to the book, it was time to thin them.

Lexie got a tub with some extra dirt, and instead of just throwing away the smaller seedlings, she put them in the tub and then transplanted them to the patches the hares had eaten. Hopefully they would take, and the damage would be mitigated.

It was past lunch time by the time she finished, and she was hot and dirty from working in the field onder the sun. She rinsed off quick using a bucket and wash cloth byu the pump and then headed into town. She wanted to get Winston a litter box. Whatever she heard howling the night before, she didn't want him going out if he didn't have to. And she didn't want to leave the window open.

Sprübeck's had a serviceable cat pan, and Mrs' Sprübeck offered to deliver it, along with some cat litter, but Lexie said no, she'd just take the box. "Been clearing the field, plenty of sawdust from chopping all the saplings down."

"Clever," said Mrs. Sprübeck. Lexie did pick up a few groceries, think longingly of Nelly's chiller and how if she had one, she could even stock up some perishables. She decided to stop by the library and check the missing cat notice now that she'd dealt with her field emergency.

Her first crops would be ready in a few weeks, assuming not too much damage had been done. The notice board at the library might have some odd jobs she could do in the meantime.

She stood in front of the board. The lost cat poster was still there. Lexie examined the stick figure drawing and decided it definitely wasn't Winston. For one thing, there was no eye patch. If it had been Winston, the artist definitely would have included that characteristic marking. For another, it wasn't floofy. Lexie thought that, had it been Winston, with his glorious, luxurious coat and plume like tail, the artist probably would have chosen rounded shapes, rather than long straight lines.

Well, it said he'd gone missing around the docks. She was heading there later, so Lexie decided to keep her eye peeled.