The next morning Kael awoke to his father shaking him. Thinking, Isn’t this child abuse, do these people not know of shaken baby syndrome in this world? he rolled over, snuggling back into his blankets while sleepily mumbling, “I thought it was always beautiful maids that woke their young masters in stories like this one. I got the shit end of the stick again.”

Iradin, not sure he heard his barely 5-year-old son correctly gave him an extra hard shake while loudly asking, “What did you just say about beautiful maids little boy?”

Swearing at himself for blowing his cover in less than a day, he scrambled for a good lie. Looking up at his disgruntled father he said, “Uh, sorry dad, the huge guy in my dreams tells me stories in between teaching me about herbs so I don’t get bored.”

“Whatever,” Iradin replied,”just get out of your bed and go eat breakfast, your mother is worried about you and taking it out on me.”

Relieved his father seemed to buy his bullshit, but planning on selling the same load to his mom, Kael snatched his book off the nightstand while rolling out of bed and heading downstairs. Entering the living area that acted as both a living room and a dining room, Kael saw his mother sitting down at their fully set table. A worried look was plastered across her beautiful face. Deciding to go for the pre-emptive attack, he bounced over to her with his best; ‘This is what a cute, and extremely normal 5 year old looks like’ look on his face. Jumping into her lap, he slapped his book down on the table, almost sending a plate of some kind of egg and a green plant he likened to potatoes flying. Glad he avoided the fate of a scolding for making a mess he began jabbering to stop his mom from having the chance to say anything.

“Look, mom, Grandpa Grey Skin told me all about herbs last night!” Opening the book he flipped to the third page, pointing to an ugly mushroom thing. He said “This thing called a Stone Cap is actually one of the best healing herbs of the lowest level of the lowest tier. Although it looks like a dirt clod, it can actually be used in healing cuts or even to help set bones!” Glancing up at his mom to see if she was buying it, and only seeing a little doubt cleared from her face, he went on to point at the next herb.

“This one, the light blue flower that grows in shallow water. He said we were squandering the gifts of nature. He said that alchemists use it to wash the marrow, whatever that means, and not to add a refreshing taste to their salads! He was really mad about that one, the amount of spittle flying from his mouth was enough for a shower. It was really gross.”

Seeing that doubt on his moms face increase instead of decrease he was worried. Thinking, My acting skills should not be that bad.” he went all in. “You still don’t believe me? Fine! I’ll go fix my book then you will be able to see that Grandpa Grey Skin is good to me.” Acting like a mad child he ‘humphed’ at his mom, grabbed his book, slid off her lap, and started to slowly stomp away. Waiting to be scolded or called back, he hoped he was not walking to fast for his mom to stop him before he reached the stairs.

Almost on queue, he got both. His father erupted with, “Oh, so our young master now treats his mother like a maid.” While his mother simultaneously shouted, “Slow down and give a person a chance to get a word out why don’t you.” This was followed with another simultaneous outburst as Alavarah said, “What young master, what maid?” and Iradin said, “No, no, speed up on your way back to your mother or get that little butt beat.”

Stopping to look back and forth between his parents he was worried but also amused. Deciding to dig a pit for his father as a counter-attack to his threat, he sulked back to his mother with his head down. Climbing back into her lap he whispered, “I’m not sure about a young master or a maid, mom. Dad was just explaining to me the importance of role-playing this morning and brought it up.”

Hearing that Alavarahs look turned sharp as her eyes locked Iradin with a dangerous glare, “So I’m the maid to clean up after you now eh?” she growled at him.

Iradin, looking confused and timid, was about to respond when interrupted by his devil of a son again. “No mom, he was talking about a maid wrestling with him, not cleaning. I don’t know why she would do something not her job though.”

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With those words his mom’s face turned beet red while she stuttered out, “Stop, we will talk about that later, RIGHT Iradin? Honey, tell me about this old man, and it is Grandfather, not grandpa.”

After mentally accepting his Oscar and thanking the academy; Kael began to weave another story to cover his new knowledge up. He looked at the book of herbs, waving his hand while starting to point to different plants he said, “Of the 12 herbs I have listed, 4 of them are something called primary herbs, while 7 of the others are secondary herbs. The last plant is actually poison and only good for making people poop.

The 4 primary herbs are Stone Coat, Stone Cap, Bloodthorn, and Lake’s Kiss. Stone Coat is a browning grey moss that grows on rocks in moist areas, where Stone Cap is a mushroom that grows in the same environment. While Stone Cap is good for healing mortal bodies, Stone Coat is good for strengthening mortal bodies. Bloodthorn is long rattan like vine with thorns on it, obviously. It grows out of, or near the corpse of magical beasts. It is good for healing, temporarily strengthening the body, and can be used to wash the marrow, but that is not it’s main role. Lake’s Kiss is good for temporarily strengthening the mind, or boosting the spirit.

Secondary herbs do not seem to be as important, but the 7 I have seen here are Sage, Hoelen, Bupleurum, Cinnamon, Cayenne, Shiso, and Tang-Kui. I’m too lazy to describe them so just google it later. Sage, Hoelen, Cayenne, and Shiso are good for healing. Bupleurum and Cinnamon are good for strengthening the body while Tang-Kui is good for recovery. I’m not sure what the difference between healing and recovery are though.” When pausing to take a breath and noticing the absolute silence, Kael looked up into the faces of his baffled parents. “Uhh, Mom, Dad, why are you staring at me like that? Why don’t you say something?”

“Honey, just how many herbs did you learn about?” Alavarah asked while staring intently into her son's eyes.

“Mom, I’m pretty sure Grandpa” Kael started but was immediately interrupted by his mother, “Grandfather, it’s grandfather!” “Ok mom, I get it, grandfather told me about all of what he called mortal rank plants, metals, stones, and the bits and pieces of beasts.”

“What do you mean by all, Kael,” his father asked.

“Dad, all means everything, the whole amount, the entirety of, the..”

His father, who did know whether to laugh or cry at his child's outburst interrupted him. “Ok Kael, stop from time to time, I acknowledge, you are a crane amongst chickens. I just wanted to know if you were being literal or not.”

“Ohh, yes, I was being literal, Gramps said it would be wasteful of my intelligence if I did not learn from him and spends almost the entire dream droning on and on and on.”

Slightly excited at this revelation, Alavarah’s love of herbs and knowledge got the better of her as she said, “If that is true honey, why don’t we make you a much bigger book. You can write down everything you know and share it with the villagers.”

Knowing he had left a loophole in his web of lies and needed to patch it, Kael replied, “It does not seem to work that way, mom. I can feel all the knowledge tumbling about in my mind, but I can’t force it to come forward. When I see something new though, it is like flipping to a new page of a detailed book, the information is just waiting there for me.“

With her excitement dimming down, Alavarah mumbled, “I see, that’s ok honey.”

Iradin took this moment to jump back in though, “Kael, why don’t you walk around the very close exterior parts of the village. It is safe if you do not go far and you can record anything that catches your eye.”

With her excitement bubbling back up, his mother said, “That’s a great idea! Remember, you may be smart but you are still a little boy, you can’t go too far, and you have to be back before night falls each night. I will review what you took notes on to be sure you are not out there playing, so don’t think about using the excuse to run amuck in the forest either!”  

Stretching up he gave his mother a kiss on the cheek, grabbed his book, then slid out of her lap. With a joyful shout of, “Thanks mom! and remember to make me more books!” he quickly bounded out the door before his parents could call him back.

“Honey, what is google?” Alavarah asked.

“I think he said ogle, dear. That makes more sense if he meant looking at something, but he still did not use his words correctly. I think it is time to begin to educate him. If it were not for the village rules I would start cultivating him already. Do you want to spend the afternoon teaching him while I hunt?” Iradin asked his wife.

“Sure I will teach him math, history, geography, basic tactics, and how to write well. I would teach him more, but the education of our families may be dangerous for him to know in the future.” Alavarah said.

Giving his wife a tender looking, Iradin said, “That’s fine, I will still show him how to throw those toothpicks everyone calls javelins, and I’ll take him hunting to teach him tracking, skinning, and such.”