Outside the church, the caretaker stood, waiting for Donovan. She had felt the earth shudder beneath her feet and supposed it was a result of Donovan meeting his god, but had only ever seen miracles involving lights or other harmless effects. Nothing had ever directly affected the earth before, and from the reactions of the villagers she knew they felt it too. Donovan’s father was a man she knew, one that had written many stories and triumphs, she had thought his stories were just exaggerations. She knew now, with the miracle that shuddered the earth, her was not exaggerating.
The door opened smoothly, Donovan stepped out of the building, walking up the steps and bowing at the caretaker as he passes her by. He did not have a jump in his step, clearly bothered by something and not excited about his rewards. Perhaps he had another objective, she thought, it did not happen often in the village. Merchants had told her stories of wanderers and kings who had received multiple objectives and multiple blessings in return, becoming more powerful each time. Donovan was the sole worshiper of his god in the village, she supposed it made sense he would be given many tasks. But for someone like Donovan to do so many different tasks, all done across the world in the unknown, she figured he would have a troublesome time ahead of him.
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Donovan arrived at the door of his home, the light blue door seemed so welcoming and homely. Opening it and sitting in his bed, he covered his face with his hands and started to sob. The screen that his god had blessed him with shone in front of his eyes, taunting him with the reality of the situation. Two objectives were given to him, an encompassing one, and another that would complete each time he got a step closer to the end. He had very few clues to work with, only a sentence with no detailed instructions. The stress was immense, his mind raced to think of every terrible outcome and possibility. Walking across the world, never being able to settle down, forever looking for something he did not understand, nobody by his side.
His sobbing stopped, he was wrong about the last one, he remembered that. He had Ellie, she could help him look, she could be his voice, they can rely on each other. Wiping tears that had almost formed at his eyes, he stood up straight and firm, his neck tingling at the sight of his family crest. Stopping at the feeling, he reflected on its presence, perhaps he was not without a way to move forward.
The crest was removed from the wall, the axe placed back onto the bed. It felt unnaturally light in his hands, lacking the usual weight behind its metallic material. The trace amounts of light being let into the home shone on the front end of the crest, illuminating it enough to barely make out the story of his father. Single words crawled up the root of the tree, toward the bark. Blessing. Then Brigands. Eventually the word Dragon. And finally, the eery scrawl of the word lost. After lost, it did not continue. The words were crude summaries of the things his father had experienced and visited, but each location was enough of a lead to calm Donovan’s racing heart.
He heads out his door, crest and axe in tow. When he arrived at Ellie’s home, almost tripping over a small wooden carving, he knocked on her door. It opened immediately, her hands carried her favourite chisel, but her eyes carried excitement. She motioned him inside, literally hopping on the spot as she did so.
“Blessing!” she looked at him with light in her eyes that was brighter than any fire he had seen before. He could only shrug in response, unable to convey what had been given to him. The blessing had been very vague, he could only make a rough guess that it pertained to his limbs and god in some way, but he didn’t know where to start.
She seemed to notice his hesitation, fiddling with her chisel as Donovan tried to find a place to sit amongst the countless pieces of carved wood and unfinished work. Failing to do anything but stand, he waited for Ellie to finish thinking.
“Your god gave you a parameter measure, right? Most of them do.”
Donovan nodded, closing his eyes, glancing at the unique strength parameter. He opened his eye and flexed a bicep.
“Constitution?” she asked,
Donovan shook his head to the sides, trying his best to flex harder, it wasn’t his proudest muscle… was it not obvious?
“Oh, dexterity.”
He shook his head again, he hummed a depressed thought in his head, he hadn’t cared much about having more muscles than others but it stung to hear.
“Definitely charisma then.”
He lowered his arm and head in defeat, but the sound of a chuckle sweeter than an azalea bush immediately improved his mood.
“I’m just kidding with you Don’, if its about strength then it won’t be too hard to test and get used to.” She remarked, eyeing her coin purse that had been deflated by the food they bought recently.
“We might need to find work though, all the strength blessings come at the cost of a lot of food.”
Donovan could only nod, the nuts and berries of the village were always easy to find, but were not common outside of the forest. Or so he heard.
Trying to focus on the task at hand, he found a large piece of wood that Ellie had yet to carve, not a challenging task in the least. This particular piece was one he helped her move inside not long ago, it took the combined effort of himself, the foreman, and another worker he was comfortable around.
Bending his knees, he found two hand holds. It was uncomfortable and awkward, but he prepared his muscles to attempt the task, losing confidence the moment his face got close enough to realise it was bigger than himself. Regardless, he felt it was worth a try, if he failed it would be a good comparison for his limits. Straining his legs and back, the segment of wood lifted an inch off the ground. All his muscles ached and his back did not feel great.
Suddenly, he felt a tingle in his throat. The piece of wood he was attempting to deadlift became weightless, his strained body sprung up in a feeling of weightlessness. The chunk of wood left his hands once it reached shoulder height, the tingling feeling in his throat disappeared as quickly as it appeared. The weightless wood seemed to regain its weight, the momentum pushing it into the air ended, and began to fall.
Reaching his hands up in an attempt to prevent damage, his arms were met with the full weight of gravity, dragging his arms down with it regardless of his own efforts. Before it hit the ground, the feeling snapped back again, and the momentum ended. In his hands he carried it, no effort was required, like he was simply holding up air. He curled it with one arm, his muscles contracted like they were not working at all. Holding it out in front of him, he did not lose balance despite the fact it would have normally became his center of gravity.
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Ellie watched in half amazement and half curiosity, excited on Donovan’s behalf, for his blessing. She reached down, picking up a small carved figurine that lay upon the floor gathering dust. It had not been a very important piece to her, so she found much more value in using it for tests. Placing it upon the top of a finished statue, she stood back and placed her back against the wall.
“Don’, try hitting that with it.” Pointing at the figurine, she conveyed her idea. Donovan approved of the test, if it were to hit with the force it normal would, then what might happen if he picked something even heavier up?
Removing his second hand from the grip, he held it with his right, a comical sight. Aiming for the figurine, he didn’t put any particular effort into the swing, like a build up for throwing a frisbee to someone a few feet in front of him. His below average dexterity was in full display as the makeshift weapon collided with the wooden base, missing the figurine by and inch. The base it stood on was far smaller than the ‘weapon’, immediately flung across the room in an explosion of wood chips from the snapped middle portion. As if destiny, the small figure fell to the floor, landing upright in perfect condition.
“Alright then, don’t worry Don’, that wasn’t much important either.” She said, eyeing the gutty remains of her best work. She certainly didn’t miss it, and didn’t want Donovan to know about that small fact though.
Swallowing her shred of sorrow, she focused on expressing her excitement, “That was pretty freaking awesome!”. Receiving a nod and a satisfied look from Donovan, she felt relieved, and her excitement only grew.
“Where can we find and even bigger object?” She asked, thinking about just how far the blessing might extend to. Donovan thought on it for just a moment, before a smile crept on his face. The smile and thought seemed to extend to Ellie, who already had the door opened.
Together they exited the home, hand in hand, they left for the forester area. Everybody was working as usual, noticeable progress had been made since yesterday, but they had lots of work left to complete. Walking past the foreman’s tower, both of them waved to the man, who looked relieved to see Donovan.
“Hey Don’, Can I ask you to do something for me?” He asked, stopping Donovan. Turning to meet his eyes, Donovan nodded hesitantly. The foreman continued, “Don’t worry, I just need you to get started on prepping the tree you cut down for moving. The village will pay you for it, and so will I.”
Trees were quite expensive, when they were hundreds of feet tall and dozens of feet in diameter, they were quite a small fortune. More than just a little excited at the prospect of a trees worth of money, he nodded happily. Moving a tree was a routinely thing, every year, every season, and involved some of his favourite memories. With his blessing and objective, he might not have the chance to do it again. All thoughts of moving the tree on his own disappeared, he wanted the chance to experience it one more time with the rest of the village before he left.
Turning at the tower, they both head toward the working tree. There, Ellie quickly spoke on Donovan’s behalf, explaining the instructions. The workers were more than happy to provide Donovan with two boxes chalk full of metal spikes, offering to help him carry them. With a shake of his head, one hand on both boxes, and the surprised look of the workers, they left them behind to stumble in their amazement. If it were not for the common knowledge about Donovan getting his blessing today, it would have been too amazing to ignore.
Donovan’s tree lay in the exact same spot as before, not a single thing could move it on their own, so it stood like a wall dividing the segment of forest in half. Setting down the boxes next to the base of the tree, he wordlessly got to work, Ellie stood behind him with stars in her eyes and trail mix in hand. Donovan had not felt hungry after lifting the thing in her home, but blessings had never been free to use. Each had their own cost, food and sleep being the most common.
Two spikes were removed from their box. One was hammered into the think bark with the flat end of the other. They were nailed in positions for holding, as if the tree had been a wheelbarrow.
The moment of truth, Donovan placed a hand on each makeshift handle. The feeling in his throat clicked to life three times, intensifying each time, exponentially on the third one. The tree lifted up effortlessly, the entire span of the trunk balanced in Donovan’s hands. His palms started to sweat from excitement, trying to suppress the shake of his nerves to prevent damaging anything around him. Shaking the tree up and down, countless seeds, cones, and loose branches fell from the canopy hundreds of feet away from where they stand. Placing the tip of the tree against the ground and dragging it backward caused even more of the brush to fall off. He jumped with it, knocked it against another tree, squatted it, held it in one hand, and for his final act, he lightly threw it a few feet above him while diving away. The thundering boom of it hitting the ground far surpassed the sound of it felling the first time, the serotonin was unreal.
Suddenly, his stomach ached with pain and he realised that his fun was over. Sitting down on a nearby exposed root, Ellie offered him the pouch of food. Gratefully accepting, he snacked with a smile. He acknowledged his limit, knowing there was no way he could simply carry a redwood tree around unless he had unlimited amounts of food and time. Regardless, his god had not disappointed, giving him an immense blessing. He still wasn’t confident, but maybe with this blessing he might actually pull it off.
Ellie sat beside him, grabbing the second bag of food off her belt, glad she thought to take it just in case. As he finished off the first one, she got down to the brass,
Almost regretfully, she asked the important question, “If you have a blessing like that, your god must have given you another objective, right?” Donovan nodded his head, the ever longer growing beard shook with him. Thinking for a second before she asked another question, they sat in relative silence. The forest was still enchanting their ears like the ascension of mother nature, calming both of them.
“Are we going to be leaving the village?” her voice solemn, held together like a child’s art project. Donovan hummed a sad tune, the lack of effort in his diaphragm and the trembling squeeze of his hand grasping hers answered the question. A scary world awaited them. Forced to leave a village of peace, a relative utopia that had accepted both of them for their entire lives. His god certainly had ambitions, countless goals and tasks for his believers, and those tasks would be riddled with dangers. Neither of them felt truly up to the task, Ellie didn’t seem to let that get her down.
Trying her best to give the bright side some attention, she spoke her mind, “Well Don’, think of this, with your blessing we could make a huge weapon and swat the bad guys away,” her body twisted in an exaggerated swing of a club, “and then, we can lift up their houses,” she grabbed onto an invisible box at her feet and held in in her arms, “we can throw it at the next bad guys.” Lifting her leg up and rotating herself to throw the invisible house in her hands towards an imaginary enemy.
With the small part of his anxiety cured, he stood up. Embracing each other in a hug, they only separated when Ellie could not feel his thumping heartbeat. Swallowing a breath, and grabbing more iron spikes from the two boxes, they both began to prepare the tree.
Numerous spikes were nailed into the bark. They were separated by 3 feet and spanned the larger portion of the tree length. More workers joined them. They carried ropes and boxes of metal, all to be connected in an elaborate puzzle. With everything connected, it would serve as the best possible way to drag the tree with the entire village, no man power would go to waste. By midnight the tree was fully ready, foliage was mostly cut off at the base to prevent resistance. Underneath the trunk’s base was a multidirectional sled, pushed under it after everyone with a strength blessing worked together to raise it just an inch off the ground. Donovan did not supply his own blessing to make the tree weightless, he feared that the experience would be ruined and the routine wouldn’t be followed. Tomorrow was simple, just as he liked it, since the entire day would revolve around the tree that he cut down.