Cursing, I beat at the fire which has set light to the fabric I’m lying on. Fumbling for my canteen, I pour it on the flames licking at my clothing. Fortunately, since most of them are from synthetic fabric, they’re resisting the fire. Annoyingly, though, it has caught on my cotton jacket.

After a few moments, I’ve managed to get the accidental fire under control. There are still some hints of fire which I fear might erupt anew into flame. Then I have a thought which I wish had come sooner: what about my Inventory? It puts out fire on torches, so wouldn’t it deal with the fire on my clothes too?

Putting action to thought, I start piling the fabric in. Then, my head cocking to one side, I pause. Am I seeing something here? Looking at the marks in the fabric which had been around me while I slept, I start to see a pattern. Did the fire actually erupt from my body? It looks like it – although the line of burnt fabric is blurred thanks to both the fire spreading and my own efforts to beat it out, I can see the shape of my own body.

I finish putting the fabric into my Inventory, wondering at how exactly I managed to set light to everything around me without actually burning myself or even setting light to the clothes I’m wearing. I vaguely remember a dream of some sort. I was dancing? In a ballroom? Or was it in a fire? And I don’t really remember who I was dancing with, but I do remember feeling sad about something.

Anyway, that I was apparently able to create fire is good; that it was completely uncontrolled is not.

As I look at the fire, I become aware of several pairs of wide eyes looking at me. Oh hell, I forgot that I wasn’t alone in this cave! I twist to find River pressed against the back wall looking – and feeling, now I’m paying attention to the Bond – rather terrified. I remember him telling me about the poor experiences he’d had with a forest fire – rousing to licking flames probably wasn’t the best wake-up call….

By the door, Fenrir is less afraid, but more wary, poised to run – either out of the cave or into the alcove to drag us out. Bastet is equally wary by the fire, standing in front of the cubs protectively. The cubs are peeking around her legs, more curious than afraid.

“Sorry guys,” I say, a bit shamefaced. “I’m not quite sure what happened there, but I don’t think it will happen again.” I cross my fingers behind my back. That said, I am actually fairly confident that the reason this happened was because I was playing with the connections spooling out from the fire before I fell asleep. Hopefully, if I just go to sleep normally, I won’t have any accidental eruptions in my sleep. At least, none involving fire.

At my reassurance, Bastet and Fenrir both settle down, Bastet licking a couple of cubs who make a few quiet noises of complaint or question but then settle down too. River, on the other hand, while relaxing a bit, doesn’t lie back down.

What happened? he asked.

“I’m not entirely sure,” I admit, not wanting to lie to him. “But I think it was connected to some exercises I was doing before I went to sleep. I’m not going to do those exercises again now, so it should be fine. Go back to sleep.” River slowly tilts up his head and, with just as much reticence, lies down again, though doesn’t close his eyes. “You can sleep outside if you’d prefer,” I offer, not wanting him to be uncomfortable.

I sense him weighing up the decision: inside where there might be fire but it was warm, or outside where it was cold but the risk of fire was much lower. He eyes me again.

What do you intend to do now?

Good question. I don’t know how long I’ve been asleep for, but I’m not feeling particularly tired right now. I walk quietly to the entrance of the cave and look out at the sky. It’s cloudy and dark, not offering any indication of time. I shrug, stepping carefully back inside the alcove.

“I’ll think through my to-do list,” I tell him quietly, deciding while I speak. “Then maybe do a few experiments, but nothing with fire. Or go to sleep if I start getting sleepy again.” For now, I'm definitely too awake to do that.

Very well, River accepted. I shall stay inside for now. I get the sense that if he wakes up to fire again, he’ll probably choose to brave the cold instead of risking getting burned.

“Alright. I’ll see you later, then,” I agree. He turns onto his side to face the wall, presenting me with his back. Knowing that it’s a gesture of trust more than affront, I don’t take offence. Instead, I lie back down and think, staring at the stone ceiling.

The first thing I think about is the time-bound task hanging over my head: that quest. I search through my notifications. I wish there was a Quest tab or something! I say to myself in frustration. Then I remember how I was able to make my Bound’s stats appear in a tab and wonder whether I could do the same here. Focussing, I’m pleased when it suddenly appears next to my Bound tab. Opening it, I see a few entries.

Quests

Active Quests:

* The Vine-Strangler Copse II

Completed Quests:

* The Vine-Strangler Copse I

Available Quests:

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Focussing on my only active quest brings up the information about it.

In the course of your adventures, you explored the centre of the Vine-Strangler Copse and defeated its guardian. Upon investigating the guardian beast’s lair, you discovered a route down to one of the Ley Lines of the planet, running unusually close to the surface. However, you do not seem to have been the first to make this discovery. You have realistically theorised that a beast may have tunnelled down to access the Ley Line and blocked the stream. You have posited that a side effect of this may have created the stagnant pool of Pure Energy, the Cores, and the tunnel you first encountered.

Quest: The Vine-Strangler Copse II

Quest type: Regional

Objective: Find evidence to prove (or in the event of the theory being disproven, discover) the reason for the formation of the underground tunnels.

Objective: Rectify the situation with the exposed stream of Pure Energy and return the area to its previous state.

Time to complete quest: 43 days

Suggested difficulty: Journeyman

Reward: Uncommon Silver chest → Rare Silver chest (rarity increased due to passing over of previous rewards).

As I see, ten days have already passed since I got it, and I’ve still got a lot to do. I wonder if I could have some sort of note-taking tab? I think to myself. It would certainly be useful to be able to write a to-do list. Figuring that I might as well try, I focus hard on what I want to achieve.

There’s a bit of resistance this time. I don’t know if it’s because the System or whatever is controlling this display doesn’t know what I mean, doesn’t want me to have this facility, or if there’s some other reason. However, I just double-down on my visualisation.

I want a blank screen which I can add words to by thinking at it, which I can then access later. I visualise a blank page on a computer screen, the keyboard input allowing me to only add what I want; no more or less.

As my brain starts to hurt, the System gives way. Slowly, a screen forms in front of my eyes, exactly as I’d imagined it. At the top where I can see ‘Quests’, and ‘Bound’, and ‘Status’, there’s now a new entry: ‘Notes’. There’s even a qwerty keyboard input at the bottom of the screen which, surprisingly, reacts to my finger movements rather than my mind directly. Maybe it’s running off sense memory rather than actual touch since I certainly can’t feel anything beneath my fingertips. It was probably because I was concentrating on how it felt to write on a Word document.

Still, I’m not upset about that: if anything, it makes writing easier. I have a feeling that otherwise I’d struggle to keep my thoughts disciplined. I’d hate for my new note-taking software to be filled with nonsense because I’d start thinking about one thing and end up with another – I had enough of that kind of rubbish when taking notes during quick-paced university lectures.

Actually, if I can get a quest tab and a note-taking tab, why can’t I get a clock? Excitement fills me as I think of another option too – if my quest can count down the days, can’t I get some sort of indication about when my Energy debt will be due?

Since they’re two different ideas, I focus on them one at a time. I start with the idea of my Energy debt showing a countdown first; that’s probably more important than me knowing exactly what time it is.

There’s a little resistance, but not as much as when I was attempting to get the Notes tab to appear. In a short amount of time, I see a number appear in my status screen, below the Energy debt. Two hundred and sixty-one. The number of days remaining, I’d imagine. Huh, longer than I’d thought. Better that way, I suppose, than shorter.

When I try to get a clock, however, I find that there’s some sort of impassable block. It doesn’t matter how much I focus, or on what image I settle; no clock of any sort appears. Eventually, I give up. I have the countdown to when I’ll be leaving this world; that will have to do.

Returning to the notes tab, I just check that what I write on the tab remains even when I switch to another tab, or close the screen completely. I’d hate to write my whole to-do list and then have it disappear as soon as I click away…. Fortunately, my experiments prove successful. My touch-typing is a little rusty since I haven’t touched a computer keyboard in a couple of months, but I did it for enough years that after a little practice, I’m soon back to my previous ease.

So, a to-do list.

I’ve only got forty-three days until the quest timer reaches 0. I assume that that means I’d fail the quest automatically; what that means in terms of consequences, I don’t know. Losing the potential rewards, for sure. Would there be more consequences than that? Possibly. Either way, I’d like to at least try.

However, before I do that, I want some decent armour and better weapons. Hopefully I will be able to use Flesh-Shaping to make the creation of the former easier and, potentially, better. I will have to test whether I can affect an animal when it’s dead, and whether I can affect a hide once it’s been taken off a body. Then, even if those two tests prove successful, I’ll need to see whether I can still affect a hide once it’s been tanned.

If I can, and I’m also able to gain an understanding of the differences between an untanned hide and tanned hide on a structural level, there’s the possibility that I might be able to essentially ‘tan’ a hide with magic alone. That would certainly save time and effort.

Even if future tanning is able to be done magically, I’ll need to at least do the first one manually. That means completing the tanning basin. Even if I end up not needing to use it as a tanning basin in the future, I’m sure I’ll find a purpose for it. If nothing else, it could be a water trough afterwards for watering my plants: I keep forgetting to do it and am worried that the poor things are going to suffer from my neglect as much as they’ve already suffered from being massacred.

On my list, I write ‘tanning basin’ and ‘water plants’.

Once the hide is tanned, what I do next will be rather determined by how much control over the flesh I subsequently have. If I have control, I can easily shape it to my needs, though I’ll probably still put on some non-magical fastening so that if I run out of mana, I’ll still be able to put it on and take it off. If I don’t have any control because it no longer counts as ‘flesh’, I’ll need to take more time cutting and shaping it, probably using sinew to sew the pieces together.

I’m planning on making something like a tabard. Since the roll of salamander hide which I have in my Inventory is a bit longer than I am tall, I’m intending on making a hole in the middle for my head, meaning that it should hang down about mid-thigh on both sides of my body. That might still offer some vulnerabilities to my sides, but maybe I can do something with the crocodile hide to help with that. Of course, that will only be once it’s tanned.

I’m probably going to need the tanning frames whether or not I can add magic to the hides pre- or post-treatment. So that means making them. I’ve started the job, but didn’t get far with it before getting distracted; I’m going to have to focus more on that.

I add ‘tanning frames’ to my list. So, that’s armour. Onto the next topic.