Occasional bird calls trembled through the trees, but nothing from close enough for Jake to spot the creatures. The high shrieks didn’t sound like anything he’d heard before, though. Other than that, the only noise came from a wind shaking the tops of the trees, and his own footfalls in the yeasty humus that coated the forest floor. Rough rocks jutted from the soil, the sharp edges worn smooth from wind and rain. In theory, wild creatures this high shouldn’t be too large -- the deeper valleys below would provide more food, so bigger creatures and their predators should stay further down the mountain. But then, System had said something about ‘mana-beasts’, too.

Jake carried a dried sapling as a hiking aid. It would probably only serve as a weapon once or twice, but it had already kept him from wrenching his knee on one of the slippery patches of gray-green moss that coated the brown stones. After what felt like an hour, his thighs were starting to ache, making him dread how much further he might have to travel. Standing most of the day at the hospital gave him a pretty strong base for hiking, but going downhill was tiring muscles in ways he wasn’t used to. He was afraid to stop, though, for fear of stiffening up and being unable to continue down the mountain. Only once his right calf seized in an iron cramp did he pause to rest. The sun had dropped to at least mid-afternoon, maybe later. How high this mountain stood would help him figure out the season, but he didn’t know either piece of data. And looking at the trees didn’t really help, either; the purple tips of each evergreen needle didn’t resemble anything he knew of from Earth.

“Wait, I can do magic. Shit, Jake, think.” He concentrated on the shorter-than-average tree beside him and traced the rune circles for ‘analyze plant’ inside his mind.

Naerthic Pine - 23 years old - 8% mana infusion - slight dehydration - ?? - ??

“Huh, I guess those bottom limbs do look kind of dry. Maybe ought to try some of that psi-energy vision, too.” Green and brown lines ran along the trunk, occasionally interlaced with an occasional blue line or a dark gray one. After staring for about a minute, Jake could also see a golden thread of energy at the core of the tree. That line pulsed every so often, with that pulse washing over some of the gray lines, make them disperse like a line of smoke in a breeze.

“System, that tree’s using magic to stave off a bit of drought, right?”

DATASET LIMITED … COUNTER DETAIL OCCURRING … PLEASE ANALYZE SURROUNDING FAUNA SPECIMENS

The surrounding trees showed the same basic information, with age varying up to 56 years, and mana infusion ranging from seven to twelve percent. They sat around a small, open area maybe 10 meters across. The moss in the center gave off a different reading, though:

Toreador Moss - 14 years old - 37% mana infusion - optimal hydration - potential inherent construct quality tentatively identified as ‘absorb’ - ??

“Now that looks like it might be useful. It’s stealing water and mana. Could maybe use that to make something that works like a magic battery charger. Self-filling canteen, too. Wait, what’s the counter detail that didn’t match, System?”

OVERFULL MOUNTAIN LAKE WITH RUNOFF CONTRAINDICATES ‘DROUGHT’ CONDITION

Jake facepalmed. This day was getting to him. He was tired and stressed and missing stuff that sat right completely obvious in front of him. He considered his current status and decided that he would hike for at most one more hour, then he would need to build a shelter. After that, he could try to magic up some water, maybe some food. He wondered if magic food would really count as calories to keep him alive? Could he do like the trees and use mana as a substitute? Crap, how did mana interact with cells? He’d need to observe these trees forever. And find a microscope. He almost decided to sit in right here to figure stuff out, but he really didn’t feel like rough camping on an alien world, even if he would get to do magic science experiments. He might actually be close to a farm or a town down into the valley -- places that actually had real food. Before he left, though, Jake figured he would take this moss with him.

The circle that he had scribed around the moss patch was lined with the strongest, brightest needles off the surrounding trees. The purple tips all pointed just a fraction into the circle in a counter-clockwise direction. Widdershins, Jake thought. That was magic and unnatural from Earth, and he hoped it would help to contain the moss, especially with the needles from the competing trees. Inside that, the moss sat in a triangle. Finally, he used resinous sap from the first tree he observed to draw the main circles of ‘shape plant’ on the moss, then ‘shape material’ on the stone around it. In a separate circle off to the side, he drew a stick-figure man with a wizard’s cone-shaped hat, holding a staff in one hand. Another scribed triangle held his walking stick, with ‘shape plant’ drawn in a circle around it as well. Arrows connected the figures, showing flow from base materials up to the finished staff in the sketch. As a final touch, Jake poked at one of the scratches he had picked up on his hike so far. He dabbed his finger in the bead of blood that welled up from his forearm, then smeared that over the stick wizard’s heart, the center of the moss, and the top of the walking stick.

Stolen novel; please report.

The concentrated warmth of the sun shining around him, the wind pushing the tops of the pine trees, the smell of earth and humus, the feeling of the natural ecosystem -- all of it made a feeling of wonder and growth. Jake locked that feeling in his mind, picturing it all being absorbed by the upstart moss. He took his time as he traced the details of the spell constructs, and he breathed deep, trying to forestall the exhaustion of pushing so much mana into the constructs without stopping. A bright yellow glow bloomed off the constructs drawn in front of him, growing so bright that even behind closed eyes, Jake still was seeing dark spots. He kept pushing, panting now, and finally, the constructs melted together in front of him then vanished in an even brighter flash.

Once Jake could see again, he saw the walking stick converted into a solid staff a bit over 1.5 meters in length. The ends featured short caps of brown stone, and about 10 cm from the top, the staff flowed through a knob of the same stone. A carving of a man’s bearded face decorated one side, the beard made bushy by the moss that flowed out of the green beard and around the ornament. Purple beads for the eyes seem to gleam in the late afternoon sun. Reaching out, blood flowed down his forearm and dripped onto the staff, which absorbed the drops without showing any change to the wood’s color.

“Dammit, what were you thinking, you jackass? Using your own blood? Shit, you knew it had ‘absorb’ in it. Trying to kill yourself? Again? Stop being a screw-up and pay some damn attention!” Jake growled at himself. He clamped his right hand over the wound and hissed at the pain, then got to his feet. Leaving the staff on the ground for the moment, he found a stain of resin on one of the larger trees a few meters away. Jake peeled it and some bark away, then grabbed one end with his teeth, the resin side facing his arm.

After a minute’s worth of fumbling, his belt came off, then wrapped just below his bicep. The staff went through a loop of the leather, and then he rotated it, pulling the tourniquet tight. A two-minute wait saw the bleeding from his forearm slow, then stop. The rest of the arm began to turn purple. Jake squeezed the edges of the cut together, then draped the resin over the wound like a dressing. He used his chin to push the sticky gum tight to the skin, then loosened the tourniquet. He slid the belt down over the bark and resin, then re-tightened it for twenty seconds.

“Homemade Super Glue, for the win,” he whispered to himself. Maybe he would just rest here for the day after all, he thought. He opened his eyes to start searching for materials to make a lean-to. That was when he noticed the two birdmen standing five meters away, watching him.

“An interesting working, Men,” the purple-chested one on the left said.

“What does it do?” the other, gray-chested one asked.

“I’m … not sure, yet?” Jake replied. The two strangers looked at each other for a moment, then back to Jake again.

“The Elders would most likely consider such a working … unwise,” the first one said. Jake just stared, taking in the buckskin vests and pants both wore. Long gray-green feathers flowed off the backs of their heads, and down the backs of each arm. Each wore a pair of hatchets on their belts, and both carried some sort of basket strapped to his back. The only difference that Jake could see was the color of their chest feathers.

“Perhaps this is why he is so far from the dwellings of Men and Telvor, clutch-brother,” the gray-chest said. “If he wants to find a way to improve his standing, then he might explore the working away from where his Elders can see, no?”

“How say you, Men?” the purple one asked.

“Uh, well, actually, I’m lost, I think.”

The purple-chest tilted his head to the side, first right, then left. Then it seemed to sigh. “Well met then, Men. I am Truko, and this is my clutch-brother Carraw, both of Elder Greywing’s line. And this is part of the summer range of the Pollak Rescota, although a bit far from the gathering grounds. Men and Telvor ranges are further down and warmer. But I do not understand how you came to be lost up a mountain, without knowing that the Men live below.”

“So, I wonder if you know about something called the Labyrinth,” Jake said.

“You do not look like the Men of the Layers below. They have darker skin than you do.”

“I don’t really know much about the Labyrinth, but I’m from a place called Earth. Ever heard of it?”

“That is not one of the Ten Worlds,” Truko said. “Was your working what brought you here, then? Perhaps by chance?”

“No. I’m not sure how I got here exactly. Something about synchronization. I woke up at the top of the mountain, and I’ve been working my way down. Really hoping to find some place with people, and food,” Jake said, and then he stomach growled. “Especially food.”

The gray-chested Carraw looked between Jake and his clutch-brother, then gave a very human-looking nod. “Men and Telvor do not hold much company with the Rescota, but even they know that food is one of the things we are best at. Let us eat together, and learn how we might find benefit here, away from the Elders.”