Although tired of the duck’s prattling, I was oddly relaxed.

Working with my hands did that to me. I enjoyed working on something tangible. Something I could see take shape as I formed it.

Even if simple.

Running the coarse stone along the edge of the boat, as to make it smooth, I paid close attention to the children watching me. Some were drawing rather close, and I didn’t want to whack them with an elbow on accident as I sanded.

“Is the rock that sharp?” one of the boys asked.

“No. It’s just coarse,” I said.

“But it’s cutting,” the smallest girls of the bunch noted.

“Anything can cut if you push hard enough,” I said.

“Nuh uh!” one of the girls said.

I smiled softly as they began to argue with each other. Some believed me, others didn’t.

Children. The same no matter their race.

Their arguing continued until one of the boys pushed another over. The moment he did however, the group of girls went on the attack. He ran off, shouting in pain as they chased after him. Some of the girls were hitting him rather harshly, even for just a child’s spat. A few were even grabbing at his tail, plucking feathers. The rest of the boys ran off after them, though didn’t join in on the beating.

Watching them, I shook my head as they all ran back to the center of the village.

“He’s a bully,” The only girl left said. She was one of the taller ones, so likely older than the others.

“There’s always a few,” I said.

“Hm…” she hummed at me and stepped closer, to study the edge of the boat’s lip. “Who gets this boat?” she asked.

I frowned at her. “Don’t you all share them?” I asked her. There were only two left, thus my helping them build another.

The fish had sunk the rest of their boats, supposedly.

She shrugged. “Sometimes. Can I have it?” she asked me.

I hesitated a moment, but only for a moment.

“Sure. But you’ll have to earn it,” I said.

The duck tilted her head at me, waiting for my cost.

Instead of telling her, I held out the coarse stone I had been using. She smiled at me and took it happily, and nodded. “Yeah!”

She wasted no time, and I watched as she went to rubbing the rock along the spot I had just been doing the same to. I had expected the need to direct her, and teach her, but surprisingly she went straight to doing it properly. Not too surprising, since she had been watching me for quite some time now… but…

Nodding, I was pleased to see it was fine. She was no master of course, but she was doing more good than harm to the section she was working on.

I stood from my little seat and went to walk around the boat, to get started on the other side.

The boat was finished. I had propped it up by planks and stumps, and there was a thin layer of sawdust and debris from all my carving and cutting. A large pile of cut wood, and uncut timber, lay nearby. I planned to make a few more before leaving, if I could.

It was just a simple boat for the river. Big enough to hold a few people, and a haul of fish. Nothing too fancy. But for them it was everything.

Most couldn’t swim, surprisingly.

“Where’d you learn to build boats?” the girl asked.

“My parents,” I answered.

“Were they boat builders?” she asked further.

“No. Just good teachers,” I said.

She hummed as she ran the rock farther along the boat’s lip. Towards the bow, where it joined and pointed forward.

The river had a strong current, so I made the ship with the intention of being able to pierce through it. To be able to sail into the current, even during a harder flow such as during a storm or flood. It’d be up to whoever was sailing, such as this girl, to row… but… it’d help at least, if only a little.

Their other ships were not like this. They were more rounded, and more akin to hallowed out logs than anything else. Made mostly from a single piece of timber, than many multiple pieces as I’d made this one out of.

Hopefully this girl had paid more attention. Maybe I should teach her.

I mentally kicked myself as I realized I should have taught them from the beginning.

Really Vim. You know the adage. Teach a man to fish and all that… this was the same.

Even if I made them a fleet of ships it didn’t matter if they didn’t know how to repair or service them. Even more so if they didn’t know how to replace them.

Yes. I’ll teach this girl. She seemed more than willing to learn, and was excited too. That simple joy would help her retain the information.

If I could teach her and a few others, then they’d be able to teach the rest. And pass the knowledge down to their children.

And then I’d not need to rebuild them their boats each time I visited in the future.

“Well I’ll be… how did you build this so quickly? You had just been cutting wood but this morning!” an older duck said as she approached.

I ignored the elder of this village as I went to grab the spike. A metal nail, that I was going to use to dig the small holes I’d shape as to put in the small hooks and locks for the oars. To help them row.

“He gave it to me!” the girl happily declared, standing tall as she did.

“Oh…? Oh...” the elder blinked and sounded a little disheartened, but I didn’t care. If someone else wanted it they should have asked, or been here helping.

“I met one of your fish,” I told her as I slid my hand along the edge of the boat’s lip, and found a good spot. A place where the wood was dense.

“Wait really?” the elder, and the girl, startled as I pushed the nail into the wood. I spun it as I pushed, slowly digging a hole.

I nodded. “Really,” I said.

“Where? Just now?” the elder asked worriedly, and out of the corner of my eye I saw her glance over to the nearby river. Suddenly weary of it.

“No. This afternoon. Near the lake,” I said.

“Oh…” the elder and the girl both relaxed.

“It was a little girl. Smaller than her,” I said with a point of the nail to the young duck.

“Hm…? Really?” the girl tilted her head at me as I nodded.

“Did you speak with her?” the elder asked.

“Only for a moment. She ran off before I could say much,” I said.

“Great…” the girl groaned.

Yes. My thoughts too.

Once done with the hole, I brushed some of the shavings and wood chips I’d made carving it. I felt the tiny tug of sharp wood on my palm as I did so, and I wished I had a better sanding tool than the coarse rocks I’d found. Really I needed sandstone of some kind, but I wasn’t sure where to get it out here.

I could probably dry and fashion a proper sander out of the thick lake grass running along the river and lake, but that would take days to do properly. Plus it always tore and wore down quickly…

“Talking about me is rude.”

I paused, as did the two ducks. They both froze as I turned a little, to lock eyes with the young girl.

She was in the river, and only peaking her head out just enough to talk. Her bright white hair stuck out like a sore thumb amongst the blue and greens of the area.

“I’m rude sometimes,” I admitted to her.

From this distance I could just barely make out the glare between her heavy flocks. Then… I heard the sound of quick feet.

Turning back around, I frowned as I watched both the girl and the elder duck run off. Hurrying back to the village, and leaving me alone.

Watching them for a moment, I then heard shouts from them. Alerting their fellows that there was danger. That the evil fish were here to eat them all.

I huffed at them as I turned back around, and stood up straighter. “You’re quite terrifying for one so small,” I told the small fish.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“Mhm…” she made some bubbling noises, which told me she had said something while partially submerged. I hadn’t understood it though.

Putting the spike down, I wiped my hands in an obvious way. As to make it clear to the fish that I had no weapon, and no intention to grab one. Walking away from my mess, and the boat, I approached the edge of the river with a calm strait.

The little fish kept herself mostly submerged, leaving just her eyes above water as to glare at me.

“What are you making?” she raised up a little, as to ask.

“A boat. For them,” I said.

“For the ducks?” she asked.

I nodded. “They mostly subsist on fish. Yet they’re terrible swimmers, I guess… so they rely on boats to fish the lake, when the river doesn’t provide,” I told her the reason they needed boats.

“Well duh. They’re not fish,” she said, as if that made perfect sense.

“I’m not a fish, yet I swim just fine,” I defended those who could swim.

The girl frowned at me. “You did swim fine,” she admitted reluctantly.

Ah. So she had noticed. That meant she had been watching me.

Interesting.

“Would you like to see it?” I asked her.

She blinked, and it was amusing to see the shock on her half-submerged face. Even the water couldn’t hide it. “The boat…?” she asked worriedly.

I nodded.

Lifting up a little, I noticed she didn’t really kick or move her arms much as she rose upward. As if propelled by something else. I hadn’t noticed a tail last time, but maybe she had one.

She looked past me as I turned a little, as to let her see it.

The girl studied it for a moment… and then dunked down into the river, sinking.

About to say something, to try and call her back… I didn’t need to when she emerged at the edge of the river, and grabbed onto the bank. She hauled herself up out of the water, splashing around as she stood up next to me.

Smiling down to the tiny girl, I nodded as I stepped away, to head back over to the boat.

Good. Interest was a very good sign.

Going over to the boat, I gestured at it as the small fish stepped up next to it. She had to grab onto the boat and lift herself a bit, as to see inside it.

“This floats?” she asked, as if she didn’t believe it.

“It will, yes. Rather well, too,” I said.

“The others hadn’t,” she said.

“Others?” I asked her.

She nodded as she dropped down, done looking inside it. “They sunk the others easily enough,” she told me.

I blinked as I realized what she meant. “You mean your people,” I said softly.

She nodded.

“Did you not sink any?” I asked her carefully.

“No…? Why would I?” she asked.

Although a little relieved to hear it, I didn’t like how she seemed to not really care either way. But it was to be expected.

She was more predator than most. She was like Lilly, almost. The way she had swam, and moved in the water, told me she was more than she appeared.

I watched as she walked around the boat, running her hand along it as she did. I noticed she left a small trail of water as she did, as if she was slimy or something. As she did walk, I also noticed her bare feet. They were getting covered in sawdust and stuff… though she didn’t seem to mind.

“Don’t you think there’s enough fish for everyone?” I asked her gently.

She shrugged.

Hm. Either she didn’t care at all, or had bigger concerns.

Maybe going at it from that angle wouldn’t work on her. Some non-humans were odd… not seeing things too deeply, or more in black and white.

“Would you like to watch me finish? It’s almost done,” I tried a different method, as I pointed to the boat.

“I’ve been watching,” she stated.

Oh. Right. Yes.

Figured.

“From a distance though,” I corrected her.

She frowned but nodded, agreeing even if she didn’t want to.

I stepped over to the boat, and tapped it with a knuckle. “There are uses, you know. To boats. Even if you can swim real well,” I told her.

“Such as?” she paused in her walking, to peer at me from the other side of the boat. She really was small; I was only able to see her thanks to the angle.

“Can carry stuff. From one place to another. Keeps you dry, when you don’t want to be wet. Plus you’ll not be bothered by pesky fish and stuff, being out of the water,” I told her.

“Pesky fish,” she repeated what I said, and smiled a little. Amused.

Tapping the boat, I nodded. “Helps with casting nets too. Hard to do that while swimming,” I said.

“Nets…” she mumbled, and glanced around. As if to find them.

There were none nearby. All that was around us were the boats, and stacks of wood. And grass. A few chickens were nearby too, but they were free roaming. Not in a coop or anything.

“So you don’t use boats or nets?” I asked her.

She shook her head. “No…?”

“Do you just catch what you need when hungry, then?” I asked her, trying to understand. If they were all like her, as non-human as she was, then they likely ate a lot. Too much to think they caught fish one by one with their hands or fishing poles.

“We catch the bigger ones underneath,” she said simply.

Bigger ones underneath. That meant there really were large underground lakes and rivers beneath us.

“Then why feed on the ducks?” I asked her.

She blinked, and shifted. She glanced over her shoulder, to the village. No one was in sight; all of the ducks were hiding in their houses.

“I don’t know,” she admitted.

“Hm…” I nodded, not too surprised to hear her give such an answer.

Both because it meant she and her kind did eat the ducks, but she also admitted that she wasn’t sure why they did so.

This really was an uncomfortable situation.

She was the enemy of those I now protected. Those I vowed to value over anyone, and anything, else.

Yet…

Staring at the white-haired fish, I wondered what Celine would say right now if she were here.

She’d not want me to kill this girl. Not yet anyway. But would she have been able to convince her, and her people, to change their ways? Could anyone?

Would I be able to?

Walking around the boat some more, the girl slowed as she neared the pile of wood. Some of it was still half carved and cut, while others had been discarded because I hadn’t liked how the grain looked, or the elasticity when bent.

The girl paused before one of the larger axes. The one I had used to chop the bigger pieces. I had left it in one of the larger stumps. “How do you make these?” she asked as she touched it. Her nail made a noise as it poked the blade.

“Fire. Heat,” I told her.

“Fire…” she mumbled the word, and I wondered how old she was. Sometimes our kind were deceptive in appearance. And not just because we could take a long time to age, either.

I saw her as a young girl. Just as young as that duck I had been talking to earlier. Yet she could be as old as the elder who had run off.

“Can I have this?” she asked as she grabbed the handle. She easily pulled it free from the block of wood it had been embedded in.

I noted the way she held it, angled oddly.

She’s never held an axe before.

“What do you want it for?” I asked her.

The girl frowned as she shifted the axe, and went to holding it with both hands. “To cut someone,” she said.

My fingers twitched as I studied her gaze. She was staring at the axe with a strange passion. As if she suddenly found her purpose in life.

“Who?” I asked her.

“The man I’m supposed to marry,” she said.

I blinked, and for a tiny moment was unsure of what to think. I had not been expecting that answer at all.

“You’re to be married…?” I asked, doing my best to calm my mind.

I was glad to hear she had not planned to use it on those I protected. But… somehow, this was worse all the same.

She nodded, and her long thick hair rolled along her shoulders as she did. It was interesting her hair seemed dry already. Even though the rest of her looked still wet.

“And you wish to cut him,” I said, since she didn’t say more.

She nodded again, and then turned to look at me. She gripped the axe tighter, and shifted it… now suddenly holding as one would when they were intending to use it.

She now looked as if she’s held an axe before. And not just for use. But for battle.

Was that innate? Scary.

“He’s my uncle,” she said to me.

My fingers twitched again, and I shifted. Just enough to make the sawdust beneath my feet sound odd. “You’re… going to marry your uncle…” I said slowly.

She nodded.

“Why…?” I asked her.

“That’s what I want to know,” she said stiffly.

Ah. “Then don’t?” I suggested.

The girl’s shoulders flinched, and she looked up at me with a look of pure shock. Her eyes went wide, her hands gripped the axe’s handle tighter… and her tiny body went still.

I did my best to ignore the sight of her organs actually shift and move under her skin. I couldn’t see her heart, but didn’t need to. I could hear it. It was now beating strongly.

She was upset. Bothered.

It was almost as if she was about to attack me. As if apprehensive at what she was about to do. Yet no attack came… and instead her tiny mouth twisted as she sniffed.

Was… was she about to cry…? She looked more angry than not, but…

“There are many rivers you know,” I spoke up, before she broke into sobs.

The girl blinked, and turned to look up at me. Into my eyes.

I nodded. “I bet you could go all the way to the ocean with these rivers,” I said.

For a small moment she just stared at me… as if unable to comprehend what I was saying, or what I meant. Then she smiled at me. “Run? To where?” she asked me as she understood.

“Well,” I started to speak, but the girl was startled. A large shadow passed overhead, as Lilly flew above us.

She looked up, and squeezed the handle of the axe… and then sparked.

I flinched as the sound of electricity popped and crackled in the air, and I felt the hairs on my arms stand up thanks to the static.

Lilly only flew past, and didn’t descend or come near. She simply circled higher into the air, but her presence was enough. The young fish had gone on alert, and become tense.

And the very air around her was electrified. Popping and sparking wildly, with tiny little arcs of electricity dancing between her limbs, fingers, and locks of hair.

The sight was shocking, in more ways than one, especially since I didn’t sense a heart inside her. Which meant this strange ability was not from divinity, but something else. An organ or something like it. Likely to do with what she was, her bloodline.

Before I could say anything, to calm her, she looked down from the sky and to me. Glared at me for a tiny moment… then her eyes relaxed as she nodded.

Then she dropped the axe and ran off.

She ran past me with a great burst of speed, and dived into the river. Disappearing into it.

Sighing, I glanced down at the axe. It had landed blade first, and dug into the soft grass. Reaching down, I picked the axe up… and felt the tiny current still alive inside of it. It arced through the axe and into the ground, tingling me.

“Interesting,” I said as Lilly descended, flapping her wings wildly as she landed next to me.

“Sorry Vim,” she apologized to me as I glanced to the river.

The girl was gone. Or at least, had fled far enough away to a distance that I couldn’t sense her anymore. She might be watching from afar now, but would likely not return anytime soon.

“It’s okay. I learned enough, for now,” I said as I walked over to the stump, and put the axe back into it.

My enemies were just as pitiful as those I protected.

Funny how history always repeated itself.