Turning to the barkeep, he now had at his side a couple of women.

“Boys,” the barkeep said, “these are the two ladies who need your help.”

Excusing himself from the conversation, the barkeep returned to his liquor rack.

Before them were two ladies of moderate age. Early thirties? Zan did not know.

One lady wore a pretty floral-patterned dress. The other wore overalls with a stench. Zan could tell right away both women had a fierceness to them.

The lady with the floral dress spoke first. “Thank you for meeting us, young travelers. My name is Jenna. Her name is Brenda. We are sisters.”

Zan spoke first, taking the reins from Jiehong, whose verbiage had already taken them far. “What kind of help do you ladies need?”

Jenna, the flower-dress lady, said, “We each have different problems. But both are intensely important. Thundervale is a small town. We have nowhere and no one else to turn to. If you cannot help us, then we simply do not know what we’ll do.”

“I understand, so tell us,” Zan said.

“My sister here needs help to renovate an old building in town, turning it into a refugee center. I need help caring for my mother while I am out gathering much-needed wound-treating herbs.”

Zan thought it over and said, “Hardships, both for sure. I think Jiehong would be great at—”

Typical for Jiehong, however, he didn’t wait until Zan had finished speaking. Interjecting, he said, “I would love to help with taking care of a mature woman. If she is anything like both of you, she must look dashing!”

Rising from his seat, Jiehong winked at Zan. Though Zan didn’t know what it meant. Did Jiehong think he was going to get lucky? He and Jenna left the tavern.

Leaving Zan with Brenda, the overall-wearing sister, he stood as well. “Lead the way,” he said, finishing the last drink of his mead.

Brenda led the way to a ratty, musty-smelling building on the edge of town. He wasn’t sure how useful he would be in a manual labor situation, but he figured he should try to provide some help. He really did not expect to get roped into helping civilians with their township hardships when he told the barkeep if anyone needed help with surviving the war.

He and Brenda made small talk along the way, but what was there to really talk about? The war predominated everything and every subject, no matter how diverse, no matter how far-flung from the subject of war, settled back to the war.

“Here it is,” Brenda said.

“It’s an old barn?” Zan asked.

“Yes, sir. Back from the olden days. When Thundervale used to be primarily livestock.”

Stepping inside, Zan smelled right away the lingering odor of animal dookies.

“We won’t be hauling out hay by the barrels tainted with waste, are we?” Zan asked, really considering ditching the woman if that was the case.

“Heavens, no… no animals have been in here in years,” she said. “Not any longer than a few days, anyway. Once a year we have our harvest festival. During that time, we bring the animals here, but only for a few hours. And we clean up after them. What you’re smelling is the past.”

That was better, Zan thought. Though not by much…

“Okay. Show me what you need me to do. I will help, Brenda, but do not consider me anything more than a temporary day laborer. I am a warrior foremost and will only be here for a day at most,” Zan explained.

Brenda’s face changed. She said, “Oh, gods… I am sorry. I thought you were looking for an extended contract, hence why you were at the tavern.”

Zan straightened Brenda out and corrected her misgivings. He said it wasn’t any issue but simply could not spend all his time partaking in barn renovations, though he told her he was genuinely willing to help. So, with the misunderstandings out of the way, Brenda brought him over to the part of the barn he would work on all day.

“So, you see all this rotted wood?” Brenda asked.

Nodding, Zan waited. Brenda continued and said, “I need you to pull it up. None of this barn is safe for people to live in at the moment. Not only is the wood rotted, but it is further degraded with years of animal stains. I begged the lumberman to donate some wood to our cause and, after pressure from the guards, he relented. Now we have wood!”

Seeing what he had to do and seeing a new frame was already being erected within the decaying structure, Zan knew what he had to do. He had done much the same work back in his village’s lumberyard. It was hard, slow work, so he knew to get to it right away.

“One question before I start,” Zan said. “You said you had to ‘beg’ the lumberman to donate the wood… why? There are so many slain golems just outside these town walls. Anyone could easily stroll down and gather up a few.”

Getting in close, Brenda said, “Yeah, we know. But enemies still patrol. Besides… rumor has it the lumberman is bribing certain guards to stifle enemy collecting.”

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“After I am done here, I will have a word with the guards,” Zan said.

“Oh, don’t feel you have to, young master… it is just the way of life, here in little old Thundervale. Little tyrants or big, I’ve found you can’t escape them.”

“I don’t mind. Really. But for now, the work,” Zan said, picking up a hammer and some planks of wood, and getting to work.

Although Brenda’s stance seemed to remain on the discouragement end of things, she relented and shrugged, letting the newcomer find out the hard way about any tyrants and their ways.

For several hours Zan labored in the barn.

His work was not an unusual labor to him. He had undertaken similar labors back home and thought nothing of it, other than the smell! While working, Zan thought of life, his situation, Jiehong and his guardians, Jiehong’s parents, and even other things besides, such as his changing body as a young man, and what the future held for him.

By the end of the working period, Zan had replaced dozens of planks of rotted wood with healthy, clean newcomers. He felt proud of working himself so well.

“Okay!” Zan gasped as sweat poured off his forehead. “That is all I can help you with, Brenda. Ma’am.”

Walking over from her own working site, Brenda whistled. Impressed.

“Wow!” Brenda exclaimed. “You did a lot! Thank you, Zan.”

“No problem. I am only doing my part. Hopefully, my labors today will give you some breathing room.”

“Oh, it will. Thank you again, young man! I would stay and chat with you more, but I need to continue getting work done on this barn. Every hour I spend lollygagging is another hour our poor countrymen have to sleep in the streets.”

Bidding Brenda goodbye, Zan wondered when Jiehong would be back. He thought he should turn back to the barn and ask Brenda, but he thought better of it. Thundervale was a small town. He would run into him, eventually.

Besides it all, he had a date with Colonel Winters. If Brenda was telling the truth, and the local lumberman was corrupt, and bribing certain guards to prevent the collecting of some much-needed slain golems for town use, then he had to do something about it.

Entering the guardhouse, he announced loudly, “I need to see Colonel Winters. I am not taking ‘no’ for an answer!”

Zan got lucky. The clerk said, “Oh… he is just upstairs. Go on ahead, Zan.”

He deflated. Giving the clerk a shy smile, a touch upset with himself for shouting to begin with, Zan waved as he walked by and climbed the stairs. Stupid Zan! Awkward Zan! Ugh. It was like daycare all over again…

Entering the third floor, Zan saw Colonel Winters bent over a desk in the far-end of the room. As he crossed the open space, Zan wondered why he hadn’t seen the desk last time he was here. He thought. Then he realized the last time Zan was here, he did not because there had been a dozen or more armed soldiers present. Plus, he and Jiehong. So, of course, he wouldn’t have seen a corner desk next to one of the dusty, ill-kept windows.

Approaching and standing before the desk, Zan waited for Winters to acknowledge him. But he only continued his paperwork.

Clearing his throat, Zan made himself nearly growl to get the man’s attention.

Muttering to himself angrily, the Colonel said, without looking up, “If this is about when the rations are going to arrive, I already told you, I don’t know! If you and —”

Finally, looking up from his oh-so-precious papers, Winters saw Zan.

“Oh!” Winters said, realizing his ire had been unearned. “I wasn’t expecting you, Zan. How are you? You know, Thundervale might be small, but we —” Winters stopped himself.

Continuing, he said, more formal than a moment ago, “Sorry! I am sure you aren’t here for a pleasantry tour. What can I do for you?”

“Actually!… I nearly am here for a pleasantry tour. Jiehong and I are taking a survey of the area immediately around our base while our allies are looking into something. It’s a whole thing! So, we spent the day helping around in town,” Zan replied.

“Wonderful. You and your friend are enterprising young people. You both should feel proud for risking your lives and fortunes not only amid war, but right at its onset. Few people would adapt to as well as you guys have. Nor would many have the guts to raid a major enemy camp. I still owe you.”

“You almost seem surprised. Do the city kids in places like Thundervale not help? Back in my village, everyone, regardless of age, are raised to do anything an adult can do… some limitations abound, sure, but a kid and an adult are the same level of person… I don’t know if I’m explaining myself well,” Zan said.

“No, you’re fine. And Thundervale kids help out, yes. Yet… they are not like you and Jiehong. Maybe it relates to rights? City kids have more limitations placed on them by the adults,” Colonel Winters said, then thinking of something, he drifted his gaze to a corner of the room. He appeared in thought, then turned back to Zan and said. “Excuse me! Fascinating differences between our communities aside, although I would love to chat and catch up, I should be returning to my papers soon. You wouldn’t believe what the Royal… no, sorry. I’m jabbering my gums again.”

Not wanting to distract the poor man anymore — Zan realized he was under a lot of stress — Zan got to the point and said, “I do have something you can help me with! I spent the day with a lovely young woman, who shall remain nameless, and as we were chatting about wood-based products, she mentioned how people are talking about corruption among the guardsmen. I don’t know how many, but apparently, some guards have been paid off by the lumberman in town to prevent civilians from going outside to gather the resource-rich bodies of the dead combatants. If this proves true, I want you to put an end to it. War is not the time for petty-tyrants to be to be allowed excesses!”

Colonel Winters made a face like he smelled something rancid. He said, “I have heard these whispers before but feared them only as an unsubstantiated rumor. If you’ve heard more talk, then as an owed favor to you, I will investigate the matter myself. Regardless of the outcome, I will order the guards to allow anyone outside if it is for body-collection. Even if I, personally, have to lead the detachment, it will happen.”

Hearing the Colonel’s commitment to his concern, he felt a load off his chest.

“Thank you very much, sir. I appreciate it,” Zan said.

“You are most welcome, Zan. Honestly, I am happy to do something for the young man who saved my life and the lives of several of my men. Speaking of which, thank you, again,” Winters said.

“Nice. Thank you,” Zan said, taking a curt curtsey. Before he left, Zan said, “I will let you be now, but in more peaceful times, we should have a cup of coffee together. A meeting of the minds. Okay, see you later!”

Zan left the building. Looking to the sky, it was early evening.

High above, the Slipstream, although still visible, was nearly all faded. Having extended much of his magical accumulation throughout the day to keep him going while he helped Brenda, he decided if to restock; typically speaking, it was what most people did, and was only smart. The gods wanted them to use magic, Zan remembered hearing all throughout his life, and again now as a memory. Reaching his hand to the sky, Zan chanted under his breath the holy oath, and found his arm, then body, filled with otherworldly output.

Tingly, Zan said.

As always, the tingly feeling wore off as soon as it made itself felt. Leaving Zan feeling relaxed and ready for the next challenge.