I somehow managed to make the planting ridges all by myself.
They’re a little crooked, but let’s just pretend we don’t see that. I mean, couldn’t I have just used earth magic to do this?
Maybe. But right now I can only use the spells I’ve already been taught.
For the two ridges meant for potatoes, I cut the seed potatoes into chunks with two or three sprouts each, just like I was shown. Then I dabbed the cut edges with ash and planted them.
The rest of the ridges got seeds: one row each of carrots, cabbage, onions, and leafy greens.
As for watering?
Selina said she’ll teach me water magic soon enough, but for now I’m hauling water from the well and using a ladle to water everything by hand.
But watering wasn’t the real challenge. The real headache was building the fence.
“Just chop some trees from the forest and cut them into thin posts,” Selina said, like it was the easiest thing in the world.
It so wasn’t.
Okay, maybe it’s my fault for trying to get away with using just one really big tree.
“Zoe, didn’t it occur to you that splitting something that big would be really hard?”
“Well, I already cut down all the thin trees for firewood!”
There’s this super fancy cooking stove in our tiny little cabin—it looks like it belongs in a royal kitchen—but neither of us really knows how to use it.
It’s a magitech appliance we bought in the capital and runs on magic stones.
Usually we just light a fire in the hearth to keep warm and cook with.
Every now and then, we’ll use the stove to make stew or roast a big chunk of meat. I’d love to learn more proper recipes one day.
Anyway! Back to the fence.
The woods around the cottage in the Great Forest don’t have many big trees. Maybe it’s because of Selina’s barrier. Or maybe Merry and Ben munch all the saplings as they sprout.
When I was younger, Selina used to chop the trees down herself to clear the sun and get firewood.
But since last fall, I’ve been the one doing it—and the easy-to-cut thin trees are all gone.
I’ve been using Air Cutter to fell trees, but in the beginning, I could only handle the skinny ones.
So now, while I’m struggling to slice a massive tree into fence posts using Air Cutter, Selina’s muttering to herself nearby.
“Schwarzwald’s trees have always grown fast, but... it’s spreading. If this keeps up, even Lang Village might—”
That makes me stop cold.
“What? No way!”
Maggie lives in Lang Village. She’s my only friend!
“They’re not going to just sit there and let the forest swallow them up. But Zoe... this place used to be a pioneer village.”
Wait, what?!
“There are villages, towns—entire empires—that have been swallowed up by Schwarzwald. Even the Shazane Empire.”
And with that, Selina goes back inside and holes herself up in the cabin.
“I gotta finish the fence before the sprouts come up, or Merry and Ben will eat them.”
Using Air Cutter to split things into thin slats is ridiculously difficult.
If I go too hard, the wood shatters. Too soft, and it comes out all wobbly.
“There’s gotta be a better spell than this... Does Selina really not know one? Or is she just not telling me?”
I really need to learn magic properly from the ground up.
Selina probably learned it the right way, but the way she teaches me feels super sloppy.
Grown-ups are so unfair! She says I’m still a kid so I shouldn’t be learning too much magic yet, but then turns around and tells me I should be earning my keep now that I’m seven!
And I’ve been doing housework since before I turned seven! Because Selina’s hopeless when it comes to chores.
Still grumbling in my mind, I keep fine-tuning Air Cutter to slice wood into usable fence posts.
“They’re not all the same thickness...”
It looks kind of awful, honestly. And if the thickness is all over the place, won’t that make it harder to build the fence?
The walls around Lang Village are made from thick, rugged logs just stuck upright into the ground.
Maggie’s garden fence was probably built using neatly cut planks from the sawmill in Carlton.
They even painted sap to keep the wood from rotting. There’s a proper little gate and everything—but yeah, that’s out of reach for me.
Besides, I don’t want to buy nails, so I’m going with a crisscross design, jamming the posts into the ground at angles.
Who needs a gate when I can just teleport in?
I’m still shaky on most other spells, but I’ve gotten really good at teleporting thanks to all the trips I’ve made to Lang Village using the Waymark.
“Zoe’s been using spatial magic since she was a baby,” Selina once said, for once actually sounding proud of me.
As long as I can see where I’m going, I don’t even need a Waymark anymore.
“I gotta make the fence high enough that Merry and Ben can’t jump over it. And strong enough that it won’t break if they charge it.”
The final result of the wood looked pretty uneven, but I’d finished slicing it, so Selina starts to show me how to build the fence.
But before that, she tells me for the millionth time that livestock aren’t pets. “Now, Zoe. Goats...”
When she’s done, I always argue back, “They’re not pets—they’re family!”
Selina knows she’s not exactly the motherly type, so she doesn’t really stop me from doting on Merry and the others.
“Well then, let’s get started on the fence! I’ll do one side. Watch closely.”
Muttering about how wonky my wood planks are, she starts setting them into the ground at an angle.
“Huh? How did you set them up?” I ask.
Selina tilts her head. “There’s no special spell for this. I just use spatial magic to lift them and stick them in at an angle.”
She crosses each one with another, leaning the other way.
“Then you tie the crossing points together with vines.”
Honestly, it might’ve been faster to just shove them into the ground by hand—though I’m pretty sure I couldn’t push them in that deep even if I tried.
It took two whole days to finish the fence. Tying everything with vines was no joke either. I’d been collecting vines to make baskets, but they’re way harder to tie than rope.
I probably should’ve painted sap on the fence to protect it, but I was totally wiped out.
And there’s still the whole flute problem.
Lately, I’ve been using so much magic cutting wood and building fences that I figured it’d be safe to play it again.
Sometimes I even wonder if Selina was lying about the flute being dangerous... But I can feel the magic inside it now.
If I can’t figure out how to play it properly, I won’t be able to enjoy it back in Lang Village.