Above Your Paygrade

It's a funny thing how time keeps moving forward without you realizing it. This only becomes more apparent once you have fallen into a routine and realize another year has gone by. If you include the 8 years I had been alive this play through, I had kept this line of recollections going for 35 years.

Or maybe I was having such grand escapades, I simply lost track of time. Regardless, I could now spar with Moonlight Guardian at a level that to the uninitiated looked competitive. Though it seemed like I was matching her blow for blow, there was a cleanness to her movements that belied her true ability. In reality, she just matched my ability, so I had a chance to push myself.

For the longest time, I didn't think I was improving; we would always go for about two minutes before she would land a blow. At least I wasn't being "bopped" anymore. Still, one day I vented my frustrations.

"I just can't get any better!" I said after a sparring session through gritted teeth and clenched fists.

"What do you mean, Indigo? You have improved a lot," Moonlight Guardian answered as we returned to the village, with the wooden sword slung over her shoulder.

"You don't have to try and make me feel better..." I took a deep breath and released everything. "I was just venting."

"You know I don't give false praise. I must work harder than I used to to keep pace with you. Every day, you get just a little bit better."

"But I haven't even landed a strike on you." I was never one to let praise get the better of my self-doubt.

"Hehe," she put a hand to her mouth. "The day you land a strike on me is the day you earn the name Guardian." She was being serious. My tail got a bit more active. "But don't get too excited, I think there is still some time before that happens." I was in no hurry, there was still much to learn from Moonlight Guardian.

Of course, I would be remiss if I let my mental training be left wanting. On the language front, I was now proficient in speaking, reading, and writing Caster, and I felt my voice was now on par with humans. I had also recently begun learning to read Hozenlovian or the language of the Hozenlo.

So you might be wondering what a Hozenlo is. They are those small humans that have been mentioned on several occasions. What else did I know about them? Only what I could deduce from their writing, which is the reason I started learning the language in the first place. The Elder had numerous volumes written in this language, and they all seemed to be of a more technical nature.

Snowcap Elder was happy enough to teach me Hozenlovian, or at least how to read it; He had never heard it spoken and only knew how to read and write it. Even still, I was eager to read the manuals, they seemed like they contained more scientific information, and I was a scientifically inclined guy. Most of the books in Caster were more historical or cultural in nature and I was eager for a change of pace.

Hozenlovian itself was an interesting language. For one, it had a LOT of words! Like an unholy amount, and most of them were not optional. For instance, they had three distinct words for tree, not for different species of trees or stages of growth, but three generic names for tree, one for tall trees, one for short trees, and one for trees with disproportionately wide trunks. And before you go thinking that trees were important to their culture—they are not—they have 5 words for rocks, 4 for water, 6 for food, and a whopping 21 for metal! By the way, these words were not synonyms, they all had specific use cases and could not be interchanged.

What was crazy was that this extended to other parts of speech, like adjectives. For instance, they had two words for big. Once again, not synonyms and it did not refer to degree. One word was for big relating to other members of its kind, and the other was just big in general. For instance, a mouse the size of a cat would be big related to other members of its kind, while an elephant would be just big. However, you could have an elephant that was big for its kind, in which case, both adjectives would apply.

So obviously vocabulary was a nightmare, but on the positive side, grammar was straightforward and highly logical. As far I could tell, it never deviated from the rules, and there were no unnecessary or bizarre grammatical elements. The characters they used were simple but visually distinct, which made them easy to read and write. It was almost as if an engineer had designed it, and I couldn't help but feel that I would get along with these Hozenlo.

Speaking of getting along, my relationship with Mesa had improved. I had upgraded from enemy to rival, and the animosity he harbored for me had abated. He never said it, but given that his change of opinion of me occurred right about the time that he had learned about the role I played in getting him and Morning-Sun Hunter together, it's fair to say that it played a large part in his change of heart.

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The secret to fighting—at least for us Yutsuukitsuu—was leveraging fox magic to augment your fighting abilities. This was in large part what contributed to the invisible gains I had made while sparing Moonlight Guardian.

There were three main ways fox magic could be employed—outside of just straight-up attacking with it. First, you could increase your speed. I had figured this one out on my own pretty early on when I started using it to run faster on the route. A more subtle use would be to make your limbs or sword move faster by applying force to them. This was simple enough that I figured it out on my own.

Second, you could use it to increase your strength. This could be done simply by applying force to an object, in which case it was more of an assist—I had done this when carrying rocks to Hailstone Priest—but...

"Don't just force the sword, reinforce your body." Moonlight Guardian said one day.

"You mean apply it to myself? What's wrong with just reinforcing the sword?"

"Fox magic, much like your arm, gets weaker the further away it is from your core. You want to apply the most effort to body motions closest to your center and apply sufficient force through the rest of the motion to prevent the action from breaking." Basically, the force applied closest to my center would have the highest return on investment, but I had to make sure parts farther down the line could handle it. For instance, if my upper arm came down with the force of an angry chimp, I had to make sure my wrist wouldn't break off.

This strategy for strength enhancement proved effective, but it was difficult to master. That being said, every time I got a better grasp, I felt an immediate improvement in my sparring.

The third way it could be used was by far the hardest to utilize, and was more for if you screwed up, damage mitigation. Once again, there were two different schools of thought on this. Perhaps the easier of the two would be to reinforce the area of impact. The problem with this is that it made the area stiff and immobile. The second method was to apply a counterforce to the weapon before impact. This was harder because it was not only farther away, but also because you had to get a beat on the attack. That being said, it didn't impair mobility and it could also be used similarly to performing a traditional parry.

Despite all this additional complexity, there was no real innovation here, just clever uses of well-established implementations of fox magic. Still, it was challenging and required great control and intuition. I can't say I was left wanting for chances to refine my technique.

However, I felt there was still a lot of untapped potential with fox magic. Therefore, I had been working independently on a new implementation. It had taken me the last year to really hammer out all the details, but I felt it would soon be ready for prime time. I couldn't wait to show Moonlight Guardian and my tail wagged in anticipation. I was sure that even she would be impressed.

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I was on a solo patrol one mild spring day when something caught my eye. I jumped down from the tree for just a moment to investigate; Moonlight Guardian had taught me this was appropriate if I needed to see something up close. Just as I had thought. It looked like they had headed just due North-Northwest. It was my responsibility to take care of this.

For the last two months, at about the first thawing of spring, Moonlight Guardian had begun giving me more responsibilities. I was now patrolling on my own and was even allowed to take care of what she called "lesser threats," which was the only kind of threat I had seen so far, so I didn't think it likely that I would encounter anything greater. Still, she was insistent that I not engage anything more serious and immediately regroup with her.

I wouldn't need to be heeding that command this time. The trench weasels—I'm so glad I have names for things now—I was in pursuit of, traveled in small packs, maybe three or four, and would be considered lesser threats... by themselves. Together, one could make an argument that they were more than that, but you could also just interpret them as a collection of lesser threats. That said, they didn't usually mess with Yutsuukitsuu... unless you were a child. They would totally snatch up a child, no questions asked, at least according to Moonlight Guardian. So I needed to take care of this.

Now that I was solo patrolling, it meant that I finally got to actually use the sword I had been given. The sad truth was that although I had been given a sword, I hadn't gotten to use it, or even unsheath it. Sure, I could carry it and was obligated to do so, but not until Moonlight Guardian tested my metal was I deemed worthy to actually assist in matters of the sword.

I had caught up with them, only three, and they were making a hasty retreat from the area. They had already exited the area of my patrol, and if that was where they had kept to, then we would have no issues. But if they came in once, it was inevitable that they would come back, and so, their fate had been sealed.

The first creature I had cut down was a kind of boar, simply called a common forest boar. Moonlight Guardian had informed me after the fact, that a common forest boar was a higher end lesser threat. For this creature, she explicitly instructed me not to engage if there was more than one. When I launched the initial attack, I took it by surprise and managed a fair cut into its neck, but it wasn't lethal, and it got really pissed off. I was pretty sure any normal creature would have been sans one head, but I kept my composure and when it charged I thrusted for a weak spot.

My striking had become very precise thanks to the daily sparring session with Moonlight Guardian. I was confident in my ability to thrust and hit a falling nut from a tree. My sword went straight into its maw and the beast was done. My Master would tell me that common forest boars have one of the strongest hides around. She therefore insisted that we actually take it back so that armor could be made out of it. Despite the "common" in the name, there were not many of them around the village.

Similarly, I stuck the first trench weasel from concealment and easily slew it. The other two turned to face me, teeth bared. While they wouldn't usually engage an adult, they were very aggressive, and given the choice of fight or flight, they would choose fight every time. Still, they were simple creatures with highly predictable attack patterns and no real way to defend either. One lunged at me then the other. A simple side step followed by a slash was all that was required to take each one out.

I performed a blood wipe and cleaned the blood off my sword. I still felt guilty for just leaving them to rot out here. Well, I guess something would probably eat them, but still. At any rate, I needed to head back to the village and trade places with Moonlight Guardian.

Moonlight Guardian was a bit cross with me when I reported the trench weasels. She might have been more forgiving if I hadn't pursued them well beyond the outer village limits. Later in the evening, she would have "special" instruction during our sparring session. She said if I was going to go off in pursuit of a "low-tier intermediate" threat outside of the patrol area, then I should be able to handle this. Needless to say, I went home nursing a number of bruises, a fat lip, and a black eye—or would have if they were not already black.

However, before that, I got to patrol the village, and today would be a rare treat. Now that I had some autonomy, I could take some time for personal matters, call on old friends, and the like. Mostly I like to catch up with River and Dawn.

Usually, I would find River out in the woods somewhere, even on her time off, she enjoyed her time away from the village proper. Dawn on the other hand was a city girl, and I could most reliably find her somewhere around town, though she could meander off on occasion if the harvesters needed help. But today was different. Today we would all be meeting up on the bottom platform of the South tree. It would be just like old times. Why the bottom platform of the South tree? Because that was where the produce was stored and there had recently been a large score of morkal nuts, and we all enjoyed munching on them. You had to break them with a hammer but that was just part of the fun.

"You know, I haven't seen you much lately, Dawn" River said as she hammered away at a nut.

"You are always galavanting in the forest, so that's not surprising." There was a sharpness to Dawn's tone.

"Yeah, but I have come looking for you when I'm in town. I'm not always 'galavanting.'" It seemed that River took some offense to be so easily dismissed.

"Oh..." Now Dawn looked guilty. "I've been busy." Since I was in regular contact with Dawn, and she had confided in me, I knew exactly what she was talking about, River, however...

"Busy? Busy with what? Have you gotten an apprenticeship?"

"No..."

River looked at me. "Do you know what she is talking about, Indigo?"

"Umm..." I scratched behind my ear and avoided eye contact.

"Indigo! What are you hiding!?" River wasn't an idiot and it was clear that she was out of the loop. I felt bad.

"It isn't really my place to say..." I looked at Dawn. "You should really just tell River."

River directed her attention back to Dawn. "Tell me what? Have you been keeping something from me? I thought we were friends!"

"We are friends!" She said clenching her fists. However, her zeel quickly evaporated and she turned her head away. "It's not that big a deal, I just wasn't sure how to broach the topic..."

River stared at her expectantly. Dawn inhaled deeply, "I've been preparing to take a sojourn."

"WHAT!? When!?" River was up off of her seat.

"It's still only in the planning stages. It will be some time before it happens..." Dawn couldn't meet River's eyes.

"But that means you will be leaving..." Dawn was River's best friend, so it made sense that she would be upset.

"Yeah..." Dawn didn't seem to be happy about it either, but I knew she had been thinking about it for a long while now, and that she had decided that this was her best course of action.

The atmosphere had become melancholy. I had to break the mood. "What about you River? How has your apprenticeship been going?"

Her ears were still droopy as she answered, "Working as part of a team takes more effort than I would have thought." She looked up. "I thought you just had to be willing to cooperate, but you actually have to learn how to coordinate your actions with your teammates!" I guess she thought this was a profound realization.

"Really? What do you need to do to coordinate?" I guess Dawn thought this was surprising too. I guess there is something to be said about team sports, after all.

"Well for starters, you need to make sure you don't get in each other's way, or do something that hinders one of your teammate's actions." I would think this was readily apparent, but Dawn was nodding along. "Luckily, they have me doing a lot of scouting because I'm sneaky and it doesn't require much coordinating."

They continued at lengths about the "finer" points of teamwork. I would have to talk with Lilac Governess about including more synergistic team-based activities to foster these skills.

"What about you, Indigo?" Now that their conversation had drawn to its conclusion and their rapport had been repaired, they re-engaged me back into the conversation. "I've seen you out by yourself lately." I too had seen River lounging about on the village periphery.

"Yeap!" I was quite proud of this fact. "Moonlight Guardian says I am competent enough to patrol solo now."

"Really? Does that mean she lets you go outside the safe area?" It would be like Dawn to ask this question.

"Yes, I am supposed to stay inside the patrol area which goes outside the 'safe' area." I wasn't sure how I felt about calling it the "safe" area

"Supposed to?" She gave me an accusing look. I just shrugged. "What is Moonlight Guardian doing during this time?"

"She is also on patrol. One of us will patrol the village, and the other will patrol the outskirts. Halfway through the day, we switch." This method increased the coverage time, so it would be even more difficult for danger to creep into our, frankly, very safe community.

River looked impressed. "You must have really impressed her. I hear she takes her responsibilities very seriously."

"Maybe... Hey speaking of impress, I have something I want to show you and get your opinions on."

"Oh? Another of Indigo's famous magic tricks." Yeah, just go ahead and belittle my wonderful innovations, River.

"Okay, so long as you don't set yourself on fire this time." I could tell Dawn was wearing a smug smile.

I grimaced. "...You heard about that?"

"I talk to the Healers."

"Well... just let me know what you think." I was nervous for some reason. It was hardly the first strange technique I had shown off. Maybe it was because I had developed this application because of Moonlight Guardian.

It took me a second to execute the technique, but once it was done I was fairly impressed with the result, as are they.

"That... incredible, Indigo..."

"It's beautiful..." They were both slack-jawed.

"Do you think so?" For some reason, I had feared they would be unimpressed. "Do you think Moonlight Guardian will like it?"

"I would certainly think so," Dawn said. "But do you mean you haven't shown her this yet?"

"No, I want to get it right before I show her."

"Well, I think you got it right," River said. "I can't imagine she would be anything less than amazed."

They both continued to stare. But their response had put my mind at ease. It was the truth, I had worked hard on developing this technique because of Moonlight Guardian. She had taught me so much, on top of saving my life, that I wanted to give something back. I wanted to create something that would be useful to her. I know that custom dictates that you can't study something from someone unless you become their apprentice. Still, I was holding out hope that she would let me teach it to her; she could make far better use of it than I ever could. Perhaps it was just a delusion, but maybe she could pick it up through observation. At the very least, I hoped she would be proud of me.

The last duty of the day I had to perform was to make a delivery to the shrine of the God of Clear Skies. Normally this wouldn't have been so bad, or really a chore at all. However, after Moonlight Guardian's "special" instruction my entire body hurt. When I had returned to the Elder's place after sparring, I had given them both quite the start.

"Ah, good timing Indigo. I have just prepared..." Mesa stopped abruptly once he faced me. "...What happened? You look like you got worked over by a Grelmhiem."

"You... should have the other guy." And if he did, he would see that she was still in pristine condition.

"Should we be concerned?" Despite his words, Mesa was more surprised than concerned.

"No need for worry, just part of the job." I waved off his token concern with a weary hand.

"That's the spirit, Indigo!" The Elder had sauntered out from the corner where he was selecting his evening reading material. "You are still in the spring of your youth!"

And it was because I was in the spring of my youth, that the Elder had begun assigning me errands. Simple things like deliveries that would distract him from more important matters, like reading or sipping tea. It was after all the winter of his old age, or maybe autumn of his late middle age? Regardless, the task I was now engaged with seemed like the kind of grunt work you would hoist off onto one of your apprentices.

This was the third time I had made this delivery and if things went according to plan, there would be 18 more. Hailstone Priest was in the middle of an important rite that would take 21 days to complete and it required his constant presence at the shrine; he barely had time to eat.

When I asked the Elder why he needed to undertake such a demanding rite, he said Hailstone Priest had been sensing a stagnant wind, a sign of bad omens. It must be really bad because I didn't even know how you could have a stagnant wind. Aren't those two things mutually exclusive? At any rate, it had upset him enough to beseech the God of Clear Skies for guidance and protection by performing this demanding ritual.

As I finished the 500-meter slog to the shrine, I paused on the platform like I had the past two times and felt the blowing wind... Nope, it just felt like a normal breeze. Nothing that I could interpret as "stagnant." I would continue to check the wind to see if perhaps it was a transitory phenomenon or if maybe you had to develop a sensitivity to it. But my working theory was it was all a bunch of hogwash, but I've been wrong before.

Hailstone Priest was sitting in front of the north shrine today, yesterday it had been the south. He was in deep prayer and the Elder had stated in no uncertain terms that I was not to disturb him when I made the delivery. Instead, I walked over and placed the provisions in front of him, making just enough noise that my presence would be noticed but not enough that it would be distracting.

Before I returned back down, I said a short prayer. It seemed disrespectful not to, though I was not yet sold on this God of Clear Skies. Still, I heard somewhere that traditions are important and help with societal cohesion, so a short religious observance was the least I could do.