All through the day my mind was preoccupied, racing with ideas on how to create more symbols. I took my rusty nail with me everywhere; so if I had an idea, I could carve right away. The possibilities excited me, taking my mind entirely off my bruised body.
As days passed, I tried out new symbols and methods. With time my bruises faded, and I discovered and honed skills I hadn't known existed.
The biggest discovery was a, thin, palm sized rock, in which I had etched Stop onto. With it, I could stop any symbol's effects, without having to destroy it. To stop a symbol, I trace Stop on my stop rock and place it on or rub it across the active symbol. I never managed to find a bowl or cup to use for water in my shed, but with my stop rock I found a work-around. I carved Water into the wall, making a makeshift water fountain. With the help of my stop rock I could turn the water off quickly. I might not have figured out how to do that while I was being punished; but I was able to sneak drinks from the animals water tubs, which kept me somewhat hydrated.
I also had carved Warm onto a boulder near the pond It was now where Penny and I had begun drying our dresses each evening. My most clever symbol, was a rock that I had carved Purify onto. I traced it, threw it in the pond, and watched as the murky water transformed. Instantly the water's murky green hue faded, becoming almost completely clear.
I'd thrown the stone too deep into the water, leaving it irreretrievable, and thus I was unable to cancel its effects. However unlike Penny, whom got tired from using her skill too much, I never felt the least drained by my new power. I was left tired and sore from manual labor, and lack of protein, but not from using magic.
The two women began a conversation, not noticing that I had walked within earshot of their voices.
"Hilda, why do you suppose Asha never collapses? I mean that cleaning rock in the pond has been activated for days now. She should be like on the verge of collapse right?" Penny asked Hilda, as she leaned against the heated boulder near our pond.
"What does it matter? Don't go and say anything to her either." She told Penny, then in a whisper said "I am getting used to the comfort." There was no way Hilda was going to outright give a compliment.
"How are you liking that heat stone in your screaming spot?" I asked Hilda teasing as I walked into their line of sight.
Hilda's cheeks flushed before she muttered "...it's okay."
I had traced a different rock with Warm, near the border of the farm; in the spot that Hilda had to stand and do her twice daily scream to ward off monsters. I aimed to make Hilda like me, and it sparked my creativity. The idea to purify the pondcame from my goal of getting Hilda's approval.
Hilda had cut her hand on the cattails, and I realized had the water been cleaner she wouldn't have needed those leaves to begin with. Thus my want to clean the water.
I made the heat boulder for myself, but giving Hilda one in her screaming spot was another attempt to make her like me.
The first time I had woken up before Penny, or even the sun, and heard Hilda screaming, two thoughts went through my head. What the Hell was that?!, then after realizing it was Hilda my next thought was Isn't it cold out there right now? That is when I decided to make her her own heat stone.
"I make the girl turn the stones off when we all go to bed." Hilda told Penny.
She spoke as if the only reason I still had any energy in my body was because she turned me off like the lights in an empty room.
"Penny is there anything else you can think of that I can make easier?" I asked, cutting off Penny from further annoying Hilda.
"What about making new food? We get apples now, but we should see what else you can make."
I had thought about trying out more produce, but I didn't want to summon a fruit that didn't exist here, and seem even more out of place. So I only tried taking suggestions.
"What do you suggest?" I asked, grabbing my nail. The nail was little more than a tack now, as I had scraped it across so many rocks.
"Can you remind me what we have already tried and failed?" Penny asked me; though she wore a knowing smirk.
"We have failed with: meat, chicken, beef, milk, orange, berry, tomato..." I started trying to list everything, before realizing that Hilda was watching, obviously annoyed.
"When were you trying all of this?" Hilda crossed her arms as she asked.
"Umm well..." I started. I knew I wasn't supposed to practice making new symbols during the work day, or anywhere that the master's family could see us. However, humans weren't the only ones interested in trying my new powers.
"The chickens and Duchess keep asking to see more. Everyday they want to try and summon something else." Penny stepped in. "Honestly all the chickens ask for is for her to squiggle out some sort of bug so they can have a snack. They go on and on, and there are so many of them that..."
"And they so kindly asked Asha to use her powers?" Hilda asked Penny, already knowing the answer.
Penny sat quietly. What Hilda asked, wasn't actually a yes or no question. She knew full well that the chickens weren't smart enough to make suggestions. At best they could have asked for worms, not for me to make them.
"It's all right Hilda, I want to learn more. The more I can figure out, the easier our lives will get." I tried convincing Hilda, "We have no idea how much energy I can use either, it might be nice to learn my limits."
I got an annoyed huff from Hilda, but she stopped arguing. She knew learning my limits was a good idea, but she didn't like how I was going about it.
"How about trout?" Penny asked, trying to get the conversation back on the right path.
"We already tried meat. Why bother with trout?" I asked.
"Well meat is a really broad term. Maybe your symbols didn't know what kind of meat." Penny explained.
She had a fair point. I hadn't taken specifics into account, mainly because I hadn't had to be mindful about what type of apple or hay I had ever summoned. Though maybe there was only one kind of apple in this world. Quickly I etched Trout into the soft ground using my finger, and to my amazement a whole completely dried trout appeared. Seemingly just sprouting from the soil where I had written the symbol.
"It worked!" Penny yelled excitedly.
I couldn't believe my luck, but I noticed one big issue. Along with the thin dried meat of the fish, all of the bones, scales, and teeth were dried in.
"How are we going to fillet it?" I asked, my excitement left just as quickly as it had come. I had a defeated frown on my face, the same one that appeared with every failure I had come to make.
"You two are hopeless. If you want something with no bones just summon something that doesn't have bones." Hilda growled at us. If she had been excited by the fish, it hadn't shown.
"How are we supposed to know what kind of fish don't have bones? I have only ever had trout, and who knows if Asha has ever even had fish?" Penny pointed out, "Do you have any suggestions?" She added the last bit obviously expecting to have won that argument.
I knew a whole slew of fish that didn't have bones, but I didn't know if any of them existed here.
"Asha write octopus." Hilda commanded haughtily; clearly proud that she knew more about something, even if that 'thing' was as simple as a fish. She spoke to me, though her gaze never left Penny. A smirk crossed her face; she was about to prove that she was more knowledgeable than Penny, and potentially me.
I etched Octopus, and just like the bony trout had; a flat dried octopus appeared from the dirt. It was a beige color, and about the size of a volleyball, but still looked edible.
Penny looked at the tentacled fish with disgust, but Hilda and I looked excited. I had never tried octopus, but I knew it was edible.
Hilda picked up the dried fish, plucked off the sharp beak, and began crunching down on the chewy fishy meat. She rolled her eyes, showing just how much she was enjoying the octopus. Which in turn suddenly made Penny want one. I traced the symbol twice more, making fish for Penny and I. We followed Hilda's actions, and snapped the sharp beak from the dried fish before biting in.
The octopus was tougher and chewier than I had expected. But was the first piece of protein I'd had since coming here, and that alone made it delicious. The strong fishy taste and scent was ignored, as the new addition to my diet was so welcoming. That was until I thought deeper into the smell.
" What if the young master asks about the smell?" I voiced my concern.
The master and madam rarely got close enough to me to notice a smell, but the young master was a different story. I dealt with him up close daily. I had learned to hold back my tongue, and more importantly my fists, when dealing with the young master. I just brushed off his vile comments now. I had grown skilled at rejecting his advances, without offending him. However that didn't stop him from seeking me out whenever he could. I'd learned how to shorten our encounters, but not how to avoid them. Putting a bit of manure on my dress or face seemed to deter him. I'd also managed to avoid pink eye. Still the smell of fish was stronger and different from the usually poo smell.
"Let's tell him we found snails in the pond. We can say we started eating those." Penny suggested; quick, but ingenious lie. She had now tried meat, and was not about to go back to only eating bread and dried apples.
"The young master has never left the area in his lifetime. The farthest he has ever been was the slavemarket in the next town over. I doubt he has ever smelt octopus jerky." Hilda pointed out. She might not like it when I risk my talents being discovered, but even Hilda wasn't planning on giving this up.
"Whether he has tried octopus or not, he will be able to tell it is fish. All fish more or less smell the same." I pointed out. I didn't want to give up the fish either, but I knew without the presence of dental hygiene; the smell would linger.
"Let's tell him we found snails in the pond, and have been eating those. I doubt he has ever resorted to eating snails, and I bet they smell like fish. Even if they don't, he wouldn't know that." Penny suggested.
"That might be the smartest thing you have ever said." Hilda told Penny.
"I have my moments." Penny said, wearing content look on her face.
I nodded, this could work. Then a new thought came to me.
"What if he wants proof?" I asked.
"Just write 'snail' in your magic squiggle language. If the same logic applies to snails, you will end up with a dehydrated snail and a shell, just like how the trout had bones. Just pour the dry snail corpse out." Hilda suggested.
It took me a minute before I realized how that was a fix. Having dry empty shells, would prove that we had in fact been eating snails. All I had to do was bring some shells into my shed, seeing them would be enough proof for the young master.
I did as Hilda directed, and unfortunantly summoned a pink baseball-sized snail shell, with the crispy remains of a snail inside. There was no way a snail this big would have been found in our little pond.
"That's too big." Penny pointed out the obvious. "Make it smaller."
"It isn't that easy." I told her.
Something I had learned in all of my practice, was that there were in fact limitations and rules to my summoning. I couldn't summon anything living, even bacteria counted as living, that is why all the food was dehydrated. I couldn't summon metals. I couldn't summon things that were made by combining multiple things. And what was most important right now, was that nearly every adjective did absolutely nothing. Just writing "small snail" wouldn't do anything. The adjective would actually cancel out the snail being summoned.
"Try writing the symbol smaller." Hilda suggested.
I doubted it would work, but I took her advice, after all the shell had been about the same size as the symbol I had written. I tried again this time the symbol etched into the ground was about the size of a quarter. I traced Snail using my pinky finger, as it was the only finger small enough. Still, what was summoned was a snail identical to the first.
"Okay I don't think this snail thing is going to work." I said sadly. I looked up to Hilda and Penny, expecting to see their expressions to match mine. To my surprise though, they seemed to be in deep thought, and not simply defeated.
"Hey try making the symbol on a small rock." Penny suggested.
With nothing to lose I brought out my nail, grabbed a small rock, and carved Snail onto the tiny rock. I traced my pinky along the symbol. To my surprize what came from the rock was a snail, that matched the size of the rock.
"Yes!" Penny cheered excitedly.
"How did you think of that?" I asked Penny amazed at her idea.
"The rock you used to clean the pond water wasn't big, so I thought it didn't get sparkly clean because the symbol was too small." Penny started.
"What does that have to do with snails?" I asked, a tad annoyed at her critiqueing my work.
"I was getting there... Anyways since you tried the tiny snail symbol on the ground and that still didn't make a size difference; it had to be something else." Penny looked at me, obviously thinking I was going to put two and two together, but I had no idea where this was going.
"And..." I said hoping she would hurry up and finish her explaination.
Penny rolled her eyes. "The only other thing different was that you did the 'clean pond' thingy on a small rock, and not the bare ground. A rock has a finite surface, so nothing too big can come out of it. Tracing it on the ground would make the symbol practically infinite, because the ground covers everything. Which means those first two shells are probably the biggest snails in the world." Penny finished her explanation looking rightfully proud.
"Where did you learn to talk like that?" Hilda asked Penny.
I had to admit I was curious too, "finite" seemed to be a bit difficult of a word for someone who was never given any kind of education.
"You do sound smarter than usual." I added.
"Asha do you remember how Duchess keeps complaining about that Pegasus?" Penny asked, her face still covered in a proud grin.
"Uhh I suppose, though you are the one I hear the conplaints from." My answer earned an eye roll from Penny.
"Well his name is Three, and he travels all over the world and knows basically everything. So he has been giving me lessons, in exchange for the apples you give me."
"You have been wasting your apples on some feather-brained horse?!" Hilda yelled at Penny.
"Three isn't a horse he is a Pegasus, and he isn't feather-brained." Penny snapped back to Hilda
I lost interest in their bickering. Penny had discovered something new, something even I didn't notice. I wondered just how much I had been missing. I had thought that the apples that came from the carving in my shed were on the bigger side, but I never even thought that it had anything to do with surface area. Was depth important? If I carved something deeper, would there be a change? What about the speed of my tracing? Did what kind of surface I carved it on matter? I took out my nail, to try and deepen the Warm symbol, only to now notice all that was left of it was a rusty head.
"I need something else to carve things, my nail is dead." I spoke out loud, to no one in particular.
"Have you not been listening at all?" Hilda asked with a disapproving frown.
"Sorry, Penny's idea made me think." I explained with a shrug. "I am not great at thinking and listening at the same time."
"That's obvious." Hilda said with a sigh. "We were just talking about the old nails in the hay loft. They are probably in better shape than your last one too."
"Hay loft?" I asked. I had never thought the barn even had a hay loft, since I had always just summoned the hay into the barn.
"Yeah where do you think we kept hay before we got you?" Hilda asked rhetorically.
"Honestly, never thought about it." I answered.
"I will grab you some tonight after I do my scream, no one will notice me climbing up there. And more importantly no one will notice me taking anything." Hilda gave a mischievous smile, something that seemed a bit unnatural on her usually stern face.
"You are actually going to help someone?" Penny asked Hilda sarcastically.
"Yeah myself." Hilda said, trying to keep her reputation of being a, no nonsense, type of woman. "Without a new nail, she can't make anymore of this octopus."
I smiled, I was almost certain she was being nice right now, just in her own way. Then again she really did like the octopus. I got a sharp rock and began scratching Octopus into the tree closest to the pond. It was rough, and jagged, but still usable.
"I'll make a better one with a nail, but this will do for now." I said with a smile.
Hilda crossed her arms "Well it will look better with a nail, and probably taste better too."
I smiled and nodded
"Well I am going to head back to my shed, long day tomorrow." I got up and began walking back towards my shed. The sun had long since set, the moon and stars being the only thing illuminating my way back. I smiled as I stared at the moon. Most people would think this life hellish. A life where you don't have a soft bed, where you are only given bread to eat, where you are beaten if you step out of line; but to me, the days spent here have been some of my best, granted a few of them were some of my worst. I had: friends, a purpose, a roof over my head, regular food, good looks (at least in my opinion), slightly more youth, and I had a new magical power.
I got to my bed, my hard wooden bed which provided no comfort, but somehow made me happy. For the first time since I was a child, I was content. Something I never thought I would manage as a slave.
I woke up the next morning, the sun had only begun to rise, leaving the air cool. I walked around my shed to wash my face in the rain barrel. It was initially my only source of clean water, but I had changed that. I dried my hands and face with my dress, and began to walk to Hilda and Penny's shed. We had made a deal that whoever woke up first would wake the other. Hilda had to wake up before either of us, to do her screaming, so we never had to wake her. The morning was quiet save for a few birds who like me had just woken up. That was until I heard a rusteling coming from a bush a few paces ahead of Hilda and Penny's shed. I walked over and bent down to investigate, but before I could even focus on the noise a furry brown cat sprung out of the bush, and rubbed itself against my ankles.
"Well I haven't seen you around here." I said as I bent down to pet the cat.
It looked up to me with its big yellow eyes, and meowed softly. I stayed crouched down petting the happy feline, until I noticed Penny had approached.
"Penny look at this cat..." I started to talk to Penny, but immediately saw that she looked terrified. "Penny what's...?"
"Demon..." she whispered before repeating in a scream "Demon!" She ran towards the master's house leaving me utterly confused. I stopped petting the cat and began walking towards the barn. The cat padded silently behind me, brushing against my heels occasionally. I didn't want to get a beating for being late with my chores. If a cat was going to accompany me instead of Penny, that was okay. I wasn't sure what was wrong with her, but I knew there was a very slim chance that I could help her with it.
Before I even managed to reach the barn I heard "Slave girl!" Being yelled from behind me. I turned my head to see the young master yelling at me, shock amd fear all over his face. Behind him were: the master, the madam, and Penny, all wearing the same look.
"Is there a problem young master?" I asked with all of the respect I could muster.
"She was right you are a demon." Young master said under his breath, I noticed him staring down at the cat.
"Stay away from her!" The madam yelled and yanked the young master behind her.
"Demon leave this place!" The master said as he pointed a pitchfork my way.
I raised both hands utterly confused, "What's wrong with everyone?" I asked, no longer trying to show the master or his family any respect. A lump formed in my stomach; something was telling me that everything was about to get so much worse.
Before I got an answer however a rock hit my forehead, causing blood to stream down my face. I looked back to Penny, her arm still extended, she had thrown the rock.
"Penny... why. You know I'm not..." I tried to ask, but before I could finish another rock hit me, this time grazing my cheek. It came from the young master this time.
"Demon leave before this pitchfork goes through you! Don't think I won't do it!" The master yelled.
"No you can't, you know it's bad luck to kill a demon." The madam begged the master.
Suddenly two more rocks flew by my head; and that is when I decided to listen to the master, and run.
"I ran through the tall grass, my heart pounding inside my chest as I heard the shouting more threats behind me. The tall dew covered grass left shallow cuts along my legs, like a dozen tiny papercuts. I could hear more grass being crushed behind me, and knew it had to be the same brown cat that had followed me around all morning. I ran faster, past the fields, through a swamp, and into a forest lining. I collapsed to the ground, leaning against a stump as I tried to catch my breath. I glanced to my side, noticing the brown cat too was heaving trying to catch his breath. Why are you following me? I thought to myself.
I didn't have time to think about the cat though, because not a minute after I caught my breath...Hilda popped out of the brush.