The Ascension

"Toril!" The old Cananes stopped hammering on the stubborn piece of iron when he heard a familiar voice.

"That you, young lady?" He put down his hammer, and walked out. "Bloody stones! You trying to give an old man a heart attack!" Aila grinned as she laid down the first black panther.

"Nope. Trying to give you some business." Aila said. He rolled his eyes. "I want one fur processed and tanned. You can buy the second one, if you want to." Toril lifted an eyebrow. He saw only one, but she ducked out to grab the second.

"Want to?" He shook his head and looked up at the ceiling. "This girl makes jokes now." He groaned. "Want to? Bloody stones, girl, that is a black panther! A rank four! I'll have merchants from all over the kingdom on my ass if I don't buy it! I'll make a good bit of profit on that skin alone!" Aila smiled.

"I know, but I want this one processed so that it can be used as a bed cover. It's a gift for someone who hasn't had a comfortable life." Aila said quietly. Toril slowly nodded.

"Alright, I can do that. Now, about the price of this one." He started.

"About that. Exchange it with regular wolf, bear, or other furs, not elemental beast. Equivalent exchange for the value." She said, and watched him frown heavily.

"You'll lose profit."

"So? I need the furs, and the elemental beast fur is more important to others than it is to me. I can always find more later." She said. "Oh, if I bring in a large snake, let's say that it's from the large river in front of that huge mountain, is the skin valuable?"

"If you can bring in one of those, the skin is worth twice that of a stone bear. Those river pythons are rank fours, water element based, with fire resistant skins. The meat is worth twice that of a stone bear, as its incredibly lean, and delicious." He sighed, and licked his lips. "River python meat is a delicacy, young lady." He shook himself, and took out his skinning knife.

"Don't worry. I'll process these up, send the meat over to the butcher, and gather the other furs in exchange. Probably take just over a week or two." He smiled as he lightly ran his fingers over the fur.

"Damn beautiful fur."

* * *

Although Aila had a large amount of speed, she didn't do everything in a single day by choice. She could run each animal into town, make the deals, and get home within an hour if she so chose to do.

Instead, if she hunted on the first day, she would take them the second from now on, just like for the panthers. When she got the panthers home, the assassin had gotten back to town.

The steward went out the same day the assassin returned, while Aila had stayed home the day before, and cleaned up her house. She threw rotten wooden furnishings out into the courtyard, and burned it up. She swept and cleaned the place she now called home, and got some trees to process into timber and planks.

The day the assassin got back, she had taken the panthers in to Toril, and came back home to examine the area around her home.

"Saplings already. No wonder this place was overrun." She shook her head. "The soil has strong life elements, as though it's designed to push outwards." She frowned.

"Push?" She thought about the wasteland. "Is this the solution for spreading the forest? Enhance the soil, and let the forest spread? But the wasteland is all stone, so nothing really grows there." She pursed her lips a bit.

"I might need to do some scouting. Does the river enter the wasteland at all? If it does, then maybe...that might...hm." She sat down on a stone chair she made, and frowned.

"I really need to make some wooden chairs." Aila leaned back, and looked up at the sky. "I like this place, but the trees will overwhelm this place within a few weeks if I don't cut them back. It will become overgrown again if left alone." She pursed her lips slightly.

"I could drain the soil of its life elements to slow it down, but it will still push outwards." She thought for another few moments, and closed her eyes.

The forest was a living thriving forest, but the wasteland was dead, scoured by wind, light, flame, and dark elements. If she moved closer to the river, out on the wasteland, she could have a large harvest. Her eyes opened and showed her determination.

"I should go make a test. See if I can make a change, and see what happens." She had a plan in mind. "I need more earth elements anyway, and I can practice more with life elements." She remembered those soft looking lips of the Black One, and her deep brown eyes.

"I can't wait to see her again."

* * *

Aila ran towards the edge of the forest, and realized that there was a firm border between the two areas. The stone was a straight line along the entire edge.

"What the hell." Aila squatted down and checked out the stone. "Bursting with earth elements like it is meant to keep the forest at bay. It was designed this way?" She walked around that border and saw that it was straight the entire way. The life elements couldn't push the earth elements away, and the entire wasteland was this way.

"So weird." She made a stone chair appear, and sat down to think. "It's like this place is reserved for a specific use, or designed to keep the forest under control." After several minutes, Aila stood up.

"I dissolved a lot of that plateau, and haven't been punished yet. I might as well see what can happen."  A design meant that there was a designer, a much more powerful being that could create a forest bursting with life, and a wasteland that kept the forest in check.  Mess with the design, and the designer may react.

Aila suctioned away the earth element at the border for a dozen feet in both directions, and to a depth of five feet. As the elemental essence flooded her body, she grew more comfortable.

"Let's make a slight river bed for the soil to enter. If the forest floor invades this area, then maybe I can push the rich forest soil into the wasteland, and make some life spread out here for me alone. I can build my own house, but I want to---huh? Hold on." Her eyes were glued to the forest floor that surged into the area. She could see earth, life, and water elements rampaging to increase the amount of soil. However, it stopped dead after several feet.

"It dried out?" She touched the soil and closed her eyes. "Ah. Flame elements suck out all the water elements, and dry it up before it can get any decent distance. This is an interesting phenomenon." She pursed her lips, and soon watched the powerful opposing force of the wasteland react.

"Bloody hell, you mean I can't make underground areas out here too?" She watched as the earth elements pushed the stone back out into the area she channeled away, broke apart the soil, and pushed it back to the border.

"Water elements, earth, and life all rampaging here. Is it creating soil, or is the soil being pushed from somewhere else?" She thought for several minutes.

"I think I need a source of water to keep experimenting like this." She groaned as she suddenly remembered her goal the day before.

"Fish!"  She cried out.  "I want fish! Bloody hell!  What am I, a bloody crow distracted by a pretty stone?"