The monkey reluctantly got to his feet and did his little hop-limp over to me. Guess he was still depressed about his rock. Eh, I'd find some way to make it up to him eventually. Maybe a monkey altar or something.

Pfft, nah. That would give him way too big of a head.

Once he reached me, I told him the plan.

"Okay, so, you're going to go into the forest and find me ten," I held up both hands with all my fingers splayed out, "you know what ten is?"

He stared at my hands and furrowed his brow, thinking hard. Then he looked down at his own and spread out his fingers. He showed them to me, a perplexed look on his face.

So it turns out his species only has four very long fingers. But that's okay. We can deal with that.

"Eight," I tapped all of his fingertips, "and two," I tapped two more "make ten. Got it?"

The monkey nodded. My impromptu math lesson worked! I should've been a math teacher.

"Right! Into the woods, you go!"

He stared at the tree line with trepidation, his small body trembling. At first, I wondered what he was so scared about and then I remembered why I wasn't the one going into the forest to get the sticks.

"Hey, uh, fairy?" I called.

Her gaze snapped toward me and I hastily corrected myself.

"Demon," I said, "could you...protect Nun while he's in the forest?"

<Fine,> she huffed, flying toward the monkey. He shrunk back from her, but she grabbed him by the back of his neck and flew off slowly toward the forest. I didn't know if she was encumbered by his weight or just being considerate enough not to give him whiplash.

I don't know if she had the capacity for that much empathy, but I also didn't want to think about how a fairy the size of my hand was able to carry him better than I could. Let's say it's the latter.

"Alright, Austin!" I said, clapping my hands together. "Now it's your turn!"

I walked closer to the river, where the forest dirt mixed with the clay that bordered the entire - I assumed - side of the water.

"Okay..." I bent down, flexing my hands. "We're just gonna...dig this up." I tried to shovel my fingers into the clay but the stuff was stubborn.

Hmm. I couldn't dig it up as it was then. I needed to make it softer.

I turned toward the river. Ducking my head down, I took a quick drink before pulling my head back - memories of the first time I had done that were still at the forefront of my mind. Then, I dipped my hand into the water, I splashed it onto the area I wanted to dig up. The water seeped into the clay, browning it and hopefully making the substance easier to handle.

When I stuck my fingers in it again, the digits met a bit of resistance, but it was easier than last time. I dug out a single handful and dropped it onto the ground beside me.

"Hoo!" I said. "One scoop down...however many left to go!"