The first thing I stared at through the microscope was moldy food. Breads made from grains, fruits left lying around, veggies that didn’t grow right, even monster meat and rotting hides. I looked at all kinds of molds under the microscopes, trying to make new lenses to better focus at different microorganisms at different sizes. It wasn’t easy, and the glass-makers were probably getting sick of helping me instead of working on glass bead necklaces, but I knew I only needed to do this for a little while before I might not need microscopes at all, anymore.
I experimented with light magic, learning from the way my manipulation of light would cause objects to be magnified. I could practically feel my understanding or ‘wisdom’ going up, which would help me use this sort of magic better in the future.
“Finally!” I said, slumping back.
“You’ve found what you were looking for?” asked a glass-worker.
“Yes, go ahead, take a look!” I said, passing the microscope to them.
The glass-worker stuck the microscope to his face, fiddling with the lens to get it to focus. I helped him out with light magic, although without having my eye against it, I wasn’t sure how accurate I could be. Eventually, he frowned, and said he saw something, but didn’t know what it was.
“It’s a small creature,” I said, “so small we can’t see it with the naked eye. Well, actually, we sort of can. It’s the mold right there. Or a part of it. A fungus. But I’m not interested in the fungus itself. I’m interesting in what it can do.”
“You mean this thing can be useful? Aren’t we supposed to throw away moldy food?” he asked.
“Yes, but we’re not going to eat this stuff,” I said, “we’re going to use it as medicine.”
And so I began harvesting and preparing the first antibiotic in this world. And since I only really knew how to identify penicillin, it would have to be the first antibiotic in this world, as well. I was sure people would find this stuff fascinating and start working on it on their own, just like they’d worked on the glass and metal work.
There were already a few diseases I got the chance to try penicillin on. It didn’t seem to work on most diseases, but in the few weeks leading up to the next solstice, I was able to help quite a few people who might have struggled otherwise. I told the elders how to gather and use penicillin, and gave them other tips on disease prevention and first aid. I also told them to let me know if any tamed or domesticated monsters had boils or other visible signs of diseases. I wanted to try my hand at making vaccines, next.
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“And if you focus the light rays like this, you can make fire in the distance,” I said, “look, I set that bush on fire already! Ah, wait, gotta put that out. Okay, done. See that? Pretty cool right? I think there’s other stuff we can do with it too, but—hey are you listening Kelser?”
“Huh,” he said, jerking his head towards me, “yeah, light rays, fire, really cool stuff. I’ll start practicing tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?” I said, “but the night’s still young. What, don’t tell me you have something to do?”
He looked away sheepishly.
“What? You do?” I said. “If Elder Kezler gave you some chores or something, I’ll talk to him about it. This is way more important than gathering firewood.”
“No, that’s not it!” he said.
“Oh, one of the other elders must have asked you to teach them a spell they were struggling with. I’ve told them to just come straight to me if they’re feeling stuck, but I guess they might find you more approachable. Your teaching style is pretty different from mine, I guess. Might work better for some people,” I said.
“That isn’t it, alright? It isn’t important. I mean it is. I mean I can’t tell you,” he said.
I raised an eyebrow. “If it’s important enough for you to delay learning magic, then it’s probably important enough for me to know about.”
“No, it doesn’t concern you. Anyway, can I go now?” he said.
“Now? But we’ve only just gotten started!” I said.
“Look, I’ll make up for it by working extra hard tomorrow. It’s just… I have a thing right now, okay?” he said.
“Oh… I see,” I said with a chuckle. “I get it now. Okay, okay. I understand. Have fun.”
“I will—wait, no, I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said, blushing.
“I thought you liked that demon girl though, you were hanging out with her all the time,” I said.
“No, that was just… get off my back, okay? I’m going,” he said.
“Yeah, yeah, don’t forget to practice this in the morning,” I said, waving him off.
He glanced over his shoulder multiple times, probably afraid I would follow him. Honestly, it hadn’t even crossed my mind until he did that. I was only practicing this magic tonight to show it to him, anyway. Why shouldn’t I take advantage of the bright moonlight to cast invisibility magic and follow him outside of the glow of the campfires? I laughed to myself as he walked away, and made a note of the direction he was going in. With a few well placed motion detection spells, I’d know exactly where he was going. Once he was out of sight, I stopped practicing my spell and started following his trail.
Turns out, following an adolescent on one of his first dates was more boring and uncomfortable than you’d think. I promised to myself I was only being nosy so I could tease him about it later. He was my friend, after all. What are friends for if they can’t even make a joke about your romantic fails, from time to time? I’d leave as soon as I saw who he was seeing. Anyway, he was heading to the human Jora tribe’s part of the city. I jumped from hut to hut to avoid his sight. He didn’t look behind his shoulder or anything.
Another kid appeared in view, leaning against a small hut far from the campfire. Under the moonlight, I saw Kelser’s face light up and a nervous smile on his face. He walked up to the robed kid, gave a nervous greeting, and started walking away, hand in hand.
I sighed. Well. This was as far as I was willing to go. I shook my head. What was there to be embarrassed about? I wasn’t going to judge. Still, I decided not to bring it up to him tomorrow, like I’d originally planned. He could tell me when the time was right and if things worked out. Under the moonlight, I slunk back to another bunch of huts and turned off my invisibility magic. I melted into the crowd around a campfire, sitting down to eat with the surprised humans, and making small talk about their lives, their families, and things they liked to do to hang out with people they liked. A few of them blinked, probably reading too hard into what I was asking, but it was a nice, warm night, and I enjoyed spending it with a small group of young people, huddled around a campfire away from their parents.
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The next solstice was here. We arrived at Bek Tepe again, and had a nice, long, boozy feast. I’d brought back some starter cultures, recipes, and seeds for different kinds of drinks, and although most of them wouldn’t be ready until after the harvest, what we had right now was enough for a good time.
I only met Kelser once during the whole feast. I figured I wouldn’t stop him from drinking this time, but apparently there was somebody else who wanted him sober as well, which was why he had a grumpy face. I smiled at him and smacked him on the back. He asked what that was for, and I raised a clay cup full of alcohol at him, before walking away.
And with Princess Kol, I mean, Queen Kol far away on the other side of the mountain, I suddenly fell into a strange mood. The elders were having a good time as well, but somehow it didn’t feel like I could hang out with them. Even though my elf body was supposed to be older than theirs, according to Noel’s estimation at least, I was still a college senior at heart. And I guess these feasts were the closest thing to a dorm party I was gonna see in a while. Darn.
Ah well, the moon was bright, the fire was warm, and so was the booze. I ate a lot of hearty food and joined some of the young people I’d been talking to recently, and decided to have a nice, fun time, on the eve before the solstice.
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