Chapter 10

            Jonathan was shocked by this bold declaration from the unusual man.  The man still made no threatening moves, but Jonathan was suddenly wary of that double naginata.

            “What cause do you have to want to kill him?” Kamama asked from behind Jonathan.

            The man said nothing, merely gazing intently at Jonathan.  Jagal stepped up beside him and said, “I am Jagal, High Priest and Warrior to Hades, God of Savage War.  If you fight Jonathan, you will fight us all.”

            The man glanced at Kamama and Jagal, and then said, “So be it.”

            It was chaos.  The man was faster than anything Jonathan had ever seen, and with one swift motion he jumped into the air and at Jonathan.  His naginata was mere inches from Jonathan’s forehead when it stopped.  Jagal stood before Jonathan as if he had appeared out of thin air, and had drawn his sword and intercepted the strange weapon from splitting Jonathan in half somehow.  Jagal and the strange man battled for several moments—thrust of naginata parried by sword or armor.  It was martial prowess the likes of which had never been seen on Dolaria or Earth.  And what amazed Jonathan was that they seemed to be evenly matched, as long moments of the ringing of sword against naginata rang out.  Finally, Jagal managed to cause the stranger’s naginata to swing wide.  Jagal rushed in and kicked the stranger directly in the chest sending him to the ground and his weapon spinning off to the side.  Kamama struck instantly, using her Druidic magic to cause an abundance of vines to grow up and over the strange man to incapacitate him.

            The man, unable to move, settled quite a bit.  Then he did the strangest thing; he smiled.  He spoke three words in a language that seemed only to be able to be heard but not remembered, and the vines covering his body simply melted.  He regained his feet as the Jonathan and his friends stood there in shock.  He beckoned to his naginata, and the weapon flew off the ground and into his hand.

            “My fight is with you, Jonathan Ashton.  Your friends only prolong the inevitable.  And now, you are mine.”  With that statement, the man held out his hand and a beam of pale blue light lanced out, striking Kamama and Jagal.  Both of his friends dropped to the ground without a sound, and Jonathan was left to fight the stranger alone.  Jonathan barely had time to bring his axe up to block the naginata before the stranger was on him.  Jonathan drew on everything that Jagal showed him in the training sessions they were able to complete, blocking or evading the weapon for long moments.  After a dazzling series of slashes from the stranger’s naginata, Jonathan realized that the stranger was merely toying with him.  Jonathan felt something click inside him, and sudden knowledge of weapon techniques were unleashed into his brain.  His axe started to glow blue and infused his body with the energy and muscle power to use those new techniques.

            As suddenly as the fight had begun, the tides turned.  Jonathan suddenly pressed the stranger, using just as dazzling a display as the man had originally used.  The slight smirk on the face of the stranger was instantly replaced with a look of intense concentration.  They fought for long moments, axe ringing on naginata, as they tried to find a way past each other’s defenses.  Suddenly, the stranger backed off a few feet and shot that blue bolt and Jonathan again.  Jonathan had no time to dodge, and was struck in the chest by the strange bolt.

            A feeling of complete helplessness overwhelmed Jonathan, and he could feel the bolt attack the very rhythm of his body.  In a moment of clarity, Jonathan understood that the bolt couldn’t kill, only incapacitate the victim by making the victim’s own body confused enough to cause unconsciousness.  Again, as if the realization was all it took to overcome the obstacle, Jonathan felt a power rise in him and disrupt the beam.  The stranger stood there in shock as he realized his magical attack wasn’t going to work.  Jonathan felt something click inside him a third time, and he realized that some how, the man could use no more magic.

            “And now,” Jonathan said, “You have no magic.  Now you are mine.”

            Jonathan attacked the man once again, and for several minutes the two went back and forth.  Jonathan used the new knowledge he received to keep the man on the defensive for long moments.  Jonathan thought furiously to find a weakness in his opponent, but he was just too fast.  He kept working through the problem as he blocked a series of slashes aimed at his legs and a tricky counter that tried to take the top of his head off, when he had an idea.  As he spun his axe head around, he started to hum.  This seemed to confuse his opponent, but to Jonathan it was if the world was slowing down.  Strikes that had been almost impossible to block were parried with ease, and more and more complicated slashes by the man were easily interpreted and countered.  Jonathan continued to hum louder, and it seemed that the humming made him even faster.  The man tried a complicated series of slashes and thrusts before trying to cleave Jonathan from head to navel, and to Jonathan it was as if the man was moving in slow motion.  He easily sidestepped the slash, and used the flat of his axe to hit the man in the head.  The blow knocked the man unconscious, and Jonathan picked up the naginata negligently in one hand.

            As the rush of the battle left him, Jonathan felt some of the power he had held during the fight leave him and make him strangely weakened.  He realized that while he still had the knowledge of all the techniques that he’d learned, he no longer had the physical prowess to carry most of them out.

            Kamama and Jagal groaned from their places on the ground.  Jonathan rushed over to their sides and checked on them as best he could.  He was concerned for Kamama—she had a nasty cut on the side of her head and was holding her left hand.  He had an intense desire to help the woman that had tried to help him, and he felt something strange happening.  As he concentrated on wanting to make her better, it felt as if some power reached out and grabbed him.  He felt it course through his body, and he felt it touch his mind.  On that touch, it felt as if the power approved what he wanted to do, and he felt the power lance out into Kamama and infuse her.  Before his eyes, he saw the cut on her head knit together and the blood disappear, and Kamama quit holding her hand.  And then, its job finished, the power left Jonathan.

            Kamama groaned as she finished sitting up.  She felt it when Jonathan healed her, and she was worried.  Now that Jonathan had used Druidic magic, he could do it again.  Jagal’s training would have to wait until she and Hope could train the boy enough to not use it unless his very life depended on it.  She looked intently at Jonathan, “Do you know what you just did?”

            “I healed you.  I don’t know how I did it, but I think that’s what I did.”

            “You did,” she said, “But you used Druidic magic to do it.  Did you mean to do it, or did it happen on its own?”

            “Well,” Jonathan said, remembering how he had healed her, “after I knocked out that man, I came over to check on you two.  I saw that you had a cut on your head and that you were holding your hand, and I really wanted help you and make you better.  I felt…something…grab me, and then it jumped from me to you.  Then you started to heal.  Once it was done, it left.”

            “So it grabbed you.  I should’ve guessed, as strong as you are,” she said, mostly to herself.  Then, a little louder, she said, “That was the Heart, young one.  You are powerful enough that the Heart is drawn to you like a moth to a flame.  You must be careful for now.  Until Hope and I have a chance to train you, you must empty your mind if you feel it reaching out for you.  Don’t think of anything at all.  Do you understand me?”

            “What would happen if I couldn’t empty my mind?”

            “Well at this point, you don’t have enough control to force the Heart to do what you want.  It must approve what you intend to do before it will do it.  Healing me was something that was natural and done with a pure heart, so the Heart had no problem carrying it out.  If it finds something that it doesn’t approve, blowing up a town for instance, it will punish you for it.  Usually those punishments are very graphic.  If it does approve, it will try to accomplish what you are thinking of.  If you have enough power, it happens.”

            “And if not?”

            “You die.  There is only one punishment if you try to do something out of your ability.  Perhaps I should explain this now.  The Heart doesn’t supply all the necessary power to do what you want to do.  It takes equal parts of your energy and energy from the Heart.  If it takes too much energy to do something, your body won’t have any left to power your heart or lungs, or send messages from your brain, and you’ll die.”

            Jonathan was visibly shaken from this new information.  “I’ll be careful, I promise.”

            Kamama nodded her head while Jagal was checking on the strange man that had tried to kill them.  The man was unconscious, but he was still breathing.  Jagal bound his hands and feet together with some rope he had wisely brought along, and then turned to Hope and Jonathan as they strode to the group.

            “Nice work,” Jagal complimented, “How’d you do it?”

            “I hit him with the flat side of my axe.”

            “No, I meant how did you defeat him when I couldn’t?”

            “Well, I realized he was toying with me, and it was as if that realization was all it took to release some knowledge into my brain.  I suddenly just knew how to fight, and what to do.  Then I felt a rush, and my muscles were strong and fast enough to actually use that knowledge.  I was able to hold him off for a while, and then I started to hum.  It was like the whole world slowed down at that point, and I was able to knock him out.”

            “Do you still have the knowledge you gained?” Kamama asked.

            “The knowledge, yes, but not the muscle speed or strength that I gained.  That was taken away after I’d won.”

            “Interesting.  It’s almost as if,” Kamama said as she trailed off in thought.

            “As if what?” Jagal asked after a moment.

            Kamama was startled out of her contemplations, and replied, “You remember our postulating on Jonathan’s split soul?” Receiving nods, she went on, “It seems that he has to learn some small portion of his knowledge before it is released from his other side.  For instance, Jonathan learned that the man was just toying with him, so his divine side gave him the information he needed to defeat the man.  That’s just an idea of course.  I don’t really know any better than you do, but that’s what I think is happening.”

            “What about the strength it gave me?” Jonathan said.

            Hope thought for a moment, but Jagal had an idea first.  “Well, maybe it was magical strength.  You said it left you after you won the fight.  Maybe your divine half gave you enough energy to win the fight, but since it was magical and not muscular, the spell ended after the fight was over.”

            “Or,” Jonathan said, “Maybe since I haven’t done the work to gain the muscle yet.”

            “What do you mean?” Kamama asked.

            “Well, you said I had to learn to unlock the knowledge.  But the knowledge I gained stuck, since I’d done the work to get to that particular place.  It’s like a video game from back home—once you level up you get certain things.  Maybe I haven’t leveled up on my physical attributes enough yet to keep what I was given.”

            “That’s kind of a convoluted way of saying it, but I understand what you’re getting at,” Jagal smirked, “Muscle development takes a lot of time and work, but knowledge can be gained instantly.  You haven’t spent the time to get the physical attributes, but you were granted them for a short time to get you out of a jam.  Then, since you haven’t done the work, ‘leveled up’ as you put it, you don’t get to keep the muscles you had.”

            “That makes sense,” Kamama said.  “That is of course, we’re right.  All this is conjecture.  We don’t really know what is going on.”

            Jonathan stood there for a moment.  I want my memories back, he screamed into the vaults of his mind.  A slight tugging at his mind reminded him that he still had to discover what was in the hut.  Jonathan turned from their discussion and looked at the strange man, now just starting to regain consciousness.  As the man looked up at Jonathan, he realized that he was now at the mercy of his enemy and he tried to get free of his bonds.  He spoke three words in a language that could be heard but never remembered, the same three he had spoken before, but to his shock the ropes didn’t melt.

            “Forgot I took your magic away, didn’t you?” Jonathan chuckled humorlessly.  “Now, I’m going to ask you a question.  What’s inside?”

            The man said, “Why should I tell you?”

            Jonathan lifted his axe and placed the blade under the man’s chin.

            “Alright!  It’s a medallion that gives the wearer power.”

            “What kind of power?”

            “The ability to turn invisible at will, for one, and a kind of phantom suit of armor.  It’s not very strong, but it will turn aside most glancing blows.”

            “What else?”

            “Nothing else I know of.”

            “How did I feel it from so many miles away if it’s not that strong.  Why are you guarding it if that’s all it does?”

            “I was told to.”

            “Who told you,” Jagal said as he stepped up to the man.

            “Someone.” The man said, and then he said another word.  Apparently, Jonathan’s spell was not enough to keep this particular word from working, and the man’s head exploded right then.  He was very obviously dead.

            “That was strange,” Jagal said as he wiped some blood off his boots.

            Jonathan stood up fully, and began to walk to the hut.  Reaching the door, he very carefully pushed the head of his axe into the doorway as far as it would go.  When nothing happened, he slowly stepped into the hut.  As his eyes adjusted to the darkness of the interior, he noticed that it was very sparsely appointed, having only a very simple wooden table and an oil lamp hanging from the ceiling.  Carefully laid on the table was a very plain looking medallion.  It had a long gold chain, and was in the shape of a triangle, but curved.  Jonathan gasped when he realized it was the same shape as the medallion on his neck.

            “Jonathan?” Jagal said as he entered the hut, and just as Jonathan reached out and touched the medallion.  Immediately, the room was filled with a light a thousand times greater than the sun, and when Jagal could see again, Jonathan was no where to be seen.

            “Jonathan!” he said, the carefully looked over what there was of the hut.  There was no sign of Jonathan, but there was also no sign that anything had happened.  Jagal rushed outside, and immediately Kamama knew something was wrong.

            “What happened?” she asked.

            “Jonathan picked up the medallion, there was a bright light, then there was nothing.  Jonathan was gone.”

            “Gone?  What do you mean gone?”

            “He’s not there.  There’s nothing in there but the table the medallion was on and a lamp.  No markings that anything happened.  No sign of Jonathan or the medallion.  Nothing.”

            “I didn’t feel anything, so it wasn’t druidic magic.  Let me try a few things, then we’ll decide what to do.”  Kamama knelt on the ground, and began to cast about with her Druidic magic.  She searched for long moments, then sighed and stood up.  “I couldn’t find any trace of him.”

            “What does that mean?”

            “Well, I would’ve been able to detect him in there if there was even the smallest remains, even ash.  So I don’t believe he was killed.  Which means he was transported somewhere beyond the range of my seeking spell.”

            “How far?”

            “Over three thousand miles.  Either that, or to another dimension.  Now I don’t know what to do.”

            “Well, first, contact Hope and Midaen.  We wait here till tomorrow, then we go looking for him.”

            Kamama nodded her eyes as she bent to the task before her.

            Isadora gasped when she felt the change.

            It had been two days since they had left the Grove, and Lynard, Lucia, and Georyn had decided to travel with her.  They were still a little shell shocked by the decimation of their pack, but it proved to be good fortune for Isadora.  Three werewolves had been formidable against the opponents she’d faced so far.  It was if the bonding ceremony had drawn every single power hungry eye to her location, and it appeared that everyone wanted her sword.  Of course, Kayleigh told her after the fifth such encounter that the werewolves were overkill.  Isadora wouldn’t have had any problems with the ones they had encounter so far, but it looked like Lynard was venting his still bubbling rage at anything that would move.  They’d traveled fairly hard the first two days, and were just finishing lunch when Isadora gasped from her place by the small fire they built to cook the rabbits Georyn had killed during their morning travels.

            “He’s gone,” Isadora said after she regained her bearings.  The feeling was still there, as though someone had cut out of a piece of her brain.  It didn’t hurt, but it was a strange sensation nonetheless.

            “Who’s gone?” Lucia asked from her place by the fire.

            “Whoever it is that I’m supposed to be finding.”

            “How do you know?” Lynard said from his seat.

            “I don’t know.  All of a sudden I had this weird sensation in my head, and I just knew.”

            “Do you think Kayleigh might have an idea?”

            “Kayleigh, any ideas?” Isadora asked silently.

            It would appear that the one we seek has been transported off this dimension.  I can’t tell to where, but it’s a type of magic that I’ve never heard of before.  I had a very faint reading on him from before, just enough to tell which direction to go, but now there’s nothing.  I think you would know if he’d died—the feeling should’ve been different.

            “Do you think he’ll come back?”

            I would say that’s fairly certain.  I wouldn’t have been created if he was destined to only be here a few days.

            “She thinks that he was transported somehow to another dimension.  She said that it was a type of magic that she didn’t recognize, but she does think he’ll be back.”

            “So what do we do?”

            “Keep going,” Isadora shrugged.  “I still have to find him, and maybe he’s with a group of some sort.  If I can’t help him, maybe I can help them.”

            “Sounds like a wise plan…wait, you said he?”  Lynard said.

            “Yes.  I know it’s a man, but I don’t know anything else about him,” she said, then added, “Except that he’s an extremely powerful magician.”

            “Hmm,” Lynard pondered, “I wonder.”

            “What is it?”

            “Several weeks ago I met an outlander that had come to Dolaria.  His name was Jonathan Ashton, and he was the strongest Druid I’d ever seen.  I wonder if that’s who we’re supposed to find.”

            “It might be, but I don’t know that he’s an outlander.”

            “Well, regardless, we should continue toward the southwest.  If nothing else, it’ll get me farther from Hertha, which is what I was planning on doing before I received this sword.”

            “Very well.  Good luck, whoever you are,” Lynard said before dousing the fire with Druidic magic.

            “Is he the one?”

            “That remains to be seen.  We must observe him some more, agreed?”

            “Agreed,” several voices said at the same time.

            Jonathan slowly sat up.  He was laying on something hard, but he had no clue where he was.  Around him there was nothing but darkness—darkness so black that it seemed to swallow everything—and he could hear nothing but the sound of the voices that had been speaking.

            “Where am I?” he demanded to the darkness.

            “You are safe, Jonathan Ashton.  We merely wanted to see you.”

            “Who are you?”

            “Who we are is not important.  You will come to know us in due time.”

            “Can I at least see you?”

            Immediately, the area around Jonathan was flooded with light, and five creatures stood in a semicircle a few feet away.  They were wildly different in size—some were small in stature, while one was absolutely huge, nearly twice the size of the others.  The only similarities they had were that they all had on large, hooded cloaks that hid their features, and they all held a staff of some sort in their hands.  However, even the staves were different from each other.  To Jonathan’s eye, each staff was made of a different wood, and each staff had a different colored stone in the top.

            “Now Jonathan Ashton, it is time for you to return.”

            “Wait, why did you bring me here in the first place.”

            “We wished to meet you.  We placed a spell on the amulet in your hands that made you think it had enormous power to lure you to it, and when you touched it, we transported you here.”

            “Why the fight then?  If you wanted to meet me, why did you have a guardian?”

            “To be sure.  Many would come seeking the amulet just based on the power it gave off.  Only one would be able to defeat the guardian.”

            “I see the truth of it.  It’s like Neo meeting the Oracle and having to fight Seraph.”

            The five in front of him looked back and forth between each other as if confused.  “Your reference is puzzling to us.  You’ve heard of something like this before?”

            “Well, on the world I came from, there is something called a movie.  These are stories that people act out that are recorded and played at another time.  The Matrix was a set of three stories that involved a group of people trying to break out of slavery.  The Oracle was a kind of prophet in the story, and Seraph was her guardian.  There is a short fight between Seraph and Neo, the hero of the story, to make sure that Neo is ok to see the Oracle.”

            “Ah, it makes more sense now.  We think you will be a rich addition to Dolaria.  We will return you now.  You have many hardships between where you are and the end of your road.  But for now, we have a gift.  You have share some of your old culture with us, so let us share something with you.”

            Blinding white light engulfed Jonathan, and immediately he felt an itching spread throughout his whole body.  As the itching subsided, he found he was back inside the hut where he found the medallion.  He took the medallion, still in his hand, and walked out of the hut.

            “Jonathan!” Hope cried as he entered the sunlight, “Where have you been?”

            “I’m not sure.  I was transported somewhere to meet someone.”

            “Do you know who they were?” Jagal asked as he came over.

            “I don’t have a clue.  There were five of them, and they each carried a wooden staff.  It was weird; they were obviously a group, but they were all different sizes and even the staves were different.”

            “The staves were different?” Midaen said with some alarm.  “Did they have a different stone on the tip?”

            “Yes, how did you know?”

            “The Cum’tach.”

            “The what?” Jonathan asked.

            “The Cum’tach,” Midaen repeated.

            “What is that?”

            “They,” Midaen corrected, “are the most powerful magic users on Dolaria.  They are also the most secretive group of magicians, and not much is really known about them.  They roam freely and rarely meet as a group, but when they have their staff with them it means that they are doing something important.  If they are together, they must be doing something major.  What did they say to you?”

            “That they wanted to meet me.”

            “Just meet you?  They didn’t do anything else?”

            “Well, right as I left, I told them about movies.  They said that since I shared with them, they shared with me.  I was itching before I left.  Now tell me something, how did you and Midaen get here so fast?” he asked Hope.

            “Jonathan, how long have you been gone?”

            “I would say an hour at most, why?”

            “You’ve been gone for over three days,” Jagal said bluntly.

            “Three days?!” Jonathan exclaimed, “It only felt like I was gone a few minutes.”

            “Perhaps,” Hope stated, “wherever you were moved at a different time span than here.  Or…”

            “Perhaps he wasn’t awake for most of the time he was gone.  Jonathan,” Kamama asked, “You said you were itching before they transported you back?”

            “Yes, there was a light similar to the one when I transported to wherever it was I went, and my whole body started itching.  What does that mean?”

            “They changed you somehow.  I don’t know what they did, but the Cum’tach are known to be generous.  Since you shared knowledge, something that they crave, they probably gave you something they thought you would need.  I would suggest being careful until you discover what it is.”

            “I can do that.  What do we do now?”

            “I would suggest that we stay here for the rest of the day, then continue to travel northeast to the Kidarn Mountains to begin Jonathan’s training.”

            “That sounds good to me,” Jagal stated, “How about a spar Jonathan?  Let’s see what knowledge you learned and how you apply it.”

            The two moved a few paces away as the group went back to their campsite.  Jonathan pulled his axe off his shoulder and looked at it in surprise when he noticed that it felt lighter.

            “What is it?” Jagal asked.

            “My axe is lighter.”

            “Really?  Do you notice anything else about it?”

            “Nothing else has changed.  I can still feel the power coming from it, but I still have no clue what it is.”

            “Well, we’ll worry about that another time.  Guard stance.”

            Jagal made a somewhat sloppy overhand chop toward Jonathan, and Jonathan used his knew knowledge of fighting to merely sidestep his swing and use the flat of his axe to drive his sword to the ground.  Spinning quickly, Jonathan spun his foot around and tried to kick Jagal in the back of the head, but Jagal rolled under the kick and sprang up back on his feet.  He turned and looked at Jonathan in surprise.

            “Jonathan, you’re faster.  A lot faster.”

            “Really?”

            “Yes, and I can tell you’ve learned a lot from your fight with that strange man.  I want you to try something,” Jagal said, taking a coin out of his pocket, “Try to take this out of my hand.”

            Jonathan looked at the coin, which merely lay in Jagal’s outstretched hand.  As fast as he could, Jonathan shot his hand forward and brought it back, coin contained inside his clenched fist.  Just as he put his hand back by his side, he saw Jagal close his hand.

            Jagal’s eyes shot up in shock as he realized that he was clenching an empty fist.  “Jonathan, you just succeeded in doing something that no one on Earth ever managed to do.”

            “What do you mean?”

            “Of all the warriors I’ve ever trained, no one has ever been fast enough to take that coin out of my hand.  It is a Spartan coin that I’ve had since I was a boy.”

            Jonathan looked at the gold coin in his hand and saw one side had an image of a man on it, and the other had a bird of some sort.  He handed the coin back to Jagal, and said, “It must be very precious to you.”

            “It is.  My mother gave it to me.  Of course, they’ve been long dead, but it helps me to remember where I come from.”

            “So now what?”

            “Weaponless combat.  Give me everything you’ve got.  I want to see where you are.”

            Jagal and Jonathan went back and forth for almost an hour before Jagal called a halt.

            “Jonathan,” he said as they caught their breath, “I can’t teach you anything more.  I think what we should do now is test your limits.”

            “What limits?”

            “Strength, speed, and endurance, to start.  I have to tell you, you’re going to hate me.”

            “Why’s that?”

            “You’ll see.  So first, speed.  Run around the island as fast as you can and come back here.”

            Almost instantly, Jonathan disappeared.  Jagal had hardly counted to twenty when Jonathan appeared back beside him.  Jagal was amazed at how fast Jonathan could run.  The little island they were on wasn’t that large, but Jagal thought it would take almost twice that long for him to run the circuit.

            “Well, Jonathan, you’re faster than I am, but lets see if you are stronger.”

            Jagal went over to where the horses are and picked up three of the packs sitting on the ground.  “These weigh almost three hundred pounds,” he said, setting them back down, “Pick them up.”

            Jonathan reached down and prepared himself, getting ready to struggle with the weight.  When he lifted it up, he pulled as hard as he could and the packs easily came up off the ground.  They came off so quickly that he actually jumped a little with them.  Jagal chuckled when Jonathan set them back down.

            “You’re a lot stronger now,” he said, “but we haven’t found the limits yet.  Let’s go.”

            Jagal trotted around to the side of the island where a boulder lay imbedded in the sand.  Reaching down, he picked up the large boulder and set it back down.

            “Five hundred pounds,” he said, “Now your turn.”

            Jonathan bent down and put his hands where Jagal’s had been.  This time, he decided to start with too little and see when it moved, if at all.  Jonathan was starting to wonder if he could even move it.  However, after only a second or two, the boulder lifted off the ground with very little trouble.

            “Ok, next.”

            Jagal walked over to an even bigger boulder.  This one was almost as tall as he was, and he struggled for a moment until it came up off the sound.  He dropped it back on the ground and said, “That’s about 800 pounds, and nearly all I can lift.  Give it a try.”

            Jonathan bent down and grasped the rock.  Surely, he thought, I won’t be able to lift this one.  He heaved on the stone, and gave a little grunt as it came out of the ground.

            “How did that feel?” Jagal asked as Jonathan set the stone back down.

            “It was heavy, but I wasn’t really straining.  I think I can lift more.”

            “Well, the only other thing here that is heavier would be the horses together, but let’s not do that.  If we find something heavier, we’ll try, but for now know that you can lift nearly a thousand pounds.  You’ll have to be careful not to hurt someone if you don’t mean to.”

            “We’ll work on your endurance later, we’ll swim across the lake and go for a little run.  There are some hills over there that will give us a fair workout.  But for now, let’s get back to camp.”