Home Sweet Home

The text editor is the same, even though it's now a new hosting service. Maybe I should see if the store works. May have to do a bit of dusting first.

Oh, and happy belated holidays. Yes, I went places and did things. Mostly painting. Ceilings, walls, and a car body. And the bottom of my feet. At least it wears off my feet faster than shoes, so that's okay.

I also found out it's a bad idea to idle two of my older cars inside my garage next to each other. They create quite a resonance. It didn't do much to the house, but it felt like a vise was attached to my head. Speaking of, I still need to build a small bench for my vise. I have the grinder and polisher set up, but now need the heavy piece.

I also spent time at the small farm I grew up on. Farm would be an exaggeration, but compared to my current city-dwelling life, it fits. I do have a fairly large property for a city house. Definitely not the largest, but larger than most. Or even the vast majority. It is quite small, however.

And, yes, that does relate to today's memory. You see, the house I acquired when my mortal father passed was built on a reasonably large block of land. Most homes in my first-ish life had enough land to grow food for the household. This included ground crops and walking crops. Some even had ponds for swimming crops. If I were to imagine a size, I would estimate ten acres or so. More than what I'm calling my small farm. There were of course those that lived in towns without growing as many crops. Most lived in the stores they owned and bartered for food from the larger farms. And, there were of course the really large farms with several hired hands.

The property I had inherited was maybe twice the size of an average homestead. Much like my current city-house. And it certainly wasn't large enough for a castle. But, it would be a few seasons before I needed more land, so I'll keep this memory towards the beginning. If you believe that.

After the fighting and helping out Leyan and Elysha and taking care of all the death, my friends of the area came by my new house. The pile of lead out the side window would remain a conversation point.

Were they coming so say sorry about the loss of my mortal father? Nope. If it had been my mortal mother, yes. I will say the only real negative thing my mortal father had done was to leave me out in the woods. He never could get over the changing of valuable metals turning to lead. It was a sore point for many people in the area, but new supplies were brought in over the seasons. But, getting rid of the lead wasn't easy. As evidenced by the pile next to my house.

No, this was the group that convinced me to start a castle. Khrista convinced me to allow her to sell my things to pay for the construction, which would start with the first wall around the house we were in. It would cut it's property size to quite a bit below average, which I didn't like, but it would be a start that didn't require me buying more land.

And it was much more work than I really wanted. Mind you, I had no aversion to work, but I preferred other things to moving rocks and trees to make way for a wall. Thankfully, I didn't have to stick around for the stone to be set. I had to attend to a noisy leather pouch.

Normally when it was time for a break, Moon Racer would go back to a temple to be admired. And show off. Somehow he always knew when to return. He had learned a new trick. Maybe it was at this time, maybe sooner, maybe later. But, I do remember how he let me know about his new trick.

About the time I was studying my map for the next quest, I heard rustling outside. It sounded like someone was trying to take my lead pile. I wasn't too concerned and kept plotting how I was going to travel south to the desert. I was almost ready for a night's rest, so armor and weapons strewn about. More rustling.

About this time, my armor said something about going to check on the noise. There seemed to be some hidden joke. The voice wasn't quite right. So, I dragged on my armor and mace, to some reluctance. It was still a bit light outside, so seeing wasn't an issue. And, I was correct, someone had been messing with my lead pile.

As I was shrugging and heading back inside, the pile exploded. Lead bounced off my armor leaving streaks of yuck. I looked back and Moon Racer was standing where my pile had been, nearly roaring with laughter.

After some time, I thought it was a funny intro as well. But that was after my armor was polished. And the sun was beginning to rise. And not in the same season.

Oh, the mission? Would you believe stone horses need armor? I didn't.

About That Horse

Horse, house. Sometimes they are the same. Sometimes just the same size. But, I am talking about my horse in my castle memories. Mainly just a follow-on from above.

I wasn't really into building things in this first life. Shoes, yes, buildings, no. I don't build shoes now, but I wouldn't mind building my own house. This is turning into designing my own house. And garage. And barn. And tractor playpen.

This is also the first time I'm actually using the Hostinger website to make an update. At least it's the same editor. For now anyway. I'm sure that will change.

What is different is I'm using a laptop instead of my normal computer. You may notice my typing isn't nearly as crisp. So, typos will happen. Just as they have in the past.

As you may have guessed, the trick my horse learned sometime around now was the ability to change size. From about the size of a dagger, to the size of, well, a building that didn't exist in my world. He could be tall enough to look over the tops of trees. Not quite tall enough to make the trees look like grass, thankfully, but comfortably taller than the trees themselves. Some of the trees really didn't like that trick and would wander away.

The latter was seldom useful, but being the size of a dagger did come in handy many times. But, not really this time.

One thing that a changing size needs is special armor, and that's why my bag was rustling around. It knew my horse had adapted to the new trick and needed to lead me to some armor that would fit and also adjust size to match. Not an easy task for an armorer. Fire actually refused to even consider. I tried on my way into the desert.

A question I had, and I'm sure you do as well, is why a horse that is essentially made of rock would need armor. From my horse's mouth, it still hurts to get hit. I would agree at a later time, maybe around this time.

During a trip, I met a wizard that I didn't rid from my presence immediately. He was practiced in the art of creating armor. Most notably was a rock armor that could be applied in a dire emergency. Basically, it would turn someone into a golem for a short time. If applied correctly. If not applied correctly, it would turn you into a small hill. For how long? That depended on who your friends were and how badly said wizard messed up.

Friends were needed to beat the rock off or your body so you could move again. And that did leave quite an impression. And really didn't leave an improved impression about wizards. When did that happen? I'm not sure, but I am sure it was before my castle was fully built. So maybe about now.

After polishing my armor and weapon from all the lead damage, I spent some time studying my map again. Thankfully, it would calm down once it knew you at least gave it some attention. So, adding a bit of time before starting wasn't too problematic. As long as you didn't forget.

I knew that I would be picking up armor and I also knew I would need to travel by the forge Fire normally spent time at. By this time, we had come to terms with him putting his hand through my chest. Mainly because I was able to allow him to visit a nearby town through my own airline. Powered by my mace. It was a great trick I learned and would use quite a bit. Although the likelihood of surviving for a mortal would be quite a bit less than the god of fire.

Although he had no desire to create armor for a size-changing horse, he had no issue creating me a new piece for my armor set. If you're wondering how I could change armor that was partially sentient, it was quite easy. Fire was able to allow the sentience to move from piece to piece.

What was the new piece? I couldn't tell you. I just know that I usually received something new and better every time I visited. I was also surprised he offered me a new piece after how adamant he was about not creating armor for my horse. To be honest, it really wouldn't have mattered if my horse was changing size or not, Fire really didn't like my horse for some reason. Which gave me some clue as to where my horse came from.

Was there any action on my way down to the armor? Probably some random wild animals, but nothing significant. Now, the armor location was a different story.

It was a golem location. Which shouldn't be too much of a surprise considering the armor was for a rock. But, this wasn't any golem location. This part of the desert was a breeding ground of sorts. This isn't the Wild Kingdom version of breeding, more of the volcano version of breeding.

But, the fields of molten rock weren't the issue, the golems were. And the fact they didn't like outsiders seeing how they were created. I don't really blame them, knowing how they came to be would provide their one true weakness. While it's true you could chip away all their rock to kill one, that took quite a bit of time. More time than you would normally get if they were angry with you. And these guys were angry.

But, I had a mace that liked to hit things. Not really hit physically, but with a big, magic fist. I did try reason first. In a way. Golems weren't known to be conversationalists. Less so here. But, after the first one left the area and the second one was pushed into the sand, the third one did at least ask why I was invading their space. Golems also aren't known to be intellectuals. This was strange.

I was able to show this golem why I was there, and he agreed to help, as long as I didn't approach any closer. He also agreed to carry my new piece of armor. He didn't know why, but having eyes to where he was is something I found important. As was having a way of identifying who he was.

Now, there were a few more golems that weren't as happy that I was standing around. They disappeared one by one until my golem returned carrying a rather small bag. About the size of his hand.

He tossed me the bag and my armor and asked me to leave. Which I did, but not before an obvious question.

You'll learn the answer sometime later. And you may not be surprised.

What About Those Golems?

They actually came through. But, not yet. That's a bit later in my memory time-line. For now, there was something else.

You may think it's strange. Two updates in a row on missions, without too much distraction elsewhere. Not strange yet. I'm thinking of something to review, but haven't put much thought into that thought. Maybe I'll have some thoughts on those thoughts later, but not now.

I am thinking of an update to my basement ceiling's paint. Right now, I've painted it a tone of white to help lighten the feel of the basement. If you don't recall, the entire basement was painted one shade of poo. Something a little lighter than refried beans. Processed. That still exists in parts of the basement, and may exist in the basement kitchenette walls. But, it won't exist on any ceiling.

One feature the basement has are a couple raised portions that house mostly recessed lights. This is where I'm thinking. And the mostly is due to the living room portion once having a ceiling fan. In the basement. I'm not sure how the basement could get warm enough to warrant a fan, and I'm not about to find out. I can get the basement bathroom warm enough, as it has two vents from the HVAC system. The shower/sauna and toilet are behind a door, while the very high sink/vanity sit in its own room. Each has a vent.

Close the outer, very wide door to those two rooms, and it gets quite warm in there. Very wide is not an overstatement. It is a bit wider than three feet. Same for the closet at the end of the short hall in the basement. The opposing bedroom door is standard width, however.

Backing up just a little, I'm now viewing a ceiling that is a bit more ornate. I'm thinking of adding some of that ornateness, as the recess is very similar. I'm not sure I'd use any construction, as it would shrink the space a bit too much, but something in paint should be easy enough. For reference, the standard basement ceiling height is just reachable with my fingers outstretched. The raised portion is about a foot taller, not quite reaching eight feet. So not overly claustrophobic.

We'll see where I tend later. And also see if I remember to tell you. In likely a similarly, seemingly inappropriate place.

There is one memory that pulled all this together. I had my horse's new armor and we were heading west. Not for any specific reason, aside from not hearing about the first bit of construction being completed on my castle.

We had already moved north to get ourselves out of the desert. It is much easier to keep warm than it is to cool off. Not that we were north enough for anything resembling cold, but definitely cooler than the desert. Think the tropics during the dry season. It's still hot, but not baking. And a bit dry, but definitely not desert dry, and far from rain-forest wet. Comfortable wouldn't be the right answer, it was too warm for that, but the nights were cool enough.

As you would see on this planet, we didn't travel during the warmest parts of the day. Nor the darkest parts of the night. And, no, Sun and Night weren't battling for supremacy during these travels. Days and nights seemed to be fairly equal, as they usually were. Okay, maybe just enough more than half to be normal. The fun, however, just happened to be during the heat of the day as we were all inside our tents. Enjoying some mage's ice. We being everyone with me. I was in a tree.

One of the stranger parts of transforming was bringing whatever I was wearing into my next form. Going from what we call human to eagle, I would bring any clothes or armor I was wearing, which included any weapons I was holding. This could get interesting if I happened to hold onto something large or another person. I'm sure I'll talk about that at some time.

So, instead of the voices from my weapon and armor echoing in my head like that little voice, they became my own thoughts. I gained that awareness. Trust me when I say I preferred shedding some weight before transforming for sleep. Blah blah blah, blah blah, blah blah blah-bah..... All night long.

It just so happened I was drowsy from eating way too much, likely a cat or deer, that my mind was almost quiet. Then the alarms went off. At that time, I had no reference to a siren. But, think of a tornado siren as being your perch. Yep. That poor tree probably would never be the same without its top. Thankfully, it was a normal tree and not alive. That was the neighboring tree. It was still frightened and eventually sad, but unharmed.

The other part about being startled, is that sometimes that was a clue to transform. No matter where I happened to be. Being a slightly larger eagle, I tended toward the top of a tree. Trees being at least ten times taller than I was. At least. How far could I go on a single flap while holding onto what was the top of a tree? Really high. And, that's where I went into human form.

This is also the point where having a flying rock as a companion helps. Rock being operative. He was nestled in the living tree, also near the top. But, as a smallish bird. For some reason, the living tree didn't want a rock the size of a horse making a nest in its upper branches.

Moon Racer did see me jolt up and was kind enough to provide some assistance. As a very large landing bed. Leather covered rock landing bed. And, that was still above the treetops. Where no one could see. I don't find this embarrassing anymore.

After some grunts, groans, and watch-outs, we did make it down to my party's camp. Just in time to see them wake up from the noise. What was the alarm? A tiny cat walking through the camp. Kitten, if you will.

If you don't see the reason for alarm, you may not want to sleep in the woods where I was from. Although a kitten wouldn't be much of a match, that is the specific reason for being suspicious of one wandering through your camp. They generally didn't stray far from home, with that home holding several of the big kitties. Or worse.

And if a kitten was able to stray that far without being a snack, that would be one mean kitty. This was the problem. That wasn't a kitten. It was much darker and sinister. But, as it was just wandering, we made no attempts at stopping it. But, we did follow. There were definitely parts of my group that preferred a different marching direction, which they quickly made obvious by marching. But a few came with me. They may have regretted that decision.

But, at least by this time, I knew I'd need a little more help if I was going to follow this kitty very far.

Here Kitty Kitty

Why would we follow a kitten? To see where it was going of course. That could've been a mistake, but it wound up being a bit more fun that finishing a wall. That may be coming up. We'll see how far I get today.

What was fun about this cat was how quickly it grew as it took us north. And a bit west. But not as west as we had originally planned. We were still well east of the western mountain ridge close to my mother's western temple, but also well west of where my castle was being built.

I had been here a few other times, but nothing that was really interesting. The towns here were mostly small farming communities. Trading hubs would be another way of describing them. Traders typically wouldn't go more than a day's travel in any direction, so most towns were about that far apart. Most.

We'd consumed four meals since our last town, which is about a day in Earth terms. The sun was still straight up in the sky, as it had been since we started following this cat. It was about half the size of the larger cats in the area now. Not much of a kitten. It would watch us as it walked, and lay down when it was time to eat. It never ate.

After this fourth meal, we decided to move into the forest and make a camp. The cat stayed near the trail, looking in our direction. We decided to camp in the trees instead of the ground. This did take some time to accomplish, but it really did make for a nice camp. And it could be used again.

And you already know where the cat was when we woke up. Right below us. It appeared to sleep as we ate our first meal. It was now almost the same size as the full grown cats now, and would be hard to distinguish from them. But it still felt wrong.

As we packed up and made our way down, the cat moved to the trail and started walking. Back to the town we had past. This wasn't too comforting to anyone in the camp. We had shown who we were to that town, and they now had time to prepare for us.

But, we stopped about halfway and went west into the forest. No trail. The cat made sure we could see him even as he moved through trees and small brush. I had checked my map a few times, and the cat wasn't on it. Nor was anything, really. It would always show paths and towns in our area, but it was now just showing us in the middle of trees. There were towns in all directions, but we were just wondering in wilderness.

Not even a cave. This continued for another ten meals or so. And a couple more campsites built. Not that anyone else would wonder here and use them.

We did eventually come across a rocky area. Cliffs and outcrops and even places you could call shelter. The cat passed all these without much pause. It was also now a bit larger than the largest cats I recall seeing. It was now about the height of what I'm calling deer. And still built like a burly cat.

There were no golems, either. Nothing exciting. We were ready for golems when we saw the rocks. We didn't see any, though they may have been there.

We now started back toward the north. We were much nearer the western mountains, but not by a lot. Traveling through trees was a lot slower, and we were only able to carry so much. I didn't want to overuse my infinite bag, as an attacking cat this size could cause issues when it was opened. And by size, I mean the magic energy that was behind this cat. The carts were staying on trails, trying to parallel their path to us, effectively cutting my party in half. Or less for those of in the forest.

By this time, word of what we were doing had reaching my home and there were people coming to join. Most would be with the carts, but some joined in the forest. The cat seemed to not really care, and just kept walking us mostly north.

It was the second rocky outcrop that got a bit more exciting. This time, there were golems. Lots and lots of golems. They just watched the cat walk up to their city. Then they watched us follow, not seeming to really care. This was strange, golems usually defended their cities quite fiercely. I didn't bother to try and speak with them, as the cat picked up his pace a bit.

Then, he disappeared just outside the golem city. The city's northern guard were watching, and even seemed to be bewildered. We moved forward to where we lost saw the cat, and there was nothing there. The trail continued, and the rocks were flat on either side.

After we looked around for a while, we were joined by a small contingent of golems. They had no ill will, so we simply stood clear. Then, our carts started approaching from the north. Along with a sizable army. The golems weren't too happy about that, but they were more curious about a cat that was that large disappearing so easily. I still had an uneasy feeling, and it wasn't just the cat. I knew it wasn't a cat, but the golems were strangely civil. Even offering to let us set up camp on the outskirts of their city. In the city would have been extremely out of character, but by the city was weird enough as it was.

We stayed there for a few days, by counting meals, speaking with the golems and exploring the area to see where the cat could have gone.

Eventually, they offered their help to build my castle. More shock, just like the sand golem we had met in the desert.

I took this opportunity to have my map mark this area to return at a later time to look for the cat.

But, my map was already marked. I was staying a bit longer as the moon finally took the sun's position in the sky.

That didn't escape notice of the golems as they gathered an army to march with my own.

Meowe

We had to wait a very short time before finding out what my map was saying.

A little less than this amount of time. Normally, I write when it's quiet. And no one is around. I may play some music, but music with no words.

Today, or this time, I'm also watching a robot fighting competition and my daughter is watching whatever is on her tablet. Some kind of cartoon, followed by a some kind of educational video, followed by a game that lets her put makeup on a cat followed by a skills game of some sort followed by something else.

Screen time? Usually limited, she has many toys. I'm looking at two complete doll play packages, and there's a bicycle outside that has been getting some miles lately. As has the ding-ding bell.

And this is about when the cat returned. Much closer than it had ever really been. It still wasn't being aggressive, just laying in the path. Watching.

The golems moved first, approaching the cat. It pointed its ears back, but didn't move otherwise. A couple priests also moved forward. It watched them, but still let them get to near touch distance. They didn't push closer. The tail was starting to twitch.

After closing my map and placing it back in my bag, I stood to face the cat. It also stood at this time. Still with ears back and a swaying tail. This time, it walked away as I approached. Same as before, but much closer.

As it moved away, it went back towards the place where we saw it disappear. There, it paused and sat down. Waiting for me to get closer. I got close enough I could have grabbed his tail if he'd been standing. I had a thought of stepping on his tail, at about the same time a growl emanated from his general direction. And his tail wrapped around his paws.

He stayed where he was even as I stood beside him. He was big enough that I could look into his eyes as he was sitting. Think about that for a while. I looked off the side of the path into what was basically a short cliff face. It had several vertical scratches, which I would have assumed were from whoever originally created the path. On the other side of the path was a small ravine filled with flowing water. Not really a river, maybe a small creek, but it looked more rocky than watery.

The path itself was wide enough for a couple carts to pass, and the ground was made of the same stone as the cliff face, although it was worn well enough for the scratch marks to not be there. The scratches were a key.

The cat extended an arm, and claws, and clawed slowly at some of the scratches. The rock flowed away, revealing a deep cave. Being who I am, I followed the cat. A couple priests and a few of my friends followed before the rock face restored itself, leaving the cave to its own, low light. You may think the cave would be dark, but there was enough magic around to make the walls glow. It would have been nicer if the ceiling glowed, but it was always the walls.

I could see we were going down, but the ceiling was going up. It was reasonably well-lit, especially for a cave. I can't say how far we walked, but at least I was beside the cat instead of watching it from behind.

About the time hunger was starting to reveal itself, we came across a small room. The cat hopped onto a ledge and laid down. There were a couple paths out of this room, but they weren't lit. There was a table in the center, also carved from the rock, as were the seats around the table. With no where else to eat, we decided to use the table.

About the time we had cleaned everything and packed up, the cat jumped down onto the table, watching one of the dark entrances.

I was at a position where I could watch the cat as well as the entrance. Where we'd come was behind us. I could feel stone closing in, but it had no bad intent. Just a golem emerging. A few of them actually. The cat didn't appear to like that change.

A tall figure emerged from that entrance, and the cat went to his side. It looked like a house cat next to whoever that was. My weapon started vibrating and my armor tensed. It had changed from its normal shiny self to a dull black color. That change wasn't unnoticed by our host.

He said something about gods not being there and jumped toward our group. If you think rocks move slow, you would be impressed by the golems that had joined us. They took over the table and flipped up toward the large attacker. The cat actually stayed back at this time. Watching. I wasn't sure who was in charge.

But I knew who was getting my attention first. After the golems stumbled the attacker and were thrown back, my weapon wanted its chance. I used a golem, I assume, and jumped up towards the head, or top, of the attacker. My mace made solid contact on the side of the head. I'm sure it did some damage, but I was also keeping an eye on the kitty. He was still watching, while also laying down.

As I turned my attention back to the attacker, I would normally send the moon from my shield to add a little slash to the feet. I didn't do that this time, instead relying on my mace. No magic. Just force. Hunches.

That swing would have been enough to send a normal person flying towards the top of a tree. But this guy, it didn't do much more than make him stumble. The priests were in the perimeter casting some spells, and my friends were just playing distractors. They knew when the fight wasn't in their favor.

The golems, however, apparently have no concept of pain. They kept popping up in various places around the room, delivering powerful blows on his feet and lower legs. And ducking back into the floor before he could respond. This was helpful as I fully intended to only use force. I had found that if I tapped my foot twice, a golem would come up under me and launch me toward the attacker. This was awesome.

I can definitely say this battle took some time to complete. But, I eventually hit the attacker enough for him to fall and crumple on the ground. Normally I'd say dead, but I had a feeling he was never alive.

The cat jumped down on top of his body, facing me. There were some words, but the overall question was more about my restraint in not using magic. If I had, the fight would have ended very quickly.

And, who was the cat? His name was Stone. I didn't know who he was, and it appeared the golems didn't either, even though he was the one that created them, and kept them alive. Overall, he appeared impressed, if not disappointed.

I didn't really gain an ally, but I did lose an enemy. There's a bit more to this story, but not at this time. A new robot fight is starting.

Back to Home

I'm sure you have questions. So do I, but they aren't likely the same.

Why would Stone come around as a fast-growing cat. That's easy. As I had mentioned, a small cat wondering by itself will grab your attention. As for the growth, that was just to add curiosity. If Stone had chosen a human form, he would have given himself away too quickly. As the giant approaching the camp, I may not have been the only attacker. Large things grab a lot of attention.

And, why not just a stone golem. He did. That's why the stone golems were friendly. They were Stone. Some of them anyway, mainly the ones I interacted with. The others were pacified by my peaceful interaction with one of their own.

If you haven't guessed, Stone was trying to see my power for himself and was more curious about a weakness than a strength, thinking we would be enemies. I wouldn't say we wound up as allies, but certainly not enemies.

Now, back to the schedule.

After my encounter with Stone and the golems, there were a few sand golems around that had apparently been following. They had never encountered stone golems, and were curious. For a short time. Although they may look similar to us, they were really quite different. I'm not going to pick sides, but think of where the sand you know comes from and that entire process.

Stone will be part of the story again. If I remember those times in any detail. For now, just know that he exists.

As for the golems, they played a fairly prominent role in my later adventures. Mostly around my castle. This, as you may have already put together, is why my castle was built so easily.

At this time, I did travel back to my castle, as my map was directing. My mace needed some work after bashing on Stone's giant. As did my armor and shield. Fire had moved a forge to my castle to help in its construction as well. It would be his final forge location, if you want some additional foreshadowing.

When I arrived, my walls were maybe up to my knee. All the way around at least. That's when the golems saw what was going on and took over from the town workers. By the time I had woken up, the first wall was complete. And, it was living. I'm not sure if it was a golem itself, but I do know the wall had some sentience and was more that happy to sit in that one place. Stones have a bit of patience.

Boringly, I stayed here much longer than the repairs needed. My weapon was well polished, as was my armor. Although I knew this was home, I wasn't really feeling that was where I needed to be. So, I bought a bunch more land and my friends designed the next ring in my castle. I could make some guesses what was where, but just use your imagination. Just know that there were seven rings. Why do I remember this? I'm not sure. I also know the distance between rings wasn't consistent. And not all buildings were golems, others were a bit more strange.

Now, I may be leading you to believe my time at home was uneventful. And, it was. From my perspective. But, having an growing army of golems does attract attention. Not that golems need a lot of protection, but it was really best they didn't get riled up into a fury, especially with the numbers.

There were a few battles here and there, but that's also why I had a small army. I was told the attacks increased when I was gone, which wouldn't be surprising, but my daughter spent quite a bit of time around the castle most of the time.

But, not this time. We were headed east toward the ocean. Where the ice and water mingled. If you're wondering if there was a god named Ice, you'd have the wrong assumption. It was still Water. And, no, I didn't have any ice houses in my castle.

Instead of just a point, my map was also giving us a path to follow. A very winding path. Although we were heading northeast, our first direction was south. This was to a place I knew from the past, from gathering items for my daughter. We stopped at a town nearby and stayed for a few days. Mostly enjoying what the town had to offer. About the time we were tempted to ask about some local problems, it was time to move on. East.

This is also a place from my memory, where I encountered my first military battle. The area didn't look a lot different, even though there should have been a lot of time for the towns to rebuild. They hadn't.

Again, we camped here for a couple days. We did spend some time rebuilding a couple farms, going as far to plant some crops. Then, it was time to leave. Back west a bit, and a little north.

This time, it wasn't somewhere that drew from my past. It may have, but it alluded me then as it does now. There were many farms, but no real shops or taverns. We talked to a few locals, but they went silent when we asked about trade. We even made some indications we would like some of their extra crop for my castle. Still silence.

I was intrigued. But, there was also silence when I asked what state they were residing in and where was the ruler for the area. Now, there were small villages like this that weren't really in contact with any ruling party, but they were open to speak about it. And, they even liked the idea of trading, and castles need that trading to keep enough food coming in.

We were allowed to take some small amount of provisions by the time we left, but weren't allowed to camp within the farm borders themselves, and were relegated to the forest around the farms. We did watch for a couple nights, but nothing was really interesting.

My map became interesting. Adjusting our path to now head west. Not too far, but it was going to be worth the walk.

At this location was a small city. No farms, just businesses. I asked about the food supply, as I should have needed to resupply the small army that was with me this time. I was told over and over that the only food we could have is what we could eat while we visited, for no more than three nights. Little did they know, we could eat quite a bit in a single night.

The first night lasted as long as six of the normal nights. And I was inclined to only stay three nights as they requested. The first two nights were mostly boring. Scouting stuff. Adding to my army size. Little things like that.

By the time the third night had started, I decided to bring my entire army into town. I hadn't figured out what the problem really was here, but I knew there was something bad I had to deal with. Very bad.

I've mentioned in the past a normal army size a state may keep. I sensed this state had a fairly small number compared to that average. I tripled, in the least, that average number by that third night.

My senses were correct, but the quality of that small army would have been hard to sense. Quality may give the wrong impression, as they weren't really typical soldiers. It'd be hard to describe what they were without invoking images of undead in your mind. Not the night-walking type, but the day-walking type. Not to say they couldn't come out at night, or in the dark, but they really preferred the bright of the sun to hide.

But, their eyes were like small suns when opened. Most of the time, they left their eyes closes to keep themselves discreet. But, when agitated, their true eyes opened. And when I say small suns, I'm not only talking about the brightness. It was the heat that was an issue. Maybe a laser would be a good analogy, but maybe a bit too condensed.

This was a tricky fight to manage. Without those eyes, these warriors would be formidable, with those eyes, they were quite lethal. But, it was still our battle to lose. Which we didn't.

These were also the type of creature that would fight until there was nothing left, and that's what they did.

Now, you may have more questions. Yes, these were creatures mostly keeping to themselves. But, my mission was to rebalance a problem in the magic field, and these creatures fed off that magic stream, causing several problems with its stability. This was what I sensed as a problem. What I didn't see was how rebalancing that magic field would affect magic uses around the world.

Myself included.

The Fields

This color may bring back some memories for some. I am tending to like the black backgrounds with yellow text. It seems it's easier on my eyes. This color scheme is also supposed to be easy on your eyes as well. I'm still leaning toward the dark.

And, no, I'm not leaning toward a space opera with some of these references of balance, light, and dark. That storyline is so obviously flawed, the main characters would have to have much lower than average intelligence to see their fault. And, yes, I do like watching those movies. I just blind myself to the overly obvious this-kid-will-bring-balance-to-a-force-where-we-are-the-dominant-force. Yep, you're going to train your enemy.

If you're smirking because you like the other space opera that gained popularity at the same time. Don't forget, time travel. That should have been left to everything else.

But, I like both movie series. I did find that I'm missing one of the movies in the latter. I'll rectify that problem sometime. I'm likely missing some newer releases as well. I found this out this weekend. I finally emptied a few more boxes that contained more of my books, an encyclopedia set from about fifty-five years ago, all my compact discs, and all my digital video discs. I'll let you build the acronyms.

I did have a slight panic. I thought I was missing a book from the Night's Dawn Trilogy from Peter F. Hamilton. I wasn't thankfully. But, I think I am missing a book from a newer series. I won't keep you waiting too long, but I'm going to look that up before I go to the next paragraph.

Okay, not missing any of the old things, but new things coming out. I do see another trilogy, but it's only in audio form. I'm not sure that's something I'll pursue. I'll wait for the transcript.

But, does any of this have to do with my castle? Since, that is the page we're on. You shouldn't have to ask.

One of the rings in my castle was dedicated to a written history. My written history. This included books, manuscripts, and even a few paintings. I didn't commission any of them, but between those that would join and leave my ranks and Khrista, these works found their way to my castle. On the inside of this ring, the golems even created a recount of my life in relief. A very detailed relief. Golems were much better craftsmen than I had ever imagined. Likely more than you're imagining right now. That wall was alive. Think about it.

I decided I'd put on a soundtrack of a thunderstorm. I do miss those. They are so few and far between where I'm at now. They can be terrifying in reality, but in memory, not so much.

I was studying this relief and reliving some memories, correcting others, when an out-of-breath knight ran up to me. There wasn't much to fear in my castle. I'm going to guess the relief was on the outside of the third ring. Could have been the second or fourth, but, either way, this was a relatively safe place to be. Especially when I was there.

I'll divert a little before getting back to the knight. One thing I hadn't mentioned about the castle was the power it gave me. Much as a temple provides strength to a god, my castle amplified my own strength. If I had known that earlier, I would have started it much sooner. Yeah, there's a circle reference there, rub it in.

How the power increase worked, I'm not too sure, but I would guess it was the same energy form feeding the gods. Especially since I was half god. I'm not sure if dragons fed off any energy, but that half may have been benefitted as well. My armor was stronger, and my mace hit with a force hard to imagine on Earth. I've already hinted how far I could throw a god. But a car? I'm sure it isn't nearly as strong. And, don't worry, there were very few mortals that were in my way at this time.

Except this knight. Who wasn't likely an actual knight, but he was wearing metal armor and looked like a soup can that had been dropped a few too many times, so we'll call him a knight. It gives you a better visual.

Now, there is another side to that story as well. People were starting to worship me around this time. This may have something to do with the strengths my castle was giving me. Overall, life was improving on this planet. People were happier overall. This happiness would have had a decaying effect related to the distance from my castle, but I had a plan.

As the knight caught his breath, I continued my review of the relief. After a few seasons, he was able to speak somewhat coherently. I am going to disappoint you, he wasn't in bad shape, nor had he ran a particularly long distance.

Fear. And he didn't have access to anything like Earth's media. It wasn't quite that bad. There was only an army approaching. One with dragons and giants.

Okay, not real dragons. Only the little ones that carved themselves in the real dragon's image. And not real giants. Okay, real giants. The giants were real. And really big. They were nearly as tall as a tree.

I would say the trees didn't like them, but that would be obvious. The trees didn't like anything that approached half there size to be honest. And something that could swat them away, or crush them under a foot, caused a bit of a stir. This only added to the fear in this knight's eyes.

I don't think my laugh helped him much. After all, I'd fought larger opponents already. Or so I'd thought.

Let's go over a few of my enemies. Golems, now allies. Living hills, they must have been avoiding me. Gods, yes I had engagements with a few gods. Dragons, not the real one just the fakes. Demi-gods, their numbers were getting small. Undead, so many I wouldn't be able to count. Wraiths, ghosts, and other specters. Yep, all those, too.

To say I was a bit confident would be an understatement. Was it deserved? Maybe. Was it helpful? Well, I did live past this battle. But, I'll let you know more next time.

Time to listen to a bit of Enya before bed.

Just a Battle

You didn’t come this far to stop.

That sentence is the default when adding a new section now. At least one from the many options. If it fits, it stays. I changed up my music choice tonight, so let's see how that turns out.

I'll actually pick up this section from the previous. Don't worry, it won't drag on too long. If you're waiting for a well-written piece depicting details of the battle, you can keep waiting. I remember some parts, not all. And certainly not the detail that'd make a great movie. Or novel. But, your mind will fill in some details. One of you may be correct.

This is the time in my life when I was very well known, in all levels. I really didn't fight as much as simply show up. Train, yes. That was still a daily occurrence. My daughter spent less time training, as the wear of weaving the magic was deforming at best. But, she was a tornado of dual swords. Without any magical aid. But, as I have mentioned, she also was learning to weave using those swords. Or had learned. She was somewhere in the castle. As were a few more of my children. Few yes. I remember my daughter the best since she spent the most time with me. The advantage of being the first.

To be fair, most of my other children were never introduced to me. That's how it worked. After all, I really had little involvement in their creation.

As for the army at my castle, it was quite large. Especially when I was there. My traveling army was rather large and cumbersome at most times. There were few times I'd take a smaller army. This was one of those.

Mortals were really no match for god-backed creatures. Or simply a god's experiments. Giants. There were some real ones, but they were about twice my height. And they stayed in their own areas. These were much bigger. And uglier. Dragons were also typically a god creation as well. The fake ones anyway. They were easy to tell apart with their two legs and tiny wings.

The dragons that were made from Drak-bar, by Drak-bar, all had four legs and massive wings. Much like Drak-bar himself. And they were very rare. What did they do. Still don't remember, and I'm not sure I ever knew.

So, my army to meet up with this trampling army was myself and my daughter. With a few priests watching over us. I would mention Moon Racer, but he preferred my daughter by now. Something about less pain.

Was there a battle? Yes. A short one, really. We were looking for the leader, general if you prefer. The closest we found was the tallest of the giants. And I didn't do much of the talking. Neither did he.

As Moon Racer approached, this giant decided he'd make a big swing. At least he started to, but the pain in his lower leg may have redirected that hand. I don't want to be graphic, but just imagine your leg touching your shoulder blade. Similar.

Now, as you imagine, this wasn't enough to really stop him, but more of a stall. And a chance for him to call on the other giants to swat some flies. This was the time my daughter was riding on a much larger horse. Much larger. Although her swords were slicing everywhere it seemed, they didn't seem to be pausing the advance.

My mace was working well on the legs and feet. My shield was also sending out several moon discs, but they weren't much more than distractions. Not something I liked seeing from an explosion that would leave a crater the size of a house.

This was turning into a battle much like the golems. Chip away slowly and just keep moving. My daughter eventually retreated back to the outer castle wall, which was maybe the fifth one. Somewhere in there. Far from complete.

Although the giants were still some distance, well outside most of our magic of the time, the golems were starting to show some anger. I also kept backing toward my castle. This was intentional. Even if these giants and dragonettes were mortal, they would have numbers nearly matching the army in my castle.

As you may imagine, my fame and prior quests meant I had a few enemies. Maybe more in number than allies. But, this is also the second time I saw the hill creatures. Plural.

As I fought backwards, I felt myself rising. I'm sure my first thought was something about giants ripping the ground up. And, honestly, there would have been some panic, even if I realized it was the hill creatures. I would love to say it was Dirt or Rock. But, those gods were mostly absent. Usually sleeping.

If you've never seen hills move, you may have a hard time imagining this scene. There were hundreds of hills. And the golems even managed to add a few of their mountains. I'm not overstating the mountain golem. They were very rare, but also very powerful. You may be curious about height. Don't imagine something a few thousand feet-ish. More like two to three times taller than a tree.

How did this affect my castle? I'm sure it would have been a bit stressing if it wasn't a golem itself. Just a less mobile golem. The mountains weren't very fast or numerous, but how many mountains do you need?

I backed part way up one of the mountains between myself and my castle. I was finally getting close enough that my strength was as good as it was going to be. And reenergized. And hungry. The front line of giants was starting to stop their advance. The hills were partially responsible as their tree-tacles wrapped around their legs, dissolving them bottom to top.

The dragons were being pelted with boulders from the mountains. This really didn't do much more than drop them to the ground, where the hills took care of the rest.

Yes, this battle finished rather quickly after the hills and mountains arrived. But, all that commotion didn't go unnoticed.

I had a new quest. Back to the caves in the northwest. Where the gods meet.

How to Build a City

That may not be the most accurate title, but we can play with it from there.

This also is very unlikely the place in the timeline for this memory, or series of memories. But, it does belong near the end of this section somewhere. By the time you get here, it may not be directly followed by the obligatory contact me section, nor following a battle. Though the latter is highly likely, just not the same battle that sent me back to a meeting of the gods. You'll enjoy that meeting. I did anyway.

No this memory was spurred by people on Earth that believe making their jobs difficult is a justification for them having such a job. I prefer the other approach. Break down a job into its parts so it becomes quite simple.

It's fairly easy to look at something complex and large and think of how difficult it would be to recreate. There are many examples of this, spacecraft being one of them. They look complex and difficult. They are not. Cities. The same. Earth's current status. Still simple.

If you start at the correct spot.

What may seem to make your planet seem difficult and complex would be the upgrades humans have made to make it more convenient and comfortable for them. Clear some land here, create land there, move water around, and so on. As Aushlin pointed out, if you give ants enough time, they could create an ant colony to cover a planet.

He doesn't intend an insult, just a statement. His people at one time were in a similar point in history as humans. And, actually, that similar point is where his life began. He lived through what you are now seeing. They say cynicism grows with age. An eighty year old human versus a twenty year old. Add a few zeroes to the eighty year old and see what happens. But, that's a story for another page.

I didn't create much of a planet in my first-ish life. I did create a large city. And a few smaller ones. Most of these were grown over time, and not really planned in their entirety. Mostly because it wasn't until my castle was mostly built that I learned my biggest secret. The one that was staring at me during my entire life. That, too, is a story for a different time. Maybe this page, maybe I'll make another.

You may be wondering how my Earth-son is doing. I had planned on being here a bit more often, but time isn't something I'm very good with overall. Yet. I may get the hang of it here.

He's doing well. All sixteen days of him. He lost nine ounces during the first week, which is normal for human babies. But, gained that back in the next week and is now bigger than he's ever been, while being the smallest he will ever be. What I found amazing was the similarities between my two Earth children at birth. They were essentially the same length, especially considering the nine days difference in gestation. But the looks. They look nearly identical at the same age. I'm sure that will move into separate branches over time, but it's quite amazing to compare their first week pictures.

But, let's build a city.

If you recall, my castle started with my mortal father's house. And it remained in the center as it grew. Ring by ring, similar to a tree.

We're not going to build our city that way. I'm going to split this city into four quadrants. And it's going to be a grid instead of circles. The direction of the grid really doesn't matter. Though it should depending on the latitude on the planet. And that's really only to minimize how many days in a year driver's have to face the sun when traveling. So, we'll leave directions out for now.

I haven't drawn this out, but you may.

One thing every city needs is power. No, not electricity. That isn't what powers a city. A city is powered by its people. So we need some neighborhoods. Let's build four of them. One in the far corner of each quadrant.

We'll make each of these neighborhoods the same, with a mix of apartments and regular homes of various sizes. If you're thinking class differentiation based on capital government, you haven't read very much of this site. My city has no money. There are people that don't like houses, some that don't like apartments. We're giving a variety to match preferences.

The largest properties would be on the outermost edges and contain family-sized farms. This also allows the farms to extend a bit outside the city into the wilderness of where you want your city. Each farm would have a shop for selling what it could, but they would have a direct avenue into the city for refining their crops and animals.

The next layer of housing would be very similar to the edges of many human cities with larger plots of land for larger hobbies. Like recreational vehicles and car restoration. Those all take some room, and I wouldn't be one to limit a person's hobby list. As long as they are competent.

Then the houses you commonly see in most cities. These have enough land around them for kids to play, but not enough really for sporting activities. This section is where you start seeing more parks.

And then the apartment area. These would each house several people, but also be situated on enough land that kids have a place to play, though more communally.

Interspersed throughout would be various shops to sell what is needed for day to day life, doctor facilities, recreation facilities, and the like. We aren't going to design this city in detail, just the basics.

Surrounding each neighborhood would be a green belt. This would primarily be nature controlled land, whether it's a prairie or forest. A separation from living and working.

The next segment would be best described as white color type work. The brains of the city. Since this type of work is quiet, it's best to have it closer to each of the neighborhoods.

One thing to keep in mind is that I don't believe any job is better or worse than another. All jobs are necessary to make a city function properly. City and society are interchangeable here. This is part of the reason I removed money from my economy. The other part was that it really wasn't necessary. But, that's a story that's been told elsewhere.

Next, you need a place for your factories. Don't mind the image you have in your head of smoke stacks from a hundred years ago. You likely drive by many factories today, and don't give a second thought.

I'm going to add warehousing in the factory district. Warehouses from the factories to the rest of the city, and warehouses to the factories from the raw material refineries we'll place in the heart of the city.

There is a flaw in a city built in this shape. The raw materials for the refineries have to travel through the entire city to get their starting point. After refinement, they hit the factories, and then are dispersed outward yet again to the neighborhood markets.

You could design a linear city, but you'll have a similar issue.

But, it's one that is easily solved with that nature belt and trains. For trains, you could think about the hulks used with hundreds of cars and a few powerful engines. Or, you could think of freight tractor-trailers. Both would work and both could easily traverse the nature belt with minimal intrusion to the neighborhoods.

Water supply would be another gotcha. If it's coming from underground, it's an easy solution. Water from rivers and lakes could be handled very similarly to the raw materials.

But, this thought was less about the details of the city and more about breaking your problem into easier to manage pieces.

How does this pertain to my other life, and land this section where it is.

Maybe it does belong here and the meeting with the gods follows. I had time to reflect on my time and past after that battle. I was trying to solve a problem by burning the forest. I only had to look at the trees.