A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor

But Beam was already getting behind the handle of his sled, readying himself to attempt to push it. He gritted his teeth, tensed his muscles, and pushed. And it didn't even budge.

Nila glanced at him with a knowing look. "I told you…" She murmured. "Just take it slow, idiot."

But Beam wasn't one to give up there. "GAH!" He bellowed, putting even more force into it, waking his injured leg up and making it bear the burden despite his body's aversion. He got another shallow stream of blood from his wound for his efforts, but the sled shifted, breaking its inertia and he continued taking quick strides, pulling it up the hill.

He noticed Nila's expression even as he pushed. He could have sworn she looked impressed, but in truth, that look was more one of apprehension as she kept glancing at his leg, half expecting it to fall off.

"So reckless," she muttered, picking up her kills and following up after him.

Beam made it to the trail and continued pushing himself, even as his leg cried out in pain and he grew out of breath. He didn't regret putting the extra wood in. He just saw it as more training, as a route to getting healed up faster.

In fact, it was Nila that tired first. Halfway to the edge of the forest, her arms grew so tired from clutching her kills that one of the rabbits slipped free of her grasp and dropped to the ground.

"Throw it on," Beam said, without pausing, knowing that if he stopped now, he wouldn't be able to get moving again.

"I can't force more work on you like that," Nila said, as she hurried to catch up with him, picking up the rabbit that she'd dropped. But with how red her face was, Beam could tell she wasn't lasting much longer.

"A couple of rabbits won't change the weight much – it's easier in the sled. Just throw them on. It'll be easier on me if we can move faster," Beam said.

"But…" Nila tried to rebuke him, but couldn't think of anything. Her arms were already tiring, after all. Knowing that she would be more of a burden if she kept slowing him down, she cautiously put the two rabbits on top of the sled, eyeing Beam as she did so, seeing if their weight would hinder him much.

But she didn't detect the slightest hint of change in his expression. As Beam had said, the weight of two rabbits likely felt like nothing compared to all the wood he was dragging along.

She sighed in shame, shifting her squirrel to her free hand and holding the grouse in the other. It was much easier now, but she couldn't help but feel like a burden.

"I keep holding you back," she mumbled.

"We all have our strengths," Beam said, "I don't have much use outside of these couple of things. It's fine if you leave them to me."

"But you're dragging a whole sled full of wood and I can't even manage a couple of rabbits… I'm pretty pathetic," Nila said.

"For a girl, I think you're pretty good," Beam said. But then he caught Nila's expression and realized it was the wrong thing to say. She hated it when he said things like that.

"I need to get stronger," she said, gritting her teeth in annoyance.

Beam didn't say anything more, for he understood that sentiment far too well. It was a thought that burned in his heart several hours a day. An idea that stirred every time he found himself lacking.

'There's work to be done,' he told himself, pulling harder on his sled as he remembered all that he needed to do.

He dropped the sled full of wood off at Nila's house again, much to the gratitude of her mother. She'd actually cried seeing the cart full to the very top and hugged him once again. Beam had only been able to smile awkwardly as he helped unload the cart and say goodbye to Nila.

Before she disappeared inside, he called out to her. "I'll come and get you when I next plan to hunt," he said.

She nodded with a smile. "Thank you, Beam," she said sweetly. When she spoke as clearly as that and with a face as pretty as she had, it would be easy to mistake her for a noble woman. But that illusion never lasted long. Before she'd even got the door closed, she'd torn off her hat and messed up her hair, shouting that keeping it neat was annoying.

Left standing there like that, Beam had been struck wondering what to do next. The sun was well past its highest point in the sky and there were only a few hours of daylight left. But now that he was in the village, it felt like a waste to just leave.

He recalled the other quests that Greeves had given him. One had been to help fill in the ditches in the major roads before winter struck, and even though his leg throbbed and tiredness assailed him, Beam had figured he may as well get started on that now.

He'd knocked back on Nila's house and asked to borrow a spade. Both she and her mother had told him off for pushing himself again, but eventually they had relented after he told them it was for a job. With a spade in hand, he went over to one of the worse ditches in the road.

It was deep on both sides of the road, where the wooden wheels of horse-drawn carts had gauged through the soft mud on rainy days, leaving permanent ever-increasing holes that all but promised that any cart that passed through there would get stuck.

Beam began by filling the ditches on either side of the road with stones. That took him a good couple of hours. Then, just with the last hour of daylight, he shovelled some soil and filled them up completely.

And all the while, as Beam performed these menial tasks, he was searching. He was searching for that which would finally overcome this increasing amount of resistance that he was feeling. Some way of curing the aching of his heart, of dealing with the deep dread that was building up inside of him.