A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor

But more than that, Beam was looking for the way to get stronger. With the position he was in – a desperate position. He saw meaning in the most trivial of things. He saw it in Nila's eyes, as she hunted, in the determination she felt. He saw it in the warmth that she showed to her family and friends.

He was hung up on such things – wondering if he was missing that, if that was what was making him weak.

It was in his spade too, the way it stabbed into the earth and hefted up the dirt for him. It made him wonder if that was what he was lacking, maybe he just didn't have the right tool for the job.

As his soul fell apart under the endless onslaught of two Gods, both with very different intentions, his heart opened to every possibility, looking for salvation wherever he could.

With that, he called his work done for the day and returned the spade to Nila. There were still ditches to be filled and there was one last house to check on for firewood, but progress was being made and Beam was satisfied.

On the tenth day, things moved much the same as the ninth. There were slight improvements to Beam's strength as he marched around the campground again and then tried his hand at the stones. This time he was able to lift the second stone 5 times.

He wasn't sure if it was simply that he was building up a tolerance to the pain or whether he was actually recovering – but still Beam was at least pleased that things seemed to be moving in a positive direction.

He hadn't managed to best Dominus at Battle that morning either, nor the night before, but the games now were far more competitive than they were before and each one of them came down to a knife's edge.

Still, Beam felt a slight bitterness every time he lost, and that bitterness needed to be directed into progress in some sort of direction. So into the village he went with his log cart and he knocked on the last door on his list of people who needed food and firewood.

The family was not nearly as bad off as Nila's. They'd managed to sort their food situation out themselves, and for wood, they only really needed a sledfull to get them through. Beam had nodded his understanding and disappeared into the forest to get it done.

A few hours later, he was back, having completed his task. The family thanked him gratefully, far more friendly to him than they had ever been in the past.

And like that, two of the longest quests that Beam had been given by Greeves were completed. One, checking that everyone in the village had firewood, and two, making sure that everyone had enough food for the winter. With that, he'd earned a full silver coin. Beam smiled, imagining the money.

But there were indeed a few hours left in the day and so he set to work on the ditches once more, filling the holes with rocks before filling them with soil using the spade that he'd once more borrowed from Nila.

And in that very same day, he managed to complete that task as well, raising his earnings up to a full silver and 5 coppers.

"Now that's more like it," he said to himself with a smile, feeling a sense of progress, not knowing that such progress – just as it had when he was promoted at his job – it was pushing him forward, to a point that he might not survive.

By the time he knocked on the door to return the spade to Nila, it was already getting dark. It was the girl herself who answered the door, wearing a nicer dress than Beam usually saw her wear. It was of green threads, with a white bossom. She cut a striking figure in it, even though she'd apparently forgotten to comb her hair again and it looked wild as ever.

"Thanks," Beam said, holding the spade out to her.

"You've gotten yourself pretty dirty…" Nila said, wrinkling her nose as she accepted the spade back from him. "And it's dark too. Have you been out working all this time?"

"Better now than before the ground starts freezing up, right?" Beam said.

"Well, that might be true if you weren't walking on half a leg. Seriously. If you just held back a little, you'd be doing yourself a huge service," she chided.

"Naw, it's getting better every day," Beam assured her.

"I can see you bleeding right in front of me!" Nila shouted, unconvinced.

"My, is that Beam? It's getting dark, dear. Will you be fine getting home? Do you want to spend the night here? There's a warm stew on with fresh rabbit in from what Nila caught today," Nila's mother appeared, smiling warmly as she saw Beam.

Beam glanced at Nila to gauge her reaction, but she just shrugged, not seeing an issue. "You can if you want. There's a spare bed that dad used to sleep in. You could use it if you needed to."

But Beam shook his head. "I appreciate the offer, but I'd better go and see Greeves. It shouldn't be completely dark by the time I head back. Besides, I'm used to walking the forest in the dark by now."

"Used to it you might be, but when you can't see where you're going, even experienced hunters are prone to getting lost. It's very easy to get confused with the cold and lose yourself to it – you ought to be more careful," Beam's mother told him.

"I'll be fine," Beam assured her.

"Always putting himself in tricky spots, isn't he?" She said, glancing at Nila who nodded firmly in agreement.

"He's stupid like that, but he seems pretty resilient, so I guess it's pointless us worrying," Nila said.

"Will you be passing through again tomorrow?" Her mother asked. "If you do, stop by, won't you? I'll make you something nice and warm for lunch. That, and I'll be able to check whether or not you really made it home okay."