Over the next couple of hours and a cigar on the front porch, Arin explained what more she could think I needed to know.

Now that she was the nymph of my territory rather than the valley, she could sense all my land even better than I could. It was helpful because she was much more vocal than the core book, and could better give me ideas on what I could do to expand it.

“First, I’d say it’d be smart to get a golem.” She said,

“And what exactly is a golem?” I asked.

“It’s kind of like a living tree.” The nymph explained, “At least the kind I know how to make are.”

“This sounds like something it’d be better to show me than tell me.” I guessed.

She affirmed that view, and walked back up to her home tree. She placed her hands on its bark and they glowed again like before, and four acorns completely formed out of one of the lowest hanging branches.

I whistled, impressed. She smiled, and plucked them off the tree. I followed Arin down to the empty fields below our house, where I watched her dig two small holes about two feet apart in the ground. She placed two acorns in each and covered them with soil, before sitting crisscrossed about three feet away.

The beautiful nymph placed her hands in the grass at her sides and closed her eyes. After a few seconds, the ground where she had dug the holes began to grow a pale green, and two saplings began to snake up out of each.

The tiny trees grew as though they were in a timelapse, and braided with one another forming two stalks that met about two feet above the ground. From there, they continued to twist around each other before separating again to form into what looked to be- and I guessed were- arms. A crown of leaves grew up between the thing’s… shoulders? Into what was almost a head.

After it had been fully formed, the “golem” pulled its right leg out of the ground with a spray of dirt, then its right, and walked up to stand in front of me, looking up with a faceless face of leaves. The thing was probably only about four feet tall, and looked incredibly spindly, but it was really cool to see.

“Woah!” I bent down to look at the creature. It was standing on its own balance, and almost seemed to be looking around.

A few seconds later though, Arin slumped where she sat, panting.

“I-I’m sorry, I didn't expect a golem like that to take so much out of me.” She apologized.

“Don't be sorry! This thing’s awesome!” I was really impressed. The little tree man was one of the coolest things I’d ever seen.

“I’m glad to… hear it.” She struggled. The nymph looked mighty pale.

“Can I get you some water? You don't look so good…” I moved over to Arin to check up on her.

“That- That would be nice.” She breathed.

I rushed up the stairs and into my house, and pulled a still cold water bottle out of my fridge. The power was still out, so I realized I would have to clear the refrigerator of things that would spoil to prevent my house from stinking up.

I brought Arin the water bottle and opened it before I handed it to her. She looked a little confused at the container, but gulped it down thirstily, looking more refreshed when it was gone.

“Thank you,” She sighed, “I’ll recover in a few minutes, I just need to sit down and get some magic back.”

I nodded, not quite understanding how “getting magic back” worked.

While she recovered, I looked back at the golem. Based on my meager knowledge of fantasy it looked more like a tiny ent than a golem to me, but who was I to say. Its arms were probably only two or three inches thick, and its legs only slightly more so. Its torso was more bulky, with defined pieces of bark that looked almost like muscle covering its body. It looked like a really skinny MMA fighter.

It had no face, but I thought it was staring back at me.

“You can try giving it an order.” Arin sounded better, “I made it, but since we’re on your land you’re the one it listens to.”

“Go… climb the steps.” I told the tree thing.

It hesitated for a moment, before it sauntered off to clumsily climb the stairs. It didn't look the most steady on its feet- er… roots yet, but completed my order nonetheless.

“Jump.”

It gave a little jump.

“Salute.” I tried something a little more specific.

It hesitated again, but after a few moments stood straight and brought its arm to a salute.

“That’s impressive.” I exclaimed. “How did it know the form?”

“It sensed the intention behind your order. It’s not sentient, but it can do just about anything you can imagine it to do, so long as it's in its physical capability.”

“Wow.” I nodded, “This could be really useful.”

“They have been for me.” The nymph told me, “I’d always use tree golems to clean up the valley rather than doing it myself.”

“Can we make more?” I asked.

“The magic in your territory is probably good enough to have one or two more functioning at full capacity, but if we had that many, magic recovery for us would be pretty slow.”

I mulled over what she said quickly, trying to think it through. If one of the ways I could expand my territory was by cultivating the land, perhaps I could draft the little tree person to do it for me.

With that idea in my head, I told Arin I’d return before heading inside my house and to the garage. I realized I actually still had my truck, as it’d come with me along with the house, but walked past it to grab a shovel and a hoe. I had some seeds that had never been planted in a drawer, and grabbed those as well. As I was on my way out of the garage, I realized that the tools I had grabbed were likely too big for the ent to use effectively, so I traded the shovel for a little gardening spade, but kept the hoe.

With pockets full of spring crops, I walked back outside to find that Arin had climbed the steps to the yard and was sitting against her tree. She still looked tired, but much less so than before.

“What’re those for?” She asked me when she saw the tools in my hand.

“Gardening.” I answered.

“Oh, I suppose I’ve never seen tools like that before.”

“Come to think of it, do you have a house or anything like that?” I asked her.

“No, I just live- well lived in the valley.” She shrugged.

I pursed my lip. I wondered if the pretty nymph had just slept outside.

“I was thinking I could get the ent to do some ‘cultivating.’” I gave her my idea.

“Ent?” She asked.

“Oh- that’s what we called… tree people back home. I guess it’s a golem here though.”

“No, I like that.” She got up from the base of her tree, “There are many types of golems, I think these ones deserve a specific name.”

“Ent it is then.” I smiled, “But if I can, I’m going to put him to work.”

“That’s what he’s here for.” She puffed out her chest with pride.

I ordered the ent to follow me, and he almost tripped down the stairs as we walked out into the field. He wasn't the most coordinated by any means. I laid the tools in the grass and started to go through the seed packets I had grabbed, and settled on some lettuce. I threw the other seed packets back into my pant pocket, and put the lettuce in the breast pocket on my flannel.

I grabbed the hoe and started to till the ground, being pleasantly surprised by the quality of the soil. It had been years since I’d helped with my mother’s garden when she was still alive, and the feeling of the dirt was something I’d missed more than I realized.

I dug up some grass and then told the little tree person to do the same. I offered it the hoe, but it just ignored me and started to pull the grass away with its rootlike fingers. It was doing a better job than I was.

“This guy’s really handy!” I shouted over to where Arin was watching from my yard.

She gave me a smile and a wave in return.

The second I saw that I could order the ent about I had gotten all sorts of ideas. Work and friends had prevented me from taking very many hobbies back on Earth, but if I was here now with what was essentially a magical automaton to do my bidding, there was nothing stopping me. I felt guilty at being relieved to no longer be on Earth, but was too excited by the little tree person to think much of it.

After about ten minutes, there was a six by twelve square of bare soil, and an ent looking up at me with dirt covered appendages, like a soldier waiting for its next order.

“Okay, now we’re going to start planting…” I told the ent. I prepared to explain how, but without my saying anything the magical being started digging small holes at regular increments in rows along the garden.

I could get used to this. I thought. After the holes were dug, I passed the ent the seeds and he began to plant. I just stood to the side leaning on my hoe while he worked at a clumsy but quick pace.

I decided to be at least mildly productive, and walked up to my front porch to grab the core book. Arin was still resting by her tree, but based on the look of her she was just about up to tip top shape.

“You seem excited.” She smiled as I passed.

“Oh I am!” I grinned, “This is really fun!”

“I’m so glad.” She breathed a sigh of relief, “When the deity told me she was summoning you, I wasn't sure whether you’d even want to be here or not. Honestly, I was really worried you’d be mad about not being able to go home…”

“Nah.” I waved my hand, “Home was much more stressful than this is.”

“That’s good to hear.”

I continued to grab the core book, and it opened itself to another page. It definitely knew what I wanted, because what appeared on the page was a chart of the magic allotments of my house in number form.

Magical Capacity:

1852/2700

Magical Generation:

277/hr

Magical Expenditure:

165/hr

Magical Recovery:

112/hr

Ent Lvl.1: 70/hr

Nymph: 50/hr

Utilities: 45/hr

Well that was useful. It was interesting to see that Arin had her own magical cost, while I did not.

As I looked over the chart, I noticed that the magical generation number was increasing by one about every ten seconds. I wondered why, but then noticed that the increase correlated with everytime the ent planted a seed.

So that’s how that works. I thought. I had the book pull up the growth rate for my territory, and found it to also increase, however slightly everytime a seed was planted. It looked as though each seed increased the rate of growth by about an eighth of an inch a day. Not much, but it would definitely add up over time.

In a few minutes I noticed that the numbers stopped rising, and that led me to believe that the ent was done with his work. I tried to think of another order to give to the fellow, but was more interested in the book at the moment.

What can I do with you… I thought, causing the book to completely change again. Now, a list of options started to appear, along with costs per each.

Action:

Grow Ent: 500+ 70/hr

Power Electricity: 35/hr

Pull Water: 10/hr

Accelerate Growth: 20/week’s growth

That wasn't the full list, but it was what I wanted to focus on right then. I was certain that there was more the core book could do, but didn't quite know how to trigger it.

Arin saw my pondering face, and came over to sit next to me on the porch.

“Oooh~” She looked over the book, “This seems really interesting.”

“I think so.” I nodded. I focused on the power electricity option and a space opened up underneath the text with a description.

Turn magic into electricity to power home appliances.

I looked to the others, and found that they all had a similar description. The grow ent option did exactly what Arin had done before with our current ent; pull water drew groundwater from nearby to run the houses plumbing; and accelerate growth of any plant by a week at a time. All useful abilities, I thought.

“What is electricity?” Arin asked me as she read.

“I’ll show you.” I told her. Looking at the book, I instinctively knew the “magic” I had to invoke to power my house’s electrical grid. It felt as though I was running a current through a mental visualization of all the circuits in the house, and after I focused to make it happen for a moment the porch fan whirred to life. Magic was quite simple with the assistance of the core book, it seemed.

Arin jumped at the sudden movement, causing me to smirk. I had the nymph follow me inside, where I demonstrated a lightswitch.

“That’s incredible!” She exclaimed, “It’s like a torch without fire! A lantern without fuel!”

“But it still requires magic.” I thought aloud, “It technically isn't, but now magic powers it. Interesting…” I pondered what having electricity meant, and that mostly amounted to air conditioning and warm baths, which excited me greatly.

I did a little experimenting and found that all of my internet devices still were without service, but the presence of power meant that I could watch the few DVDs I had around the house if I wanted to, along with listen to downloaded music, which I had a lot of.

I still was much more excited about a magical world that I was mournful about the loss of earth, but not having any music would have really hit me where it hurt. And with the power, also came the ability to cook.

“Arin, how would you like a meal?” I asked the nymph.

“I don't need to eat, but I’m always happy for something tasty!” She smiled. Though she looked pretty much just like a human, the fact that she didn't need to eat was strange. Maybe that was why she had an hourly magic cost.

I decided that to welcome myself to this new place, I would cook up a celebratory early lunch. I wasn't quite sure what I was doing still, but my way forward looked simple enough, and that alone made me look forward to what would come next.