Rum, followed by White Rose, stepped over to a little clearing, at the edge of which was a large thick tree. Rum stepped up to the tree, positioned himself beside it and gestured at it. He looked as if he was about to start a class on the science of trees. “This is a tree” he said.

White Rose put zes head to one side. Rum could’ve interpreted the gesture in any number of different ways: the sarcasm of being treated as an idiot, the confusion of why he would point this out, or perhaps the curiosity about what he was going to say. He opted for the last interpretation.

“It clings to the earth by boring its roots deep down into the soil.” Rum sat down and patted the ground. “This is the earth” he commented, “it includes the soil as well as the rock inside and below the surface, and also the water and plants found within.” He looked around and found a piece of softer ground, and with force pulled up some of it in a fistful. Getting rid of the grass and a little stone, he showed it to White Rose. “This is the soil. It is what trees eat, if the quality is good enough.” He threw the soil away and stepped up next to the tree again. “This tree is hard and strong. You can practice on it what I’m about to show you.”

Rum stepped a bit closer to White Rose so ze could see clearly. In front of zes face he displayed his hand, before letting his fingers bend inwards and form a fist. “When you put your fingers together like this, it is called a fist. Remember to keep your thumb clear” and he pointed at his own, “you’re not punching with your thumb.” White Rose looked intently at Rum’s hand. “Now, I’m going to demonstrate how you can use a fist as a weapon.” Rum took up a pose against the tree and looked at it dead seriously – as if it was his worst enemy. “Skin Toughen” he whispered, and his fist glowed for but a second. “Now comes the punch” he said, and a second later he threw his fist forward straight into the tree.

“AAAUUU!” he groaned loudly. “Gods! That hurt!” and he shook his hand, as if trying to shake away the pain. He peered up at White Rose, giving ze a faint smile with pain-biting teeth. “Like that” he breathed out with pain, “just that you won’t feel pain like I did. So no need to do any of the stuff after I had hit–” as Rum was about to finish his sentence, he suddenly felt a massive THUNK! in his back, forcing the air out of him and carrying him up into the air and throwing him almost 3 meters away. He landed hard, clumsily and shocked. In-between the huge deep breaths that followed, with him trying to restore air to his lungs, he managed to roll over to look up at whoever had attacked him. His change of perspective was just in time to see one of the tree’s larger branches innocently return to its previous position high up.

“HUUUH!” he gasped and breathed, trying but failing miserably to speak. “HUU-just-HUU-a-tree” and he coughed once. For about half a minute he just laid there, heavy breaths bringing him back to normal, slowly, before he thought he’d acted asthmatic long enough, and unsteadily got up on both legs and feet.

“Okay” he said as he just as unsteadily walked back to White Rose, standing next to ze once more. “Not this tree. It doesn’t like being punched” he glanced up at it, wondering if it would attempt a round 2 strike. “And also–” he looked around at the other trees around the clearing, “–I thought I’d registered all the trees that the elves animated. Hmm...” Rum pondered for a few seconds, hand to his beard. “Well well, I suppose I will have to do.” He turned around and looked into White Rose’s dark veil. “Did you at least get what I was trying to show you? How to do the fist? How to punch?” As Rum stared at ze, White Rose gave a couple of quick nods, and then brought up zes own right hand, clenching a fist like he’d showed ze. “Good, good. Now–” he pointed a finger at his left shoulder, “–could you try and do a punch on my shoulder here?” He tapped the shoulder. “Just wai–” as he was about to finished the words, White Rose slammed zes fist into his shoulder with the force of a battering ram hitting a pumpkin, and the smoothness and speed of motion only seen in the finest gnomish mechanisms. The result was instant and terrifying, though Rum didn’t have time to feel fear. Instead he was flung backwards nearly as far as the branch had hit him, except this time his entire left shoulder shattered, and as he landed bone fragments stuck out, and he quickly experienced the most intense pain he had ever had. It was even worse than an arrow to the lung.

“Aaaaaah!” Rum sung for a long high note, before his eyes met the veil of White Rose. There his song became deeper and weaker, until he managed to keep his pain to himself. A difficult challenge when the storm of painful sensations was constantly rushing to reach his vocal cords and to make themselves known to this world. “Uuuh” he groaned, and quickly mumbled “Trinity of Healing”, feeling the spell flow into and throughout his shoulder, where a lightshow slowly fixed him up.

When the pain subsided into a mere recent trauma, he decided to roll over and once more stumble up. “Okay, good” he breathed out. As he began walking back to ze again, he sniffed, as if trying to suppress a weakling tear. “I think that was a very excellent punch. Now, if anyone tries to harm you or the other elves here: give them a punch like that.” He took one more breath, before stepping up close to ze, placing his right hand on zes shoulder and clapping it up and down, in what was intended as some kind of approving gesture. “Though try and be certain that they are hostile. We don’t want to accidentally smash somebody’s shoulder to pieces.” He smiled a little, and even made a short brief laugh at his own fortunes.

Then Rum heard footsteps, and he turned around to see Udevi approach from the camp. “Are you ready to join?” she asked, “We’re gathering for the dungeon dive now.”

“Yes” he said, taking one last breath and sigh. “Yes I am.”