"Nooooo wonder people avoid them.

Uh, what kills Bane? Magic?"

"Spells are better, if you can get them. You can hurt Bane with normal weapons, and the small ones -'Wisps' - it's survivable. Like, you could fight a wolf naked, if you had a sword, and win. Right? So you can beat a Wisp with a sword. Better if the sword's at least a little bit magic, but a lot of old weapons are. The bigger ones, Scourges and Malices, well, I doubt you could beat a bear naked, or a boar, even with a really good spear. Or a pack of wolves. But people try anyway, sometimes."

"Well, I couldn't, I'm young. Unless it's a pretty small wolf. How about fire or lightning. Or acid. Hot steam... I'm going to need to figure out what magic is in my framework, eventually. Oh well, nothing for it now."

"Fire and lightning definitely work. ...Actually, I've only seen that as magic, not any other flames or a natural lightning strike. But they would probably work."

"Lightning's something we were getting decent at! Takes a lot of metal and work, though. Hmm... Can you tell me what kind of rocks are around here? I might recognize something I can make your plow with."

"I mostly only distinguish the slate and flint from the heavier, more solid stuff. But let's see, there's a lot of layered brown rock, some more bulgy gray rock..."

It transpires that there is a lot of sandstone and some granite nearby, and she remembers something recognizable as limestone that is off her land but closer than the nearest town.

"I can probably work with that if I, uh, get enough fresh wood to make charcoal with, to heat a really awful temporary forge... Good hard anthracite, hard black coal, would be wonderful but beggars can't be choosers right? Um. If you want to hear more about my home, feel free to ask, I know I'm just kind of - rambling."

"If I had suddenly landed on the other side of the world with no way of getting back, I doubt I'd want to dwell on the place I was missing."

"I don't think there's any coal deposits in Vendrien's Well, we'd probably have used it if there was. How much wood do you need? Half a cord*, three cords, twenty?"

*cord: a stack of firewood with pieces lined up end-to-end to approximately four feet long, stretching about eight feet long and four feet high, i.e. "about twice what you can line up along the back side of your house under the edge of the roof"

"...One cord ought to be plenty, and I can do - what you do is make charcoal, sort of cooking the wood instead of burning it, do you know charcoal? And then it can burn hot enough to work iron, which cookfires can't. Best you can do with cookfires is tin and maybe copper."

"Then I probably have enough already dry, and enough trees on the edge of the homestead to replace it, though I'll want some help chopping the new. I know charcoal, though I don't have regular use for it myself."

"I'll definitely help. As much as I can. It is a simple fact, where I'm from, that adults and men are physically stronger."

"You're, what, fifteen summers? I'm old enough to be worn down, you're in your prime years. I wouldn't put any big bets on which of us could cut more in an hour."

"Thereabouts. Like I said, I will work hard."

"Sure, I believe you. Do you want to go looking for useful rock now, or wait?"

"Need the ore before the charcoal. And maybe I'll recognize something better than sandstone. Tan rock, that is."

"Makes sense. I'll start cooking a meal while you're out, I think."

She picks a direction and walks for twenty minutes or until she finds an obvious boundary marker or good rocks, whichever comes first. Or signs of buried rocks for that matter, since it's mostly soil up top. A spiral pattern can come later if it seems called for.

Helooooo rocks, anything better than (blech!) sandstone?

There are some! Granite, here, though also there's a break in the woods and she can see some limestone-looking formations, probably another twenty minute's walk away.

There might be any iron in there, but she would really like some nice red hematite or shiny grey magnetite. Pleeeeease, universe? Please? Maybe some clumpy bog iron or the kind that forms weird bulges in rock faces she read about but can't remember the name of? Hm.

Well, exploring far around the wilderness of a war-torn bronze age magic kingdom is not a great idea, so she turns around. Limestone will be nice as an option later, though.

Hmm, that might be a little magnetite on one corner, actually.

Ooh! She takes a closer look.

Magnetite is magnetic. Her compass will act weird if she presses it right up close to the rock, if it's really magnetite.

...Her compass is on her lantern, which is back at the house. Well, she'll see if a piece is pick-up-able for now, and head back.

Good news: It's small enough that she can break it off from the granite. Bad news: It's small enough that she can break it off from the granite.

Rocks are heavy. Even little rocks she can break off from a boulder with a prybar and hammer (since she did bring her tool belt) are pretty heavy. She carries it back to the house anyway, a smile on her face.

"I'm ba~ack!"

Thump goes the rock, just outside.

"Sounds like a lucky search?", Essa calls. She pokes her head out. "Oh, that does look interesting. Not sure I remember where I've seen it, but there should be some around elsewhere."

"Most common iron ore in the world, according to the 1877 geological survey. My world, at least. I think we'd have noticed the Tiers, which is still extremely confusing but don'tthinkaboutittoohardorI'llfreakout ANYWAY. I feel like staying busy and not thinking about it! Chopping more wood?"