As always the mice dropped him back to the exact place he had entered their dungeon. In Johnson's lab hidden away between a shelving unit and some type of machine. It was a great place for a mouse to hide. It was not so great for a human.
James quickly looked around to see if anyone saw him crawl out of a dark hole. Seeing no one he sighed thankfully.
The next thing he did was pop another medium grade stamina pill and one of the mana pills that Johnson had given him. This was his last stamina pill which meant that he had to get back from the island to the main campus to refill his stamina bottle soon. It was great confirming that all he had was Mana exhaustion, but he found that he needed both mana and stamina to be able to function normally.
'I am so messed up! I am going to have even worse pill poisoning soon, if I don't already have it. What am I thinking?'
Johnson was a terrible master. Leaving James to figure out everything and on top of that force him to cook and clean. It was all too much.
'I need to get back control of my life somehow, but instead I just keep giving control away.'
It is always easier to let someone else tell you what to do, especially if you are dealing with things that are far outside of your own understanding.
'I feel like it is best to keep my [Fertility] ability secret, but especially keep the mice secret. If I start talking about them I won't be able to protect them.'
This was probably the mouse heritage he had inherited talking. James had never been so terrified of what people might do before contracting Wilbur. Now there was no going back. James had to accept the way he was.
Second guessing every action, every choice would be crazy and literally impossible.
Instead James felt like he needed to regain a sense of self from which he could establish a base line for interacting with the world. It would be great to move forward based on previous decisions and trust that everything would work out.
For example right now James was standing between a shelf and a piece of lab equipment afraid of any choice he might make. Worried whether it was the man or the mouse making the decisions. Taking a deep breath James squared his shoulders.
'What I need right now is confidence, but don't think confidence will come as a gift wrapped delivery. All I can do is take this one step at a time. Fighting my mouse heritage and to whatever extend the moss heritage has only gotten my into more trouble. From now on I won't hold back, I can only go forward embracing my pet's heritage. Let's go deep.'
Finally decided on a course of action, right or wrong, James realized that even though it was dark outside he didn't need the light. His mouse senses told him more about the room around him than his eyes did.
This was a unique feeling that he had not allowed himself to experience before for fear that it would further destabilize his mind.
But now, he was over it. Let it destabilize him, if that was what he was going to become, then so be it. He was tired of always feeling like he was not himself. Instead of running away from his fears he would confront them.
So slowly he moved around the room looking in all of the drawers and cabinets. He was still afraid that he might ruin something, but he wasn't too worried about it. These were small fears that kept him aware of his actions.
The last thing he wanted to do was make a mess, because the one cleaning it up would be him. And James was sure that Johnson would not appreciate it if all his stuff was rummaged through.
Still he was enjoying getting to know the world around him, by touch, smell, and by hearing to a certain extent as well. The sound of his own footsteps, of pulling open and shutting drawers. Sometimes there would be objects that would roll or knock around. Each touch, smell, and sound was like a revelation.
Now that he was focusing on these things he could feel some deep dark animalistic knowing begin to develop.
'This is so interesting. I can almost tell what ingredients might be harmful.'
Eventually he had searched the whole house except the attic and Johnson's room. Too afraid to wake Johnson up on both accounts. The lighthouse's powerful beam light was working and seemed to be on automatic. The stairwell that elevated the powerful light up another two stories story above the living area and attic was locked.
Exploring the light house's highest rooms would have to wait for another time.
At last James just fell asleep on the couch. As soon as his head touched the pillow he was asleep.
In the morning hours he was woken up by the sounds of Johnson moving around. Grumbling about getting breakfast.
"Where is that apprentice? He didn't even make breakfast!"
James felt like an idiot for not getting up early to make breakfast on one hand and offended that this completely capable adult couldn't even make his own breakfast.
A third thought came to him, that he was missing something important and if he could only have a moment to think he would remember what it was and all would be well.
'Even when I do have a moment to think, like last night, nothing had come of it!'
And again something interrupted his thoughts.
"Apprentice! Where are you? Come and make some breakfast!"
Now Johnson was calling down the stairs, thinking that he was probably down in the apprentice quarters.
"I am already up."
Johnson nearly jumped out of his skin when James spoke from behind.
"Oh! You scared me. Well, come on make some breakfast. What do you think this is?"
Even with all his recently resolutions to take his life back just having someone tell him what to do felt so good after worrying about his nagging sense of loss and confusion for so long.
So James set about making eggs and bacon for Johnson. It took a long time, because James had to get used to the kitchen to find any thing.
Grumbling the entire time his master sat at the dining room table and muttered to himself while drinking some tea that James had hurriedly set out.
Finally when James had made all the food he put out a plate for Johnson and a plate for himself and they ate together. His master seemed to enjoy the food and part way through he seemed to finally relax a bit.
"So, yesterday I went through what is required of you as my apprentice up here in the house. Today I will teach you what you need to do for the lab down stairs. I don't know if you noticed, but I don't have any electricity in the house. The lights you see here are all alchemical, the lab equipment is all alchemical. So one of your main tasks will be to help me create the alchemical light and power sources. SPAM delivers supplies by helicopter once a month."
He paused and waited to see if James had any questions.
This was different from yesterday when his master had just droned on and on about house work. Today Johnson showed that he cared.
"Where are the supplies kept?"
This was a good question. James had explored the whole house and had not seen anything that looked like a supply area. At least not one big enough for what he imagined would have to be created to power the light house.
"Ha! Let me show you. Come on!"
Johnson got up from the table leaving his half finished food.
"What about the clean up and dishes?"
James said confused by the priorities displayed.
"Oh, don't worry about them. You can do it later, come on!"
Remembering all the times his father and mother had scolded him for leaving his dishes James got up from the table and followed Johnson out of the house.
"The supplies are there."
Teacher pointed at the woods. More than half the island was dominated by a dense forest.
All James could do was squint and try to figure out what he meant.
"Come in, you'll see."
Striding confidently Johnson proceeded to show James the entire forest. What James learned was that the forest itself was the supplies for the light house. The trees were hawthorn and their branches were a necessary ingredient in the power supply's alchemy recipe. There were butterflies whose wings were part of the recipe for the light pills. Mushrooms were a binding ingredient for both recipes.
As they walked Johnson picked what he needed never taking more than the denizens of the forest could give.
"Some of my colleagues criticize my methods because they say this isn't a real forest. To them it is a garden. And to that I can only concede. It is true, this island was originally barren. It was a man made island just like all the rest of the biomes that SPAM created for their beast center. I planted all the original trees most of which are still living. I also introduced all of the insects, birds, reptiles, and mammals."
"Wait, there are animals running around in here?"
Stopping the old man, James asked a quick question.
"Yes of course, small ones, of course this forest can't support any larger animals. But there are a few cats and of course the reptiles. The lizards have been really prolific. There is an iguana species that I need for their skins. Their shed skins mind you, but they learned to fish so they have a pretty unlimited supply of food. You can see their nests over on the leeward side of the island."
Explaining some more the old man obviously displayed his love of the forest.
"Now, I am going to need a lot of help. There are lots of species that don't normally grow together so they have to be separated into different parts of the forest. And see here? This is a Mana transformation stake, part of an array that I built the forest on. The array must be maintained or different plants will die. This particular stake is an earth lode. It of course attracts Mana heavy with the earth element and catalyzes normal Mana into earth heavy Mana."
This was a new concept for James. He had never heard of different types of Mana.
"Master, why haven't I heard of earth Mana?"
Asking another question his master had to pause, it was clearly irritating to do so.
"Because talking about different types of Mana complicates the subject and when every type of Mana can be used in Mana neutral arrays it is possible to ignore the concept for 99% of humanity. Only a few really use the interactions between elements. But the ones who do can produce more efficient and better effects. The machines you use everyday use elemental effects to improve performance you just don't know it. That phone for example."
Pointing to James' phone his master gave an example.
"Wow, that is incredible."
A cat suddenly jumped out of a tree where it had been completely concealed and landed on Johnson's shoulder. The old man didn't even flinch. Staying steady Johnson reached up and tickled the cat under the chin and then brought her down to stroke her back.
"This is Samantha. She is the queen of this forest and also my pet. Stay away from her and you will be just fine. She is territorial, but if she warns you off, listen to her. Drop what you are doing and walk away."
The old man's warning was weird.
After going out of his way to convey how wonderful this forest was, now he was saying that there was danger here.
Confused James asked,
"Is there something dangerous in the forest?"
Shrugging his master caught James' eye and stared straight into him,
"Yes, there are many things in this forest that are extremely dangerous. There are a few reptiles and plants which are poisonous. There are also some birds and other reptiles who become territorial at certain times of the year. And I will admit that I have a few secrets locked up in this forest. Just trust me, if Samantha blocks your way don't think twice about it. Just turn around. Running away might be appropriate in some cases. Trust me."
His teacher paused, but James didn't ask anymore questions.
"Yes, master."
"Good, with time I will show you more and more of the dangers. Don't worry, properly handled they will be no threat to you. And their properties, if used correctly, can help make the wonders of alchemy."
"As you wish, master."
Finding himself agreeable James helped carry some of the random bits and pieces of things the old man gathered.