Ch 4

The next two weeks went by rather quickly; he managed to earn enough selling medicinal plants to afford a small kitchenette and some potions equipment. He gathered clippings of some of the rarer plants and had started to grow them in transfigured pots inside his house. The cold weather was not helping the fanged geranium growing next to the lumber shed.

He managed to clear the field quickly; his wand and ability to finally use most of his spell repertoire made short work of most menial tasks. Honestly Harry hadn't even had to touch the tools Stella lent him; and boy was she surprised when she came across him levitating a stump in midair. Apparently the magic the used in this world wasn't quite so easy.

This got him an introduction with Kanno, an elderly man who was apparently this world's equivalent of a wizard. Finally someone believed his story. According to the old man magic such as the kind Harry used had never been seen in that world. They also managed to figure out that the reason most of his spells were so overpowered was because of the rune spirits. This world was flooded with magic. There was no divide of magic and muggle; magic was everywhere. It was what allowed this world's magic user to cast freely without a wand. Something he learned when Kanno was kind enough to give a demonstration. Some odd chanting later and Harry and Kanno were standing outside the clock tower with a small globe of water standing between them.

"The magic of this world flows easier. As such we have never needed a wand. You however have grown so accustomed to forcing your worlds dwindling magic that you use far more force than necessary when casting in our world. As such your spells are much stronger though you may never be capable of manipulating the magic of this world without using your wand as a focus".

"Do you have any idea of how I might have gotten here?" Harry finally found a small hope that going home was actually possible.

"Unfortunately no, I have heard tales of a young man in Sharance coming from a different world but I have no clue how he may have gotten there. I can ask but unless the world he came from was your world it is unlikely that he would be of any help."

He could feel disappointment set in. The solution was never that easy. As the conversation ended Kanno seemed to grow tired of holding the water midair and let it splash onto an oddly growing bean stock.

What occurred next made Harry think of one of those Disney stories the Dursley's never let Dudley watch; the one about the idiot who sold a cow for beans.

The sprout grew, and grew and grew until finally it stopped a giant tower of green stretching up towards that strangle Whale Island.

"How the bloody hell is that even possible?"

"I have no idea. Perhaps it is at least in part thanks to the rune spirits." It appeared Kanno was attempting to channel the mysterious wisdom that was Albus Dumbledore; minus the twinkle.

"Yeah, let's blame it on the spirits. They seem to be warping my reality enough as it is."

He didn't care anymore; let the world turn its head backwards Harry was a Gryffindor. They frequently rushed into situations without thought. A giant bean stalk was no different; the giant talking whale however was a bit unusual. It actually reminded him of the sorting hat if a bit less snarky. Inanimate objects achieving sentience and all that. The strange tablet talking about twelve maidens and bright flashes of something shooting towards the village he could have done without. It sounded entirely too much like a prophecy for him to be happy about it. Harry avoided the clock tower for days after that

This was made easier by the fact that Kanno had left to retrieve his granddaughters while the tower was being remodeled.

Shortly after Kanno left and just before spring set in Harry got a new neighbor. She was so familiar it hurt. He stopped himself from calling her Luna twice the first day he met her. Her name was mist and she was staying in another of Stella's old Homes. She loved turnips and came here because she could hear something calling out for help.

It took less than an hour for her to become Harry's favorite person in the village; He went out and transfigured her a set of earrings shaped like turnips and a necklace to match. She loved them.

Harry did worry about her though; she didn't have a job or any clue about how she was going to earn a living. Harry would frequently check to make sure she had food and had bought her rice more than once. Thankfully he wasn't the only one concerned about her. At the beginning of spring Raguna had managed to find her. Apparently Mist had saved his life when he was lying exhausted in front of her house last year half-starved and seriously dehydrated. He began living in the spare room in Mist's house and was deceptively strong. Something that was noticed when he came back to the village with strange items he took from monsters he defeated on the whale. Those items sold for a pretty penny; something that made Harry glad as now Raguna was the one supporting Mist. It also made him rethink his decision to avoid the island. Some of those horns make excellent potions ingredients.

After an awkward apology to the whale for avoiding him so long, (Really who knew sentient land masses could be so touchy) Harry had managed to make it past the goblins with a few stunning spells. It seemed odd to him that the goblins in this world were so drastically different from the goblins in his. He was pretty surprised at the girl he found staring at a sizeable boulder. How did she make it here in one piece?

"Er…Hello. I'm sorry but I don't think we've met. My name is Harry and has that rock done something to offend you?"

She jumped a bit as she finally noticed his presence. "What…Oh hello. I'm Melody I ran the bath house in Kardia. I heard Mist and Raguna had moved out here and thought it sounded like a good business opportunity. I'm almost positive that boulder is blocking a hot spring. It must be moved!"

She was pretty odd, her clothes made him assume she was a witch and there was a fair bit of magic around her but that seemed to be the case with everyone in this world. Those rune spirits really made it hard to tell the magical from the normal. At any case he didn't see any harm in humoring her.

"Well in that case if you could just step back a bit" She looked a little puzzled but stepped behind him anyways. "There we go." One silent blasting curse later and Harry became smothered by a giant wall of steam. Thankfully it wasn't hot enough to burn but he would need to dry his clothes.

"Oh you're a WIZARD! Teach me, teach me, teach me PLEASE!"

She seemed to get louder after every syllable. She was also clinging to his waist with a vice grip. He wasn't sure he could escape without the use of a stunning spell to be honest. After three failed attempts to dislodge her Harry managed to shake her loose by promising lessons after Kanno returned.

"You see I'm not entirely sure how magic works here to be honest, Kanno's been helping me. So before I can teach you anything reliable I need a few more lessons myself. Actually your probably better off going to him for lessons. I hear he should be back next week."

She pouted a bit but agreed anyways. Harry helped he make her way past the goblins and back to the Bean stalk before returning to his spelunking (Cave exploration).

He found many strange animals as he made his way further inside the whale. There were giant balls of slime that had a tendency to reform after stunning them so those annoying little things got frozen. Some strange looking beast man he thought may have been one of the Orcs Raguna told him about and even what looked like farm animals at first glance.

Those he found in a clearing with a fairly tall tower. The sheep like animals were absolutely adorable and had a tendency to faint if he got too close. The cows weren't so kind; one of the bloody things nearly ran him down. Either way it was getting dark; he had just made up his mind to leave when a young girl dressed in white stepped out of the tower. She began tending the flowers and didn't seem to notice him at all until he called out to her.

She was nice, if a bit lonely. Her name was Iris; and as Harry quickly noticed she was a something like a vampire; though not quite. According to her she was of a race that was closest to the spirits. Apparently she was the last of her clan and had begun living on the whale to escape Sech military. Apparently most governments had a very small minded opinion of her people. They either pledged loyalty and slaughtered their enemies or were slaughtered themselves. Neither option appealed to her very much.

She managed to get him to promise to visit her; a promise he was happy to make. She seemed a bit young to be out on her own though he certainly didn't have much room to talk.

He also took the time to introduce her to the whale she was living on. Apparently they had never met before which he thought was strange. They got along well and Harry had the feeling that he may have done his good deed of the day; when he climbed down the stalk to go home they were talking about building flower beds near his head and by her tower.

The next day came a little too early and much too bright for Harry's liking; but there was someone at his door and he thought he had better figure out what they wanted.

It was Annette; apparently her desire to do her job correctly had overcome any apprehension she had about his ability to blast small fuzzy monsters into unconsciousness. She started off a bit shaky but seemed to pick up steam when she decided he had no intention of blasting her. To be honest Harry thought he might have preferred her unease if it meant he got out of filling out the stack of paperwork she handed him.

"As a new resident of Trampoli we need information for the town census; as well as for tax purposes. Here we have a basic M1 form to set up your house as a stop on the mail rout. There is also the C1 and C2. The C1 form is for medical information your gender and any serious injuries or illnesses that have occurred in the past few years. The C2 form is for employment information; actually since you're self-employed and running a small business you're going to have to fill out a B-F5 as well. That form is for Large Farms meant to provide Income instead of just food. Good news is that since the taxes you pay are based on what you make and farms don't usually see any net profit until their second year you probably won't have to pay any this year. We will still need copies of your records though. Make sure you include your mortgage payments to Stella if you don't want to be overcharged next year. I'll be by in the morning to pick those forms up."

Harry didn't finish those forms until nearly noon. He wasn't sure what he should put as previous address or what he should leave out of his medical History. He doubted they would believe he had once died anyways. Stella was a huge help; after about twenty minutes of panicking he went to the elderly woman for help and came back but a stack of fake documents Kanno had mailed over from the capitol. Apparently he had foreseen Harry's problem and decided to lend a Hand.

Harry now came from a small fishing village on the other side of the Alvarna Mountain range right before the territory turned over to the Kingdom of Roland. His mother passed away due to a bad flu when he was five and his father from a boating accident this past summer. He had no other siblings and came out here to escape bad memories.

Thankfully the town he supposedly hailed from was infamous for its poor record keepers so the entire story was not only plausible but incredibly hard to disprove considering the heavy snowfall meant the roads leading there were only open one month out of the year.

He also got a chance to meet Lara; she too moved here from Kardia and was studying to become a nun. She was also a licensed nurse. After a quick physical she signed off on his C1. Thankfully most of his serious injuries had been healed too thoroughly by magic for her to discover. Unfortunately she did notice his stunted growth and mildly brittle bones due to several years of attempted starvation via the Dursley family. Though she didn't seem completely convinced she did eventually accept that this was a hazard of living in a poor village.

With the completed forms bundled up and stashed in his mailbox for Annette to find harry made his way to the South District. He had two items on his agenda today. Purchase seeds from Erick and see if Krause could build him a barn.

Kraus was a very quiet man, but his eyes were very telling. Whoever this man was he had seen war. He was quiet enough to go unnoticed unless he wanted to be but strong enough to push boulders from his field without much effort. To be honest Harry wouldn't want to face him in battle without his wand. Thankfully Kraus seemed content to live a quiet life as both a farmer and contractor. His rates were pretty good too. One thousand gold and some of the lumber Harry had collected from his field later and Harry was nearly broke but he'd have a barn in about three days. Damn impressive considering Kraus was doing the work alone and without magic.

Erick was another story. He was clearly harmless if a bit vain and little too obsessed with getting a girlfriend. His prices however, were not so kind. Harry had just enough to get a few Strawberry and potato seeds. With what change he had left he bought about five lbs. of grass seed; guaranteed to grow quickly so he would have something to feed the animals he intended on getting for his new barn.

Sowing the seeds took the most time. That was the only task he had to do by hand, tilling the field and watering could both be done by magic. A few weak severing charms and the field was ready to be seeded. Likewise an overpowered aguamenti into the air was the equivalent of a modern irrigation system.

Shortly after he finished he spotted Raguna headed up the path to his house.

"Hey Harry can I ask you for a favor?"

That was actually a bit odd. Raguna was usually pretty self-sufficient; he didn't seem to like asking anyone for anything. Actually it seemed like the entire town benefited from his work ethic if he thought about all the times he spotted the young man running errands for the locals.

"Sure, I'm not too busy right now though I was just about to have lunch. Fish with steamed rice and some tea I made out of some red grass and wild mint. Care to join me?"

"Really, thanks! I haven't eaten anything but turnips since I got here. That was actually what I wanted to talk to you about."

They settled into lunch while Raguna explained his request. Apparently he really hadn't eaten anything but turnips for a week since it was the only thing Mist had in her fridge.

"So she has this large field in front her house and I was thinking I might as well use it. The rates Erick charges for cabbage would bankrupt me in no time; but I don't actually have too many tools. I got a hammer from Melody and a scythe from Erick but that's not really enough. I was thinking that since you use magic rather than those tools Stella gave you, you might be willing to sell them to me. I've got about 5k I can afford to spend on them."

5k would certainly help but Harry felt about accepting payment for a gift and wound up giving them away for free; he wasn't going to use them at any rate.

"You may want to be a bit careful though. Those tools aren't exactly in the best condition. If you try and do too much you might break them."

"That alright, Ganesha said she would let me rent the use of her forge if I ever dug up the supplies to fix them I'm pretty sure there's a manual on forging in the Library too."

Harry had only one intelligent thing to say in regards to that. "There's a library here?" Okay so maybe it wasn't so intelligent.