Chapter 1 - Joe of All Trades
An Elves’ life is a long one. Fortunately their genetic makeup and cultural upbringing prepares them and helps them appreciate the passage of time. Joe was not so lucky, or possibly he was not so unlucky. Joe was born human and in his life as a human, he never concerned himself with the future or the past for that matter. With so much time on his hands now, being re-incarnated as an Elf, he saw his human life with great yearning. Joe was born to a simple farming family in a simply farming community. As the first son, he was responsible to learn everything about running the farm and how to defend it. Everyone who met Joe was impressed with his quick wit, charming personality and his ability to learn. Many thought he was older then he was, for his accelerated learning; not only discussing the detail of the crop rotations but also to discuss and implement strategies for defending the community from the wilderness that lay outside their little world. Once Joe had enough younger siblings to help with the farm, he was enlisted to the local Militia where he was equally impressive with his ability to fight. He was strong, both in muscle and stamina; from his hard work in the field, but it was his cunningness and the ability to use almost anything as a weapon that truly made him stand out. Even now, so many years later, the one thing Joe remembered, is that he did not try to be impressive, he just did what he thought was best. He looked at each moment as a task to be handled and did the best he could, which always seemed to work. One day, which many would say - at the time - was out of character, was the day an elven wizard came passing through. Joe had heard of Elves and knew it was unusually to see one in these parts, and had heard of magic, even seen the effects of magic, but knew it was a rare curiosity around here. So Joe went to see this oddity of their cultural and life, and was so bold as to call him that to his face. The elf was good natured and found the remarks refreshingly honest and rather intelligent not only for a human but for a young commoner, and he said so to Joe. At the time Joe did not consider the term insulting, but he soon realized how insulting it would turn out to be and how incorrect it was. The elven wizard had a number of basic tricks he used to entertain the youngsters and at the same time test them on numerous intellectual qualities. Most all the kids that came by giggled at the tricks and puzzled at how the elf did each one. The adults often ignored the elf, unless they wanted their kids noticed, and then they would try and show off their kids. Joe was too old to be considered a kid but he was young enough to be interested in the tricks and as it turns out, understood how they worked. At first the elf thought he was lucky, or just that he heard of them before. After he started to explain to the kids how the tricks worked, the wizard soon realized Joe was something special. So special that his family was rewarded handsomely when Joe was assigned to the elf as an apprentice.
