When the sun finally dropped below the horizon, Gale felt his legs move.
            “Oh! I got so distracted I forgot about the patrol!” He thought, looking at his legs. “Do I only get forced when I don’t follow an order?” He thought.

He was taken to a nearby standalone building with a large wooden double door. The ceiling was lit up with the same glass vials he found in the shed and the walls were lined with swords and sheaths. It must have been an armoury specifically for slaves on patrol.
He reached for a nearby sword and sheath as he walked by and control returned to his legs. Behind the sword was a small jar of jerky and at the bottom of the sword was another slime and glass vial, this time screwed into the pommel. The swords here were all like this, with either a black or purple slime, some of the black ones were still lit up, clearly from a previous patrol in an area that need more light to see. However, Gale had grabbed one of the swords with a purple slime. Gale unscrewed the vial and dropped a piece of jerky in. The thick purple slime began to devour the jerky, creating a purple-blueish light that could be screwed into the pommel of the sword. It didn’t make it that much easier to see but under the light the dried blood on his hand gained a striking fluorescent glow.

Gale’s patrol took him to the edge of the estate around the eastern garden. Vast swaths of wheat surrounded the estate, dissected into large sections by paths that headed towards the forests in the distance. The fire on his head flickered softly as he squinted at the forest. Did he see a flash of eyes? Gale unsheathed his sword and pointed the pommel at the forest, but it was too far away. He wondered what was beyond this point, in fact he didn’t even really know what he was supposed to be patrolling for. He headed back and forth through the various paths in the wheat, scanning it with the light on his pommel. Eventually he came across a streak of fluorescent blue glow on a lower section of wheat. Beyond it he saw more streaks and he began tracking them through and around the wheat.

He was coming up on a right turn when he caught a flash of something furry in the wheat. He rounded the corner quickly and move into the middle of the path to cut whatever he saw off. He found himself face to face with three wolves exiting the wheat on the right. One had a bloodied bird in its jaws. Gale took a step back in surprise as the wolves lowered themselves to the ground and growled at him.
            “They’re just wolves” He thought. “Shhh, it’s okay, I’m not going to hurt you.” He whispered softly.
The wolves continued to growl and bare their teeth, but they started to inch backwards into the wheat, seemingly aiming to retreat towards the forest. It seemed like they were fearful of him.

Gale felt the tug of his arm on his sword. His eyes glazed over. Drawing the blade, he pointed it at the wolves.
            “Hey, hey!” He said in terror. “Don’t tell me I’m just out here to kill animals! They’re already leaving! We don’t need to-” He desperately pleaded to his own arm. But it was futile.

Gale’s whole body started to move by itself, he let loose a devastating sword slice though the wheat above the nearest wolf. Shredded wheat flew into the air, but the wolves darted out from under the swipe just in time, turning tail to run away from Gale through the wheat. Gale felt himself drop into a crouch before his powerful leg muscles sent him through the air.
Jumping through the cut wheat still holding in the air he flew over the heads of the wolves trying to get away. He spun around as he soared over them and the fire on his head trailed in a spectacular spiral with him, setting alight the cut wheat around him. He landed hard in front of them.
With their escape cut off and the wolves now trying to slow themselves down and turn around to avoid running straight into their predator, Gale readied his sword. His expression was hard and focused, but his eyes screamed in desperation.
            “It’s bad enough I’m trapped here! Why do I have to take your freedom too!?” He thought.
Gale stamped his foot down on one wolf’s tail to pin it in place and plunged the sword down so hard into the other that it pierced the ground with only the hilt remaining visible. Both wolves cried out in pain as the third, the one with the bird it’s jaws, disappeared into the wheat. But Gale’s body still wasn’t done. He let go of the sword and placed his palms together, pointing in the direction of where the wolf disappeared. In one motion he separated his palms and pulled his arms out with such inhuman force that the wind pressure parted the wheat ahead of him, revealing the wolf’s mad dash to the forest. He made a slight adjustment with one of his hands to find and grab the glowing glass vial on the sword implanted in the wolf and jerked it in one direction to move the slime to the top before snapping the glass vile in two and throwing the half with the slime at the wolf.
The broken glass vial flew through the air and shattered on the wolf’s rear end, the glowing slime inside stretching out from the force like a net and encompassing the back half of the wolf. The wolf was forced forward, causing it to jump and stumble in fright. It spun its head back to see what had hit it, the blood of the bird splattering everywhere as the wolf fell into a tumble. Unable to get the slime off, the wolf let go of the bird and yelped and writhed on the ground as the slime quivered and lit up, eating away at its flesh. The blueish light revealing the ever-growing fluorescent splatters of blood on its fur coat and the surrounding wheat as it writhed. Finally, as one wolf near him went silent, Gale removed the sword from it and plunged it into the one pinned by its tail.

As the yelps faded, control came back to Gale’s body, and he fell to his knees. The embers of wheat fell softly from the sky, some of it fell on the uncut wheat still planted in the ground and it started to send thin plumes smoke into the sky. Two thin plumes of steam raised into the air above Gale to match them.

            “I want to garden again…”