Chapter 1: I Find an Elf

Crag Filsak was walking through his woods picking mushrooms one day. He gleaned much of what he needed to sustain himself from his mountain. He also had a small garden patch where he grew potatoes, carrots, onions, and herbs for cooking.

He went fishing a few days a week and set rabbit snares. His mountain was crawling with rabbits. On occasion, he took one of the small red deer as an additional meat source. More often than not, he sold most or all of his deer to the village’s butcher.

Any feral hog that wandered onto his mountain was immediately dispatched. Hogs rooting for food destroyed too much land.

If he got desperate for meat, he would go up high on the mountain and hunt for one of the mountain sheep. Crag had eaten mountain sheep most of his early years and didn’t care for it as much of late.

The bald, rounded top of his mountain was covered in lush grass. That’s where many rabbits and deer lived. His mules spent much of their off time up there, too.

He owned a small mountain range and made part of his living by providing firewood to the local village. The village didn’t have a name. Everybody just called it “The Village.”

The village baker provided several loaves of bread to Crag each week. Almost everything he did was in trade with someone in town.

The village weaver, ‘Surheh,’ provided him with some clothes. But the pussy she often shared with him on the side was very welcome. Being non-magical, Surheh wasn’t able to get pregnant from Crag. It’s a good situation for both of them.

Crag provided specialty woods to the butcher, such as hickory and pecan. That way, the butcher could smoke meat for sale later in winter. He also provided certain woods for the blacksmith. The blacksmith made charcoal using Crag’s wood.

In return, the blacksmith provided Crag with the metal things he needed. This included ax heads, saw blades, and hardware for his cabin and outbuildings. It also included hardware such as hasps, hinges, and nails.

Crag leaves his mules shoeless. They preferred it much better that way.

The tanner provides leather goods for him and his mules. Crag trades furs and hides to the tanner, crocks of pee, and firewood. He exchanges items with many other shopkeepers as well.

Depending on the weather, Crag generally visits town every week or two. He does this primarily to deliver firewood and pick up a few things he needs at home. Oftentimes, he visits his lady friend, Surheh.

The village inn was the only business in town that paid Crag for firewood. The inn had an attached restaurant and pub where you could get a black or yellow beer or, at times, applejack.

Crag makes his own applejack. He had three orchards with different apple varieties. He kept them far apart so accidental crossing of varieties would not occur.

When the apples start to blush with color in early fall, he lets the folks in town know. That gave them a one-day head start to prepare. I would return the next day to pick them up and their apple crates. This is to escort them to the orchard to be picked. Crag has a quite big wagon.

They spend a day or two emptying one of his apple orchards. A week later, the cooper and some of the restaurant folks would join him in picking apples. In one of Crag’s sheds, an apple press stands.

The local cooper provides the barrels. They harvest the other apple orchards as they ripen.

Applejack was apple juice into which you added a little honey and a packet of yeast from the dry goods store. You corked it, and the cork had a small pipe that let it breathe as the juice fermented. When it stops breathing out, the applejack has finished fermenting.

The barrels require checking a few times a day, and once finished, they are filtered and transferred to a clean barrel. It’s more complicated than that, but that’s the essence of the process.

The variety and quality of the apples determined the applejack taste and longevity. Other factors were the type of honey and the source of the yeast; both contribute greatly to the flavor. You can also add spices to the applejack after it has finished.

The cooper and the restaurant get Crag’s apples for free - kind of. The cooper supplies Crag with four 15-gallon barrels each year.

The restaurant buys several 20-gallon barrels. The cooper usually fills two- and five-gallon barrels of applejack to sell to villagers.

Whenever Crag is in town, he usually gets a free meal at the restaurant. This is because he provides the apples and the press for the restaurant to make their juice.

The restaurant has a small press which they occasionally use to make fresh apple or pear juice. Pears are great, but they don’t last nearly as long as apples do. So Crag has only a dozen golden pear trees.

Pear and cherry juice combined together, now there’s a mixture. Crag does not keep cherry trees because too many insects and birds are attracted to cherries. The birds swarm over the cherries, stay too long, and become an ongoing nuisance.

Cherry juice is an import for the village. It is usually brought in by a traveling trader.

The village sits between two tall mountain ranges on a medium-size river. The river and the east-west road provide enough traffic to keep the town going.

The local people do not cut their firewood. The Great Stony Mountain has few trees, and the other choice, Crag’s Mountain, belongs to him alone.

Besides that, there are a lot of wild animals in Crag’s woods. That makes it dangerous for anyone other than Crag. His ancestors had planned it that way to protect their privacy and support the property.

The animals naturally move into Crag’s vicinity for safety. This helps ensure his privacy, as some animals, such as big cats and wolves, are dangerous.

The Filsak family created the woods over several generations. The village came into existence much later. Since a Filsak was always willing to provide firewood for trade, the locals were happy. Who wants to spend endless hours toiling away in the woods when those woods are so dangerous?

Crag comes from a long line of mountain giants. His race is solitary for the most part. Crag himself is 81, yet he looks like he’s in his late twenties.

Giants were not really giants, per se. They’re just a couple of heads taller than ordinary humans. They are much bulkier and quite muscular.

Many giants work in surface mining, and sometimes they work by crawling inside mountains to mine them. Giant men do anything that is excessively difficult or requires more strength than ordinary humans have.