Wizardness

He was in a trance, loading a wheel barrow hauling it over, dumping it, and repeating. After four trips, he’d stack the bricks. He was loading his ninth barrow when he saw Giggles striding towards him.
“Order Boy, you need to stop and get some food. You’re going to fry yourself if you don’t stop.”
Tobias stood and blinked. A small wave of exhaustion hit him. Not nearly enough, he thought. He sighed and nodded. He followed behind Giggles without a word.
“You’re going to finish organizing those bricks pretty soon. Which will be good, because then you’ll get to DIG!” Giggles giggled.
“How deep?”
“Deep. The design calls for a shit tank and at least three good sized cisterns. I think I saw half a dozen food storage rooms and a BIG wine cellar. We’re going to live like Kings!”
“Why don’t we use a well?”
“In case we move the building.”
“Oh, right,” Tobias said dully.
Giggles shook his head and lapsed into silence. By the time they’d entered the barracks, everyone else had finished eating and was doing their early afternoon relaxation.
“I wonder, do we even need an Order Boy.” Red said.
“Do we need a sparkless pain in the ass?” Tobias asked.
Red sprung from her chair, lunging at Tobias. He walked through her. Spinning her away from him. Her head barely missing the table. Tobias calmly went about making his lunch.
“What good are you? You just fucking mope about? We’ve been here over a week and, like 3 days so far you’ve been too fucked up to lead.”
“Good thing I have metal skin and extreme endurance so I can be useful when I don’t lead. Are you mad because you want to lead?” Tobias asked quietly. “Do you want the power to command? Do you want to order me to do something, but you can’t?”
Red clenched her fists, glaring at Tobias. Her hair lifted from her back, it gleamed. “I don’t need that spark to command.”
Tobias continued to eat. He set down his bread and turned to her. “Sure, you know what, you’re the thumb.”
“What?”
“You’re the thumb. The person that holds the fist together. Lead.” He picked up his bread, wiped his plate and tossed it in his mouth. He pushed himself up from the table and walked outside.
“That’s not how I expected that to go,” Giggles said as the door was shutting behind Tobias.
He sat on his rock and stared out at the ocean. He felt a wave wash over him. It felt like days worth of strenuous activity. He let it rock him. He smiled into the exhaustion. He let it drag him down.
He felt a kick to his stomach.
“Wake up. Get back to work.” a terse voice told him.
“What do you want me to do?” Tobias asked.
“What do you think?”
He shrugged. “Well, I was moving bricks before, but I moved a lot of those. Might have been enough.”
“Move more bricks,” Red said.
“Sure thing, boss.” He reached up his hand. He heard her snort as she walked away.
Tobias walked to the work site. There was a lot of material to move. He did a quick survey of the bricks, larger stones, boulders, logs, planks, and boards. It was a total mess. The bricks were contained well enough now. Red wanted him to move more bricks though.
Tobias dragged a wheel barrow over to the pile of bricks and began loading it up. He was swift, but careful. He didn’t want to break any. Once loaded he pushed it over to the other pile, where he unloaded them directly into the stack. He got three loads done pretty quickly.
“What are you standing around for?” Rose called.
“Just stretching. When’s afternoon training?”
“This is your training.”
“I think we should get the thin planks of wood organized next.”
“Who’s the thumb?”
“You are.”
“That’s right. Move bricks.”
Tobias grabbed the wheel barrow and started moving more bricks.
It was nearing dinner and he was still moving bricks. He’d moved a two dozen wheel barrows at this point. He decided he needed to get a drink. He walked back to the barracks and poured himself a mug.
He quickly drank the full mug, then another, then a third. He suddenly felt light headed. He needed to sit down. His head was swimming. He suddenly threw up. It was clear, must just be the water.
Plain stumped into the barracks. He looked exhausted. His forehead was bright red. He slumped into a chair next to Tobias. Tobias pulled himself up and got another mug. He brought the pitcher back to the table and poured each of them a small bit of water in the mug.
“Drink that, then we’ll drink more in a minute.” Tobias said.
Plain grunted.
Tobias and Plain drank a few little mugs of water over the next 20 minutes. By the time Dar’kid staggered in, Tobias was feeling well enough to start the process with him. Then Raven/Ronlique arrived. She looked miserable. Her hair was a mess and her eyes were bloodshot. Tobias gave her water the same way. Finally, Giggles and Red walked in. Giggles was very pointedly not looking at her. He threw himself into a chair and immediately rested his head on the table. Tobias grabbed two mugs and poured a little bit of water into each mug.
By then the full spread of dinner was laid out by the halflings. Tobias got up and made himself a plate. He made a small plate, something with a lot of fresh fruit and things that would help aide with recovery. He made a plate for everyone, then sat down and ate. After feeling a bit better from the fruit, he made himself a fuller plate with meat and potatoes. He ate that slowly. Not trusting his stomach.
The barracks was nearly silent. No one was talking. Giggles and Red were the last two to recover from their afternoon. They still did not look at each other. After Tobias finished his food, he filled his mug with more water and grabbed a sweet roll from the table. He wandered outside once he saw everyone was eating normal food.
Tobias shuffled to his rock. He glanced down at it, even thinking about sitting on it hurt. The bending of the knees, the rotating of the back. Never mind getting up. He might end up sleeping out here if he sits down. He groaned thinking about standing longer.
Tobias sighed and with pops and cracks, he managed to sit down. He glanced at the ocean. Calm and void of any movement. There was nothing on the horizon. White’s Ferry was dark as ever. He shuddered at the unnaturalness of it.
“What was that in the barracks?” Red’s voice cut through his thoughts.
“What?” Tobias blinked trying to focus on her.
“I’m the thumb. I’m the leader. Why were you at the barracks when I got there? Why were you giving out water?”
“I had moved more than enough bricks. I decided I wanted to eat. I was dehydrated and threw up, so I made sure no one else did.”
“Isn’t that my job?”
“Have you lead a group before?”
“Answer my question.”
“I will. If you answer mine first.”
“No. I haven’t.” She folded her arms in annoyance.
“Here, have a seat.” Tobias gestured towards the stump Plain or Giggles normally sat on. “You see, a Commander, thinks that they have to make all the decisions. That they need to be the one that tells you when to take a break. That you aren’t here to think, only they are.
“A leader, helps teach people what they need to do, then trusts them to do it.”
“You’re not a very good leader.”
“I know. I don’t have to be a very good leader. I just need to point you all in the right direction. The fist is full of independent, smart thinkers, that figure things out. Take our first pitched battle together. How many commands did I give while we were fighting? Maybe a handful, right? The most important decisions were made before the battle.”
“You didn’t even tell us what to do.” Red sat and scowled at Tobias. “We told you what we thought we should do.”
“Yep. Then I made it clear what our objectives were and how we would do it. Which was mostly what you said. I just reinforced it.”
“How is that even leadership?”
“I don’t know. Ask Commander Lee. What I do know is that almost the entire fist has joined a very very tight bond. You and I have the weakest bond. At least according to my spark. But, also judging from how little we talked and the fact that I was an ass towards you and Ronlique.”
“You were.” She sighed. “I fucked up today. I could have gotten someone hurt.”
“You’ll do better tomorrow.”
“No. You’re the thumb. You don’t even fucking try. It just happens! That bullshit with the water? You just do things like that.”
“Yea, I’ve had my team practice until they nearly died before. I learned the hard way. My friend Sam was on the other team during a bout. It was hot, probably the hottest day during the summer that year. I made sure my team had water bladders hidden about.
“My plan was to tire the team out, chase them, make them sweat themselves dry. Make them quit. Sam, he collapsed in the heat. He died of dehydration.”
“Oh. I’m sorry, Tark.”
Tobias shrugged. “Look, I’m exhausted. Think about what work you and Ronlique want to do tomorrow. I’m going to crash out.”
Tobias was lost in thought on his way back to the barracks. He suddenly felt heat hurtling towards him. He turned in time to be engulfed in a ball of fire.