Physical Labor.

"Ow...", I grunted, shaking some feeling back into my hand.

"Oh come on. It's just chopping wood, Mr. McKay," she scoffed, shaking her head in disbelief, as she stood with her arms crossed. "And that's only your third!"

"Admittedly, Ms. Allison, I am unaccustomed to physical exertion," I panted, "and besides, haven't I just recovered from being poisoned?"

"If I had known you were to be this useless, I should have left you to die. Would have saved me some of my stock!" She let out a short laugh. "Hah! Could have used your body as Fertilizer!"

Rolling my own eyes, I brushed away some hair from my face, and mimicking some of the loggers I met, I spat in my hands, took up the Axe once more, and brought it down hard upon the log. Unfortunately, the Axe had other plans. Instead of falling downwards with my swing and splitting it's target, it decided to fly backwards out of my grasp, and embed itself upside down within another tree, about five paces away.

I was spared more mockery from Ms. Allison, simply because she was beside herself in laughter. Keeping my annoyance firmly behind sealed lips and furrowed brow, I managed to pry the Axe free, without further embarrassment to myself. "Like I said. Not a physical man."

Wiping tears away, she wheezed loudly, "No. No, you are not. Oh my word, that was hilarious. Oh, I do enjoy having someone as inept as you around. I haven't laughed like that for a long time." With another glance at me, her cheeks immediately bulged and her hand came over her mouth. Being slightly more successful at stifling her laughter, she collected herself. "Alright, alright, just so that we're not here all evening, let me show you how it's supposed to be done."

The battle between my Ego and Sense has hard fought within me, but with Ms. Allison's direction, I feel that a significantly large amounts of mishaps and accidents were prevented, and much time was saved. After we collected everything, we returned back into her home, and I managed to redeem myself buy helping to rebuild her fire to strength, while she prepared the evening's meal for us.

While we ate, I asked her why she had chosen to live here.