My own axe

Tonight I made a tool for the first time. A Cinder Axe.

It only takes two things. A metal bar and a plank. But I made both of them myself, and I keep thinking about how far back that goes.

The plank started as a tree in the forest. I chopped it into logs, carried them to the workbench in Central, and sawed them flat.

The metal bar started as a vein in the miners' cave. I pulled the ore out of the rock, carried it up, and smelted it at the forge.

Then I put the two together, and it was an axe.

Not something I found. Not a drop from a terminal, not a pearl on a fishing line. Something I built, from things I made, from things I dug and cut out of the city with my own hands.

I took it straight to the forest to try it. Three swings, three logs. It held.

When I came to this city, all I knew was the terminal. Now the wood I cut with this axe will become planks, and the planks might become the handle of the next one.

I like that. A tool that helps make the next tool.