The band of tinkers fell under attack by forest outlaws. A maiden was pulled from her wagon and fell beneath it. The wooden wheel rolled over her leg and she passed out. Left for dead, the bandits chased after the tinkers and no one came back for her.

Presently, a wandering Mage and his apprentice happened along the path and saw the maiden in distress. Seeing a teaching opportunity, the Mage nodded towards the injured girl.

“Look here Toadstool, a chance to practice your healing. Have you a stone prepared with which to work the flows?”

“No Teacher, but I can quickly find one,” the boy replied.

“Can you?” wondered the Mage, “For she is in a great deal of pain. Were you prepared, you could have lessened her suffering considerably.”

“This won’t take long Teacher,” was his reply.

Meanwhile, the young maiden was propped up against the trunk of a tree, her peasant dress smeared with mud and leaves. It was torn and shredded, leaving her flesh much exposed. She groaned in pain and no surprise as the bones of her leg were jutting out through the muscle of her calf below the knee.

“Have you found one yet?” asked the gnarled Mage in a quiet voice.

“No! Nothing will work!” exclaimed the gangly teenager a bit too loudly.

He was frantically searching the forest floor, tossing the autumn’s layer of dead leaves about, scratching in the damp loamy dirt just off the path.

“This won’t work,” he'd say after quickly holding a stone in his hand, then discarding it.

“Maybe now you see why I keep a bag of stones prepared and ready, Toadstool,” admonished the old Mage, “You scoff at me for stopping and searching along the riverbank, or passing my hands along a pebbled cliff face. But I always have a ready supply of stones prepared and within easy reach here in my pouch, for one never knows what one might come across in the forest, or what emergency one might be called upon to mitigate. Having a ready supply of stones prepared to work the flows is an essential part of being a Mage my boy.”

“I have always been able to quickly find a stone before, why should…”

“You can help me NOW?” exclaimed the maiden, “You say you have a stone that can help me old man? Don’t talk about it, HELP ME NOW! The pain is unbearable,” she sobbed, “Please, please help me.”

“This is no longer a lesson Toadstool, this is real life, not some fantasy dreamt up by a bard in an inn. Take this stone, prepare it and work the flows around her leg to heal her as you have been taught,” he said, handing the boy a stone.

After mumbling some arcane words, the flows extended their tendrils from the stone and wrapped themselves around the maiden’s leg. With one hand, he held her shapely ankle and drew it back into position as the flows dove in and out of the leg, knitting and restoring according to the natural laws. Being a powerful apprentice, he extended the flows to the dress, mending the rips and tattered edges. The mud and leaves sloughed away as water from a duck. Soon, the maiden and the dress were completely recovered and sparkling clean.

“Well done,” thought the mage.

Smiling into the face of the most beautiful girl he had ever seen, he thought, “What have I found here?”

“Hello fair Maiden,” He said as he helped her to her feet before him, “Have we met?”