by Allan Joyal
Laughter rang out, causing a couple of the animals to stamp their feet. I heard a strange thump from one of the carts and turned to look at it.
“Dafalia’s crate contains rabbits,” Heather said. “One of them must have reacted to the noise.”
I nodded and looked over the group again. Everyone was even more relaxed. I was going to lean back against the cart I was sitting in front of when Verval called out softly. “I’m sorry.”
I looked to my right. The two rafts were floating next to each other. A brave man might have been able to jump between them, but I just shook my head. “There is nothing to be sorry for,” I said.
“I didn’t join in the fight,” Verval said. “And I saw what happened to Steve. He got in and hit one, but one of the others nearly gutted him with his knife. As soon as I saw it, I realized that he wouldn’t live too much longer. But he was able to make that time matter by closing the tunnel after the rest of us entered.”
The man gave a huge sigh.
“I’m surprised you aren’t more upset because Jennifer died,” I said quietly.
“I am,” Verval said. “That hurts. You know, we had talked about joining together like you are with Heather. I really loved her. After what happened to me, I never thought I could love so deeply, but she was just….”
“We are going to miss her,” I admitted. “We’ll even miss Gorm, and I barely knew him.”
“He wanted to die even before he joined,” Lenoir said softly. “We kind of kept part of his story out when he joined, or at least he must have. He had a wife, but one of the merchants in town wanted his farm, and so he poisoned the well on Gorm’s property. His wife died, and he’s wanted to join her in death ever since.”
“But he seemed happy to join,” I protested.
“Oh, he loved being part of this. I don’t think he could imagine your group, before meeting you. Everyone has welcomed us and trusted us from the start,” Amalya said.
I could see Lenoir nodding. “He did, and he thought your plan was perfect. I’m going to miss him, but you gave him hope. You’ve given all of us hope.”
“Even me,” a throaty voice said. I turned to see Cimbra sitting and leaning against the back of another of the carts. She had her eyes closed and was allowing the sun to bathe her face in light.
“The sunlight doesn’t bother you?” Al asked.
“Al!” Aine hissed playfully. “You are supposed to be thinking about how to get my skirt off without the rest of the raft knowing, not looking at the dark elf hottie.”
“You mean you two?” Esme asked.
“You mean you hadn’t noticed?” Heather called back. “I think Al has been sweet on Aine since we left the Wizard’s Academy. It just took Aine a while to realize that he would never hurt her.”
“He did hurt me,” Aine said playfully. “He stole my heart and then put it in a cage that only he can ever open. I dream of him in the nights I sleep alone.”
“Don’t sleep alone then,” Victoria said. “None of us are going to complain.”
Lenoir looked at me. “I don’t get that,” she said.
“What?” I asked
“That you seem so casual about Al and Aine being together. There is no expectation of a dowry or anything,” Lenoir replied.
“Well, right now I appear to be running a commune, so a dowry would mean all we do is add the dowry to the goods we all have. I’m sure that no one in the group wants to spend time calculating their shares just to engage in that,” I said.
Heather giggled. “You should be ashamed that you are running a commune.”
“Not really,” I said. “If you read enough history, you’ll find that most hunter-gatherer groups have to be somewhat communistic in order to supply everyone with the food and goods they need. It’s only once you have thriving towns that specialization will generate real trade. I imagine that after we have our farm running, we’ll eventually break it into sections for people to run and will trade between the sections.”
Verval was shaking his head. “I was talking about me helping more and the topic seems to drift.”
“Sorry,” I replied. “We had a lot of people who needed to voice some thoughts.”
“Good thoughts too,” Verval admitted. “But what should I do about the fact that I froze and didn’t join in the fight. If I had Steve might still be alive.”
“And he might not,” I said. “Predicting the outcome of a fight like that is impossible. All I can say is we got lucky. I expect the slavers weren’t expecting us to charge and had no idea that Aine and Lydia were carrying crossbows. The surprise gave us enough time to win the fight. Next time, we need to be more organized.”
Verval nodded. “I can’t help much. The people on our village never fought. The bell was actually to be rung to tell us to retreat to the tavern since any attacking army would want to keep it running. We knew fighting back would just get us killed.”
“Sensible,” I replied. “Anyways, all we’ve ever asked is that you try hard and do your best. That you have done. I know both Jennifer and Victoria have expressed praise for your patience and understanding. Your son is also well liked. Don’t ever feel like an outsider.”
“Does that include me?” Dafalia asked. “I know I only joined today.”
“All we ask is that you do your best,” Victoria replied. “We know that for our plans to work we need to work together to make a lot of things happen. If you do your best, we’ll make it work.”
“What are we doing?” Piemal asked.
I sighed. “Well, some of us come from far away. We were snatched from our homes by a miscast wizard’s spell and stranded here on Jord.” I noticed that Cimbra mouthed the words ‘on Jord’ as continued. “The land we came from offered opportunities and choices we could not find in any of the cities we visited, so we are going to cross the Elfwall River and head east into the area once belonging to the Empire.”
“Wow,” Lenoir said. “So you are going to create a farm there?”
“A farm and probably a port of some kind,” I replied. “Our plan right now is to continue to the far coast or near it and find a valley. The right one will allow us to set up a town and farm in the valley and then block the entrance to protect our new home.”
“Why block the entrance?” Gerit asked.
“Two reasons,” I replied. “First, if we wall off the entrance to the valley we then have a protected home which should discourage invaders from attacking us, and we’d still be difficult to take out in a siege. Second it will keep our animals in the valley, as long as we find a valley that has steep walls.”
“Invaders could go around and climb the cliff walls,” Gerit pointed out.
“Yes they could, but I expect that none of the invaders we might see early on will do that. Most likely we’d face orcs or goblins, and they will be looking for a quick victory. Climbing around takes time and usually tools like ropes,” I pointed out.
“And hopefully by that time, we have more bows and such to make climbing over the walls of the valley dangerous,” Verval said with surprise. “It makes perfect sense. And if the valley is large enough, we could definitely set up a farm to feed everyone here.”
“We need more livestock to really make it work,” I said. “Right now we won’t have enough meat unless we do a lot of hunting.”
“Which we’ll do anyways,” Lydia said. “Since we’ll need to eliminate the animals that would otherwise compete with our livestock for food.”
“Or eat our livestock,” Heather said.
“You all like this idea?” Dafalia asked. “To be that far from other people?”
“Oh, we’ll probably see others. I suspect that the elves get out to the coast on a regular basis, but don’t stay. And we’ve been told that there were dwarven citadels in the mountains, so we could run into them. They would pay well for grain once we get the farm going,” I said.
“Do we have enough seeds?” Gerit asked.
“Not yet,” Natalie said. “We hav
e several barrels, but I’d prefer to double that amount. It’s something we’ll have to look at while we are in Saraloncto.”
“What do we have?” Gerit asked.
“Wheat, Rice, Flax for oil, several different fruit seeds, a few forms of melon or squash and several tubers,” Natalie said. “But with what we have now, we’ll have a hard time getting a large enough surplus to thrive. Even if I can find someone who can make a seed drill.”
“A seed drill?” Amalya asked.
Natalie looked at me. I nodded and she smiled. “It’s not a huge secret, but I forget your people haven’t really developed the technology yet. In our homeland, farmers discovered that if you plant your seeds in rows and control the depth under the soil you place them you get more healthy plants. They developed a special cart that would do the work of planting the seeds at the proper depth. Yields increased to the point that where I come from two people working on a farm can produce enough to feed one hundred people.”
“So many?” Verval gasped. “But that means.”
“That if it works, we’ll have time to develop other crafts,” Heather said. “I definitely want to look into weaving and sewing. I’d like to have more clothing.”
Heather had been sitting next to me; she leaned over and whispered in my ear. “Revealing clothing that will keep you interested.”
“So do we have a plan for when we reach the town?” Verval asked.
“Well, if we can I suggest camping outside of the town. The size of our herds would make keeping them in the caravanserai expensive,” I began.
“True,” Gerit said. “But will that be safe?”
“I suspect that we won’t be the only group to stay outside the walls. Most cities in this time aren’t exactly pleasant places. The key will be to find a campsite that makes it easy to keep the herd close,” I said.
“So you are suggesting we go into town during the day,” Verval said. “What will we be looking for?”
“We want two more carts or wagons, and we’ll have to sell the sled I think. Once we leave Saraloncto we won’t have roads, and I dread the idea of dragging that over hard and uneven ground,” I said. “Then we need food both for the journey and for our first year while we get the farm going. Natalie pointed out we need more seeds. We also could use more tools and weapons. We have some, but more will help, especially if something breaks.”
“We need an anvil,” Hencktor said.
“More chickens,” Lenoir said. “My three are fine, and we haven’t had to eat them, but that isn’t enough for eggs or anything.”
“I want to see if there is any more medical supplies or knowledge we can purchase,” Esme said. “We can wash out the bandages, but I’d prefer to use new ones next time.”
“Some musical instruments,” Victoria said softly. “And some books if we can find any, or at least writing tools. We should write down our knowledge as well as some stories for the children.”
“I don’t remember many of Aesop’s Fables,” I confessed. “And I sure can’t recite all of the Thousand and One Nights.”
“Of course not,” Heather said. “And you won’t be able to until after I’ve had that many with you.”
Everyone laughed again. Al had been lying on the raft and resting, but he used his good arm to lift his head. “Do we accept any more people joining?” he asked.
I looked around. “We have six adult men and two boys. We have ten adult women and three girls. I think we might allow more people to join, if they are willing to accept us.”
“I need a girl,” Jeff said. It was half protest and half in jest. I glanced over at him, and the young man shrugged. “Maybe.”
Lenoir looked at him. “What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know,” Jeff said. “I think it’s that I’m finally starting to accept that I’m never going home and seeing my fiancée. That attack by the slavers kind of drove home the fact that I’ll never see New York again.”
“You can stay in Saraloncto if you want,” I said. “We had two ladies leave our group while we travelled here.”
“I hope they are both happy,” Lydia said. “I wanted to tell them not to leave.”
“It was their choice, and I suspect it was the right one for each of them,” Heather said firmly. “Ron was right to allow them to leave.”
“No,” Jeff said. “I’ll agree that a city is my preferred home, but not on Jord. I don’t have the right skills to prosper. I’ll stay with all of you. I know I haven’t done much, but like Verval, I want to do more in the future.”
“We can use some of the time in camp to practice with weapons,” I said.
“And without having walls and a ceiling that prevents movement,” Victoria pointed out. “None of you could really practice with the axes or hammer because of that.”
“I want a sword,” Jeff said wistfully. “If I have to live in a world of elves and orcs, I should have a sword.”
“The problem is that swords are specialty items,” I said. “A spear can be used for hunting animals, and works well if you are fighting in a phalanx. Axes, can be simple tools to cut trees. The hammer we have is probably a smith’s hammer. But a sword was the first weapon specifically designed for killing men. Not all smiths know how to make them, and they cost a lot more for the same amount of metal.”
Gerit looked at me. “You have a lot of knowledge.”
I shrugged. “Too many sleepless nights spent reading or watching shows on the History Channel.”
Heather hit me over the head with an open fist. “Do you want to explain that comment to everyone?” she asked.
I looked around to see confusion on the faces of the natives to Jord. Cimbra was looking at me quizzically. I glanced at Lydia who smiled and shook her head.
“I guess Ron let the cat partway out of the bag, so we might as well explain the whole thing. The land we come from has harnessed energy in ways that would seem like magic to you. One of the tools we created is a box that can show something that happened somewhere else. Some of our people started to use these boxes to show how certain events and time periods in our history might have been.”
“Might have?” Henck asked.
“We have written accounts and some very faded artwork, but after two thousand years it’s hard to say for sure that the information we have is completely accurate. We have men and women who devote their lives to investigating the stories and trying to prove if they are possible or not. Some they have managed to prove might have worked out as described,” I said. “Their findings are often shown on this magic box.”
“Why?” Corwar asked. “Why would people want to watch that?”
“Because many people like to learn things, and we wonder what happened in the past. And thanks to how little work is required to feed everyone, people have lots of time to spare for things they enjoy,” I said. “Right now I’m glad I watched some of it. I will almost certainly make mistakes because I don’t know enough, but the knowledge I have has been useful.”
“You are honor,” Cimbra said softly.
I turned to look at the woman, who remained leaning against the cart. “What do you mean?” I asked.
“You could have lied, but you didn’t. You could have claimed knowledge you don’t have, but you didn’t,” the dark elven woman said. “You could demand that those joining be subordinate to the members who came from your world, but instead you give them the same respect and responsibility. The others follow your lead.”
“I just want to do what’s right,” I said.
“Which you do very well,” Cimbra said. “Not many would avoid becoming a tyrant. But what are your plans for dealing with the city? I hear that humans can be most disagreeable.”
“I need to see the city,” I said. “And the countryside around it. Ideally we can find a meadow that isn’t being farmed and which we can protect. Piemal, Dafalia, you are going to be drafted to help keep the herds and flocks near the camp.”
“And they will be going to school,” Victoria sa
id firmly. “We should all be able to read and write before the first winter in our new home ends.”
“Even me?” Gerit asked.
“Why not?” I said. “One thing that will almost certainly help you in your woodwork is some skill and experience at math and design. I’m not I can help you much there. I know that the concept of drafting exists, but it wasn’t something I studied.”
“I know a little,” Al said. “My father was an engineer, and I watched him a few times. I just wish I had taken the drafting class I considered.”
“We all will have regrets on knowledge we know exists, but we don’t have,” I said. “We just have to work with what we do know.”
“It will be enough,” Victoria said confidently. “Ron, we have enough knowledge here to make it work.”
“I just don’t want any more deaths,” I said. “We’ve lost too many friends.”
“There will be danger,” Lydia noted. “But we should be able to handle it. The key will be to have enough food to make it across the plains without too much hunting.”
I shook the pouch of money. It jingled merrily. “We still have a good amount of money thanks to the dwarves.”
“What did you do for them?” Gerit asked. “I mean you have dwarven vests, and the sled you have was obviously modified by dwarves. No human smith could do work that fine.”
“The day we arrived on Jord we stumbled on the site of a massacre. A mixed group of dwarves and humans had been slaughtered and left to lie where they died. Three were dwarves in rather elaborate armor. We left the armor there, but later found that others who arrived at the same time we did had looted the battlefield and taken the armor. We told the dwarves and they managed to retrieve all three suits.”
“They would pay a fortune for that,” Cimbra said. “The dwarves take their family honor seriously and losing a suit of armor would have been devastating.”
“It was the right thing to do,” I said.
The conversation seemed to die out at that point. Heather had moved to sit next to me, and we leaned against each other and watched the shore pass as the rafts continued to float down the river to Saraloncto and our final few days within the civilized part of Jord.