by Allan Joyal
"Some," Cimbra said pointing over by the barrels. I looked and saw some carefully stacked pieces of wood. "We probably should bring more sometime today."
"I'll look into it," I replied. "Meanwhile, before I forget, what does Cimbra want from her life? I know or could guess this for most of the others, but I'm not sure of your desires."
Cimbra stared at me. "All I ever wanted was to belong to something and to be safe. You have given me that."
I headed over the woodpile to grab several logs. I brought them back and started to carefully stack them. I was just placing the last one when I heard Kariy speak. "Don't light that. You'll waste wood. Allow me to get the fire started."
I stood up slowly and looked at Kariy. The young woman was standing just ten feet away. Her hair was still tangled from sleep, but she was fully dressed as she bent down and started removing the logs I had carefully stacked.
"I won't ask how you slept," I said. "But I should apologize for not spending any time with you recently."
Kariy glared up at me. "If you spent time with me and failed to keep pushing us to build, I think I'd have been angry. As it is the only complaint I have is that we don't have our tent set up, but honestly, I'm not sure it would have survived the storm."
"Tent?" Cimbra asked.
I looked over at the stack of equipment. "Do we still have it? I completely forgot. We haven't used it since before the dwarves invited us into their tunnels."
Kariy giggled. "You got busy working on making sure we had all the gear we needed. And we did make it here with a nice amount. Although if the crop doesn't work, we'll be out of food mid-winter."
I nodded. "I was going to ask Krysbain if he's willing to explore towards the coast. When the empire fell there might have been some fields planted. The crops would be mixed up with other plants, but perhaps we can find some fields of wild grains. Heck, the kobolds were living next to some giant fruit groves."
"I never even thought about that," Kariy admitted. The whole time we were moving I was terrified of what we might run into."
"And now?" I asked.
Kariy smiled and then jumped at me putting her arms around my neck. "I need a man, but otherwise this is perfect."
"You have Joelia," Cimbra said smugly.
"And you and Heather don't enjoy each other?" Kariy asked. I looked at the young woman clinging to me and noticed a pointed smirk in her face. "I remember the day you snuck back into champ while Ron, Al, and Jeff argued about which tree to cut down next."
I looked over at Cimbra and found that dark elves could blush. Her normally grey cheeks were pink as she looked at the ground. "Kariy," she complained with a hiss.
I started laughing. "Oh, don't try to shoot the messenger. I'm not going to get upset over it now. Although I probably could have used your support in the discussion."
"What do we do today?" Kariy asked.
I pointed at the grove sheltering the rest of our group. "The monster knocked down quite a few trees when it attacked us the first day we were here. We should clear them and then get the tent setup. We also need to take a day or two to build fences around our crops and better shelters for all the animals. How are the chickens and rabbits?"
Kariy looked over at the valley wall where the improvised enclosures for the animals had been set up. "I haven't checked. I think only Dafalia really knows what she has done. She has been bringing me a couple eggs every day. I think she keeps some back to help grow the flock."
"Is that wise?" Cimbra asked.
"Eggs are good food, and we can always eat adult chickens. We definitely need to encourage all of our livestock to breed. Right now we don't have enough. But part of that will require that we find more space. The dwarves hinted that there are more fields to the west," I said.
"Should I check them?" Krysbain asked as he emerged from the grove. "I was going to ask what you wanted me to do. I've scouted around the valley mouth and found nothing. It looks like there are no humanoids living nearby. But I didn't try westward. The arrival of the dwarves was a surprise."
"A welcome one," I said. "Actually I was going to ask if you were willing to go on a long scouting run to the east. It's clear that this was not a settled valley during the time of the empire. One thing I was hoping was that we'd find an area that had been heavily farmed and discover some wild grains growing. It would supplement our food supply."
"Can I ask for Lenoir to go with me?" Krysbain asked. "Having another set of eyes might help, and she's worked on a farm so would know what to look for."
"If she's willing," I said. "Do be careful though."
"What about the wall?" Kariy asked.
"Having the spikes the dwarves promised will allow us to build it faster and stronger. It makes little sense to keep working on it now when we know the spikes will be here soon. Instead we should get some other projects going. We can probably get the millstones moved tomorrow if we prepare a raft today," I said.
Krysbain laughed. "You are never going to be satisfied are you?"
"I'll be satisfied when we have a working mill, a good wall, houses for everyone, and the guarantee that we'll have enough food for a year," I snapped. "Until then there will always be more to do."
Krysbain bowed. "I meant no offense," he said.
I had to choke back a laugh. "I'm not offended," I managed to gasp out. "I'm just tired. We have so much to do and the man I expected to have around to help drive projects died before we reached Saraloncto. Al, Jeff, and Hencktor are too passive, Gerit, Lawus and Borlan are followers and you don't have the right experience."
Krysbain nodded. "I know. I thought I could have led better than you at first. Now that I see how far ahead you were thinking, I'm shocked at how blind I was to what we needed. You try to think far ahead. The wall is a great example."
"Oh?" Cimbra asked. "It seems to be a lot of wasted work to me."
Krysbain shook his head. "No, I can see how valuable it is. First it will be a fence to keep our herd animals in the valley. Once it’s complete the task of watching them will become quite a bit easier. They won't be able to wander free."
"Part of the reason I want to finish it," I admitted. "We'll have to build it into the water a bit I expect, but done right the herds shouldn't have any problems with predators."
"We could meet another of those… what did the dwarf call them?" Cimbra asked.
"It translates into poultrion," I said. "But from what the dwarves said it was some wizard's creation, so it’s unlikely we'll meet another one right away."
Krysbain laughed. "If that monster had the range and speed I suspect, it probably kept any other predator far away from this valley. That helps a lot right now, since it means we should have some time to build defenses before we have to deal with predators."
"Meanwhile, that's part of why I want you to make a long scouting run. We need to know a bit more about the area outside the valley so we can learn what visitors we'll eventually get. Fortunately the dwarves were friendly," I said.
"I'm surprised they didn't attack Cimbra," Krysbain said.
"I'm not sure they noticed her," Kariy said. "Cimbra was in the water, and the dwarves seemed to ignore anyone who was swimming."
"And you didn't try," I said in mock complaint.
"I'm sorry," Kariy squeaked out.
I put my arms around the shivering girl. "It's fine. We didn't really get enough time to get everyone into the water. I'm just glad everyone joined us, and I saw the kids really enjoyed it. They need more time to be children."
"They might not get much," Victoria said as she emerged from the grove. She was fully dressed and running her fingers through her hair. "We have a lot to get done, and they will have to help. Also, I talked with Lydia and Esme yesterday, and we are going to try to set up some kind of regular lesson plan for school."
"Which means I need to spend time with Yveney to teach her about trade," I mused. "But we haven't done any trading since Saraloncto. But if I can coach her, perhaps we can set up a
port next year, if we are close enough to the coast."
"What would we sell?" Victoria asked.
"There appears to be some good wood around here. We know that Crayolyn Falls was selling lumber to Saraloncto and other cities. That would be a possibility. Also we could probably work with the local dwarves. They need a way to get their ore and other products to a market. And I still think that we should try to set up some way to get salt if we are close enough to the ocean," I said.
"I'll see if I can get that far," Krysbain said. "Be we might be more than two days from the ocean. It's hard to say. The trip through that strange school made it impossible to say how far we've traveled."
"And it wasn't like there were maps of this region available," I said with a nod. "Well, why don't we all grab something to ea,t and then you can wake Lenoir and head out. Do you want any horses or mules?"
"Not for a two day run," Krysbain said. "We can carry what we need. We also need to train our horses to accept riders, but do we want to. We don't have many horses."
"Yours," I pointed out.
"Is really a cart horse," Krysbain admitted. "And is a gelding so we won't have another generation."
"Victoria, remind me to talk to Gertrilla and Amalya about putting together a program to train a couple of our steers to work as draft animals. We'll need them in the future to do things like pull the plow and perhaps power the mill, if we can't get a waterwheel made," I said
"You can make a wheel?" Krysbain asked. "I've heard of those, but never seen one built. The ones that exist are all very old."
"I'm not sure," I admitted. "Long ago in one of my classes the principles were discussed, but I've never had to design one or build one. I expect we'll have a few failures before we make it work."
Victoria laughed. "We'll make it work. But later. Today can we please build some kind of shelter?"
I laughed as I finished eating. "Kariy, as people wake, send them over to the area where all the trees fell. We'll clear that a bit and set up the tent. It won't be perfect, but it will offer some shelter and a place to store all of our clothing."
"Can do," Kariy said cheerily. "And I'll be the first to move my stuff in."
"Not if I do it first," Victoria challenged. The two women started a cheerful banter as I placed my empty food bowl down and started walking across the field.
I was about halfway across the field when I decided to detour to check on the crops. The storm had been more wind than rain, but it had rained throughout the night, and I was a bit worried about the seeds we had just planted.
The cattle and goats we had grazing in the meadow were emerging from the forest. Most immediately started feeding on the grass, but a few wandered over by the river and drank. They seemed to be calm and in good health as they roamed.
The fields showed some signs of the rain. A few of the carefully arranged rows were flattened a bit, but none of the topsoil appeared to have blown away. I kept off the fields as I walked along checking the furrows and hoping that the seeds were fine.
"We need to build a fence to keep the animals out," Verval said from behind me.
"We'll be pulling the fallen trees from the grove to the west," I said. "We can bring some of the trees over here, and they can be cut up to make the fence. That's about the best I can offer right now."
"I'll even help," Verval said. "Gertrilla and the others can keep the cattle out of the fields for one day while we pull the logs over here."
"Would the storm have damaged the crop?" I asked.
"Not on seeds that were just planted," Verval said. "If we had sprouted seedlings there would have been some danger that the rain could have killed them, but I believe the crop will be fine. Just as long as we don't see another storm like that."
I nodded and turned to look at the grove. "I'm off to start organizing the next project."
"Next? You have more than one that you will work on today," Verval said with a laugh. "But get it started, we have a lot to do."
I made my way to the grove and looked at the path of fallen trees the poultrion had created. Most of the trees had not been torn out. Instead the trunks were smashed down, breaking at odd angles and leaving sharply pointed stumps in the ground. I walked back and forth looking at the four trees lying at the edge of the disaster before deciding which one to pull first.
Once I had decided I worked to separate the crown of my chosen tree from the branches of the others to make it easier to pull away. The branches were still moist, and I had to bend them several time before I could break each one off. I had the crown about free when Al and Oleiana walked up. Oleiana was leading one of our mules.
"I thought having a mule doing the pulling would speed this up," Al said. "Shall we prove that it works?"
I smiled and accepted the rope that Oleiana held out to me. Once I had it, I walked back to the trunk of the tree I had just worked free and started looping the rope through the branches, making sure to secure the trunk. It took some work and some help from Al to finally get the rope secure.
Al waved to Oleiana as we stepped back. She nodded and then nudged the mule to start walking into the meadow.
The fallen tree quivered for a moment, but then slide free with a loud crack. Al and I jumped away as the jagged end of the trunk swung to the right. The crown had caught on something for a moment, but soon ripped free as Oleiana led the mule eastward.
The removed tree left a visible gap in the clutter of fallen trees. I moved to look at the situation and soon discovered that the next two trees were entangled too tightly to allow us to just break a few branches to get them apart.
"Al, we need an axe or a saw to break these two apart," I told him. "They probably grew with their branches entwined, and there is no easy way to separate them."
"The others should be bringing the tools," Al said. "They were still grabbing breakfast."
I just nodded as I climbed over the two fallen trees to look at the remains of the stumps. They were leaning toward the east, and I could see that a few solid hits with an axe should break apart the root structure and allow us to pull them from the ground. I started to count the stumps as Al and I waited for more help to arrive.
The mess of fallen trees and jagged stumps prevented me from getting a clear count. I was able to identify more than ten trees that we needed to remove just from the area around the meadow, but the damage went through the entire grove. It looked like the monster had smashed at least forty trees while chasing Soldrin.
When I returned to the edge of the grove, the rest of the adults had gathered at the opening. I asked Mary to relax, but the woman frowned and told me that she would help by stacking the broken branches and working to find ways to weave the branches into a fence. Dafalia enthusiastically helped out as the rest of the group worked to chop up each tree after Al, Oleiana, and I dragged it from the grove.
It seemed that a silent agreement was made to work through our usual mid-day break. Lawus and Gerit took over when I finally got too tired to keep climbing over the fallen trees. By that time Corwar had organized another mule team and was removing the stumps we had left behind as we advanced through the grove.
When the sun finally touched the western mountains we had cleared out more than half the downed trees. I looked at the newly opened up space and shook my head. "It's not much."
Heather started pacing off a couple of the wider openings we had found. She checked three before turning to look at me. "We can put the tent here," she said. "And the stumps are already removed. I recommend it in case there is another storm."
I looked up at the darkening sky. "Tomorrow. We'll do it tomorrow. Or you can. I think we need to get the raft built tomorrow and move the millstones."
Heather ran over and kissed me. "I'll get it done," she promised. "But we need more shelter. I know you want a separate place."
I pointed at the twenty trees we had pulled from the grove. "We'll only need ten for the raft and that only for a day. Come up with a way to use these to build some walls
. Maybe use the valley wall for one wall to limit how much wood you need."
Heather looked confused, but Hencktor walked over. "I can help you," he said. "I have an idea, but I'm not sure about the roof."
"Use branches from the trees we cut down," I said. "I think the preferred solution would be thatching the roof with grass, but we don't have that in abundance right now. We might later in the year."
Heather pouted. "I don't know how!"
"We'll figure it out," I said as I put an arm around my blond love. "Now let's all call it a night. We've worked all day after not getting a full day of relaxation yesterday. We need rest."
I led Heather back to the fire Kariy had kept burning throughout the day. We arrived just as Kariy announced that the stew was ready to eat. We settled down to eat with everyone and enjoy the last few minutes of light for the day.
Chapter 20: A Week to Get Established
The storm and then the work the following day seemed to have convinced everyone that we needed to work harder on getting things ready. I heard Verval and Gerit both comment that they had thought just getting the fields planted would be enough, but now both men wanted to build houses. They agreed with me when I insisted that the next two structures be barns to allow the animals to take shelter. We had lost no animals to the storm, but several had been stressed during the storm and it showed in their actions. Haydee had nearly been run down by one of the rams, and l one of the goats kicked Piemal as they tried to check the herds.
Verval had protested that decision, but Amalya bullied Gerit into going along with the idea by pointing out that several of our mules had tried to kick people the day before. Finally Hencktor just said that he'd get to work on the first barn and anyone interested could help. I grabbed Al and Jeff, and we separated out eight logs to form the raft for the millstones, and the others began dragging logs to the north end of the first field to start setting up the barn.