The Two Week Curse

by Michael Chatfield

  Although they were both strong and determined men in their own right, Rugrat was younger than Erik and he had looked up to the other man, who had taught him and acted like Rugrat’s older brother. Both of them respected the other’s opinion, but Erik had unconsciously taken over the leadership position in the relationship in most ways. If they were dealing with a situation, Erik would turn to Rugrat without hesitation; one man couldn’t do everything by himself.

  Rugrat was feeling guilty spending that much gold.

  “Don’t worry. With what I estimate, we should be able to make another twenty gold in the next couple of days as the different sales run out. Raising our strength is more important. If you can, see about learning more about formations, arrays, and enchantments. If we can add enchantments to our bullets, then we’ll be able to gain another increase in power, or we can upgrade people’s weapons,” Erik said.

  “Increase the strength at the base to push everyone higher,” Rugrat said.

  “Right.”

  “Okay, I’ll go back to the store and spend some more to try to learn enchantments. Don’t forget to get more healing spells and Alchemy books,” Rugrat said.

  “I’ll do my best, but healing and Alchemy books are expensive in their own right as most of them come from the Third Realm and higher,” Erik said, sounding bitter. “I’ll try to get some more healing spells, then I can use those to assist in the tempering.”

  Rugrat’s gut tightened; he’d forgotten how Erik still wanted to temper his body tomorrow. “Right.”

  “Okay, see you at the meeting.” Erik cut the connection.

  Rugrat went to the store again. If one was watching, they’d see light illuminating the inside of the store and dissipating a few seconds later.

  After it happened a few more times, Rugrat wandered out of the store, his eyes glowing. He had to use the wall to support himself.

  He stumbled back to the forge, muttering to himself before he pulled out a pen and paper. He started recording information, writing on the paper, then sketched out something on his hammer with chalk. Looking to the anvil, he started tracing on it, too.

  Rugrat’s mind teetered between exhaustion and creative explosion as inspiration struck him.

  He didn’t notice when Erik entered the smithy, or when he left.

  ***

  Elise, Glosil, Jasper, and Blaze were sitting at the table when Erik met up with them.

  “The other two won’t be coming.” Erik sat down with a bowl of food. “Now, these are for you guys.” Erik tossed out books to them all. These were different manuals or pieces of paper that he had written out things on.

  “I gave more to Rugrat to pass over to Taran.”

  Blaze opened up the piece of paper. Shock showed on his face as he saw that it was a training plan, from beginning to end, about using spears.

  Glosil got a written document from Erik about the strengths and weaknesses of the defenses, defensive tactics as well as information on archery.

  Jasper got information on different ways to prepare and serve food to make it last longer and different systems to make it easier for his people to handle their jobs. He also gave Jasper two storage rings.

  He gave Elise pen, paper, and a list of his priorities, as well as technique books to increase people’s abilities in different areas.

  Between the different goods, the technique books, even after hearing or seeing Erik passing out technique books, this was alarming.

  “You are all pillars of Alva Village. Taran included, even though he’s not here,” This got a few smiles. “You have been working as hard as anyone else. Your levels might not have increased but it is my aim to increase your skills and abilities.” Erik looked to them all. “Do you have those recommendation lists?”

  They pulled out pieces of paper and he collected them.

  Erik looked them over and then pulled out a pen. He wrote a few things on the paper and then tucked them away. “Glosil, after the meeting, come with me to the auction store. I’ll give the manuals to you and you can disperse them.”

  “I will not let you down, sir.” Glosil stood, hitting his chest and lowering his head in salute, happy to do something to repay the gratitude he felt toward Erik.

  Erik nodded, saluting back with his hand against his heart. “Now, I want a report from you all: Elise, then Jasper before Glosil and Blaze.” Erik looked to Elise.

  She cleared her throat and made to stand.

  “We won’t have time for that. Also, for these meetings, we can do them while eating. We don’t have much time to spare. Have you all eaten?” Erik looked to them.

  Seeing their reactions, he looked over to the serving ladies. “Could I get four meals for these boneheads?”

  “Yes, Mister West!” the server said excitedly.

  “Thank you.” He smiled and looked to the sheepish foursome. He grabbed his bread and his spoon, waving for Elise to start as he began eating.

  “The logging camp has been started. The shelters are undergoing renovations and should be complete by midday next morning. The shower building’s foundations have been laid. The underground clay storage tanks have been created and filled. Building can start tomorrow morning when people wake up—hope to be done by midday. Mister Wanshu has taken the technique book and is working on developing watchtowers based off of the technical drawings you made. He says that he will need more wood workers, but he said that they could be built in three days.”

  “Do you have the plans?”

  “I don’t have plans; he’ll make them as he goes,” Elise said.

  Erik frowned but waved her on.

  “There was an excess of people working on the project, so I had them start working on the defenses. I don’t want to have to switch the people out who are working on the shower so progress is quick; the same for the watchtowers. I have made sure that the crews have all done the crossbow course and have reached level seven. With their increase in power, they’re much faster,” Elise said, finished.

  “All right, at these meetings, it is our goal to improve on what we have. Nothing is meant personally unless you’ve messed up in your role,” Erik said, making sure that his words weren’t taken in the wrong way.

  “Shi Wanshu is to make plans for the watchtower. There shall be only one plan. The parts will be made before reaching the site, then assembled on location. There will be one group making the parts and another that will assemble them together. They will use the measurement systems that I have given them. This means less time trying to make multiple plans and blueprints; also, moving from one tower to another, our people won’t have to get acquainted with each one of them.

  “Second, we don’t need to sleep as much with the increase in Stamina Regeneration. As there are patrols on the walls and roaming groups of guards, we can start incorporating shift work into the day. There can be a crew working from midnight to midday and another from midday till midnight. We will have fires so that everyone can see. Also, it will mean that we have half of the city awake at any given time, ready to react to any threat and make sure that there is not a break in progress. Our people are stronger; they have greater Stamina regenerations. Good plan with not switching out the crews so we don’t have to familiarize them with the project each time.”

  Elise winced but nodded her head.

  “I want those showers finished for tomorrow morning if possible,” Erik said, his statement also a question.

  Elise took a moment before nodding. “It’s possible.”

  “Good. Make sure that we don’t take on too much. We can’t have our people burning out unless it’s for training purposes.” Erik paused as the server came over with food, putting it in front of everyone.

  “On the food and supplies side, we have plenty of wood. With the logging camp up and running, they’re able to clean up the incoming lumber, making it easier to store. We have enough food for four months. We have rations for everyone in the city for four days—breakfast
, lunch, and dinner. If possible, I want to get a book of recipes so that the cooking staff might find new ways to prepare and store food for the rations and increase the effects of the beast meat’s recovery abilities. With the storage rings, I want to make pots of stew and other meals. In the storage rings, they will remain warm and not spoil. We do not have enough cauldrons for that, though.”

  “I can get you some small storage rings just meant for soup, cooking it up and hold it in one storage ring. Then, when needed, can just have someone running around with the storage ring, pouring out soup, stew, and hot tea when needed,” Erik said.

  It was a much more expensive method, but it solved multiple problems in one shot.

  “Also, use the larger storage ring—go and gather water from the nearby lake, and pour it into the storage tanks that are being built for the showers and the well,” Erik said.

  “Yes, sir.” Jasper nodded. This was his first time meeting Erik and he looked to be a bit overwhelmed by it.

  Erik was cleaning up his bowl with the bread as Glosil started.

  “We have trained everyone, except for forty people, in the use of crossbows. Nine groups have gone hunting beyond the walls; the majority have now reached level seven. The combination of in-field experience and training has been good. With improved loading techniques and the new bow type Rugrat has come up with, our rate of fire will greatly increase. We’ve got two thousand arrows. Still, I believe we will need many more arrows to survive the coming conflict—ammunition is used at an incredible rate. I have made a list of thirty people who are the best shots in the groups so far and show promise worthy of the newer crossbows,” Glosil said.

  “Good. I want the guardsmen to work in groups of two to take more people out of the city and go on hunting trips, so it’s not just Rugrat and me. This will increase the speed that people level up and slim down the numbers we’re facing. The guards will be in charge of taking out groups to gain Experience. I want to get everyone to level seven. I want to have refresher courses on crossbows, but otherwise we will look to developing our core military groups, the sharpshooters, and the spearwielders. Rugrat and I will take out the crossbow sharpshooter groups that already have some levels and work to make them stronger. We’ll be attacking the wolf groups,” Erik said. “When the time for battle comes, I want them to be intermixed with the regular forces to pass on their knowledge and boost their strength.”

  Glosil nodded, showing his understanding.

  Blaze was next. “All of the spear-wielding candidates have already been sent to sleep. They are in the temporary housing along the northwest wall. I will be studying the plan that you gave me tonight. I might need help in the coming days to manage the spearwielders,” Blaze said.

  “Understood. For now, the guards who are part of the training unit—make them the officers and backbone of the different units. Rugrat and I will be there to assist periodically, switching off with you. Our aim is to break them first, to tear down everything, to make them forget about their body, about their needs, and build them up to be a unit, a single mechanism that lives, breathes, and dies together. Right now they’re nothing but fodder, but we’ll turn them into heavy infantry.”

  “Sir.” Blaze saluted.

  “Five of your best from the heavy infantry and crossbow units will be used to form the quick reaction force that I will personally lead. Rugrat will be in an overwatch position. Elise, your people will be his reloaders,” Erik said.

  “Reloaders?” Elise asked.

  Erik smiled and his entire aura changed, making the others shiver.

  “Trust me, anything that comes into range of Rugrat won’t last long.” Erik’s smile faded as he looked down the long tables that were set up in the main square. People were sitting down and eating, relaxing from their day’s labors.

  “Do you want to give out the announcement of the shifts, or do you want me to say it after I do a presentation on first aid?” Erik asked Elise.

  It took her a moment to recover from Erik’s sudden change. “After the first aid,” she said, clearing her throat.

  “Okay.” Erik stood. “Rugrat will talk tomorrow, but I think that Taran and he will be indisposed for the next few days. However, their production speed and quality might see a great increase.”

  The others nodded, glancing at their storage devices where they held the manuals he had passed out.

  “Anything else? Questions?” Erik asked.

  “What about the children?” Elise asked.

  “Right now, they’re working in the workshops or they’re being tended in a nursery run by your staff, right?” Erik asked.

  Elise nodded.

  “I don’t want to put them in more danger. When the fighting starts, they’ll be held in the Village Hall,” Erik said. “Anything else?”

  They looked to one another but they didn’t say anything.

  “All right, time to get my teacher hat on.” Erik stood and passed over his bowls to the servers. Then he went up on stage. The villagers all looked at him, seeing that he wanted to say something.

  “Hiya, everyone.” Erik waved to them all. Conversations died down as Erik grabbed a box and sat on it, looking out at everyone. “You can all keep eating. I’m just here for your dinner entertainment and to teach you a few things about health.” He cleared his throat. Everyone was eating but they moved to get a better view of him.

  “As you all know, healers are people who use magic and spells to heal people. There are also alchemists who can make medicines to help people. I am here to tell you that there are people who can heal others and they don’t need to be alchemists or healers. What I want to talk about is Minor Heal Wounds and first aid. Minor Heal Wounds are ways to keep yourself and your family members from getting sick. First aid is used to help people if they’re wounded. In this coming fight, people will be wounded, so listen up—this lesson might save the person’s life on your right and left.” Erik was used to soldiers joking around after these words. In this situation, where most of them had seen the enemy that were training up, they were quiet as they looked to their neighbors and then to him with greater focus.

  “Okay, so first, let’s talk about germs.”

  Chapter: Breaking the Ninth, Challenging the Tenth

  Jasper pulled out a writing kit and he jotted down notes as Erik spoke. His lesson seemed to resound within Jasper’s mind.

  “People need to wash their hands or else they might get the germs on their hands into the food they’re making. This way, you will get an infection or disease and it could lead to you being sick or dying. I know that a lot of you had to go to the bathroom a lot and there was vomiting when I got here. This is food poisoning. Clean your hands, use clean tools on your food, and don’t cut different types of meat with the same knife. Otherwise, I’ll let you sit on that toilet for three days,” Erik said.

  Jasper could feel that Erik wasn’t lying. Seeing as he was in charge of food, he felt more than one set of eyes fall on him.

  “Not having good habits when you’re eating is one thing—needing to bathe is another. Right now there is a public shower being created for everyone. Everyone will be allowed one shower a day to clean yourself. The cleaner you are, the less likely you are to get something nasty.”

  Jasper and everyone in Alva had seen how a cold could kill and a cut could turn rancid; now they knew those were infections where their body was rotting away.

  “Also, there will be a bathroom facility. There will be two more created in the northwest and southeast districts. Use them. You go for a piss in the night or a dump, use them; otherwise, you’re going to get others sick. If you do that, then you’re more of a problem than the hordes at our door. We need to look after one another inside these walls. If we don’t, the beast horde won’t even need to finish us off.” Erik’s words were cutting, making people look away in embarrassment.

  “All right, those are general health rules to keep everyone safe from getting an infection
or some kind of disease. Now, first aid.”

  Jasper listened to Erik, wrapped up in his words, knowing that this might be some of the most important information he had ever heard.

  Erik called up people, talking about their body, demonstrating what to do if they had broken a limb, if their breathing had stopped.

  People ate their food numbly, focused on Erik’s words. This kind of information was unlike anything they had heard before.

  I wonder if I would be able to get this information from anywhere but the royal colleges or the different sects? None of them would be willing to give this information out for free. The tuition for the royal colleges is in tens of silvers for just a few lessons. Jasper shook his head. Truly, Rugrat and Erik couldn’t be compared to others he had met before.

  ***

  Erik cleared his throat and drank some water as he dismissed his latest volunteer. Everyone was looking at him as if he were telling them the most interesting story in the world.

  “All right, that’s all I have time for now. There will be more lessons coming in the next couple of days. It’s my hope that with them you’ll be able to gain at least some information that will be useful to you all.” Erik let that sink in. “Also, most of you have gone through some rapid increases in levels, which has allowed you a greater Stamina Regeneration. You can do more, longer, on less food and sleep. Don’t worry, we’re not cutting your food, but the fact is that since you don’t need to sleep as long, we can advance our own defenses and the abilities of Alva Village. We don’t have time to waste. Now, the first job I want to complete is the building of the showers and the bathrooms across the village. I want to make sure that no one falls ill and that everyone is in the best condition possible.”

  Erik’s voice was softer. He had come to know these people over the last couple of days; he’d harvested with them, hunted with them, eaten meals with them, and become a part of their community. He might be here to complete a quest, but he’d become a part of Alva Village.

  “The department heads will have work rotas for you. Together, Alva will survive.” Erik turned and left the stage. It was a somber atmosphere as they thought on his words. Those who were done with their food went over to see the department heads.