by Eric Ugland
“Prinkies,” Essie said, more than a drip of disdain in her voice.
“These ones are his though,” Tarryn interrupted to say, pointing at me. “Pulling from his mana, which he has no use for. Makes them perfect little utility workers.”
“As long as they remain under his control,” Essie said, “I will not kill them.”
“They’re harmless little furballs,” I said.
“And if they managed to get that ditch dug and the rampart built in barely a day,” Lee started, “I’m a prinky fan.”
“I think the digging was mostly Fritz,” I said. “But still. Now, we’re going to go through everyone, divide people into teams. We need to get cracking on this stuff, and fast.”
“Teams?” Nikolai asked.
“There’s team Lee, on the saw mill and the smithy.”
Lee nodded.
“Nikolai, you’re on the walls. Get the logs up against the ramparts, then start in on the towers.”
Nikolai nodded.
“Me?” Nathalie asked.
“Uh, what have you been doing?”
“Training guards,” she replied. “And guarding.”
“Good, good. I guess you just keep doing that. If you have someone who’s free, send them to Nikolai. I think he’s the one who will need the most unskilled labor today.”
“What’s your team doing?” Essie asked.
“I’m glad you asked, Essie. You’re on my team—”
“I don’t get my own team?”
“Not yet. I am going to take you and Mercy, and I guess Tarryn, and see what we can do with some houses and maybe a treasury. Or something along those lines. Now, let’s meet some people!”
This was one of those times where I should have done a little more thinking before acting, but, well, everyone seemed to be in reasonably good spirits looking around at the ramparts. They all got in a general line, one that was a little more organized once Nikolai got frustrated and started yelling at everyone and shoving them into an order.
It went pretty quickly, mainly because Lee was perfunctory in everything he was asking and saying, and I was happy to let him run the show. At least in this regard. He seemed to have plenty of experience interviewing people, and seemed to know what sorts of professions we needed where.
First up were the dwarves. There were twelve adults, and each one of them spoke about how happy they were to be part of the dukedom and how they thought I was doing a fine job. Amongst the group, we had eight males and four females. They were quick to point out that they had already told Nikolai their jobs, but were happy to do so again.
I just smiled as big as I could and thanked them for humoring me. I also had Lee explain the teams thing. Then, because I still hadn’t learned to stop talking before doing the whole thinking thing, I added that I was considering making it a competition. The team who finished first would get a prize.
Nikolai did not like that idea. Everyone else did. Nikolai was a stick in the mud. He did not like it when I called him that.
There were the three miners, all of whom went into Nikolai’s wall team. The smith and the metallurgist went with Lee to work on Team Industrial Revolution, as Lee had renamed it. The two cooks and the butcher were members of what I called the Home Team, which only Lee and I found amusing. I then shifted Nathalie to be the leader of the Home Team, those who were keeping us fed and safe. I took the tanner/leatherworker and the sculptor. One dwarf was a trained crossbowman, so of course, he was with the Home Team, and then there was the old dude. He got the job of making sure the food was hot on time.
Next up were the battenti. There were 23 of them total, but only 16 adults. And of those adults, there was the super old geezer who was hilarious, but of limited mobility. He got into the Home Team as well. Nikolai took the two miners. Lanfrank, the clan leader and an architect, came with me to work on the houses. The rope-maker, the tinkerer and the jeweler went on Team IR. The shortening of the name was the first revolution. Lee was having altogether too much fun with this. There were two archers and two cooks who got tapped for the Home Team, and three couriers who got pulled into the Wall Team.
Conall the woch walked up, smiled, and waved to Nikolai. Nikolai nodded, and then Conall was on the Wall team.
Isaac got pulled into the Wall Team because, so far, Isaac was the best with all the various draft animals we had. Rebecca, as our top cook, was definitely on the home team. Her brothers, who were very much unhappy about being in Coggeshall and not Osterstadt, were less than enthused about doing much of anything. Thankfully, Rebecca was overjoyed with her new home, and after some choice words with her brothers, they seemed to come around. At least while she was watchin. One was the guard outside the Magic Circle, so he was clearly on the Home Team. The other was actually a lumberjack in the Emerald forest, and I felt a little bad about the demotion to taking down normal trees. His wife was a little happier about it, being that it was significantly safer felling trees in regular forests, and she would know because apparently she was what’s known as a high climber. She would climb high in the trees and top them to set them up to be used as spars for hoisting men, materials and logs. I wanted her for my team, but Nikolai made a strong case. I wound up taking the brother.
Zoey walked up with Mouse and Lily. Lily wanted to be a ranger, and I said she would be fine at it, but, for the time being, I needed her to work with Isaac and the animals. I sent Mouse along with his sister to keep an eye on her, and help Isaac. As any young big brother, I think he resented having the babysitting be part of his job. Zoey, as a smith, obviously was taken by Team IR.
Amber volunteered to work with Nikolai, arguing that as one of our rangers, she’d be needed to see how things were going to function on the other side of the wall. Plus, the kitsune-girl wanted to give her input on the towers.
That left the top-tier carpenter, Guy Gambrill, whose wife had begged me to take him. He got snagged, immediately, by Team IR, and I got the wife, who was a seamstress. I wasn’t really sure what she’d be able to offer in terms of assistance for building homes, but I wanted another person on my team, dammit.
I stood up, thinking we were done, but then I got shoved from behind. Fritz made it clear he was part of the village, and, therefore, needed to be interviewed.
“Sucks that you can’t fly away now, doesn’t it?” I said to him.
He just glared at me, which is pretty effective as a land shark, though underscored by the rainbow assortment of furry friends standing all around and on him.
“Right, then. Fritz,” I said. “He can dig and be mean. I suppose, for the time being, he’ll come with me. As will the, uh, prinkies. But if someone needs a whole bunch of labor, let me know. Happy to send the little furballs to work.”
And just when I was about to start walking, naturally someone else came waltzing up.
Eliza Northwoods.
“What about me and mine?” she asked. “Do we not rate an interview?”
“Uh,” I said, stuck. “Sure. You can have one. Skills?”
“I am currently a Lady, but I have skills in overseer, horse husbandry, riding—”
“Okay, uh, I guess you can come with me. Or not. I mean, you can join the Home Team, or—”
“I’ll come with you.”
“And your people can, uh—” I stammered.
“I will assign them for you, my lord,” she said, the essence of calm. “I know how to best place them.”
The teams broke off to get to work, some good natured jibes already being shouted from Team IR to the Wall Team. Secretly, I wished I could switch and join Team IR. They seemed like they were having fun. My team, on the other hand, looked markedly unhappy to be stuck with the village idiot.
Chapter Twelve
I led my disparate group over to the rock wall of the mountain, ignoring the feeling of disappointment coming off my people in waves.
“So, we need homes,” I said. “The current housing is, well, inadequate is the nice term, but gross is probably more accurate.”
<
br /> There were some murmurs of agreement.
Lanfrank had his pipe out, and had perched himself on a stump. He blew out blue smoke, and leaned back. I watched as he looked at the mountain wall, then back at the space we’d allotted for the homes.
Looking around at what we had, at who I had around me, I tried to formulate some sort of a building plan. I tried to think what was necessary in a house, and I quickly came up against a fundamental problem. I still thought like a modern-day American. Hell, I thought like a modern-day Midwesterner. I wanted a place that had an open layout with a big kitchen, three bedrooms, and two and a half baths. And preferably a finished basement where I’d have an air hockey table and a gas fireplace as well as an overstuffed couch for watching the Lions kick the shit out the Packers. Or, hell, as long as I'm dreaming, kick the shit out of everyone. And have Barry Sanders back for 10 more seasons.
But this wasn’t Michigan, despite the empty Faygo bottle in my bag of holding. And these people were not accustomed to the same stretches of luxury that my former folk had developed. And to them, watching lions kick the shit out of someone meant some poor bastard just died in the arena. I wasn't exactly keen on building an arena somewhere.
"I'm sorry," I said, "I think I'm just coming at this from the wrong way. Will someone who has had a home here tell me what you need to be happy?"
The carpenter's wife, herself a seamstress, stepped up. "I'd like it to have a fireplace, or a means of heat. Osterstadt froze in the winter," she said, "I can only imagine it will be worse here."
"Perhaps a loft," Rebecca's sister-in-law, Elinora, said. “It is useful for families to have a second sleeping area, or for storage."
Lanfrank nodded a few times, as if these were great ideas.
"Are we thinking, like, these will be just a single room?" I asked.
"I fear you leap ahead of where we need to be," Lanfrank said. "These are projects once we have more time. For the moment, I think we are best served by building homes which nest against each other. Sharing walls. Simple boxes. They can be repurposed for stores or storage later down the road. For now, they will provide shelter and a modicum of comfort."
Eliza nodded. "I agree," she said. “Even having tents for right now would be a boon, but I fear the weather will prove too nasty."
"I give it four weeks before first snow," Lanfrank said, puffing out a cloud of blue smoke to punctuate his pronouncement. “Winter will be early this year. And hard.”
“Is that for sure?” I asked. “Do you have a skill or—”
“Educated guess.”
“I agree that time is of an issue,” Eliza said.
Listening to the debate heat up between the various parties involved, I couldn't help but wonder if there was something else to consider. What were the benefits, in game terms, to having individual family homes? Was there a way that I could see that before I made my decision? I wished I had a manual of some kind to illuminate some of the nonsense in this game-world.
But I didn't.
I did have Eliza.
"Eliza," I said, interrupting whatever everyone else had been saying, “Is there any obvious advantage, settlement-wise, or holding-wise I suppose, to having single family homes versus more communal living?"
Eliza mused over things for a moment, trying to remember something, but it was clear whatever she was trying to remember was a buried deep in her past.
"I would imagine there is," she said, "but what exactly it might be, I cannot answer. Usually, it would be a bonus to morale. Perhaps it would even have something to do with the quality of rest one might gain for sleeping here. In which case, the positive aspects could be quite stackable."
"So weighing that, do you think it might be worth the extra effort?”
"Only if you are still able to move your people into homes and out of the present longhouse in a reasonable time frame. I think your current living situation is having a deleterious effect on the village as a whole, and anything to alleviate that effect would be best in this situation."
This was a moment where it was good for me to be playing the extra idiot for her. Because I had no idea what deleterious meant.
So I asked.
She smiled. "Deleterious means causing harm.”
"Got it. Thanks for the vocab tip, Eliza. While I’d really like to figure this out, do some working on the actual mechanics of this holding nonsense—“
“You have this as a Holding?” Lanfrank asked.
“Yeah,” I answered. “I, well, it’s technically claimed as a dukedom—”
“You are quite the egoist,” he replied.
“Did we, I thought someone, like, made an announcement or something.”
“It is entirely possible I was not paying attention were it made. I have been feeling, well, relaxed more than anything. This little place is so much nicer for my clan than Osterstadt ever was.”
“Uh, it’s kinda nothing right now, but—”
“We are welcome here,” Lanfrank said. “That is not nothing. For some of us, that is a first, and it is everything.”
I felt my cheeks flush, and I smiled and nodded. I really didn’t know how to react to something like that.
“Okay, so, housing,” I said.
Essie had her hand up.
I looked over at her. “What?”
“Why am I here?” Essie asked.
“Because I was thinking, maybe, you could cut out big chunks of stone, and we could use those as, like, pre-made walls or something.”
“I can cut bricks and stuff,” she said. “But bigger stuff is limiting because only you can move it.”
“My lord,” Lanfrank said, hopping up off his stump and heading over to me, “if I might be so bold as to have a word with you in private?”
I looked over the little figure, his canine features both alien and amusing. His bushy mustache and his droopy ears offset by the bright and sparkling eyes that bespoke of a vibrancy and intelligence.
“Sure,” I said.
We walked a fair distance from the gathered group. Though the prinkies followed, we were in relative privacy.
"What's up?" I asked.
"I fear, my lord," Lanfrank began, "you are inserting yourself in a matter where you need not. There are plenty of things which surely require your attention in our little valley home, but in this matter, I ask that you simply decree what it is you desire, and then let others actually do the building. Because, and I mean this to be far more gentle than I fear it will sound, you do not possess the requisite learning to make the choices you are attempting. And, frankly, it will require more time for us to school you in that regard than it would for you to tell us what to do."
"Oh," I replied. "I see."
Lanfrank looked at me, concerned. I think he thought I was going to be upset, and in a small part, I was because I had wanted to be involved in this, but he also had a very good point. I didn't know how to build a house. I didn't know what homes even needed to look like here. My current involvement was just opening up debates, and not actually allowing any forward progress to happen.
"What do you need from me, then?" I asked.
Lanfrank let out the breath he'd been holding, and smiled at me.
"What is it you desire us to build?"
""Homes."
"How many would you like to house?"
"Everyone?"
"And how quickly?"
"As soon as possible?"
"We were able to build the first longhouse using reclaimed goods from the wagons in roughly a day. If you can pry the carpenter from Lee, I believe we could have individual homes built to the tune of one or two a day."
"And if he stays with Lee?"
The battenti took a big puff from his pipe and sent out some small smoke rings.
"I think our housing plans would need to change a little. Perhaps, well, we might need your strength then, and we would probably be better served building a few longhouses. Log longhouses, using some of the larger trees that have been fe
lled. I think that would probably be three days for each one. Longer to get the furniture installed, but three longhouses would certainly provide adequate shelter until such time as we could make more homes."
Again, the debate. Communal living versus single-family homes. A decision had to be made, and it would likely be better that the decision came from me.
"Make the longhouses," I said. "But keep them, well, make them wider than normal. I want these to be able to shift into storage if we can get people out of them."
Lanfrank smiled.
"A good decision, my lord."
"Is it, though?"
"Any decision is the right decision at the present, my lord. The worst thing we could do is allow ourselves to become seized by inaction."
Lanfrank puffed happily as he marched back to the group, and immediately began shouting out orders.
People jumped into action, and the prinkies started running and digging. Everyone had something to do.
Except me.
And Eliza. Well, she might have had something to do, but she chose to come over to me instead of hopping into the action.
"Longhouses?" she asked.
"I think that's the current best option," I said. "You?"
"That remains to be seen."
"Quite the politic answer," I said. "A decision had to be made, so I made it."
"And now?"
“I suppose now I move on to the next quest."
Chapter Thirteen
I'd been neglecting something. Or someone. Two someones really. To be fair, they hadn't exactly been keen on interacting with me, but I was the bigger man, literally, so it was time to be one figuratively as well. I went into the stinky longhouse and found the two snoring lumps that made up the bulk of my hirð.
I sat down against the wall next to Ragnar, and listened to him sleep. I could hear construction happening in the village just outside, shouting as things went wrong, cheering when something went right. Lanfrank yelling at the prinkies. The two lutra had been standing guard at night since the kidnapping, and I had to imagine it was starting to wear on them.
Ragnar woke up. Granted, it was because I poked him, but still, he was awake.