Chương 45

Carpenter Ellen Breath fogged in the air as Ellen waited, her cloak wrapped tightly around her. They'd run out of pre-bought ones, but Hunter's pelts were good enough that they made a serviceable cloak. It was plenty warm enough, but harder to draw tight at the hood, and much more difficult to clean and dry after a sustained downpour. In the relatively dry, irregular snowfall of winter the fur cloaks were much more valuable than in the autumn. Pauley stood beside her and looked over the hastily-constructed town.

In truth, they only had one and a half functional buildings, but Ellen was proud of what they'd done… and thus far the large mill owner hadn't said anything about them. He was only watching as no less than five other Ellens were hard at work attempting to make the smithy and smelter more functional. Mason and Apprentice were restoring the smelter, keeping a small and gentle heat going with a fire inside while Mason did minor repairs to the lining.

Smith was still organizing the tools, and Hunter was fitting some of the hides on the roof while Merchant watched, ready to catch should another unfortunate fall occur.

"Impressive job on the longhouse," Pauley finally said, giving a grudging nod of appreciation.

"I can see it still needs a little work in the spring, but I imagine it's pretty comfortable right now. And whatever you have cooking in there smells good."

"No idea what it is tonight," Ellen admitted. She took a sniff, but in the cold it was hard to get a clear idea of what was cooking. Potatoes, herbs, and some kind of meat… she did have a clue, after all.

"Rabbit stew I think. Healer does the cooking nowadays. I think Village is better, but I'm pretty sure she cheated and took a Skill Enhancer." Pauley shook his head and trudged further forward, aiming for the pile of firewood under the small roof that Ellen had thrown together. He cursed and jerked back as a ginger cat bolted out from behind it, then darted around the corner of the crumbling half-wall to vanish into a bolt hole.

"Sorry about that," Ellen apologized.

"A lot of cats around. They sneak into the house when they can. We let a few in now and then… keeps the rodents under control." The man scratched at his beard, huffing another breath as he tried to keep warm and look everything over.

"This firewood isn't going to be ready for a while. And are you sure you want to get a smithy up and running? I hear there's an iron mine nearby, but uh…" He stared.

"I was going to say something about manpower, but maybe that's not what you're missing."

"None of us know how to mine," Merchant admitted, raising her voice to be heard more clearly.

"But we don't need much. We'll figure something out. Maybe we can import some ingots from Justeen or something until we get the mine operational."

"Now hold on a minute," Pauley protested.

"Look… I get that this is tempting, but you have to be careful. Running a mine is a lot of work, and dangerous sometimes. Not only that, but the waste it makes will make our life downriver pretty nasty if you don't take care of it." Hunter peeked over the edge of the half-finished roof.

"He's right, I remember hearing something about that. Also hi, Pauley! Thanks for taking care of things when I died, I'm sure it was a mess." Pauley stared for a moment, then grumbled, "Sure, no problem." Ellen watched him shiver as Hunter got back to work, and she patted the man's arm… then tucked her hand back into her cloak. She wasn't working like the others right now, and it was too cold to keep her hands outside her cloak.

"We've gotten used to it, but I'm sure it's strange to someone who isn't… me." Ellen chuckled softly.

"We'll be careful, I seem to remember hearing something like what Hunter said, too. So it was probably said before we split. We all know it then." Looking back at her, Pauley nodded, then ran his gaze across the five other Ellens working.

"I heard about it, but wasn't sure what to believe until now. Does it hurt? Do you have any strange urges? I'm not trying to insult, I just have to… ask these questions." Ellen shook her head.

"I get it. When we first woke up and there were two of us, I wondered if the other me was going to kill me… then I wondered if maybe I was the one who was supposed to kill her." She shivered.

"Glad I didn't, but as far as we can tell, we're all the same as we were, just taking different ways. We don't want to hurt anyone, and it's kind of fun working with the others to repair this place. Speaking of that…" Pauley grunted.

"Yeah, I hear you. You're wondering about our supply. We just don't keep that much building-quality wood on hand. Most of what we had went into the new expansion for the inn, or what you… uh… Merchant Ellen already bought. We can't afford to sell you much more, we need the rest for any repairs we might need." If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. A heavy sigh puffed out, and Ellen tugged the scrap of cloth she used as a scarf up.

She sniffled, grumbling at the cold.

"I was afraid of that. I'm still barely a carpenter-type Class, so I'm not sure how badly it'll mess things up if we use greener wood. We might have to finish some of this and then tear it down to build it properly in the spring. More work. Assuming you'll even have more available."

"We will," the man assured.

"But probably not nearly as much as you'll want for a whole town. You can't just build one out of nowhere in a few weeks, no matter how fast you're learning." He started to say something else, but jumped back abruptly when one of the cats leapt atop the crumbling pile of stone nearby and hissed at him. Ellen shooed the feline away.

"Sorry. They're used to just different versions of me. I'm not sure why they're so upset with you though."

"Maybe they smell Smoky," Pauley grumbled, referring to his dog.

"As I was saying, you can't build it up in a few weeks, but Mason looks like she's really learning cold weather building. You might try tearing down some of these older buildings to make a few more stone-walled ones. I'm not sure if we'll have many more large beams for your roofs available soon, but it's better than trying to build more out of wood." A heavy sigh filtered through her facecloth as Ellen contemplated this.

"I thought you'd have more on hand. I'm not a lumberer, sorry." Pauley gave her a pat on the shoulder.

"You're doing pretty good for a new Carpenter, don't be hard on yourself. My advice is to start stacking up, and maybe trade it downriver. We'll saw it for you for a minor fee if you cut some logs for us. Just be careful you don't have another accident. I have a feeling the girl who said it was a near miss was understating." He turned and pointed down the hill.

"I'd suggest finishing what you started and getting the old road cleared out. You do that, and walking to and from here will be a lot easier than hiking up the trail. Not sure what to do about people just wandering into a place full of… well, you. I still haven't told any of the others in the village. It's one thing to learn there's a dungeon nearby, but this is a lot more strange."

"Sorry to make your life harder," Smith Ellen said, stepping over the remnant of the wall to join them.

"Do you think you could tell Mister Keeley soon? I'm pretty sure me showing up to ask him questions would be a little much, but I don't want to wait for my tan to fade." Pauley looked at her and scratched at his beard.

"Keeley, eh? I'll see what I can do to ease him into the idea that there's a bunch of you up here. We're going to have to tell everyone, eventually, and I don't know what they'll all act like." He looked her over and frowned.

"I would have thought you'd want to be a trapper or something, not a smith. Why so different from uh… I'm not sure how to say this."

"It happens sometimes," Smith replied, shoving her hands into her furs. She had no gloves or mittens, and now that she was out of the forge, away from the smoldering fire they were using to cure the repointing, she was starting to feel the cold.

"Merchant was completely different, and my lineage has never followed the typical path. We split off right away to live on our own instead of in the village. I guess it just seemed natural for me to do something different."

"You don't miss being a Hunter at all?" Pauley's question had a note of genuine curiosity, and he glanced between Smith and Hunter, trying to spy the other half of the sister-selves. Smith shrugged.

"I wouldn't say that. I'm not sure this was the right thing for me, because I do miss the quiet of the hunt and… other things. But I feel like I have to be the responsible one sometimes. No offense to you, Carpenter, but it's like Merchant and myself—and Hunter now—are the only ones trying to be careful and keeping us all alive."

"No offense taken," Carpenter laughed.

"I just don't think of that stuff. I'm trying to build, it's nice to have another me to think about things like the larder and planning for spring. Lets me focus on figuring out the roof problems." Pauley just looked between the two of them, scratched his beard again, then grunted.

"Well I've given the advice I can. Thanks for having me, girls." His eyes lifted to the overcast skies.

"I'd better get started back if I'm going to get home in time for dinner." The sudden change in demeanor made Ellen blink, and she almost protested… there were quite a few hours of daylight left! The drift of a few flakes of snow downward quieted her words before they left her lips. She thought for a moment, then nodded.

"Thank you for coming up," she said with sincerity.

"Please let me know if you think of anything else. I guess we'll have to use green wood for anything else, we're almost out of good lumber." Pauley made a motion to tip his hat, before remembering he wasn't wearing the nigh-omnipresent accessory.

"Just stay out of trouble, I'll talk to Keeley for you and see what I can do. It's going to be a rough winter for girls like you. It's different up here in the mountains. We'll figure out something before the adventurers swarm the place." Ellen watched him go, as Merchant walked up to join beside her.

"What was that about?" Merchant frowned, Ellen seeing it in her eyes even with the mouth covered.

"I don't know, I think he just doesn't know how to deal with us," Smith replied.

"We should get used to it. Who is prepared for a lot of us?"

"WAIT, DON'T!" Mason yelled suddenly from behind them.

"SORRY!" Apprentice squeaked. Ellen huffed, but it was Merchant who looked over her shoulder and sighed.

"We really have to make sure we keep that one alive. If they can't handle all the normal Ellens, what will the next generation of Apprentice act like?" A synchronized chuckle from all three announced the heavier snowfall.

"Let's get inside," Smith muttered.

"It looks like a storm," Hunter finished, jumping down the last few feet from the ladder. Ellen was all too happy to comply.