Chương 10: Teamwork!

A way with words is often underrated and overlooked. Even more so, is the comfort one finds in friendship. —The Artificer's Guide to the Apocalypse"Duke Demarius is an evil man of short stature and shorter temper. When you rebelled and threw his plans to the wind, he got back at you the only way he knew how to without upsetting the rule of law."

"You seem like you know him personally." The old man was oddly well-informed and had quickly come to the same conclusions we had, with much less background information.

"I should think so!" He chuckled wryly.

"After all, I served him in the courts for nearly twenty years. I've seen his vile temperament firsthand many, many times." He finished his tankard and pushed it aside. He locked his fingers together on the table and leaned forward, eyes on my own.

"To explain his revenge, I must explain the valley. As I said, it is a beautiful and wondrous place. Much of it is unexplored wilderness, at least in recorded history. We encountered strange ruins and marvelous creatures that danced on the wind and in the sky." His eyes lost focus, like he was looking through me while he recalled ancient history.

"I was thirty-three. We arrived shortly after winter's thaw and spent the following months establishing ourselves. Our expedition had several stonemasons that built a barracks and the bones for a small village. When I say it was beautiful, it hardly does it justice. Many scouting parties were sent out to map the area, but after, oh, I forget now. Maybe the fifth outing? The scout didn't return." Ye olde pit returned. Souring my belly, like a sixth sense, my spidey senses tingled.

"Then it was the lumberjacks. They didn't even go far, less than a mile to the lumberyard we had set up. Trees are everywhere, you see. Turns out, there's a goblin problem in the valley, and that's just the beginning."

"Goblins? Like the little green guys?" Creatures. There it was. Curiosity temporarily outweighed my concern.

"Aye.

'Little green guys'. Vicious bastards. By the start of summer, half of our expedition were either dead or missing. One old lad, Jasper, I think his name was, claimed he saw a dragon." He shook his head at the mention.

"I can't speak to anything like that, but I saw things I can't explain there. It is not a place meant for man. Not until it has been tamed. And that, my dear boy, is the duke's revenge. I fear he means to send you to your deaths." My throat felt lumpy, and I tried to swallow, but my mouth had gone dry. My hands were sweaty, and my untouched ale suddenly seemed very unappetizing. I wondered if we would have been better off in the army.

"I'm sorry. You look like you've seen a ghost. I didn't mean to frighten you. Even though it was a place of death for us, there was wonder. I always wanted to go back and see for myself, but as you can see, time got away from me, and I became an old man." The silence hung for a good thirty seconds, then he slapped the table loudly and pointed to my tankard.

"You going to drink that?" I declined and pushed the ale to him, glad to have it out from under me.

"Well! That's about all I know. Not much was kept back then. The duke didn't want others to learn of his failure, so he swept it under the rug. I bet he's been keen ever since to be rid of the land. I'd imagine he was happy to learn of your refusal, once he'd had time to consider his options." He put a weathered, wrinkled hand out and I shook his hand. I thanked him for the information and left the tavern. My knees felt weak and I braced myself on the wall outside, steadying myself.

I took several deep breaths and the moment passed. I wasn't looking forward to breaking the news to the others. First, though, I needed to make a couple more stops.

August was waiting for me when I arrived. He embraced me and gestured to a chair. The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"Lad…" He began, but I cut him off.

"Don't worry about it, please. It is what it is. I just wanted to stop by and thank you for everything. Also, to make a couple requests…?" I trailed off, hoping to entice him away from discussing the week's events.

"I'm sure you've heard it enough from everyone else. What do you need?" He asked.

"Arrowheads, spear tips, lumber axes. Oh, and a couple saws. And nails." I checked off my mental list.

"Arrowheads and spear tips I can do. Danny already stopped by and requested the rest. Unless you needed some as well…?"

"No, if they already requested it, that works for me. How soon can you have them?"

"I have most of it already in stock. I'll be working through the night and will have the rest of it ready tomorrow. It sounded like you will be leaving very soon?"

"I don't know what timeline we're being given, but I know it isn't much. I assume the duke isn't going to want us spreading word about what he's doing, but I think that ship has long since sailed."

"Aye, it has, at that." August agreed.

"Not that it matters. As if half the city has ever found him favorable to begin with. Anyway, let me get back to work. The sooner I can get your orders done, the better." At his dismissal, I located a clothing shop and purchased two additional pairs of socks, some smallclothes, a sweater, and a second pair of pants. I didn't want to buy too much since I was sure that Joann and one of the other weavers would be able to supply our needs much more cheaply from bulk fabrics.

I just wanted to have a pair for the road, before we would have access to additional clothes. It would also be nice to have something to wear while I washed the ones I had. Washing clothes in the creek while naked had its attractions, but I'd still rather avoid it. My coin was dwindling, and a check revealed that I had spent more than I had intended at this point. > Currency: 24s 18c I would need to avoid spending any more if I was going to be able to pay August the next day.

The arrowheads and spear tips were for our group, but I wanted to avoid using the communal funds if I could. I walked aimlessly around the outer edges of the city, stopping once to indulge in a small pastry. It had a cherry filling and flakes of sugar coated the top. I couldn't taste any of it. I ended up tossing the remaining half to a stray pup. Once I realized that the sooner I reported back, the sooner they could better prepare for the trip ahead, I was able to shake the thoughts occupying my mind.

Back at camp, since that was what it was now in my mind, not home, I sought out Ernie. Upon my request, he brought in the small group we'd had at the last small gathering, and I explained everything I had learned, as well as my order with August. It didn't feel good to hide things from the whole group, but there was no sense in terrifying everyone if we didn't have a good reason to.

"I agree. If we can live quietly in the valley, that is our best bet." Ernie said.

"It sounds like they survived for quite some time without issues. Before they decided to expand anyway."

"We can focus on only using naturally fallen trees. If the valley is as big as you mentioned, I'm sure there's more than enough to meet our needs." Darby said. Danny nodded at his words.

"And we can focus on using stone for many of the building projects. River rocks, stone from the mountains making up the valley, that could greatly reduce our reliance on the forests. We could stockpile mostly for firewood, tools, or defenses. It was good to hear everyone coming forward with ideas to minimize our footprint in the valley, and remain unflinching in the face of possible danger until we had learned more.

"I can make use of those arrowheads and hunt. If'n you can fashion me up a bow, that is." Gene looked at me.

"Yeah, of course. I can do that. That was the plan. The hides will make for good winter clothing. Between myself and Joann and anyone else, we have the clothing aspect taken care of. I'll work on the spears too, in case things… aren't as easy as we hope." I left it at that, not wanting to sour the mood.

"It'll be nice to get to do some other work than just leather too." Perry, as I learned his name, excitedly brought up the heavy stream that flowed through the valley and the probable source of fish. Tabitha agreed and suggested that Tim, the other man present, was able to source some seeds from some of the farms outside of the city. The vendors in the city had strongly refused any attempt to purchase them. Ernie called a meeting and softly delivered the plans we had come up with to the neighborhood.

I could have cut the tension in the air with a knife. The mention of possible dangers was enough to make one balk at the idea, but we didn't have much choice. We were to be evicted from the city, with our only other choice being voluntary military service in a war. The point was brought up that we could just go somewhere else, use the maps to find a different place to call home, but it was quickly shot down.

No one would take in close to a hundred refugees out of the goodness of their heart, and if we just set up camp in an unknown territory, there was no telling what consequences we might face. Without any fanfare or grumbling, the group naturally came to the same conclusion and took comfort in knowing we had each other's backs. All in all, my news was better received than I had expected.

It left me with a faint sense of eager anticipation at the thought of finally building a real home in this world, even if it was overshadowed by the trials I knew we would soon face.