Chương 77: Waste Not

Enzo stopped a reasonable distance back from the pig pens. He hadn't seen this part of the settlement before, but he was immediately grateful that someone had the foresight to keep them separated from the living areas. With the initial palisade wall extending around multiple semi-parallel streets, and running wide from north-west to south-east, they'd included a lot of the hills and valleys in their immediate area.

But while he'd been busy in his workshop, Nathan, the foreman who he'd only met the one time, had been expanding the palisade. Ambitiously, and in every direction, including more of the neighboring roads and aligning it with the terrain to increase the defensiveness of their perimeter. Because there were sections of their territory now that didn't include a palisade at all, but instead relied on the sheer cliffs that separated much of the streets as they moved further up into the mountainous terrain.

According to Val, the defensive perimeter, including palisade and cliffs, now totaled about two and a half miles from start to end. That's why the Watch had grown so important. The sheer length of the perimeter required watch posts and lookout points over a considerable distance, along with people willing to walk sections of it multiple times a day to check for any signs of intruders.

In return, they had access to secluded valleys like this one in which to tuck the most foul-smelling creatures Enzo had ever had the displeasure of meeting. He could tell immediately that the location allowed for natural water runoff, and space for the animals to forage, while also protecting the residential homes from the stench. The walk alone had taken him twenty minutes, and his knee wasn't happy with the trail that ran back the way he'd come, where it connected with the road.

Further down the trail, Ruth and a couple of young men were emptying buckets into a makeshift trough, carved into a fallen redwood. Enzo waited patiently for them to finish, watching the pigs while he waited. There were seven total, and three of them were larger than any pig he'd ever seen, not that he had much experience to lean on. One of them looked about normal, while the remaining three were clearly piglets.

While the two assistants began shoveling, loading manure into wheelbarrows, Ruth made her way carefully up the trail toward him, hands tucked under her stomach. He couldn't imagine someone having to give birth in the middle of everything that was going on, without access to advanced medical equipment and medicine. Still, it was fortunate the settlement had Doc Hadley around.

"Mr. Locke," Ruth said as she got closer.

"I'm surprised to see you out here. The trail isn't exactly friendly to people like you and me." Enzo smiled.

"And yet you must do it multiple times a day, I'm guessing." She nodded.

"The exercise is good for me, though. Did you need something?"

"I'll be negotiating with the 101s later today, and I wanted to get a feel for whether we might be in a position to trade any resources. Not immediately, of course. But perhaps over the next few months, and into the future. Also, my mother said something about magical manure coming from the pigs?"

"That's a good idea." She glanced back down the trail where the other two continued their work.

"But I think Lauren misunderstood me." She turned back.

"It's not just the pig manure that's magical. We pile it all into one large compost heap. Pigs. Chickens. Goats. Rabbits. But we keep the animals which are clearly becoming beasts separate from the ones that aren't. She noticed that the beast manure causes the produce to grow extra large, which makes it seem faster, though it's still maturing at the same rate. It's the same with the animals." That was an interesting distinction. He wondered if Sumi was targeting both.

Knowing her, she'd already thought of the problem. Her life magic would probably be key to solving the problem.

"Are there any downsides?" Ruth shrugged.

"For the produce? Not that I've heard of. But the animals are…" She hesitated.

"I'm not quite sure how to word it, and it's not all of them, but some seem a little more cunning." She gestured back toward the pigs.

"The smaller adult is clearly more intelligent than the others, even though it hasn't grown as large as the other hogs. Sometimes it… disagrees with us, when we want to relocate it to one of the valley areas with fresh ground." Enzo frowned. That sounded like Murph. She'd grown fast, but though she was a little larger than expected for a border collie, the extra growth had tapered off. It was her intelligence that stood out.

"Have you noticed the same thing with the other animals? I assume they're in other areas?" She nodded.

"They're all larger on average too, though none have stood out as particularly intelligent compared to the rest. It's just that one pig." Enzo studied the pigs, and found the one in question with its snout in the log trough. His eyes narrowed. Its head was angled just enough that it could watch them back. Maybe it was a coincidence, but he was inclined to think otherwise.

"I don't know what your plans are for them, but I want that one kept alive for the time being." Ruth didn't argue.

"Alright." Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

"Returning to the trade topic, do you think we'll be in a position to offer any animal products soon?"

"Yes. The chicken flock is growing the fastest. We're already seeing around thirty-five eggs a day, and it's easy to identify which chickens are beasts because their eggs are larger and have a very subtle purple tinge to them." She paused for a moment.

"Within two months we'll be producing enough eggs that everyone in the settlement can have one every other day. We're already selectively culling the roosters for extra meat, but it'll be at least half a year before we can provide regular chicken meat. The hens are too important right now."

"That's impressive."

"Thank you," Ruth said, smiling.

"We've worked hard to breed what we started with. The rabbits are also coming along well. We'll begin harvesting two or three per week regularly in a few weeks time, but give it two more months and we'll have tripled or quadrupled that number." Enzo nodded.

"The goats are being kept under guard closer to the residential area because some drunk asshole tried to poach one with a homemade spear, but—" Enzo raised a hand.

"Someone did what?"

"Right? The absolute selfishness of it," she huffed.

"One of the Watch restrained him before any damage was done, but the man would have killed one of our only breeding pairs if he had his way. And all to eat for himself!"

"I didn't hear anything about this."

"Frank handled it. I think he's being kept in a room that the Watch turned into a temporary cell." That was something he'd need to follow up on when he had time. Even he understood the importance of the goats to the settlement, and it wasn't because of their meat. Ruth continued.

"Unfortunately, the goats will take years to breed up into the necessary numbers, but at least we can already produce some milk and cheese. Maybe you could see if the 101s have any they might trade to us?"

"I'll ask, but I doubt they'd give up any if they do have them." He changed the subject.

"Mom said you needed help with the pigs? Something that requires 'running about the settlement' every day?" Ruth smiled.

"I love your mother, really. She's a great woman, but she really only hears the part of any conversation that she wants to." Enzo laughed.

"Tell me about it."

"I was telling her that I want to implement a food scraps program. I need some runners who will collect anything that can be fed to the pigs, instead of ending up in the trash heap or wherever else it goes."

"Such as?"

"The guts and leftover bits from any game the hunters bring back. Fish heads, bones, scales. Even the guts, if we can convince the fishing teams to take a bucket with them and carry it back. I also want any egg shells, stems and roots and peels, and anything the Trade Hall has that goes off and needs to be thrown out." Enzo nodded, but Ruth wasn't finished.

"As it is right now, I've been collecting everything myself. I have to keep chasing down individual hunt leaders when they get back in and check in with Jack every day." She took a deep breath.

"I know the pigs are less efficient compared to rabbits and chickens, and they're going to take a lot of upkeep, but they're great recyclers and they produce plenty of fertilizer for the gardens. They'll eat practically anything. And we really need the lard." He held up a hand.

"Consider it done. I'll tell Val to get started on making your idea a reality." Ruth exhaled.

"Oh, thank goodness. I thought I was going to have to tell you how much I really want some bacon." He laughed again.

"Don't we all?"

Enzo had thought the pigs smelled bad, but the hut that had been set aside for Gerald for his leather tanning work was significantly worse. And it wasn't even close. Someone on the council was doing exceptional work, assigning distant locations at the edges of their territory for the most foul-smelling stenches he'd ever had the displeasure of experiencing. Whoever it was needed a promotion. The trail to reach the tanner's hut had been worse than the one to reach the pigs.

His knee had strong opinions about everything he'd been putting it through this morning, but now that he was here, he had to admit that the once-popular trail was worth it. The sun was still climbing into the sky, and from up here, the view stretched across the treetops and over Mill Valley, all the way to the bay. On any other day, he might have stopped to appreciate it. If not for the smell.

The old man's hut sat within a small clearing near the cliff edge, sheltered by the surrounding redwoods but otherwise completely open to the wind blowing from the cliffs which carried the worst of the smell away from the settlement below. Barrels lined the near edge of the clearing, some sealed with wooden lids, others open to the air. It was the open ones which were the problem. Enzo could see the dark liquid inside the nearest one, and he didn't need to ask what it was.

Beyond the barrels, large wood tubs sat in a row, hides submerged in murky brown water with clumps of hair floating on the surface. Wooden frames stood upright through the clearing, each one holding a hide stretched taut and pegged at the edges. Some were pale and freshly scraped. Others had darkened to a deep brown, drying in the sun. A pile of stripped bark sat under a lean-to beside the hut, reddish and fragrant, though whatever pleasant smell it might have offered was thoroughly overwhelmed by everything else.

The hut itself was small. Large enough for one room, maybe two, with a slanted roof and a door that hung slightly crooked on its hinges. Tools hung from a rack nailed into the outer wall. Knives of various shapes. Scrapers. Whetstones. A pair of heavy shears. And in the middle of it all, seated on a log with a hide draped over a smooth, angled beam, was Gerald.

A short, wiry man with enough hair on his head and face for two woodsmen, wearing a pair of stained overalls that had probably been old before the world ended. He worked a curved blade down the hide in long, steady strokes, peeling away a thin layer of matter with each pass. Then the man pointed a hand toward the distant tool rack.

"Fetch the whetstone." Before Enzo could step forward, assuming Gerald was talking to him, a large turkey vulture launched from the redwoods overhead. It glided downward in a gentle arc, before landing awkwardly, its talons hooking over the rack. It snatched up a large whetstone with its beak, then launched itself toward Gerald. The whetstone dropped to the ground beside the man, while the vulture flapped its wings hard, flying back up into the trees where it disappeared. Enzo narrowed his eyes.

The turkey vulture was clearly a beast. He didn't even need to confirm it with Pulse. Which raised an important question. Enzo approached slowly, placing his cane carefully while sweeping the branches overhead with his gaze, trying to spot where the bird had gone. Gerald tensed. Then the man turned to look over his shoulder. Enzo came to a stop a short distance away. He studied Gerald for a moment, but the look of panic that had flashed in the man's eyes told him everything he needed to know. He asked, anyway.

"You're a mage, aren't you?"