I’m just a simple villager. I worked as a logger for a bit before we found our gold—well what we called our gold, which was right before all the fighting. But I’m getting ahead of myself. My name is Juan. I’ve been tasked with recapping you with everything that’s happened in…Whatever cruel game of life we’ve been playing. I’ve been around since the very beginning, part of the original three founders of New Spainland, they call me Juan. The other two are Tracey and Dose. Although many people quickly came after us we still remained in a few groups.

“fuck…this…work,” Grunted Dose.

She’d recently been transferred over from lamb herding to stone mining and was…less than thrilled.

“Eh, I don’t know. Look around!” Juan said.

Juan swept his hand around them, taking in the emerald green grass, ready for them to organize and fertilize! Packing fruit and vegetables into neat little rows, forming the previously underfoot dirt into nutrient rich feasts for their crops. The wind rustled through their sunbaked rows of this season’s growth, then up to the mill’s sails. They constructed the mill in less than a day! And their creation danced behind them, casting conflicting shadows on the resolute scaffolding they'd set up for a few extra houses. The shadow of their completed production invigorating their efforts, almost bringing the rough timber to life with the excitement of being used.

Juan sucked in a deep breath of fresh air, “I just love how our society is built by our own hands.”

“That’s fine,” Dose huffed, “just let me stay with Lamby”

“God in heaven don’t tell me you started fuckin’ naming them,” said Tracey.

She was a little bit more of a… pessimist…when it came to theses—or any—things.

“No, I’m not calling THEM names I’m calling HER Lamby.”

“Well that’s fine because soon we’ll be calling her a new name, do you wanna know Dose?”

“Not even slightly Tracey”

“Dinner”

“Fuck your mother”

“Guys please!” Juan cut in, “We’re all working hard, but let’s not argue because of it.”

The rhythm of their picks against the limestone picked up where their conversational cadence lagged.

“It’s just I don’t think that you needed to have said that about Lamby”

“IM FUCKin—”

“Dose! Why don’t you take our stone back, thank you!” Juan held his load of rocks out to Dose, half-shoving Dos away from us. She squinted and started muttering something unpleasant towards us two.

We kept working for a bit in silence before Juan pipped up, “I mean, you’re welcome”

Tracey shot him a look, “For what?”

“Well I got her to leave.”

“Oh sure that was you. Right.”

He rolled my eyes, “Oh, don’t tell me you’re on that shit again”

“Listen, you can’t prove me wrong”

“Yes because we’re all just characters in some big book, right? Already destined to say what we say and do what we do”

“So there’s no reason to try and pretend like we can make decisions you’re exactly right” She nodded her at him with a sage grin