The hobbs were still busily breaking down more yarsps, but most of the people who had gathered for breakfast were already drifting away and moving on with the rest of their day.

The work of preparing the meat would be a few hours more, based on the pile of corpses. There was also a ton of the yarsp’s chitin left, stacked in great piles against the side of our barn.

Jada was there, scanning the piles for sale to BuyMort. I approached her to get going again with my own work day.

“Hey Jada!” I said, raising my arm in greeting.

She glanced over and continued with her work, scanning another husk for the nearby BuyMort pod to beam away. It kept leaving and coming back, darting over the spider farm with each transaction.

“Hello Tyson,” Jada grumbled.

“How’s Axle?” I asked.

She scowled and frowned. “Fine, I think. The more work he has, the better, keeps his mind busy.”

“Well that’s good news, cause I have a ton of work for you guys today,” I said.

“One moment,” Jada said, holding up a claw. She continued her work with the yarsp husks, and I stepped away to pull up the affiliate page.

Our morties were rising steadily. Darclau’s gang had another rockstar night, netting us a cool four-hundred-thousand morties for our slice. I wondered what those ravens were stealing all night to keep bringing us such a great round of morties for our percentage. Those birds were rich.

Axle had managed to get all of our freezers up and running and had our first sale of Sleem for the day already posted. It wasn’t much compared to the raven’s contributions, but eleven thousand morties an hour was nothing to scoff at, if the farm kept up production.

Even Jada’s yarsp husks were worthy contributions, bringing in another hundred thousand morties through sheer volume. I was starting to look forward to the yarsp nest hunt. But first things first.

I swiped more morties into the build fund, bringing the total up to two million, before Jada waved to get my attention.

“What do you need, boss?” she asked. Her tone with me was gentler since we had fought the delves together. Still stiff though.

“I was hoping you could pass some instructions and general desires along to Axle, for the build,” I said.

“Of course,” she responded, pulling her tablet device from its pocket. She glanced at it and blinked in surprise. “Two million morties will get a lot built, what are you looking for?”

Jada and I spent the next half hour going over specifics, in the growing sunlight.

A size upgrade for our huts was already planned and would bring our capacity for residents up quite a bit. It would be a single story apartment complex by the time it was complete, with roughly twice the number of total units to live in. People had stopped trailing into the camp for the most part, but I was expecting that to change soon, and we needed space for all the hobbs that would be coming to live with us anyway.

The spider ranch needed another apartment built onto it, and Jada sketched out an easy solution. We had built an oversized apartment and barn, for Drusk the Mordren to use. Jada showed me how it would be easy to place another apartment on the opposite side of the barn, with dimensions more suitable to an elven body type.

She also walked me through some of Axle’s current plans for the ranch. He was going to be tearing out a good chunk of the paved walkway, as the underground hatch was beneath a section of it. The Knowle had also already sketched out and shared plans for an installed pond, something Shela could use to bathe daily.

A scrawled note on the side of his sketch said it would also serve to attract more local flying insects for the rest of the spiders. Axle had also included a very simple camouflage netting system that could be extended or retracted to cover Shela and Dro’erja from view. It would lift from several places in the nearby mud-crete wall, and store inside hollowed out tubes, with the netting bunched up against the wall.

Axle wanted to use a good chunk of the construction money to get water, power, and sewage hooked up to everything, which I agreed with. It was good to be making some morties, but we needed the creature comforts as quickly as possible for our residents.

I walked Jada through a special upgrade I wanted for my own place, a greenhouse deck. I wanted more space, so Cube wouldn’t be living in the entryway anymore, so we planned to extend my bungalow by another single room. On top of that room, using the space left over from the original construction, I wanted a tall room comprised of windows.

Jada warned me of how swelteringly hot it would get in that room during the day, and I merely smiled in response. I needed someplace Molls could be comfortable, so we could spend more time together. The heat had never really bothered me anyway.

Once all of the construction for the day was squared away, I left Jada and went to go see Drusk, my mordren spider rancher.

The ranch gate was solid wood, but it swung easily open for me. The area looked so different from what I had been used to, surrounded by tall mud-crete walls. Drusk’s barn and apartment loomed huge, facing the trees and pathway.

As I approached, I could hear shuffling sounds coming from within, and see motion in the empty windows. Drusk was up and moving around.

I knocked on the door, and the sounds all stopped. “Good morning, Drusk!” I shouted.

The sliding door on the barn opened, rolling sideways as Drusk shoved it. Sunlight poured in and reflected against his armored skin, as the towering, muscular reptilian stepped out toward me.

His arms were in normal positions again, and muscle rippled beneath the plating as he moved the large door. One hand ended in a capped hook, but the other looked like it had the night he used it to gut me. His jawline was filled with rough, pockmarked scarring, and he wore a white, bandaged eyepatch.

“Morning,” he growled.

“Missed you at breakfast, are you gettin’ enough to eat?” I asked.

Drusk glared at me, before narrowing his reptilian eyes to stare at the gate behind me. “Do you truly think I would be welcomed at a hobb barbeque? At your hobb barbeque?”

“Why does everybody keep asking that? The BlueCleave hobbs are pretty easy-going, Drusk. You should try next time, you might be surprised,” I said. “At least make sure and grab some yarsp, that stuff is delicious.”

He continued squinting at the gate and slowly nodded, so I changed the subject.

“How’s spider ranching suit you so far?” I asked.

The mordren shrugged, staring down at me. “No work to speak of. I was just moving supplies around. Optimizing storage space. Spiders need time to recover their population, there won’t be much work for me for a while.”

“Yeah, about that,” I started. “I’ve got another rancher coming on board.”

When Drusk whipped around to glare at me, I raised my hands and continued, “he’s a specialist, don’t look at me like that.”

“I already have no work. No work means no pay, means no prosthetics, means I never leave this place!” Drusk was nearly shouting by the end.

“No, just hold on,” I said. “Dro’erja is a member of the House of None, and he’s here as a specialist only. He won’t be helping with your spiders unless you ask him to.”

“Delves here?” Drusk scowled. “Odd.”

“Yeah, I’ll let him tell you how he managed to land here, I just came to let you know I’ll expect you to at least get along with him, if not work together.” I had my hands on my hips as I finished.

“Of course, boss,” Drusk growled. He grasped his truncated hand, rubbing the stump underneath his hook’s placement. “I’m not a fighter anymore.”

“Look, Drusk,” I started. “The spiders will recover, and so will you. I’ll look into some BuyMort shit that can help, and you can help out around the affiliate wherever you see fit until there’s work for you here. I’ll make sure you get paid for it. Or just sit on your tail if you want.”

His expression changed at that, a hint of mirth appearing at the corner of his mouth. “Is that a Nu-Earth phrase?” He asked.

“Yeah.” I nodded.

“But you have no tails,” he openly laughed. His missing teeth were evident as his long jaw opened.

I paused, scowled in thought for a moment, and started laughing myself. “To be fair, we used to have tails. Recently enough that some of us are still born with vestigial tails.”

Drusk was still chuckling, but paused to ask, “does the phrase come from the time your people had tails?”

I burst out in fresh laughter. “No. No, it does not.”

Drusk looked rather intimidating when he laughed, his crocodilian mouth hanging open, teeth glinting in the sunlight.

“Humans are strange, that is not in question. Nu-Earth humans might be the strangest yet,” the hulking mordren said.

After a long moment had passed and the laughter faded, he looked up at me again. “There will be work?”

“Drusk, if there’s not something for you to do here by the end of the day, I’ll find you a new assignment. We’ll earn you those morties,” I replied. “Besides, if you help Dro’erja with his work, you’ll get a cut of that too, from our end. Say, five percent?”

Drusk scowled again, leaning with his good arm against the doorframe. “What is this work, anyway?”

“He has a special spider he cares for, you’ll meet her soon. Swamp Spinner, very large.” I waved a hand at the sidewalk behind us. “Hell, she’s probably down there now, the tunnel comes up right beneath us. Oh hey, that reminds me,” I said, snapping my fingers. “We’ve got a bunch of goblin construction coming in today to install a pond and dig out the tunnel. Let Axle and the crew know if there’s any additions you want.”

The mordren nodded. “I’ll help out, the faster we get this area earning, the faster I can leave.”

I nodded and turned to go. “I love your attitude Drusk!”

I opened the gates and headed through. Rayna was on the other side with a small gathering of armed hobbs.

“Oh, is it that time already?” I asked.

“You said as early as we can boss, this all our remaining arsenal,” Rayna indicated the group with a wave of her pebbled hand. “Time to raid the militia.”

A dozen hobbs stood before me, with Jada hulking at the back. Ordo and Tollya were there, as were a few more of the veteran squad we’d had since first hiring them. Most of them had handguns. Tollya had her shotgun, and Rayna was wearing her bolt action. Two other hobbs had a rifle, but all the rest were armed with only handguns.

“No other weapons?” I asked.

“None with ammunition,” Rayna immediately replied.

“Well, good news then, the raid is not a raid anymore. I gotta talk to you Rayna,” I said, gesturing for her to move aside with me.

Rayna motioned to her troops, and they retreated across the dead grass field to the parking lot, where they began leaning on cars and trucks, and conversing, I assumed about us.

“We’re not attacking them, Rayna. Not anymore. I have scouting information to share,” I said. “They’re hungry, they have a food problem.”

Rayna’s eyes widened and she nodded. “Try to trade then? We have so much yarsp.”

I nodded. “Exactly. There’s no way I’m risking a stand up fight when we’re this low on munitions anyway. What I need is everyone that comes with us wearing a personal shield. Phyllis and I will be fine, but the rest of you absolutely need to be wearing one that works.”

She scowled. “Still expecting trouble?”

“You don’t know these guys like I do, Rayna. Always expect trouble from them, they don’t understand the path of least resistance,” I said.

“Does this path lead to their base?” Rayna asked, confusion evident on her face.

“No, just a saying. They don’t do things the easy way, that’s all. These guys resort to violence at the drop of a hat, I doubt we’ll get out of there without getting shot at.”

Rayna blinked and tilted her head. “Why we trying trade if you think it not work?”

“I think it won’t work at first. Once they realize they can’t shoot us and take our food, they may trade for it,” I said.

“And if they don’t?” she asked.

I raised my eyebrows and took a deep breath. “Well, we still have a few guns. And Phyllis. It’s not like these guys’ll have shields.”

Rayna nodded, but her brow was still furrowed. “Boss, something else,” she said. “Change plans with delves. Now with militia.”

“No, Rayna, not really. The plan with the militia was to get their guns. The only part I’m changing is how. Besides, if it all falls apart, you might get your raid after all. I’m just trying to avoid killing any more of my own people,” I said.

I shook my head and sighed.

“And I changed plans with the delves to avoid putting your people at risk, as much as I could. It got urgent, I couldn’t wait for or risk a full mobilization.”

She raised her hands. “Sorry boss. I just mean hobbs question plan changes. Last minute plan changes usually mean dead hobbs.”

“I dunno what to tell you Rayna, you’re the one who believes in me,” I said, chuckling with my hands on my hips. “Sell it as improvements to the plan, instead of changes. This way there’s less chances of getting shot at, for most of us. Maybe that’ll help.”

“Yeah boss, that help,” she said.

“Really wish you would just call me Tyson,” I sighed back.

“Call you boss now. Maybe Tyson someday.” Rayna stopped and turned back to me. “You don’t understand, but it important new hobbs see you as boss first, Tyson second.”

I nodded slowly, trying to take in what she had said, and remembering what had happened to Mr. Sada. He had screwed up his leadership role badly enough to get himself killed. Admittedly, it had been by my hand, but if I screwed up badly enough, I had to wonder if they would try to kill me too.

Rayna moved to address her troops. After talking to them for a few moments, the group split up and moved to the vehicles. I called Phyllis and got yelled at for bothering her but reassured that she was on her way.

Our next step was to load a few pallets of butchered yarsp meat onto trucks. I settled on six, of our fourteen total pallets. We still needed to feed our own people, and I wasn’t sure how long the yarsps would keep presenting themselves for us to feast on, after I went and raided their nest.

Within half an hour, all the trucks were loaded with food, hobbs, and Phyllis. She rode in the lead truck bed, causing the entire pickup to sag dramatically. The rest of our vehicles had pallets of yarsp meat surrounded by greens or bread products, and hobbs crammed anywhere they could sit. We had more food than we had storage for, which was another problem.

I dumped a request for more storage into Axle’s texts as we headed out the gates. The Arizona sun was high, and the day was still cold as we headed the long way around the national forest. The hobbs kept an eye out for any kind of movement from the trees, as well as the road ahead, but we had a peaceful drive.

The world was mostly empty. Only the great metal cable in the sky served to remind me of BuyMort, and everything it had done.