Chapter 35

Sonora-Home

The council of elders urged Jex and Torger to keep the Master Bow as secret as possible. She placed it back into the black velvet case, then into her back pack. Edina escorted them back to the border. When they arrived she asked Torger “What are your plans now?”

“I need to get back to check on my village. There are still many things to get done and we have been away too long.”

Edina looked sad at the statement but nodded approvingly. “Your primary allegiance is not here. I wish all of you well, and hope we can trade soon.”

As they were packing to leave, Torger didn’t feel easy about the decision. It was apparent Edina wanted them to stay, but any number of things could be happening at Sonora. Were the dwarves mining enough gold? Were they being honest about how much they kept? Had the village been attacked? Did Guntrink make more armor?

All these questions kept circling in his mind, but he couldn’t shake the feeling he had more to accomplish in Yosemite. Finally he said to the others “You go back to our village and see that everything is running smoothly. I want to stay a bit longer.”

Rome looked at him with suspicion. “What’s wrong Torger?”

“I want to stay a few more nights fighting the hellhounds. Graul, can I use your shield and sword, and I’ll catch up with you later?”

“Uh, sure, I guess. What aren’t you telling us?”

“It’s nothing big. I want to gain two more ability points, then I’ll have ten. I can expand the village shield twice, raising the village level to three, but more importantly I’ll be able to rename it.”

Jex immediately jumped in. “I want to stay too!”

She let out more enthusiasm than she intended. But Torger knew he couldn’t keep the secret of the Bow from his friends. He said “I know you want to try it out. Go ahead and show them.”

She looked around for elves, but only Edina and her crew of three were nearby. Edina gave Jex an approving nod. She pulled out the velvet case and then with a slow and playfully drawn out demonstration, she pulled out the Master Bow. Everyone gawked at it. Graul asked “This is what they gave you? No wonder you wouldn’t tell us. When you returned you looked like you just egged the White House and got away with it. What is it?”

Jex smiled and told them “A bow used by an ancient Greek goddess. The Bow of Artemis the Huntress.”

Antic asked “Can you even draw that thing? Wait, I thought you looked different. Did you just spend ability points on strength? You did, didn’t you? You’re about to pop out of your leather armor. What’s your strength level at now?” His voice got higher and louder as he was sizing up his own manhood with the questions.

“It’s not important Antic.”

“Yes it is. Tell me.”

Torger cut him off. “She’s now at twenty-one, one above you. Let it go Antic. You’re maxed out and you don’t need to waste an ability point.” But the words were futile. Antic spent two of his five on strength, dropping his stamina back down to ninety.

“Damn it Antic. Spend your points on something useful.”

Out of spite, he spent the last three on Slow 1.

Torger sighed. “OK, who else has ability points they want to waste?”

Rome felt pitifully weak, and spent his five on strength, bringing him to fourteen, and Brun followed, going to eighteen. Graul couldn’t be weaker than a mage, so he spent four on strength, and one on health (19 and 200). Torger was saving his for the benefit of the village, and that left Arden who had six. He said “I just need fifty three more experience points to get a seventh ability point, and then I could buy slow two, cure two, or heal two. So I’m going to stay with you and Jex to get a little more experience.”

The three of them stayed, and the others headed back to Sonora. That night, as expected, a lesser lich rose out of the ashes. Jex was ready. She pulled back, and let the arrow that had a billik leg shaft fly. It sailed right through the lich, just like other times, but lightning, fire, and ice caused it to steam on the inside. When she had used I.B. which had an Ice 1 spell, the liches would look at her with annoyance as the arrows flew through them. This time the lich moaned and shrunk by a foot.

It cast a fear spell at her and she collapsed to the ground, then it summoned a hellhound. But Edina was ready. She cast a spell over Jex that restored her sanity, while the other elves and Torger attacked the hellhound. Torger did just fine with Graul’s steel shield and one handed sword, Inferno. He wasn’t as quick or powerful with the combo as his brother was, but he managed to keep his arm attached to his body and still get in a few shallow slices that sent fire and lightning damage to the beast. The fire spell was nullified, but the lightning kept the dog’s attention on himself and not on the others.

As he was fighting it, suddenly a missile ripped through its body and sent three spells into it. When he pushed it off himself, a hole the size of a pear was seen as the exit wound. Everyone looked at Jex. She stood with her mouth open. The only thing she could think to say was “Wow.”

After that the fighting was easy. Just let Jex take one shot at each level 16 hellhound, while the others battled the liches. But the Bow came with price. Even though the billik legs were a little stronger than maple, they snapped after exiting each beast. These expensive arrows had become one shot missiles, and she used five of her eighteen that night. Not only that, Lagwil and the other elves weren’t able to bring their bows to the fight or it would slowly weaken the magical properties of the Master Bow.

Arden gained his ability point, in fact all three of them had gained one point from killing four liches and four hellhounds, even with the four elves getting equal experience. But this was the first time they had teamed up to fight both hellhounds and liches, so they were getting eight kills instead of four each night.

They did that for the next two nights before heading toward Sonora. Edina thanked them for their help, and said her elves had gotten more rest the past three nights from the quick kills. And less than a month after the fire, there were hundreds of grass sprouts breaking through the ashes. It would only be a few more days before the liches would no longer be able to appear in that field.

An important lesson they had learned on the second night was that Jex’s new bow was so powerful, sharpened pine arrows disintegrated in the air before hitting the dog. That lesson caused Torger to be caught off guard and he got knocked down by the dog while casting a spell at the lich, and his greaves kept him from losing his lower leg from the powerful bite. Further testing showed that only the hardest woods had the strength to withstand being shot from the Bow, and even oak splintered on impact. Torger had to think of some other way to get more arrows, because tracking down and slaughtering a cave full of billiks would be time consuming, and if only two or three of them went it could still be dangerous. Also they would have to kill several rocks to get the feathers, and pay Edina’s assistant to make the arrows.

During the night fighting, Arden was in no way able to contribute. He had a shotgun with no shells, and was poor at the use of all weapons. After the third night he had nine ability points, enough to buy Poison 2, but he would first have to buy Poison 1. But maybe it would help the group. He went to Edina.

“I have been worthless around here the last few weeks. I’m thinking of buying poison two, but I first need the flu one. What do you think?”

“That is a dark magic. Too dark for elves. I didn’t know you humans knew such a dark spell. We could never learn poison one, and I recommend to stay away from it.”

Arden thought about it. Every time Brun had used poison one and two against the trolls, there were no elves around. They could find out he had the spell if they used analyze three on him, but they seemed to be courteous enough to not have used it on anyone but Torger. He would have to tell his brother to keep that spell on the down low.

Instead he bought Shield 2 and spent his last ability point on strength, bringing him to fifteen. That left Torger tied with Rome for last place, but he still put the village first.

On their way back to Sonora, they came across a pair of cottols. It wasn’t much of a threat, but Arden wanted to try out Shield 2, since none of them had that spell yet. Jex shot the first one, going in its mouth and removing its tail, and Arden cast Shield 2. Instead of the regular 8x8 foot shield where he pointed, a large sphere formed. It was fifteen feet in diameter and completely surrounded the cottol. The beast sent a psychic blast that hit Arden, and he turned his back to it.

Jex hesitated with her shot, watching her husband become vulnerable. It gave the cottol enough time to send a psychic blast at her, and she dropped the Master Bow and turned her back. Torger charged at the sphere, and hit it with Inferno. The shield cracked but didn’t break, and he got hit with a psychic blast.

The cat used up fifteen of its twenty mana points with the three spells, and when Jex came out of her trance it sent another blast through the shield at her, but it would not attack the shield surrounding it and get electrocuted. Arden came out of his trance next and looked on helpless, knowing it was building up one mana point per minute. He had no weapon so he walked to slap Jex to wake her, but he got hit before he made it to her. Torger came out of his trance and went to slap Jex. He made it and she was able to shoot an arrow through the cat just as the shield was disappearing from its ten minute time limit.

Torger looked at his friends. “That’s an impressive shield Arden. When we battled a hundred of those things before, we were stuck in our trances for an hour or so, but that shield of yours allowed us to wake up after seven minutes, I think. Whatever it does, it reduces the power of spells of whatever is trapped inside. Too bad it’s just as weak as a regular shield. With how hard I hit it with Inferno, I would guess it has a hundred health points like the shield one. Still, a handy spell to buy us time.”

Arden didn’t let on that he loved the idea he had something valuable no one else had.

When they got to Sonora, their friends came out to greet them. Torger shushed their questions about the journey and the Bow, but he said “I have to do something first. I’m going to raise this village to level three, and give it a new name. I think I want to call this place… Home. What do you think?”

Graul thought back to that little log house they found when they first arrived. It was called Home, and they couldn’t wait to get enough ability points to change the horrible name, but they never made it that far. But as he looked around the village, he saw forty-six dwarves, and knew every name. He taught them baseball, and they fought razorlings together, and traded life saving potions and weapons. Yes, for Graul too, this had become Home. A place they would never move from, until the tyters came.

After greeting the village of dwarves, they all headed to the mayor’s house. Baybil had taken up the master bedroom, and as tribal chief there was nothing Torger could say about it. Graul and Arden teasingly advised him to go put his foot down, that he was the mayor and this was the mayor’s house, but when their whispers became too loud, Baybil came out of the room. Torger’s close friends who were telling him to stand up for himself suddenly remembered they had things to do elsewhere.

“This isn’t a bad house Stone Fist has made for you Torger. That is as far as houses go. Of course we dwarves prefer to sleep in tunnels underground, but that would lead to secretive mining for gold. I’ve been watching this village grow and thrive. Your dwarves are happy and are working hard. Tensions are low and production is high. You have a real knack for making policies that they want to follow.

“Kirsk has adopted your policies in Indio, and the prisoners are producing more iron ore than we hoped for. The dwarves that were under my leadership in Small Hammer and decided to move to Indio to get away from your rule are now following the same policies there, but are happy being led by another dwarf. Guntrink and Strong Arm are having difficulty producing enough gold to pay for all the iron ore. Blythe had nothing to offer, but they found they can grow the ingredients along the banks and make potions and are trading them for iron ore.

“But Strong Arm is struggling. The road you had built has sped up communication between us, so it’s now a solid four day walk, and that has promoted more trade. But he doesn’t have enough dwarves to keep the village running smoothly. We lost too many fighting the goblins. Will you go see if you can help him out? I don’t know what you can do, but you see things from a different perspective than we do.”

“Sure Baybil. I’ll leave in the morning.”

“That’s what I was hoping to hear. I’m sorry to send you out as soon as you returned, but it’s beneficial to have all four Cucamonga villages prospering.”

Torger read between the lines. This was Baybil’s first year as a tribal chief and he wanted a strong showing at the Council of Mayors in January. Torger also saw his Quests flashing. He opened it up and saw he already accepted the quest without knowing it.

New quest from Baybil.

Modesto is producing very little gold, and morale is low. Bring gold mining up to 2 pounds of nuggets per day for three days in a row, and bring morale up to 40/100.

Reward: Ability to impose tariffs for increased tax revenue.

Torger didn’t know if he liked that reward, but he did need more money. He considered if starting a new tax was worth the hit to the morale in his village. He would have to sleep on it.

Chapter 36

Splitting Up

In the morning the Regulators stepped out of the mayor’s house. They used the common latrine, took a much needed bath, and headed for the kitchen. Dwarves were at the tables, but a young dishwasher told him that group’s hour was almost up and then they could come in. Ten minutes later the ten dwarves left and the humans entered. They sat at the long common table, made to spaciously sit ten dwarves at a time. The benches and table were low, but it was the first time in weeks they didn’t have to cook, and they got real food. There wasn’t unseasoned venison or rabbit like they were used to, they had the dish Torger taught them how to make. Omelets.

With the amount of food the kitchen was producing, he knew the farmers must be doing very well. They had to have plenty of chickens, goats and sheep, as well as wheat and barley to make the bread, and there were fresh oranges, apples, watermelon, and strawberries served too. If the dwarves were eating like this three times a day, it must be horribly stressful for all involved, but it also explained why the village morale had increased to 71/100 while he was gone. He decided to ask about it, so he called over a dishwasher.

A child walked up. He looked nervous speaking directly to the mayor. “Yes, sir, how can I help you, sir?”

“Relax Soft Hand. I want to know how much do you work in here each day?”

“We come in an hour before sunrise. The first dwarves, miners, arrive a few minutes before sunrise, and the whole village eats in one hour shifts. There are four shifts. Then we eat and clean up. Then we take a break for three hours, then start preparing dinner. The last group finishes an hour after sunset.”

Torger added it up. “Ten hours a day, and you don’t serve lunch. I guess that’s what I’d expect of everyone every day. What do you want to do when you grow up?”

“I want to be a protector like my grandpa was!”

Jex asked “What’s a protector?”

“They get real good with shields and axes, and become strong. Travelling merchants hire them to protect them while they walk from village to village. They get paid real good, and they get to see the land of Nuva every time it changes!”

She said “That sounds dangerous. Don’t you want to be a miner like your dad?”

“No. That seems boring. Besides, I’m not growing very fast. It’s why they call me Soft Hands.”

“You’ll grow up. You’re still young. Maybe this year you’ll hit a growth spurt.”

“What’s a growth spurt? Is that when you kill a lot of monsters in one week and gain three or four strength points?”

Arden said jokingly “It was a nice and normal conversation, then you had to go and make it weird.”

The lad replied “I really don’t know what you guys are talking about. I’m twenty-three years old. By now I should be training for a career.”

“Twenty-three!” They all thought he looked like a nine year old. Baybil had been walking in when Graul exclaimed the age.

Baybil asked “What’s the conversation about?” He politely sat down and joined in, and tried to not make it awkward. They knew him well enough to know he missed normal conversations instead of always being revered by most villagers and talking about national affairs all the time.

Everyone looked a little shy at his approach, except Torger and Arden. Torger was a mayor and had a good relationship with him, and Arden still had too much of an alpha male personality to cower down.

Torger filled him in. “We came to get breakfast, and I wanted to check up with a random villager, as I often do. I asked this kid to come talk to me and find out how many hours he works and what his plans are later in life. When you walked in we were surprised to find out he is twenty-three.”

“Yes, he is a little old to begin training. We dwarves start training for a career around twenty, fully start it around thirty, get married around forty. Remember, we live to be about three hundred. Unfortunately for Soft Hand, we haven’t been near a good training ground for the last five years. He hasn’t had a chance to grow any skills.”

“What do you mean by that? How do dwarves grow?”

“Just like elves and you. Our children grow until they look like Soft Hands, then a few adults take them out to hunt monsters level one to five. The kids get experience and invest into strength and stamina, or into specific careers. We have things you know about we can invest into: mining, cooking, weaving, farming, potion making, spell casting. We also have more… elite dwarves who can make a career in other areas you don’t know about. Maybe after the tyters terra form the land again, we can find a beginners area to get our children up and going.”

Jex asked “How many children need beginners training?”

“There are three in this village and one in Modesto. None in Indio, and two in Blythe.”

Jex looked at Torger, then at Arden. She patted her back pack holding the hidden Bow.

Arden said “Baybil, what is training the children worth to you?”

Jex interrupted “Knock it off Arden. Baybil, we can take the kids to a place for training, unless you had plans for us Torger?”

“Actually, no. I’m heading to see Strong Arm today. If the kid’s parents say OK, take them for an extended trip.”

Baybil was confused. “What trip? What do you want to do with our children?”

Torger tried to make the offer gently. “Not anything their own parents wouldn’t do, if they had the chance. Baybil, my friends and I know of a place where level five and six black simmets respawn once a week. Jex and Arden can take them, and let them get some experience, with adult supervision.”

“A simmet nest? That is a tremendous find! I will personally ask the parents and escort you to Modesto.”

An hour later Guntrink had orders to make four teenage sized sets of armor, along with one handed battle axes and round shields. Quickly, the dwarf who taught the humans the basics of swordsmanship, heard about it and insisted on going along, and he added two teen-sized swords to Guntrink’s order.

The blacksmith and his apprentice worked well into the night, and the next morning six of the Regulators, Baybil, Quickly, and three young looking dwarves began the walk to Modesto. It didn’t take them long to ask where Antic was, but Torger assured them he would be waiting for them in Long Beach.

That first night Baybil and Quickly insisted the youngsters set up their own tents, and they struggled with it but only got verbal instructions and no physical help. It was obvious they had been helpers before, but Torger and Rome both recognized this for what it was. It looked a lot like Army basic training to Torger, and he pushed away his memories of it, and Rome did the same with his memories of Navy boot camp.

The next two days Baybil and Quickly drove the kids hard and made them do everything for themselves. They learned how to set up their tents, take shifts on the night watches, cook, find water, read the terrain, keep a look out for enemies, look for potential caves and go on hunts. Two of the three dwarves were girls and their treatment was exactly the same. By the time they reached Modesto they each gained one strength and one stamina point.

Along the way Jex played notes on her flute or lyre to keep them marching in lock step. Quickly insisted they learn how to move at the same time and know what the other was doing without looking at them. On Earth she had played a flute and guitar, and these wood instruments were just different enough that she had to relearn them, but her friends had been enjoying her singing and playing on long walks for the past year.

It took Baybil very few words to convince the next parent to allow their sixteen year old son to begin his training a little early. A simmet nest was too good an opportunity to pass up. That child had been a temporary apprentice to Strong Arm in the blacksmith because the village didn’t have enough dwarves. The loss would hurt his business, but he knew it was necessary. The two females were clothes washers, and Torger had to bring a miner out to help with the laundry. No one had volunteered, so he had to make his selection based on a game of Yahtzee from wood dice he had made a year earlier. The burly dwarf who came in last was more than upset about being sent to wash and fold clothes for the next three months, but as far as Torger was concerned everyone had an equal chance to not come in last.

Torger stayed behind while the others began the long trip walking to Long Beach. He did not envy them having to find water once they got south of the Kern River in the middle of summer. He asked Strong Arm to give him a tour. Strong Arm seemed a little upset that Baybil had brought in another mayor to help him, but since he and Torger had been close for nearly a year, he could accept it.

Torger asked “How many dwarves do you have, how many are healthy adults, and how many are working in each position?”

Strong Arm gave him a blank stare. “There are thirty-one of us. One miner. Ten adult males in our prime.”

Torger waited for him to continue, but saw that was all Strong Arm knew about the village census. “OK, we have some basic work to do. Tonight call for a general meeting of all the villagers. Let’s check out your buildings.”

Strong Arm showed him a completed common house, a nearly completed kitchen, a half built brewery, and lastly Stone Fist and one dwarf were working on a half built Tavern.

“Where do they all sleep?”

“Twenty-five are in the common house, and six are in tents.”

“Oh. That’s not good. You need to raise morale, then they’ll work harder. Why is the kitchen close to being done, but not done?”

“I thought if we could get some ale going, that would boost morale.”

“I see. Why didn’t you just buy ale from us?”

Strong Arm looked shocked. “You have enough ale to spare?”

“Not a lot, but some. How about food? Are they eating well?”

“I don’t know. They’re on their own for food.”

Torger hid his face in his hands and slowly counted to ten trying not to lose his cool. “We’ll work on that. You said there are ten males in their prime. What are the other twenty-one?”

“Some are too old to mine or build buildings, three are too young to let go of their mother’s dresses, and the rest are women.”

“Old and young men and women can still contribute something to the village. For starters, have those who are over two hundred and fifty watch the three kids who are under twelve. That will free up three mothers to do things like cook, weave, farm, or wash clothes, without also babysitting.”

“Yeah, I guess that does make sense. I don’t think about things like that Torger. I’ve always been a do it yourself kind of guy and expect everyone to be the same way. I guess I’ve been running the in reaction to Small Foot. I wanted to give everyone freedom that he took from us; give them the freedom to live how they want. But with everyone doing their own thing, there’s no cooperation.”

“Not to worry my friend. I have the advantage of a technique used on my planet. It’s called an assembly line. Everyone gets good at specific tasks, and then sells their services or goods for as much as possible. It keeps them motivated to contribute something high quality that others actually want. But overall, they’re working to be efficient. The process needs oversight, but it works well. Let’s get some food and spread the word about that general assembly tonight.”

Before that night, Torger helped Strong Arm know what to say and what changes to make. The top priority was to get a more detailed census, then find out who wanted to do which jobs from a list.

After dinner, all the dwarves sat around on the ground outside. Strong Arm asked them to separate by age groups, then he told the elders they would be in charge of taking care of the children. A few dwarves were surprised by his bluntness, because he had given very few direct orders as a mayor. Torger whispered in his ear to keep going.

“All the elders, over two fifty, and children twelve and under, gather over there to my left. Next, we need farmers. I need two volunteers to help Garnger with the crops and livestock, and to hunt one deer per day, a strong adult and one past his or her prime. OK not so many hands. You and you, go over there with Garnger. Next Stone Fist needs another helper, a strong adult. I need someone to be a weaver. All our clothes have ugly patches all over them. Thank you. Does anyone know how to make potions? Man or woman, young or old…”

It took more than an hour, but everyone had a specific job to do instead of trying to do a little for themselves each day. Torger warned him it would be rough for the first few weeks while they adjusted, but once all the buildings were complete and the crops were growing things would become much simpler for him.

Torger stayed and watched for three weeks. Two casks of ale had been bought from his own village and carried by the two village traders. That only lasted for the first week, but it improved morale enough to get things moving more quickly. At the end of three weeks, Stone Fist and his two assistants had completed the kitchen, tavern, brewery, and built a mayor’s house. Living conditions were still cramped, and the weaver needed her own shack, but Torger got the morale up to 40/100. The first part of the quest was complete, then he asked Strong Arm to send Stone Fist and his two helpers into the mine. Stone Fist objected that they needed more buildings. Torger knew he was right, but his goal was to complete the quest then go back home. With the extra three dwarves, the six miners were just barely able to extract two pounds of gold per day for three days. Once the quest was complete, he advised Strong Arm to put two of them back onto making a second common house.

As Torger was walking back to Home, with the latest full shipment of forty pounds of iron ore, he wondered how his friends were doing. Messengers going between the two villages had confirmed everything was fine at Home. Most importantly, he smiled to himself knowing Strong Arm could once again focus on making the next batch of shotgun shells. That had been Torger’s hidden agenda all along, and it played out perfectly.

When he got to Home, he used his reward and imposed a one copper coin tariff on every one silver worth of merchandise coming in and out. He figured they wouldn’t grumble too much about a new one percent tax, but it did drop the morale from seventy-one to sixty-six.