Spin Offs, Alfi C
Alfi was amazed when she and the hunting party came back to Lekas. Not only were the various building projects well underway, with obvious signs of progress, but there were a lot more people present than she had expected. At some point during the last few eight-days a large caravan had arrived. Shortly after their return she happened across Luk, and asked him what was going on.
“All them? Folks from GreensBridge. Mages. With a couple score labourers. Bound for Kaymere.”
“That’s interesting.” She wondered if Tipper and her friends were still in Kaymere.
“Most around here seem to think so. Looks like your hunting trip went well.”
“Well enough, yes. It’s a start. How’s the family?”
“Alright, not bad. Lel is pregnant again.”
Alfi smiled,”That’s good news.”
He gave a small grin, “Yeah, it is.”
“How long are you here?”
“I’ll be heading back tomorrow.”
“Well, it’s not likely I’ll have much chance to see you again before you leave. I’ll try to stop in when we head back for the second hunting trip.”
“I look forward to seeing you. Take care.”
“You too.”
The first hunting expedition had gone fairly well. They had meat and hides on the horses. The younger ones had benefited greatly from the trip; working together, hunting and preserving the meat had provided a sense of accomplishment and pride. She had learned a lot as well. Most importantly she had learned that she was going to have to take twice as many people with her for the second hunting trip, if they were going to get all the meat they would be needing for the winter.
“Atti. Take this stuff to NewHall. I’m going to go check with Del, to see if the storage arrangements have been made.”
“Alright.”
“Where’s Prodd?”
“Um, he and Melthin ran off together when you were talking to Luk.”
Alfi gave a resigned sigh, her niece and Prodd had been getting along rather well. Prodd had been less focused though, way more concerned about being with Melthin than anything else. As a result she had come to rely more on Atti to help with the other children. “I won’t be long. If you see those two, remind them they need to unpack and look after their gear.”
She went to the keep. There were a few people looking after the animals, a fence had gone up while she had been gone, as well as a chicken coop. The lower level still had horses, though she noticed that there were fewer on the green than when she had left. Del was up on the roof cooking, Alfi climbed up to talk with her.
“How was the hunting?” Del asked after giving her a hug.
“Good. But I will need to take twice as many people with me for the next trip.”
“Oh? Problems?”
“No. I think I was just overly optimistic about how much we’d be getting during this trip. Now I know better. Did we get more salt?”
“We did. Also, the Dresmends say they will be working the old mine regularly again. With any luck we’ll get another shipment before you head out on your next trip. Berthon built us a proper smokehouse while you were gone, the chicken coop as well. Now that we have a bit of extra wood he’s been busy.”
“Where did the extra wood come from?”
“A bit from the dwarves, though most of what they bring gets turned into cranes and scaffolding. There was more from Aramy, when they brought the salt. Cind says a lot of his usual clients did not show up this year, and he lost a few to the witch last year. So he sent us two wagon loads. The folks from GreensBridge had some horse troubles too, they traded wood for the horses they needed to replace, at standard GreensBridge rates, so we did really well on that deal.”
“That’s good news.”
“It sure helps.”
“I saw Luk. He said the folks from GreensBridge included mages?”
“Yes. A fair number of them actually. They’ve been rather helpful as well, the woman in charge seems like a decent sort. They will be leaving shortly though, I guess they intend to dig up Kaymere.”
“Have we pulled any stone out of the ruins yet?”
“No, a couple of the dwarves and a few of our folk are heading that way. I think they intend to travel along with the GreensBridge crew. We’ve made some progress with the road, that marshy stretch between here and Aramy has been build up enough to handle heavier loads.”
“Good… I was wondering if the storage pits for the meat have been dug yet?”
“Yes, one at either end of NewHall, with access from within the hall. Berthon suggested we do it that way. He says it will be easier to get to when its needed, no one will have to dig it up from frozen ground.”
“Oh, well that’s nice. I should go give them a hand unloading the meat. Council meeting tomorrow at midday?”
“No. We’ve dropped the daily meetings. Now that we’ve gained some equilibrium we only meet on the first and fifth days.”
“Well, I guess I’ll see you in a couple of days.”
She gave a nod, “Take a day to relax.”
“Ha. What’s that?”
“I’m serious, Alfi. The emergency is over. Take tomorrow for yourself.”
“Well… That does seem like a nice idea.”
“Make it more than an idea. If I hear otherwise…” She gave Alfi a cross look.
Alfi laughed and raised her hands in capitulation, “Alright. I will.”
“Good. I’ll see you in a couple of days.”
Alfi left the keep, it seemed Del was doing better. She certainly felt that meeting twice a week was better than every day. It would give her time to start putting some serious thought into the, as of yet, non existent militia she was supposedly in charge of. The young ones she had been working with would make a decent scouting force and be able to handle a lot of the hunting, but they were not going to be used as part of the militia.
As she made her way to NewHall she wondered how she should go about it all. Initially there had been talk of everyone in the village getting training every other eight-day with a handful of permanently assigned people to oversee said training and daily operations. There had been talk about how the new keep should be manned, if they should make a regular unit for that purpose or rotate militia members through… She had not put much thought into it, there always seemed to be other things that needed looking after.
Arriving at NewHall, Alfi was happy to see that Atti had found out where the storage pits were and much of the meat had already been placed within. After the rest of it had been stashed the horses were seen to and then she, the orphans and a few of the others sat outside and took care of their gear. Prodd and Melthin made a late appearance. Alfi told them to look after their kit, then to go report to one of the Sisters of Mercy for extra duties for the rest of the day and tomorrow. She told the others to take a couple days for themselves. She headed over to Lef’s.
His roof had been repaired and there was a new extension to the house. She found Lef sitting in his new workshop smoking his pipe. His face lit up when he noticed her approach, he put his pipe aside and went to her, “Look what Berthon did.” He gestured broadly, “All of this. It took him four days to put this up and do the roof. Amazing man.”
“You haven’t brought much in, when did he finish?”
“Nearly an eight-day ago, I’m just not sure how I want to set things up.”
“Del has ordered me to relax for the next day or so. I’m going to go clean up. Did you want to join me?”
“You go ahead. I’ll put some food together for us.”
Alfi went to the pond and scrubbed herself clean. The sun was low along the western horizon as she made her way back to Lef’s. It was a beautiful evening. She was looking forward to spending some time with Lef. As she walked into the main room to the smell of stew she had a sudden realization that this was now her place too. Her home. Their home.
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