Rain Rain go AwayAfter the summer had progressed a bit, Mandy realized that if she had to look at one more barrel she was going to drop it over someone's head and brew them. It looked like Art and Vulk might have had the right idea after all. As she sat down on the cart Gear poked her head out from under it. “Oh finally decided to rest like the rest of us?”
Mandy gave a start and nearly fell off the cart. “What are you doing under there?” she asked ignoring Gear's comment.
“Taking a nap of course.” said Gear with a yawn. “Or at least I was till you plopped down and woke me up.”
Mandy just shook her head at Gear's silly fear about falling off the world if she slept or even dozed without something over her head.
“So, you got a name for this place yet?” asked Gear.
“Huh? A name?” Mandy had never really thought about giving this place a name. To her it was just simply 'The Camp.' “No, can't say that I do.” she repiled.
“Axewhips” said Gear.
“Axewhips? Why axewhips? Sounds a bit too much like Axegrind if you ask me.” said Mandy.
Gear grinned and replied, “Two reasons. First off we arrived here with nothing but a box of axes. Secondly, we whipped Axegrind so its kind of a play on words.”
“So why not Axewhipped?” asked Mandy.
Gear shrugged, “I thought it sounded too kinky.”
Mandy shook her head again. “Sure, Axewhips it is then. Congratulations you just named our new Mountainhome.” said Mandy gesturing at the small wooden hovel and crude wooden walls.
Gear stuck her tongue out at Mandy. “You don't have to get sarcastic.”
Mandy shrugged, “It isn't like it really matters anyway, we are not going to be here that long.”
Just then it started to rain. Mandy looked up at the traitorous sky and joined Gear under the cart.
“See? I'm not so crazy after all.” said Gear. “Nothing like a roof over your head to keep your beard dry.”
After the rain had gone on a bit, Mandy and Gear crawled out from under the cart and went back to work. The main reason for this was that despite Gear's claims, the cart was not exactly water proof and they figured that working was better than just sitting under the cart if they were going to be wet anyway. First thing Mandy did was to move the still inside the now completed wall around their food pile. Then she set about brewing even more booze. One could never have enough, and as brewer she got first tastes.
While Mandy was working on yet another barrel of booze Skuz wandered over to the still. “You still want us gathering plants Chief? He asked.”
Mandy looked up from her brewing, “Sure, the more we have the better we are I figure.”
“Well then we got a problem. No space for any of it. At least not in the place we have walled off right now.” Skuz replied.
Mandy looked up at the food pile and noticed that it was completely packed full. “So I see. You don't happen to know what all we have in there do you?”
Skuz shrugged, “Seeds and booze mostly I think. You have been busy Chief.”
“Why do we have seeds in there? Tell Brick to haul those over by the fields. That should clear up some space.” Mandy replied.
“Sure thing Chief.” said Skuz
Sure enough, pulling the seeds out cleared up a fair bit of space in the stockpile. Not enough though, so the next time someone came back from gathering plants Mandy stopped them.
“Hey, Vulk! I think we have enough plants now. The farm is starting to come along so we don't really need so many dwarves out gathering stuff.” she said.
“Ok, so I can just go hang out at the cart now?” asked Vulk with a hopeful expression.
Mandy scowled, “Of course not. I've been thinking, we have this food and whatnot but no way to carry it with the cart broken. So what we really need now are some bags to haul stuff in. I know I saw some rope reeds so why don't you set up a farmers workshop, a loom, and a clothiers shop and see if you can't make us some bags?”
Vulk scowled, “You want me to do all that by myself? I don't know the last thing about any of it!”
“Like any of the rest of us do. Of course I was also thinking about having someone catch some of the fish and turtles I've seen in the ponds and prepare those, if you would rather do that.” Mandy replied.
Vulk looked down at the nearest pond shuddered. “Blech, no thank you. Weaving it is.” The last thing he wanted to do was dangle his beard in the water till something bit it. Fishing was terrible for what it did to a beard. You could always tell a fisherdwarf by their ragged water-logged muddy beard.
Aside from the rain, the rest of the summer was fairly uneventful. None of them particularly liked being out in the rain, but they were all used to it by now after their time in the prison.
(Autumn of 215: Skuz and Brick snooze by the wagon, Loki works on the wall, Mandy brews some tuber beer, Vulk processes plants and Art hauls seeds. Meanwhile, unnoticed by the dwarves, a slugman creeps towards the back door.)
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Topic: Apexwhips - Convicts at large (Read 23179 times)