63 – Managing Resources
Andy led Enthian and several of his Lurikeen kin down the cliff-side trail to the remains of the road. At the bottom, the signs of his scuffle with the other three Lurikeens were evident, and Enthian, surly and quiet since falling into Andy’s trap, made a harrumph sound and asked, “Well? Will you allow to gather the remains of my dead cousins?”
Andy nodded, gesturing to the left-hand side of the road. “That way, behind those prickly pears.” Enthian started to walk toward the cactus, but Andy cleared his throat and added, “After I show you the trees. I need you to get your ship repaired and leave as soon as possible.”
Enthian scowled at him, but complied, following Andy into the rain-soaked desert on the other side of the road. “You’re a cruel one, you know that?”
“I’m cruel, am I? Tell , what were the Redcaps going to do? Hand out tea and cookies?”
“What a sharp tongue that one has!” the female Lurikeen with the red pigtails said, traipsing along behind Enthian.
Andy looked at her. “This one has a na, and you know it. What’s yours?”
She glanced at Enthian, and he shrugged, so she replied, “Orla.”
“Well, Orla,” Andy said, “try to rember that I didn’t start all this trouble. Try to rember what your clan here had planned for my people.” Andy raised his voice, including Enthian and the other Lurikeens walking along behind them. “Now, we’ve struck a bargain. Whether or not you all are happy, we can move forward being polite, or we can hold grudges. I’d rather—”
“There won’t be much moving forward,” Enthian interrupted. “We’ll fix our ship and be gone, and you can trust that I’ll follow the terms of our oath to the letter.” When he said those last three words, he looked at the other Lurikeens, and they all smiled and nodded knowingly. Andy felt a montary panic, reviewing the words of the Lurikeen’s promise ntally, but he quickly decided the little Fae were probably trying to get a rise out of him, trying to save so face by making him worry.
When they ca in sight of the Whisperwood Grove, he angled away from the one where he’d hidden the Lurikeen’s belongings and, near the far south-eastern corner of the grove, he pointed to two mid-sized trees. He walked over and touched them each so there couldn’t be any confusion. “You may take these two.”
Enthian and the other Lurikeens were quiet as they looked around the grove, and Andy followed their gaze to the trees’ heights, for the first ti seeing how they swayed in the breeze. The soft rustling of their leaves made it clear how they’d earned their na. After a few monts, Enthian cleared his throat and said, “Well, it seems I shouldn’t have judged your deal making quite so harshly. These are fine trees, and their straight trunks will serve to speed our repairs.”
“So, we’re good?”
Enthian shrugged begrudgingly, looking over at his “cousins,” before looking up at Andy. “I suppose we are.”
***Congratulations, Andy! You’ve halted the Lurikeens’ planned invasion of your settlent. What’s more, you cleverly brokered a peace agreent with the Lurikeen clan leader, Enthian. Your efforts have earned your settlent another Boon Point; you’ve gained a point in Leadership, and the next ti you rest in a safe location, you’ll receive a random System-generated reward.***
Andy stared at the ssage for a mont, the Lurikeens’ muted discussion about who would cut the trees and how they’d process the lumber re background noise as he took it all in. He didn’t know exactly how his Leadership skill was even helping him; maybe it hadn’t yet. Even so, he hoped it might pay off down the line, especially with the System’s plan to open Earth to settlers from other worlds looming.
“Andy, will that be all right?”
“Ahem,” Andy cleared his throat and looked over to Enthian. “What’s that?”
“We should be done with the repairs within a fortnight.”
Andy had to think for a minute, trying to rember how long that was. “Two weeks? It’ll take that long?”
Enthian shrugged. “Perhaps less. It depends on the state of this lumber and how quickly we can get it cut, dried, and shaped. We have tricks of the trade, of course, but it’s still a big job.”
“Well, father,” Orla said, surprising Andy; he hadn’t realized she was more than a “cousin” to Enthian. “Why don’t we offer so training—to pay for our extended use of Andy’s lands.”
“Training?” Andy arched an eyebrow at the pint-sized lady.
“We won’t all be working on the ship at once. So of us could help your crafters; it seems the storms blew away your old dwellings.”
Andy nodded. “We can work sothing out. In the anti, be sure you don’t wander around this grove or around the top of the sa. Take your two trees and haul them back to your airship.” He didn’t enjoy being a hardass, but he’d learned not to give the Lurikeens—and probably any other Fae—the leeway to interpret limitations as they perceived them. So, when they didn’t respond, he locked eyes with Enthian and asked, “Understood?”
“Aye, understood, oh Great King.”
Andy chuckled and turned to walk back to the settlent. He was sure people were getting worried, and they had good reason to, considering everything that had happened since he jumped off the waterfall. Of course, he felt uncomfortable turning his back on the Lurikeens. It felt wrong leaving them to their own devices—at least for a little while—but it seed the System thought he’d averted the “invasion” and Enthian acted like he at least felt bound by the agreent they’d reached. Andy had to hope there was sothing different about the Fae that kept them at least literally honest, if not honest in spirit.
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He caught sight of the harpies watching him as he walked back through the squite grove to the underground tunnel opening, but he didn’t approach, and they didn’t either. The whole thing about them being “citizens” was an informal arrangent; they were happy to consider the sa as a safe haven, and Lyta made clear that she and her people would consider him and his people as allies and not “at,” but they had no interest in formalizing their citizenship with the System node.
When he got to the hatch, it lifted, and Jace’s face appeared. “Damn,” he said, “we were starting to get worried. What have you been doing?”
Andy chuckled, drumming his fingers along the haft of his spear as he looked down at the crimson-fleshed man. “A lot, actually. We should have another eting.”
###
Quite so ti later, after answering the sa dozen or so questions a hundred tis, Andy and his council decided—despite his protestations—that he needed to address the entire population about not only the Lurikeens, but about what they needed to accomplish when they moved to “resettle” the top of the sa. So, after they all helped to spread the word, and everyone made their way from the various corners of the underground, he stood before quite a large crowd in the main sleeping cavern.
Despite so many people having spent several days down there, the air didn’t feel stale; there was sothing of a draft that gently tugged the air from the depths out through the waterfall. Along the way, the air in the various caverns was constantly refreshed. None of them were sure where exactly the air was coming from—down the underground river, perhaps—but so speculated that an even greater cavern awaited discovery sowhere beyond the mine.
Andy shook his head, trying to focus on the muttering crowd before him. He’d been standing there too long, and things were feeling a little awkward. He cleared his throat and smiled, nodding to himself as much as anyone else as he settled on his first words. “Well, it looks like we survived the storm!”
A ragged cheer broke out, and Andy smiled at everyone’s enthusiasm, joining in by pumping a fist in the air. When it grew quiet again, he said, “We’re going to begin moving back up, but there’s a lot to consider—a lot you all need to know. First of all, I’ve been up there, and I’ve looked around, and things are changed. I couldn’t find a single trailer that survived.”
“None?” Keshawn asked, his voice rising in pitch as he drew the word out. Andy was surprised that he’d been the first and loudest to speak up, though he supposed he probably viewed the trailer he shared with his grandpa as a refuge, a place of safety and stability. It reminded Andy that not all of these people felt the way he did—that he’d lost only a cheap, temporary ho.
“I’m afraid not, Keshawn, but it’s not all bad news. The sa is different now. Because of the storm and the magic in the air, there’s a big grove of magical squites up there, too. They’re valuable, which is another reason I’ve called this eting. We need to talk about the Lurikeens.”
“The what?” Jolene Martinez asked. She used to run a food truck, and she’d spent most of her ti in the main cavern, cooking. Andy found it hard to believe that no one had ntioned the little Fae people to her, but he played along.
“There are so little people up there—Fae, which, yes, is kind of a word for elves and fairies and the like. It’s really important that none of you make any bargains with them. Don’t accept any gifts! They are not the cute, friendly little people they seem to be. In fact…”
Andy went on like that for a while, fielding questions and doing his best to prepare everyone for their eventual encounters with Enthian’s people. After that, he brought up the strategy he and the rest of the council had discussed with regard to rebuilding.
“The fence is in shambles. The gate’s still there, but the parts of the park that used to have a fence mostly don’t anymore. I think we need to tear up all that old stuff, anyway. We’ve got Casey here”—he pointed to the teenaged Claywright—“and she can make solid clay bricks just about as fast as we can use them. She’s already teaching a couple of other people how to do it, too. We want to build a wall around the settlent, and we want to build our new hos out of the clay bricks, too.”
“Andy, I think we should redo the plumbing. There’s plenty of PVC at Construction City, and Bea can work on enchantnts for flowing water,” Lydia said, repeating a topic they’d already agreed upon during their smaller council eting. He knew it was for the benefit of the crowd, but it wasn’t lost on him that she referred to her settlent as “Construction City.” He had a feeling she and the rest of the folks from “Grace Refuge” would be moving to the sa. It wasn’t a big leap; she’d asked him if he thought there was room for everyone.
“Yeah, great idea!” He nodded to her, smiling.
“We can build down here, too,” Frank Dunlap said, his voice rough as always. “I an, I kind of like it down there by the lake—”
“We’ll definitely open so plots down there,” Bea replied, cutting him off. She did so with a smile, though, squeezing the older guy’s shoulder, and he nodded, mollified. The idea of “plots” had co up in the council eting. They’d decided that it wouldn’t be smart to just let everyone build whatever, wherever they wanted. Owning a ho at squite sa should an sothing, and whatever plots of land—on top, around, and inside the sa—they didn’t use right away would be valuable for future expansion—future recruitnt.
In the end, Andy was very thankful for the council, especially Omar, and surprisingly, Tucker. They agreed to oversee efforts for the first afternoon—for that was what it was by the ti they finished the eting—and arrange for “Lurikeen monitors” until Andy had a chance to rest; his night of very little sleep had caught up to him, and he had things he wanted to do before sleeping and then heading outside again.
As he walked toward the corner where he and Lucy had set up camp, the first of those other things felt like a lead weight in his pocket; he couldn’t stop thinking about the Lurikeen’s ring, and he wanted to see if he could figure out what it would do. When he reached his camp, he looked around to ensure he was alone—Lucy had gone with Bella to look around outside—and then he sat down with the notebook of glyphs Lydia had made for him. He took the ring from his pocket and began trying to copy the fine, fancy runes inscribed along its band onto a blank page.
He’d only copied the first two of nearly twenty when footsteps approached, and he looked up, struggling to mask his irritation. Lena and Raya, Jace’s sisters, stood there, both looking more than a little nervous about approaching him. Andy tucked the ring back into his pocket and forced a smiled. “Hey. What’s up?”
“We want to talk about how the rights to the mine are going to work,” Lena said.
“Yeah,” Raya said, “I think we need to form a mining company or—sothing.”
Lena nodded. “There’s not enough space down there for everyone to have their own shaft—at least not yet. People who don’t work for it are going to want so of the ore, and—”
“Ladies!” Andy chuckled, shaking his head. “I get it. You don’t want to bust your asses down there, digging up resources just for other people to take them. Listen, we can talk about percentages and all that, but the way I see it working is sothing like this: the settlent owns the mine and people can work down there all they want, but they have to share with the settlent.”
“But who’s going to keep people honest?” Lena asked.
“And,” Raya added, “what if we work hard cutting through rock to expose a vein only to have so scrub co along and start mining the vein when we’re not there?”
Andy frowned. She had a point. Sighing, he closed his notebook and reached for another one with mostly blank pages. Resigned to the fact that his study of the magical ring would have to wait, he opened to a blank page and said, “Okay, okay. Let’s hear your ideas.”
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