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Contention - Chapter 103

Published at 27th of December 2022 10:51:06 AM


Chapter 103

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“Considering we have less than ten people in our community, any vote we take about the culpability of someone would be influenced by personal connections to the parties involved,” Haiko said, humming. “Perhaps we can work towards a more structured solution in the future that will take that into account.”

Having people in place who would vote to protect their friends over serving justice wasn’t something any of them probably wanted to include as a fundamental aspect of the community, but so long as it was such a small population, then it was an undeniable fact that everyone would know each other.

“Something to think about,” August admitted. “I think we’ll need a few thousand of you guys before we can count on anyone being able to make a relatively unbiased judgement like that.”

“I think we’re going to have more immediate problems than working out an unbiased form of judging criminals,” Boko said, shrugging. “Haiko, you were talking about creating a communal eating area? How scalable is the food situation right now?”

Haiko looked over at August, clearly dropping the responsibility for answering into his lap.

“There are four Sadapple trees nearby, and they seem to bear fruit within days of being picked,” August said, speaking up, “The lake is full of Mitikos, although I’m not sure how fast they breed, so it’s a possibility that we end up clearing the entire lake out. It’s currently unknown whether or not there’s any fish inside.”

August took a moment to run through the other options.

“The Island is surrounded by the ocean, which could act as a source of fish if we can get down the cliff somehow—I did see a beach to the far east, but if there’s a way down, it’s not really visible from this side,” August said, chewing on his lip. “I’ve got an idea for making some gardens as well, but I’m still working out if it’s possible.”

“Okay, that’s actually far more than I was expecting,” Boko admitted, “How many experiments are in the lake?”

“Hundreds at least, potentially thousands,” Rittan admitted, “The smallest ones seem to stick to the shallows while the larger ones remain at the bottom of the lake.”

“So we’re not in danger of running out in the short term,” Kalter said before pausing. “What was that about gardening?”

August hesitated for a moment, his half-formed idea not exactly in a good state.

“I plan on going through the forest with that plant-finding skill activated at some point. If I can locate some wild vegetables to bring back with us, then we can start growing our own,” August said, “We could probably plant some more of the Sadapple trees as well, although that kind of thing wouldn’t pay off for several years—unless the trees grow as fast as the fruit does.”

“What would a vegetable garden look like?” Kalter asked.

“Planter boxes, probably,” Boko said, humming. “Cut down some trees to fence it off, so nobody accidentally goes stomping all over them.”

“That’s pretty much what I was thinking. Section off some areas for each type of plant we find, dig up the soil and bury them,” August said, “We’ve got a permanent source of clean water nearby as well, and Haiko is already in the process of making containers to ferry water—anything that can grow on its own in the forest should be easy enough to grow in similar conditions.”

“Does that pass the threshold for scalability?” Haiko said, tilting her head. “Or are we doomed for eventual starvation?”

“Fruit, meat, vegetables and a potential for fish if we can set up some kind of pully system to get down the cliffs—seems like a decent spread, and we’re practically on top of a drinkable water source,” Boko said, ticking them off on his fingers. “I don’t think we’re in any danger of starving, and you guys seem to be pretty on top of everything, honestly.”

“We’ve had several days to think about it,” Rittan said, smiling. “I share Kalter’s interest in these gardens; we should add that to the list of things to accomplish tomorrow—August, you wished to go back into the forest?”

August nodded, taking a moment to run over everything they would need.

“We need more branches, palm leaves and vines for the roofing. We also need to stockpile more wood for the fires, for the garden, and more of the thinner trees to use as wall braces for the undercover area,” August said, closing his eyes. “I’ll keep an eye out for vegetables while we’re doing that—have I missed anything?”

“The new axes,” Kalter said. “We need two more, three if you’re going to use one.”

“I’ll need to find something to use for the handles again because I’ve exhausted the good ones,” August admitted, rubbing at his eye again. “We’re going to need a bunch of twine as well—I’ll handle that in the morning when I first wake up.”

“You look tired, my friend,” Rittan said.

“Yeah,” August managed, shifting to get his knee under him. “I think I’m going to call it a day—sorry.”

“Not at all,” Rittan said, “Please, get some rest.”

August pushed himself to his feet with the last of his flagging strength and winced at the ache building up across his body.

“Night,” Kalter murmured.

“Thanks for dragging me out of eternal limbo—that was real nice of you, chief,” Boko said, “Goodnight.”

August let a burst of air out of his nose at the comment, amused.

“No problem, Boko,” August said, managing a wave of his hand at the comment. “Night, everyone. Thanks for all of your hard work today; I really do appreciate it.”

“I really could get used to all this praise,” Haiko said, flapping one of her hands at him. “Sleep well, August.”

“Goodnight, August,” Rittan said, smiling.

The mental renders of Haiko and Rittan slipped away as he crossed out of range. He wondered if he’d actually grown a bit used to them being there or if his exhaustion had just masked it entirely. The hanging shade fell down behind him, and then he practically fell down onto his knees before letting himself drop down onto his back in the middle of the empty hut, uncaring that Haiko’s render had once again erupted in his mind.

The feeling of satisfaction and the comforting draw of finally being able to just lie down washed over him. For a moment, he couldn’t feel the discomfort from the mental render shifting around with Haiko’s movements or the rough unyielding ground pressed against his back. He could almost imagine himself asleep in his bed, with Alice curled up inside of his arms, breath tickling his throat, and a blanket trapping the warmth of their bodies inside—August slept.

Day seven is a wrap. As far as the eventual, future ebook formatting is concerned, this is probably where the first book of Contention will end. Not sure about the Book titles yet, so we'll call it 'Contention: Book 1' for now. It clocks in at 127,626 words, which is a fair bit longer than my usual stuff. It will go through an editing phase sometime in the distant future to tidy up minor inconsistencies and line edit stuff, but in the meantime, we will continue straight onto book 2.

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