The next day brought sunshine and singing birds. Bomrek got up. The small room in the mine was in dire need of airing, but for now, he walked down to the guard room, from where he could hear the others having breakfast.

When most were done with their breakfast, Asen stood up to address the round. “We are nine now. The supplies we brought along will not last the entire winter and the rest of our supplies and colonists will not leave the northern part of the great sickle until spring. So, we will have to take inventory, see what we can still forage from the surroundings, see what we can trade and so on.”

She turned to Sigun and Stikus. “You two will go into the mines and take a look at ores and rocks.” The two cousins merely nodded.

Next were Umel and Urist. “You will look at the surrounding soil, forest and the stockpiled food. Make sure what we can plant and when. Also, what we would need to preserve any new food.”

Asen turned to Rigoth and Endok. “You will see what construction materials we have and what we can build with it anytime soon. Proper shelter and healthier living conditions are our main concern now.”

Finally, Asen addressed Bomrek and Lushrir. “You will use the time and take a trip through the woods. Find us some game, the earlier we start to stockpile, the better.” An easy enough task for the experienced hunters.

Bomrek finished his breakfast while Lushrir told him of a small clearing that was good for lying in wait for game. The woods in the plains were not very dense and gave Bomrek a feeling of safety, although he rarely ever hunted outside, he still preferred the deep, damp caverns with their hidden beauties.

Lushrir took the time to talk a bit about himself. “I was a doctor in the field during the war. I was just young back then, maybe too young. But my father was a doctor and I learned enough of the craft to suture up an unlucky fellow, set some bones, and make casts. After the war I was tired and eager to return to a happy life, but it didn't start. I had a pretty girl back home; she had run away. I felt useless and alone. Most people I sold my service to had a little booboo or needed an herbal tea. I never got the money for my own practice. Then I heard of this endeavour. It seemed a good promise. Normally settlers do not receive this good treatment, the ferry over the grand bay paid for and all that."

Bomrek felt like he had to ask something. "How many of such journeys have you been on?"

Lushrir looked at him for a second. "None…why?"

"Well then how do you know that 'settlers normally do not receive this good treatment'?"

Lushrir fell silent for a minute and thought about it "Well I guess that is what they told me….why did you come here?"

Now that of course was a question Bomrek really hated. He decided to tell the truth, but the least truth necessary.

"I used to be a butcher's boy, learned the trade. Lived in a gatecommunity and signed on for the guard, so I never was drafted into the war. After a while, I was appointed scout captain. Once we were tasked with finding a way to end a goblin siege through the caverns. I got used to being out, learning to traverse deep caverns, hunting wildlife, leading a squad. Afterwards I began working as a guide for people with too much money who wanted to kill something far above their weight class." He paused and looked at Lushrir. "I shot big cave dwellers, had three companions. I guess I decided to follow the call of fame for a similar reason you did. To do something I was really needed for. No longer to supply hollow trophies to snobs just so they could pretend they killed a creature that was in the end harmless and much more beautiful alive."

Talking of the past did not help him forget the things he saw, it just reminded him of more. Mesbath's broken body, the massacre at the cavern gates, the goblin riders. The two of them came to a clearing, around sixty feet across. Lushrir pointed at an uprooted tree lying at the edge a few yards away. "We will take position on those roots. They provide cover and elevation. You will take the lookout.”

An agreeable plan, found Bomrek. He got prone, his Crossbow in hands while Lushrir stood behind the web of roots, poking his crossbow through the holes in between roots. They stayed like this, not speaking a word for what seemed an eternity. The sun had passed its zenith before they saw activity on the edge. Bomrek bashed his foot against the trunk, letting Lushrir know to stay ready.

A small herd of deer slowly and shyly walked towards the lush grass of the clearing, each one by one. Bomrek decided to wait a bit, letting them all come closer and taking time to pick the perfect target. Landing a shot over this distance was no easy task.

A smaller one came a bit closer to the uprooted tree, slightly nervously. “Not yet!” Lushrir whispered. The deer's heads shot up, their ears turned towards the hiding spot. They had heard Lushrir. Bomrek knew that this was the time, they would not get closer now. He squeezed the trigger. The recoil kicked the crossbow up, Bomrek lost his tiny vantage hole and had to poke his head above the roots. He heard the squeal of the deer and Lushrir screaming "You IDIOT, you should have let it come closer!" as he let loose his own bolt and sprinted after it. The other deer jumped back into the forest, that seemed to swallow it like a muddy pond swallows pebbles thrown into it.

They spent almost an hour searching for the animal, following the unfortunately not so strong trail of blood. "If you just waited for it to come closer" Lushrir started for at least the fifth time. "It could be eaten by another predator by now, it could be dead and the meat ruined."

“Well you could have shut your trap and not alarm it to our presence!” Bomrek searched on. It was in this moment that heard something move. Lushrir struck out for another rebuke, but Bomrek just raised his hand to Lushrir's face. Luckily, that made him shut up instantly.

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Again they heard something move.

They could pinpoint the movements to a rock. Slowly, they encircled it. Lushrir loaded another bolt, Bomrek held his large knife. One step in front of the other, they managed to get around the boulder without making a sound.

And there the injured animal lied. Lushrir shot and hit it in the shoulder and Bomrek jumped to its throat.

They bound the cadaver to a sturdy stick and carried it back to the settlement. It was late Afternoon, not quite evening yet, when they arrived. The other seven had already torn down some of the crooked huts. The pile of debris and rubble in one corner of the settlement had grown considerably. A circle of stones had been put up, roughly fifteen feet across. In it, the others were sitting and sorting things from another; tools, small rations, coins, lumps of ore, scraps of cloth and leather.

"Hey, guys, come here." Sigun welcomed them back. "We have some counselling to do!"

Bomrek looked at Lushrir for a second and he seemed to agree. They sat down with the others and everyone looked to Asen. "It is clear we will not be able to sustain anything and we need more people or we need to go home. It seems most of us do not want the latter, or do you disagree?"

The group looked at the two latecomers.

Lushrir staggered a bit. "I have nothing worth to returning to.”

Then the others looked at Bomrek. “Neither do I. I left all behind for a reason.

Asen clapped her hands together. “It is chosen then. The seven newcomers will officially become members of the Gleaming Tunnels!” A murmured cheer rose from the circle of dwarves. “Our next step will be to survive winter, but after that we must stand up on our own feet. With the others who had answered to my recruiting call will arrive and bring with them new supplies and workforce. But that can only sustain us until the winter comes. The new migrants must come to a colony ready to be manned and worked.”

Asen paused for a while. Nobody questioned her judgement on these matters. “So, this is why we must set up everything as required. We have the advantage over the previous colonists that we no longer need to prospect for silver or gems. With what they have found we can move large volumes of wares here with the help of the fishing village.”

Lushrir stood up and interrupted Asen. “The humans will not be of decent help. They can barely fend for themselves.”

Asen shrugged the remark off. “Then we will send out letters to other ports. We will recruit. The Mountainhome have abandoned this settlement. They have let all these colonists die without help. That is why we must consider turning to other places. The humans, maybe even the dwarves of the eastern line.”

Lushrir and Endok now both stood up. Lushrir’s anger was visible on his face. “The war ended just ten years ago. We cannot fraternize with them!”

Endok’s arms flew up in fury. “That would be treason to our colonial contracts!”

Umel and even Stikus seemed to be aggravated as well, but before they could add their qualms, Asen stomped her foot further into the circle and raised her voice louder than Bomrek had heard so far. “I never signed a colonial contract. And I do not want to suffer the same fate as my brother, your friend! How can you still feel loyalty to the people who abandoned you to this grizzly fate?!” Lushrir and Endok seemed to calm down and returned to their seats.

"Any way you see it, we need help from somewhere. And there are only two things we have: the limestone and the riches of the earth. We can't sell the Limestone very far, but we can sell the metals and the gems. Lushrir and Endok said the previous settlers minted a few coins. Well, we looked at them, we can sell them. The fort, the Gleaming Tunnels, how they called it, has its own crude seal."

So far Bomrek did not really hear a plan, rather more wishful thinking.

"But we need to actually do some work. Our first order will be hunting, foraging and much, much hoarding supplies. During the winter, when nothing grows outside, we can actually dig up some of the richest below, try to mint some more coins, buy supplies. But before that, we need to construct a proper wall made of stone to fend off potential attackers. I recommend moving it much closer to the mine entrance, that way it will not need to be as long to span from slope to slope." She pointed from left to right where the furthest rocky mounds rose to encircle the mine entrance. “Later, we can set up another outer wall to layer our defences. We should also consider turning the prospected mine shafts into living and storage rooms. That way we will be able to house as many people as we wish should they arrive. We will send out a message and proof of our riches to each before the first snow falls. But until then we need to take stock of the entire fortress, see where we can make which progresses until when and plan ahead for our time of limited workforce. For that, each of you will need do their best the coming days and exactly know their place in the tight schedule we must run from now on!”

Silence returned to the circle of dwarves. It was Lushrir who broke it. “Is that all?”

“Yes. We need to continue on for now. Urist will go to prepare dinner.”

Lushrir turned to Bomrek. “Come, we need to take the deer apart and hang it up to dry.”

Bomrek followed him to a large flat stone slab that looked like it was already used as a slaughtering bench before. He took his hunting knife and started to take the skin and meat off the deer together with Lushrir. The sound of the blade cutting into the belly, separating skin and meat, scraping against bone, and the sound of his hands reaching deep to pull out organs brought back memories. Memories of his old life. Memories of his former crew. Memories of how good he was at what he usually did. He hadn't gutted many deer before, in fact, non; he was much more accustomed to cave game, but he had no problem guessing where to cut, where to rip, and where to get the best cuts of meat.

"I assume you have a drying rack?" Bomrek asked.

"Yes, the best you can get out here. Endok made it."

People tend to be happiest when they can show their work. At least both Bomrek and Lushrir, that was for sure. The day remained productive. Just after sundown, they had all the meats hanging over the fire on the drying rack. Salt would have made the job of preserving much easier, but for now, they were doing just fine, Bomrek thought. The herd earlier seemed healthy; tracking them would be a bit easier in the winter.

Everyone sat down in the guard room at the fire to eat. Although they certainly weren't out of hardships or in a soft warm home, Bomrek saw a lot more happiness in the other's faces. As the sun sunk below the horizon, the orange light touched their faces for a last moment. Many nights at the fire flashed by Bomrek's eyes. No one knew what was approaching, but Bomrek took confidence that despite what had passed, he was still here, and so were the others. Now they were all survivors, now the Gleaming Tunnels were standing again, not securely, but out of the mud; drudging ahead would be easier