Sherry-By-The-Bend.

Kilpa stood near the assembly tent as she waited for Clive to return. Hopefully to try at being a leader a little longer. She wanted him to step up. To light a fire under the halflings and show them that a bit of change can be good as well as get Clive to get some iron in his spine when it came to folk like the Big Families or others that seem to take advantage of his nature.

In the meantime, all she could do was wait. That and listen to the others inside continue to argue and bicker with one another despite the fact that Clive had left. The more she listened the less and less she wanted Clive to remain as mayor. Even she was beginning to think it was a lost cause to try and lead the halflings.

As she was contemplating whether to stay or go and search for Clive, she turned her head and saw him coming back towards the assembly tent. He... didn't look quite as dejected and done with as he did before, she thought. He didn't look much better though either. She walked towards him with a look mixed with hope and concern.

"So? Wha' did he tell you?"

Clive looked down at Kilpa and remained silent for a moment. Then he clicked his tongue and walked past her and towards the assembly tent. She followed along, increasingly worried as he remained silent as they neared the tent. Then he stopped just in front of the tent flap, stood there, and listened to the arguing within.

He sighed tiredly and rubbed his eyes and face in frustration. Then he turned and made to walk away. Kilpa looked after him.

"Clive?"

He started to walk away, but stopped at one of the tent posts that kept the tent secured from the wind. He looked down at the wooden stake and hummed for a moment. Then he reached down and pulled it up from the ground. Then he pulled on the string it was attached to, causing the tent to collapse upon itself, and those within.

Arguing turned to cries of surprise as the assembly tent collapsed. The cloth jumbled and shifted as those still within tried to get out of the tangle of fabric while dishes and junk collapsed with barely muffled crashes. The first ones to emerge were Corporal Vance and the laborers. Clive walked over to them.

"Sorry about that Corporal."

"What's the meanin' of this?!"

"Well, that's the downside of living and doing business in tents I'm afraid. A misstep or good gust of wind is enough to topple them over. Which is why we desperately need your assistance." Clive said.

"You can't just-"

"I sincerely apologize for how the citizens of Sherry have treated you and your workforce. While I can't promise that it won't happen again, I can promise that I will do what I can to see that it is less likely to happen." Clive promised and lifted the tent and pulled out Constable Bigsby and stood the bewildered halfling in front of the Corporal.

"Constable Bigsby here will see to it that any issues between your laborers and the locals will be dealt with." Clive declared and patted Bigsby on the shoulder.

The constable muttered incoherently and looked between Vance and Clive before gesturing to the emerging forms of Dylan and Alban.

"But wha' 'bout-"

"Not your problem anymore." Clive stated and turned the constable to face towards the National Guard and the laborers before giving him a little push.

Clive then turned towards the artificers.

"As for you two."

Dylan cringed and slowly turned to Clive.

"Yes?"

"I'm not sure I even want to know how you got involved in this mess. But we WILL be reviewing what all you can and cant do within the colony limits!" Clive commanded.

Dylan sagged as Clive reprimanded him. Clive then turned to Alban.

"Can you please keep him out of trouble? At least for a couple hours until we can work out something more permanent?"

The dwarf grunted affirmatively, but didn't look certain. Clive sighed.

"Can you keep him in one place and not directly bothering anyone?"

The dwarf thought for a moment before grunting with a bit more certainty.

"Thank you."

"Jus' wha' is tha meanin' o' this?!" Clive heard a voice call from within as the Big Families were the last to emerge.

"Tent fell down." Clive replied simply.

"We damn well ken tha' much! 'Ow?!"

"Don't know. Must've been the wind." Clive replied.

"You cannae jus' collapse a tent on us! We're-"

"Highly influential. Powerful. Yeah, I know." Clive said only half interested in their bluster as he walked past them and sifted through the mess under the tent.

"Aye! We are! 'Nd we'll not be treated like some common rabble!"

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"You wont." Clive replied and fished out the ledger and, with the assistance of Kilpa, the treasury chest.

"Wha're you doin'?" One of the Big Families' heads asked.

Clive cracked a smile and turned to look down at Kilpa.

"Being someone worth following."

"Wha' tha' 'posed ta mean?!" The head asked confused and angry.

"It means you can continue to do what you want. You can even continue to undermine me. But I'M going to do what the colony needs. Maybe they like it, or maybe they hate it. But I'm tired of feeling like I'm giving up a part of myself just to make people that don't give a rat's ass about me content."

"Well where you goin' with tha'?!"

Clive held up the thick ledger and his side of the chest.

"These? I'm taking the ledger and I'm going to balance it. As much as I can anyway. Then I'm going to put the chest somewhere safe."

"Yer stealin' it is wha' you mean!"

"No. I'm just making sure the kids don't get in the cookie jar before dinner." Clive retorted before he and Kilpa started to leave the group of bewildered and confused people.

Kilpa chuckled as she followed along as best she could. The Big Families head that had been the most heated shouted out as they left.

"This'll be tha end o' you! We'll see ta it tha' yer tha last Tall-Folk mayor we e'er 'ad!"

Clive just waved a hand at them and departed. Kilpa peered up at him with pride and curiosity in her eyes.

"So? Talk go well?"

Clive shrugged.

"Kinda? Learned some things. Thought through some others."

"'Nd?"

"And, I've decided that I like helping people. I just don't like feeling powerless to do so even though I'm not."

"So?"

"So, I'm just going to do what I know is right and what the colony needs. If that makes me the best or worst mayor Sherry's had then so be it. If I end up a one-term mayor then that's how the cards fall. But at least I won't be pulling my hair out. I'll show people that change and cooperation can be a good thing. Especially here in our world." Clive declared.

Kilpa's eyes then turned mischievous and she shook the chest.

"So... wha' we gonna do with tha swag?"

Clive rolled his eyes with a smile.

"Hide it."

"Oh? Where?"

"Somewhere." Clive replied with a smirk.

About an hour, and a little digging, later. Kilpa and Clive returned to the colony after hiding the chest in a secure location. Was he being petty by hiding it? Maybe. But what he needed to do would require money and he wasn't going to beg and scrape for it. He wasn't stealing it. He was just borrowing it. Indefinitely. Or at least until Sherry is in a place that he didn't need to hide the funds to prevent any un-needed/wanted expenditure. A rainy day fund so to speak.

They walked back with smiles and laughs while Kilpa told him of the time that she and her friends, while adventuring, had stumbled across a group of pirates, or corsairs as they were called in their world. At first they were going to rush in and collect the bounty that all corsairs had on them while pocketing any loot they had stashed around. Only to end up watching from the side-lines as the corsairs killed one another over cuts of the loot! In the end the adventurers just walked over, grabbed the loot and a few scraps to claim the bounties with, and departed! They made a pretty penny without even drawing their weapons!

They laughed and smiled as they walked back into Sherry. The mood was a little tense from the events not long ago, but things were peaceful. For now, Clive thought. The constables were stationed between the elven laborers and surly halflings that still harassed them, though from a distance and with nothing more than half-hearted insults. Any of them that even looked like they were going to throw something other than words was quickly smacked by a constable for their trouble.

Grumbling, moaning, and complaining. But peace. For now. The National Guard continued their construction efforts in peace though along side the boys from the rail yard. Clive should probably also be worried about what the Big Families will do now that he's pretty much told them to eat shit. But that was a problem for future Clive. Right now he was just going to enjoy the feeling of an actual win for once!

Sure he got some dirty looks from some of the halflings, probably already fallout from the Big Families doing their best to foment discontent. But if Fallmeadow was right, then it'll go away in time. Hopefully in that time he can do some actual good. Like getting some modern schooling set up, some sort of trade going, as well as plans to integrate. But again, future Clive's problems.

As he and Kilpa neared his tent, they were stopped by a very tired looking Hamish.

"Evening Hamish. What's wrong?"

"Nothin'. Jus' Addie bein' Addie is all." The halfling replied with a huff.

"What's she riding you for this time?" Clive replied with a chuckle.

"A child! As if wha' she's been naggin' me fer already weren'y difficult enough, now she's frisky again!" Hamish replied in exasperation.

"Oh... it was just a figure of speech." Clive muttered as Kilpa chuckled.

"No matter. I came ta fetch ya. Finally finished yer 'ome." Hamish replied.

"My home? But that's my home." Clive stated and gestured to the tent.

"Not any more. Built you somethin' more proper than some drafty tent." Hamish explained and gestured for Clive and Kilpa to follow.

Clive and Kilpa followed Hamish down the river to where his supposed home was supposed to be. They finally reached a spot where the fields nearby started to turn into woods. Not overly thick with trees, but several stood almost solitary between them. Between a copse of beech and birch stood a two-story mostly rounded log cabin. An human sized cabin.

"What's this?" Clive asked as they neared. To the right was the river rushing by while to the left was the small trail that's formed from the little activity it's seen from him coming and going to check on Sloth and the tortles.

"Wha's it look like? It's yer 'ome!" Hamish replied with a prideful smile.

"But why?"

"Well, cause Addie dinnae want you watchin' Stella 'nd Feryl in some tent tha's why!" Hamish replied.

"Watching them?"

"Aye! We need some time alone ta ourselves now 'nd then! Thought maybe you, 'nd Miss Goldenfield 'ere, could keep an eye on 'em from time ta time fer an afternoon?" Hamish sorta asked.

"Well, I mean, I'll be busy with some stuff with the colony now and then-"

"We'll do it!" Kilpa spoke up and interrupted Clive as she dragged him to the cabin.

She ran up the two steps and across the wooden porch before she opened the door, which was Dutch to provide easy access for human and halfling both, and peered inside. It was bare of furniture, but the craftsmanship wasn't anything to balk at, Clive thought. It very much looked and felt like a wooden cabin. The floor boards had a whiskey hue to them while the logs that acted as walls and supports leaked and bled amber sap, giving the place a sweet wood smell. He also saw that they had been carved with pictures of wheat and grain as well as animals like cows, chickens, pigs, and sheep. The main living room was circular at roughly a hundred and eighty square feet, or seventeen meters, roughly. Just across from the door sat a stone bar/boundary that separated the living area from the kitchen if that was a stone oven he saw. The bar/boundary was flattened on the top with some logs to act as seating on the living room side and a medium storage chest that Hamish said was an icebox to keep things preserved.

He gestured to a darkened door, also Dutch, to the right of the kitchen and revealed a spacious pantry that despite there being shelves and racks for wine and food was still big enough for the three of them to stand in comfortably.

"You cannae be hostin' without plenty o' food er drink, ya ken?"

Hamish then led them to the stairs, while the steps were short to accommodate halfling size, the steps were actually plenty long enough to step on without issue for Clive. The whiskey colored boards groaned as he stepped on them but held firm and strong under his weight. Even the railing on the stairs was carved with yet more high quality depictions of farm animals and various flowers and grains. Some small rounded windows allowed a nice view of the river rushing by.

They stepped off the stairs and peered at the second story of the cabin. The roof, at least from inside, was wooden boards with a hatch. Hamish said that it led to an attic with some drying racks to help dry herbs or meats without flies being a bother. He then went over to a small hall that led to three rooms. All weren't furnished, but they were all plenty big enough for a human and two halflings to stand in with room to spare.

Hamish said that two of them were bedrooms. Either Clive and Kilpa could sleep in separate rooms or share one and have the second one be a guest room while the third room was an actual bathroom! With what looked like plumbing! Clive frowned though when he peered into the wooden box with a hole that acted as a toilet and didn't see and water in it.

"How do you use it if there's no water?"

"Easy." Hamish replied and pointed out the small circle window down below behind the cabin.

Clive peered through the window and saw a pig pen with a couple of pigs that looked like they were barely out of being called piglets. Clive cocked a brow at Hamish.

"What are the pigs for?"

"Well piss 'nd shite gotta go somewhere, 'nd pigs gotta eat too." Hamish explained.

"What's wrong with an outhouse?!"

"Nothin'. But cannae dig a human sized shite hole now can I? It were either this er sendin' it into tha river." Hamish replied.

Note to self, build an outhouse, Clive thought as he debated if having literal shit eating pigs was any better than shitting in the woods. Something for future Clive to debate, he thought as he wasn't going to scoff at being given his own home. A home that would be a pretty penny on the market on top of being built to fit him! At least the bathroom had a washbasin. He'd just have to remember to dump it out and refill it.

"I don't know what to even say Hamish." Clive said as they returned to the first floor and out onto the porch to stare out and towards Sherry not far away.

"Well, dinnae mention it. You 'elped us out plenty. Tis only fair we give back in turn." Hamish replied.

"Well, thanks. I'm not sure what else to even say to this."

"Just say you'll watch Stella 'nd Feryl now 'nd again?" Hamish asked.

"Sure. We can babysit." Clive said before Kilpa could interrupt again.

Hamish nodded in appreciation.

"Good then! Guess I also kinda owe you fer gettin' you kicked out o' yer box too."

"Yeah.... wait, what?"