Trout's Landing.
The Chief stretched his aching scales as he awoke in the strange new place that was now their new home. He chuckled at the thought that within the span of a few months he has had to lead his people from their home twice now due to threats.
"Hopefully this'll be the last time."
He got up and made for the smoldering ashes of the fireplace and rekindled the embers to get the fire going again. He missed being able to conjure a flame at will, but as cold as it was already he feared that if he did he wouldn't survive the consequences this time.
As a welcome warmth began to spread throughout the cabin, the rest of those who had sheltered within began to stir as the heat warmed their blood and bodies. The Chief clapped his hands to get their attention.
"Get up everyone. It is a new dawn and we have much work to do!"
The kobolds, and the handful of salamanders that bunked with them, groaned and hissed as they shook loose rigid muscles and rotated being near the fire for a burst of warmth and getting their clothing on before they left the cabin to get to work making the place called Trout's Landing into a proper home fit for kobolds.
The Chief left after adjusting his welcome mat poncho and found the place already abuzz with activity as he could see the faintest wisps of sunlight to the east above the mountains. He saw the Trap Master talking with the skirmishers and made for them, hearing a snippet of their own plans as he neared.
"-re our two most vulnerable points. I want lookouts there at all times until we can get proper watchposts up and a rotation started."
"Good morning Trap Master." The Chief greeted.
"Morning. Did you sleep alright?"
"Not as well as I would have liked, but I suspect few did." The Chief replied as the Trap Master dismissed his skirmishers to perform their duties.
"What are your plans for today?" The Chief asked as he followed the Trap Master as they made their way towards the Game Warden's cabin.
"Setting watch on the road south as well as sending lookouts to the western part of our new home. Other than that, we are getting familiar with the area." He replied as he stared up at the rusted lock on the door.
"Hmm, perhaps we could-"
BANG!
The Chief jumped as the Trap Master unholstered his rifle and shot the lock off the door. The Trap Master walked over and pushed open the now unlocked door.
"Or that."
The Chief was about to follow when an egg-maid poked her head out of the cabin that the hatchlings, Den Mother, and other caretakers were staying in.
"What was that?!"
"Oh nothing dear! Just getting used to our surroundings is all!" The Chief called as he ran over to settle down the murmuring he could hear from within.
"Oh good."
"Now that I have a moment though. How is the Den Mother's condition?" The Chief asked as he tried to peek behind the egg-maid.
Then a piercing cry rang from the cabin. Followed by a blissful moan of pleasure. The egg-maid poked her head back in for a moment before reproducing it.
"She is currently in the process of laying her clutch!"
"Oh?! I shall retrieve Master Jeb!" The Chief stated excitedly.
"NO!" Came the muffled yell of the Den Mother from within.
The Chief looked at the egg-maid in confusion and worry. She shrugged and went back within and the Chief could hear talking mixed between the moans for a moment before the egg-maid returned.
"She wants Jeb to get some rest given all that has happened lately. Besides, it's the hatching he'll want to be present for anyway, not the laying."
"Well I suppose, but still I should-"
SLAM!
The Chief was once more interrupted as the door slammed shut and he could hear the sounds of egg-laying coming from within. He cast a glance over to the admin's building.
"Perhaps I should at least check on him."
With that in mind he hurried off to the admin building. Searching for the room that Jeb had made his. It wasn't hard as all he had to do was follow the boot imprints in some of the paper and leaves to a door labelled ADMINISTATER. He found the door cracked open an inch or so and could hear Jeb snoring from within. A test push proved that while the door wasn't locked, it did have something barring the way somewhat. A firm push was enough to move whatever it was and the Chief entered Jeb's room.
It was dusty and dirty. The only clean thing was what Jeb had brought from their exodus. The Chief peeked around the door and found a chair that was probably put there to secure the door that, now that he was looking at it, had looked like it was kicked open.
He peered over to Jeb and found him still snoozing away despite the sounds of a rifle going off and his own less-than-stealthy intrusion. He seemed to have changed just within the past day or so. He had dark circles under his eyes that said he was far more tired then they first realized. His hair was growing untamed and matted. His face looked gaunt and pale.
The Chief shook his head sadly.
"Poor Jeb."
With that he moved over and pulled the sleeping bag cover over Jeb some more before going and retrieving some firewood for the cold fireplace. He worked it into a proper flame again before leaving Jeb to his earned rest.
After searching around for keys to the place, and finding them within a dusty drawer at the front, he left the admin building to see several fires being set up around the place for the kobolds to quickly use to get warm in the early morning. Several looked up at him as they saw him and he made his way over to the closest group.
"Chief! What is the tribe's duty!?"
The Chief looked around, there was so much to do and so few claws to do them. But they had to start somewhere.
"Has anyone checked on that pier yet?"
"No, we are awaiting Master Jeb."
"Master Jeb is resting, so we shall get started without him." The Chief replied and the kobolds nodding in understanding.
"Then we shall check the pier. Rouse some salamanders and retrieve the supplies and sleds we left down the road there as well. Then get a team ready to begin tunneling. We have much work to do and I wish for Master Jeb to awake with much less to do than he already has done for us!" The Chief commanded.
The kobolds saluted and rushed off to do their assigned duties. A handful gathered the salamanders lounging away near some fires and drove them down the road to retrieve the sleds and supplies while others retrieved the shovels and picks before looking around for a good place to begin their digging. The Chief followed a group over to the pier and boathouse. He shivered as he neared the cold water as a breeze seemed to glide over his scales.
As they neared, he could see the remains of several traps that look to have been abandoned from the previous owners of the place. Dead remains of fish that couldn't escape in time joined the rotted and waterlogged debris along with bundles of tangled line.
"Are there any traps still in good condition?" The Chief asked as he looked around the pier and could see the barest shadows of fish within the water this early in the morning.
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"Not on the pier no, we haven't checked the boathouse yet." A kobold replied.
The Chief looked to the boathouse. It was in decent enough condition, but given time and elements he doubt that would last long. They would have to do some repair and maintenance if they wished to use it for a good long while yet.
"Let's go then."
He left the pier and made for the boathouse. The sliding door had a rusty looking lock and even with the keys to the place he doubt it would work.
"I guess we could-"
CLANK!
A kobold brought a heavy rock down on the rusted lock that shattered and fell useless to the cold ground.
"-try that."
The Chief looked to the key ring he had retrieved. Oh well, he thought as he secured them in a pouch he had as the kobolds slid open the boathouse door. Fortunately it looked like at least a dozen fish and crawfish traps were in good condition, for how long he wasn't sure but some now were better than none, he thought.
Stored around the boathouse were two rowboats that could fit two-four humans at a time and six long narrow wooden canoes that looked like they would be perfect for the kobolds to use to navigate the river if they needed to. Dozens of fishing poles and nets leaned against the far wall, line and netting either ripped and torn or bundled, knotted, and tangled.
He turned as the kobolds used a pulley to move aside the door that separated the enclosed boathouse from the river itself and the Chief could see how much work would need to be done on the place as the light illuminated just how rough it was if they wished to use it for the foreseeable future. From the looks of broken and rotted boards and the way it creaked and groaned at every movement and gust of wind it might be better to scrap it and build a new one from scratch, the Chief thought.
"To repair or scrap and rebuild?" The Chief asked aloud more to himself as he looked around the boathouse.
Not like the kobolds were unknowledgeable in fishing, they used to live in a area with access to the sea and rivers, and fishing was used just as much as hunting was. But they also had an entire city's worth of kobolds to do so many important tasks that would make tearing down this old rotted building and putting up a new one a trivial matter. But they didn't have the numbers for such an undertaking at this moment. Perhaps in the future they could build a proper fishery, but for now they would have to maintain what they had.
He turned to the kobolds.
"Bring the boats down and check their conditions further. Then get some of these traps baited and set and get the nets and poles untangled and patched. And go see the Trap Master about javelins to aid in fishing until then."
The kobolds nodded and darted off to their tasks, grunting and groaning as they struggled to heave the boats off their positions on the walls of the boathouse or tripping and getting tangled in the mess of line and netting while a couple rushed off to find the Trap Master.
The Chief looked around at the boathouse one last time before leaving with a shiver as he trotted over to the nearest firepit and warmed his scales. He wished the generator worked so they could plug in the heaters Jeb had got them or for the team of kobolds to retrieve the sleds they had abandoned just down the road. They left behind the heaviest as they neared, which included the iron stove, truck, fridge, and other electrical or mechanical parts or piping, and the generators and heaters.
Fortunately, the sun began to peek over the mountains and a glimmer of sunlight began to warm the kobolds' new home. He turned his head at the sounds of exertion and saw a team of salamanders and kobolds straining as they dragged the heavy sleds the last few feet and into the clearing before falling down from effort, the cold, and tiredness.
"One problem down." The Chief stated as another team of kobolds and salamanders replaced them and they moved the sleds to where they were wanted. The stove would be stored someplace until needed as would the rest, while the heaters and generators were moved to where the kobolds had started digging as the Chief saw kobolds retreating from the cabins with arms of wood and buckets of dirt.
One of them rushed over to the Chief.
"Chief! The tribe wants to know where the new central chamber will be!"
The Chief looked around. The mountains north of them would be a good place. But they didn't know how far they went or how hard the rock will be and would take much too long than they had to dig through it before winter came. East would be good as having a river above them would provide extra security and would allow a underground fishery. But they also didn't know how deep the river got and were liable to flood the tunnels instead.
Then he looked at the great sycamore tree in the center of their new home. Such an ancient tree's roots must run thick and deep, he thought. Decided, he pointed a claw at the base of the sycamore.
"Dig under the tree and make the central chamber among its roots. Make tunnels that connect to it from the buildings nearby."
The kobold nodded and left to pass word of the plans to the others. From there they would begin to dig and excavate the dirt at the base of the sycamore tree where they would make the central chamber for the tribe to congregate in once more like the basement/cellar and hill was at Jeb's old home.
The earth will also provide some safety and comfort against the chill, the Chief thought as he looked about as the place was alive with activity as the sun began to rise more and more and warmed their home. Hatchlings tittered about and helped or hindered while salamanders moved to lounge on some of the rocks or the pier nearby that was already warming in the sun.
With one last rub of his claws to keep warm, the Chief made for the Game Warden's cabin where he found a group of skirmishers inside with the Trap Master as they looked over old maps of the area as well as pictures and descriptions of animals native to the region.
The Trap Master looked up as the skirmishers parted so the Chief could get a closer look.
"I see you are busy as always."
"Of course. It is my duty to keep things running while Master Jeb is resting. How goes your own duties?"
"Better now that we have a layout of the land and what we should expect from now on." The Trap Master said as he held out a map and guidebook to the Chief to study and read.
At first glance it looked like they will have no shortage of game when spring arrives. Deer, some kind of fowl called a turkey, rabbit and hare, something called a opossum, squirrels, beaver, mice, voles, muskrat, rats, shrew and moles were labeled and marked with their rough population numbers and habitat range.
"Quite the bounty of food." The Chief stated.
"Indeed. But these are also old and from before our arrival. From what Jeb and I have discovered with the owlbears as well as the amber stags you encountered, things may have changed since. We are not the only ones to arrive to this world and several new beasts may have made the place their home between now and then."
"That is troubling."
"Which is why I am sending scouts out. We shouldn't face much problem from the predators this early and should be able to get a read on anything new to the area." The Trap Master stated as a group of skirmishers nodded and left towards the west.
The Chief looked over some of the maps and guides a bit more as the Trap Master and some kobolds made their way around the cabin and cleared off much of the dust and debris left over from its former occupant. Some of the maps on the wall showed stuff like elevation of the area and density of the woods. It seemed like the mountains north of them and across the river, ran far and tall for miles before finally descending and the river to the east was labelled as being almost 13ft deep in some places.
Even those maps had labels and pictures of the wildlife and rough locations of predators native to the area like black bears, badgers, fox, bobcat, coyote, boar, eagles, shrikes, hawks, owls, bats, skunks, raccoons, pit vipers and other snake species, as well as weasels, mink, fisher, and otters that hunt along the river.
There was also a map and list of fish Jeb had said were in the river before as well as other water dwellers like the toads and frogs they heard last night, smaller aquatic salamanders and turtles seemed to inhabit the river areas the same as trout, bass, carp, pike, sturgeon, catfish, something called a musky, gar, sunfish, and even a healthy population of crayfish.
The Chief wasn't sure how many of those they would find with winter just around the corner, but they should have no shortage of food at least. So close to civilization at their former home made hunting by the skirmishers rather difficult. Even more so with the arrival of goblins and others that had more than likely displaced much of the ecosystem upon their arrival like the owlbears.
"What about farming?" The Trap Master asked as he moved from map to map.
"The soil is good and rich if the sycamore is anything to go by. But I doubt we'll be farming much of anything even when spring comes. Maybe some berry and fruit bushes or a small grove of fruit trees or some edible roots or tubers so as not to put undue strain on Master Jeb."
"There are bats here. Perhaps we can dig out a bat farm? They can roost and provide us with meat while their droppings are used as rich fertilizer. Also something the salamanders won't easily be able to get to." The Trap master suggested.
"That would be good. We can also get our poison and toxin cultivation restarted with a ready and easy source of water from the river. Perhaps making a chamber near the boathouse to provide a dark and damp environment for the molds and fungi?" The Chief suggested as they both went over plans for the development of their home.
-----
Sam's Home.
"Ouch!" Sam hissed as Millie dabbed a cloth soaked in whiskey against the wound on his cheek.
"Oh quit yer moanin'! You dinnae want sickness ta set ya ken?!" Millie chided as she reapplied the soaked bandage to the healing wound.
"It'd be fine if you quit fussin' with it!" Sam hissed but didn't move to stop Millie from treating his wound.
Millie rolled her eyes.
"Yer just like my da! E'en when 'is leg turned from a run-in with a gopher hole while drinkin' too much, he would INSIST tha' he were fit as a fiddle he was! Drove my ma up tha wall he did!"
"Where uh *cough* where are your folks?" Sam asked, a little nervous of potentially meeting some in-laws at his age.
"Ma died a couple years back. Old age done got her. Pa didnae take it well 'nd drank tha next year o' 'is life away until tha' damn gopher 'ole got 'im in tha end finally." She said with a little sadness.
"Oh?! I'm sorry. I shouldn't-"
"Hush! Tha's just tha nature o' thin's. People grow old 'nd they die. Just as tha Harvest Mother teaches. Tha fields grow 'nd provide food ta us, then we die 'nd provide tha land in return." Millie said as if she were reciting gospel.
"That's, actually rather nice soundin'." Sam said as Millie finished afixing the bandage before giving it a kiss. Causing him to wince and turn red.
"See? All better! A few more days 'nd I'll bet my good pot there'll be barely a scar!" She cheered as she kissed his wound again, then moved her kissing a little closer to his lips, then a little closer.
They were interrupted when Sammy walked into the living room.
"Oh?! Sammy?! Uhm this isn't-"
"Hey Millie."
"Hey Sammy!"
"Oh. You already met?"
"Yeah, you weren't exactly conscious when Skeeter dragged you back from whatever happened at Jeb's." Sammy stated as she went to the kitchen to grab some food.
"Aye! She was a real helper she was! She'll make a good midwife 'nd mother one day!" Millie said.
"Speakin' of Jeb. Skeeter was a lil weird on what happened and wouldn't say nothin'. So what did happen?" Sammy asked as she pulled a pot of stew Millie made out of the fridge while hoping to avoid any embarrassing talk about motherhood.
"Nothin'." Sam said plainly.
"Nothin'? I come home to your new girlfriend and Skeeter patchin' you up and you say it was 'nothin'?!" Sammy seethed.
"It was a misunderstandin' is all. Leave it be Sammy." Sam commanded firmly.
Sammy huffed and put away the pot before starting to stomp down the hall but stopped about halfway before turning around with tears in her eyes.
"Well then I guess it's because of this misunderstandin' that Jeb left without even sayin' goodbye isn't it?!"
Sam looked up at Sammy.
"What do you mean Jeb left?"
"Greg heard over about it over at City Hall that some of the new folk tried to stop someone that sounded like him and those red lizards of his from gettin' on a train and leavin' town." Sammy said tearfully.
Sam made to stand but Millie plopped down in his lap to keep him from getting up.
"Not so fast you! Yer still healin' 'nd are in no condition ta be goin' after anyone!"
"Get off! I'm goin' after him!" Sam said as he went to move Millie off his lap.
"Do you even know where he went to, Pa?" Sammy asked as she wiped her eyes.
"I... no, where did he go?"
"Don't know. No one does. Greg says the City Council tried askin' those folk at the trainyard but said that they're bein' tightlipped about what might've happened."
"Aye, sounds like dwarves alright. If they think it's none o' yer business, they'll take it ta their grave befer they tell ya" Millie said as Sam sighed and sat back down defeated.
"If it helps, it sounds like Clive might've been the one drivin' the train Jeb left on. So he might know." Sammy sniffed before leaving for her room.
Sam rubbed his face, ignoring the stinging wound.
"Oh, Jeb. What happened?"
"Doubt you'll tell me wha' 'appened. So I'll just get some supper ready." Millie said as she hopped off and went over to the stove to prepare some food.
"Sorry, maybe another time. It's just... family stuff, you know? Complicated family stuff."
"Oh I do! There's stuff you only tell family 'bout 'nd though we're gettin' familiar tha' dinnae make me family!" Millie stated in understanding.
"I'll need to get a hold of Clive soon and see if he knows where Jeb went." Sam said.
"'Nd do wha'? Show up with yer face split like tha'? If it were because o' 'im' 'ow do you think he'll feel?" Millie said.
Sam sighed.
"Fine. I'll still talk to Clive, but I'll wait till I heal up before goin' after Jeb."
"Good! It'll give us more time ta get familiar anyway! Maybe we can make it a family affair?! Oh?! Like a holiday!" Millie cheered a little at the thought.
If Clive doesn't know where Jeb is, he would still like to know he's alright anyway, Sam thought. Maybe Millie had a point. He'll heal up a bit and make a trip of it with Clive and Sammy, and Millie. She at least deserves to meet Jeb given what happened. Hopefully in a normal, and human, state and not what he saw yesterday.