Sollar yawned and sipped on the hot water provided to her by General Forge. The sun was still barely peeking over the horizon, as everyone was cast in an early morning blue.

“Waking up early is hard,” she complained.

“That’s what we have to do. Daylight is important, Lady Sollar,” General Forge replied. “Your brother also woke up early, too. Although... he’d wake up too early, sometimes.”

“Wake up too early?” the Demonfolk girl asked. She yawned, then wiped her eyes.

“Yes. He has good night vision, so he usually wakes up early to work with General Seis on bookkeeping.”

General Forge sighed while reminiscing. “He’d wake up too damn early. The amount of candles he’d burn in a month...”

The Demonfolk General handed to Sollar a handful of tin coins. “Go into the town and get us some breakfast. Bread and some mutton or dried beef. You can do that?”

Sollar held out her hand to accept the money, while wiping her eye with the other fist.

“Yeah. I can get food,” she replied. “The town, it’s that way. Right?”

“Yep,” General Forge replied. “Just go down that way, and the town will have a main street with the bakery and butcher shop right next to each other.”

Sollar nodded. “Okay. I’ll go there...”

As she walked away, General Forge called back out, “Oh, and don’t forget to get breakfast for both of us!”

Sollar nodded again as she walked the dirt road to the town of Grand Elm. Passing by her were some other Demonfolk, many of whom had already grabbed their breakfasts or were going to the town for a meal.

The walk didn’t take that long, and Sollar easily found the bakery, from the smell of fresh bread wafting through the open windows. A handful of Demonfolk were idling outside, but Sollar simply stepped past them into the building.

A slightly chubby middle-aged woman was behind the counter. Before her was a tray of bread rolls. Steam was wafting off of them, evidence that they were fresh out of the oven.

The woman’s eyes darted up to the door, seeing that Sollar had arrived.

“Oh, dearie. You’re a new face around here, aren’tcha?” she asked. Her voice was smooth and sweet, almost inviting.

Sollar nodded. “Yep! I came here just yesterday. I’m working on the rail thing!”

The Demonfolk girl pointed all the way behind her, in the direction of said construction project.

“You?” the baker asked. “I’m impressed, you look a little young for that. Oh, where are my manners? My name is Whitewood. I’m the town’s baker.”

“And my name’s Sollar!” the Demonfolk girl exclaimed. She walked right up to the counter and peered at the fresh miniature loaves. “I need to get 2 breads.”

“You’re just in time, they’re fresh,” Whitewood replied. “One small tin coin for each.”

“Tin coin?” Sollar asked. She fished around in one of her pockets and grabbed the handful of coins that General Forge had given to her. There were a few small dull-gray coins, two large ones, and a single small brass-colored coin.

“Just the small gray ones,” Whitewood replied. “Two of them.”

The Demonfolk girl picked out two of the coins, and handed it over. As she was doing so, Whitewood grabbed two of the small loaves and wrapped them in wax paper.

“Here you go, sweetie,” she said. Both loaves were in a paper bag, handed to Sollar, as the baker accepted the two coins. “If you need anything else just ask me. Alright, hun?”

Sollar nodded. “Okay. Thank you!”

The Demonfolk girl turned around and was just about to step out of the door, before turning around on her heel and looking at Whitewood.

“Where’s the place you buy the dry meat?” Sollar asked.

“Oh, the jerky?” Whitewood asked. “That’s Rivermore’s butchery. He’s just right next door.”

The baker pointed to the right. “I’m not sure if he’s back yet, since he needed to check up on something. But you can wait there until then, okay?”

“Okay!” Sollar replied.

She bounded over to the next building, stepping past a few other Demonfolk who were waiting in line. She was just about to step through the door, but immediately noticed the lack of light within the partially ajar door.

Sollar inched forward and pushed on the door, allowing it to gradually swing open.

“Hello?” she called out. The Demonfolk girl peered through the front door of the butcher’s shop. There was nobody inside.

“Hey there, lass!”

Sollar jumped up from where she stood as she heard the voice right behind her. The startled Demonfolk girl turned on the heels of her feet to look at the man behind her.

He wore an apron that was stained in various dark fluids, and in one hand held a few pieces of dried meat hanging off some twine.

“Name’s Rivermore, town butcher. Guessing you wanna do business?” he asked.

Sollar nodded. “Yes, yes! I need to buy jerky.”

Rivermore grinned and held up the dried meat that was skewered through by twine. “Just in time. I have some lamb jerky for you, just give me a moment here to...”

He stepped past the Demonfolk girl and hung the twine of jerky on a hook hanging from the ceiling.

“How much you want, lass?”

“Two!” Sollar replied.

Pulling a small knife from a leather holster on his apron, Rivermore cut the twine off two of the lower pieces of jerky. He then ripped some butcher paper off a roll that he kept nearby, wrapping it neatly.

“Four small tin coins,” he said.

Sollar fished for four coins from her pockets and handed it to him.

“Uh... miss, there’s a large tin coin in here,” he said.

Sollar cocked her head. “What’s a large tin coin?”

“This,” he replied. He picked up the out-of-place coin, showing that it was almost two times as large as the small, dull gray coins. “It’s worth five of the small tin coins.”

“But I need to give four,” Sollar replied. “Isn’t that enough?”

“Oh, it is,” Rivermore replied. “Just... hold on, let me give you some change.”

The butcher placed the large coin on the table and fished around his own pouch, pulling out a single small tin coin. “Yeah, here’s your change.”

He dropped the coins into Sollar’s outstretched arms with one hand, and then handed to her the wrapped jerky with the other hand.

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“Is that it, lass?” the man asked.

Sollar nodded. “Yes! That’s all. Thank you!”

The Demonfolk girl bounded out of the butcher’s shop, and the speedy girl began to bound her way back towards the construction site. She passed by plenty of other Demonfolk who were going to and from the town to retrieve breakfast.

By the time she reached General Forge, he was already getting started with work. The Demonfolk General was shouting out orders at other Demonfolk on the work site.

“At least three per rail, they’re made out of solid iron so keep in mind that it’ll hurt if it falls on your foot!” he exclaimed “And don’t forget about the—”

“Forr-ar!” Sollar exclaimed. “I’m here!”

General Forge glanced over at the Demonfolk girl.

“Oh, there you are, Sollar,” he said. “You’ve bought the stuff?”

“Yep! Here you go!” she exclaimed, handing him one of the bags. General Forge peered inside to see the bread rolls.

“Good. Spare change, too?”

“Change?”

“Extra money you have left that I gave you.”

The Demonfolk girl dug into her pocket again, before retrieving the handful of coins. “Here they are! But I don’t get how they work. He said one is five of the other?”

“You probably paid with a large tin coin,” General Forge said, counting the change left. “Speaking of that, I should probably teach you how money works... There weren’t any problems buying, I hope?”

“Nope!” Sollar exclaimed. She placed both hands on her hips, in confidence. “Now, we’re doing the job thing, right? What do I do?”

General Forge looked up at her. Then he peered over at the construction site before them.

“You can... Uh...”

The Demonfolk General scraped his mind for ideas, until his eyes landed on one of the wheelbarrows that were used yesterday.

“...Continue scooping the gravel,” he said. “You did fine yesterday, right? With the gravel?”

Sollar nodded. “Yep! I can do gravel!”

“Great. Just continue doing that, and listen to what the others say to do with the gravel. Do that for the rest of the day and you’re good.”

Sollar nodded. She immediately set off, grabbing one of the rickety wheelbarrows to roll over to the large piles of gravel that were set aside for the project.

The next few hours of work went by in a blur, as the Demonfolk girl delivered wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow full of gravel to the site. It was almost routine at that point; Sollar would pull up with her wheelbarrow, and two Demonfolk at the gravel pile would quickly shovel the wheelbarrow full. She’d then pull away to the rail line and dump it right where another Demonfolk there told her to.

Three of the many large piles of gravel disappeared within that time, and the gravel path that had been laid out was long enough for the Demonfolk to begin hammering in the first wooden rail ties and rails.

If anything, it seemed that Sollar was the quickest out of all the other Demonfolk with their wheelbarrows. She would jog with the cart in front of her, even when it was filled to the brim with the heavy gravel.

On one occasion, she would stop a little too quickly, and the gravel in front of her wouldn’t stop. Some would continue flying forward in front of her, showering the Demonfolk that were a few paces ahead of her.

Said Demonfolk would glance at her, but said nothing.

As the sun rose, so did the temperature. General Forge, who was working on hammering the nails, stared up at the sun above. He held a hammer over his shoulder.

“The weather’s getting hot,” he said. The General glanced at Sollar, as if expecting an answer.

The Demonfolk girl wiped her brow as if there was sweat on it. There wasn’t; she was hardly exerted, but she saw some of the others do that and proceeded to mimic that.

“Yeah. It’s feeling warmer,” she replied.

General Forge then looked over at the town. “I’ve heard they got a wagon caravan in town. Maybe got something good... I’ll see what they have there.”

General Forge placed his hammer head down on the ground and started to make his way towards the town.

Meanwhile, Sollar was continuing her work. She took a few glances at the shrinking form of General Forge, but otherwise continued with her work.

She was so engrossed in her own work that the Demonfolk girl was tunnel visioned on the very front of the rail line, where gravel was being laid down.

Unfortunately, Sollar stumbled. She didn’t just stumble on the ground — she stumbled on someone’s foot. The wheelbarrow teetered and rolled forward, and the Demonfolk girl tripped on her own legs trying to rebalance herself. Her tail waved to and fro, as she attempted to balance herself, before she fell directly onto the gravel.

Sollar gave a grunt of surprise — the fall didn’t injure her at all — as she slid across the gravel. Taking a moment to compose herself, Sollar was about to stand back up, before she felt two armored hands, one on each shoulder, pick her up.

It was the armored human who had accidentally tripped her. She glanced up at him, her feet steadying as he lifted her up.

“Are you alright, miss?” the man asked. He began to dust the girl’s shoulders off.

Sollar cocked her head. A Human in armor? She knew Demonfolk wore armor, but she had never seen a Human in armor before.

“Armored Human?” she asked.

The Human in question finished wiping off some rock dust off of Sollar’s helmet.

“I apologize for that, young lady,” he said. “I did not watch where I was going.”

The man’s voice was deep and aged. It reminded her of one of the Gen-ralls. Sollar peered up at him and grinned.

“It’s okay, armor human!” Sollar replied. “No hurting! I’m okay.”

Sollar turned back to her wheelbarrow. It was still sitting on its two legs and wheel, thankfully having not fallen over when she had tripped. She grabbed the handles of the wheelbarrow and gave one last glance up at the armored Human, before striding her merry way.

It wasn’t long before General Forge returned to Sollar. In his hands were rather large slices of what appeared to be fruit of sorts.

“I’m back,” General Forge said. “Got us some watermelon.”

He glanced around to look at the other working Demonfolk.

“In hindsight, it seems a bit unfair that I’m taking off,” he said. He then raised his voice, projecting it out for all the Demonfolk to hear.

“Hey, everyone!” he announced. “You all want a break? We’ve been workin’ pretty hard!”

A few grunts of approval met General Forge’s words.

“Alright then, twenty minutes!” he exclaimed.

The Demonfolk laborers dropped their tools. Some sat, others filed off the workplace. Meanwhile, Sollar cocked her head at General Forge.

“Are you tired?” the Demonfolk asked. “If... you are, you don’t have to work the rest of the day.”

“Tired?” Sollar asked. “No. I’m not, I have a lot of energy!”

“Too much energy,” he said. “Here, take a slice.”

He handed the slice of fruit to her.

“What is it?” she asked.

“Fruit. It’s a slice of melon, apparently. Watermelon.”

The Demonfolk girl took the slice of watermelon and examined it. She could feel the moisture of the slice on her hands. The chill of the fruit seemed to waft off into the surrounding air.

“It’s cold,” she said.

General Forge nodded. “Yep. They were packed in ice, or so I saw, so it’s nice and cold.”

Sollar’s eyes glimmered as she stared at the slice, before biting into the red flesh of the fruit. After taking the bite, she looked up at the Demonfolk General with a smile, as a few drops of watermelon juice rolled down her chin.

“It’s good!” she exclaimed.

“Is it?” he asked. “Well, I’ll give it a try.”

General Forge took a bite. He chewed it a few times, then gave a slight nod of approval.

“Didn’t expect that...” he admitted to himself. “I really need to enjoy the sweeter things in life.”

The two finished their fruit, and work soon started up on the rail line again. Sollar was even more energized than before, breaking into a full-on run whenever she had to load or unload more gravel from her wheelbarrow.

There was one incident where an over-eager Demonfolk shoveled some gravel over her head. General Forge witnessed it, and was about to take a few large steps over.

“Sollar, look out—!”

The Demonfolk girl looked up at him. The gravel showered all over her, most of it pinging off her metal helmet.

General Forge stopped, then stared at her.

“...I need to get myself a helmet like that.”

It wasn’t long before the workday was over.

General Forge held up a plate of metal and began to bang on it with a hammer repeatedly. This caught everyone’s attention.

“Alright, everyone!” General Forge exclaimed. “We’re stopping work on the rail line now! It’s getting rather late!”

The Demonfolk proceeded to stop what they were doing — it seemed they did not want to work a second over their allotted time.

“Pick up supper in town, we’ll be waking up early tomorrow to finish it!” General Forge continued. “You got that?”

A scattered chorus of ‘Yes’ and ‘Okay’ met the General’s ears.

Sollar mimicked what the others were doing and dropped her wheelbarrow to the ground. She stepped over to General Forge, right as he was patting his hands clean of dust.

“We worked hard today, Lady Sollar. Isn’t that right?” he asked.

“Yes!” Sollar exclaimed, nodding. “Lots of hard work!”

The Demonfolk General leaned on a stack of rails. “Yeah... we still have some left to do, and the deadline is the day after tomorrow.”

He peered over at it. “I guess we’ll be having an early morning tomorrow, too.”

“Aww,” Sollar replied. “I don’t like waking up early.”

She gave a pout.

“The railway’s almost done, so just bear with it, Lady Sollar,” General Forge said. “Payday is almost here, too. Once the rail is done we’ll be counting our money.”

The Demonfolk General looked at Sollar, and grinned.

“Hungry? We can get some hot supper in the town.”

“Food?” Sollar asked. “Yes, I’m hungry! Let’s go!”

The Demonfolk girl immediately took off.

“Wait up, I can’t run as fast as you!” General Forge yelled, as he jogged after her.