Chapter 1417 (Patreon)

Walking to the community Yaneth was living in, creatively called the Den after Cassie’s nickname, ‘Denmother’, took most of the day. On the way, I realised the area we were heading towards felt familiar, and that I had been here before. Even after the Change, it was the area near the river, where the water had risen and turned into a lake at some point during or after the Change. 

When I asked Yaneth about that, I learned that their community was, in fact, sitting near the shore of that lake and that they had spent a significant amount of time and effort on that particular body of water. Back when we came here, the lake had been home to a strange, tentacled mixture of flora and fauna, aggressive enough to give most animals pause but made from countless thin strands. An incredibly weird thing, and it had still been here when their group arrived, but their group hadn’t been willing to just give up on the water, as it represented an incredibly useful resource.

Sure, they had sufficient arcane abilities to cover their daily drinking needs, but they also wanted to irrigate their fields and, if possible, domesticate a few animals for good measure, all of which needed even more water. More than they could casually conjure, so gaining control of that lake and evicting the strange, tentacled monstrosity became a priority. Yaneth didn’t go into detail about how they had managed, just that it had been an incredible hassle, taking a lot of time, causing numerous headaches, and even costing a few lives in the process. At that point, I accepted that she didn’t want to get into detail, or maybe she didn’t know the details; I wasn’t sure, and I didn’t care enough to forcibly find out. 

Amusingly, nothing about their little village was particularly den-like. There were no caves, no hobbit-holes or anything like that. Just simple, seemingly sturdy houses, likely built from wood and then covered in some off-white coating. They reminded me a little of old European houses I had seen on the Internet; the colour was remarkably similar, so I assumed they were reusing old, tried-and-true techniques. Not a bad idea, especially if they combined those old techniques with magical reinforcement, which made me wonder whether I should invest time in studying similar old techniques myself. I certainly had enough books scavenged after the change, at least I hoped so. I wasn’t sure whether the books had suffered the same degradation as the infrastructure, because if they had, I had a massive pile of organic compost stored away.

Additionally, there were a few visible fields, and I thought I could see some sort of dock built into the lake, and there was a small boat out there, too. Maybe for fishing, or just to move across the water, as they hadn’t rebuilt the bridge that had been here once upon a time. 

What stood out, at least compared to the relatively ordinary houses, the fields and the boat, was the animals the community was obviously keeping. They were rather impressive: sheep the size of small horses, with visibly thick, fluffy coats of oddly coloured fur. Just from looking at them, I was confident that they had some magical abilities, as sheep didn’t come in ochre, sapphire-blue, ruby-red or teal. Sure, it might just be the fur, or fleece, that had some odd colour, but I doubted it. I would have to get closer to check, but I was confident that they had additional abilities, something I saw confirmed moments later, when one of the ruby-red sheep let out a snort and shot tongues of flame from its nostrils. 

The display made me briefly wonder why these animals were letting themselves be kept in an admittedly large pen close to the village. There were, at a conservative guess, about a hundred of them, and just that one red sheep would be more than a match for a person, if only because it could set people on fire. But the sheep appeared to be generally docile, simply munching on the grass in the field, not looking all that bothered by the fence. Or by anything, really. 

“Your sheep look impressive,” Luna remarked, looking past the houses and towards the large, fenced-in area. 

“They are,” Yaneth agreed. “Their wool is fascinating. I think the red sheep have especially warm wool; the brown wool is super strong; teal is soft, and blue makes things waterproof,” she explained, making me briefly consider the magical implications. Unless I completely missed my guess, teal would be biased toward wind, blue toward water and brown or mauve toward earth, with red obviously being fire. It made, at least to my understanding, some sense, at least if I ignored the fact that these sheep existed in the first place. If I wasn’t fairly confident that I had nothing to do with them, I would have thought we stumbled across one of my old experiments. 

“Say, do you think I could take a closer look at those?” I asked, curious if these sheep were somebody else’s experiment, or if I could learn something new about the change and its supposedly natural processes. But could I really consider them natural if the system actively caused them?

“I don’t know, not my responsibility,” she replied immediately, leaving no room to argue. “You have to ask the council,” she added, answering my next question before I could even ask it. 

So, obviously, I asked about the council instead of asking who was responsible. 

“After we left Apple Gate Farm, we needed leadership,” she explained. “Cassie took up one spot, but she didn’t want to govern alone, obviously. So, she asked Mark and Aiko to help her out, and things went from there. They’ve been leading us, and I really can’t complain.” 

It took me a moment to think of the names, and my memories even brought up possible faces. Well, I remembered a Mark who had lived at Apple Gate Farm, had some military training or something like that, and essentially started leading and guiding those who wanted to fight. And I remembered an Aiko, who I had taught back when Mrs Wu and her people were still living out of her gym, but I couldn’t remember all the details. She might have been a Blood Mage, or something along those lines; I wasn’t sure. Something relatively unusual, in any case. 

“Cassie for spiritual matters, Mark for military and martial matters and Aiko for arcane matters?” I asked, trying to confirm my memories. 

“No?” Yaneth looked confused. “At least I don’t think so. They just, well, they just work together. Keep things moving in the right direction, that kind of thing.”

“Curious.” I shrugged, wondering if Yaneth was simply uninformed, or if this council was really this unorganised. There had to be some sort of specialisation, at least if they wanted to scale things up. But maybe they didn’t care about that just yet; from what I could see, they had only a few hundred people, so they didn’t have to be too careful with organisation and bureaucracy. Not like poor Maggie, with her oversized community. But that was mostly because I had helped bring in the people from the Blessed City. 

“Say, do you think they would mind if I created a teleportation anchor somewhere nearby?” I asked. “I know a few people who would undoubtedly want to trade, especially if your wool is as good as you describe. Not sure what they could offer, but I’m confident that they would find something.” 

“Again, ask the council.” Yaneth shook her head, making it clear she wasn’t involved in organising their group.

Before I could ask anything else, some locals milling about spotted us. One of them, likely coincidentally, was the familiar figure of Cassie. Still short and stout, looking almost as wide as she was tall, she looked as if she was enjoying life.

“Yaneth, welcome home.” One of the guys nearby started a round of greetings, and soon, it was time for introductions. 

“Denmother, you might remember these two?” Yaneth asked, looking at the dwarven figure. “Jade Morgana and her daughter, Luna. They were interested in our community. I thought bringing them by would be best.” 

“You have grown, young lady,” Cassie greeted Luna. “Why, I remember you being my size, if not a little smaller. What have you been feeding your child?” she then asked, looking at me with a bit of incredulity in her eyes.

“Just the best,” I shrugged. “But I believe a part of her growth isn’t on me. Lady Morgana has quite the interest in my daughter, as has the Mother. One might even claim that there’s some sort of shared custody agreement going on,” I shrugged, deciding to mislead the people here a bit.

“Interesting.” Cassie’s eyes narrowed, and she studied me intently. “Well, be welcome at our Hearth. Do no violence here, and no violence will be done to you,” she added, invoking the familiar guest rights. 

“Thank you for the welcome, Denmother. There will be no violence from us,” I promised, already curious what this new group might be able to show us.