The refugees, 2nd draft

The conditions

9 months in, September 33rd

Shiani

In the thirty third day of the third month of our imprisonment Fenris wolf himself arrived with a great army of wolves 100 strong outside our borders. With a great howl they alerted the army, defenders, and surveyors to the walls with full weapons. However, I walked out and demanded with a commanding yell, "Stand down fools unless if you wish to die!" The weak-willed defenders stood down at once and even a few commanders stood down for a second then gave the order.

The other leaders followed me out and took a knee as I had. The gates swung shut behind us.

Since I refuse to tell the secrets of my house and the people watching did not understand anyway, I will show what happened as speaking. None of this is exact and I would be years before I perfected the skill, but it is close.

"Rise." Fenris commanded and As I stood slowly, I gestured to the others to do the same. "Great Fenris* we are honoured by your presence." He said, "I can see that. I have come to warn you, firstly my wolves will fight and die without fear if attacked, secondly the caves on the west** are ours, make sure that none take the riches within. Thirdly, unless they wish to fall from the sky make sure that no one tries to pass the clouds."

"This will be done Great Fenris." He snorted and said, "I do not command my wolves for they are free, but I can direct their anger. I then saw the threat in those words as I slowly backed up to leave, Fenris backed up slowly as well with his wolves before turning and disappearing.

When I walked back towards the village, I heard the muted whispers of the defenders by the wall, "The Wolf- speaker..." "How do we know that she won't..." "what did she say?" "She might have been ordering an attack." "We cannot trust her" these hushed whispers followed me to the market. Along the way I consulted with my brother, and he corrected a few mistakes that I had made and suggested ways to tell the villagers what had happened. When we arrived, I stood on the auction podium and began to speak.

"People of The Village today I stand before you with the words of the wolf. He has warned me that the west side of the valley is his wolves' territory and that the clouds are the limit, one cannot pass them without falling from the sky, which explains transportation's helicopter. He has also told me that if his wolves are attacked, they will fight without mercy and without fear.

"Are there any questions?" I asked, no one raised their hands. "Alright then, continue with your lives."

***

Earlier on September eleventh four people appeared on the outskirts of our village, desperate, poor, and broken. They said that they had just been kayaking before they got lost, after a few hours of sailing around and finding no familiar land, they had tried to find food on shore when they found a game trail that led to our village. Akran approved them with a dangerous look in his eyes and stopped only to ask them where they had arrived before setting out with a loyal group of surveyors.

They came back with nothing, and I learned later that he had made a dock for the boat and searched it toughly yet found nothing useful besides the boat. In the next week they expanded the river and made it deeper, even redirecting it toward the ruing wolf camp which they then fortified and guarded by three people who would rotate every week. Shiani was in many of the groups for her to negotiate with the wolves before they could lay siege to the developing walls or something.

I was in the village because it was not my week and the office of wolf- speaker required me to appear in public occasionally. I did like the outpost though. The group there is friendly, and the place has a small tower and a cabin, it reminded me of home.

*For obvious reasons I did not call him Fenris, instead I used great leader but here he is called Fenris to prevent confusion.

Agriculture: Lenox,18

Water & irrigation: cordlen,12

Defence: Gabriel, 10

The army: Aspira, 11

Economy: Alizee, 9

Labour: Granger, 10

Health & human services: Alvaro, 5

Housing & urban development: Ligh, 12

Transportation: Niki, 10

Energy: Charolotte, 8

Surveyors: Akran, 20

Education: Kara, 4

133 employed