The refugees, 2nd draft

Trade

10 months in, October 51st

Lenox

I am so grateful for the forty-hour day. Our Agriculture faction does not seem to do much, but we are the fuel to light the fire, the unseen, the final guards. We are also the richest with our stores of non-perishable foods that we keep after we sell a certain amount. Alizee, another unseen, says that her faction is the richest btu rations are nearly priceless around here.

We also created a group called the unseen, a group that meets in the morning to discuss issues that we have between agriculture, labour, and economy. All of us together control the number of resources that the village has except for lumber, fish, and stone. We can raise prices and kill anyone in the village with various deadly foods. These poisons are not sold but our groups keep them all the same. We also invented another poison, alcohol. With alcohol we made the rubbing kind and wine, we cannot make beer yet. With wine we got even more resources as people worked harder to bring in more resources to buy drinks and food.

We recently built a windmill for obvious reasons, but we also use it to keep watch over our fields. When the Guardians offered to defend us, we told them thanks, but no thanks, we would patrol our own fields and train our own soldiers. Cordlen quickly overruled Gabriel who looked hurt but agreed to leave us be. It hurt seeing him like that, but we could not allow others to defend us for they might take extra payment and hurt our famer's income

I would also like to note that we did not vote for an overseer because Cordlen already was the ruler of the 162. Then we got the permission of Cordlen to live alongside the water faction in a few suburbs outside town. Cordlen called Akran, their right hand, to advise us on the benefits and drawbacks. Akran ranted for twenty minutes bringing up detailed landscape maps and pointing out strategic location for the villages but in the end, he said that it was a good plan and that his faction would gladly help us set up.

I thanked him and three months later we have a thriving village on the fields, which we called the knoll, to the east and a smaller one in the fringes of Wolfpaw forest* where it meets with the river and our forest. The river is the border between Wolfpaw and the Great Forest and that is the same river that the Water faction dedicated a week to widening and deepening. The people who live in Timbertown as the little village was called, said that the river did speak very faintly but it spoke wisdom and sage advice, and it also warned them of local dangers.

So Timbertown and the knoll keep growing and no one's sure why but with each monthly census the population grows along with other departments btu we believe that people grow faster and age slower. However, today we realized what was happening. With the help of Health, we interviewed the new ones and found that they were all lost which led to people calling themselves lost boys, lost girls, and the lost ones.

We realized that the valley was a place where people who had died lost went to though we all lost the memories of death. With this Earth was called the shadowlands. ** We also served as the border patrol against the wolves and after some time we set up a wall along our side of the river to dissuade wolves and humans alike from crossing the border. Timbertown nearly got sacked by the wolves before Shiani went forward from her Lighthouse*** and negotiated, explaining why they were doing this. The wolves knocked him out and dragged him to their den, but he had warned us not to attack if such a thing happened.

he came back three days later, female, with her clothes ripped and muddy, small scars and bruises all over her and three wolves following her like dogs. This is what happened when she arrived at the main village with half of Timbertown following her.

She went to the centre of the village and howled with her wolves which got everyone there quickly. She looked insane but her eyes told the truth even if others did not believe it. She then said, "Lost boys, lost girls, lost one's all, today is a happy day for on this very day I bring news from the Wolves." She had then most of the village watching her.

"The wolves did not like the idea of the wall and knocked me out and brought me to their den to show it, but there, there they showed me how they lived, how they survived and how they controlled the forest. They showed me then told me to say this today, 'we accept peace for we know the cost of war' they know what would happen if we fought, they know the lives and devastation that would be caused.

They said that we could continue to build the wall just if there was a section where they could cross. They also asked for hostages to encourage peace, they want one family to go past the wall to the foot of Wolfpaw den to teach them the ways of the wolves, these hostages will be treated fairly they say, and they will want for nothing if they enjoy the wilderness." Shiani looked at us and said, who here would like to volunteer?"

A shocked silence followed her words and after a few minutes a family of a married man from agriculture and a woman from water stepped forward, **** Shiani nodded at them and said, "does anyone else want to volunteer or argue?" Seven more people stepped forward to volunteer and in the end eleven left with Shiani to go back. They knelt before the entrance and the wolves used dog-human gestures to communicate with them, the children seemed happy and the adults, baffled. It was funny to watch according to Shiani.

Shiani regularly travels to Wolfpaw but her little venture means more rumours about her spreading throughout the village, I am afraid for her but in Akran's words there is not much we can do.

Today is Halloween, the moon is full, and people are going from house to house, trick or treating. The people who went over to the wolves, called werewolves arrived at the village with wild pelts on them and eerily wolf-like demeanours. They had come to trade and show that they were still alive, but a full riot nearly started when the moon rose, and the villagers gave the 'until the morning we survive the night' call and the werewolves and wolves both responded with howls.

Shiani arrived just when the fight was about to get bloody with a full Guardian regiment to get the werewolves safely out, but it truly did mark how hostile both sides were to each other. This will not end well.

*The name the 162 dubbed on the Wolve's forest

** If you get the reference then you get a cookie!

***Known as Wolftower

****such marriages were common in the Knol but that they stepped up for this was surprising.

Agriculture: Lenox,23

Water & irrigation: cordlen,18

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, 5

145 employed