Kahdzbar’s Journal, Part 6

I didn’t eat breakfast today.

Didn’t feel like it, really. I mean, I might not have eaten if I’d had a breakfast right out there in front of me. Not even if it was, say, some roasted cow steaks with mushroom garnishes and a flask of chilled beer. Not even if I had a massive cut of pan-friend pork with a side order of chips and some spring water. I might have just, you know, skipped out on eating anyway.

Plus, I think skipping brekky was a good show of solidarity with the men.

Ah, yes, speaking of. Today, I thought I’d nip outside the tent and see how things were getting on with the excavation, maybe check the food barrels to see if we’vd sorted that out yet. At this juncture, it came to my attention that six or seven strange dwarves were trotting up the stairs with armfuls of stone.

I watched, hesitant to address or interrupt any of them. They ignored me for the most part, absorbed as they were in their heavy lifting. I just watched in silence as they trotted along in single file.

At this point, Rocky walked up the stairs behind them, wiping his brow.

“New lot’s working pretty hard,” he said. “Helps with the waste disposal.”

I nodded, smiling as brightly as possible. “Delighted to hear it! Well, that should smooth things over, then.”

His eyes flickered towards the food barrels. “Yeah.” He fell silent for a moment, then shook himself. “Course, this is temporary. Once we’ve got them working their actual trade, that’ll probably help us to no end.”

I kept nodding and smiling.

For the rest of the day, I moseyed around to the original (surviving) dwarves, trying to ask as delicately as possible for information about the new workers. Eventually, I managed to get a list of their names and trades. I didn’t quite work up the courage to ask when they’d arrived—I confess, I was a bit too embarrassed to have not noticed a half-dozen new workers arriving.

I don’t have the list on me at the moment, but I know one of them was a clothier, one of them was an animal trainer, and one of them was a…wood burner? Yes, a wood burner. Which will no doubt be quite useful, what with all of the wood we have. I mean, it’s not going to burn itself. Obviously. Also, there were a few that were designated simply as “peasants”.

I do remember quite distinctly the absence of a farmer, rancher, or fisherman of any kind.

It’s certainly more interesting, living with such a large group of dwarves. The place is really starting to feel like a lived in fortress. Not that I’m saying it’s unkempt or disorganized—far from it, actually. There isn’t much food waste around the place at all, and we’ve stacked up the stone quite neatly outside. True, we now have about half as many beds as people, but that still works out provided we get people working in shifts, which will no doubt begin to happen naturally within a week or so. And true, we don’t yet have workshops for the craftsmen set up, but once we do I’m sure the walls will echo with the sound of creative endeavor.

What’s more, one of the dwarves is a diplomat, so we now have a liaison to the outside world. Just this week, we were brought to a meeting to discuss possible trade agreements with a nearby dwarf settlement! I can’t tell you how amazing that felt—I’ve sat in on many such meetings between many such fortresses, but I never thought I’d be the presiding party in one! Now, to be sure, those meetings are usually interminably dull hour-long festivals of back-and-forth concerning furs and spices and whatnot, so I wasn’t excited for the event itself so much as the idea of having it. Mercifully, our meeting turned out to be rather short indeed.

When I got back, the food situation proved to be as vexing as always. I felt capable of addressing it properly, though, now that I had a full stomach from the pre-meeting meal and post-meeting pastries. I immediately scheduled a campaign of foraging, irrigation, and fishing involving all available parties. Satisfied that we were making progress, I retired.

When I awoke, I couldn’t help but notice nothing had been done. I inquired about this, and had the situation put into rather sharp relief.

According to three of the dwarves from the gathering party, there were no remaining berries within a very large radius, so foraging was out of the question. A few of the more green-thumbed dwarves have helpfully informed me that potash is required to properly fertilize the farm plot. They had no ideas on how to acquire this, and (to be honest) didn’t seem entirely clear on what it was. As for the fishing party, well…that brings me to another tiny issue.

Namely, the drinking water seems to be…well, you know. Just a bit…off. As of late. I’m sure it’s nothing serious, it’s just that our water’s had a bit of character to it. If you’re in a picky mood, it might even out you off drinking it. So, you know, we haven’t been drinking as much lately. I asked Fishy if it might have anything to do with how there aren’t as many fish anymore. He replied, but I couldn’t quite make out what he was saying—his throat was a bit hoarse. I think it was a “maybe”.

With fish off the menu, I decided it was time for desperate measures. I ordered a few dwarves to take the ox around and have him slaughtered—we need a bit of a pick-me-up, and if roasted ox doesn’t do the trick, nothing will. There wasn’t quite enough ox meat, so I also ordered them to slaughter a donkey. They’re both four-legged mammals of equivalent size, so I shouldn’t think they’ll taste all that different.

Sitting there, eating my bite of oxen, drinking my water (with character), and looking out over the band of hardy dwarf-folk, I suddenly felt quite satisfied. I mean, we’ve got the manpower, we’ve got the will to succeed, and we’ve got each other. The bottom floors are almost cleared out, we can see our way towards getting a renewable food source, and we’re even starting to be acknowledged by the other settlements. Looks like we’re almost out of the rough, after all. All we need is a few steady weeks after this one, and the pressure might be off for good.

Smiley has just informed me that tomorrow is the first day of winter.

We’re all going to die.