I walk out of the Garden with a confident grin on my face.
If I'm being honest, physically it wasn't my favorite lay, but baby-making sex is amazingly satisfying. Ba'kei was pretty rough, and for the first time in my life, I came in the cowgirl position.
Today it... won't rain, so I head over to the pot for lunch. One of the Coral Trees is working the pot. I grab a bowl, and she ladles some stew into it when I hold it up. "Thank you for the meat, Grey," she says, and I find a seat.
I'm just digging in when Bor'wa sees me. She runs up.
I smile at her. "Hello Bor'wa. Before dinner, I'm planning to make more birds. You're invited to help if you want."
She jumps, arms raised. "Alright! I'll definitely be there!"
I note the table, it's empty at present. "I understand. Have you had lunch yet?"
She runs off to grab stew of her own. I take a bite of mine. The stew is low salt as always, but Sea God meat is still fantastic even so.
I access Sentral's Zone and find Ringara. She likes to watch birds get made, though I really don't understand why. I find her quickly.
¬hello Ringara# join me for stew£ Bor'wa is here and the topic of discussion is more birds)¬
¬oh# I'll be there in a moment then=)¬
I'm not kept waiting long before Ringara joins me, stew in hand. She leads the charge. "More birds? I want to be there please!"
I laugh. "You will, then. When are you off work?"
She nods. "I'll walk out if I have to, but the real answer is about two or three hours."
Me, "Will you pick up Bor'wa on your way over? I should be able to reach her with telepathy. Or you can, I suppose."
Bor'wa, "All the kids' chores today are in the village unless we're with an adult. Can't defend ourselves from kurs properly yet they say. Although! You're protecting us for a while, so it doesn't matter!"
I smile. "Only the village and the area around my camp. If you go too far, I won't notice the kurs and they'll still get you."
She looks behind me, and I glance behind me. It's the chief.
Me, "Hello, chief A'yado. What brings you along?"
He sits down, with his own bowl of stew and a large handful of the sort-of-carrots. "Hello, Grey." He sets down his meal. "I want to discuss the Sea God skull, and the shrine you mentioned while you were drunk."
Hmm, alright. "What do you have in mind?"
He looks at me. "You are of course free to do as you wish with your trophy, but I believe it would be best to combine the skull and the shrine, on the outskirts of the village. We'll clear a few trees to make room for it. Perhaps you could use Topaz or other gemstones to display your style, but we would like to provide other decorations to make it our own, as Coral Trees."
Me, "Sounds good to me. I'll probably use almost entirely Topaz for the gemwork, then. I need a small area inside to hold one of my scrolls, so I can come back as needed. If my Topaz experiments work as intended, I'll be able to contact the Coral Trees by telepathy as needed through the shrine, too. But that remains to be seen."
A'yado, "That sounds ideal. Is there anything we can do to aid your knowledge?"
Me, "I don't think so. I will be borrowing Bor'wa this afternoon though, as she seems to have some special power that is similar to mine."
A'yado nods. "Bor'la mentioned to me that you would be bringing her daughter on your journey. If you haven't been told, you are not expected to participate in day to day labor. It seems that if we leave you to your own devices, you enrich our lives in other ways." He laughs. "It's been a long time since we had stew with this much meat. Do you know why they are serving so much?"
Hmmm? "I don't. Why?"
A'yado, "It is because the meat will go bad before we can eat it. We can only store it for so long before rot sets in. So, we will eat more than we need to survive. It is a luxury."
Me, "Glad it worked out then. I'm not sure how often I'll hunt Sea Gods, but if the tribe's ever, I don't know, starving somehow, let me know and I'll kill another one."
He grins. "You have our gratitude. There is one other thing. About the shrine. Topaz will change colors, deepening to brown, if left exposed to the sky. This is something we teach to children. But it seems this Topaz only exists on our lands, so I wanted to ensure you knew."
Huh. Does it? ....Do any of my other gems do this? "Thanks A'yado, I'll keep that in mind." Hmm.... well, that's not actionable right now. Besides, all of my gems are covered in Jet. I look at my rings, the oldest gemwrought objects, and... they seem fine. Scratched up though, I should probably coat them in Diamond like I did for Ban'yun's choker. Later. "I'll move the trophy over once the trees are felled. Not sure when. To be honest it's a low priority for me until I get my work with Topaz finished."
He nods, and we both finish our meals. Sea God meat is still delicious.
I'm close to finishing my meal when he asks something. "Grey, what would you do if I asked you to slay every kurs on the island? Could you do it?"
Hah. "Could I? Yes. It'd take a few days, but it wouldn't be hard to do. I would refuse to do so, however."
He looks disheartened. "I would like to know why, if you don't mind."
Me, "Too great a chance of ecological collapse. Say that the deer population is kept in check by being eaten by the kurs. What happens to the deer when no kurs are left?"
A'yado, "They increase in number."
Me, "And continue to increase, eating more and more grass, until you have tens of thousands of deer on the island all searching for the last blade of grass, but there's no grass left. With nothing left to eat, all the deer die of starvation. You might say, 'well, the humans will feed on the deer.' Perhaps they will, but deer life cycles are much faster than humans. Perhaps you do, perhaps you don't. There could be other problems as well."
A'yado considers for a while. "I am... upset, that I cannot refute your point. The damage would be irreversible, if there was a factor I had not considered."
He stands up, meal unfinished, and walks away. One of the children comes by and cleans up after him. I shrug, and continue eating.
Rin, "Did you notice? He was crying when he stood up. Does he have something personal against kurs?"
Bor'wa, "It's common knowledge among the tribe, but all of his sons died to kurs.
