Mark woke to the sound of activity outside. Not a lot, not loud, but people moving. That meant it was morning. He planned to take a trip down south, not to do anything specific but just to see what was happening.
He stopped by the kitchen and got himself a hot breakfast and then three travel meals to have along the trail. Just as he was about to leave, he saw John go over to knock on his cabin door, and he stood up and yelled to him. That caught John’s attention, and he came over to meet him.
John said, “I’m glad I caught you. I wanted to give you something.” He handed Mark a bucket. Mark looked inside and found it full of nails. John continued, “These are the first things the blacksmith was able to create. It’s not a lot, but I am sure some of the builders will go crazy about it.”
Mark replied, “My plan is to head south, and I should be able to find Garrick. Can I take them to him?”
John said, “That was my hope. Enjoy them; we will have more things coming soon. The mine is starting to get enough ore that we are now smelting it, and others are starting to play with it, learning basic smithing skills.” With that done, he waved at Mark and headed back toward the Forgeworks.
Mark looked through the bucket, sifting the nails. They were not like nails from a hardware store, but they were unmistakably nails. Some were bent, some straighter; the head sizes varied, as well as the length. But they were the real deal, and Mark was sure that Garrick would love them.
With nothing else holding him back, he headed south. The path was wider and in much better repair this time. It had clear markers and enough room for a couple of carts to pass or a large wagon to follow it. There were many people on the road; many people passed and said hello, calling him by name, and he did not recognize many of them.
Time passed quickly until he got to the outpost at the top of the zone. It had been named Southgate, which Mark found funny because it was the farthest north of the southern zone, but it was the gate heading south out of the forest. There were beautiful completed buildings here and many more still under construction. He saw a few completed cabins and a longhouse. There was a small guard tower with a guard standing atop it watching both the roads heading south and the road going north.
There were actual roads here, not merely paths through fields of wheat. Elias had told him how much work it took to clear the wheat from their routes. He could see clearly marked trails; one pointed almost directly south, heading to the village location, and the other headed southwest toward the clay pit. Mark headed toward the Clay Pit because he wanted to look around before someone tried to get him to answer questions.
As he traveled down the road, he could see markers on both sides of the road marking off the farms that would fall along the road. He was surprised to find a farmhouse and a barn on the west side of the road. There was a man building a deck on the front and a couple of others working near the barn with a baby ox.
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They had been told that when the animals were given a lot of attention, they grew faster. Because of the great need to raise these animals quickly, there was at least one, if not two, people assigned to each animal, both to gain animal-raising type classes and to encourage their quick growth because they needed them to reproduce in a short period of time.
When he made it to the Clay Pit, he was surprised there were not any houses built, but there were over two dozen tents. Mark stopped and went over to talk to some of the workers. When he talked to them, he was told that they were trying to decide where to build the kiln.
Mark said, “What are you guys planning to make in the kiln?”
The man answered, “If we’re building a town, somebody is going to need pottery. This clay is fantastic, and we figured there was space here; we could make a lot of goods before the crowds come.”
Mark had already passed at least four occupied plots of farmland so far going down the road. After passing the clay pit, he continued east, heading toward the village site. He passed the river and saw that the bridge was under construction and there was an area set aside for carts and wagons to cross until it was finished.
He noticed that the lots on both sides of the river were staked out, and there were tents and people working in the fields. He was sure the riverside plots were in high demand. There had already been discussion about future irrigation so that all the farms could be easily watered when needed.
When he got to the village site, he was shocked at the number of markers and stakes and strings marking out locations. No buildings had been completed, but you could tell that all of the area inside the circular road designed to circle the village was marked out. He finally found Garrick and handed him the bucket.
Garrick said, “Where did you get these? They’re amazing.”
Mark said, “John, the lead on the Forgeworks project, gave them to me before I headed down. He said he thought you might enjoy them.”
Garrick said, “Enjoy? Are you kidding? This changes everything. Now tell him when you get back that I want 100 more buckets.”
Mark laughed, and they spent half an hour while Garrick talked to him about the plans and the lots that had been divided out. They needed a town hall complex to house the future village leaders and a shopping district with locations for restaurants, bars, and inns. He wanted a lot of room in the central area for business. All the housing would be outside the central ring.
Mark finally excused himself and continued east, heading out of the village site. The first path he found was heading north; he took it, heading toward the grasslands, where he knew most of the animals were, to see how that project was going.
At the next river, he saw a cabin under construction on each side again, prime farmland. He continued going until he got to some animal pens in another farm plot at the edge of the wheat fields and the edge of the grasslands. Here he found over a dozen people and about ten different fenced-off fields for animals. There were a few horses, goats, pigs, sheep, oxen, and a few other types of animals, including what looked like cows and ducks at the far end.
He spent a couple hours getting a tour of the area. They showed him the different animals and told him about their growth differences. They had three people with animal classes, and the animals they cared for were already full-grown and ready for breeding. They expected some pregnant animals soon, so it would not be long until there was enough stock to start using them for labor and more breeding.
Mark thanked them for the tour. He then headed northeast toward the Southgate outpost. He was only halfway there when he decided it was too dark to travel, so he finally found a place to the side of the road and set up his tent and went to sleep.
It had been one of Mark’s best days in weeks. Nothing serious needed his attention; he had simply enjoyed a pleasant hike and watched their work progress.