Lycan walked towards them.
“You can finally walk?”
“Yes, I tried to tell Alpha Vaikor….”
“Vaikor, we Alphas should call each other by name. We are, after all, equals.”
“Equals?” one man shouted from the group.
“Wait, what do you mean?” another asked.
“Uhh, here we go again,” Lycan said.
“Alphas, we heard about this, and we do not allow it….”
“I’m not giving him my position. I’m just saying it as it is.”
“What d….”
“He’s an Alpha….”
“But….”
“Do not cut me off,” Lycan said, glaring at the man. “The Flintwood Canids accepted him as their Alpha, and he still carries that scent on him.”
“Don’t they have a new Alpha?”
“No, they actually rule the village together with the Ravari queen,” Mikok replied.
“Then I challenge him for his position here and there,” one of them said, stepping forward.
“But….”
“I’m sorry, Alpha Vaikor, but the challenge was for him,” the man replied, looking straight at Rhys.
“But I’m not the Alpha of the Flintwood Canids. They have been taking care of themselves all this time. I’m a slave….”
“An Alpha that can’t fight.”
He’s disrespecting us, Rhys heard from the far end of his ears.
“Okay, let’s do this then. You work first, or we work first, and after making this place better for the young ones, we can fight.”
“What about….” the man started, but Mikok’s hair began to raise as he growled. The man returned the favor with a deeper growl of his own.
“I said I’ll fight when I... when we are done with the village. If you don’t like it, then leave the offer,” Rhys said, standing up.
“Have you forgotten you are a Canid?” the man asked Mikok, who only growled back, his hands already twitching.
“Alphas, with your permission, I would like to go sleep.”
“You don’t need permission,” Vaikor replied.
Rhys, Sely, and Cil started off, leaving the Canids at work.
“He will wait for that fight, you know. What will you do?”
“Nothing. It will take months to make this place stable enough to support itself,” Rhys replied to Sely.
“What about Mikok? He stood up for you,” Sely asked.
“The question is, what will the Canids do to him, or his family….”
“Do not worry about that. Yes, they make it look like they are fighting, but Canids that live together look out for each other,” Sely replied as they walked.
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“Come here, you,” Rhys said, scooping up Cil and carrying her along. “I’ve got a fun game called Rock, Paper, Scissors. We can play it back there, right?”
One day turned into two. For the first five days, Rhys wasn’t allowed to do any heavy lifting, but considering that the Alphas themselves were helping out here and there, he felt obligated to try a little.
“It’s simple. When you at least have a feel for what people want you to do and what they don’t, you can simply play along. So, I do. I don’t like working, but I don’t want to be called out,” Rhys said to Sely as they ate.
“So you give them a reason to stop you,” Sely replied.
“Yes.”
“What if they don’t?”
“Then you have to work, like it or not,” Rhys replied with a smile that turned into a laugh.
Close to thirteen days—that’s how much time it took them to strike water. On the thirteenth morning, the breakthrough finally happened.
“Now, this is what we do,” Rhys said to the Alphas. Surprisingly, I still remember this, Rhys thought, recalling the method his late grandfather had shown him.
Four days later, they had four wells filled with water that was starting to look reasonably clean.
Everyone was smiling. Every male who had busted his back to get the job done clapped each other on the shoulder, chatting happily as the work came to an end.
Well, that was before the weather turned and the rain poured down. Luckily, they already had the metal frames in place and used them to cover the well tops before running back to the houses.
It rained the entire day and straight into the next.
“I haven’t bathed,” Rhys said, sitting on the floor and playing Rock, Paper, Scissors with Cil, who had taken a strong liking to it. “And I can’t go to that community bath.”
“You can bathe here,” Sely replied.
“Mmm….”
“I’ve seen you naked before….”
“What about Cil?”
“I can keep her busy….”
“Give me the soap. I’m heading out,” Rhys said, stripping off his shirt and shivering as a cool draft passed through the room. “A house made of straw that doesn’t leak water?”
“They know their stuff,” Sely replied before Rhys walked out into the downpour.
It took him an hour or so, but he finally came back inside.
“That hot spring,” Rhys grunted, scrubbing the water off his skin.
By the next day, the rain finally stopped and the sun peeped through the clouds.
“Rhys!”
“Come in,” Rhys called out as he recognized Lycan’s voice.
“Well, morning,” Vaikor greeted him, pulling back his hood as Rhys told him his morning story and theories.
“Morning,” Rhys replied as the two Alphas sat down with him.
“To the gardens?”
“Yes, it should take us a few more days, considering it’s meant for a large group,” Rhys said. “But we shouldn’t plant everything at once.”
“Uhh, yes, we know. We tried that before and know how it ends,” Lycan said.
“Then let’s go,” Rhys said.
This part, the Alphas knew more about. Instead of relying solely on the vegetables and fruits they had, one of the Canids asked about keeping fish, since he came from a fishing background.
“That’s very much possible. We can do that,” Rhys said, looking at the man.
The wells seemed to offer more than Rhys had originally planned for. The villagers moved around more freely, especially the men. Some of them even traveled to a neutral city further out, returning with fruits, vegetables, digging tools, clothes, and other supplies.
“I met with Alpha Setil. He gave us this and said he hopes we receive them warmly later,” the man reported.
It was a substantial haul—enough to cover almost all two hundred Canids in the village. That was the official count Rhys had been given, but with so many children running around, the extra supplies made complete sense.
By Sely’s count, another month passed. According to her, they were eight months into the cycle, with the rainy season only lasting two, though the weather seemed to be changing drastically.
“Wells and a garden—a big garden,” Vaikor remarked, taking in the progress.
“Your people can work,” Rhys said. “Now it’s just about watering, and the rain is doing its part too.”
“Tomorrow we want to go hunting. The Kernivic are moving this way,” Lycan said.
“Mmmmmmm.”
“Come on, there are other creatures out there too.”
“Do they kill?”
“Here and there, but it’s meat. We’ve survived on them during this time of year, and it helps transition the younger ones into the second stage of their lives.”
“Second?”
“Yes, after sixteen years,” Vaikor answered.
“Won’t that cause problems?” Rhys asked.
“Mmmmm, no. You needn’t worry. People actually speak well of you here, far better than what they say outside.”
“Or the way they look at you. They actually respect you—so much so that Mikok isn't the only one standing up for you anymore.”
“I thought it would be harder.”
“Well, you didn’t just save them here,” Vaikor said softly. “To tell you the truth….”
“Rhys, come here!” Sely shouted from a short distance away.
With a nod, Rhys left the two Alphas behind.
“I don’t think he’s going to stay here,” Lycan observed quietly.
“We were chosen for the same reason,” Vaikor said with a light laugh. “We did our best to make sure they are safe and fed.”
“That we tried. So how can we make him stay without forcing him?”
“We can’t force him. We had to ask him to come here in the first place. But this village is already a better place now—no longer just waiting on the rainy season….”
“The Kernivic hunt is a good start,” Lycan mused.
“Uhh, and we can talk to Mikok. He might know something from his time in the Ravari village,” Vaikor added.