It has been a little under three years since I last let you in on my thoughts. I apologise for the delay. It just… it took a while to process things. A lot happened back then… I lost so of the most important people in the world to … I just needed so ti.
The rebuilding of Kataravonia only recently finished. The town took quite a beating. Many buildings were destroyed. The holes that that wyrm dug needed to be closed off. So of the tunnels had to be filled in because they weakened the structural integrity of the streets above. And that’s just the general damage to the urban areas.
The farmland around the city was destroyed. Our farm was the only one that was even vaguely alright. And even that had all of its livestock killed. Our only surviving animal was the stallion that rode to the city.
Fortunately, Svampe has been able to go around all of the farmland and accelerate the healing of the land. But this has only helped with the crops, vegetation, etc. We have had to import livestock from other cities. And acquiring enough livestock for an entire city’s worth of farmland takes ti. In fact, we still haven’t got back to the capacity that we once had.
All of Nomius’ sheep were massacred. They used to have twenty. They have managed to get twelve. They are hoping for a good lambing season next year to boost the numbers back up. Luckily, there are plenty of inner-city henhouses, so chickens have been relatively easy to co by. The inner-city stables have been loaning their horses out to farrs to help with the farming, which has been helpful. The pigs have been difficult to replace. We have managed to obtain one sow from Fort Bracken and a couple of piglets from Purresia.
Cows seem to be the most difficult to replace, so we have been using goat’s milk. Which is fine for cooking, but drinking it directly is a bit… well… it is a lot more earthy. It took so getting used to. We are expecting a couple of calves to be delivered to us next month. Which won’t be enough to completely negate the need for goat’s milk. Especially since we’ll need to wait for them to grow up. But once they are grown, it will certainly help.
The rebuilding of the actual buildings in the city didn’t take as long as expected. The main delay was getting the material imported from other places. Kin’Ayesha’s skeleton army were used for the manual labour. Which was obviously a massive help. Having an extra six hundred labourers makes a big difference.
While we are on the subject of Kin’Ayesha. Yes… a lot of people were freaked out by the necromancy thing. All of the bodies that weren’t outright skeletons were sent back to their graves to avoid upsetting people. But the benefits of using the skeletons to rebuild were too great to pass up. People just kind of got used to seeing them around. Then when the rebuilding was finished, it was suggested that they remained as night watchn across the city to relieve pressure on the knights.
This obviously ans that Kin’Ayesha has been granted a special citizenship of Kataravonia. He isn’t technically a knight, because he wasn’t born here, but he has been granted the unofficial title of the Night Watchn. Well… that is the title that the adults have given him. The children of the city have taken to calling him ‘Bone Bunny.’
He seems to have quite the following among the children… more so with boys than girls. I suspect because necromancy is a fairly morbid topic and boys seem to find morbidity fascinating for so reason. The girls that speak of him mostly talk about how cute he is… the necromancy thing may be incredibly creepy… but I will concede that if you ignore his entire personality, he is an adorable little bunny.
He does seem to have a second, smaller demographic of fans… a rather strange looking bunch of teenage girls who all dress in black. Not entirely sure what is going on with them, but you know… each to their own.
Anyway… being nightwatchman ans that he works through the night and sleeps through the day. I dread to think what people travelling from other cities must think when they arrive at night and see Skeletons patrolling the streets. It is for that reason alone that we still have a couple of human knights working each of the outer gates on an evening.
All of this seems to have helped him realise that he does not need to spend his days working for the Anubis Empire. The good thing is that, technically, since he was a deniable asset to them, they can’t officially acknowledge his existence, so they aren’t demanding his return or attempting to start a war over his defection. Although, I would hazard a guess that should they get the opportunity, they will likely attempt to kill him. But coming here to do that would ignite a war. And due to our alliance with the Equine Kingdom, they wouldn’t dare do that.
Fortunately, this all ans that he hasn’t randomly popped up in my life to try to kill at all in the last two years. Which I am glad about, because that was honestly getting tedious. He did say that he would enjoy a duel with again, but he sees no honour is challenging a cripple. Which I think is overstating my injury. Don’t get wrong… my foot is still awful and I need a walking stick… but I would hardly say that needing a walking stick classifies as a “cripple.”
Oh… Smutisha had a custom cane made for . Like… a proper fancy cane made from mahogany, with a silver handle. I don’t use that one around the farm. I don’t want it getting covered in mud and manure. I just use it when going into town. But it makes feel really posh when I do.
Stolen novel; please report.
I did wonder what would happen if I just cut my entire foot off and had Svampe cocoon it, would it grow back perfectly healthy again? Or would it heal to state it was in before being cut off? I don’t know for sure and I am not risking going through that much pain for sothing that I am not one hundred percent sure will work.
Anyway… Kin’Ayesha seems to have settled into life here. Working nights doesn’t seem to bother him. He isn’t one for drawing attention to himself, so I guess being out and about when most people are in bed suits him. Can’t really say much else about him. I haven’t heard any stories of him going out or socialising with people. Chloe seems to like him. Although, that may just be because his skeletons patrolling the streets on an evening has made her job a thousand tis easier.
I am aware that Smutisha did offer him the chance to… how did she phrase it… repopulate his species. He did not take her up on the offer. She said that he wishes to ensure that this city is truly accepting of his kind before bringing any children into this world. But given how long the guy has lived… and the fact he witnessed the genocide of his species… who knows how long it will take for him to feel like he is truly safe. I an… can you ever really feel safe after that?
Kin’Ayesha is not the only new addition that the city has been getting used to. Dacus’ little crew of kobolds have also had to find a way to fit in. The way that they have complete obedience to their leader was difficult for Dacus to deal with. The two females offered themselves to him initially… as did one of the males. Dacus wasn’t having any of that… thank the gods. I an… kobolds are even smaller than goblins… and Dacus is an absolute giant. No way that would work without the kobolds getting seriously injured.
Initially, Dacus kept them all close to him. These creatures had recently assaulted the town. People were very sceptical of them being allowed to live within its walls. So Dacus put them to work in the gardens. But he felt that keeping them all so close was preventing them from learning any kind of independence. So, he spread them about town and got them all different jobs with people he trusted.
Admittedly, so of these jobs are further from him than others. The female by the na of Claw for example, she is working in his ho and supporting Cathy with the children. Claw seems nice enough and has gelled well with Cathy and the kids. However, despite Dacus’ protestations, she keeps referring to herself as his second wife and refuses to entertain the idea of having a relationship with anybody but Dacus. She wishes for her children to have the blood of a champion apparently. Dacus continues to refuse her in this regard.
Kiyui says this is because Dacus hates submissives and prefers his won strong. I’m not entirely sure where Kiyui is getting this information, because as far as I am aware, other than on his wedding night to Cathy, he hasn’t been with anybody since I’ve known him. Then again… I have been told that I’m not very observant of these things… so I could well be wrong.
The second female, who goes by the na of Fang, she is working as an apprentice to Wynrun. Or at least she was. The two are married now, if you can believe that. It would seem that Fang is a bit more open to relationships than Claw. Apparently, she saw Wynrun’s Mouseketeers and was intrigued by their chanics. So Dacus offered to ask Wynrun to teach her. Things kind of spiralled from there.
They are a good match from what I can tell. She has a real interest in the technological side of things. And obviously Wynrun is a genius in that regard. Plus… well… ya know… Wynrun is much more her size than Dacus, so the relations should be much more practical.
As for the males. Well… the one who offered himself to Dacus… he goes by the na Talon. He is working as Vanessa’s assistant over at the guild. She has been struggling with various duties since… well… the flaying. As a result, he has been taught how to read and write. He is doing well by all accounts. Although… he has clearly spent too much ti with Vanessa and has adopted her delightful way of speaking. Although, admittedly he is a bit nicer and more restrained.
He has entered into a relationship with an adventurer by the na of Ash. Given that he was the only male to offer himself to Dacus, it is hardly surprising. However, Ash is a big strong rugged Paladin. So again… I was initially concerned about the size difference. However, Kiyui informs that Talon is apparently the top in the relationship. Which alleviates my concerns about internal damage. But raises several other questions that I have no intention of asking anyone.
The male by the na of Gnaw has ended up living with Smutisha… because of course she managed to end up with one of the males living with her. The official line is that he is working as her body guard. But when you know her like we do… well… he is clearly her concubine. Not that Gnaw seems to mind. Dacus says that in kobold culture the leader gets his pick of the females and all the lesser males are allowed no sexual contact whatsoever. Which would explain why Gnaw seems so happy with the current arrangent.
That would also explain why Gnasher, the other male, spends nearly all of his wages at the brothel. Gnasher is working as an aid for Chlamydia. Unfortunately, the injuries she acquired during the assault have left her in need of constant assistance so he is kept quite busy.
The three males have also managed to get themselves a gig with a local bard. Doing so silly stage performance of that stupid kobold song that everybody keeps singing. Which is admittedly quite funny. It went a long way towards getting people to accept them living here. Although, I do hope it doesn’t lead people to take kobolds too lightly. Dacus may have taken these ones under his wing and ordered them to behave. But the ones people are likely to co across outside of this city… they certainly aren’t so pleasant.
I really have to applaud the kobolds for being as adaptable as they are. I honestly thought that they would end up like Darling. Imprisoned to keep them from harming people. But taken out of their weird social structure and given room to find out who they are, instead of acting like mindless drones, seems to have worked wonders for them.
Kataravonia is certainly becoming a lot more varied with its residents than it was when I was little. What with the goblins, lizardn, kobolds, whatever Kin’Ayesha is, and even skeletons walking about the place. It is nice… although I do still worry that we will have a repeat of Smutisha’s attempt to befriend the Grim. That being said… her desire to make peace is admirable. And she has achieved it with a variety of different races and nations. One disaster can’t be used to stop us from extending that olive branch to others. We just need to be more cautious in how we do so.
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