Amity 5 CataclysmChapter 27 Prophecy
- 4 years ago
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The trip to Ochre City was surprisingly boring.
Captain Hail had set the suite aside for Sable and I. I had the master room, and Harry was bunking with Sable in his room. We even had our own little reading room between our rooms and a little bathroom.
The ship was now fully lit, and they even had a better pump, so we had water for the showers. Silver had added a new water tank in the hold as part of our ballast, so we no longer carried the water barrels. She had even fitted a special filtration system that kept the tank full using sea water.
Our suite was very comfortable, and we settled in very quickly. I had sixty head of longhorns and two young bulls in the hold with Red, Star and Opal our lankys. Silver had said they had plenty of snufflers and cluckers in Ochre and we would pick them up with some more lankys when we got there.
This suited me just fine. We had no problem selling the ones my herders had brought with them. They got snapped up very quickly. On a whim, I brought a couple of the older male pups from Bou, as I knew they weren’t related to Ochre’s herd.
Cavil had sent me home with my chiller wagons full of his best cheeses, and we had them in a cold room. Captain Hail was sure they would sell well. He loved Cavil’s cheeses and made sure several went into the stores reserved for the crew.
Ricky had also sent me three carts of his best ales and Hail grinned when he saw them. We swapped them for the ale that Silver had loaded and we sold off her stock. Apparently, several of the high-end taverns in town loved to stock her ale, so it was sold as fast as the cluckers were from my property.
They had already sold off the chicks that Hail and brought with him. I knew agents from Leigh and Dale had already purchased them. Roberts and Ian’s shipment of snufflers and cluckers should be arriving at their new wharf any day. I’d be able to pick up new blood from them when we wished.
Phil and Cavil had given them orders for some stock too. Since Cavil and I were concentrating more on our dairy herds, we were sure the other Bulls would still have plenty of sales for their longhorns even with the new sources of meat. The ships were dropping off more people from South Federation, so we still had plenty of people to feed.
One of the machines that Garnet had fixed was designed specifically for producing fertilisers. It had gone to the main meat works I owned outside Horn City. All the off-cuts and bones were dumped into it. That was much more hygienic, and it saved them from having to burying it.
The granule mix the machine made was sprinkled onto vegetables and other plants or ploughed into grain paddocks before they planted. It was becoming a popular sale item, as the veggies and grains loved the stuff. Rose had also found out that if Hali added the bones from the meatworks in Hornville to her feed pellet maker, it improved the product.
Hali had excelled herself, and we had filled one of the storage holds with her feed. When Silver inspected the feed and asked how we were making it, Rose informed her she would fill her in. Silver was delighted, as she was sure they could also make the feed for sale in Federation.
They now had a little ship called The Imp. She made regular runs to Greco and several smaller towns along the Slit. Several members of Captain Hail’s old crew operated her. Although she was only half the size of Mercy, she was a sturdy little ship and profitable to run.
Captain Hail told me on the trip that things in Garson were not as happy as when I left. Domo Ethen wasn’t a good leader and was proving very fickle. Hail now mostly traded with Domo Leslie’s City, Greco, and with the smaller towns on the south side of the Slit outside Domo Ethen’s immediate attention.
They had shifted forty people from a small town to Ochre on the last trip. They said they were being harassed by slavers. Seemingly, a lot of people had been moving to Greco or anywhere else that they could go.
It was believed that Ethen was having labour issues, as a result of them moving. So he was resorting to slavery, even though he said he wasn’t. Things between Greco and Garson were getting tense, as raids had been reported on the north side of the Slit.
That didn’t please me, but it wasn’t my problem. I had no interest in Greco or Garson. The animals I had collected from there would provide me with breeding stock for many years before I would be interested in acquiring more. At this stage, I knew if I needed a new bull, Silver had stock I could pick a couple of good bulls from.
I mostly wanted to go to Weston for the gems, but it just may prove a solution for Captain Hail. It was closer than Garson, and he could travel faster over open oceans with my device on his ship. The damn ship went so fast that sometimes I wasn’t even sure it touched the water!
Silver had provided him with new maps they had gotten from the satellite thing up in the sky. We had worked out that other than sailing around Lime Isle and the tip of Green Island, the trip was mostly an open seas voyage.
We did have ten other passengers aboard, and while they were interesting enough, they were a bit in awe of me, and it took a little while for them to accept that I was just another passenger. Well not quite, I suppose. The fact I travelled with my own android and the crew treated me like I was the boss probably didn’t help.
Tom had grown a lot I noticed. He was the ship’s navigator, and he had learnt to read the weather and adjust our speed and direction accordingly. He really had that ship jumping to his commands. I gave him and Dazzle, a single gem ring each.
I taught them how they could control the shield and speed controller I had built without even touching it. I’d even increased the range of the collision alarm. Tom was happy to teach Dazzle everything he knew and a few others new things in his cabin. They had become inseparable.
Captain Hail said he often felt like a passenger on his own ship. Dazzle, Silver and Tom had become a great team, and the other androids inspected the ship so regularly that he barely had anything to do but entertain the passengers. The androids took over looking after the livestock, and I too ended up with little to do.
Sable had a great time. The Captain found himself teaching Sable everything about the ship. I often got included just for something to do. While I loved reading, I was an active person, and I found that while on the ship I had gone back to doing the exercise routine I had established on my last trip.
Sable and Harry joined me each morning, and by the third morning, many of the passengers had started joining us. The Captain and either Tom or Dazzle depending on who had the morning shift would join us. It was a great way to start the day.
I’d then go and do my inspection of the animals and helped the androids shift the different animals up on deck even though they didn’t need me. They took care of the cleaning, and I’ll be honest, I let them do this task. The Captain would then hold his morning lesson about different parts of the ships.
We spent quite a few lessons on learning when different sails were employed and even made. He’d teach us how they used them with the speed controller depending on the weather, and Tom would often explain his part. One of the androids, Coppa, often looked after the sails for Tom, and she was often the night navigator.
Hail told me they were the same sails that had been on the ship when I put my preservation spells on the ship. They didn’t seem to wear out or rip. It even still had the same ropes on it. Coppa assured me they did very little maintenance on the ship. I’d eliminated many of the back-breaking tasks that sailors hated.
So for the most part, they pointed the ship in the right direction and let her go. Ben, the cook, made our excellent meals. With the preservation cold rooms, we always had fresh food, and he got quite inventive. The passengers couldn’t believe that they didn’t get seasick when we were on the open water or how well they were fed.
The ship seemed just to skim over the water, and Tom explained that he’d gotten the trip between Ochre and Horn down to two weeks or twenty-two days at the longest if, they had to slow and navigate around storms.
It still took another thirty-three days to get to Greco because of the navigation around the land and islands. They still made that trip twice as fast as any other ship. They determined the trip to Weston should only take about as long as the trip between Horn City and Ochre City.
I was amused to note all the androids had the new power supplies. Other than Silver and Coppa, the others had changed places with other androids when they went to Ochre City. They all thought a sea voyage was a good learning experience.
The human crew treated each of the androids as individuals. They each had their own quirks and senses of humour. Even the passengers got into the habit of treating them as people too. Captain Hail wouldn’t tolerate any mistreatment of his androids.
They were his crew, end of story. He made sure on the first night on board that the passengers understood the androids were not there to serve them. They would assist if the request was reasonable and they would tell the passenger if the request was or wasn’t.
If the android refused, the Captain always stood up for the android. The passengers learnt quickly that he always did. Hail said the people coming from Horn were less trouble than those from Federation, as many had already learnt that the androids in Horn City were the same.
I had to smile when he told me. Even the new androids in Horn had been developing personalities if they had a new power supply. Magenta had apparently been experimenting and had found if the older androids got the new power supplies, they also became alive as she called it. She said the newest androids needed longer to develop.
I had no problem with her experiments. Silver said that Magenta’s counterpart in Ochre, Nickle, was also conducting the same experiments and so far, they had twenty androids with personalities. She said because they had gone longer without human contact they hadn’t developed to the same stage as Rose’s people but they were learning.
Ochre City now had three hundred people living in it, and their controller Ochre was a lot happier now, and so were the androids. They had even been digging out where the old citadel was so they could access the lower levels. They had even found a room with other androids in it, and they were bringing them online.
I noticed the difference when we sailed into port. They had built a new residence over where the citadel had been. I was informed it was mine. I was surprised at this and asked why? Silver said, “Because you are our High Mage, Bron.”
I raised my eyebrows and asked how I became the High Mage of Ochre City as well as Green Island. “Because you are. We assume that when you are ready to hand the reins of Horn City over to Sable, you will come here.”
“What if I prefer to hand Ochre city over to Sable since I will around for quite some time as a mage?” I queried.
Silver looked at me. “That would be more than acceptable to us, Bron. We would be delighted to have one as powerful as Sable to rule us. He is an exceptionally bright child. He has your sense of right and wrong and treats everyone fairly even for his age.”
“If you keep training him, he will make a ruler we would be proud to have. We have waited for a long time for a ruler like you to come along. We are more than happy to wait a little longer for when Sable is ready to replace you. I can see that this is a very suitable solution for you and us.”
I looked at Sable, “So what do you think son? Would you be happy to come here to live when you are ready to rule?”
He was busy taking in everything. His eyes were bright with excitement. He looked back at me, “Yes daddy. I feel like I’ve come home. Does that sound strange? It’s a strange feeling, but I really like this place.”
I looked at Silver with a grin, “I think we have solved that problem, Silver.”
Silver nodded, “Ochre says she feels you both. She is looking forward to meeting you and Sable. Now that we have better access to her, I can take you to see her. She lives in the basement under the new residence. We didn’t rebuild the citadel but we can if you wish, master Sable.”
Sable looked at the three-story mansion they had built on the site. “No, I like what you have built. It is way big. I don’t need lots of towers.”
I chuckled and said, “That may change later when you have ten wives and two dozen calves running around.”
“Possibly, daddy, but that is a problem for another day,” he answered ever practical.
I agreed. I’m sure my calf was a much older person stuck in the body of a nearly four-year-old. Mind you, he was a lot taller than I was at the same age. If it wasn’t for the obvious signs that he was but a calf, it wasn’t hard to believe that he was a lot older when you talked to him.
I remembered my mother had said to me one day that I was six going on to sixty after I’d got into an argument with my grandfather. I remembered the argument too. The fact that I had later been proven correct was an incident that cemented my grandfather’s hatred of me.
Like Sable, I too had learnt to read at a very young age. My grandfather had hated that my mother had indulged my love of learning. I had a feeling that I must have learnt at a rate similar to Sable. We couldn’t seem to help ourselves.
My mother had told me knowledge was power. She had also insisted that not all knowledge could be learnt from books. She taught me to watch people, learn by what they did, and even more importantly, what they didn’t do. She taught my sisters Jose and Rona this, too.
She taught me about body language as she called it. She said while a person’s words could lie, many people didn’t realise that their body told the truth of the lie. She said it was a lesson my father had taught her and she had found it had been a useful tool.
I had also found it useful for telling me a lot more about how a person was feeling and not just about lying. I had also learned to detect their feeling from how they spoke. Picking out surface thoughts didn’t hurt either, though it wasn’t one of my strongest abilities.
Her lessons had stood me in good stead with the androids who didn’t display the same body language as humans. I had noticed the more advanced the android, the more these human traits had filtered into their speech and to some extent their movement.
Rose and Silver were two good examples. I had noticed the softening of their speech when they referred to each other. My suspicion of their feelings for each other was confirmed. I’d hate to lose Rose, but I knew that eventually, she would want to be closer to Silver.
For now, she seems to be happy with how things stood between them and she’d not mentioned any wish to leave me. I suspected that Silver also felt the job she was doing was where she needed to be now. I did notice that she was teaching Coppa to be her eventual replacement.
I had also noticed Hail looking at the two androids when they were together and that he suspected they had strong feelings for each other. His acceptance of the androids as people was obvious in how he treated them as his crew. He had marvellous people skills, and I learnt from him, as did Sable.
I had liked Hail when I first met him, and my respect for the man was up there with my respect for Cavil. I considered them two of best people I had ever met and my friends. I did find it odd that I had few friends my own age. Even my spouses were older than me.
I guess I just grew up a lot faster than my peers.
We only stayed three days in Ochre City.
We already knew what we wanted to stock on the ship. However, Captain Hail’s cargo still had to be unloaded, and the ship loaded with the new products. As far as Silver and her people were concerned, anything the androids farmed or made belonged to me and by default Sable.
Since they now had a functioning population, commerce had been re-established, and they leased out the land and resources using the same principles as we did on Green Island. Candy and Ochre both considered they were operating my cities, so Ochre realigned her laws to match.
She told me we didn’t do a lot different from the people who had lived in the city before I came, so it was no trouble to adopt my laws. She even adopted the laws and directives from Candy’s Council. I had to chuckle and would delight in telling Vaughn he was running two cities.
I had checked in with him and the council before I left and was more than happy with the jobs they were doing. When I went to leave, I noticed the receiving room had plenty of people in it. I had asked one of the people why they were there, thinking the council had more problems than they had let on.
The person said they had a little problem, but they were sure Councillor Anna would be able to help as she always did. Several others nodded in agreement and mentioned other councillors by name. They told me things were much better now that the councillors were approachable.
I contacted Vaughn and told him to add a bonus to all the councillors’ and their clerk’s accounts for doing their jobs so well. He then chuckled and said that they already loved me, but he would do it anyway as they made his job easier.
They hadn’t elected a council here. Most of the people just told an android, and generally, it was fixed or sorted out. I think they thought the androids were in charge and I decided not to disillusion them at this point. The population was small, and if they have any big problems, I’m sure Ochre would pass them on to Candy.
I told Ochre if they if they did have problems and couldn’t contact me then they should tell Vaughn. He could come and sort it out or do it through Candy. Ochre agreed this was an acceptable solution. She told me Candy had a high opinion of my Deputy-Mayor. They had analysed his decisions and found him a sound leader.
I agreed with her and said that Vaughn would do his best to help the people here once he became aware that I had passed some of my responsibilities to him. I mentioned I’d better double his bonus when he found out.
Ochre commented that since he was technically their Deputy-Mayor as well, then she would ensure he received his wages from here. I chuckled and told her I was in agreement with this decision. Poor Vaughn, he was going to have a calf when he found out.
We inspected Sable’s mansion, and we were suitably impressed. He informed me it was my mansion until he felt he was ready to move here. Ochre mentioned that if I needed resources to purchase gems, then I should probably see what was left in my treasure rooms.
She gave us directions to a treasure room they had started storing any precious metals they found in since other such metals were in it. Intrigued, Sable and I went to investigate the lower sections under the mansion. We found the treasure room she had mentioned.
I had little trouble with the spells as they let the Systems Android, Beryl and I enter unhindered. We were shocked by what was in it. Beryl told me that the meteor that hit the Citadel hadn’t been that large but it had caused a lot of damage even in the lower sections.
It was why the lower levels had been blocked off for so long. The androids that had been trapped with Ochre had taken a long time to dig themselves out. The ones trapped on the surface also had difficulty in locating a point to enter.
Ochre had to sleep for long periods to preserve her supplies, and the androids with her had to sleep when she did. The surface androids simply followed their programming until she woke again. Ochre’s androids had eventually opened up a tunnel to the surface, and she found the shield had been reduced to the small area it now covered.
The androids couldn’t function outside the shield without her for many centuries. They had also learnt from the other androids that the people had left or died. It had taken them a long time to fix the inner city that they had left, as many of the machines they needed were not accessible.
They had been liberating levels as they could and had only regained access to many of them about twenty years before. Once I had turned up the androids had put in a lot of effort to ensure I could come and see her next time I visited the city.
They had also built the residence for me since they now had a mage back in control. Like Candy, they had been ruled by a High Mage like me in the past. It surprised me that as far as the androids, Ochre and Candy were concerned, I was the boss.
They couldn’t seem to fathom that they could rule without me. I could only guess that it was something programmed into their basic makeup. They couldn’t seem to accept that a non-magical person or even themselves could rule. To them, only a High Mage or a wizard could.
While they controlled repairs, communications and day to day services, they couldn’t tell the people how to live their lives. Their job was to serve. Even the androids that displayed independent thinking still believed that they were designed to serve and that was what made them happy.
I doubted that I’ll ever be able to convince them otherwise. However, they were capable of determining the level of service they should supply to a person. They knew the difference between them being taken advantage of as to being needed. I believed the fact they had learnt how to say ‘no’ made them even more human.
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The next two days were very busy. Bea being an Earth mage made sure the house paddock was smooth to reduce tripping hazards. She also tidied up the drive and the area beside the new barn Greta, and I had built. The outer floor and walls of the barn are made of packed earth. We can’t really call them bricks because we used a spell to make the compacted floor and walls from earth. We also made the inner dividing walls, posts and second floor from earth, as well as the stairs. We did use more...
I pulled Opal up and looked at the tower. I had been surprised to learn that I owned the top of the second tower. The museum was in the fourth tower. The council chambers were in the third. The bottom floors of the second, all of the first tower and the front three wings that joined the towers together, had been rented out as offices, shops and apartments. The towers of what was called the Citadel were originally arranged in a hexagon shape. The Citadel was located on the western side of...
The next week was a lot of fun. I’d brought hard miners hats that had my crystal lamps attached to the front of them. I’d also made a heap of small crystal lamps that we used to mark intersections. Albi and I would scribe arrows and one or two words to help anyone to get to a particular feature we found, or back to the main cavern. We also marked dangerous tunnels that had sudden drops to catch the unwary. One of the cavern entrances we had climbed up to and accessed from the central tunnel...
I had never been on a long ocean voyage before. I’d travelled a couple times on ships when we had gone to visit the southern properties, but the open ocean was a whole different experience I’d not had. So far, I’d never been seasick. I think my merman genes had a lot to do with that. I had also discovered there was something new I could do with my magic. My fourth discipline was Physics. I could shape liquids and move air. I had a plan to make the voyage more pleasant. In one of the...
-- Ant - 2057 -- Our team soon settled into their new lives. We didn’t get to take the first team of construction workers to the Moon. UNSEC had built a larger ship that could house thirty people. It would become the base until the construction crew got the first dome built. A lot of planning had gone into the design of these domes to reduce construction time. Once the underground bases had been constructed, the Domes would be built like giant jigsaw puzzles. They could be built with no...
We found a deserted farm about 2km down the road. The barn was barely big enough for the mothers, but it got them out of the cold. A storm was coming up from the south, and it had a decided chill to it. The herd I had collected from the mountain surrounded my young heifers to keep them warm. Big Ben took up guard duties. I had Bea and Cora touch me, and we were able to create a shield big enough to cover the small house and the barn. If anyone passing by, remembered the farm being there,...
Garson was a large city. Cora had often come here to sell their bighorns and woollies, so she knew it well. It looked like she was going to prove very useful. We had to wait for an agent to come aboard the ship before we could unload. He was a pompous arse, and I immediately took a dislike to him. The first thing he asked was what did we have on board. The Captain had docked his ship down the end of the wharf near the stock pens. The dickhead had to have heard several of our bighorns...
My people had organised activities since this was a first official day of the party. We expected everyone to be here by noon depending on where they had camped the night before. Since all of the players were here, the festivities started in earnest. I was surprised to see that several couples were already inseparable. Since my friends had arrived early, their Herds had taken to the spirit of the occasion and had been checking out who was who and who might tickle their fancy. They also...
It was a beautiful morning to set sail. With the speed of our ship, we should be in Weston late in the day on the second day. Trixi and Foxi had both been to Weston, so they were happy to be out tour guides in the city. Albi would be our guide in the mountains. I think the smoothness of the travel had them all amazed that they were on a ship at sea. We had picked up ten other passengers, a family of four, two single men and two couples. They too found our ship odd. Albi bunked in with...
Trixi took me to see the herds nearest herds to town, which were was sick. I explained my methods of overcoming the sickness to the people she introduced me to. I healed the worst animals and informed them that feeding the mash with the extra salt should get the rest back into good health along with checking that the hay didn’t have the tell-tale mould that seemed to be partially responsible. They had the mould on all three properties, and I told them of my better storage methods for the...
Once were docked we spent the afternoon wandering the docks. We worked out many of the ships were from Weston. A few were from Federation, and several smaller ships were from Orient. They also had a large fishing fleet. There were plenty of taverns and other places dedicated to the entertainment of sailors. We checked out the markets, and I even found a bank and organised an account. I wandered in and out of several jewellery stores. I found some of their styles interesting, but from what I...
As I had predicted, Snort managed to get half his heifers pregnant in the first four days. Tally and I decided to split the herd into six lots before he did the rest. Five lots had ten cows in each. Half were pregnant, and the other half were not. The sixth lot included the other ten girls and Snort. If the owners of the first five lots wanted Snort to finish the job, they would have to pay his new owner. Else, they could put them to their own bulls. We considered this fair and the feedback...
-- Philip - 2061 -- Ant and I looked at the Rih drive. There was no way we were going to get that baby going again. She was Fucked with a capital ‘F’. I was still surprised the computer hadn’t shut it down. It must have failed catastrophically to melt as it had. We went and checked the other three drives. The second drive on this end was fine, giving us some hope. I suggested we might need to do a spacewalk. Theoretical we could drop the cones off and replace them. It was also possible the...
Since we were at the new wharf, I asked Ian and Robert where they wanted their cold rooms. They already had the main road and a road built behind where the other longer wharf would go. The boys also planned another jetty at the other end of the beach. They had a lovely big mound of dirt and rocks that they had created when levelling off the road and clearing an area to start building back from the beach. The road crew were due back in a week to build them a couple more roads. They were to...
It was five years later before I claimed my sixth spouse. Inx’s family had moved to Ochre from Weston. She had been born in a tiny village that was north of Unna, in Orient. They still had problems with slavers, so her family moved. Her family had moved around a lot before settling in Weston for a while. When they heard people could go to the protected city of Ochre, they had applied. They did very well in Ochre finding the people there much more accepting of them being shifters. She became...
We spent two more weeks in town. When I’d asked Rose where she found the extra organisers that I had requested I had learnt some things that I didn’t know. Rose admitted to me that Garnet and Iren had fixed a little replicator that was designed to be portable. It only made items that could fit into a 40cm square by 50cm long area. It was designed to go to new mining sites to provide basics for the miners like toiletries, bedding, small tools, work clothes and safety items like boots,...
-- Storm -- I was a happy man. While my sons were still a mystery to be solved, I had at least gotten my daughters back. I can’t believe my amazing Crystal. She had done everything in her power to save her spirit friend even from himself. In my mind, that made her an exception wizard, and I wished I could give her a box she truly deserved. As for Sable, I took great delight in contacting Bron and telling him what his amazing son had done for my daughter and me. If she wants to marry him,...
The next two weeks were uneventful. We had good weather all the way. The ship went even faster with the clean hull. I think all the damn crystals they had embedded in the ship helped as well. The food was awesome. We had fresh produce every day. The cook, Ben, excelled himself. The ship normally had sixteen crew members, but since the Captain had a feeling he was going to have a bored crew on a ship that would rarely break down, we had left six of the crew with the girls. Half of his crew...
My first meeting was with the rent collectors. I’d spent some time the night before going through the two sets of books I’d retrieved from Enders office. I was appalled by what I had found. When I compared the amounts, I guessed they had ripped off my grandfather over the years but their bank accounts would not show much of the money, which would have been spent or hidden. Going by the decor of the apartment, I could see where a lot of Higgins’ money went. Ender was a different story....
Greta and I left the Bulls to their own devices. I had a couple of meetings I had promised to attend, and the last town forum was being run that afternoon. It was the candidates’ last chance to convince the locals to vote for them. Things had been going well for the first half hour then a few people started asking strange questions of the clerks’ that were running for election and Anna and Nat. They wanted to know things like what spells I had put on them and how often they had to fuck...
The coronation went well. Four of the five Lords attended. The fifth was the one was who caused a lot of speculation. He had sent word that he was indisposed. They had an illness affecting his people, so they didn’t even send a representative. Ryan told me Lord Mark Metal owned a valley that was further away than many of the others. He was also very old and being indisposed wasn’t something new to them. While the Lords operated the Shires in a rough semi-circle around Weston, Mark’s Shire,...
Once we were packed, we headed down the passageway. The man-made features lasted longer in this tunnel. Initially, it was rectangular. After about 20m, it changed abruptly. When I investigated, I pointed out to Mica that I believed it had once ended with a spelled door. When we had flashed our lights down this tunnel, it had appeared as a dead end. It was only as we got to the end did we realise it joined a cross passageway. The new path had a lower more rounded roof and was narrower. We...
Jay turned off his cornerstone and became visible. I noted the calculating look Casey sent his way. I wished her luck. I had a feeling Harry would soon disillusion her of her aspirations. I noted the way Jay looking over Mica and Casey. While it was a look of appreciation for two fine looking women, I knew as well he did that his heart was in Harry’s hands. He was perfectly happy that it was. I suspected my little effort the night before had affected all of those in camp. Harry and Jay...
I was amused to be seated at the head of the table. Greta was on my left and Cavil had the other end of the table. The Bellows may have been wondering what was going on, but I wasn’t in any hurry to tell them. Dick had been seated beside Greta and his sons interspaced with Cavil’s three main spouses at my request. I had invited only one of my grandfather’s people to be at the main table. I was interested as to why my sister Jose had been part of his entourage. She had been seated on my...
Lady Di came out to meet us when we got to her homestead. She seemed in a good mood and pleased to see Cora and me. She gave Bea a couple of long looks, but she didn’t behave inappropriately towards her or Cora. She told me that the reports from her other properties were coming back that the sickness had gone and the herds were improving in health. We went to look at the herd she had purchased from me, and I introduced Snort to Bea. We all laughed when he gave her a big sloppy kiss. He...
On the trip home, we had an interesting discussion. I wanted to go to Weston. Goran had fired up my interest. Sable was adamant that he would be coming too. Harry said if Sable went then he went. Rose said where I went she went. Rose amused me because she seemed to relish the idea of going to visit Silver’s City, so she didn’t even attempt to talk me out of the trip. I also suspected she had a thing for Silver. They had become best buddies when they met in Horn City. I did occasionally...
Cavil’s spouses were confused when he announced that he was no longer married to them. They were not sure why he was now saying they weren’t married, as they all believed that they were now my spouses. We confused them a little more when we explained the status-quo. They weren’t my spouses either. I patiently explained to them that since Cavil had proclaimed that he had stepped down as Bull the marriages were considered null-and-void. They all nodded to this. I then explained that I didn’t...
The big family meeting went better than I expected. While I had shelved a few projects until we got the site for the new village surveyed, we still had plenty of work to keep people busy. I think the fact I wasn’t going to evict anyone also helped. They all understood that I expected them to earn the wages they would be paid. The only real bank we had on the island was in Horn City. Other than that, there was just the money in a Bull’s coin chest. I wanted to introduce a system as I had...
Leigh handed the floor over to me. I laid out some of my plans to the other Bulls. I also looked at Leigh and Bob as I included plans that they could get involved in as my nearest neighbours. I could see them all looking at each other as their minds filled with ideas. I suggest that we retired to the lunch tables so we could mingle. This suggestion was unanimously agreed upon, and the Bulls headed out with a lot of excited chatter. I collared Cavil and got him to wait for me. I had to stop...
“I still can’t believe my magic box opened for you?” I said, to Sable. “I’m as surprised as you are, daddy. I just told the box we needed to charge the crystals to help you, and it opened for me,” he replied. “You are probably the only person it would open for too, son,” I said. “My entity likes you for some obscure reason.” Sable chuckled, “It loves you, dad. I think you frightened it when you collapsed. So it was willing to trust me so Trixi and I could help you.” I looked around the...
Bea wasn’t shy by any means. I stopped and checked what the bathing arrangements were and the landlady said she had two buckets of hot water ready if I wished to carry them up to my room. The tub was already in place as were towels and bathing requirements. I went to the kitchen with her, and she filled the buckets for me. I carefully took them up the back stairs. We were in a large room near the back stairs. I put the buckets down and swung the door to our room open. Picking up the...
To say the wizards stole the show would be putting it politely. While they had arrived in the more acceptable manner by coming to the front door and waiting to be announced, that was about all they did that was mundane. Olivia, Warren and Lillian were amused as they watched them enter the ballroom. To start with, they were the tallest people there. Sarah, Zarka and Payton were breathtaking. There was more than one man in the room who wanted to bury his head in their tits. The fact that that...
The party after the election was massive. It may sound a bit anti-climactic, but I was happy with the outcome of the election. The clerks that I was happy to see promoted were. The candidates I felt would be voted in were and the candidates I felt would take Clerk jobs did. Most importantly, Vaughn shoed it in. I wonder how many people noticed the ring on Vaughn’s finger. Yeah, he got two promotions. I had found him after I’d dealt with Dale and his spouses. I also collected Anna, Nat,...
I went home to get my girls. I was so happy to be home. The family greeted me with a lot of enthusiasm. I spent the day sorting out problems with different projects and finally got to spend some time with my girls. Bea and Cora were bloody horny that night. It had been nearly three weeks since I was home and the girls planned for me to make up for my absence. I was more than happy to indulge them. They intended to get more involved in the running of the property, and both had decided to...