Ball of Nothing

Thrilled but nervous about her first day at work, Jermine squeaked when Raj called out her name. The blind mole beast girl scurried over and almost tripped on her claws running on the uneven ground. The half-djinn had just finished inspecting the marked out new village territory and wanted a second opinion.

Pepper and Monoman crowded around Raj's sketch and waited for Jermine to come over.

"How does the soil structure feel?" the cartographer asked. After slacking and being dragged around by various people to see various places, Pepper was happy to finally be assigned his first real job ever since joining half Moon Village. Space planning and developing the first village outside of Half Moon Structure was an exciting project, especially when they had nothing.

Jermine nodded. "It's hard on the first few layers but deeper down it is soft. I think there is a possibility of finding underground water around here that we can pipe out or create a well."

Raj was pleased. If there was a ready water source, everything else would be possible. Initially, Raj and Pepper worried about needing to relocate because of the constraints in the environment being too unfriendly for agriculture. Creating a pipe from Half Moon Village over was also too resource-intensive. They couldn't afford it at the moment.

"What about underground homes?" Monoman asked. This was Truen's suggestion before he went into seclusion to recuperate. The New Moon Village leader liked the idea a lot and wanted to know if it was possible to create underground storage and housing so that they can reserve the open ground for agriculture, training and social activities.

Jermine grinned and gave them a thumbs up. "I made a few zig-zags within the area and everything looked stable. The soil is hard enough for the first few layers which means it wouldn't collapse inwards. No magic is required for reinforcing at this point. We just need really sturdy beams and structures to hold them up and create a reservoir inside in case of rain. Oh, I would also recommend sectioning the areas out and making many ventilation points because unlike moles, humans cannot respire easily underground."

Pepper looked over to the general concept of the housing situation. Unlike Half Moon Village that preferred to keep their housing high up and in trees, New Moon Village was hiding its massive structures and population underground. There would be a total of at least five layers for various purposes and groups of people. The lowest level was the reservoir followed by an emergency escape route above it. Then, there was a layer reserved for storage purposes because it would be cold and above it was different layers of residential clusters. According to Jermine, it was better for humans to be closer to the ground surface because of oxygen levels. Beast folks were slightly more adaptable to their habitat so they would create a cluster on a slightly lower level.

"Do we want to include natural bunker defences in these housing clusters?" Jermine asked. "I doubt anyone would try to attack us from underground but it is very possible that they would try to smoke us out or seal the ventilation holes in a siege strategy. In such cases, the bunker defence and survival system should kick in for long enough so that the residents can escape through the emergency routes."

Raj and Pepper were very interested in the idea so Jermine explained how the mole beast folks did it. Monoman gave his opinion on the matter as well as some concerns when he heard that it was going to be complicated like a maze on the inside.

"I'm not so smart to remember where everything is," he admitted. "It might be normal for mole people but we've lived near Indra Seagloo for so long that it might be difficult for us to remember where the important rooms are and where to avoid the traps."

With various concerns and nobody willing to give or take, they weren't able to arrive at a conclusion. Raj sighed. They were merely helping these people build their village. Sure, the humans and mole beast folks had different lifestyles and disagreements would surface sooner or later. However, he didn't really expect it to come up even before the village was built.

"Let's take a step back to calm down a little," Raj advised when he saw how Monoman and Jermine were starting to raise their voices. It was one thing to see a small blind girl raise her voice and another to see a huge and strong semi-giant warrior raise his. Raj wasn't confident in doing damage control if something should happen in the fit of anger and Pepper was of no help, cowering behind him.

"How about we ask Truen or Zero? Let's just start working on what we can agree on. After all, the main structure for the residential and storage areas need to be built. Let's leave the traps and emergency routes out for now and work on everything else. How does that sound? The villagers here still need a place to seek shelter after all. It's not good to keep living like this especially with the threat of bandits around."

The djinn wasn't expecting them to reconcile their differences so quickly and he wondered why they were suddenly on good terms again talking about the things they should prioritise to build. Pepper gave his prince a huge grin. As expected of the lost prince, he really was Raju's son with the gift of a tongue.

For now, the djinn and gnome worked on planning a suitable location for a bath and water collection point. This was their priority. The villagers couldn't possibly live in this kind of poor conditions for much longer. They had to do something about it.

Jermine listened to Raj and Pepper express their concern for the villager's welfare and the filth. Monoman hated to admit but they were right. Before shelter came, these people needed water badly. It was ridiculous to ration on drinking water that they collect from dew and rain or risk sending a party to the nearest river half a day's walk away for a few buckets of water.

"How do we locate an underground water supply?" Jermine asked. "The soil is damp but I don't know how to pinpoint the underground streams."

Pepper grinned. "Leave that to us. I have a water detecting device. However, I need a professional excavator to lead us there."

Raj thought about it. "Should we create the space for a reservoir first?"

Monoman let the professionals geek it out. He excused himself to let the villagers know about the arrangements. With the building of foundations taken care off by the experts from Half Moon Village, they had to worry more about the next problem - duty rosters.