Monday, December 12, 2011

From a Shack to a House

The morning again came too quickly, I was still tired from my lack of sleep in the last two days but was determined to continue my work. The night had not been restful, too many dreams had flooded my mind. Among which I had seen a device I very much desired to try making. I knew it wouldn't be as good as the one I had seen but it would be adequate enough until I could make it again with better materials. I didn't even think about my hunger until I smelled the fresh bread that came with the revisiting elders, there were noticeably fewer this time and when they arrived they stared at the device I was holding. Clearly it wasn't the one I had made yesterday and they wondered what it was. I explained to them my dream and what this device would be used for. I also described to them the process of how it worked and how I believed it was a design from my previous life. When I had finished eating they asked to see it in action, which I gladly obliged to, I had been wanting to try it out since before I sat down.

We made our way further from town and out of the woods into a wide open field. The device took some moments to charge up, I was sure it was due to the poor energy generator that I had built in it and when it had finished and I pulled the trigger the shock of the energy hitting the ground made us all stumble a bit. A few moments later however and the screen was showing me all the resources available beneath our feet. The device had appeared to work and I then switched modes and began pulling up what it had found. It wasn't a large amount, mostly due to the device being inefficient in its current state, but the things it would find would be useful in making the next version. The elders just stood there, dumbfound as to where these chunks of metallic stone were coming from. I had explained it to them but I don't think they thought it possible. When we were done there were some spots in the ground that were visibly sinking under their own weight and so we had to quickly get the resources out of the area before we found ourselves sinking into one of the new caverns. The load was heavy, even after refining it, but we managed to get it all back to my shop by mid-day. They had worked with metal before, but nothing with as fine a quality as what I had now. They desired greatly to get some of it and so they informed me that since I now had the means to survive on my own that I would now be treated as a regular citizen and need to barter for my food and other things from town. I knew this would give them an edge over the other towns, but I had no room to argue with them as they had control over the fields and livestock. I also knew that they would quickly regret it as they didn't have the tools to actually work the resources yet. They also informed me that the first of the elders from the other villages would begin visiting, having finally received the news and started arriving in town. I knew this would mean a lot more work for me before the evening was through, but I was confident that I could get it all done and still get some sleep before they arrived.

The elders had left hours ago, but not before I confirmed with them that I could be in possession of where my shop was, the concept of ownership was somewhat unfamiliar but they understood it better after I explained it to them. I wanted to make sure the land I was on could be worked in the manner that I had plans for without offending someone for destroying their property. I wasted little time in clearing the immediate area around the shack and pulling in the rest of my resources. I then got to work adding a much larger set of rooms to the building and isolating the shop part in the back of the new home. Moving the furniture was easy with the new device, which had a much better range and could hold more resources in it without being heavy. I wondered at the original design I had copied, would better resources make it even more efficient? I planned to remake it again, but decided to wait until tomorrow. With my new house done I closed it up and once again heard the sound of creatures sniffing outside. It was dark and my little lamp didn't make much of a dent to illuminate the now big rooms of the house, but I could work out how to create better lighting later.

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