Master Of None

”This place definitely looks like it has been abandoned for some time.” Su shook her head at the state of the small village. It had quite a few collapsed buildings while a few small ones still stood. But they were basically just sheds with dusty rotten hay inside them. On top of that, the only other standing structures were the small stone walls and the central water well shared by the people that once lived here.

”That’s what happens when trade routes change. It’s not the end of the world but it is sad that people so easily tossed it aside. Instead of just leaving it all though, I wish they had converted it in to something else.” Walker couldn’t help but think that the flat fields could have been made in to a small farming village to keep it alive.

”I know what you are thinking. They could have made it in to some sort of farm, right?” Gil had read Walker perfectly. ”Look at the soil, it seems good, right? But because it is so flat, the water will pool up and drown the roots. That’s the problem without proper irrigation. The fields here would need a lot of back breaking work and attention. They would be very limited in what they could or could not grow.” It only ever took the party a second to remember that Gil used to live on a farm and naturally had this sort of information in the back of his head.

”We should set up camp near the well so we can draw water when we need it. That way brother doesn’t need to use what he brought with him.” Onyx spotted the still intact bucket and knew that it would save their traveling rations if they used it. Walker didn’t have any issues with that.

”Then we can use the left behind wood as firewood. At least it will help clean the area up a little.” Walker started to move and grab some of the wood after handing some rope to Gil to get water with the bucket. The party easily set up camp. They had been moving all day by this point after they had stopped for a short break to eat. Alice was the most tired since she had used her singing to help speed them up the entire day. She looked like she would fall asleep even before they had heated up some vegetables next to the fire to eat.

”If you are going to explore, just be careful. No one knows what is still left behind in these buildings. Some of them are only partially fallen and could fall all the way.” Walker didn’t worry too much. They had not run in to any monsters or anything remotely dangerous so far. But he still felt it necessary to warn Midnight who would have gone off without him saying anything or not.

While the rest of them hung about the camp, Midnight looked at the partially standing buildings with a glint in her eyes. It was time to explore! She thought it would be some practice before she would go in to the ravine with the others. She also thought she might find some hidden treasure left behind by those that once lived in this village. Her eyes moved to the largest building that had been better built than the others. It was still small by comparison to Genesis but here it was large. It had a straw roof which had fallen in but the only building with stone walls completely. The wood window frames had fallen in but that gave her the perfect entrance since the door was blocked.

In one leap, Midnight was through and standing on top of the broken roof. Her eyes adjusted to the dark setting and she scanned the room finding that it had a lot more inside it than expected. It was a building that had been multipurpose. The fireplace had a broken table next to it once used for cooking. Yet, what caught Midnight’s eyes were the books still looking readable next to a desk. She knew that Walker might be interested in them and started to look through for unfamiliar copies. She only found five that she had not seen in the library before. Her learning when it came to reading paid off and she was able to discern the title of one, The Growth Of A Village.

She held on to these in her mouth while she pulled at the debris on the desk to clear it. A few pieces of gold had been left behind making it more curious that it had all been left. If this was a merchant village why had it been left and why has no one been here to steal away what was left? As soon as that entered her mind she realized she should get back and let Walker know what was there. She snatched up two more books under the debris of the table and jumped back through the window barely able to hold them. She spotted the newly lit fire easily and rushed back to stand right in front of Walker.

”That was a little fast. What did you find?” He reached down and checked out the books with interest. Huh, these seem interesting. I wonder why they were left behind?” Midnight huffed and nodded toward the large broken house she had come from. ”If this was there then I would say that this was the head of the village’s home. If they left everything behind that’s even weirder.” The odd tone caught everyone’s attention and they became a little more on edge. It was not normal for an abandoned village to have so many books lying around. Books were rare for small villages since they didn’t have a large population of wealthy individuals to buy them.

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