Chapter 19: Act 1: Chapter 14

Seventh day, Eighth Moon, 236 AC

I walked through the fields as the sun shone bright in the sky, relishing in the warmth and I let myself enjoy it. Summer was finally back, and with it came the warm sun and fresh food. I was currently walking through the wheat field in the eastern-most part of the field inspecting the wheat stalks.

Unfortunately, it was this area that was hit by the flooding in the spring and it showed. The wheat was not growing very well, and the yields were down. I had managed to re-landscape it for farming purposes and added more land to my fields while I was at it, but it was not as good quality. It would take a few harvests to get it back, but I would get there.

I snipped off a stalk and threshed out some grains into my hand and tasted it. Almost ripe, but not quite there yet. Another week or two probably.

As I continued into the turnip field, I noticed some rabbits appeared to be eating the turnip greens. Damn, I'll have to try and lay some more traps for them and see if I can't find their burrow. The turnips were growing nicely, and the soil in this section of the field was of good quality. The massive amounts of rain from spring did damage it, but it's bounced back quite nicely. The clover was growing acceptably as well.

I started to walk back to the kiln, where I was currently heating up another batch of cement. When Lord Stark's men had come through at the beginning of summer they had gathered everyone in the new village and told us that there would be no tax on the first harvest so that we may recover from the winter and spring. He also gave out ten gold so that we could build ourselves a new bridge over the river as well as a new tax collection barn. Of course, it needed to be done before they came back but I was happy to see that the concept of disaster relief was not completely absent from Westeros.

After talking amongst ourselves, we decided to use my concrete to create the feet of the bridge and use brick for the archway. Then we were going to use more concrete for a better floodwall for the village. After the flood, the villagers were split on where to put the new village; some wanted to move it close to the hill they rested on, which was away from the rivers and coastline and would not be prone to flooding. Others declared that crazy, since they were mostly fishermen and moving away from the coast was stupidity. A few wanted to move to the eastside of the river, which did not receive as much floodwater, but was denied by the others since it would mean another bridge would have to be built for them to get anywhere.

In the end, it was decided to rebuild in the same location that their ancestors had always lived. They raised the ground beneath the village, and created a better drainage system surrounding it, and of course the new floodwall. Most considered the last flood to be an extreme that would not happened again, and so they made a few changes but continued on as usual.

I think they were used to me at this point, so my words of caution were mostly ignored. I still managed to help with the drainage ditches, and a few other measures like planting trees in between the village and the river.

A few merchants made their way through, bringing some food to trade and other goods. I ran a good business at the same time, selling wood planks to Koryn's goodfather, since I had a few villagers helping me out. I did a lot of bartering too, I gave the villagers wood to rebuild and they gave me labor to make the planks.

My trip to Deepwood Motte was also successful, as I sold another batch of vodka and brandy and I bought my self some new items. I ended up purchasing some gambeson for armor, which I was recommended but I must admit I'm not thrilled about. It was a long sort of style that reminded me a bit of a trench coat, and I thought I looked a bit silly in it. Nyra disagreed and thought I looked properly heroic. Oh well, I think I'm supposed to listen to my wife about fashion, anyways right?

I also ended up purchasing myself a new longbow, as well as some new narrow-headed arrows.

With more coin in my pocket I came back home and started to hire some villagers to help mine the materials for the cement and help my bake the bricks.

At this point, I was happy about how I helped my community and was feeling pretty good.

Unfortunately, others were not so lucky. The village to the north of us was wiped out in the flooding, with 30 people dead and their village swept away by the waters. The remaining 15 people moved into our village, but they were a desperate lot.

They didn't manage to save much, mostly what they could carry, and had no animals to support them. I hired as many as I could, but I didn't have all the coin they needed. Lord Starks men provided them with some food, but since they did not have a bridge near their village they did not receive any money.

The next planting should include a much larger field, even if the soil is poor, and with their help I should be able to farm enough to help them. Nyra and I had decided that we wouldn't seek out recognition from Lord Stark, but we couldn't turn our back on our neighbors. So, if anyone asked, we would simply downplay our efforts. Our life, barring any natural disasters, was good and I wasn't in any hurry to change that. Diffusion, deflection and distraction. Damn, I sound like a politician.

I had just finished shoveling more coal into the furnace when I say Koryn walking over to me. I wiped some sweat and walked over to greet him.

"'Lo Michael!"

"Koryn. Good to see you, how's the family?'

Koryn smiled and replied, "Alessa and my son are doing good. Ready for me t' take over?"

I nodded. Koryn was going to take over the next shift at the kiln, while I spent some time with my family. "Aye, it should only need another two hours. After that, you can let it start to cool down."

I left Koryn with the kiln and made my way over to the house. I quickly checked in on Nyra and Violet and saw that dinner was almost ready. I went for a quick wash in the river before dinner, and by the time I was out they were ready.

We made our way together to the cliff that I proposed to Nyra on. We tried to make it here as a family occasionally so that we could eat and watch the sunset. It looked to be a good sunset tonight, with a fairly clear sky, and a faint ocean breeze that left the smell of salt in the air.

We set out a blanket and spread out our meal and ate while we watched the sun set, enjoying the food and each other's company.

Finally, as the sun began to fall beneath the horizon painting the sky orange, Nyra and I got Violet's attention and Nyra said to her, "Violet, we have something to tell you sweetie. You're going to have a little brother or sister, since I'm pregnant."

Violet beamed at us, "A new baby? One that will live with us?!"

I laughed, "Yes Violet, a new baby for you to help watch over. That means you're going to be a big sister! You can help teach and play with your new baby brother or sister."

Violet hugged us both and said, "Can it be a girl? I want a sister to play with."

Nyra chuckled, "We'll have to wait and see. Now let's pack everything up and head back before it gets dark."

Violet pouted and turned to me, "Can we stay a bit longer? Maybe sing a song daddy?"

Ah, the pout. My eternal weakness. I turned to Nyra with my sad eyes look.

Nyra rolled her eyes at me and muttered, "It's like I already have two children." Louder she said, "Fine. One song only, I don't want to go stumbling through the forest in the dark."

I said to Violet, "What kind of song do you want honey?"

Violet worried her lip in thought, "Hmm, a love song?"

I raised an eyebrow. "Alright then. How's this?"

"With every passing moment… Thoughts of you run through my head…"