A week has passed since the fight with Nova. I still haven’t regained my full strength yet, but at least I can walk on my own again.
Trading with the ponies has started up again. At least now we don’t have to worry about food as much anymore. However, I can’t help but wonder for how long this will last. During the latest trade with them, I saw fear and disgust in their eyes. It is only a matter of time before these ponies try something to get their way again. I can’t let that happen.
And then there is the matter of a little pest we will have to deal with. I reach in my bag to pull out the soul gem that holds the soul of the changeling I kill up to my eye. The green gems shine in the light of day relieving an image of the soul trap within. I don’t know if this changeling was a spy from her Majesty herself or a drone gone rogue. But if it was a spy surely, she would have sent more to see what has happened to her precious bug.
Regardless, we have more important matters to deal with right now. I put the gem away and went back inside the mine. I made my way to Rover’s room, to discuss our next move. However, I wasn’t expecting to find him and his mate performing intimacy when I enter the room. We stare at each other for three seconds before I left them alone. Once they were decent they called me back into the room.
“You could have knocked you Know!”
“On what door?” I then point to the entrance of the room “That’s a curtain.”
“Then announce that you are outside!”
“Can we drop this pointless argument?”
“Fine Ed. What did you want?”
“I came to discuss the next step into bettering our pack’s lives.”
“Right, so what is our next step?”
“Now that the trade with the ponies has been improving. We can now look for means of becoming self-efficient.”
“Uhm why do we need to do that? The vendors from the town will provide what we need for some of our gems.”
“Rover it was that kind of thing that got our pack into the mess it was in earlier, to begin with. Once we have become self-efficient we will rely less on the vendors for our dailies needs.”
“I get you.”
“However, one can’t become self-efficient overnight. We are going to need to find a way to get our own food and kept it safe.”
“Right, if we aren’t careful with how much food we got we might get some unwanted attention.”
“I assume that is one of the reasons that you don’t go and buy no more than a week worth of food for the pack?”
“Unfortunately, we learn that the hard way. Years back when the trade was good. We struck a Huge deal on getting enough apples for the whole pack for two months.”
“That’s a lot of apples.”
“It was. However, a group of timber wolves caught sent of them.”
“Why would Timber Wolves even bother with the smell of apples? They can’t eat them they are carnivores.”
“That was what we thought during the time as well. But for some reason they did and they came running straight to our cave. We could fend them off, but every night they would come and try again. This went on for days weeks even. We would kill them only for them to pull themselves back together and try again. We lost many good dogs to them.”
“What happened then?”
“I was ordered by the Alpha during the time to take a group of dogs and barricade ourselves in the mine.”
“The last stand.”
“He thought that if the Timber Wolves realize that there are no more dogs here they would leave.”
“What did you do?”
“I begged him to abandon the mine and lead the pack to a new home. But he said that the chances of us find a new home where we have a chance to live a normal life where ponies can accept us to a degree would be impossible.”
“I can see why he said that.”
“Well, in the end, I did as he said and kept the pack underground for two weeks. Once the food ran out I made the first step outside. And to this day I will never forget what I saw.” He trembles lightly in remembrance before his mate went next to him and hug him.
“You don’t have to continue your story, Rover.”
“It’s ok. I can handle it. In the end, we buried our dead and morn for their loss. Soon after I was made Alpha so now I take care of every dog here.”
“So, there is no way we can increase our food supply without letting the Timber Wolves know we are still here?”
“Well that the thing. Ever since the dragon was nearby, the Timber Wolves didn’t even come close to the mine, but now that the dragon is dead.”
“I have doomed the pack.”
“It is not your fault Ed. You didn’t know. And besides, if you didn’t take care of the dragon we probably would have died of starvation.”
“But now we have to deal with Timber Wolves”
“Got any ideas, Ed?”
“I got a few. Gather up the dogs Rover. We got some dig to do.”
Once the dogs were gathered I pull out a diagram of the mine’s entrance.
“Now here is what we need to do. We are going to have to set up a perimeter around the entrance. Then we start digging a trench of at least fifth teen feet deep and Twenty feet wide.”
“But Ed. The Timber Wolves will just jump over the trench.”
“Not if we fasten some gems on stakes and have them facing out towards the trench. We are going to need a wall high enough to stop them from jumping over easily and strong enough to stay together.”
“Now how are we going to build that! No of us here knows how to build walls that will do the job.”
“I have experience in building defenses to protect dens before. The only reason that the defenses failed to protect us was that a dragon found us.”
“Wait. what do you mean found? I thought he attack your den?”
“Well, that was our defense from dragons during the time, camouflage. Our den entrance was hidden from plain sight that the only… way... too…” that the only way to find it was if you know where it is.
“Ah, Ed? You ok there?”
“Forget it. Anyways, I will be supervising the building of the wall, while Rover’s team digs the trench. We don’t know when the Timber Wolves will come, and they will, we have to get these projects done A.S.A.P.” It got quiet for some reason. when I look at the dogs they were looking at each other in confusion until one of them spoke up.
“What does a sap means?”
“As soon as possible.”
“Oh! Got it.”
“Dismiss.”