It would do. It kind of had to, because the second they got back, literally standing on his doorstep was not one, but three, high ranking officials asking for more fields. Or it sounded that way from what Tor could understand. Two of them were trying to talk over each other. Both looked a bit put out by the other too. Because of course they should each be going first.
“Um, well… It’s going to be a bit. I have to make some rivers and, you know, sleep some time soon. But I’ll try to get right on those…” Tor had no clue what the men wanted at all. Floundering he looked around until one of them, a man that looked vaguely familiar, spoke. He’d been at the meeting about the war… Tor drew a blank as to the name though. All he could recall him as was loud map pointer guy.
“Water transport over long distances? That would be helpful. You mentioned water before, and we relocated the base by a river, good call by the way, but the nearly three thousand people we have in training now are using a lot more water than we’d thought originally. This time of year that river is more like a fairly small stream and we have to let the men wash regularly, or else they’ll get sick.”
That made sense. He’d seen similar things in some of the larger families back home. If even one of them was less than clean, everyone could end up ill, especially in the close and cold months of winter when bathing was a freezing hazard and tended to be sketchy even among the dedicated.
“Wait, you added a thousand extra trainees?”
“Well, yes. The council of counts felt that since you obviously can produce the greater numbers of devices we’ll need, it only made sense to add more candidates. Right now we’re only accepting applications from the elite forces however, so it’s felt that at best we should be able to double or triple the amount of trained personnel.”
If he dropped these men into the pit that he’d just dug and buried them, then compacted the earth over the spot for a mile or so, no one would ever find the bodies. He stared for a while and then casually turned to Rolph and said this out loud. He was kidding, but only just. Didn’t they understand how hard, and worse, boring, all this copy work was?
Not at all. Then why would they? They weren’t the ones doing it. Tor sighed and shook his head. Right. Well, he had to do what he could to support the war effort, but seriously, sleep on occasion would be nice. Oh so nice…
The man next to the first put in a request for as many lights as Tor could make. No time limit, no upper cap. Just lights. The goal was to get one to every man in the military, not just the King’s service, but even the County troops, in case night attacks came from the Austrans. The man wasn’t fat, but had that obnoxious kind of beefiness that some men got from a sense of entitlement, taking just a bit more than their actual share at the table each time. His blue uniform had bright red trim and shiny buttons of silver that were probably supposed to look impressive, but made him look like a children’s entertainer instead. Tor decided not to like him. They wanted a half million lights or more? From him, personally? That was… insane.
The final man was short. Only an inch or two taller than he was and maybe in his mid-twenties by look. Instead of asking for something first, he stuck out his right hand and shook country fashion, leaning in from a good ways away, nearly six foot, as was proper when you didn’t already know someone. He wore a nice outfit of heavy canvas that reminded Tor a bit of student browns, except that it was a deep green that pushed into the territory normally held by black. If the others in the group looked a little scary or obnoxious, this man looked efficient, and like he was supposed to be out in the middle of nowhere like this, not getting ready to walk into an audience with the King himself. The properly sized man grinned.
“I’m not here to ask for anything, just thought I’d stop by and say hi. I’m, well it gets complicated, but basically, for all intents and purposes, I’m your uncle. Dan Green. Laurie is my vastly younger sister by the way. By about three hundred years. Dad asked me to handle this little war thing for him and represent County Lairdgren in the council and all that. Finds all this war talk tedious. I can see you’re busy, but remember not to work yourself to death. Trust me; you have time to do things later. If you get a chance, in a few months or so, come by the Capital at Grenwyn and visit your family. Everyone’s curious about the fabled Tor already. Of course I can see why. I was warned, but… Yes, you really do look exactly like him, don’t you?”
“Um, not to sound brilliant, but whom am I supposed to look like?”
Uncle Dan grinned.
“Your grandfather. My dad? Your both… well, I’ll let him explain it, but let’s just say that you have his looks. More closely than anyone could really describe fairly. Don’t let it worry you. I’m sure you’ll both get along famously.”
His smile widened and his eye twinkled as he said all this. Tor just had to thank him, very humbly, and with real feeling, for not asking for anything. It was probably just from being tired, but for a brief moment he really felt like running away and hiding somewhere that no one would be able to find him. The men went away then, laughing, after Rolph told them that he’d been awake and working for nearly four days and so had Tor, and that work had been harder than the Prince getting water and food by far.
“So, not to be rude, but go away. Shew. Shew. Don’t make me… Well, I’m too tired right now to think of something not to make me do, but I’m sure you can all come up with something appropriately menacing.” He pointed a finger towards the little group and gave them a playful look that said he wasn’t really kidding, even though he was.
Dan Green chuckled and started to walk away, calling out for them to not be strangers. The man seemed nice enough at least. Tor hadn’t even known he had an uncle on that side of the family. Then again, what he knew about that side of the family ended at them all mainly having two arms, two legs and a head. That and they weren’t all overly huge.
The pillow nest in the back left hand corner invited him and he couldn’t resist it, falling asleep so fast that he kind of surprised himself. It was light when he woke up, but when he stumbled outside he saw that it was morning and not sundown at all as he’d half wondered when he first saw it. The little hut he’d built, the size of a decent house really, kept out all the light from outside, cave dark he liked to call it when they turned the lights off. It still didn’t have a front door, just his windy privacy entrance, so he nearly walked into Sara as he came out.
She stood there looking anxious, her hair had been cut a lot shorter than he’d seen it before and looked lighter in color. It was cute on her, but he didn’t comment on it, not sure if he was still mad at the girl or not. Tor looked around, first for Trice and then for the trap. He didn’t actually see either one, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t there. No matter what else, Trice was crafty and could probably think four steps ahead of him in intrigue. He was still sleepy after all, so maybe more than that. On the good side women were so rare here that you could spot them in the distance just by how they walked. She stared at him shocked. He couldn’t imagine why though. It was, for lack of a better term, his house. Why shouldn’t he be there?
“Tor! My god, what have they been doing to you? You look… Half dead to tell the truth. Have they been starving you or something?” She blurted all this, her voice sounding concerned as if it were a real emotion for her and not an act.
He didn’t say anything for a long time. Watching carefully he kind of wondered how the men had let her get past the fence line, or more likely, since she wore a flying rig, over it. They…