Chapter 104: Chapter 104

“You want us to stay at Bek Tepe?” said elder Sommi Nare.

“But there is not enough food to sustain all of our people through the winter,” said elder Anki, the second elder from the Jenin tribe.

“There are no forests nearby, so we cannot forage for fruits and grains,” said elder Lipo. “And Bek Tepe is known for being free of large monsters. We have only been hunting small monsters for the past few days.”

“And this is the summer,” said elder Konri. “The winter will be difficult. Trees will lose their leaves, the river and streams will be too cold for fish, and there may not be any monsters within hunting distance.”

I raised my hands, heading off any further concerns. “Okay, I understand,” I said, “but hear me out, okay? You guys have been learning magic for a while now. Everyone is able to use at least some kind of elemental magic. A few of you can even do motion magic. If you stay together here, you could start learning the really complicated spell, like the one’s Kelser has been learning from me!” I gestured towards Kelser, who raised his hands to the air and called forth a small rain cloud. We were high enough up here on Bek Tepe, that the cloud formed right over his hands and started pouring water over his head.

The elders reacted with amazement. I gestured towards Kelser, and he stopped his spell. We were far enough away from the other camps, that nobody else should have noticed this spell. I asked the elders if they thought this magic was worth it, and they agreed that it was impressive. However, they said there was no point in staying to learn magic if they couldn’t find enough food to feed themselves.

“And that’s why I want to teach you more than just magic,” I gestured towards my tent. Kirs Nare and Kann Imm, the couple from the wedding, appeared from behind the tent, rolling a large wooden wheel. Elder Kezler also revealed the copper weapons he’d hidden under a bit of monster hide. I let the elders look at the wheel and the copper weapons, and explained that they were tools that I had helped create. The wheel could be used to carry heavy objects over large distances, especially if you could get a monster to pull it for you.

“A monster?” said Priest Mal. “Do you know magic that allows you to control monsters, Teacher Cas?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know a spell like that, but I do have some ideas on how we can tame some monsters. See, monsters are kind of like humans and elves. They struggle for food and survival just like we do. And if they can get a stable source of food which comes with a bit of safety, they’ll take it.”

“But we don’t even have enough food for ourselves,” said elder Konri. “How will we feed a monster?”

“I’ll get to that,” I said. “But I want to mention that the copper weapons that elder Kezler just showed you are also very useful. They aren’t much sharper than your flint weapons, but they are more durable. Unlike flint, which can shatter on impact, copper can only bend or become misshapen. Also, it’s a lot easier to work with copper. We can shape it into different forms, which means we can even make tools like these.” I pointed to a rudimentary shovel that Kelser had brought from behind my tent.

“What is this used for?” asked elder Sommi.

“Great question,” I said. “See, I’ve been wondering about our food problem, and realized that the problem isn’t the availability of the food, it’s our ability to access it. There are a lot of monsters and fruits and vegetables and grains all over the wilderness, but we can’t grab all of it. We don’t have enough hunters and foragers, and we would have to go over large distances to find enough to feed all of the people that are currently staying at Bek Tepe. But, what if we never had to leave to get our food. What if, the food was always here from the start!”

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“What do you mean?” said elder Konri as she furrowed her brows. “Is there food under the ground? Should we dig for it?”

“No, I mean we can just grow our own food!” I said.

The elders were confused, so I had to spend some time explaining the basics of farming and agriculture. They already knew about the way plants reproduced, since some tribes lived near forests and did many small things to manage the forest. Things like weeding out the land around important trees and plants, or scattering seeds from certain fruit after they were done eating them. If I had not come around, it was pretty likely those tribes would have started cultivating small bits of farmland to supplement their hunter gatherer lifestyle.

I had been hesitating to introduce such a radical change to their society, since I had already messed up by not respecting and understand their way of life. Besides, early agricultural societies back home had probably been worse off than advanced hunter gatherer ones, because of a prevalence of disease, inconsistencies of harvest, and the long time it takes to properly domesticate plants and animals. It probably took thousands of years for humans on my Earth to make agriculture work properly, and it may have been a gradual process, full of failure and death.

But in the end, I figured it was worth it. The people of this world had something the humans of my world didn’t: magic. They could use rain magic to make sure their crops were properly watered, earth magic to build dams or canals to protect against flooding, and motion magic to help with sowing and weeding. I was sure more specialized magic spells would be invented at some point, which would make farming even more efficient.

The biggest reason I wanted to help kick-start the agricultural revolution in this world, was because I was worried about what would happen if I let the humans split up too much for too long. Not only was Noel out there, perhaps looking for revenge, but the immortals had already meddled with these tribesmen before. There was no telling what the immortals would do once the humans left my side. I knew my presence wasn’t keeping the immortals at bay, since they’d played around with me too, but I was certain all three immortals had their eyes on me, which meant none of them could interfere as easily as they could with an isolated tribe.

“Teacher Cas,” said elder Konri. “We trust you. Your knowledge exceeds our own. Your judgment is praiseworthy. And your moral character is excellent.”

I waved off the compliments. Elder Konri had a sweet, silver tongue which worked well with her formal demeanor. She was incredibly diplomatic, but she loved tradition. I was expecting her to be the most resistant to big changes like the ones I was proposing.

“Growing our own food is a wonderful idea, and one that I believe all of us will try to implement in our own homelands, if we are able. However, all we know is how to hunt and to forage. It is our way of life. It is what we were taught by our parents, who learned it from their parents, and so on until the earliest of our ancestors of whom not even the stories speak. For us to change our entire way of life like this is something we are prepared to do for you. But it is difficult to risk the lives of our people by forcing them to stay in this relatively barren area for the winter. We cannot be sure that we will be able to feed them with your method. It is a massive experiment. One that is far too risky to do here, on Bek Tepe,” said elder Konri Oko.

“I agree,” said elder Mann Imm. He was a purple haired old man, whose actual personality was much milder than his colorful hair would suggest. Every time I saw his serious expression surrounded by a mane of purple hair, I had to remind myself there were no hair dyes in this world, and that the people of his tribe simply had hair like that. “But I also think we must listen to the great—I mean, to Teacher Cas. Perhaps we can find a more suitable location for the winter, and bring all of our tribes there. Then, we can carry out this experiment more safely.”

The elders chatted with each other, clearly impressed by Mann Imm’s proposal. I put a hand on my chin. It wasn’t a bad idea. There were some fields below Bek Tepe, but they were all surrounded by terrain that wasn’t useful for agriculture. I had no idea if the soil here was any good either, and if the temperature was going to drop like the humans said it would, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to find someplace else to settle for the winter.

“Alright,” I said, clapping my hands to get people’s attention. “Does anyone have any ideas for where we should build our first farm?”