Building harem town, p.5
Building Harem Town, page 5
“Aleia, you said you were an expert at crafting, so what have you created in the past?” I asked the fairy.
“Well, my master, the fairies are largely a peaceful race, so I have less experience with weapons than with other items,” the strawberry-blonde replied in her quiet voice. “It’s not that we don’t have weapons at all, but special artisans usually craft them. I have carved furniture before, and helped to build our woodland homes, but I think I should be able to naturally adapt to anything you wish me to create.”
“I can’t wait to spear a fish for you, my sisters!” Penelope said in an excited voice, and I heard her clap her hands from behind Nicola. “It will taste so good roasted over the fire this evening.”
“You’re going to have to work fairly quickly,” I warned the women. “I’d hate for you not to have a solid meal again tonight.”
“At least it is near the summer solstice,” Nicola remarked. “We have more hours of light than we would during the other months of the year.”
As experienced an outdoorsman as I was, I had to admit I wasn’t feeling great at judging what time it was from the position of the sun since I’d relied on my phone to tell me the time for many years, like everyone else in the modern world. I didn’t find myself missing my screen time too much, though the digital interface and the game like quests definitely made this experience more interesting.
“Alright, let’s find some saplings,” I said. “There are a bunch right here. I would say we want pieces of wood that are at least a bit taller than Nicola.
Aleia still had the axe in her hand, and I watched through Nicola’s eyes as she quickly identified a tree that would work as a spear.
“This tree should be good, Aleia,” the brunette said as she gestured to the sapling, which was about six inches in diameter.
“I agree,” the fairy said, and she knelt down on the ground.
I was going to give Aleia directions, but I realized it was unnecessary because she was already using the exact right technique. The strawberry-blonde gripped the trunk of the sapling in her left hand and began to chop at the base of the tree with the other, and when it was cut almost all the way through, the fairy stood up and broke the tree down with her hands.
“Nice job, Aleia,” I praised the fairy.
“Thank you, master!” Aleia looked with satisfaction at the wood she’d chopped down and laid the sapling down on the ground. She dusted off her hands, and then she handed the axe to Nicola.
“Here, sister, I want you to have a chance, as well,” the fairy told the human. “I know you will likely be the one to wield these weapons the most, and I’m sure you would like to help with their creation.”
“Thank you,” Nicola responded in a friendly voice. “Yes, I am very interested in this process.”
Nicola and Aleia passed the axe back and forth between them as they continued to cut down trees and chatter with each other and Penelope. The naiad didn’t seem as interested in the woodworking as the other two women, but when Nicola turned back to look at her, I saw Penelope bouncing up and down on her toes in excitement with a huge smile on her lips. Her waist-length blonde hair glimmered in the sunlight, and the contrast with her pale-blue skin made for an incredible appearance. I’d never seen such an unusually beautiful creature before, even in all the games I’d played, and I wondered if I was just feeling particularly attracted to her because of what I’d seen at the creek this morning.
“Ow!” Aleia suddenly cried out in pain. She’d been chopping down the last tree we needed, and it appeared from my perspective that she’d cut herself with the axe. She immediately sat down on the forest floor and clutched at her hand, and her normally rosy cheeks paled as I saw blood streaming through her fingers.
“Nicola, bend down to look at Aleia’s hand,” I instructed the human woman, and she complied with my wishes and knelt down next to her fellow priestess.
Shit. It looked like she’d gouged the edge of her palm with the blade, and bright crimson blood flowed down onto the ground.
I couldn’t tell how big the cut was, but these women were probably super low on vitamins and blood plasma platelets.
“Aleia, are you okay?” I heard Penelope cry out, and the fairy nodded, but her lips were set into a tight line. I could tell she was in pain, and I didn’t want to take any chances.
“Penelope, run and get some cloth from the garden,” I said in a grim tone. “We need to fix her up quickly, or she could be in big trouble.”
Chapter 4
“Nicola, quick, take the axe and try to find some pine sap,” I instructed the brunette. I knew it could be useful for wound care, although I’d never actually used it myself. “You can usually find it where there are broken branches on evergreen trees. Use the edge of the blade to collect it.”
“Yes, Jack, pine sap…” Nicola replied in a hesitant voice, but after she glanced back at her injured friend, she quickly walked over to a nearby fir tree and started to scan the bark.
I didn’t want to take my eyes off Aleia, but I decided to switch to Penelope’s point of view as the naiad dashed back to the camp to make sure she got the right supplies. Her feet were bare, but she was still running fast to help her friend.
“Penelope, we’re going to want water to rinse the cut and a bandage to wrap it up,” I explained to the naiad.
“Yes, I understand, my lord,” Penelope panted as she continued to sprint back to the garden. “I have refilled my canteen with water from the stream I bathed in, and that should have given it some healing powers if we need it.”
We quickly reached the garden, and the naiad glanced around for a moment until she spied her meager bedding. She immediately picked up a thin piece of material, and she seemingly didn’t think twice before she ripped the fabric with her teeth and tore off a long, thin strip.
“Good thinking, Penelope,” I praised the blue woman. “Hurry back now to help Aleia.”
The naiad made her way back through the woods to the spot where Aleia was sitting. I saw Nicola knelt next to the fairy and was stroking her long, reddish hair, and I was touched at the dark-haired woman’s kindness to her friend.
The axe was sitting on the ground next to the two women, and I saw Nicola had been successful in collecting some pine sap. The tip of the blade was coated with sticky, amber-colored resin, and I hoped that by using the sap along with the water from the spring we could heal Aleia quickly.
“Okay, Nicola, just dab it on,” I told the brunette. “Pine sap has healing and antiseptic powers, so it’s really good for wounds.”
“I understand, Jack.” Nicola had a determined look on her face as she took Aleia’s small hand in her own. When the dark-haired woman put the pine sap on the cut, the bleeding slowed to a trickle, and the brunette looked up with triumph in her eyes. “Jack, you did it! It’s barely bleeding anymore!”
Success was mine, and it didn’t even look like the magic water or the bandage were needed. I was glad the fairy’s cut hadn’t been any worse, and that my solution actually helped her.
“Jack… my lord… I’m so sorry I was foolish,” Aleia finally spoke up in a trembling voice, and my heart broke a little for the small fairy. “But I do think I’m feeling a little better, as the pine resin helped to ease my pain.”
“Aleia, please don’t think you did anything wrong,” I tried to reassure her. “Accidents can happen to anyone, and I’m glad it doesn’t hurt as much anymore. You’ll just need to keep an eye on it. Thank you, Penelope and Nicola, because you acted very quickly and bravely in this emergency.”
“I’m just… I’m afraid we don’t have time to make the spears anymore today,” the fairy whimpered as she looked up at the angle of the sun in the sky, and tears started to fall again from her sea-green eyes. “And then my sisters and I won’t get to eat, and it’s all my fault.”
“You can still make the spears,” I assured the strawberry-blonde. “You didn’t really waste much time at all.”
“Well, let’s get to it, then,” Nicola declared, and she led the women back to the garden with the trees in hand. When they got there, she walked over to the center of the space. “Penelope, Aleia, come over here with me.”
“Of course, Nicola,” the blue naiad said as she went to join the beautiful human.
Aleia followed, too, and then they all stood in a circle around the pile of wood.
“So… what to do first?” I mused. “Let’s get the fire going again, since we’re eventually going to need to char the tips of the wood so they can be polished. While you’re doing that, Aleia, Nicola can cut the wood so the spears are all the same length.”
“Yes, my heavenly lord, I understand,” the fairy said with a nod. “Let me get the fire burning again. This process is fascinating to me, and I’m so excited to learn more about it.”
Aleia walked over to work on the fire, and the other two women and I examined the wood we were going to use for the spears. Some of them were a fair amount longer than six feet, so I wanted Nicola to cut them down to size first, since I thought making sure all the spears were a consistent length would help the women get used to using them accurately.
“Nicola, let’s cut down the wood to the length of the shortest piece,” I instructed the brunette, and I watched as she knelt down on the ground and selected the shortest spear of wood, measured the other two against it, and put a notch in both at the location where she wanted to cut them. “Smart thinking. Your process is way better than having to measure all of them again.”
“Thank you, Jack,” the beautiful, chestnut-haired woman replied as she began to chop away at the wood where she’d marked it. “That’s kind of you to say.”
Nicola quickly cut the spears to the correct length based on the notches she’d made, and when I turned to look at Aleia, I saw she had the fire burning strong again.
“You should now use your daggers to sharpen the points,” I explained. “Nicola, do you want to do the honors of getting the knives?”
“Yes, Jack, I would love to,” the beautiful brunette said with a big smile on her face.
The dark-haired woman walked over to the women’s supplies, grabbed the three knives, and headed back to the group.
“Okay, so now you’re just going to have to whittle the wood using your blades to remove the bark and form a tapered point,” I explained.
The priestesses all began to work on their individual spears. Aleia’s hand was steady, but it took the other two women a little longer. They were each able to sharpen the wood into the desired shape, though, and Penelope held hers up into the air.
“Does this look good, master?” the naiad asked. “I’m starting to be able to imagine throwing this at someone.”
“Don’t throw it yet,” I laughed. “The next step is to char the spears in the fire you built, Aleia. Charring the wood will allow you polish them up to a point with another piece of wood.”
I thought for a second about having the women make stone arrowheads, but that would be more difficult at the moment. Besides, they had to start somewhere, and the baked wooden points of the spears would be good enough for now.
The women nodded with serious expressions on their faces, and they all went over to stand by the fire. Then Aleia picked up a stick off the ground and started to mess with the kindling to get the flames to rise higher.
“I will char the end of each spear,” Nicola announced in an authoritative tone.
“Just blacken it a bit and don’t let it burn all the way off,” I told the brunette. “We need to bake it so it becomes strong, hard, and retains its integrity.”
The brunette nodded, and then she held the tips of all the spears inside the flames.
“What should I work on, my lord?” Penelope asked with a furrowed brow. “Is there something I can do for you?”
“Penelope…” I began to speak to the naiad, but I drifted off. It appeared Nicola was successfully completing the task that had been assigned to her, and I thought it might be a good time to ask the naiad about some of the things I’d been wondering. I suspected the blue woman might best know how to answer me because she was the most devout believer. “What else do you know about me? Am I the only deity in this world?”
“No, my lord, there are many deities people worship,” the blue beauty explained. “You do not have many believers at all right now, although I am hoping to change that because I have heard so many things about your greatness.”
“What have you heard?” I asked.
“So many wonderful things!” Penelope gushed with a huge smile on her lips. “They say you are the creator of all life, the father of the woodlands, the deity of the waters, the god of ones and zeroes…”
If I had a physical heart, it would have stuttered to a stop inside my chest.
What the hell did she just say?
“Wait, the god of ones and zeroes?” I questioned the naiad, and the words echoed through my mind like a ringing bell. “Is that… what you really said?”
Suddenly, everything inside my brain went fuzzy for a moment. The words seemed to have triggered something in my mind, but I couldn’t put a finger on what was going on.
The god of ones and zeroes, the god of ones and zeroes. What the hell did it mean?
And then, suddenly, I heard a deep, masculine voice speaking inside my head.
Jack, you’re totally the god of ones and zeroes! the voice laughed, but I had no idea who was talking. Man, what you built is totally amazing. You’re going to change the world.
“Jack, are you there?” I heard Penelope say in an anxious voice. “Did you go somewhere? Is something wrong? Did I displease you, my lord?”
The garden came back into focus, and I saw the naiad kneeling before my altar with a stressed-out look in her eyes.
“Oh, Penelope, no, of course you didn’t displease me,” I assured her. “I was just lost in my own mind.”
“Do you understand what ‘ones and zeros’ means?” the blue woman asked. “That never made any sense to me at all…”
“Yes, I do understand what it means,” I replied, though my head still felt fuzzy. “It has to do with computers, which are machines that-- you know what, never mind. I don’t think it’s something you’d understand, because I don’t think they’re from this world.”
“Com… puters?” Penelope said as she tried to pronounce the word, which seemed totally foreign to her. “But yes, ones and zeroes…”
This was so fucking weird, but I tried to mentally shake it off. This world was clearly so primitive other than the interface inside my head, which I couldn’t quite explain, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t recall that vaguely familiar male voice again.
In any case, I had the women to take care of in the present moment.
“Ahem,” I cleared my throat. “What were we doing again? Building spears?”
“Yes, Jack, of course.” The naiad retained a strange expression on her face for a flash, but then she smiled. “Look, Nicola has finished charring the wood. What do we do next?”
“Now, you polish them,” I explained. “There’s a fine-grain looking stone lying on the ground right next to you that should work, so Penelope, do you want to try this part? The fire should have made the stick harder, and it should be easy to smooth.”
Penelope picked up the stone I’d mentioned and polished the end of each weapon quickly. Then the naiad handed one to each woman, and they each looked at their weapons with pride.
“How do I look with a spear in my hand, Jack?” the blue woman asked as she positioned herself into an offensive stance.
“You look like you’re ready to fight and win,” I chuckled. “In any case, wonderful job, everyone. Now, you each have a spear!”
“We are thankful for your guidance, our heavenly master,” Penelope said as she bowed her head in gratitude and clasped her weapon tightly in both hands.
The spear was at least half a foot taller than she was, and I approximated the curvaceous naiad’s height at about five foot five. I guessed the slim yet muscular Nicola was at least four or five inches taller than the blue woman, and tiny Aleia couldn’t have even been five feet tall, although she appeared to be holding her weapon with ease. Her wings were attached to the middle of her back, and the glimmering, pale-amethyst appendages stretched over her head and then down to her knees.
“Whew,” I sighed. “Great work, everyone.”
“Should we go over to the stream?” Penelope asked, and I could see her blue eyes had brightened. “You know I have a special connection with the creatures of the water, and I’m sure I will find it easy to catch a trout.”
“I know I will be able to catch one easily as well,” Nicola cut in with her chin up in the air. “Since I’m so good with animals of all kinds…”
“Why don’t you each try to catch one?” I suggested. “It will be good practice for all of you.”
“Meet you all at the stream! ” Penelope announced, and before I knew it, the naiad had dashed off through the trees.
Nicola and I watched as her blue form disappeared off into the distance.
“I guess she’s excited,” Aleia giggled, and then the fairy and the human began to stroll toward the stream at a much slower pace than the naiad.
The sun had already begun to sink below the horizon as the women walked toward the water, and when the two women left the garden, I decided to focus my vision using Nicola’s point of view. The dark-haired woman glanced up at the sunset, and I could see the sky was streaked with colors ranging from deep-orange to yellow. The few puffy clouds that floated above the forest almost looked purple in the fading light, and I marveled at the beauty of the new world I was in. Despite my love of the outdoors back home, I was starting to realize just how much time I’d spent in my gaming chair ignoring my real surroundings.
When Aleia and Nicola reached the stream, Penelope was already standing in the water with her spear aimed at the current. The naiad had already attracted a small school of trout that swam around her body, and as Nicola watched, the blue woman thrust out her spear so fast it was almost imperceptible.
