n

n

nBam!

nCough! Cough! Cough!

nThe blood violently reacted to the flame spark and exploded upon contact, as it went up in flames…

n

"Take… Place it in your room to light it up, and give you a little warmth…

"

n

"It also works well when you are planning to keep away those eerie grey smoke that keeps coming out of the ground…

"

nUncle Min handed what would be Dara's makeshift lamp to him…

n

"That is the combustible substance I was telling you about…

"

n

"We will be entering the season of war in about three months, so we would have this in abundance, as well as more than enough carcasses…

" Uncle Min added…

n

"Season of war… I have only heard about it, and never witnessed it before, even though our village defenses had almost been defeated by one before...

"

n

"But back then I was part of the people they sent into shelter to protect, whilst my sister was the one who went out to do battle…

"

nDara responded but his tone saddened when he spoke about his sister…

n

"Kid, the war in the dark lads are nothing compared to the ones we have here…

" Uncle Min explained;

n

"Most times, we usually go about two straight months without fire, or stepping outside, because beasts and monsters roam the area every single minute of the day…

" He added with a shake of his head and a deep sigh;

n

"Are you saying we will have to face the same fate if we don't finish moving before the season of war begins?

"

nDara's eyes almost exploded out of his eyes socket, when he thought about beasts on the level of the one that passed by his room last night roaming around their house every single time of the day…

nThat means, they can't go out to hunt, light up any type of fire, making any type of noise or sound, even coughing or breathing to hard might bring death upon them;

n

"Yes, that is exactly what I am saying, only that this time, there is no food, which means we would have to choose between holing up in here and starving to death, or going outside to hunt and being eaten alive by wandering beasts and monster…

"

nUncle Min added as Dara swallowed heavily, he didn't know how or when, but he felt a drop of cold sweat run from his forehead, down his cheek and drop off his chin, onto his cloth…

n

"I had been thinking we had the entire three months to simply create a new shelter atop the plateau, but it seems we will have to gather resources, build our shelter and also erect some defenses around our shelter all within these three months…

" Dara muttered out as Uncle Min consoled;

n

"Well, if one is determined and courageous enough, there would be nothing unachievable or impossible such a person…

"

n

"We need to work fast, and quick…

"

n

"Furthermore, we would need a serious change of plan…

"

nDara spoke as he looked to Aunt Lin who just entered from preparing the kill Uncle Min brought back from the hunt…

n

"We should get some sleep, and set out as early as possible tomorrow…

"

n

"We have tons upon tons of work to do…

"

nDara spoke absentmindedly as he had been calculating how much time it took the little amount of beast blood in the bowl to burn out…

n

"Then we had better eat well enough to get enough strength for the task ahead…

"

nAunt Lin said as she removed the fur she used to cover the huge tray More like a simple wooden slab of food she had brought in…

nThey all dug into the food and went to sleep early…

nIf they really wanted to survive the war season, then they must give their all in accomplishing Dara's plan to achieving that aim…

nDawn the next morning…

nIt was still slightly foggy, and grey plumes of energy was still billowing out of the earth telling them that the beasts and monsters are just returning to hibernation or sleep…

nDara and the couple set out with Aunt Lin in the middle carrying some needed supplies, whilst Uncle Min and Dara each held a machete as they protected her from either sides…

nWork began today, and they were not going to stand on any ceremony…

nIn less than an hour, they reached the plateau which Aunt Lin had found the day before, and Dara had to say;

n

"This is perfect… I am really impressed…

"

nThey had walked about 45 minutes from the nearest clearing through thick, high and heavy jungle to get to this place, and luckily for them there was spring pouring out of the rock and was flowing down the other side of the plateau far into the jungle…

n

"First thing on the agenda, we have to disable this water from flowing down that channel…

"

n

"It is a recipe for life and death, since it would be providing us with an essential resource, but also be attracting many beasts, and monster who are thirsty…

"

nDara spoke as Uncle Min asked;

n

"How do you suppose we do that?

"

n

"Well, we dig a massive trench around the entire plateau, creating a ring of water around the plateau…

"

n

"Won't the trench begin to overflow after a while?

" Aunt Lin added;

n

"Don't worry, I have a plan for all that…

"

n

"So, how do we begin?

" Uncle Min asked, seemingly raring to go…

nIt seems eating good food over the last two days had really rekindled his fighting spirit…

nMin Hong picked a stick nearby and drew a circle on the ground;

n

"This is the plateau…

" He began to narrate his plan;

n

"We start by digging… We have to dig to contain the water first, and it should be at least, ten meters off the plateau wall so as to prevent it from corrosion…

" He drew another circle outside the first circle....

nThen after that, he drew another one;

n

"Then dig another trench about 10 meters away from the ring of water and that would serve as our first line of defense…

" Then he drew a third circle about ten meters from the first line of defense;

n

"Then we dig another trench here, another 10 meters from our first line of defense and this would serve as our second line of defense…

" Dara finished as Uncle Min chipped in;

n

"Digging the trench is no problem, but how do we get to the get on top of the plateau?

"

n

"I have a plan for that also, but for now, and throughout today, we dig!

" Dara spoke as Aunt Lin added;

n

"But we only have one digging equipment…

"

nDara heard this and was slightly perplexed, he hadn't even thought of the equipment they would need for the labor;

n

"That changes nothing…

"

n

"I and Uncle Min would alternate between digging and logging, whilst you will roam about ten meters around the plateau to find other resources we might need…

"

nDara said as he handed the machete in his hand to the lady, and collected the digging equipment which through wasn't sharp, but the way it was created, made it more efficient that other sharp tools…

n

"I will dig for an hour whilst you log, and we will swap places at the hour mark and I will log whilst you dig…

"

n

"We will go at that pace, taking fifteen minutes break between each work time…

"

n

"The last hour would involve us rushing back home, and tomorrow, we will resume the same schedule…

"

nDara explained as they all split into three different directions and began to work…

nFor the males, it was more like a training session rather than work, whilst for Aunt Lin, it was more about learning about the herbs in the area, and knowing which one was edible, and which was not…

nAs well as which one was good for healing and which one was poisonous…

nThus, their work began…

nAs for Dara, it was time to begin his first step into forcing out his meridians…

nHe stood at the edge of the spring and moved about two feet away from the source, and started digging round in the opposite direction, otherwise, he might end up drowning in the pit and end up dying in the same pit he is digging for the source of life What an irony!

nPa! Pa! Pa!

nThe sound of a machete cutting into a tree trunk rang out as Dara looked to Uncle Min and bellowed;

n

"Uncle Min!?

"

n

"Yeah!

"

n

"Can you start cutting from about ten feet high up the tree?

"

nHe asked but Uncle Min simply responded by putting off his upper clothes, rolling it into a rod like shape, and then tying himself to the tree, before climbing up to a ten feet height See Palm-wine Tappers in action… then he continued his work from there…

nDara also looked to the spot he had chosen to start digging from and wondered how he was going to dig around this massive twenty meter radius plateau…

nSo he dug a ten feet wide pit that was twenty feet deep, and when he got to the bottom of the pit, he started digging from beneath it, like as if he was digging an underground tunnel, rather than a ditch…

nThen after about half an hour, he had already dug about a ten feet tunnel from his starting position, and then he clawed himself out, and walked atop the tunnel, and then began to dig from the same ten feet distance, from the top into the ground…

nUncle Min watched him with a confused expression whilst logging the trees, but then, the moment Dara dug about a foot deep from the top of the tunnel, the entire ten feet long tunnel caved in, and Dara then jumped back into the pit and began to pack the dirt to the side closer to the plateau…

nUncle Min saw this and was pleasantly surprised as he mumbled to himself;

n

"This kid seems much wiser than he looks… What an efficient digging method, allowing gravity to do a part of the work…

"

nThen he look towards the tree he was cutting, and descended…

nMin Hong watched Uncle Min descend and wondered what he wanted to do…

nThe trees here were densely packed and were just about 5 feet apart from one another, growing taller and taller since their branches could not spread wide…

nUncle Min grabbed a long rope which seemed to have been made out of braiding lots of smaller vines together into one, and pulled it out of the supply sack Aunt Lin was carrying on their way here…

n