The Red Lands

The morning greeted Chu with cold air and a white landscape. The snow that had blanketed the ground with a thin cover during the night already showed signs of melting. Patches of brown and faded yellow dotted the landscape.

In the village, winter didn't have a fixed date on the calendar of the illiterate. Hardships followed the sight of snow.

Chu decided to alter his plans.

As predicted, with the sight of snow, the village erupted into a boil.

The first move began when villagers headed en masse to the forest to stock up on firewood.

The certainty of the woodsmen halting their work of felling trees when the road becomes impassable drove them. This incident meant a gradual shortage of branches for firewood. To delay and wait until the scramble concluded, guaranteed a shortage of manageable logs, and taking a gamble on your life.

Merchants began to tally their loads of lumber, pelts, and firewood to make their way out of the village. They would return in spring when the roads between the villages reopened. During winter, only the garrison and mercenaries would frequent the roads, and that was a rarity.

The thought of traveling out with the merchants to a bigger town had always crossed Chu's mind. The problems, however, outweighed the gains. His portfolio led much to be desired as an illiterate twelve-year-old with hardly any money and backing. He possessed no formal training in battle, so death awaited him in a scuffle.

He knowledge as an inventor required assistance, and he had yet to formulate the timeline of the world as compared to Earth. Understandably, most of his understanding came from the daily use of modern-day necessities. The principles behind the workings of tools and machinerycame from watching documentaries, when nothing else crossed his mind.

In essence, revolutionizing this world required thought, planning, and assistance from the engineers and scientists of this world. For now, this route lay shelved as a pipe dream.

In all, he summed it up to being dealt a bad hand in this so-called reincarnation.

"Ming, how long do we have until the slum begins to riot for supplies?"

The boy standing at the side scratched his head.

They were currently bundled and bunched, standing near the path to the forest. The sight of snow arrived like an ill omen.

"Ahhh, I think it was about two weeks into winter. Yeah... because a couple of times when I ventured out gathering firewood, my blankets and the firewood I had stocked up vanished. Good thing I had hidden my food supplies, or I would have died."

Chu scratched his chin in silence.

From Ming's experience, the best time for stealing occurred when everyone was out. Given that some people lived single and hustled like Ming, the cycle would continue. Unless people started to team up with some foraging while others guarded, the lone dweller would be screwed. As Ming explained during the discussion, group formations that drafted in the strong and fit might have started.

"Who did you team up with last year?"

"How did you know I teamed up? I stayed with Old Man Roy. He passed away at the end of Spring."

Chu leaned against the thick trunk of the tree.

If they were not careful, they could lose everything. In the chaos for survival, even Lucy and the girls would be at risk of being stolen. They probably fell under the classification of luxury items.

"New plan. We head out to gather as much firewood in the mornings and stash it away like usual. Get as many mushrooms as we can in that one trip."

He stopped to think for a minute and continued.

"Sakura and Dyna will remain working in the hut. In the evening, we will rest and manufacture pellets and oil. Before sunset, we head to our tree and hunt for the night. Until we catch another beast of worth, we cannot leave the slums."

He had to risk another night in the forest. They needed funds desperately for supplies.

"But what if we can't catch anything? All the hunters and trappers are out during the day. They're trying to make last-minute sales before the merchants leave. Once that happens, the price of fresh pelts will fall since only the Trading Post will buy."

Lucy frowned as she replied.

She was all in favor of them leaving now for the hideout. Who knows when ruffians would start to take advantage of the situation? Stories that dealt with the fate of girls in the slums were common.

"We can't go. I know why you insist, but we NEED money. When we leave, we can't afford to be traversing the grasslands to and from our home. A stock of adequate supplies is a must. The only compromise is that if by the end of the week we catch nothing, you and the girls will go."

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He looked over to the bustling forest path not far from them.

"In one week, we must earn some more coins."

The three stood with Chu explaining, and the two nodding in agreement.

With this plan decided, they followed it for the next few days.

In the mornings, they hunted for firewood and trekked across the grassland to stash the bundles in the ruined house. On returning, they would collect the harvested mushrooms and head back into the slums. The bundles of firewood they carried to the hut for fuel was small to avoid envious eyes.

Ming would make the Trading Post run for the waste materials and strain out as much fat as possible before returning to the shack. He would only bring a little of the blood that was used as a lure in the forest. Chu made the girls move into the shack. Their work focused on finishing the sewing and distilling the oil. In the late evening, the trio sneaked out and spent the night in the tree they had prepared.

Four nights passed without sighting the shadow of any creature. Wolf howls, low growls, and unknown shrieks sounded more frequent, but kept a distance. One night, a gray wolf came by, but after feeding on the pellets and not having any success with them, it retreated. By the time the wolf became weak under the influence of poison, it was long gone

Chu was not brave enough to chase a wolf on open ground. Especially if he felt unsure as to the effects of the poison. Even with the three of them, he considered the act suicidal. After Lucy's poor analysis of the epic battle, he sobered up in understanding that a wolf merely had to swat his flimsy spear and clamp its jaws on his scrawny neck.

"Looks like it would be hard to lure any beast with the amount of hunters in the forest. I swear I heard people walking around last night."

Ming grumbled as they gathered the firewood in the morning after a fruitless stakeout.

The toll of only resting in the evenings before waking and remaining vigilant through the night had him in a grumpy mood.

Chu sat on a tree root, fighting to wrap the shaved, supple bark around a firework stack. Even with the proper diet, he realized the detrimental effects of poor rest.

"We will sleep tonight. Tomorrow we will try our luck, we all need rest."

Since they formed a team, they had been eating well. As such, slowly, they were beginning to fill out from their once-starved bodies. As children, these night excursions tested the limits of their bodies. After nearly slipping off the tree last night, Chu understood he had reached the limit of his endurance.

The shack brimmed with five children.

The redhead with the green eyes and adventurous spirit, and the brunette with her brown eyes displaying a character of a slow and steady mindset. Dyna longed to run out to adventure with them, but Sakura held her in check. Dyna's questions circled their nightly escapades, while Sakura focused on the tasks and required wares and tools.

Lucy matched his age and height, with blue eyes and blonde hair reaching her shoulders. Within the hut, she unwrapped her head, displaying her smooth, milky face. She and the girls slept on one side of the fire, with Ming and Chu on the other, closer to the door. Both of them hid the machete and knife under the quilts when they rested.

With the fire blazing and warm covers, it was easy to fall asleep.

The two girls opted to continue their work in silence while the others snoozed.

The slums had already started to change.

Groups formed with the unoccupied shacks broken down by their owners to serve as stockpiles. Ming and Lucy demolished their shacks and shared the majority of their firewood with the children and the elderly.

Chu made a trip to the Trading Post and negotiated for a bale of rags to share out among the children. In his position, he did his best for the moment. He knew from interacting with his companions, the slum held both the despicable and the unfortunate. As for demonstrating kindness, by going out of his way, he wasn't that naive. Sharing supplies meant he owned them.

If anyone rated him a coward for not acting, so be it. He could barely protect himself, much less others.

In the morning, he received his reports,

"We have five jars of this mushroom and oil. There are also five jars filled with oil."

Chu nodded his head towards Dyna, who was talking.

He had tested a jar with oil alone, lighting the stuffed rag to see how it burned. Other than spouting more smoke than normal, it proved a good substitute for an oil lamp. When they moved into their new home, he planned to test them. If they could light without the jars breaking from the heat, he would have an adequate source of light at his disposal.

"The sheets are done, and we've sewn a few more quilts from them already. We still have to finish more of the clothes like how you wanted."

"Good work, with your help, we should be covered from the cold."

They were almost ready to move out. The only criterion outstanding remained the food supply. He stood firm in his decision to limit their trips to and fro, from the village. The open grasslands provided sparse cover and escape from ambush and attacks. Not to mention the risk of freezing to death during the trek.

"We are going to have to make a trip soon. We have too many things here that don't belong in a slum child's home."

"I agree, if someone pokes their head into our shack, we might be accused of stealing. Of course, that would just be the excuse to confiscate our belongings."

"We are still short of some items besides food. I don't want us making extra runs back to the village."

The conversations went along as Chu cut out some cloth to show Sakura what he wanted.

"What are you making?"

"Socks."

"Socks?"

"Yes, it will be worn on the feet and held up by a cloth strap. It keeps the feet warm and dry in the shoes."

"Wow! Is there something like that?"

Chu was sure that the towns and cities had stockings or something like them. He didn't recall seeing anyone using socks from the previous owner's memory. Maybe he could strike a deal with Griz over it. The problem was that he had to take whatever he was offered. He had no strength to back him in a business. Copyright laws didn't exist at this time.

Chu dropped off ten coppers at home and informed his mother of his plan to shack up for the winter. Although she begged him to return, they both knew the strain it would cause on their resources.

He left after promising to keep visiting in between winter to comfort her that he was still ok. He used the excuse that he had to help his friends, whom he had borrowed some coins from.

***

"Last night it snowed, so we are going to have to be very careful on the branches."

"The ropes should be helpful at this time."

They left in the evening to head into the forest. Only by risking his life would he be able to fly out of the slums. That was a place where luck was hard to come by. Since he arrived in this crappy world he was suffering. Thank the stars he was so far beneath people's eyes that nobody wanted to dirty their hands with him.