***MANSION WORKSHOP***
The workshop was busy as usual, the team now consisted of Alastair, Athena, Alexander, Fleur, Luna and three Hobbits that had shown interest. Hilda, Otho and Wulfgar were all Harfoots. They were the shortest of the three branches of Hobbits and as a general rule seemed to be mostly interested in crafting.
Once they had shown an aptitude and interest in high level crafting they were slowly introduced to the truth of their King. The trio of Hobbits had the highest level of education and skills of the Hobbits in the Kingdom. They were also the first to be given the ability to duplicate themselves and were gifted with a much larger magical core.
"Your Majesty, we need to focus our efforts on long range flight systems and weapons before design. Any design we make before those are complete could make the entire design useless."
"I've told you before Hilda, I would rather we stay informal while in my workshop. I do admit you have a valid point, but having a wide variety of design ideas available will still help in the long run." Hilda blushes at my light rebuke before looking over the ideas we were discussing, after a few moments she spoke again.
"We can use the different designs for the smaller ships we're building to test." Hilda stopped and pointed to the centre where a projection of our current design was showcased. "This works fairly well, but nothing beats a real ship we will be able to walk around and actually interact with."
"Once we start testing defences and weapons it will give us a better idea of how ships act in the real world. Design flaws and weak points will quickly become obvious, and I think even make our simulations more realistic."
While the main group was talking, clones of them were working on other aspects like material design. "We were fooling around with the idea of creating an organic spaceship when we created this." A Luna clone was reading about the new material.
"Why an organic spaceship though?" The Luna clone kept reading for a few minutes. "Oh, I see the advantage. You plant an uninhabited world with the spaceship seed and they grow themselves without any supervision."
"Exactly, I doubt we will go in that direction at this point though. I did end up creating a new species of trees that I want to start planting." Luna skipped to the part that described the trees.
"What would we do with trees four time stronger than ironwood?" The Alexander clone smiles and points out some information.
"While they are much denser than any trees we've found they are also surprisingly buoyant. We need to start planting a large forest around the Kingdom." I wait for a few minutes for Luna to finish reading and give her time to think and respond.
"I have noticed that a portion of the Hobbits seem uncomfortable and spend their time with the magical animals more than anyone else." The Alexander clone nods in agreement even as he responds.
"Those are Fallohides, they are more in touch with nature than the other Hobbits. Taller and more adventurous, once the forest has grown sufficiently I imagine they will move into the forest." The Luna clone keeps reading for a few minutes.
"It looks like you're planning on growing four of them to truly massive size." The Alexander clone raised his eyebrow at the implied question, but answered anyways.
"I want to see the extent that we can engineer trees before planting them and then use magic to quicken their growth. The largest tree on earth is over one hundred meters tall and took lifetimes to grow. These four trees should end up over a kilometre high and yet only take a few decades to reach their full height."
"I don't understand why you want trees that big." Shrugging the clone tried to explain.
"A few reasons, if they grow like we have designed them to the middle will be hollow, and yet the tree is still strong. The trees will be used to bring supplies and travel." The clone of Alexander creates an illusion of what everything could look like once the trees were grown.
"As you can see, around each of the four trees there are open areas. The plan is for them to be planted at cardinal points, with forests surrounding them. This creates a nice ring around the plateau the Kingdom is built on." Luna nods her head in understanding and inspects the illusion.
"What about the rest of the forest? Is there anything special about these trees." After shaking his head the clone of Alexander paused a moment before talking.
"They're a mixture of trees found on Arda, so nothing that we've designed with Alchemy. I have been considering bringing Ents and Entwives to the Kingdom though." Clone Luna's eyes grew larger, as they did whenever something new and potentially interesting caught her attention.
"What are Ents?" She was a little annoyed by the clone laughing so she casually stabbed it, not long after another clone replaced it.
"Ents are tree-like beings that are considered the shepherds and protectors of forests." He was cut off by the Luna clone.
"What are we waiting for? Why don't we do that now?"
"I want to at least have the forest planted before we even consider bringing in Ents. Plus, not much is known about how they came to be. I want to travel to Valinor before we bring them here."
The two of them continue working in silence, letting the white noise of the busy workshop wash over them.
***ISLAND BELOW***
There were only three buildings left in the former village, the newest and largest building taking up the majority of the space. It was built and enhanced as a place to test the space ships, only a few wrinkles needed to be ironed out in the system.
"We based this on a television show called Star Trek and their holodeck." I was standing by the doorway, I continued talking as we stepped into a small entranceway with a touch screen on the wall. "This is where you select what the inside will look like."
"What do you mean by that?" Fleur seemed slightly puzzled so I explained further.
"The room itself is completely empty until you select a program, or you can run empty to make a program. What we're doing today is running a program that simulates Earth and the solar system." After starting the program we walk into the building itself.
"This looks like New Avalon." I grin at how excited Luna got when we entered.
"Yes I thought a little taste of home might do the trick. As you can see everything feels and looks real, but it's actually a complicated system of magic that brought this all together. Including accelerated time it took me over a year to create the spells and enchantments necessary to create this."
Fleur and Lun another turned on me when I accidentally let that slip. "I thought we weren't going to use accelerated time here?"
I back up and hold my hands up in surrender. "Sorry, it just sort of happened. I got obsessed with finishing this and just did it without thinking."
"Well, we want to be a part of this as well." Luna started and Fleur finished. "So next time don't assume we don't want to help."
Grinning I join arms with them as we walk around the simulation of New Avalon. "I'll remember that, you can help me perfect this then. There are a few bugs that need to work out before I'm satisfied."
The three of us started walking around the empty simulation, background noise made it seem less empty. The lack of animals couldn't be ignored. "We haven't been able to figure out how to make animals or people that work correctly."
We talked about the project and how I had gotten it to work, the computer systems and magic needed to get this far. Filling a Fleur and Luna in on the broad strokes, for the finer details they had clones start reading the information.
A clone of mine stayed and helped by answering questions while the three duplicates spent the day testing the system. It would take some time to teach them everything, but time wasn't an issue.
***THE DRUNK PHOENIX***
Celeste Fairbairn has fallen in love from the moment she saw the empty hobbit hole , in her mind she saw only potential. The next day she went to the Magical District where the King held court, she was quickly granted permission to open her business and all the help she needed.
From the moment she saw the place to opening was three days, everything was provided for her. The Kingdom was using the barter system for most transactions, but the coin system was slowly being implemented. Once it was being widely used Celeste would start charging and being charged for the alcohol.
The door opening interrupted her moment of introspection, she looked over when a familiar voice called out. "Celeste, we'll take a round of your finest ale."
Celeste walked behind the counter to pour some half-pints. "I see you've brought company this time Tobias. Why don't you introduce them while I get the first round?"
Tobias started bowing and apologizing in an over the top manner. "My most abject and humble apologies, my lady. Please allow me to rectify my most grievous mistake and introduce this band of ruffians."
A chorus of amused objections followed his declaration. "The scruffy looking fellow to my left is Brutus Longburrow a Harfoot, he'll be starting a smithing business soon." Brutus stood and gave a wave before sitting back down.
"The tall, pretty lad to my right is Austregisel Brandybuck. He's slowly becoming the leader of the Fallohides. He's been organizing his Majesty's government, it was his idea to elect representatives that take care of the day to day concerns of the Kingdom." Austregisel elbowed Tobias as he stood and gave a bow in greeting.
"There is no reason to bother the king or his queens with minor problems that his subjects can handle themselves. They provide us with everything we could every need or want, it's our duty to support them." Once the beer was served the three of them stood and gave a toast.
"To King and country." After draining their mugs they slammed them down on the table. Moments later another round was set down in front of them, and food appeared on the table.
Another toast, this time to Celeste and the House Elves. Soon enough the small bar started filling up more and more. This made a small group of House Elves and Celeste very happy.
***THE GROVE***
The ongoing celebration was at a lull at the moment, with only a few Hobbits and House Elves in attendance. The King and Queens were sitting at their table, jokingly called the Royal Court. Preening in the centre of the table was the Royal Phoenix… the one known as Phoenix.
"All I'm saying is that more and more Hobbits are showing interest in teaching, within five years we'll be able to stop if we want." Fleur defended herself as she fed Phoenix.
"Less if you want to stop teaching Fleur, I don't want you to feel like you have to continue." Fleur stopped feeding Phoenix and took my hand, only for Phoenix to pout and Luna took over petting and feeding her.
"It's not that I don't want to, I would rather the Hobbits that want to teach do so. We've been very busy since coming here and it would be nice to have more time." Lifting her hand I kiss the back of it.
"I know love, but we all know how important this is. Once everything is running smoothly we'll have more time to spend on our other projects." The two stared deeply into each other's eyes until Luna threw a grape at Alexander.
"Between clones and duplicates how busy are we really?" I wink at Luna and throw the grape back at her, only for her to catch it in her mouth. "Even if we do actually get busy we can use accelerated time to catch up."
I laugh at Fleur's dumbfounded look. "Even with that many of us running around there is only so much we can safely do and memories we can absorb. That's why I insist one set of us not do anything, it balances things out."
Fleur grinned and stuck her tongue out at Luna. "I told you there was a reason we weren't busier."
"That and I don't want to do everything for The Kingdom on our own, nobody should have to worry about the basics like education, food, shelter and water." Everyone stopped to pay attention to me as my voice had risen. "Taking care of my subjects basic needs is my duty and my honour. After that it's up to them to live their best life."
Standing up I stand on top of the table and Phoenix lands on my shoulder. "The Kingdom is a magical place, where the most difficult decision should be what kind of beer we drink. Our laws are simple because our needs are few and far between."
As I started ramping up my impromptu speech I could hear more Hobbits gemming to gather. "The only thing slowing a Hobbit down is themselves, it's a lack of ambition that stops many individuals. If you're not satisfied with the amount of knowledge you have. Go back to school." I pause to take a drink.
"If you want to be a farmer, by all means we" I gesture to Fleur, Luna and I. "will provide you everything you need to start. No matter what you want to do, the opportunity is there for you to seize." The growing crowd starts to cheer, I bow quickly before continuing.
"We're not here to tell you what to do, we're here to help everyone achieve their dreams. If you're like Corbinian over there and want to spend all your time in The Grove, then you're welcome to." The crowd laughs and starts sitting down, so I continue, Corbinian just raised his mug and drank.
"So long as it doesn't involve victims we encourage everyone to do as they want." I lift my hand and in a show of magic send fireworks off into the sky, effective even in broad daylight. "Even now there's a group of Hobbits working on improving my government, not because anyone told them to but because they wanted to."
As I sat down everyone cheered as a small feast appeared. Fleur, Luna and I went back to our discussion as an impromptu feast followed my impromptu speech.
***MAGICAL DISTRICT***
Classes were ongoing as more Hobbits came for their basic magical education, advanced classes were being held for those who wanted them. At this point only the advanced classes were being taught by the royal family.
Even those would soon be mostly taken over by former students, by the time that the school was filled with children the royal family would only be teaching three advanced classes. Advanced Alchemy, Care of Magical Creatures and Enchanting would be taught by them for a long time to come.
While the Hobbits of the Kingdom didn't think it unusual, as that was how it had always been for them, the first visitors to the Kingdom during the centennial found it very unusual.