Here be Dragons!
Chapter 14
Their magic-user allowed them to go shopping first before casting the spell they required. They both watched him draw a circle and it was mostly up to Rick to describe where he wanted to go to prevent arriving where they didn't want to. In only a blink of an eye they went from being in a room far to the east to being outside a walled city in the distance. They were on a dirt road and there were very colorful houses on either side of the road. Behind Kate was farmland as far as she could see. Based on the color alone she already liked it.
From the looks of it the sun had only been up for maybe a couple of hours. It was past lunch there but barely breakfast here.
"This way." Rick walked off and while he'd seen this all before he walked slow enough for Kate to look around. So far everyone she saw was indeed human.
The closer they got to the gate she saw something. "Are those trees at the top?" She had never seen a gate that had trees growing on top of it.
"Yep. There are actually three gates and each look the same. This is the middle gate and this is all housing. It looks like they've expanded a little since I was last here." There were actually a few houses behind them.
Getting in was a copper piece which paid for the military to keep the city safe.
The second they were inside the gates Kate saw a tall wall and shops selling food and other goods to her left and right. "What's that?" She thought she recognized it but was guessing she would be saying that a lot.
"Grand Coliseum. It is what you think it is. It keeps the people happy." Rick couldn't do anything about it and was betting there was worse in other cities. Kate saw that it was elevated on a hill and was guessing the only way in was on the opposite side. Rick went left though.
Kate saw an interesting house on her left as they walked. Rick knew he was going to have to explain as he walked. "On the left is the home of the leader of the council. It's technically a government building. If he leaves office someone else moves in after he moves out."
"Warehouses for almost everything coming in and going out." Rick kept walking.
"WOW! What's that building?" Kate had eyes on this large gold colored building that had a gold dome top that actually shone in the sunlight.
"Hall of Gold. If it has anything to do with gold and its use and safety, that's the place," Rick explained.
Around a corner she saw a market place filled with meats, produce, and a lot of sellers. "Food market. Local fresh meat, fresh fish, local fresh fruits, sometimes shipped in fruits and vegetables," Rick said and kept walking.
It was there that Kate saw a lot of people. It looked like the place had only just opened and yet it was already busy. Then she saw a number of docks and ships were taking off freshly caught fish and placing them into open bins.
"Restaurants and locals can buy direct from the fisherman if they wish. It usually costs less, however, restaurants get first pick." Rick kept walking. He knew Dog had been here before and was simply following them silently but wishing for some fresh fish today.
They reached a "Y" intersection where Rick stopped. "Fort and city garrison." Kate could see it easily. It was four stories tall and made out of a combination of stone and brick. It had four towers in each corner. "Just how many is a city secret but based on the size you can judge for yourself."
"In front of us are the Public Baths. There are three of them and they're heated." Rick should know. He'd used it once last time he was here.
Rick began walking and Kate fell into step beside him. Soon they were passed the baths. "Down there is the dye works. They create all the dyes for the clothing, paints, basically anything that you want to have some color. This entire city is painted," Rick mentioned.
"So I've noticed," Kate said.
"You haven't seen anything yet," Rick grinned and kept walking.
"Housing." Rick spread his arms wide. Kate looked and was impressed. Most of them had two floors and all of them were painted very vivid colors. The space was impressive. "Through the gate in the wall is access to more housing that's outside of the wall. Eventually you can reach a rocky beach that the civilians use to fish for themselves. Beyond that you'll reach the hills that house the dinosaur pens."
"Dinosaur races." Kate remembered him telling her about them. "Once a month as I recall."
"Don't worry, you'll see at least one. If you like it you'll see more every month." Rick went back to walking.
"Oh, forgot, sorry. The entrance to the Hall of Gold is back that way," Rick pointed.
Kate saw a fair amount of housing and it was all colorful. Then to the right there was a large opening. "Main entrance to the Grand Coliseum."
Next up on the right. "They call it the Red Bazaar and Inns." Rick stopped so Kate could see.
"I can see why." The roofs of all the buildings of the inns anyway were red. The bazaar looked to be all tents and they sold everything handmade.
Going around them Kate saw another gate with a tree or two at the top. She also saw all the shops she had seen at the gate they had come through in the first place.
Rick stayed inside the city walls, headed past the first gate, and kept going. "Through that gate is the really old section of the city. Old housing, old palace, and way out there is the old garbage pit." Rick went past the leader's house then turned instead of going straight.
"Dry dock for big ships if needed." Rick gestured toward it and continued walking.
Kate saw more colorful housing followed by another gate with trees on top. Once through the gate she saw a lot of docks.
"Military docks and sailors barracks," Rick explained. It was there that Kate got a good look at the lighthouse that was at the entrance. She only saw two big military ships that were a match for the Pirate ship that had a Black Dragon for a captain.
"Bigger merchant ships also dock here. Down there is a lot more housing and the lighthouse keeper's home and shop," Rick pointed out.
Kate saw something interesting. "What's the statue in the center?" There was someone big and tall right in the middle of the bay.
"The Statue of Na Blisio. The founder of the Industry here. He opened up the market place. He's basically the reason this city exists. He found what was out in the jungles, or at least enough to start a town to export. He died years upon years ago." Then Rick started up a set of very steep and long steps. At the top she saw two large buildings.
"To the right is the lone Temple in this city last I knew. Temple to Sune. It reaches all the way to the water. They have their own dock and defend it. There's a bridge to reach it and another gate to reach the bridge.
"This is all more housing and the big building to our left is the Jewelry Market. They mine jade in the jungle, create jewelry from it, and sell it and ship it out. You name it, they make it." Rick was basically just about done. That was it for a city of around 12,000 people.
"Where is our shrine you said you built in one day?" Kate had yet to see that.
Rick had really almost hoped she had forgotten about that. At least until he had had a chance to fix it up at least a little. "This way." Rick took her past the Jewelry Market and turned right. There right in front of them was his broken down and neglected Shrine to Bahamut.
Rick wilted as they looked at it. He'd only had a few hours to construct it. "This thing needs a lot of help, babe." Kate was even thinking of tearing it down and starting all over again.
"How about if we go see our home that I own." He had one last thing to show her.
Kate instantly perked up over that. "Where do we go?" They could work on this later then find a place to stay while they had their new home built.
Rick took her out the right gate toward the dinosaur pens then down to the docks. Out here there was also more housing that was still all colorful.
Rick saw the boat and even saw the owner just outside. He was likely getting ready to go do some fishing or his own. "Emery!" Rick called and got his attention.
"Rodgers!" He wasn't sure just when or if he was ever gong to see him again.
Rick shook his hand then hugged him quickly before letting go. "Emery Bucker, meet Katherine Rodgers. The wife." Rick placed his hand to the side of his mouth and said that softly. "Kate, this is Emery Bucker. Local fisherman."
"You've been busy, Rodgers. Pleasure to meet you." Emery shook Kate's hand as well.
"We were hoping we could hire you to take us out to the island again," Rick asked. "She wants to see the new home."
"I was planning on doing some fishing. You have to buy the fish if I can't catch them." Emery warned him it would be in addition to his fee.
"Only if your wife does the cooking," Rick countered.
"Deal! Let me get my sons and we can get going." Emery started to leave and came up short. "New home?" Now he'd caught up and was staring at these two.
"We plan on building and moving in. We won't exactly be neighbors but we'll be around." Rick began grinning.
"Excellent! I'll tell the wife to expect company and get the boys. Who should already be down here." He wasn't happy about that.
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His fishing ship was smaller than their first ship that that Black Dragon had sunk but it was big enough for them and do some fishing in.
It actually did take them a little while. "Give us a couple of hours for us to look around," Rick asked him.
"No problem. The boys and I will get in some fishing and be back. Yell if we're late." Emery let them wade ashore and look over their island home.
Kate saw that Rick was right. It was all sand. There were lots of trees and two of them were of a decent size. It looked to be shallow on one side and though the water was too deep to just wade across she could see the sandy peninsula he had talked about. A bridge across would be nice.
The opposite side was deep water and devoid of sand. It was all rock on this side. Though the other sides did have sand they ended in rocks. For 6 acres it looked a little small. It was also rather flat. She understood now why Rick was thinking of building it on stilts to gain some height above the sand and water.
Kate stood there at the edge next to Rick. They were both thinking of where to put their house. She offered her thoughts. "To keep the two big trees I'm thinking it has to be here close to this edge. A wood walkway leading down to the water and the bridge across and another wood walkway over to the dock."
"That should work. It'll take about an hour or so to walk into the city," Rick warned her. It was almost all sand until they reached a little jungle.
"Maybe we can build a stable for a pair of horses," Kate suggested since that would speed everything up.
"We could if there were any horses in this city. If we want horses we would need to order them and take what we get unless he brings more than two," Rick replied.
"Oh." Kate hadn't thought of that. It was only then that she realized that she hadn't seen any horses in the city and no stables. "No one to care for horses, either. Still it would help."
"We could always get a pair of dinosaurs to ride," Rick teased and saw the way she was looking at her and laughed anyway.
"So how do we get this house?" Kate queried.
"For that we have to go to the government and apply to build, which shouldn't be a problem. With that in hand we go looking for a contractor in the merchant area. Someone built this city and makes repairs. It shouldn't be too hard for him since we plan on giving him a head start," Rick said.
"It had better work. Those two rings cost us a small fortune." Kate wasn't happy with spending that much. However, they'd gained a fair amount from that Black Dragon Pirate.
Having everything they had that was magical identified then sold if they didn't want it had helped cover the costs a little. Still those two rings had cost them just under two hundred thousand gold.
"I'm done. We need to find a place to stay. That inn first before something more permanent since building out here is likely going to take some time and cost a lot." The contractor was going to have to ship everything and everyone he needed out here.
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Kate got to meet the wife and learned she knew how to cook fish really well. Kate also learned that Lovina had lots of practice with the fish her husband caught. Save for tonight. Tonight was the fish bought at the market by her and Rick along with some local fruit.
The inn did have some space for them for the night. As usual they used their own sleeping bags to sleep in, even if they were in individual beds.
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Permission had been easy when Rick greased the wheel with a little gold for the city and a few coppers for him personally.
Now they needed to find a contractor. Link Contracting was all they found and spent the next two hours talking about what they wanted and where they wanted it. Three bedrooms, two bathrooms, piping for waste out to the ocean, a living room, dining room, and kitchen with a large deck all the way around it.
Then he found out about the wood walkways, the dock, the stairs, and the bridge.
That was when Rick and Kate found out just how much wood they were talking about and how much tree cutting in the jungle he was going to have to do. He didn't have a ship so he was going to have to rent one. The dock would get built first followed by the walkway to the construction site.
An hour later they had a design scratched out. This was where he informed them he didn't have the engineering skills to make a house like this. The posts to hold up the walkway he understood but those large tubes in the ground until they reach something solid for him to build on was something he couldn't do.
"You leave that to us. It will be there and ready for you when you are," Rick told him.
Barton Link didn't get it but when they didn't balk at his initial price pending a more thorough analysis of just what he needed, he began to like these two. Then he asked for a deposit so he could maybe hire more men so he could start cutting down trees, he watched them plop a number of gems on his table.
"We have a deal. I have a small repair job that I need to finish first but if I can hire some men I can start cutting down trees in a few days." He was also going to need to order some more saw blades. Have another wagon built to haul the downed trees.
"I'll need some more gold eventually when the wood I need to order for your floors, kitchen, and ceiling show up after I order it. Getting that will take a few months. I'm guessing here but completion of the house alone, not including the bridge, will be about 14 to 16 months. Have you got a place to stay?" This was going to take time as well as make him a lot of gold.
"Not yet. We stayed in the inn last night," Rick answered. It was where he'd stayed the last time he was here. While living there for that long might be possible and maybe make the owner happy it wasn't ideal.
"Hmm." He knew everything everywhere in this city. He also knew there was an empty house. He just needed to remember where it was and how they could rent it out for almost 2 years. Then it hit him. "It's right next to this rundown sorry excuse of a Shrine to somebody. I don't know why it's still there. Maybe it'll come down and I can build another house some day."
That had Kate glaring at Rick since they'd been there already and he was right. It was trash. Rick hung his head. However, since it was right next door maybe he could build something a little bigger and maybe even man it from time to time.
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It was back to the guy they had gotten a building permit from to find out about the house and if they could either rent it or buy it and gain permission to repair or replace the Shrine to Bahamut.
They ended up buying it and would either rent it out when they no longer needed it or sell it. They also paid for permission to improve the Shrine. A temple in that space was not permitted so manning it was out.
With key in hand they went to see what they had just bought since it was the only house that Emery knew anything about. It was that or build something outside the city walls.
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Rick and Kate walked to the house. It had one door and two windows that all faced the Jewelry Market that was several feet above them. It had two red gable roofs with one section painted beige while the other section was painted green.
It was located up against the outside city wall and between two round turrets that made up the wall. The wall itself was not wide enough or big enough to be manned. They were simply structural in nature. There was a space out front to one side that they could put pots and plant something if they wanted.
"Well this looks familiar," Kate commented. The place was abandoned and unused. It was also empty, totally empty. Nothing in the kitchen to cook with or eat off of. Nothing to sit on or sleep on. It was bare bones. Nothing to clean with and everything needed to be cleaned. Nothing to close over the windows to keep people passing by from looking in if they didn't want them to.
"We need cleaning supplies first. We might have just enough space to set up the tent. Just not stake it into the ground. It'll keep us comfortable at least," Rick said.
Both of them walked to the market area to buy what they needed. They were going to get busy making this place a small home while they had theirs built.