I do not own Chaotic nor anything related to it. It belongs to TCDigital.

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The Dew Farm

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Time 14:

Malvadine heads to his post after we're all done at the bathhouse, while I follow Maliph as he begins his day off, mostly because a hostile Mipedians are significantly less likely to attack me while I'm with a palace guard. At least, I hope so. Suddenly I'm nervous. Am I underestimating the respect the locals have for the guards?

Maliph does not immediately head outside like I had assumed, instead heading to a small room with a window that led to another room rather than to the outside. I've never been in this room, so I'm perplexed until Maliph walks to the window and speaks.

"Maliph, fifty palms," Maliph says curtly as he taps some kind of ceramic tile on the window's counter.

The Mipedian on the other side of the window takes the tile from Maliph, examines it, and nods. He vanishes for a moment, then returns and places several gold coins on the counter, which Maliph counts before sweeping them into a pouch at his belt.

It's a bank! I just watched a Mipedian make a withdrawal from a bank account using a ceramic bank card! Why is this so funny? I've never laughed while watching a bank transaction back on Earth. Maybe because it's such an ordinary thing in such a fantastic place.

As I follow Maliph out of the bank, my stomach suddenly drops. Money. I'd completely forgotten about money. My past thirteen times here in Perim have either killed me too fast for me to even begin thinking about money or have been situations where money wasn't an issue, but they way I've been trying to mold events this time has landed me effectively on my own, dead broke, in the middle of a city in the desert.

Crap. I did not plan this out well.

I tumble ideas in my head as I follow Maliph out of the palace, but I can't find anything. I simply know too little about the actual city of Al Mipedim. I find myself biting my lower lip, a habit I have when it takes too long for me to solve a problem.

Maliph's tail swings in front of my vision as I stare at the ground, and suddenly I feel incredibly stupid. "Maliph," I ask in as casual a voice I can manage, "where can I find a job here?"

Maliph slows a bit as he thinks. "Well, the dew farm always needs help."

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After several minutes of getting lost and having to ask for directions, I finally reach the Mipedim Oasis dew farm. The place is dotted with what look like covered wells, except they're shallow and presently empty. I get enough of a look at one to have a guess as to how they work. The inside of the dome above the well feels cool and is covered in little ridges, a perfect place for water vapor to collect and condense as air passes under it. If I remember the card art for the Mipedian Dew Farm correctly, one of these wells can collect a ton of water from the air. Makes sense, this city was built around an oasis, so there would be a lot of water in the air.

Actually, come to think of it, why isn't there water in the wells right now? The sun's up and probably evaporating said oasis right now.

Focus, Michael. Find work first, then you can contemplate the mystery of the empty wells.

I make my way to the lone set of structures on the farm that aren't wells, a pair of shacks with only three walls and a roof each. One is packed with what looks like clay water vessels, and the other is surrounded by a crowd of humans. I guess I'm not the only one looking for work here.

I mingle with the crowd. A good number of them are adults, but I see a few teenagers here as well. Many people look scared, but a few look like they're having the time of their lives. Probably fellow fans of Chaotic, to which a thing like sudden transportation to Perim was probably a dream come true. Nobody's talking to anyone, though. We're all pretty much complete strangers to each other.

It's not long before a large Mipedian pushes his way through the crowd and stands inside the shack. He clears his throat, unnecessary considering everyone was already paying attention to him, and begins to speak. "I have been informed that you Humans might be here for a while, and that you are likely going to have to find employment among us."

The Mipedian said the word "human" as if it were the name of a tribe. The crowd around me also seems to have caught the tone he used. A man beside me pulls a face, as if he thought that tone was meant to be condescending.

The Mipedian clears his throat again. "If you're going to work in the dew farm, you must be prepared to spend hours under the hot sun, carrying heavy objects quickly and with care! I don't know what the climate was like where you came from, but this is a desert! We need to collect and conserve as much water as possible, as fast as possible! Every drop wasted is a creature that goes with less than he needs to survive, so if you aren't prepared to do your absolute best, then in the name of King Theb-sarr look for a different job!"

Well, that scared a number of people away. There are about ten of us left now. I can see some Mipedians already gathering water vessels from the other shack. The Mipedian talking to us points at the shack, and the others look as well.

The Mipedian clears his throat a third time. Odd. "There are two groups. One group fills these vessels with water from the wells, while the other takes empty vessels to the creatures at the wells and brings the full vessels back here. You will be part of the second group. I don't want to risk one of you dropping one in a well and wasting everyone's time."

The Mipedian pauses. Everyone stands still, waiting for him to continue. Finally he says, "Well? You know what your job is. The wells are going to collect water any moment now! Get going!"

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The day just drags on and on...

I'm so glad I went to the bathhouse in the morning. That cleaning oil must act like some kind of sunscreen, I'm one of only two humans not red as a lobster.

I'm so tired after what feels like hours of running back and forth. These water jugs are heavy when they're full, I can only carry one at a time. I see Mipedian runners carrying two and sometimes three!

I'm about ready to collapse when a Mipedian calls out, "All right, shift's done! First shift, finish whatever you're doing this moment and come in for your pay. Second shift, be ready to take over the moment the creature you're switching with is finished."

I struggle the last jug of water into the shack, then head for the other shack. There's around twenty humans heading to the shack I'm leaving. I guess it was a braver group than mine.

Somebody's made it to the shack before me. He looks even redder in the face than he really should be. Maybe because he's angry. "If you're going to pay me as little as twenty 'palms' for the work I did, you should at least give me twenty, not four!"

The Mipedian has his eyes closed and pressing his palm to his forehead. "I gave you twenty palms-"

The man snaps, "I see four coins here! Not twenty!"

I look over the man's shoulder at the table with the coins. There are indeed four coins. I immediately notice what the man in front of me missed, and I'm so exhausted and cranky that I decide to be an absolute butt about it. "Hey, could you just make the human happy and give him twenty of the one-palm coins?"

The man stumbles over his anger and looks at me in confusion. The Mipedian looks pleased that one of the humans has a brain.

I point at the coins. "These two are larger than the other two, and they have heptagons printed in them. This coin is the smallest of the four, and it has a cross printed on it. The medium-sized coin has a squared printed on it." I ask the Mipedian, "May I see a one-palm coin?"

The Mipedian takes one out of a pouch, the smallest of them all. "There," I point at it, "just a line. You really are being paid twenty palms. Two sevens, a four, and a two."

"That's the dumbest coin system in the world," the man scoffs as he picks up the coins.

"Actually, with this system, you'll only ever need to give two coins at most in change," I start to say, but the man flips me off as he walks away.

The Mipedian watches the man leave for a while, then hands me four of the seven-palm coins.

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Up next: The Fourth Time

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Like I said before, Chaotic belongs to TCDigital.

I love math. :)

Still looking for a good picture for the story. Contact me if you know of/can make one.

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