10 First Meeting (3/3)

"Thank you Jakob" the Ladybug said. "My name is Lilly by the way. It´s nice to get to know some of the other Insects, all of my Ladybug friends are quite boring."

Jakob nodded at her, gesturing for her to sit down. Finally the Mantis stood up.

"I am Max, Chief of the Manti. As you probably know we are very good with Materials, and our scythes are very sharp. We dug out the caves to the south. We are also almost finished with our living quarters. If anyone else prefers the safety of a cold hard mountain feel free to come to me and we´ll see what we can do. I am sure that we have no problems making another few rooms.

In the process of making our rooms we also got a lot of raw materials, mainly some type of stone I don´t recognize. It is a fairly soft one though, right in the middle of hardened clay and slate. It should be rather easy to work with and make something somewhat sturdy with it."

Max finished his report and this was the first time that Jakob could get a good look at him, since the last time he saw him Max was in a room where it was basically completely dark.

Max wasn´t tall for a Mantis, probably only around 1.5 meters at most. Although small he didn´t give off a weak presence, quite on the contrary. He was sharp. And not just his scythes. One could feel a sharp mind emanating from him as well. Light green skin, 2 sharp scythe arms and 2 pairs of legs.

"Quite menacing if you started at him for too long, especially the eyes" is all that Jakob could think of.

"Well well" Jakob said while clapping in his hands. "That about sums it up for the day. Does anyone else have some issues that need to be resolved? If not I´d say we continue the next few days like we have done this one. I also have found a very good helper in my son. I didn´t even know that he had this much talent as a builder, but that is a good thing.

Lilly, if you could lend us one or two Ladybugs we could be finished in literally 3 days with these simple houses. Also, don´t worry, it´s an easy task. I am just unsure if we have enough bricks with us being basically 3 times as fast as I initially thought. I´ll go and talk tomorrow with Tkrrt, the Dungbeetle. I might also try and get one of your friends to help him, Lilly."

"Try to gather as much food as possible. If I am not mistaken winter is very close and as you all know without decent food supplies in the winter we will have a tough time, sourcing for food.

Hugo, I have a special task for one of your Hoppers, but I´d like to talk to you about this later."

Jakob stood there, looking everyone in the eyes. But since no one else started to say anything all of them disbanded, other than Hugo and Jakob.

"What is it, Chief" Hugo didn´t look very happy that he got mustered out of everyone.

"Seems like he took it as critique", Jakob thought.

"I am very worried about the food supplies in the winter. You seem like a capable Insect, do yo have any ideas about how to solve this?" Jakob took the thoughtful way and asked Hugo first. He could give him his idea firsthand, but if he thinks it was his own idea he is probably more cooperative.

"Hmm" Hugo crossed his arms and looked into the now dark blue sky. "I think we should just gather as much food as we can and ration it, gathering whatever we can during the winter."

Jakob nodded slowly, seemingly deep in thought as well.

"What if we had some food that didn´t rot in a few days, and would provide quite a lot per Insect?" Jakob grinned at Hugo. "I hope he knows where I am going with this." Jakob silently prayed to the Hive.

"You are speaking of animals, aren´t you?" Hugo grinned as well now. "So you want one of my boys to search for a few animals, preferably something like cows, yaks, or even something bigger? That is actually a very good idea. If we can find some wildlife that is basically food in a storage system."

Hugo started walking in circles while thinking. "I guess that is actually a very good idea. Okay, I will send 2 Hoppers out, let´s hope we can find something that isn´t as annoying to keep as an alligator or something."

With that said Hugo gave Jakob a small salute and walked off.

"Phew, that went a lot better than expected. I thought he was a very stoic person, but he seems open to ideas and didn´t insist that his way was the best. Good for us."

Jakob started walking back to their house. It wasn´t too cold yet so no one did really mind to sleep outside for another few nights.

Entering their new home he saw that Moon got a lot of food, and even some of his favourites: Stingberries. They got their names from the stinging sensation you felt while eating them. It didn´t hurt but prickle in the throats, which Jakob quite liked.

"Thanks for getting the food ready, son. Let´s dig in, we can talk while we eat."

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