Chp.9: A new strategy?

Haku didn't go back to the village the next day, and he didn't go back to the following ones either. He didn't come back for a whole week. After all, he'd already said all he had to say and he knew that even if he repeated his words over and over again, he wouldn't be heard. If the Council had finally decided to do as he advised them, then he would have returned and given them all the necessary advice; until then, he didn't intend to waste his time in pointless arguments.

Rhaegal had told him what he and Efren had discovered by the lake, and Darbi had told him that Brenno and Darbi had found a group of people eating a forest animal, though they hadn't specified which one. Haku was willing to bet that those weren't the only two cases: surely many other people were moving in the shadows. To prevent such events from happening again, Haku had asked some of his sisters to keep watch at night, and in fact they had caught some offenders even before they could commit the crime. Luckily, carrying at least one sand worm every day there in the oasis seemed to calm tempers a bit, but there were at least one group of transgressors every night. His sisters would gladly have fought them, but Haku had asked them not to: he knew how the people of Iluvatan saw dragons and didn't want to give them any further reason to fear them. If there had been a fight, the people of Iluvatan would not have seen a dragon rightly stopping the one who was violating the rules of the village, they would only have seen a dragon hurting a person. Unfortunately, as Haku had repeatedly verified, the newcomers really had a limited and stupid mentality.

Rather than waste time with useless discussions, Haku had preferred to act in the shadows. He'd been thinking a lot about what to do, and so when Brenno and Gord had told Darbi about their cave-hunting project, and Darbi had obviously talked to him about it afterwards, he'd been very happy to help. In fact that was an excellent idea: the Council would not have opposed the exploitation of a cave ready for use, even if it was small. All they had to do was find one. Obviously Haku already knew where to look: the lake's water in fact came from an underground aquifer, hopefully connected to the complex system of caves scattered throughout the desert. However, they could not use that 'entrance', as it was at the bottom of the lake, and consequently the beastmen couldn't enter it. Therefore, they had decided to exploit another technique: after bringing a sand worm near the oasis, they released it and followed it into its tunnel to see where it felt safe. Unfortunately, for the time being all the sand worms had headed in the opposite direction of the oasis once released, and the caves they had reached were consequently too far away. However, Gord and Brenno hadn't given up and had divided the entire area around the oasis into various segments and then had asked Darbi and Haku to bring the sand worms to a different spot each time, so as to check whether they that place there was a cave. Unfortunately, there had been no results yet. Haku was beginning to suspect that the sand worms avoided the oasis because the terrain was so different from the sand they were used to swimming in, and therefore they tended to move away.

Darbi, Brenno and Gord had however continued despite that bad start; the dragon had even proposed to go look in the lake. After all, even if the entrance was underwater, the stratum probably connected to various other caverns along the way, and by following it he could therefore have found a suitable cavern and then dug upwards to create a passage. However, Haku had advised him against it: the presence of the lake meant that a strong pressure inside the fault sent the water upwards, therefore if he had adjacent caves they too would have been subject to the same force; and if Darbi had dug a tunnel upwards, the air inside these caves would have flowed outside and the water would therefore no longer have a 'plug', releasing itself outside in the form of a powerful jet . Perhaps it would even generate a new lake; Haku had considered the possibility of actually creating another lake not far from the oasis, but unfortunately there were too many risks in carrying out this project: if the one who was digging the tunnel had the wrong direction, he would have ended up releasing the water inside the oasis, maybe even inside the village, causing a catastrophe. Rather, it was much safer to create an artificial water basin using a canal on the surface.

In short, the problem was always the same after all: to convince the Council to cultivate in a place that was not part of the oasis. Haku now doubted that there was a cave nearby... but perhaps he could have taken an example from Brenno and Gord's idea. If he himself had surreptitiously brought some water outside, built a small reservoir and grown some plants, he could have used this as proof that his plan made sense. The Council could not have denied the reality... especially if Haku had blatantly revealed it. Haku knew that the people could be a deadly weapon. If he had appealed to the common people now proposing his idea, they would have taken him for a madman: what madman would have tried to cultivate in the middle of a desert? But if only a few seedlings had grown, then everyone would have been convinced that it could work and would have put pressure on the Council to start that project as soon as possible. Yes, it was a perfect plan... except for the fact that Haku had no idea how to farm. I mean, which dragon knew how to be a farmer? Had you ever seen one of those beasts take up farming? Haku had a vague overview of how it was done, but he lacked all the details. He needed to find someone to cultivate for him. Brenno and Gord obviously would have been the first choice… but it was unlikely that even they understood anything. But maybe they could have gotten him someone who instead cultivated for a living... after all, a farmer would have been more inclined to trust and agree to partner with a minotaur and a lizardman than with a dragon.

While he was mulling over these thoughts, trying to better anticipate each various scenario so he could prepare accordingly and ensure absolute success, Darbi returned to him after he had gone hunting another sand worm to look for a cave. "Another failure?" Haku asked him noticing his expression.

Darbi nodded dejectedly. "Once again the sand worm has made its way to the outside of the oasis" he answered. "And you? Are you still continuing your silent protest?"

Haku rolled his eyes. 'Silent protest' was the name by which Darbi referred to his brother's recent behavior. From his point of view, Haku was indeed protesting by refusing to participate in further meetings, but since he was not in front of the Council Hall shouting at the top of his lungs as usual whoever protested did, then his was a 'silent protest'. Haku had explained to him several times that that wasn't his intent, but his brother didn't seem to listen to reason. "I'm not protesting!" he said annoyed, knowing however that he would repeat those words another hundred times. "I am using my time more fruitfully. I refuse to continue arguing uselessly with idiots"

"Ok, ok, whatever you want" Darbi said with a smirk that clearly meant she was going to tease him like that a thousand more times. "What were you doing, anyway?"

"I thought" Haku answered in a flat voice.

"Wow, I've really narrowed it down now. You think ninety percent of your life, and the other ten percent you spend sleeping, and it wouldn't surprise me to know that you think even then" Darbi grumbled. "Come on, tell me what exactly you were thinking about"

Haku let out a snort. But in the end, talking about it with someone could perhaps help him. "I was thinking that we could exploit the same idea of ​​Gord and Brenno, but in a different way. In short, instead of looking for a cave, let's show everyone that farming in the desert is possible. We can use animal droppings to fertilize the land and using Inpu we can make the sand a more suitable soil and create a reservoir. Do you think your friends could find someone who would be willing to try farming under these conditions, but loyal or secretive enough to keep their mouths shut until the job is done?"

Darbi reflected. He too understood nothing about agriculture, and he doubted that the perpetually drunk minotaur or the brokerage-savvy lizardman with whom he accompanied himself knew anything about it. But maybe they could really help him find the right person. After all, in a village of nearly twenty thousand people there would surely be someone willing to do all sorts of 'dirty' work for them, provided the pay was good. If Brenno and Gord had investigated, they almost certainly would have been able to identify such individuals and bring them to their side. "I'll talk to them about this idea and ask if they can help us. You should also talk to Rhaegal about it, his adventurer friends might..."

"No, leave Rhaegal and his friends alone. They have their own problems to solve" Haku stopped him immediately. Respecting Rhaegal's wishes, he had avoided interfering in his and his friends' relationship, but he still knew that things between them hadn't improved. It made no sense to involve them in such a delicate matter.

Darbi was silent. He, too, knew of the problems between Rhaegal and his friends, as his brother had also spoken to him about them, and he, too, had let Rhaegal resolve their dilemmas on his own. In fact, it was best left out of that story: he already had enough on his mind. "Okay, then I'll only discuss it with Gord and Brenno. But you could discuss it with Zamor"

In fact, the lizardman would almost certainly have been able to immediately identify the ideal subjects for that project, since he had been in charge of them for some time. But Haku shook his head. "I don't intend to involve Zamor"

"Why?" Darbi asked him.

Haku certainly couldn't admit that he was angry with Zamor because he had invalidated many of his plans by choosing not to take the lead when he had the opportunity preferring instead to be just one of the many who made the decisions. So he opted for the first available excuse: "Zamor is too honest, he would confess everything to the Council and someone could try to sabotage us. Better to not tell him that therefore"

Darbi was silent for a moment, and from his expression it was impossible to tell if he had believed his brother or considered his a lie. After that brief moment he abruptly changed the subject: "You know, I spoke to Misune a couple of days ago. She told me that you two cleared up… well, you know. I'm glad you finally get along again, but she also told me that... that she proposed you to be the leader" he said. "So, I was wondering… why don't you want to do that? In the past you had no problem exercising your authority over everyone. Why is it different now?"

Darbi's wasn't a rhetorical question: he was really curious to know his brother's motivations. He knew well that Haku wasn't someone who had scruples when he wanted to own something, so why didn't he want to take control of the village of Iluvatan, so as to manage it exactly as he wanted without needing useless and long discussions to convince everyone? It wasn't the way his brother normally behaved, and Darbi wanted to know why.

Haku let out a growl deep in his throat. "I would gladly" he admitted. "But I can't. Not if I want it to work"

Darbi was dumbfounded. "What do you want to make work?"

Haku didn't have time to answer: suddenly, a terrified voice entered their ears. It was faint, a sign that it came from quite a distance, but their perfect hearing allowed them to easily recognize those words. "HAKU! EMERGENCY! COME NOW!"

It was Zamor's voice; he was calling and judging by the tone of his voice he must have been very worried. Haku and Darbi looked at each other for a moment, then both got up and ran at full speed towards the village.