"I thank you for your support, Elder Ericsson, Hunter Lothar." I said, while bowing to the two men. "I will strive to be worthy of your confidence."
The older man smiled. "Please, just Ericsson is fine. You need not thank us, Sire. We both believe you have the character and skills to lead our people. Thank you for risking your life to save ours."
That shot a pang of guilt through me. Poor Jack did die saving their lives, not that it would do any good to tell them that.
"Well then, Ericsson, who was that Elder so vehemently opposed to me?"
"That is Elder Hyde. He lost his daughters to a lecherous noble and has never been the same before."
"Wow. That... is terrible. Your people have suffered a lot of indignities. We will need to work hard to ensure such atrocities never happen again. To accomplish that, I would like to name you my Prime Minister, the one who handles the civilian side of administration on my behalf."
"That title could cause problems with other Elders, Sire. How about Steward?"
"Steward it is, then." I turned to the younger man. "Hunter Lothar, as the most experienced fighter among the Cha, I name you the General of our military."
He bowed stiffly. "Thank you, Sire. Though we have no military, just eleven hunters, and two dozen apprentices."
"We will work on expansion and training right away, not that you are in any shape for it. How did you get hurt so badly?" I said, pointing at his bandages.
"brigands. Turns out they had a hideout this side of the Bog."
"How many did you encounter?"
"Seven, but they were experienced killers. They ambushed one of our group and we lost five good men before we could managed to take them down."
"That is unfortunate. What did you find in their hideout?"
"Barrels of booze, enough grain and preserved meat to last them a few months and some coin."
"Were they well equipped?"
"Yes."
"That's not good. That means they were part of a larger group. One that might be big enough to threaten us, as we are right now. Tell every man from the age of eighteen to fifty to carry a big stick with them at all times and not let anyone else leave the settlement alone."
"It will be done, Sire."
I looked down at the valley from a small hillock. Hundreds of tents and lean-tos littered the valley floor, while emaciated people in drab smocks were going on their business. It was a terrible sight.
"How are the people surviving? What are they even eating?"
"This land is quite plentiful, Sire," Ericsson replied. "We were worried we would have to eat the scant few bags of seeds we had left and then starve, but nature's bounty has been enough to fill our bellies, even if barely. We sowed the seeds we had, and they've begun shooting up like weeds," he pointed to the fresh fields close to the river, where I could see a carpet of plants peeking out of the earth. "As long as we don't run out of food from foraging and hunting until the harvest, we should be fine."
"Easy hunting will dry up soon if we keep going at the current pace, Elder," Lothar added.
"That is unfortunate, but we need that meat if people are to do hard labor." I added.
"Hard labor?" Ericsson asked.
"Oh yes, when starting from scratch, whether it is one man or thousands, the basic needs are the same; security, water, shelter, food, in that exact order. Except, providing secure shelter to this many people, many of whom are too old and too young to work, is going to be a big challenge."
"Not many children and elders survived the exodus," Ericsson said, his voice choked. The poor man looked ten years older.
I put a hand on his shoulder. "My apologies. Let's make sure we have to never face such a tragedy again. How many people survived the exodus?"
"A little over three thousand."
If a third of the people were of prime working age, I could probably safely appropriate the full time labor of ten percent, a hundred people or so, for extracting minerals, building fortifications, workshops etc. That would not be enough for any grand plans, but the rest of the people needed to focus on producing food until we either had plenty of it stored or I raised their productivity somehow.
"How many of those are of prime working age, eighteen to forty five, and how many are men and women?"
"...uh, I don't know." Ericsson shrank, avoiding eye contact.
"That won't work. The people are our most important resource. We need a registry listing every person's name, their age, their skills and experience. I also want accurate records of everything we currently consume, have in store and produce; food, tools, weapons, medicine, clothes, timber, metal, stone, money etc." I said, trying to remember all the common resources that would be listed in a city building game. "Also, how much we need versus how much we can produce."
"I understand," Ericsson replied. "But we don't have a lot of parchment. It wasn't a priority during the exodus."
I sighed. It was sobering to think how paper, something one could buy for pretty much nothing in modern times, could be a rare item. I remembered it could be made from finely chopped plant pulp, by mixing it with lye solution, cooking it, ideally in a pressure cooker, then filtering the slurry through a thin cloth to produce sheets. Even without knowing the finer details, we should be able to make a serviceable product.
"Bring me a rope-maker and carpenter and I will teach them how to make paper.
"Paper?"
"A cheaper alternative to parchment. Also, bring what parchment you have, along with writing instruments, but before that, let's take a look around."
"You're not fully recovered, Sire," Ericsson said, concerned.
"No, but I'm well enough to walk a bit without puking my guts out. Besides, I'll have you two with me if I have to be carried back. Have you surveyed the land, Lothar?"
"A bit, but we've been busy hunting to provide food for the people. We've been teaching many youngsters, but it takes years to become really good with a bow."
"Why not build some crossbows, then? They're easy to learn and the limited range and rate of fire shouldn't be an issue in the dense forest, right?"
"I... didn't think of that." He admitted sheepishly.
"We'll need to map the valley as soon as we can," I said, looking around. The valley was flanked by tall mountains on either side, which melted into heavily forested hills. They converged quite far away, while a river snaked through the valley floor. It wasn't very large and unfortunately too fast to be navigable.
Speaking of water bodies...
"How far away is the sea?"
"Five kilometers or so downstream."
That was fortunate. The worst case scenario would have been that we were so deep inland that people had never seen the sea. Access to it would provide us with many opportunities; we could get our own salt and nearby plants would provide excellent flux for metal and glass-making. If any birds nested nearby, we would have guano. Also, once my people were prosperous enough, we could establish a port city and trade with the rest of the world. It also meant that pirates could land there, launch raids and capture us.
"We can't be living like this," I said, looking at the forest of tents. "At least not without a safe place to go to in times of danger. Are there any large caves with small mouths around?"
"We haven't found any."
"So where were you planning on building a stronghold?"
"This valley is quite secure, Sire. We have found only two paths that lead to the interior."
I steadied my breath and fought back a rebuke.
"Elder, this is a fairly large valley and there are only three thousand of us. We can't effectively defend an area this big and protect our people. We need a smaller, easily defensible structure. In absence of a natural one, we will have to build our own fortification."
"Finally." Lothar exclaimed. "I've been trying to convince them about the need of one, but they weren't budging."
"We were tired from months of walking and not knowing whether we will live or not. The people needed some rest." Ericsson defended.
"I hope they've had enough rest, because I have a lot of work for them to do." I added.