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His
shipwrights tell him there is not room in the harbor to dock the ships
for the bad season and to build new ones, so he tells the stonecutters
to stop construction on SeaGate and to build a set of stone rails to
slide nearly complete ships into the harbor, from the dry shipyard near
the pass.
That creates a need for additional horses and oxen to pull
the ships along the rails. The forest folk leaders were seen riding
horses and the hunter and rangers had found tracks of oxen leading away
from the destroyed camp. Raevil was sure he could find and retrieve the
creatures faster than he could send for them. Of course on the island
horses and oxen were a very valuable commodity and he wasn't sure his
father could spare the animals for harvest season.
Raevil sent scouts to find wild horses or a forester camp
nearby, then report back. He had been travelling the valley imagining
the great city he could build in it's safety. There was a large
clearing, partially overgrown with brush that would hold as many people
as the largest city of the islands, his hometown of Vikare. Once the
rails were built he would send the workers to begin making a wall
around the clearing to protect his new city, which he named Raeville.
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The scouts
return with reports of a large town of forest folk near the valley.
They live upon a well-defended hill, but their herds of oxen and horses
live in the surrounding flats. From the description, they should be
able to take the animals without a full conflict and escape with them.
Raevil sends his best warriors to strike the camp and steal just the
horses and oxen. The norse have more than enough food beasts, to steal
those and leave the people hungry is not his intention. Half his
availible warriors march out to find the tribe.
Raevil spends his time describing the city in his mind to
the woodworkers and stonecutters. He sets up a camp at the clearing and
refuses to leave, growing more excited about the project as the days
progress. The city named for him will be glorious, a city of splendor
and bounty. Filled with the spoils of yearly campaigns, it will be the
capital of a grand new nation under his command. He foresees a time of
previously unseen wealth and fortune for his people made possible by a
storm and a crashed ship.
The rails are nearly complete when the norse ship returns.
From a distance it is obviously over-loaded, they have done very well
in their raids.
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