"A sustainable food supply should definitely be our primary goal," concurred Hederick.
"While I agree with food as our main goal, the land here is rich with fruits and wild animals. In addition, with just a wheat field, we still don't have anything to process it into something edible such as bread. Instead the lack of tools should be our main concern. To manufacture new tools, we'll need to rebuild a workshop so that I can begin forging iron shovels, axes, and other tools," retorted Henri.
"But I don't wanna just eat weeds all day!" shouted Louise. She raised her right arm into the air and made her best pouty face. "Besides, does anyone even know how to build a mine safely without it all just collapsing all around us?"
Carra moved to the front and raised her hand: "I used to be an apprentice builder back where I was from. I think if we find a good location, I'll be able to work out where to place the support beams. Don't worry."
"Nonetheless, Louise made a good point. We really can't sustain just on eating random vegetation around us. We'll quickly exhaust our supply. If anything, we'll have to have Jessica and Rylai go on a hunt for food. If anything should happen to them, we'll quickly be in trouble if we come under attack." Hederick then looked at me, "This will be your first and perhaps most important choice."
All the pressure was back on me. I thought about it for a bit as everyone continued debating amongst themselves. There were merits to both plans but I had to pick one. Splitting our efforts would just result in two half-finished projects and eight skeletons.
"I agree with Henri's plan. While a farm is extremely important, we won't be able to reap the benefits until Fall. In addition, we'll still need to rebuild the old watermill and to do that we need the resources that a mine can provide for us. I know it's a risk but we'll have to hunt for our food and live on the native fruits around here."
Henri clapped and responded, "I am glad you agree. Maybe I was wrong about you but you still have a lot to do before you earn my trust,"
"So it has been decided. We build the mine," proclaimed Hederick.
There was some dissent, mainly by Louise but after a while she calmed down, knowing that the decision had been made.
Jessica and Rylai took the horses and rode out to look for anything to bring back as food while Louise and Meiri left in the opposite direction to forage for whatever they could find. The rest of us immediately began working on the plan for the mine.
"The plan is simple. We are very fortunate to live near a large mountain. There should be rich ore veins somewhere inside. The hard part will be hitting the iron deposits." Carra pointed at a section of the mountain behind us.
"We'll take turns shoveling and carrying dirt until we can make a flat surface. Then the fun begins. We cut straight into the mountain. To do that, we'll need some timber to support the earth. I'll get a better idea on how to do that once we've finished digging."
"Great, I think there's some trees up the river. We'll have to swim across and chop the trees down but then we can roll them into the water and have someone on our side rope them up. I think the leads used to hold the horses down should be sufficient," said Dhoran as he pointed across the landscape across the river.
"Then it's settled then. We'll need to knap some axeheads and find some branches too before we can just knock down an entire tree," said Henri. "Although I used to craft metal tool. I'm sure I will easily figure out how to make some simple stone axes. I believe Dhoran used to be a smith too and since he pointed out where we should find the timber, he should come along too."
With that said, we had taken the first steps in building a permanent settlement.
I wondered if I had made the right decision.
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