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Anthro Majorum

Chapter 2

The next morning, Benjamin is the first to wake. Stretching, his foot thumps the ground, waking the rest of the group. Most do not immediately stir, but Sirah's motherly instincts compel her to keep and eye on the young rabbit so she rises too. Volfgang rises next intending to make a habit of rising early. Benjamin begins to sniff around the tent but not out of curiosity as his mother Sirah could tell so she takes him outside.

Next out is Volfgang and the rest rise and follow one by one, stretching silently as the sun begins to peek through the trees around their pond. While the rest of the group readies themselves for the day, Aria and Benjamin take turns bouncing over the still smoldering fire pit. Almost simultaneously, the young rabbits realize they are hungry. The group shares left-over purple berries for breakfast and talk about things to come.

"So what's the plan for today?", Mozart inquired of Volfgang.

"We were quite productive yesterday," Volfgang addresses the group as a whole, "but there's a lot that still needs be done. This shelter should last for a while but it will eventually need repairing or replacement. I'd like to have our permanent abode built before then."

"So where are we going to build it?" Marie asks.

Volfgang had already thought this through while building the temporary shelter, "It's going to take a lot of resources to build and then maintain shelters like this, especially for a growing population. If we build our dwellings out of wood, it could lead to deforestation. I know there seems to be enough forest now but I think we should try to keep the planet in the same shape it's in now. Quarrying stone wouldn't be quite as harmful to the ecosystem but it would still scar the landscape, not to mention, we haven't the necessary tools and even if we did it would still be be grueling work. The easiest and most efficient place to dwell would be a cave... but we may have to travel for days or even longer before we find a suitable cave and for a growing population to all live in natural caves we would probably end up living very far apart, and I think we should stick together as much as possible.

"So what do we do?" Mozart is ready to begin, whatever the plan.

Moe answers, "Maybe, we could dig our own cave. We would only need tools and maybe a few wood supports. It would be easier than moving stone or cutting a bunch of wood... and we could dig it anywhere."

"That's what I was thinking." Volfgang is again impressed by the young lemur.

"Where do we dig?" Aria asks, curious what it'll be like living underground.

Volfgang continues, " Digging down wouldn't work because a hole will fill with water when it rains. I think we should dig sideways into the larger mound on the other side of the flat land."

"Why not into Mount Calypso" Calypso asks, fond of the prospect of living in the Mount named after her.

"Well..." Volfgang needs to explain but doesn't want to disappoint the prideful cat.

Moe answers directly, more interested in facts than feelings. "It's not big enough."

Charlie is the one offended. "How do you figure?"

Volfgang is eager to get started but won't neglect having everyfur understand their directive, so he is concise. "Our popluation will grow very quickly. Already, half of us are mature enough to begin reproducing and within a year even Benji will be nearly full grown. Our offspring will grow nearly as quick as we did and will only take about two years to become reproductive. Which means even if each of us reproduces only once in this first year... which is unlikely..." Volfgang looks at Mozart who looks away, coy, "... by the end of our third year we could have fifteen adults reproducing. But that's at the very low end; it's more likely we'll have close to twenty adults and more than twenty young ones living together. Future generations will grow more slowly, taking as many as twenty years to become full grown so I figure the larger mound could hold us all for a several decades before we need to branch out. I'm afraid we would outgrow Mount Calypso very quickly."

The cats, recognizing their case for living in Mount Calypso was lost, move on. "So we're going to have to walk all the way to the larger mount every day?" groans Charlie.

"Only until our permanent dwelling is large enough to move into," answers Volfgang, "but it shouldn't take very long to dig a hole the size of this shelter. Of course, it all depends on how hard the ground is and if there are larger rocks that will need to be moved."

Mozart is ever-ready. "So we need hard sharp stone light enough to swing repeatedly without sapping our energy too quickly. We need strong sticks to be the handles for these digging tools. And to easily carry load after load of dirt away we need some sort of rolling bucket, maybe even a few of them."

Clara remembers, "We have some sticks and string left over from yesterday which should be enough for tool. Moe and I can find more sticks and make string for the wheel barrels."

Moe adds, "I'm sure we can make strong wheels for the rolling buckets out of thresh and hardened clay. But it might take a little while to make a whole wheel barrel."

Charlie asks, "So all that's left is finding the digging stones?"

Calypso answers, "I remember seeing a bunch of different size stones on my mount, yesterday."

"It's not your mount," Marie scoffed, "It's ours... just named after you-"

Charlie interrupts her, "-we can look for the stones on this side of Mount Calypso." He winks and Calypso and she smiles back.

"Alright," Volfgang decides, "the rest of us can gather the stones while Moe and Clara make the wheel barrel."

Scattered across the side of Mount Calypso they found plenty of useful stones. Some sharp enough for cutting but not large enough to dig which they added to their cache of cutting tools. They found a few long a pointed stones that would work well as picks for breaking apart more compact chunks of dirt, some long with flat ends a paw wide good for chopping into the dirt, and some wider edged rocks flat and light enough to be used as shovels.

While they carry rocks by the armful back down the hill, making a pile behind the shelter, Moe and Clara strip all the bark they can reach from nearby trees and work together to fashion rope and string for tying smaller sticks to larger sticks.

They all work quietly for a while until they've gathered enough rocks for countless useful tools. Then they gatherers go to find find the lemurs working in a pile of sticks, tree bark, and string.

"How's it going?" Volgang asks, at first discouraged, seeing their 'wheel barrel' was not yet a wheel or a barrel.

Then Moe points to a completed barrel sitting by the fire now baking it's wheel.

The wheel is larger than a head and already looks very solid. The barrel is a large basket made of small sticks and woven string, supported by a larger stick frame with handles and an impressive looking axle for the wheel.

"Ooooo, wow," the group awed at the thing, all coming to examine it closely. When the wheel is finished baking, they attach it to the barrel. They take turns pushing it around but Aria has a hard time pushing it and Benjamin can't move it at all. So Volfgang tests the wheel barrel by pushing Aria and Benjamin around the pond. They young rabbits hoot and holler with pure joy, the others cheer on the sturdy craft.

Moe and Clara finish assembling the second wheel barrel as well as a couple smaller baskets for collecting food. They then join the others to fashion digging tools.

"Wow, these are great," Moe says, examining the pile of rocks the others had gathered, "it's like nature new exactly what we needed."

The group sits around the rock pile with the remaining sticks and string, experimenting with different ways to attach the rocks to sticks before testing each new tool on the ground nearby.

When they finish all the tools they would need to begin digging and moving dirt, they load the tools and paw-baskets into the wheel barrels. Mozart retrieves their clay bucket for water and their satchel which he fills with their seed cache.

"They're kinda heavy," notes Moe, testing a wheel barrel, "we'll have to take turns pushing them."

Marie asks, "Are we gonna be able to push them all the way up and over Mount Calypso or are we gonna have to go all the way around."

Mozart says, "It will probably take less time but more energy to to go directly over the mount, but more time and less energy to go around.

Volfgang decides, "Let's go up where the slope isn't too steep and around where we need to."

Sirah adds, "We should probably mark our trail in case we need to take more tools later.

Before leaving out they stopped for lunch, finishing their berries and drinking their fill of water. They then rested and a few even napped for a moment, giving them the energy they would need to work the rest of the day.

When they awoke and stretched and gathered all they needed they stood together as a team ready to begin. And so they did.

Even taking an optimal route up and around Mount Calypso, it is still slow going. Those that can, take turns pushing the wheel barrels and they stop intermittently to rest before continuing on. Even through the forest canopy, the sun shines hotly on their heads; it would be even hotter trekking across the flat land.

They decide to follow along the shore of the northern lake so they can cool off in the shallows if necessary. At first, Benjamin won't go near the water, remembering yesterdays water fueled trauma. Aria thoroughly enjoys splashing around while the others sit comfortably soaking their fur; this and Sirah's comforting support convinces Benjamin to come in at least knee deep.

Preferring the cool water to the hot ground, Benjamin and Aria, not held responsible for helping push the rolling bucket, walk in the shallows the rest of the way. The others walk on the bank, each coming into the shallows from time to time to drink and wet there fur.

After what seems like a half a day of walking, they reach the western mount. They sit to rest and discuss what comes next.

Marie starts, "We might get hungry again before dinner, especially if we're going to be digging."

"Well, we can't all dig at the same time anyway," Volfgang figures, "a few can wheel dirt away. The rest can explore the mount for food and make note of anything else interesting or useful."

Sirah continues her role as the gatherers protector, "I'll take the gatherers to search for food on the mount."

Calypso says, "If we're not going to any ponds, I'll stay and help dig." She is not as fond of gathering berries as she is catching fish.

Clara says, "Let's, me and Moe, go gather this time." Moe nods in agreement.

Aria complains, "I don't want to go with the gatherers but I don't want to dig."

Sirah is direct with her, "Everyfur must do their part, Aria."

"You can help me," Mozart tells her. "We have a special job to do," he says tugging the strap of the seed satchel on his back.

Now, Aria is excited to contribute.

After brief hugs and well wishes, the gatherers leave toward the top of the mount and the diggers find a spot on the slope clear of trees. As Volfgang and Marie begin chopping at the dirt with pick axes, Charlie and Calypso shovel the lose dirt into the wheel barrel which they then cart down the slope. They dump their first two loads of dirt in a pile on the flatland as Mozart had asked, before going back up the slope. Mozart intends to use the dirt to make small mounds for planting seeds rather than digging holes in the solid ground.

"Work smarter not harder," he tells Aria.

She watches him intently as he fills the clay bucket with dirt and makes a small mound. Then he takes a canister of corn seed out of the satchel. He takes out a single seed and buries it in the small mound. He then takes the clay bucket to retrieve water from the lake and returns to water their first planted seed.

"What's gonna happen to it?" Aria asks.

Mozart explains, "It will grow into a corn stalk, and that will produce corn cobs full of little corns. We can eat the corn just like that or make it into other kinds of food and maybe we can use the cobs and stalks for making other stuff.

"Yay! All that from one seed?"

"Not quite," he says, "now we have to do this a hundred more times with other kinds of seed to grow other kinds of food and useful crops."

"That's a lot," Aria says, realizing the work ahead of them.

"Well, we're going to start slow for now. Just a few seeds of each type. We don't want to plant all we have now in case the crops fail or little creatures come dig them up. Then we'll have no seeds left and we'll have to eat berries forever."

"I like berries," Aria giggles.

"I know you do, but you're gonna love the stuff we grow even more. I promise."

They continue working their new garden, planting five each of corn, soybean, potatoes, cotton, tea, and marijuana. As they plant each seed Mozart explains to Aria how each plant can produce, food, drink, medicine, cloth, or paper.

The day is spent, each Anthro toiling away on their respective tasks, stopping only when the crops are watered and gatherers bring back purple berries and some wild peppers they discovered. As the sun begins to fall, having made a large dent in the mount digging their future home, and ready to rest and have dinner by the fire, they leave their tools and headed back toward their shelter by the pond. They stop and rest in the shallows midway along the northern lake. Calypso and Clara wade in deeper with one of the empty food baskets and, working together, are able to catch a school of small fish.

They make it back to the shelter just as the sun is setting. They build a fire, roast the peppers and cook the small fish whole. They speak excitedly about the progress they've made on their permanent abode and crops and the gatherers speak of new plants and animals they discovered further up the western mount. They make plans and plot their future as they watch the stars roll past the tree top. As the fire dies down and the conversation lulls, the young rabbits fall asleep by the fire. Deep yawns begin to cascade from the rest, so they dowse the fire and carry themselves and the little ones into the shelter for the night. Thus, ends their second day.