The Hero Should've Known Better

Chapter 19: Serclow

"Ey, wake up. Demonfolk gal, we're at Fort Logger."

Sollar groaned, and wiped her eyes. She winced and whimpered a bit as she had accidentally rubbed some coal dust directly into them.

A splash of, admittedly warm, water hit her directly on her face. The Demonfolk girl's eyes shot open to see that Serclow had splashed her with the small bucket.

"And that's why you don't sleep in the coal pile," he muttered. "Anyway, let's get out. Fire's gonna die soon on this Traction Hauler, so it'll be chilly. We'll be movin' over to the cabin."

Sollar tilted her head.

"Go into cabin?" she asked. Another unfamiliar word.

"A cabin. You don't know what a cabin is?"

The Demonfolk girl shook her head no.

"Alright, whatever. Just follow me."

Serclow hopped out of the opened side door of the Traction Hauler. She could see that Tila, the Human woman, was already outside and examining the Traction Hauler. Meanwhile, the Snow Spirit that Sollar had met at first was no longer steering the front, instead he was glancing over the rear of the Traction Hauler.

Sollar took a look back, to see that the Traction Hauler had apparently been dragging a few large wooden tree trunks behind it. Mud was splattered all over the timber, and was even making its way into the chains that wrapped around the logs.

"Think we've dragged back more mud than timber," Flaker said. He rubbed a single finger across the dirt-coated chains, turned his finger up to examine the grime, then wiped it off on his shirt. "And I'll have to clean it all."

"We'll leave it for tomorrow," Tila said. "The sun's almost down."

She was still examining the Traction Hauler. Sollar shifted her attention from Flaker to the woman, to see what she was looking at. It seemed she was paying some attention to the unusual gear system that was located on the oddly-shaped wheels of the Traction Hauler.

"Oi, Serclow. Take a look at this, think some of the gears are gumming up from all the dirt and muck," Tila said. She glanced over at the Demonfolk man, expecting him to say something.

"As you said to Flaker earlier, 'leave it for tomorrow'," came Serclow's immediate response. "I'm beat. Maybe you should've been shoveling some of the coal instead."

"I run the valves and pipes that make your coal-shoveling useful," Tila retorted.

"Whatever. Let's get something to eat."

Serclow gestured to Sollar for her to follow him, as Tila stepped over to a particularly medium-sized cabin that was within the area. The Demonfolk girl, as she walked forward, looked around to see that the area was lined with several wooden walls.

"So many walls..." she whispered.

Tila opened up the door, and proceeded to light an oil lantern to hold in front of her.

"I'm gonna get the fire started," Tila said. "You, get the food."

"Alright," Serclow replied. "I'll be breaking open a new barrel of salt pork. That alright, Tila?"

"What of the salt beef?" the woman asked.

Serclow's face twisted in disgust. "Today was a hard day, I'd rather eat the pork."

"Whatever. The salt beef isn't going away, we'll need to use it up at some point."

"The salt beef is better used for stews," the Demonfolk man replied. "We haven't made a stew in a good while, now that you mention it..."