A reunion of worlds by D.A.Sanford - HTML preview

The shelter digs

It was told to me that each family had to dig their shelters. I wanted to help so I shared a spell that all can use. It is compact. This effect makes any dirt surface to become rock a foot thick.

As you dig, you have someone come behind and smooth the surface as they cast the spell. Now these shelters are starting to become as expressions of their creativity.

Shelters were being built as soon as the homes were finished. After the initial calling and the written proclamations were destroyed, the new good people were given a divine message about the shelter.

Anyone that would come and not dig were treated normally but we would never mention the shelters. You would know who had shelters by a simple phrase. “You need more compost in your garden. That looks like some poor soil.”

Also a divine message to those who were new. Spies would just plow the rich top soil.

The shelters are being built with the livestock in mind. Double doors keep the animal smell separated from the living space. Now the population is finding that during the cold months, the animals can be in a warm environment during the night time,

People are having fun. The dig has become a community thing. Each week the community does a help day. There are elderly that are not up to the labor the dig requires. The community is digging a central shelter.

They have been given the date which is now less than a few years away. The plan is that a few days away, the community will transport the elderly to the shelter, as a just in case. There are helpers that will go to their homes, weeks before the date and help them pack up the most precious mementoes and transfer them to the shelter.

The prediction does not say that it will be total destruction. Only that the people that are not in an underground shelter will just not be there. However there are now tunnels being dug to the homes and barns. Most plan to move everything into the shelters and live in them days before the day of hiding.

Tunnels to the barns so the livestock can be moved but also their equipment.

I try to remind them that only sentient life will be eliminated in this country that are above ground. I don’t tell them that it will only be in the area of the battle. The dig is an obligation, a plea to the gods to pass by those that are sheltering.

I do think that the gods are manipulating the spies that pose as settlers. Not one that is not digging question the fields that are increasing or the community digs. All they see are root cellars. Even the community one is a communal storage for the elderly.

As you could guess. People get creative. Most hides are now multi level. There are even some that have cross bow ranges and such. Formal kitchens and dining rooms. Our people are forgetting that these shelters are for a day.

I finally figure it out. They know that the day of hiding is inevitable. There is a deep down worry even though they were assured that, as long as they are in their shelters, as long as they are a few feet under, they will be alive. As reassurance, I told them that ten feet underground was the minimum.

Their work is busy work, worry work but it is a good work.

I now make it a point to tour each shelter and I make the same comment.

“Good work! You can keep on personalizing it but know this, with what you have done, your family needs to be proud. All that are in this shelter will be safe to celebrate the twentieth birthday.”

I find that they now turn to decorating. Come on folks. It’s only for twenty four hours.