Abandoned - Orchard Grove - Story 83

[Abandoned]

Chapter 18


  We had two more visitors to our village.  First, Ritchel, the seed merchant, came to the new seed trader port.  He had papaya seeds but we did not have quite enough seedlings yet.  He took some of the fresh fruit in trade and said let him know when that warehouse was almost full so he could tell the port master at the Junction to send the big ship.  He'd be back with more seeds.




  We didn't think it would take too long to fill that warehouse if the new orchards would do as well as our fruit tree patches did.  They were very productive in this warm climate.  The papayas seeds did well when planted, they sprouted and began growing right away.  We had two other orchards cleared and ready to plant as soon as we got the seeds.  The grass cutter had done a good job and was no longer needed, we would remove the hut.  The gatherer was still getting a good amount of wild foods and flax from outside and inside the village fence.  We would keep that gatherer's hut there a little longer.




  The second visitor paid a visit to the herbalist hut and gave Heathania quite a scare when she returned with her basket of herbs she had collected. When she approached the hut, the door opened and out came the witch doctor.  She stopped dead in her tracks and before she could say or do anything, the strange figure shook a small bag that rattled making her think it contained seed pods. Hed then raised his twisted staff towards her and chanted a few words.  It was as if he were blessing her, she said.  And then he was gone.  Inside she found a bunch of tropical flowers and some seeds, and there was a small bundle of herbs and some seed pods on the table by her teacup.  There was a papaya and two bananas missing from her fruit bowl.

[Glenn]

Witch doctor, what doctor, where doctor?

Perhaps our heroine has a secret still she's been visiting? 

[Abandoned]

    What, you haven't seen the witch doctor?  He's right there in front of the herbalist's hut door, and he's been lurking around on more than a dozen other pictures      All citizens were advised to report anything suspicious. 

[Glenn]

I see the doctor now -

Which is good -  I was starting to think our witch, what, where doctor, may have been a wolf!

[Abandoned]

   no wolves in the tropics, just our resident witch doctor 


Chapter 19


  I didn't know either what the herbs were when Heathania showed me, but I helped her plant the seeds in a row along the fence behind her herbalist hut and along the fence from the hall hut all the way over to the smith's hut. They sprouted quickly and grew quite tall.  We planted the tropical flower seeds in a few spots around the village.  They grew quickly and bloomed beautifully. 



  In late winter, Meliseo, the blacksmith, died of a weak heart.  He had been feeling rundown a few times.  At the burial, the witch doctor appeared and again shook his small bag of herb pods, raised his crooked staff, and chanted.  Meliseo's widow, Arlind, said she heard that chanting twice before outside their hut, once was right after we planted the herbs along the fence and again shortly before her husband died.  Had she told us that at the time we may have thought to make a healing herbal tea with those witch doctor herbs to give to Meliseo.  Perhaps his life could have been saved.




    The witch doctor was seen often around the village after that.  He never spoke, he probably only knew a native dialect.  He sometimes chanted by a fruit or crop patch.  He seemed to have taken up residence in the healing clinic.  No one seemed to mind and we often left him pieces of fruit or fish.  He liked sweet potatoes.   We rather liked having our own resident witch doctor.

[Abandoned]

Chapter 20


  In early summer of year 10, Ritchel, the seed merchant, returned with coconut seeds.  Again he accepted some fruit as well as seedlings in trade.   We planted them and the witch doctor gave them his blessing.  The little coconut trees sprouted almost as soon as they were planted. 




We built another potting shed across from the coconut orchard hoping to have enough seedlings when Ritchel returned with more seeds.  The seedling in the small pots grew slowly taking time to reach transplant and tradeable size.



We had only potted 168 seedlings the year before but even with 2 potting sheds this year, we did not have anywhere near enough to trade in early winter when Ritchel returned with pineapple seeds.

[Abandoned]

Chapter 21



  In early spring of year 11 we built a brewer workplace to make ale.  Our daughter Mckayli wanted to be the brewer, the barrel was close to her house.  By then she had been married for several years to Carron, the young man who helped me plant the seedlings.  They lived in the hut down the road from us.  They had 2 boys, the oldest was a few months older than her brother and would be starting school soon.  She was tending the banana patch at the time.



In early summer, another sack of wheat and a crate of apples were found by the forester's hut so we knew the pirate ship had returned.  We didn't at first like the idea of trading with pirates, but if they were helping others then maybe we could help them by making a little ale.  They seemed to only make rum at their still when the booty ship returned and had a sack of sugar.  We made sure our witch doctor got a few of the apples they gave us.



  We had no small boat to reach the smuggler's cave with our ale.  One of the pirate's helped one of our builders build a small jetty from shore to the cave.  We began taking kegs of ale to the cave and exchanging them for winter coats.  Mckayli got her wish and became brewer in late winter.

[Abandoned]

Chapter 22


  Year 12 was a disaster.  We should have suspected something was about to happen that spring, the witch doctor was agitated and was pacing around as if not knowing where to go or what to do. 



The sky got increasingly dark, there was no wind, but suddenly all the torches and cookfires were snuffed out.  The next moment the wind began to blow and howl like we never heard it before.  It was no ordinary tropical storm.  We were later told that our Mckayli ran from the brewer barrel to the school along with several others, but they were too late.  Suddenly a huge twister dropped out of the clouds across the stream and headed straight for the school. 





  The twister took out 2 huts and their entire families, the school, the communal hut, both gatherers, the herbalist hut, and the forester's hut.  The twister took out part of our fruit orchards and cut a wide path through our forester's trees.  Luckily it turned and missed the pirate's town completely, it crossed the stream and dissipated before reaching the hills.  It left death and destruction behind.

[jerica]

Oh no! 

[kid1293]

  and I complain about our weather...

[Abandoned]

   did not expect this     I thought population had to be 300 before disasters strike 

[catty-cb]

oh that looks bad     am glad the first thing I do when starting a new village is to turn off the disasters, hope its something you can recover from

[Abandoned]

  It is bad but they are survivors.  I occasionally play a map with disasters on but usually without the storyteller being physically on the map, I took a chance.  Most of those times I do not even get a disaster, I thought because population was too low.  Here, I was hoping for fires or diseases being in the jungle with grass huts.  I did not expect tornado. 

[Abandoned]

Chapter 23

  Valentice and I lost both our daughters and our grandson at the school that day.  The teacher and all 13 students perished.  Our herbalist, 2 foresters, and 2 gatherers, and several farmers and laborers all lost their lives.  Our town lost 35 citizens that day, 15 adults, 13 students, and 7 young children.  All 17 pirates and their children survived.  Between the 2 of us, there were 52 survivors, 34 adults, 1 pirate student, and 17 young children.  The joint population dropped from 87 to 52 in a matter of minutes.





  The pirates came to our aid immediately.  They helped bury the dead, in our cemetery and theirs when ours was full.  They helped located the injured and built extra hammocks at the clinic for them.  They gathered thatch and began repairing and rebuilding damaged buildings.  They made sure we had needed food and supplies and that the essential buildings had workers.  They consulted with us on everything.  Most buildings were rebuilt by the time Ritchel came to port in late summer, the pirates asked us if we wanted the lemon seeds he brought.  We said yes.  The shock was gradually wearing off. 

[angainor88]

Oh no! A great tragedy to befall the bannies