Abandoned - Railway - part 4 - Forevermore - Story 63

[kid1293]

It will be a long winter I hope things improve!

[taniu]

@Abandoned  ;)A beautiful story, but sometimes the thread is sad, just like reality, we all have the flu, it teases us a lot. The song is very beautiful, romantic and there are beautiful landscapes of summer and winter - I have always said that our Earth is beautiful - you just have to respect it.  I think we will all survive this winter. Stay warm, if you have a fireplace, sit down and revel in cocoa. Regards

[Abandoned]

These are sad times.  @kid1293 There's always hope  and as @taniu says it is a beautiful landscape, the snow is pretty and Santa's toys are being made. Thanks for nice thoughts @taniu.  Hot cocoa sounds good. 

[Abandoned]

Letter 18  Autumn Year 18

Dear Weary Traveler,


  I must say, weary traveler, I am weary too.  I awoke again during the night after another dream, they always seem to be a continuation of the last one.  The family in the mansion continue to have dreams of the past but when asked if they wanted to move after the incident with their 6-year-old, they said no.  It seemed that old Ebenezer Scrooge was visited by the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Christmas Yet to Come.  He was able to change his life.  I did not see how this could pertain to us.  A few others have had dreams of past Christmases but whether connected or just because of the season was impossible to tell.  My dreams had nothing to do with Christmas.

 This year began with a dwindling food supply and one outbreak after another of the unknown disease.  The elves that arrived in spring would not stay at this time.  I assigned extra workers to the fishing pier, turkey farmyard, and animal sheds.  Another shed was built.  We had a surplus of apples which would keep a long time but we could not risk losing any, we built a Tiny Jam shop to preserve some.  I had to get the unknown disease under control and our food supply stable if I wanted to implement another idea I had.  We built a Tiny hospital on the east side of town where all the last outbreaks seemed to begin.

  The elf who dropped off Santa's mail told me that the outbreaks seemed to have stopped in many places now, or were few and far between.  Pumpkin Junction and Iron Ridge were doing much better then most of us in this area, Hometown was still struggling.  We were sending them freight cars of toys for Christmas, why not send one of food too.  Many others agreed that we could do it.  The dwarves began building another train car.  I began asking around to find out what foods Hometown served at their Christmas Eve gathering at the old boarding house.

  I must go now, weary traveler, I need to get more sleep. Be sure to let me know if there is anything that is needed in Pumpkin Junction or Iron Ridge.

[Abandoned]

Letter 19 Late Autumn, Year 19

Dear Weary Traveler,


 I hope this letter finds you well.  Our overall health remains good but we suffered more losses this year.  The year started well with no outbreak.  We had 653 toys in the train's freight car and began production of Hometown's Christmas Eve buffet.  I learned from former Hometownians that the buffet consisted of plates of sliced sausages and a variety of cheeses and breads.  There were platters of meats and vegetables and trays of plum cake slices, gingerbread cookies, and sugar plum candies.  There were kettles of mulled wine for adults and hot chocolate for the children.  We would have to make a few substitutions because of travel time and keeping quality but we would do our best.  A Tiny dairy was built to make cheese, more workers were assigned to the animal sheds.  A 2nd fishing pier was built south of the trading post and a Tiny smoker was built not far from that.  We would send smoke fish instead of meat.

  In early summer there was an outbreak of the unknown disease.  Despite having 2 hospitals, both patients died, a child in early summer and a laborer shortly after.  The next 2 patients, one of Santa's elf and another young child died in autumn.  All 4 were laid to rest in the mansion graveyard which was closer to their homes.

 The old abandoned ruin by the graveyard was demolished and replaced by a Tiny house.  A gatherer was now working nearby.  It was that gatherer who saw the 2nd graveyard ghost after returning home late from storing the wild foods in Ebenezer's Emporium.

  I must go now, weary traveler.  The river boatman just arrived with the chicken I ordered.  There will be homemade chicken soup this winter.  I'll write again soon, stay well.

[Abandoned]

Greetings Weary Traveler,


  The chicken soup seemed to help, there were less coughs and colds last winter and no outbreak until early summer.  The 2 patients recovered quickly.  Maybe the Tiny herbalist we built in town helped too.

  We also built a Tiny Butcher.  It was not hard to decide what type sausages to make, the only meat we had was venison and there were several large herds nearby if we need more.  We had a good start to providing for Hometown's Christmas Eve buffet and we'd have enough left over for our own celebration.  So far we had cheese, sausage, smoke fish, bread, gingerbread cookies, and mulled wine.  We will substitute Julmust for the hot chocolate, and add an assortment of vegetables, fruits and nuts, plus the plum cakes and sugarplum candy. 

  I got word that the freight car was full of toys.  There were 999 toys, I asked if they couldn't squeeze in 1 more.  We would need 2 more freight cars and probably a lot more coal.  We also needed to built 3 sleighs to fill with toys.  We needed a lot more toys.  I thought it best to build another toymaker.  There was still so much to do. I just got 2 more sacks of Santa's mail.  I best get back to work. 

  Stay well, weary traveler.

[Abandoned]

Letter 21  Early Winter, Year 21

Dear Weary Traveler,

  By early spring of this year we had another freight car built for toys.  We built our 1st sleigh for Santa's toys near Santa's workshop and a 2nd sleigh by the orchard toy maker.   A Tiny tavern was built nearby.  Our mulled wine was all going to the train car and folks wanted something stronger than hot chocolate.

  In early spring, Yamila the general goods merchant brought more chicken, and Santa's elf brought more letters to Santa and news that things were improving at the North Pole and many elves were now back to work.  We probably should not expect more elves to arrive anytime soon unless we really needed help.  I said I was confident we would meet our quotas.  We only had 2 cases of the unknown disease this year.

  I had a busy year checking that all productions were going well.  Another spice house was built back by the mill and bakery.  I am thinking we may need another Christmas baker to make the plum cakes.  I was happy to have a Nog Nook built right across from Santa's Mail where another tree was trimmed for Christmas.  I enjoy getting a cookie or 2 from the Bake shop and stopping for an eggnog to go with them.  I'm headed there now.  Stay well.

[kid1293]

  You make it really impressive and Christmassy!

The lamp posts were a good request!

[Abandoned]

  Thanks, the new additions really add a lot of Christmasness    What fun.  Those lamp posts turned out better than I had hoped for. 

[Abandoned]

Kid Tiny v3 has been released.  Find info and link to download here:

http://worldofbanished.com/index.php?topic=1859.0

[brads3]

3??? which 1 do i have now.  you trying to cunfuse me?

by the way, you added cocoa but we can't du HERSHEY wihtout roller coasters. j/k

[Abandoned]

sorry @brads3  I just forgot to add link when Tiny 3 was released a few days ago.  Kid Railway will not go on hills, no roller coaster.

[Abandoned]

Letter 22  Early Winter, Year 22

Greetings Weary Traveler,

  I hope this finds you well.  I am a bit tired.  I often wake a bit confused and disoriented from the dreams I continue to have.  It is almost as if I am living in 2 different times and places.  The family in the mansion have occasionally seen the 2 graveyard ghosts from their windows.  They occasionally still have dreams of the past but now they have dreams of the present too, most are a replay of what they had done that day.  A few other families have had similar dreams.

 We had 3 brief outbreaks of the unknown disease this year, none serious.  I believe our 2 hospitals, our herbalist, and a lot of chicken soup helped.

  I spent a lot of time last winter going over statistic.  In early spring Forevermore had a population of 242, 135 Adults, 34 students, and 73 children.  There were 83 families but only 68 homes.  After careful study of birth records I determined that there were at least a half dozen young singles occupying houses and an equal number of young singles living at home that were of marriageable age.  Most young singles at home had just finished school.  Hopefully some of these young people would pair up before we start building more homes.  More urgently needed was another school.  The Santa's Mail classroom had 20 students and the Tiny school was full with 14.  A Tiny red schoolhouse was built by the Christmas baker which was now making plum cakes.

  Besides the new school, I had the dwarves build a 3rd freight car and a 3rd sleigh for toys. The 1st freight car had 999 toys, the 2nd had 579, our goal is 2,500.  We needed 922 more toys to send to Hometown.  The freight car of food is almost full, there may be a bit of space left after the plum cakes are added.  Our 3 sleighs will hold a total of 1,500 toys, we have 351 in one sleigh and 251 in the other, the new sleigh is still empty.  We need 898 more toys for our 3 sleighs for Santa to pick up Christmas Eve.  We have a lot of work to do in a short time.  More and more Christmas decorations are going up around town and there is a new park.

  It's time I get some sleep.  I'll write again another time.

[Abandoned]

Letter 23  Early Winter, Year 23

Dear Weary Traveler,


  Where does the time go, it will soon be Christmas Eve.   The train will have to be on its way soon so the Hometownians will have time to load the toys onto the their sleighs for Santa.  In early spring I stopped workers from loading toys onto our sleighs, the freight cars must be loaded first.  I also assigned a worker to load the coal bin with enough coal to get the train at least as far as Iron Ridge.  As soon as that is done, I will have miners start bringing up iron for the smiths.  We seem to always be low on iron and what surface iron remains is far away.  Laborers have had to go as far as the tunnel to fetch more.  I must admit, weary traveler, I have often wished for the work train to return through that tunnel.

  It was time we start clearing trees and branches that may be blocking the tracks.  We need the logs for toy making, the railway stockpiles are nearly empty.  We built a Tiny gardener to cut and plant trees, and a branch gatherer who will help clear the tracks.  Work has been slow this year.  Many families are now having the recurring dreams of their work day, they are waking as tired as if they had actually worked all night.  The doctors had nothing to suggest, the cleric prayed by the crypt and graveyard which stopped the dreams and ghost sightings but only for a few days at a time.

  Nonetheless, we filled the freight car with more than enough food for Hometown's Christmas Eve buffet, we only need 452 more toys, and the coal bin is 41% filled with coal.  We added another miner to the tiny mine and more chickens to our fireplace soup kettles.  There was no unknown disease outbreak this year, only dreams of the past and of the present.  The children still dream of toys, and visions of sugar plums dance in their heads.

  Sweet dreams, weary traveler, stay well.

[Abandoned]

Letter 24  Early Winter, Year 24

Dear Weary Traveler,


  I am sad and blue to tell you that early spring this year began with another major outbreak.  It began with 7 patients and grew to 15, 21, 29, and then there were 34 who were ill.  The unknown disease spread so rapidly there was no time to make chicken soup when the river boatman arrived with more chicken.  He hurried on his way.  Residents hurried to the chapel to pray as spring turned into summer and 2 of Santa's elves and 1 laborer passed away. 

  By late summer the remaining patients were cured.  We began building houses for young people to put some distance between family members hoping to stop the disease outbreaks from spreading so fast.  There was another outbreak in late summer and again in early autumn.  Each of those times there were only a few patients and they recovered quickly.

  Our food and firewood supply dropped slightly but enough to get us out to the woods to gather more wild foods and branches.  We have enough iron to last a little while longer.  It was not a good year, weary traveler.  We can only hope that next year will be better.

I'll write more later.