In reply to Narrator (msg # 194):

Ok, take them, more to stop them being used again than anything else, and head off to the camp. Chris can carry the two that can't walk.

Chris can carry one only, he isn't fantastically strong.

Ginger checks, "Is the cart usable?"

In reply to Ginger (msg # 197):

the cart has a broken axle and looks like it hasn't been usable for years.

"Is there enough usable wood left in that old cart to make a couple drag litters?  We've got a tent and blankets, but only one tent pole."

that there is! good thinking!

In that case, the sisters will quickly (and reversibly) convert their tent and bedding into a couple travois, so one sturdy person can drag one infirm or unconscious one on each.

In reply to Evelina Grattan (msg # 201):

Emma will assist, but will use clothes from the deceased instead of her tent. Then she will bury the dead with a little ceremony.

In reply to Emma Wilson (msg # 202):

Christine will shape Earth to assist Emma, not because she cares for those that tried  to kill them, but because Emma is her friend and hates the thought of them rising as undead.

Chris can drag one injured, though Christine would sooner bury the most injured out of mercy, his chances of survival would be slim anyway.

Christine assembles the mass grave and fills it in as soon as the bodies are laid to rest.

In reply to Narrator (msg # 204):

Since Emma does not know Final Rest, she will pray over them and break the legs. But she will attempt to bury each without another body above them, at least.

Once done, and the living but weak are put on stretchers, Chris will drag the most healthy of the two that cannot walk, and the other can be dragged by someone else, or disposed of mercifully by Masugatan.

"I'll take that second litter, while Holiness helps Peyrona walk."

"Can I give you a hand, Elaina?" asks Ginger. "Or is there something else you'd prefer me to do or carry?"

"Hauling one of these is a one-person job, and I'm not going to be traveling fast with this extra weight.  Best I can suggest is keep an eye on the occupant to be sure he doesn't suffer from the movement -- perhaps do the same for the one Chris is hauling, too."
This message was last edited by the player at 09:19, Wed 08 May.

In reply to Elaina Grattan (msg # 208):

"I can bury another..." Christine offers, trying to be helpful.

"There are way too many men who thinks they can push a woman around by force and take what they want these days. A few less is no loss..."

Ginger's beard wobbles a bit at Chrtine's comments but he says noting.

Masugatan awaits the order to extinguish the miserable… not eagerly, but worse: indifferently.  Meanwhile, he picks something out from between two molars.

"We've met a few of those, Christine, but I think these weren't trying to steal from us because we're women -- which would imply they're blind if they can't see Ginger and Masugatan, not to mention Chris looks pretty masculine -- but simply because we have things they need, like food, or coin to buy food from those who have it, or goods to sell for coin to buy food.  If these folk are genuinely starving, our sex has nothing to do with this."

In reply to Evelina Grattan (msg # 212):

"We are in fertile country, and there is no snow yet and plenty of scope to grow or hunt for food. That excuse is bullshit. Whyever they attacked us, it was not because they were hungry and lacked options."
This message was last edited by the player at 06:20, Yesterday.

"You forget we were born farm girls.

"Even in fertile land, with good weather, enough sun and enough rain, and at the right times, it takes so little to destroy crops -- leaving too little to cover food, livestock feed, and seed for the next season.  Eat the seed, and you'll surely starve next year; eat the stock instead of feeding them and you'll starve as well -- but don't eat and you starve anyway.  All while the sun shines and the rain falls as it should.  Stock that can graze helps, but just removes one set of mouths.

"If these folk suffered a blight, they might be trying to get by on roots and berries until the harvest -- or they might have eaten their seed and chickens last winter and had nothing to plant this spring, and already eaten what their wool could buy.

"I'm not saying we should trust them with our lives without knowing more -- I'm saying we shouldn't murder folk without knowing more.  If they ambush us again, Holy Sister and I will help kill them, as we've done before."

In reply to Evelina Grattan (msg # 214):

"But farming is just one of several options. There are creatures to hunt, likely rivers to fish in. Hell, anyone can put in even a small vegetable garden that will have enough variety that any blight, which usually just effects a single type of plant, will not wipe it all out.

I am not killing them yet, but given they have tried to kill us once, it makes it hard to relax if they know we are here. I do not want to wait until hey have a more opportune time if I have the slightest inkling they will try to finish what they started so badly."

Ginger follows the ladies' dialogue with rapt interest. For once he knows when to keep quiet.

In reply to Evelina Grattan (msg # 214):

As farm girls, you noted when the graves were dug that the soil here is particularly rocky and the pathway is on an incline; there may not
be very much level truly fertile ground.  As to the bandits preying on you because some of you are women, some of the bandits are as well.

Masugatan keeps his mouth shut, but a keen observer of his face might readily conclude that he thinks certain members of the party are overcomplicating matters.

In reply to Narrator (msg # 217):

Any of the survivors women? That would change how Christine responds to them...