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Time is ... strange.
Alba Scutum had been abandoned long ago, when their plant was taken. The world's since moved on, the population not big enough anymore to sustain little pop-up towns forgotten and worn down by sand and time.
It was, as far as Delphinium was concerned, nearly a perfect location. Nearly. She'd been careful, since arriving and figuring out more or less what was going on. Through her network of sparse connections to her kin, she'd gathered those willing to take a chance at a life away from the safety of the cities, and migrated, taking those hardy people with her. Only two dozen or so, but it's enough for a start. Enough to move what remained of Alba Scutum to the coast of the Great Sand Sea and begin again. With so few people, one Plant is plenty. It took a while to move the stone and supplies from Alba Scutum closer to the coast.
And then the rumors began. A new port for sand steamers, though it could only take one at a time, because it was a little port at best.
With things to trade that such a tiny town couldn't possibly sustain with just one Plant. And wilder yet, vegetation. Actual vegetation, protected ferociously by the townsfolk, spiny and rubbery leaved and not particularly friendly looking, but green and alive in an otherwise empty desert. They'll sell seeds and seedlings, for the right price. But don't demand too much, or the entire steamer will be turned away.
It's called White Shield now, squatting at the base of a steep-walled canyon to protect it from the wind and make steamer arrivals easier to dock and unload. Easy to see from a distance by sand steamer by the pair of still under construction windmills up on the cliffs to either side of the canyon. The town is still small, but it has an inn and a bar, a little general store, white-stoned buildings and a well-sheltered squatty kind of tower with a single small Plant bulb that surely must have an excellent view, wires and cables trailing down through the rest of town. And scrubby tenacious desert plants tucked all around buildings, rocks and sheltered places, covered in spines and determinedly growing. At night, one or two species even flower, the scent clean and fresh and entirely foreign to this planet. It lures worms in like little else, glowing sparks in the night. They too, are determinedly growing.
Like the town itself.
Had it even been there a few days ago? It looks like it must have been there for months.
Alba Scutum had been abandoned long ago, when their plant was taken. The world's since moved on, the population not big enough anymore to sustain little pop-up towns forgotten and worn down by sand and time.
It was, as far as Delphinium was concerned, nearly a perfect location. Nearly. She'd been careful, since arriving and figuring out more or less what was going on. Through her network of sparse connections to her kin, she'd gathered those willing to take a chance at a life away from the safety of the cities, and migrated, taking those hardy people with her. Only two dozen or so, but it's enough for a start. Enough to move what remained of Alba Scutum to the coast of the Great Sand Sea and begin again. With so few people, one Plant is plenty. It took a while to move the stone and supplies from Alba Scutum closer to the coast.
And then the rumors began. A new port for sand steamers, though it could only take one at a time, because it was a little port at best.
With things to trade that such a tiny town couldn't possibly sustain with just one Plant. And wilder yet, vegetation. Actual vegetation, protected ferociously by the townsfolk, spiny and rubbery leaved and not particularly friendly looking, but green and alive in an otherwise empty desert. They'll sell seeds and seedlings, for the right price. But don't demand too much, or the entire steamer will be turned away.
It's called White Shield now, squatting at the base of a steep-walled canyon to protect it from the wind and make steamer arrivals easier to dock and unload. Easy to see from a distance by sand steamer by the pair of still under construction windmills up on the cliffs to either side of the canyon. The town is still small, but it has an inn and a bar, a little general store, white-stoned buildings and a well-sheltered squatty kind of tower with a single small Plant bulb that surely must have an excellent view, wires and cables trailing down through the rest of town. And scrubby tenacious desert plants tucked all around buildings, rocks and sheltered places, covered in spines and determinedly growing. At night, one or two species even flower, the scent clean and fresh and entirely foreign to this planet. It lures worms in like little else, glowing sparks in the night. They too, are determinedly growing.
Like the town itself.
Had it even been there a few days ago? It looks like it must have been there for months.
