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Jaime approached Robyn, his footsteps light, it was another early morning, and normally he would be focused entirely on caring for the tokotas at this early hour, but today other thoughts filled his mind. “Hey Robyn” he cleared his throat, trying not to startle her.

“Oh hey Jaime” Robyn greeted him, barely turning from her task of picking burs out of Mogar's coat. Mogar was often wandering into the deepest parts of the woods, and no matter how many times he got pricked with the brambles he always came back to her, and would stand quietly as she patiently picked them out of his dark brown fur. “Something on your mind or just making small talk? 'Cause I noticed the water through had been semi-frozen over this morning and we need to get the heating in place so we don't have to break the ice every morning come winter.”

“I will get right on that” Jaime promised. “But there is something on my mind. Have you heard about the SSWWc's Fall Harvest Competition?”

“Yeah, why?”

“I was thinking maybe we should help out, enter the fray. We help them they help us kind of thing?”

Robyn finally turned to look at Jaime and she considered him for a long moment. “Its not a bad idea, except we need to provide for ourselves first and foremost, helping them may lead to help in the future, but in reality that tribe is too far away to really help us in an emergency. We need to be prepared.”

“Robyn, we have pounds upon pounds of frozen and drying meats in the cellar, we have preserves coming out of our ears, and the money and trades you earned from the jewelery has certainly provided us with enough blankets, and furs to keep the sphinxes and ourselves warm. The barn is in good shape, the cabins have been insulated, the wood sheds are overflowing with logs, branches and all other manner of flammables. Basically the only thing not done is the heating of the water pipes in the barn and really that requires only a little work. I would not say we are prepared for anything, that would just invite bad luck after all, but we are prepared.”

“Alright, alright” Robyn held up her hands, and smiled tiredly. “I guess you are right, but who would we want to take? What contests are they having up there?”

“We can take two tokota with us, there are bonuses for every trait, but I'm not sure any of our tokotas are ready for the more hands on activities. There is hunting and fishing – we can do that easily. We can also do gathering and harvesting, and then the hands on activities I mentioned are cleaning and preserving and storing the harvest.”

Robyn made a face at the idea of cleaning, while it was a necessary evil she was not fond of the idea of cleaning up after an entire tribe, even if there would be plenty of help. “Alright, hunting and fishing for sure, maybe if there are extras we can bring some back with us. Gathering and harvesting – maybe, but I would prefer not to do the last two activities. We have enough of that to do here. But that still doesn't answer my question of who we would take?”

“I was thinking you could bring Mogar, he is good at the hunting and fishing, and I would bring Zelkova along for the gathering and harvesting. Mogar won't have to be around very many humans that way, and you two can do what you do best. Zelkova on the other hand can work well with others and she will follow their lead.”

Slowly Robyn nodded, “When do we want to go?”

“Today?” Jaime, though a full grown man, was hard pressed not to let his voice squeak when Robyn raised an eyebrow at him, staring at him with a penetrating gaze. With a sigh she nodded, finally looking away.

“Just get the pipe taken care of, I will get Zelkova and Mogar ready to go.”

Obediently Jaime turned his attention to the pipe and getting it all carefully heated, not too fast, but enough so that soon the water was lukewarm to his fingertips. By the time he finished and found Robyn again she had cleaned out the trailer, gathered up all their tack, and was starting to get the bows, arrows, knives, backpacks, water and other misc supplies that she figured they would need. Silently Jaime joined her, gathering his supplies as well. Eventually all that was left was for them to tell Alex their plan, and get the actual tokotas in the trailer and drive to SSWWc.

“I will tell Alex” Robyn said. “He knows me better, and I think he will understand us not telling him, and I do not think he'd want to go anyway, too many people and since we can only bring two tokotas anyway he would be left with no tokota and no way to escape the crowd if he wanted to. You get Mogar and Zelkova into the trailer and remember their water and snacks. I will get us snacks while I am in the cabin, if you have any audiobooks or tapes you want to listen to on the way there I would suggest getting those as well.”

Jaime nodded, and went to do just as she had said, Mogar was first, since the brown male tokota was still lingering near the barn. The male eyed him cautiously, his brown eyes wary. “I know, I am new around here, but you come with us and you will get to go hunting and fishing with Robyn, it will be lots of fun for you. You will probably even get some special treats.”

With the promise of treats Mogar let Jaime clip his red halter on and lead him into the trailer. Now for Zelkova, at least she would be willing to follow him once he found her. It did not take long for him to find the brown female tokota, and just as he had guessed she placidly followed him into the trailer, settling into the space beside Mogar with a laid back ease. Mogar's ears went back at the addition of another tokota, and he peered over the divider, judging Zelkova's movements, assessing her, but after a few minutes of watching the female just stand there, her eyes close, ears relaxed, already starting to fall asleep the male relaxed once more.

Robyn came from the house, carrying bags with snacks and she had her phone and a charger and small book was under her arm. Jaime quickly ran inside and gathered up his entertainment, said goodbye to Alex, shut the trailer door, settled into the passenger seat of the truck and then they were off.

They drove for several hours, switching about half way through, and letting the tokotas stretch their legs on a consistent basis. Finally they saw the great wall in the distance, and Robyn smiled. “There it is, SSWWc.”

“What does SSWWc stand for anyway?” Jaime asked, he had never been to the tribe's home before.

“You will see when we get there” Robyn smirked.

Jaime continued to stare at the wall, trying to guess at its secrets. They arrived at a great wooden door in the wall, a large walrus head was mounted above it, the wall had moss and vines creeping along the edges, the land curving around the wall as if it the wall had grown there along with the land, not built by man and forced roughly into place.

Slowly the doors opened, the trailer passed through, walls of stone on either side that were dotted with lamps as the tunnel stretched int front of them, it took several minutes to travel through the tunnel into the open courtyard. There were shops dotted down, an in, and several fields. Robyn pulled the trailer up to the inn and got out of the truck, opening the doors to get Mogar and Zelkova out.

“I don't get it?” Jaime asked, looking around. “From the posters I thought this was a huge place, and the wall, man that was huge?”

“Did you not read the address on the poster?' Robyn smiled, taking Mogar's halter and leading the male out of the trailer as Jaime did the same for Zelkova.

“Well, yeah, but it just said Solid Stone Wall, Wallcity If this is a city, well, its not much of one. I get the stone wall part but the rest doesn't quite fit the bill.”

As they were talking Jaime had not been paying attention to where Robyn was leading them so when he looked up he was surprised to see the stone wall leering over them, stretching up into the sky.

Robyn reached out and tapped on the wall four times, the knocking making a resonant sound. Jaime was about to ask her what on earth she was doing, when, seemingly out of no where the wall opened up. Jaime gawked in disbelief as the stone slid apart, opening into a large doorway, a man stood inside, a dim light revealing a smile.

“Welcome Robyn, it is good to see you. Your brother is well, and I'm sure will be happy to see you. Who have you brought with you?”

“Hello Adrick, we're actually here for the Fall Harvest Competition, but I figured it was also about time I paid that brother of mine a visit. This is Mogar, he's a bit wary around others so if you have any secluded areas left I'll take him there. Jaime is a new acquaintance of mine, he and his cousin, Elena, recently joined Kendrick, Alex and I, and the tokota he's leading is Zelkova, she'll be happy pretty much wherever you put her.”

“Ah, well you are doubly welcome then. I'm sure you have had a long drive, let me show you to some quarters I think you will find suitable. With a certain ease Jaime knew had to have come from years of traversing this place Adrick led the pair up a twisting flight of stairs, through several hallways until they came to the end of one such hallway. “Two rooms, I assume?” he raised an eyebrow.

“Yes, thank you.” Robyn nodded, though a slight blush came to her cheeks at the question.

“The stables are housed as one, though there are separate stalls, will that be suitable?”

“More than, thank you Adrick. If it isn't too much to ask will you tell my brother I am here? If he's free please tell him where we are, otherwise it may take me forever to find him, I'm afraid my memories of this place are not quiet what they used to be.”

“Of course, I almost forgot, as guest of the contest you each receive a map” he reached into a small bag that he had tied around his waist, pulling out two rolled up pieces of parchment handing both Jaime and Robyn one. “But that is no problem Robyn, I will tell your brother of your arrival. The hunting starts in morning, so try not to stay too late catching up.” With a nod and smile Adrick hurried off back down the hall.

“You grew up here?” was the first thing out of Jaime's mouth, his eyes wide as he looked at the stone that had to have been meticulously carved out or placed around them.

Robyn's eyes were a lit with a certain mischief. “Yes, does that make me a dwarf?”

Jaime did not have an answer for her, so he silently swung open the door to the left to find himself once again amazed. Inside, the cold, dull, gray walls of stone gave way to carpets everywhere, a wooden floor, a bed covered in a large quilt, a large door in the back that Jaime guessed led to the stable, and a smaller door that was likely the bathroom. Stepping inside Jaime found that the room was warm, and if a bit small it was very homey. Unconsciously he led Zelkova inside as well and Robyn watched as Jaime looked around the room, then back at her.

“How?” he finally managed to ask.

“You asked earlier what SSWWc stood for, well, it stand for the address – Solid Stone Wall, WallCity. The city, though perhaps not a city as you would think of one, but a city none the less is inside these walls. Look at your map if you don't believe me.”

Fumbling with holding Zelkova's halter and opening the map it took Jaime a moment to unroll the parchment, but when he did he saw the arc of the wall laid out in front of him, each floor laid out in its sections, from the top to the basement, each room on the floors labeled with names, some were the names of a person or family, others had guest written on them, there were many storage rooms, and cellars, The wall grew wider as it it approached what had to have been the mountains Jaime had seen on their drive in opening into larger living quarters, and at the very end of the of the map, stretching from the top to one level lower then theirs was a place labeled the throne room.

“It really is a city” Jaime marveled, his fingers tracing over the small print that neatly labeled each section.

Smiling, Robyn opened the door to her room, leading Mogar inside, and she opened the door the stable, leading the tokota into a stall, grooming and talking nonsense to the wary brown male until he had calmed again. In a daze Jaime followed her lead, while the stable was small it had an area to dispose of waste, which he assumed either went to the gardens to be used as compost or was disposed of in some other way. There were water troughs fed by pipes, and another trough that was empty. There were two more small doors inside the stable, one leading into a tack room, and the other that led into a dried meat storage that had every type of meet Jaime could have thought of to feed the tokotas.

“So what do you think?” Robyn asked as they prepped some of the meat for Mogar and Zelkova.

“I think I will like our stay here.” Jaime answered, smiling, and as if in agreement the two tokota huffed contentedly. “If nothing else its already been a real eye opener.”

“Then welcome to SSWWc.”

Description
Jaime approached Robyn, his footsteps light, it was another early morning, and normally he would be focused entirely on caring for the tokotas at this early hour, but today other thoughts filled his mind. “Hey Robyn” he cleared his throat, trying not to startle her.

“Oh hey Jaime” Robyn greeted him, barely turning from her task of picking burs out of Mogar's coat. Mogar was often wandering into the deepest parts of the woods, and no matter how many times he got pricked with the brambles he always came back to her, and would stand quietly as she patiently picked them out of his dark brown fur. “Something on your mind or just making small talk? 'Cause I noticed the water through had been semi-frozen over this morning and we need to get the heating in place so we don't have to break the ice every morning come winter.”

“I will get right on that” Jaime promised. “But there is something on my mind. Have you heard about the SSWWc's Fall Harvest Competition?”

“Yeah, why?”

“I was thinking maybe we should help out, enter the fray. We help them they help us kind of thing?”

Robyn finally turned to look at Jaime and she considered him for a long moment. “Its not a bad idea, except we need to provide for ourselves first and foremost, helping them may lead to help in the future, but in reality that tribe is too far away to really help us in an emergency. We need to be prepared.”

“Robyn, we have pounds upon pounds of frozen and drying meats in the cellar, we have preserves coming out of our ears, and the money and trades you earned from the jewelery has certainly provided us with enough blankets, and furs to keep the sphinxes and ourselves warm. The barn is in good shape, the cabins have been insulated, the wood sheds are overflowing with logs, branches and all other manner of flammables. Basically the only thing not done is the heating of the water pipes in the barn and really that requires only a little work. I would not say we are prepared for anything, that would just invite bad luck after all, but we are prepared.”

“Alright, alright” Robyn held up her hands, and smiled tiredly. “I guess you are right, but who would we want to take? What contests are they having up there?”

“We can take two tokota with us, there are bonuses for every trait, but I'm not sure any of our tokotas are ready for the more hands on activities. There is hunting and fishing – we can do that easily. We can also do gathering and harvesting, and then the hands on activities I mentioned are cleaning and preserving and storing the harvest.”

Robyn made a face at the idea of cleaning, while it was a necessary evil she was not fond of the idea of cleaning up after an entire tribe, even if there would be plenty of help. “Alright, hunting and fishing for sure, maybe if there are extras we can bring some back with us. Gathering and harvesting – maybe, but I would prefer not to do the last two activities. We have enough of that to do here. But that still doesn't answer my question of who we would take?”

“I was thinking you could bring Mogar, he is good at the hunting and fishing, and I would bring Zelkova along for the gathering and harvesting. Mogar won't have to be around very many humans that way, and you two can do what you do best. Zelkova on the other hand can work well with others and she will follow their lead.”

Slowly Robyn nodded, “When do we want to go?”

“Today?” Jaime, though a full grown man, was hard pressed not to let his voice squeak when Robyn raised an eyebrow at him, staring at him with a penetrating gaze. With a sigh she nodded, finally looking away.

“Just get the pipe taken care of, I will get Zelkova and Mogar ready to go.”

Obediently Jaime turned his attention to the pipe and getting it all carefully heated, not too fast, but enough so that soon the water was lukewarm to his fingertips. By the time he finished and found Robyn again she had cleaned out the trailer, gathered up all their tack, and was starting to get the bows, arrows, knives, backpacks, water and other misc supplies that she figured they would need. Silently Jaime joined her, gathering his supplies as well. Eventually all that was left was for them to tell Alex their plan, and get the actual tokotas in the trailer and drive to SSWWc.

“I will tell Alex” Robyn said. “He knows me better, and I think he will understand us not telling him, and I do not think he'd want to go anyway, too many people and since we can only bring two tokotas anyway he would be left with no tokota and no way to escape the crowd if he wanted to. You get Mogar and Zelkova into the trailer and remember their water and snacks. I will get us snacks while I am in the cabin, if you have any audiobooks or tapes you want to listen to on the way there I would suggest getting those as well.”

Jaime nodded, and went to do just as she had said, Mogar was first, since the brown male tokota was still lingering near the barn. The male eyed him cautiously, his brown eyes wary. “I know, I am new around here, but you come with us and you will get to go hunting and fishing with Robyn, it will be lots of fun for you. You will probably even get some special treats.”

With the promise of treats Mogar let Jaime clip his red halter on and lead him into the trailer. Now for Zelkova, at least she would be willing to follow him once he found her. It did not take long for him to find the brown female tokota, and just as he had guessed she placidly followed him into the trailer, settling into the space beside Mogar with a laid back ease. Mogar's ears went back at the addition of another tokota, and he peered over the divider, judging Zelkova's movements, assessing her, but after a few minutes of watching the female just stand there, her eyes close, ears relaxed, already starting to fall asleep the male relaxed once more.

Robyn came from the house, carrying bags with snacks and she had her phone and a charger and small book was under her arm. Jaime quickly ran inside and gathered up his entertainment, said goodbye to Alex, shut the trailer door, settled into the passenger seat of the truck and then they were off.

They drove for several hours, switching about half way through, and letting the tokotas stretch their legs on a consistent basis. Finally they saw the great wall in the distance, and Robyn smiled. “There it is, SSWWc.”

“What does SSWWc stand for anyway?” Jaime asked, he had never been to the tribe's home before.

“You will see when we get there” Robyn smirked.

Jaime continued to stare at the wall, trying to guess at its secrets. They arrived at a great wooden door in the wall, a large walrus head was mounted above it, the wall had moss and vines creeping along the edges, the land curving around the wall as if it the wall had grown there along with the land, not built by man and forced roughly into place.

Slowly the doors opened, the trailer passed through, walls of stone on either side that were dotted with lamps as the tunnel stretched int front of them, it took several minutes to travel through the tunnel into the open courtyard. There were shops dotted down, an in, and several fields. Robyn pulled the trailer up to the inn and got out of the truck, opening the doors to get Mogar and Zelkova out.

“I don't get it?” Jaime asked, looking around. “From the posters I thought this was a huge place, and the wall, man that was huge?”

“Did you not read the address on the poster?' Robyn smiled, taking Mogar's halter and leading the male out of the trailer as Jaime did the same for Zelkova.

“Well, yeah, but it just said Solid Stone Wall, Wallcity If this is a city, well, its not much of one. I get the stone wall part but the rest doesn't quite fit the bill.”

As they were talking Jaime had not been paying attention to where Robyn was leading them so when he looked up he was surprised to see the stone wall leering over them, stretching up into the sky.

Robyn reached out and tapped on the wall four times, the knocking making a resonant sound. Jaime was about to ask her what on earth she was doing, when, seemingly out of no where the wall opened up. Jaime gawked in disbelief as the stone slid apart, opening into a large doorway, a man stood inside, a dim light revealing a smile.

“Welcome Robyn, it is good to see you. Your brother is well, and I'm sure will be happy to see you. Who have you brought with you?”

“Hello Adrick, we're actually here for the Fall Harvest Competition, but I figured it was also about time I paid that brother of mine a visit. This is Mogar, he's a bit wary around others so if you have any secluded areas left I'll take him there. Jaime is a new acquaintance of mine, he and his cousin, Elena, recently joined Kendrick, Alex and I, and the tokota he's leading is Zelkova, she'll be happy pretty much wherever you put her.”

“Ah, well you are doubly welcome then. I'm sure you have had a long drive, let me show you to some quarters I think you will find suitable. With a certain ease Jaime knew had to have come from years of traversing this place Adrick led the pair up a twisting flight of stairs, through several hallways until they came to the end of one such hallway. “Two rooms, I assume?” he raised an eyebrow.

“Yes, thank you.” Robyn nodded, though a slight blush came to her cheeks at the question.

“The stables are housed as one, though there are separate stalls, will that be suitable?”

“More than, thank you Adrick. If it isn't too much to ask will you tell my brother I am here? If he's free please tell him where we are, otherwise it may take me forever to find him, I'm afraid my memories of this place are not quiet what they used to be.”

“Of course, I almost forgot, as guest of the contest you each receive a map” he reached into a small bag that he had tied around his waist, pulling out two rolled up pieces of parchment handing both Jaime and Robyn one. “But that is no problem Robyn, I will tell your brother of your arrival. The hunting starts in morning, so try not to stay too late catching up.” With a nod and smile Adrick hurried off back down the hall.

“You grew up here?” was the first thing out of Jaime's mouth, his eyes wide as he looked at the stone that had to have been meticulously carved out or placed around them.

Robyn's eyes were a lit with a certain mischief. “Yes, does that make me a dwarf?”

Jaime did not have an answer for her, so he silently swung open the door to the left to find himself once again amazed. Inside, the cold, dull, gray walls of stone gave way to carpets everywhere, a wooden floor, a bed covered in a large quilt, a large door in the back that Jaime guessed led to the stable, and a smaller door that was likely the bathroom. Stepping inside Jaime found that the room was warm, and if a bit small it was very homey. Unconsciously he led Zelkova inside as well and Robyn watched as Jaime looked around the room, then back at her.

“How?” he finally managed to ask.

“You asked earlier what SSWWc stood for, well, it stand for the address – Solid Stone Wall, WallCity. The city, though perhaps not a city as you would think of one, but a city none the less is inside these walls. Look at your map if you don't believe me.”

Fumbling with holding Zelkova's halter and opening the map it took Jaime a moment to unroll the parchment, but when he did he saw the arc of the wall laid out in front of him, each floor laid out in its sections, from the top to the basement, each room on the floors labeled with names, some were the names of a person or family, others had guest written on them, there were many storage rooms, and cellars, The wall grew wider as it it approached what had to have been the mountains Jaime had seen on their drive in opening into larger living quarters, and at the very end of the of the map, stretching from the top to one level lower then theirs was a place labeled the throne room.

“It really is a city” Jaime marveled, his fingers tracing over the small print that neatly labeled each section.

Smiling, Robyn opened the door to her room, leading Mogar inside, and she opened the door the stable, leading the tokota into a stall, grooming and talking nonsense to the wary brown male until he had calmed again. In a daze Jaime followed her lead, while the stable was small it had an area to dispose of waste, which he assumed either went to the gardens to be used as compost or was disposed of in some other way. There were water troughs fed by pipes, and another trough that was empty. There were two more small doors inside the stable, one leading into a tack room, and the other that led into a dried meat storage that had every type of meet Jaime could have thought of to feed the tokotas.

“So what do you think?” Robyn asked as they prepped some of the meat for Mogar and Zelkova.

“I think I will like our stay here.” Jaime answered, smiling, and as if in agreement the two tokota huffed contentedly. “If nothing else its already been a real eye opener.”

“Then welcome to SSWWc.”