Elevation of Mana Chapter 31 Farming, First Attempt

Months after the cold had begun it slowly began to lessen.  It ended much as it started, with one day a warm wind blowing through the village.  Sure, there was still snow, and it was still cold, but that blessed kiss of warmth told us that things were changing, that soon, very soon, things would be back to normal, and we could go back to our old lives.

I of course had some other ideas.  Our old lives were good, but couldn't they be so much better?  Well, there were potential pitfalls, some issues here and there that I'd need to navigate, but I had some trust in my own abilities and now perfect memory of my history classes.  There were a few places we could start, but some glaring advancements that would be easiest would come first.

For this reason I pulled mother to the side shortly after the warming started.

"Mom, what plant produces the most food, or food for the longest?"  I asked.

"Those are different plants Elian, and you should know both anyway," she chided before answering fully.  "Breadfruit produces the most, but tubers are the most consistent, why?"  She looked at me suspiciously when she realized that I was planning something.

Breadfruit wasn't the name in the elven tongue, because bread wasn't really a thing, but it smelled like bread, tasted sort of like bread, and looked near enough to the species that I remembered from Earth that I was happy to reuse the name.  Of the tubers there were a multitude of types, but some were almost always in season of some variety.

"I was having some thoughts, would you be willing to help me grow some more  plants?"  I asked.

My mother frowned.  "Growing things too fast is bad for them Elian, and bad for the land they're on, you know that right?"

"I don't need them all the way grown, just made so they grow strong," I answered.

She pulled the corner of her lip in, "Maybe, show me when you're ready."

I sped off, having most of today free, things were like that sometimes.  Everyone had their own work to do, either things they needed to eat, or things they wanted, but we had a lot of free time, and I mean a lot.  Even when the women were out gathering food, it was only about half actual work, the other half chatting and relaxing.  Food was plentiful during good times, so it wasn't laborious to get the plants which made up the majority of our diets.  Hunting was done constantly, but also at a slower pace.  the hunters went out in  groups when they wanted to try and catch what they could, but often enough just ended up wandering in the woods for hours at a sedate pace.  I'd never been out with them, but based on how some of the women talked I suspected they did significantly less hunting and far more goofing around than was let on, at least when times were good.

We boys went out a lot, ostensibly to learn and practice, but today several of the members of our group were otherwise busy, so I wasn't.  That had been planned for though, and our traps taken in.  Catching something you weren't going to eat was wasteful, and just lowered the amount of already limited game, so we didn't.  I wasn't the only one off on my own, and passed several other children and young adults who had little to do and were so relaxing near the central fire pit.  It was still cold, and that place was most often warmed magically or at least had a nicely sized fire.

I wasn't going far, but I wanted to scout out some places for a potential... not quite a farm, but close.  Large scale mono-culture was not really within my grasp yet, too involved, too large, and it needed too much infrastructure that we just didn't have yet.  That said, I could still start us on the path by doing things like putting plants where I wanted them, and where it was convenient  The current plan was to try to grow several examples of our preferred ones all in one area where they'd be easier to harvest.  If there were other things there I'd cut them back, but for now I was just going to try to concentrate some.

We had a lot of woods around our home, but with the current cold season, much had died back, opening up a few holes in the otherwise dense forest.  Places where trees were sparser, and I could perhaps find some workable land.  There were three spots within a few minutes I found most likely, and each had their own ups and downs.  The underbrush on all was at least dead, but there were factors like water and how the land looked on each.

The first I gave a quick look over and immediately tossed off the list.  Half of it was on a hill I hadn't gotten a good look at under the vines which had crept over it.  It only took a few minutes for me to clear out the rest of those and realize that this whole area was angled up and down in a way I didn't really want to mess around with too much.

The second and third areas were similar in makeup, but I eventually decided on the second.  The third was closer to one of the many little creeks that covered the land, and not only would that flood every now and then, but it also meant that the few trees that were in that area were old monsters, hundreds of feet tall, and likely with root systems that would either be a pain, or ruin my planting attempts.

All of them had some trees, that was just the way things were in large sections of the forest that was our home.  Clearings existed, but most were already established gathering spots, and I doubted my messing around with them would be welcome, so I had to clear a bit.  At least the second had fewer than normal, and most were smaller.  It looked like one of the older trees had fallen some years ago, carving a path out, and taking several of its fellows down with it.  There was also evidence of a fire in the bark of the few standing trees, but which had come first was unclear.

Over the next couple of weeks I spent my off time at my little clearing, first cutting down some of the remaining trees, then doing what I could to turn over the dirt.  The cold both helped and hindered me, as while most of the vegetation had been pushed back that that remained was dug into very hard ground.  Physically this would have been impossible, as I was still the size of a schoolboy, but with magic I could slowly make progress.

More than once people came by to check on me, or to see what I was doing, often some mix.  Mother thought that I was weird for opening up the land, an opinion that soon formed consensus, but I wasn't causing trouble, so she didn't see the need to do anything about it.

"How are things Elian?"  Dad asked as he and a group of hunters stopped on their way back to the village, taking up seats in my opened up area.  The whole section was maybe a hundred feed wide and three times that long at this point.

"Good, how was the hunting?"  I asked.

"Nothing at all,"  Larus answered from the side with a frown.  That was odd, normally when he went out at least something came back with them.

"Shame," I said, it meant there'd be no meat at dinner tonight.

"How big are you planning to make this son?"  Dad asked as he looked about.  There weren't really property laws for land, so it wasn't like anyone would stop me from going as large as I liked.

"I think I'm done, big enough to test," I answered.

"Test?"  One of the men asked.

"I'm going to put a bunch of trees and stuff here, see if I can get them to grow where  I want," I answered.

"Why?"  Came the response from several of the group.

"Because it will be easier to gather the fruit from them if I can."

I got a lot of blank stares, they all knew that gathering fruits and the like was easy if you knew where to go, so it didn't make sense.  If that opinion prevailed then it didn't matter if my test was a success, nobody would care.  That was something I hadn't really thought about, the perceived usefulness of an invention.

"For times when the women want to stay near the village but we still want some fruit, like if it's raining bad or something.  I want to see if I can," I answered, that actually got me some nods.

"That's a nice thing to do lad," Larus said.  "Hate to come home after being rained on to find that the girls called it an early day too and we're out of the freshest things.  By the way, what are you doing with all the wood?"

He seemed satisfied enough that it was a mix of curiosity and trying to be nice, before getting to the real reason they'd stopped by.

"Not anything at the moment, might build something with it, but I haven't decided.  Do you want some?"  I asked, looking at the small pile of trees laying along one side of the field.  Once things got warmer I'd have to do something quick or it would all rot, but for the moment it wasn't an issue.

"Actually, yes.  It won't be great firewood, but we can use more, and if we cut it up and let it dry for a few days more it'll do well enough," the older man answered.

"I mean, I can maybe dry it..."  I said before reaching out.  I tried to visualize and find the water in the wood of one of the nearest logs.  I focused on it's structure, on how it held to the wood, and pulled.  The action was much more difficult than I'd anticipated, but with some effort fluid began to flow out of the lumber.  The wood cracked and broke in a few places before I was done from the rapid shrinking, but it mostly survived, and would be much lighter besides.

Larus smiled and went over, breaking off pieces for everyone to carry home.  He was strong enough that he could just snap the foot thick tree if he felt like it, and picking lengths for everyone was an easy job.  Most people got smaller bits for the short walk to the village, while he took a much larger log.

"Hey," one of the men I spent little time with said idly.  "You know, this feels like it would be really good to carve with."  That comment got several pairs of eyes far more interested in the lumber, as large sections of dry wood were something that were harder to come by.

It looked like my first attempt at farming would be primarily ignored, but maybe I could jump-start some larger woodworking instead?

A/N:  Justin forgets one of the most important things of invention here, to know your audience.  Sometimes he'll fail, but even failing you can learn things, and bring something new to the world.