"You really can’t help yourself, can you? Typical mage, you see a magical item, you just have to poke it and see what it does." She admonished.
"I fixed all the windows and structural damage, though. Plus, the lights are on again. That’s got to count for something." Dominic replied.
"The lights are not on." Beth informed him in a dry tone, with a gesture toward the orb on the ceiling.
Dominic reached up and pulled the brass chain, and the orb lit up with bright white light.
"I should say, the lights are working. It was just turned off. It looks like we really aren’t going to have to do much to live here. It’s just the farms and the village houses that will be real work."
Beth smiled. "You’ve got time for that, my Lord. We’re not even settled into the Manor yet. It will be a week or two before we’re even ready to start thinking about bringing anyone to the farms, and longer before there is a need for villagers."
Dominic chuckled. "I will work on the yard for the next few days, getting everything set up, then on the closest farm houses. We’ve got John to do the extra structure, since I didn’t manage to find any magitech orbs for creating wood."
The cook laughed. "Well, I doubt that you would. There are some spells to make plants grow faster, but growing entire trees isn’t really what Magitech specializes in. Just cut some down and let him cut them to size for the roof trusses.
With his years of practice, I’m sure he won’t have any issues hanging roof sheeting. Thatch might be a skilled trade, but with a bit of magic, getting copper roofing to stay on the roof shouldn’t be hard."
Only two hours after they had arrived, the trucks were empty, and everything was put in something resembling its proper spot.
The storage rooms were packed with old mattresses and a few worn out or damaged pieces that had been replaced with new furniture, while the main floor had been given a basic cleaning.
There was a huge pile of dust and dirt outside the back door and more under all the windows, as the guardsmen had simply dumped their dustpans out of them as they prepared the bedrooms.
Dinner was cooking, and Beth was in a much better mood.
But now it was time for the hard part. Tena wanted to go out and assess the garden, as well as the chances of getting milk from any of the goats.
Goats that had likely never been handled by humans before.
A pair of large billies came out to stare at the stout gardener as she moved through the vegetable patch, humming in annoyance at all the partially grown plants that had been eaten.
"I don’t think that the goats spend much time around the garden. They would have killed everything if they did. They might have been kept nearby by a goatherd. If you can find that person, we might have our first official resident." She explained.
Dominic nodded. "Alright, I will search for signs before dinner. If I find anything, I will look for them tomorrow."
As if answering his thoughts, the deep howl of a Dire Wolf echoed through the woods, calling to its pack.
If there was anyone living nearby, Dominic hoped that the house was sturdy.
At the sound of the howling, the goats retreated into the barn, and Dominic watched as the blink cat rammed the door shut from the outside and dropped the bar.
"I think that we found our rancher." He chuckled as the cat leapt from board to board, returning to the top floor of the barn.
Dire Wolves didn’t tend to be smarter than average animals, and they wouldn’t think to lift the bar and pull the door open. They would simply ram it, trying to get in until they gave up and went looking for other prey.
Today would be a good day for meat if the wolves came looking. They had plenty of rifles, and with a bit of time to stew, even Dire Wolf was edible.
Nobody had missed the sound of howling, and Dominic saw that the guards had swung all the third floor windows open to wait with their rifles ready.
They had a clear line of sight all around the manor house, including to the barn. As long as the wolves came close enough, the problem would be solved.
Beth rushed back into the house, all desire to check the gardens gone.
But Dominic waited outside, giving the predators a target out in the open.
He had a pistol in his hand as he listened to the howls get closer.
Six wolves, he decided. A full pack, not a female and cubs.
The wolves came out of the tree line, stalking silently toward Dominic as they spread out to prevent his escape.
When they got to thirty paces away, too far from the trees to make an easy escape, Dominic raised his pistol, and the crack of rifles being fired echoed from the house.
All six wolves dropped in under a second, and he didn’t even fire a single round.
From the hay loft, the blink cat watched the action with a look of smug superiority, and then returned inside, out of sight.
The Royal Guard checked the grounds out all of the windows, and then came out to clean and dress the bodies, so they could be hung and cured for storage.
"Excellent work, Lord Sorcerer. The wolves really did think that you were alone against them. Even the cat was laughing." Colonel Wilkes joked as he picked up one of the Dire Wolves to drag it to what they hoped was the smoke shack.
If it wasn’t, they were going to have to find one because without magical refrigeration, they were going to need to cure all the meat or most would spoil before they could even start setting up the kitchen to make stew and can it for storage.
The house did have a cold storage room. They just hadn’t realized it yet because Dominic had only turned it on a few moments ago, and it wasn’t frozen inside yet.