Lost in Transit

7

^^ Hydraulic Screw ^^

Helen's plan for the waterfall was actually quite genius; she planned on using the frame to attach to the rock of the mountainside on either side of the waterfall, and place the fans for the generator (the turbine/crank/things,) into the water directly, instead of hanging out over it like a watermill. This would leave room for other uses for the waterfall, in the future, including an actual Watermill, because at some point we'd need to make our own bread and stuff.

My job, to prepare the waterfall for her thing she was building, was to clear the clay away so that the massive, 85 foot long, 14 foot wide frame would connect to rock, not Clay, which would not end well at all. I accomplished this by turning the clay into Golems. Big Golems.

Each one stood about four times as tall as the originals, so about 30 feet tall, and instead of roaming around, these simply sat in an unassuming jumble of 'rocks', beside the roads that approach the village, keeping watch and acting as a very nasty surprise to the rear-end of a band of bandits, as they would only activate once all the enemies had made it past them; thus blocking the retreat and causing panic and mayhem. I was quite happy with that, despite only being able to make one a day, before feeling woozy and having to go about other tasks until I rested.

One of those tasks was to get our watermill ready, so I spent my off time using the intestines of the Wyverns and a hollow tree next to the lake to construct a rudimentary collection source that dipped into the river and diverted small amounts of water into a central chamber, which was just a hollow-threaded cylinder of clay that I'd made into a golem... sorta. It was definitely animated, and it spun of its own accord, sending the water up the hydraulic screw in the center of the hollow tree; the water, moved swiftly upwards by the velocity of the turning 'screw', climbed up into the tube and was forced all the way up the slope, about 700 feet all told, into the massive water tank of the Caboose, (where almost all the showers had been,) on top of the cliff. The tube was, needless to say, hidden under a layer of clay; I didn't have a leather intestine hanging over the camp.

That project took about three days to complete, and next was the Water Heater. As happy as I was to have electricity, I knew it was probably best to have a natural solution to our need for power, so I was starting with Heated Water. The metal roof of the Caboose was exposed to the sun at all times; being metal, and specifically very shiny steel, I knew it would get very, very hot. So, using the leather of the Wyverns, I constructed a sort of Bowl, on top of the Caboose. The exposed metal of the roof was the bottom, and the leather walls rose a foot above that, creating a 85 foot long, 12 foot wide, 2 foot tall holding tank of sorts, for water. That translated to 15,260 gallons at full capacity; far more than the 500 gallon tank inside the Caboose. Another pipe was created down to the train cars on the bottom, (also Hidden,) this one simply hot water. Even as cold as it was out, the metal was warm, because of the internal heating of the Caboose, (connected to the power by now,) so we now had hot water without overburdening the generator with the water heater, which pulled an ungodly amount of electricity.

Finished with that within four days, I was once again left with little to nothing to do, other than seeing Luna and Kindle when they returned to check on us; the moneys I'd been given for subjugation of a Bandit Band was actually quite substantial, (twenty gold pieces,) plus the money she'd gotten for the Wyvern Organs that we hadn't known what to do with, equaling about twenty more gold pieces.

"Forty gold, though, in just a few days of being here? That's impressive, dear!" Kindle complimented me while lounging on my couch, studiously ignoring my raised eyebrow at her inviting herself into my room.

Luna, who had followed her in after I'd given permission, sighed from her place in the chair across from the bed. "Yes, but now people know they're here, and they have money... I hope they don't do anything Rash..."