I peered at the baby in Diane's arms. Her brilliant blue eyes managed to lock onto my own with some difficulty. This was the baby who was responsible for Roland kicking his building plan immediately into action. She had been born three days ago. They had named her Hope and her eyes shimmered in the dim light showing that she had inherited her Mother's Heartfire.
She had caused concern when her mother had went into labor a month early, but at seven pounds, the bouncing baby girl seemed quite healthy. Other expectant parents were relieved to see that she seemed unaffected by the Heartfire's inactivity pain as that had been a major cause for concern. According to other parents, Hope was awake more than the average newborn baby and squirmed more than usual, so maybe she was getting what counted as a full workout at her age.
I was surprised that she could focus on me. I didn't recall any other baby managing that. They usually just kind of stared vacantly at those around them. I bet it had something to do with the Heartfire. This mother was in for a ride since she had the first child to be born with Heartfire.
My presence and health had also helped reassure them somewhat that the Heartfire virus wouldn't kill children outright, but most were still waiting to see how little Hope would do. Diane passed the baby back to her mother.
I climbed up the jungle gym as Diane once more headed to help Ace with the fighting training. Most people only came to practice occasionally since they had no interest in being professional fighters. They just wanted to be able to defend themselves if something happened. But even taking turns going to training, there were enough people to keep both Ace and Diane busy when they were there.
I stretched as I examined the new snow. The big snowfall had finally finished dumping the white stuff on us and had left knee high snow everywhere. It looked like Diane and Ace were planning another session of training on how to fight in deep snow.
Judging from the small group waiting, most people had opted to skip this class. I didn't blame them. Diane wasn't slowed by the snow and neither was Ace. Others weren't quite as coordinated, even if they did have most of the grace that came with the Heartfire virus.
Ace was giving a lecture on one side of the field to one group while Diane was overseeing some people just learning the basics. One unfired teenager fell backwards in the snow and Diane went over to her. Ace suddenly turned and threw a stick at Diane before turning back to the stunned new trainees.
Diane dodged it even though she couldn't see it behind her. She narrowed her eyes at Ace's back, clearly knowing who was responsible. She bent down to pack a handful of the fluffy snow into a hard ball before whipping it at Ace's back. Ace could sense incoming objects just as easily as Diane could and simply sidestepped the missile.
Diane scowled and shook her head before chuckling. Ace had likely been lecturing about either keeping an eye out for unexpected missiles or some other thing, and that stick had been part of the lecture. He knew that Diane would dodge it. She easily dodged snowballs and could even dodge arrows.
Needless to say, Ace now had their undivided attention after that little display.
I helped Sandy pack a boxful of stuff up to the fourth ledge. She had agreed to marry Nick from Dave's group and she was now moving in with him. I hoped that he had enough rooms for all of her stuff. She had been collecting a lot since she now had a place she could leave it when she went out with the caravan.
The seven bells rang again, but I kept helping Sandy pack. It would be some time before the truck made it to the palisade and then to the truck shelter. The trucks had just parked when I handed the last bag to Sandy.
I went down to find Ace and Diane. They were usually in the same vicinity. If I could spot one, the other would be nearby somewhere. I finally spotted them coming back from their first trip. I skipped over to them with a grin.
We rounded the trailer and Ace stopped in his tracks with an expression of disbelief, "What are those things?"
I didn't blame him for his reaction. I had never seen anything like these creatures even though I had been to almost half of the settlements in Alberta. Where had they even gotten them from?
One guy grinned at his reaction, "Yaks. We almost went to the US border when the Messengers brought us word of a group looking to trade this lovely group off."
Ace didn't look like he considered the four animals to fall into the 'lovely' category, "Why?"
The guy chuckled as he grabbed a box, "Because they have excellent wool and they also produce a lot of milk. With one bull and three cows we can have the only known herd in Alberta now. They have no problem with snow either. You can even ride them if you wanted."
Ace looked back at the four long haired animals, "Thanks, but I'll pass."
The guy chuckled as he moved off. I looked at the huge hairy creatures, but they really were kind of weird. The shaggy long-haired creatures looked like they had mops dangling from their bellies. Diane grinned at both of our expressions as she went to grab a box. She had obviously seen a yak before and thought we were the odd ones.
We unloaded a lot more mechanical planting equipment and other farm stuff. Spring was almost here. There was no more snow in the meadow, but there was snow away from the warm meadow that reflected the heat from the cliffs.
I overheard Roland discussing an order he just put in for some solar tractors. They should be ready for pickup in a month or so. Just in time for planting. That was good since we had less than twenty horses to pull the equipment. We would be one of the first to have solar tractors and it would make our lives much easier.
Most small settlements didn't have someone trained to maintain or fix such machines, but we had half a dozen people with sufficient skills. Most were terrified of it breaking down away from shelter and being trapped by zombies.
I smiled at the sight of two huge firewood processors being unloaded. The steam engines went through a lot of wood, and if we hadn't had Heartfire, we would have exhausted ourselves chopping wood. This would make things much easier. This was a major find. His load showed that he had clearly raided an abandoned place and I was curious where he had found this treasure.
Roland had also found many more solar panels. We needed them since our electricity consumption was still climbing with our growing population, even though the houses themselves still only had solar led lights. After all winter, we had almost 300 people here. Almost half had Heartfire and some others were on their probation period.
At least fifty were in various stages of training to become Messengers. That seemed to be the dream job of many young adults for some odd reason. I knew the joy in running all day, but they didn't even have Heartfire yet.
It was even more hilarious that as soon as this bunch gotten wind of the fact that none of the current Messengers allowed Diane to pay for letters, they had also sworn to do the same thing. Diane still tried to pay and grumbled when she was turned down, but she had at long last given up on trying to stealthily get the trade goods into their hands.
It had taken five months, but they had worn her stubbornness down. Diane had other things to occupy her time though. Ace was now considered to be an official fighting trainer as well. He had been fired for over half a year and he could feel and control the heat now. He moved like greased lightning.
No one else could match his speed, not even Diane. Much to her disgust. In a one on one fight, Ace could now beat Diane as easily as she had beat him a year ago. There were others who were faster than Diane as well. It seemed to depend on personal ability and not on the Heartfire itself once the Heartfire became fully established.
They may be faster, but Diane was still more skilled in fighting and held the upper hand there. Only Ace could take her on in a sparring match. Those who were faster than her tended to work with Ace since he was more accustomed to training people while Diane helped out those who just needed some assistance over the rough spots.
I looked around but the trailers were emptied and closed up. As per usual Diane and Ace headed to the practice arena. Some others were already going through the warmups. The jungle gym had almost twenty kids on it and I went to join them with a grin.
Our games were carefully arranged so that those with Heartfire didn't use it to 'cheat'. A couple of those older than me also sported bright blue eyes, but most had brown, or light blue, or green. It didn't matter though.
We all played together or acted out scenes from books. We accepted one another even as the adults did. Even more fascinating was the fact that everyone in Sanctuary more or less got along. It didn't matter who had Heartfire unless someone was looking for someone who was unusually strong or fast. The anti-glowing eye thing that was prevalent in other settlements was nowhere to be found here.
I had heard that there was still no other place that would accept those with Heartfire. That still surprised me. I didn't understand it. It seemed so normal and so right. Newcomers were often amazed at the laidback atmosphere of acceptance and welcome, but within weeks they had adapted and reacted similarly.
I loved it here. There was no other place like Sanctuary out there.