Day Three-Hundred-Six: Honesty is the best atrocity

I've decided not to tell Libby about Grayson.

That may seem dishonest, diary, and I'm big on honesty. Honestly! Honesty is honestly a GOOD THING. Honesty gets you far in this life. Honesty keeps things like The Baron - yes, I called him a THING - from hiding in the shadows. HONESTY is an HONOURABLE, NOBLE IDEAL.

But so is keeping your wife happy. Happier than she's been since you first married her. And if I was HONEST… if I told her what Grayson can do… she'd flip. She'd think her womb is cursed and fall into an angry depression. I KNOW her, diary, and I know this'd happen. For her mental health, I won't spill the beans on Grayson until it becomes an absolute necessity. A bit of harmless… floating… doesn't count.

how the hell did he do that

I'm not convinced June was telling the truth. I think she can mess with people more than she lets on. She must've been keeping him aloft. She's done lotsa weird shit before - blew through steel doors of a prison, shunted her hut around, tucked poor Robert into a closet-sized library and convinced him it was the real thing, brought me back to life - and levitating a child doesn't seem to be out of her power. 

Yeah. That's it. Not Grayson at all.

'cept it is. I know it is. How do I know? I don't know. Which is to say I KNOW, but I don't know HOW I know. You know? I'm not sure I do. UGH

On to normal matters… construction has begun on houses! Seven of 'em! Granted, I don't know if they'll wind UP as houses, but they're surely startin' out that way. Nothing fancy, just a couple single-floor cabins that look to have enough room for three or four people apiece. We can transfer the beds from the wagons into 'em, and voila! Instant settlement.

Problem is… I'm not sure this is what we should be focusing on right now. There's another, more important thing to worry 'bout: food. We're running outta food. Gok gave us a ton when we left, and we've been picking up provisions along the way, but now that we're stationary we can't survive on our meagre stores alone. We need to start harvesting our own, grown food, and pronto. Winter's just around the corner. Wish we'd started earlier in the year…

Winter in the castle was kind of a non-factor. Sure, it brought lotsa crazy new creatures outta the woodwork, and I froze my ass off guarding useless bits of property, but that was okay. There was always somewhere warm we could go, and with the rats around food was plentiful. But now… now, we got nuthin'… we're starting from scratch… how many of us will flat out DIE 'cause we can't survive in cold weather? An honest number would be nice, but I know life won't give me a tally, and that uncertainty is somehow worse than knowing what'll happen.

Bah. We need hunters, is what we need. Honest, strong folk who won't mind taking out a few critters each day so the rest of us can feast. 'least until we have sustainable farms set up, 'n I bet those'll take two weeks or so to get running. And that's assuming I can get the nobles to help with the construction.

Un-fuckin'-likely, diary. Soooo unlikely. Even worse, Libby has been so intent on caring for Grayson that she's neglecting her carpentry! She's THE carpenter! How the hell can I get anything done when the only willing workers are cooks and general labourers? And not many of either, to boot?! Yargh.

Food. Food. Gotta find some food. Gotta make homes. Gotta create a community from almost nothing. Not cool. Unless you're talking about the weather, in which case, too cool for words.

Sincerely,

Dragomir the Stumped