In an unexpected turn of events, two hundred refugees from across Dragon's Cradle showed up on Sky Peak's doorstep. These people were displaced by the recent earthquakes that destroyed their homes. Out of thousands of people probably affected, the leadership of Sky Peak Village is certainly glad they don't have more than they do taxing their city's resources. It's been a tough time, but now that things have settled, they have to focus on moving forward, especially since more people could show up at any minute unannounced. Moving forward looks like building homes for the affected people. 

Now that they've gotten plenty of supplies for construction, workers begin unloading carts of materials and organizing all of the efforts are Count Thadda and his dignitaries, Astrid and Wolfe. With her magical paper that can put into images anything that she imagines, Astrid created dozens of plans that could be adjusted quickly and on the fly with a structural engineer. It took a while of deliberating, but they have something that can effectively hold a few dozen families, and now it's time to start constructing several of these buildings. The nobles who want to live in their own houses get to procure their own crews and materials, but that's challenging considering the supply in the region has been absorbed by the villages' efforts. 

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Wanted Poster

The nobles weren't very happy with the lack of construction of their own new homes, but some didn't care. They were only in Sky Peak until they received word that whatever was causing all these annoying earthquakes was finished and they could move to whichever of their vacation homes was still standing. For now, many of them were living in guest rooms in Count Thadda's home. He absolutely hated it. He wanted those nobles gone as soon as possible, but the common people took priority. They needed real shelter and he could survive putting up with some snobbish nobles while they might not survive in their tents outside the safety of the village. If they were attacked by raiders or some wild beasts, they'd be sitting ducks.

"Pull!" The foreman called out, and the workers began pulling the ropes to raise the frame of the first wall into place. It went up surprisingly easy, as if it weighted a lot less than they'd expected. They didn't notice that the blue-haired man among them had practically lifted it alone. In the same way, the rest of the framing was lifted into place and fitted together easily. The first of the new buildings was coming along nicely.

Blue walked out of the framed building with a smile. They were much better suited to the construction work than to the planning and all that that Astrid was doing. And they liked the new clothes Cantio had made them. He usually made them really fancy stuff for events, like suits, but this time he'd prepared a pair of blue overalls and a simple white shirt for Blue that fit perfectly on the construction site.

"Ya look like yer havin' fun," Astrid says, smiling at Blue when they walk over looking satisfied with themselves. Her hammer falls with a loud clang as she works metal on an anvil. Today she's been hard at work in one of the smithies repairing tools and making nails. So. Many. Nails. It's more boring than the creative endeavors she's used to, but she's gotten into a good rhythm and can create quite a lot of nails in a short time. Even some of the more seasoned smiths struggle to keep up with her youngling energy. The irony of working with these smiths is that some of them turned her away multiple times in the past when she showed an interest in apprenticing, but she's impressed them enough for their attitudes to shift and lighten up to even joke about things whilst working. 

The half-dwarf wipes her forehead with her heavy, dirty glove, smearing a bit of dirt across her face. The coveralls she's wearing are completely messy. Signs of hard work, clearly. 

"The easy stuff like pullin' up walls seems like yer favorite," she adds, going back to beating a nail into its final form before lifting it, inspecting it, and dropping it into a metal pail. 

Blue gave a big, toothy smile and nodded. Blue grabbed a stool, bringing it over and plopping down onto it. The work wasn't hard for them, but they still got a bit tired after keeping it up for so long. Now seemed like a good time for a break.

"Yeah! I'm having a great time! This work is really easy and everyone's been real nice. Some of them even asked me if I wanted to get some drinks with them later and hang something out. I dunno what they wanna hang, but they seemed friendly." Blue said excitedly as they watched Astrid hammer away.

Blue saw the dirt smeared across Astrid's face and put a hand on their mouth to stifle their laugh. They reached a hand into the neck hole of their shirt and pulled out a rag and offered it to Astrid. They'd gotten better at being more stealthy about pulling things out of their stomach. They at least had the sense not to pull it out of their mouth this time.

Blue looked at the metal pail full of nails and tilted their head slightly. These looked familiar. They reached down and picked one up, looking it over before putting it in their mouth. Yup, that tasted real familiar too. They'd eaten a whole crate of them while they were in Frostgale and completely forgotten until now.

"Hey Astrid, what are these?" Blue asked, pulling the nail back out of their mouth and dropping it into the pail again. "Do you like making these? I got a bunch of them in my stomach if you want them."

"Huh? What're ya laughin' at?" Astrid asks, giving the ooze a stink eye. They offer her a rag, and she wipes her face off with it, finding the dirt now staining the rag. "Ah, dirtied up me face again. That happens a lot. Thanks." She offers them the rag back when they ask what the nails are. 

"Those? That's a pail o' nails," she explains. "Ya didn't see nails last time we were constructin' the ale house?" Astrid asks, but then again, Blue was much more concerned with consumption and lifting. "Well, maybe ya didn't. I don't particularly like makin' 'em, it's just necessary. Buildin's require a buncha nails. Ya hammer 'em into two pieces of wood ta keep the wood together." 

"Wait, ya have a bunch of these??" Suddenly, she's incredulous. Blue's eaten a lot of things, but she wouldn't expect them to have the categoric knowledge of all the things in their slime belly as they have. Sometimes that seems like the only thing that can always remember. "A-Ah... I mean... Yeah, we could definitely use 'em if ya've got 'em! But... where did they come from?" She dreads the idea that Blue ate them from a construction site.

"Did that guy say they're in his stomach??" one of the smiths asks, having paused his hammering after overhearing. "They ain't snacks. Y'ain't s'posed te eat 'em." 

Blue looked at the smith in surprise. With all the hammering in the place, the sound of the man nearby had just blended into the background and they hadn't even realized he was right there.

"Ah, no! I don't eat nails!" Blue lied with a nervous chuckle. "I said I have a bunch of them in my... uhhh... storage!"

"Yer storage... Aye, that makes a lot more sense. Well, go get 'em then." The smith replied, sounding skeptical, but not wanting to deal with the repercussions of finding out a man ate a bunch of nails. He was way too busy to be bringing someone to get some urgent medical care.

"Oh, actually. I have my storage right here." Blue tried awkwardly to explain. "It's, umm, magic. It's a spell, I mean!"

The smith just raised an eyebrow. He didn't know what the heck Blue was talking about. He had no experience with magic as a blacksmith, so he'd just have to take their word for it.

"Alright, then where are the nails?"

"Right! Here!" Blue put their hand out over the pail of nails and after a moment, nails started to fall out of their palm and tink into the pail with the others Astrid had made, like a tiny rain of metal. The smith just watched with a hint of fascination.

"Well, that's awfully handy." He said. He was even a little impressed. Magic to store things... somewhere... did seem pretty convenient.

Watching Blue fumble with their words when challenged by the smith brings a bit of an amused smile to Astrid's face, and she sits back with arms crossed to see how they get out of it. Of course, she's ready to jump in if she needs to, but Blue's put in a lot of practice to cover up any blunders, so she's interested to see how they get out of it. 

And sure enough, they do. A ton of nails rains down into the pail from their hand and "secret storage." When it's full, she replaces it with another pail. And another. And another. At this point, the other smiths have paused their work to watch this unfold. 

"Avasha above, Blue, how many of them do ya have??" Astrid asks, laughing at the ridiculousness of the mass of nails. "Where'd ya get 'em? Do I wanna know the answer ta that??" Despite her questioning, she's genuinely amused by the situation if not slightly miffed that she could've been making something other than nails for the last day. 

One of the smiths smacks his forehead, gobsmacked. "Gods, that'll be helpful, won't it?"

"How's he doin' that?" another asks. 

"Best not look a gift forge in the mouth."

Once Blue has given all they're able (or willing) to give, they have a dozen pails of nails. Astrid looks at all of them with nothing short of puzzled exasperation on her face. "Ya know, we shoulda had ya do that at the site. Now we gotta carry 'em over there." 

Blue smiled and laughed. No, Astrid might not want to hear where they got the nails. They'd pretty much stolen them from a dock that was busy building ships to sail to Arid Mesa. They had good reason though, in that a bunch of people really didn't want those ships to set sail. And they weren't the only one that had caused trouble on the docks then. Some weirdo even killed a lady by throwing her out of a crow's nest! Blue didn't eat a single person, only food and construction materials. They'd been a really good ooze!

"_{Uhh, probably not...}" Blue mumbled, trying to keep their voice down so only Astrid could hear them. They'd begun to attract a small crowd with the spectacle of them pouring so many nails from their hand. After filling a dozen buckets, they decided that was probably enough for now. There were still a lot of nails inside them, they'd shoveled an entire crate's worth into their gullet, but they could give them out as they were needed.

"Oh, yeah. Well, no problem! I'll just start carrying them over there now." Blue said as they grabbed a pail handle with each hand. They were heavy, but it wasn't an issue. "Wanna help?" They asked, looking to Astrid. It'd be a lot quicker to carry them all over with some more hands and maybe they'd be able to chat some more without all the other smiths listening in.

"Aye, of course, I'll help!" Astrid says cheerfully, jumping up from her stool at her station. "I need ta stretch me legs a bit anyway, an' I can see how much progress we've made if I go look around!" While the buckets are heavy, they're only each a little heavier than her battle hammer. She scoops up four buckets, having one in either hand and one hanging from the crook in her elbow, which isn't comfortable, but it's faster than walking. It's a one-trip challenge, except it would take her at least 3 on her own. 

Then she remembers she can cast magic and decides she's not going to be uncomfortable doing this, sets the buckets down, and conjures up two duplicates, Bstrid and Cstrid, who each grab two buckets while she carries two on her own. If they need to carry more, they will. 

The smiths look taken aback at there suddenly being two more Astrids! "Wait, could ye do that the whole time, girl?" 

"Aye, but there weren't no stations fer 'em ta work at, an' they take a bit of energy ta conjure up," she explains. "Figured it'd be better ta reserve most of me energy fer nail makin'." Anyway, off she goes without waiting for them to respond, carrying buckets to the construction sites to trade out for emptier buckets. It's an odd little parade.  

---

Replicant

With Astrid pulling out the duplicates, Blue  Raspberry didn't want to be outdone. They could carry more buckets too! They slipped the straps of their overalls off of their shoulders and let them droop down at the sides of their legs. From the sides of their torso, pushing their shirt up out of the way, two more arms grew out and each picked up another bucket. They had a smug smile on their face until they realized Astrid was still carrying more buckets than them. With her two duplicates, she had six buckets! Half of them!

From Blue's back, a blue-scaled tail grew out and picked up another bucket by slipping through the handle and lifting it up. There was still one more bucket. But they couldn't make any more limbs! And they refused to eat the bucket of nails to carry it over. They'd carry it like a normal person. Sort of.

The smiths just watched exasperatedly as Blue put one bucket's handle in their mouth and held it between their teeth. What else could this guy and girl do? They were just proving to be one weird surprise after another.

The parade of three Astrids ended with one very strange looking caboose as a four-armed, snake-tailed Wolfe with a bucket in every hand and even hanging from their mouth followed behind with a determined smile.

"Theesh ain' e'en hea'y." Blue said with the bucket handle in their mouth. They were relieved to be able to put the buckets down though. They may have been able to lift them all pretty easily, but it was a bit awkward and a little painful thanks to the thin handles digging into them a bit. It might have been smarter to just borrow the small cart that was outside the smith.

Hearing Blue struggling to find a way to carry more buckets, the three Astrids look back and giggle at the ooze's determination, going so far as to carry the last bucket in their teeth! That would probably break the teeth of any normal person, but luckily Blue Wolfeberry is not a normal person. 

"Aye, ya don't look like yer havin' a single bit of trouble!" Astrid laughs. When they reach the construction site, all the Alphabetstrids break away to deliver their pails of nails to the various sites. They'll still need a lot more nails to finish the construction of so many buildings, but if it gets people out of tents and into the safety of indoors, Astrid's happy to keep up with the boring process of making them. 

The next few weeks go about very similarly. With all hands on deck in Sky Peak to help the refugees, the communal buildings get erected very quickly. Even with some bad attitudes complaining about all this work for outsiders, the work goes smoothly, and Count Thadda does his best to make sure resources are evenly distributed to help quell some of the dissent. Blue and Astrid even help with another supply run or two part of the way through.

Finally, three communal buildings are ready for residents, and the townsfolk help collect the refugees from the camps and bring them indoors. With everyone properly housed, things in Sky Peak feel like they can relax. At least for now.