Adrian kneels down and touches the ground. It is a soft soil, suitable for farming. This place has all the characteristics required. He asked Tombas, "How do you find this place? It's suitable for farming."
"Haja found it a long time ago. I only ask Haja to keep an eye on it. We didn't move here because there's no need to. There's no problem back at our old place until we're discovered by humans." Tombas solemnly said.
"Let's forget bad things that happened and strive for a brighter future instead." Adrian tries to cheer him up. He starts to get quite annoyed by Tombas's melancholy tone every time he asks about the past.
"Yes, yes. You're right." Tombas nods, agreeing with Adrian's words. "By the way, I have been meaning to ask..."
"What is it?"
"What's farming?"
"..."
"..."
It took a few seconds before Adrian could say a word, "What do you mean 'What's farming'? It's an activity of planting and growing crops."
Tombas looks at him blankly. He is trying to grasp the definition Adrian told him. Suddenly his eyes brighten, "Aahh...I get it. Farming...like humans do, right?"
Adrian feels relief. It can be a laborious job to explain if Tombas doesn't know it. However, his next words cause a headache to Adrian.
"But Adrian, Dunirr can't grow anything."
"Huh? Why?"
"Dunirr is a small version of humans. However, there are no crops small enough for our size."
Adrian finally realized it. 'Damnit! How can I miss this fact? Everything here is in normal size except Dunirr. Dunirr average height is only 20 centimetres. Planting normal crops like a human is impossible with Dunirr size. It only results in crops growing taller than the farmers. The crops will attract crop pests which will be hard for them to kill. In the worst case, they might end up becoming prey.'
"Does this word have no crops of our size?" Adrian asks again. If they don't farm, they will forever be hunters and gatherers. Society can't advance.
Tombas shook his head, "No, we don't have that he-" He stopped mid-sentence and rushed toward his belongings. His hand rummaged through a bunch of stuff before taking out a small sealed box.
"What is this?" Adrian ask.
"This box has passed down from chief to chief for generations. In the early days when I became chief, I opened it up out of curiosity. Inside it is possible a seed akin to human crops. I didn't dare to try it since I don't know what crop it is."
Adrian asks, "Do you know what the name is? The previous chief must have some records."
"It is called rice. Do you know what crops it is?"
"...Yeah. I know it very well." But he is also wondering how the rice seeds can become this small enough to fit the size of Dunirr. Adrian monologues 'Since Tombas said it was passed down for generations, it must be several hundred years old. How can it still look fine?'
A sudden shout from Tombas stops his thought, "Really?! That's great!! Now we can start farming like humans, right?"
"Yeah. Before that, I want to confirm how frequently this forest has received rain?"
"Frequent. Throughout the year."
Riz feels relief. At least it's not a four-season climate or else he needs to resign from the chief position.
Now, it's time to plan a settlement. He climbs on the tree roots and looks at the entire area. In his mind, he already begins to draw a layout for the new settlement. Once he decided, he picked up a wooden stick and transferred it to the ground. He calls up Tombas, Haja and several other men to give their thoughts.
The land beside the river is planned to be farmland. The houses will be built near the big tree by adopting a grid pattern road layout. The size of the arterial road will be 60 centimetres wide while the collector road will be 50 centimetres and finally the local road should be 40 centimetres. The 75-centimetre tall wall is planned for the protection of its inhabitants.
[A/N: Sketch of the plan]
"What do you think?" asked Adrian. He has gone all out to make it a grand city.
"It's good! But we need a lot of material to make this," said Haja. The other nods as a sign of agreement with the statement.
"I never plan to make all of this in one go. We will prioritize the farmland and its infrastructure first. It's important to have a stockpile of food." Adrian explained.
He began to divide them into several teams;
- 3 Site Clearance Team (road, farmland and housing land)
- 2 Material Gathering Team (stone and woods)
- 4 Building Team (farmland, house, wall and road)
- 2 Food Gathering Team
- 2 Miscellaneous Team
Each team has around 1,000 adult Dunirr. Children are free to help if they want. Adrian won't force them since they're not much of a help anyway.
"Any questions?"
"..."
"No? Then get to work." The tribe moved to their respective team.
Meanwhile, Adrian coordinates the teams and gives them a dateline to meet. Basically, he just watches over them. He sees the struggle on Dunirr's face just to remove wild plants, stones, twigs, leaves and tree branches.
"It's good that this tribe has thousands of Dunirr. I don't know how long it will take if I meet a small tribe. The only downside is they still use stone tools in daily life." He doesn't know about other Dunirr but using stone is not going to take them far.
By Adrian's estimation, the initial road layout will be completed in several days. As a modern person, he plans to make the road as hard and flat as possible together with a drainage channel on both sides of the road.
He shifts his attention to the farmland section. Since they're planning to plant rice seeds, the paddy fields need to have a good irrigation canal system. Planting rice requires a lot of water.
His peace is disturbed by Tombas, "Adrian, there is something important we haven't decided yet." Tombas said with a serious face.
Adrian instantly straightens up his back, giving his full attention to Tombas. This is the first time the former chief makes such a serious face. He asks, "What is it?"
"The name of this settlement. We can't call it 'settlement' or 'camp' all the time."
Hearing those words, Adrian sighs, "I thought you have some kind of crisis to tell me. Don't worry about that. I have a perfect name for it."
"Ooh?! What is it?"
"Let's name this place 'Adrianopolis'."