Infrastructure: Part Two Hundred and Forty Four

The third son of the owner of a small orchard Jholin of Asmla was a hearty hard working young man who's simple nature belied a capable if unambitious mind. He enjoyed working with rubber trees and was fine with his lot in life, even if it would have been nice to own the orchard instead of just working there. As such it came as a suprise to him when he was met by one of the strange clothskinned people from downriver that the clan had been doing business with. With the aide of an interpreter and some remarkable images she managed to convey him that they had considerable interest in having him work for them growing a rubber orchard in exchange for a house, food and various goods and services, among them the ability to send things to his family. After discussing this with his parents for a bit he decided to give it a try. After a few days on a barge he'd arrived at their new settlement and was quite impressed by the neat streets, two story buildings with glass windows, workshops full of strange tools who's function he could only guess at, the massive iron barges which lay at anchor and similar, even if some of the people doing dirty jobs were unsavory types.

Even so most of his work took place outside the town's walls in a plot of land set aside for the trees. With the assistance of an interpreter he'd instructed a few workers. Using some seeds he'd brought with him and was provided with he had soon gotten some sprouts growing in clay pots, which he transplanted into larger pots as time went on. It was a bit dry for them, even though they were able to pump in additional water which helped them along. The communications barrier was a big obstacle for Jholin, even the local tribes of what he considered to be normal had their own tongue. But as time went on he acquired the 'Infrastructural' Language word by word and sentence by sentence. After seven months he had picked up enough to hold a conversation, even if it was clear he got plenty wrong. Nothing went horribly wrong in that time, though it would still be another six years before the trees were ready for tapping.

As promised a house was built for him and he could acquire goods using credits and send them to his family. The biggest problem he faced was loneliness. Being cut off from his family and old friends had been a bigger blow than he'd expected. This became less of an issue as time went on but even so he still felt like an outsider. Several attempts at interacting with the Infrastructurals directly were made, the first of which being awkward but gradually he got better with them. Among the young woman named named Nika Volnisleb. She had a knack for tending the trees and was remarkably attentive to detail. One evening he was going over a batch of saplings that were nearly ready for planting checking for leaves that needed to be pruned when he made his move.

"Nika?"

"Yes Jholin?" She replied.

"I thinking it be nice if going to Voyage's End after work and get ale and pirozhki when done. Would you like come? I pay." The sentence was mangled but it came out with a combination of friendliness and embarrassment.

"Alright. Might be nice." She replied.

"Good." He said relieved. There was still a lot to be done and hard work, but with some companionship would make the load easier to bare.

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