295 295 Excessive Bunny Girls
Over the next few days, the patrols slowly transformed from a group of random witches to a unified force, all with matching equipment and a group of dedicated officers spending every spare moment teaching those who had been more recently awakened by Wolfe the basics of their powers.
It wasn’t like they needed every Witch on patrol all the time, not with all the villages around them, so the busiest spot in the entire village was the group of classrooms that had been assembled next to the pool in the underground portion of the Den.
On any given day, over a third of the Witches would be in the classrooms learning either basic or advanced magic, and the Library was turning out copies of the books they had acquired as fast as the witches who were adept in the spell could manage it.
So, when the first responses from the villages started to come back with the names and skills of the potential employees, Wolfe was the one to receive them.
He had been spending the afternoon creating more staves so that every Witch in the Den could have one, and Mary had just brought him up a stack of robes in the deep hunter green, which was somehow not quite either green or brown when the first of the scouts showed up with the lists.
“Just enchant the robes with an armour spell under the crest. I’ve already put self-repair and cleaning spells on them, as well as [Mirage]. It’s only the defensive charm that we need you to cast for us.” She was explaining, then stopped with an eager look in her eyes when the scout stopped next to them.
It was one of the bunny kin, who were infamously small, and some of the few who were as short as Mary. That was a big positive in her view, second only to the long fluffy ears, and she always got distracted when she saw them.
“What can I do for you today?” Wolfe asked since the scout hadn’t gone straight to the shack to trade intel for potions.
“I have a list of tradespeople who are looking for work in our village. They’re all young, but they have finished their apprenticeships under their masters or parents, and they are ready to work.” The scout informed him with a smile.
Wolfe took the list and checked it against the requirements that the witches had compiled.
They needed basically everything, so there was no reason not to take anyone who applied. He just had to make sure he wasn’t crippling the villages.
“And these are all excess workers, not ones that the village will need in the future? I can’t have anyone sending me the heirs to their trades or others who the village will need in the future.” Wolfe reminded him.
“We are bunnies. There are always a lot of us, and we almost have enough people to split the village again. If you take some, then we can put it off for a few more years until more youngsters are grown.” The scout shrugged while Mary insistently poked Wolfe in the back.
“Yes, Mary, I know you want more bunnies. Alright, we have three carpenters, two mechanics, two chefs and four skilled groundskeepers. What have the groundskeepers specialized in? Gardening, or in the decorative maintenance of shrubs and trees?” Wolfe asked.
The scout laughed. “We’re not all living in luxury like you lot do here. I don’t think our villages have ever had a purely decorative shrub. They’re very good at vertical gardening and keeping the spreading plants from invading each other’s territories as well as keeping the vines properly pruned so that they don’t waste nutrients on excess foliage instead of fruits.”
“Alright, we will take them all. Tell them to have their gear ready for the festival, or they can move in any time before that if they feel safe travelling with just a scout to get here. I know some trades don’t need as many tools as others, and we are capable of making the majority of the equipment that they will need.
But keep in mind that if they have specialty tools that they like, they should bring them since our witches will likely have no idea what they look like or how to make them without an existing item to go by.”
The scout looked overjoyed for their neighbours.
“Oh, I can’t wait until the girls hear the good news.” He cheered.
Mary grabbed the scout before he could leave, making his ears twitch in momentary panic before he remembered that the Witches weren’t hostile anymore.
“What do you mean, the girls? Don’t tell me that the villages are deliberately picking only females to send to us.” She demanded.
The scout hesitated, giving Wolfe time to tease Mary.
“I thought you didn’t like boys? More girls should be what you want, right?” He joked while the bunny rubbed his nose and prepared an apology.
“You know how it is. With an even number of boys and girls, there are a lot of leftover girls when the jobs are sorted. The men are larger, stronger, and don’t need half the year off for pregnancies. So, they get preference to take over the family business.
Daughters who didn’t get married end up outnumbering the sons by a lot once the number of dead scouts and village defenders is factored in, so the extras who aren’t going to inherit anything and aren’t really needed to work at the shops are mostly female.”
“How long is a Bunny Kin pregnancy? Is it the same as the humans and witches?” Wolfe asked curiously while Mary took a moment to adjust to the reality that their mortality rate was mostly the men, and the rest of the men were almost all accounted for as heirs to family trades.
“Most of our women have three-month pregnancies twice a year. But that’s just a Bunny thing. I think whoever cursed us made an exception to the natural order to create way too many of us. All the other residents of the wastes are on a human schedule.” The scout explained.
pandasnovel.com
Wolfe patted Mary’s head as the scout walked away. “Don’t worry. I’m sure that there will be at least a few men from the other villages. The rabbit villages are well known among the scouts for their casualty rates. They’re terrible fighters and prefer to run away from everything.”