Prequel: Humans

It took weeks of backbreaking work and countless aching muscles and injuries for the humans to situate themselves well enough to plan the first feast. Certain couples were not included in the festivities because others felt they had not contributed enough. Those farmers had been selfish in staking out their land and planting their seeds. There was another whole group that had already moved off into the woods where they thought they would find better shelter. Those that remained, had what they called a landing party, where they used a lot of their remaining supplies. Among themselves they selected leaders and set up tasks for everyone.

By midsummer, the Woodsmen were in huts, and had discovered a number of edible plants and mushrooms. Farmers had planted fields and had built houses and had discovered that bentars could be trained to pull a wagon. One Farmer had collected a small herd of cattle and those in the settlement were quick to ban cattle from moving around their homes. Miners had found gold as well as two other metals, and they were busy digging and pulling it out of the ground. Teachers, Clergy, Docs, and Domestics made up the majority of expertises in the settlement and they were struggling with expanding their containers into houses.

While all that was going on, they continued to discover new things about the planet; new animals, edible plants, and fish. The Woodsmen shared their fascination and discoveries about all the different trees, plants, and trails they discovered in the forest. The Farmers began taking notes on insects and edible plants they had identified near their fields as well as hunting, trapping and fishing areas. Everyone shared stories of predators and sightings of those dragons that seemed to be watching them.

The general belief after a season of observations was that the dragons were probably hunting when they flew over. Fortunately they had never found a human alone. Those in the settlements began speculating whether it was a Farmer or a Woodsmen that would be killed first by a dragon. It turned out they were wrong, it was a domestic killed by a puton. She had been bathing in the creek. After that, speculation stopped. It was a rude jolt to many of them that their lives really were in danger and rescue was dependent on their friends and neighbors, or even the Farmers and Woodsmen they had been ridiculing.