Useless

With the orders given out I turn around and head back inside the shed in order to perform further inspection on the tools..

Just by taking a look, I can tell that the quality is lacking, somehow almost everything is made out of wood with the exception of axes.

In order to figure out if the tools are of any use I grab the shovel closest to me, it is very heavy and poorly balanced, as in the handle feels heavier than the head, yet again I do not understand how these are made, they look like a single piece of wood, there are no obvious seams in it.

My best guess would be magic or a carver with a lot of free time. The shovels seem usable at least. I place the wooden tool down and head further inside, to where the axes are placed.

These are better, a wooden handle, and rough iron head, yet again the quality is awful but they will do for cutting down trees, albeit the effort needed is much higher than by using more effective tools.

There are other things inside but I am not quite sure what they are for, there are also some empty barrels, these probably had something inside of them, they were most likely emptied when the ex-owners left.

All in all, there are around 20 or so of each tool, more than enough for digging a hole.

With the inspection finished I head back outside, as expected most of the crowd is gone, there are only a handful of men left. They seem to be properly dressed for the weather, which is good, wouldn't want any of them to freeze on me.

''Are you the only ones here?''. They all start talking at the same time, things such as yes and indeed. Only one answer would have been more than enough.

''I see, as I have told you before we are going to head outside the city walls, towards the forest, in order to dig a very deep, very wide hole''. Pause for effect. ''Any questions?''

A tall lanky teenager steps forward. ''Why do you want to dig a hole out there?''. Secret.

I look straight at him and say. ''The reason for making the hole is not important. I will answer only questions related to the work or journey''. The teenager doesn't step back and continues.

''You said you would give us tools, can we keep them when we are done?'' I have no words.

''No, and if you take it I will consider it theft, and if you steal from me the last of your worries would be the town guard''. I point at the giants just to get my point across, wouldn't want them to run away with the tools before we finish digging the hole.

The teen shudders a bit, nods, and steps back in line.

----------

After that there were no more dumb questions, only things like 'when are we leaving', 'what about food', 'will we freeze to death' and the like, nothing major.

Seeing the gate about to open I have the workers form a line in front of the shack, once they do so I go back in and come out with a shovel in hand and give it to the person in front. I repeat this until all of them have a shovel.

I then go back inside and grab 4 axes, 1 for me and 1 for each guard, then 1 more just in case. The guards are carrying the items we prepared, namely the oil and herbs together with a big iron pot and a bag of rations.

Seeing that the gates are about to open I instruct my employees one last time. ''As I said before we will be outside the city for the whole day, do not worry, we will return before nighttime. I have given you each a shovel to use for digging the hole''. I pause to exhale, the water vapor in my breath is pure white.

''When we leave the city you must form a straight line, there will be one guard at the front making a path for us, do not get separated, we will not look for you if you do. Is there are no more questions lets get going''.

And so we start walking towards the gate, people get out of the way or stop and look at us, nothing major, it makes it even easier to navigate the busy streets.

Once we reach the now open gate I look back and make sure everyone is following, Ubam is in the rear making sure there are no runners.

Standing by the gate is the soldier that I had a slight 'argument' with earlier, I saw him and he saw me, but we did nothing, only a slight nod to acknowledge each others presence.

With another sigh followed by a white cloud of vapor, I take my first step outside the port city of Westerngrad, this is the first time I left the city since I got here. Let's hope this does not happen too often.

The roads in front of the gate were not too heavily covered in snow, people seem to have walked around here quite a bit.

This changes soon after, as we head further away from town the snow begins to increase so the leading giant, Vun, starts carving a path forward.

We soon reach the old forest line, a field full of old tree stumps, as far as I remember the camp is quite close, at this rate we will be ready to begin in around 1 hour or so. As long as nothing unexpected happens of course.

As we were walking towards the tree line in the distance a noise catches my attention, the reason for why it does is due to two things, its origin and significance. It sounded from the forest to the far left, and it means that we are not alone here.

The noise itself was a loud thud as if a tree fell down. Now, that can just be some random foresters cutting down trees, but I somehow doubt it. No one else seems to be bothered by the noise, so I say nothing, wouldn't want them to panic.

Soon the camp is in sight, a few huts covered in snow, just as I remembered. As we get closer I tell my workers.

''Wait outside and try not to touch anything, we won't be here long''. They seem to be agreeable enough at being ordered around.

Once we are all in front of the huts I walk inside the middle one, there is nothing of importance inside, mostly miscellaneous items that once belonged to the woodcutters, a small wooden toy here, an accessory there, overall they will not be of any use.

My investigation is cut short by the shaking ground and the screams coming from outside

I quickly head out to see what happened and what I find makes me more angry than surprised. One of the huts has collapsed, turned into a pile of sticks and snow, the insides unrecognizable.

Before I can ask anything one of the workers says. ''It was an accident sir, we only wanted to rest our arms so we set down the shovels next to the hut, we did not know it would just fall down!''.

I just stare at them, speechless. They only had one job, stay put without touching anything, and they demolish a hut.

Useless.