Chapter 104: Market Avenue
While gripping the rake with both hands, Coop raised his arms into the air and stretched his back. A few solid pops along his spine gave him a wave of relief as he exhaled dramatically. He wiped the sweat from his brow with the knuckles of a sand covered hand and took a deep breath. The small reset was enough to get him ready to keep going.
He adjusted his grip and lifted the reliable rake into the air before dropping the metal tines into the sand, letting gravity do most of the work in bringing the head down. The dunes were already looking significantly improved as he worked his way across the battlefield. He was using the same rake that Jones had wielded when they fought Ancient Defenders in the early days, but now he was avoiding the pacifist monsters in favor of challenging the sand itself. The Defenders shifted in their places, but otherwise ignored him just as he ignored them. He chuckled at the idea that they had finally reached an accord.
“Yoohoo! Coop! Over here!” Caisalya called for him with her singsong voice as she directed his attention to another massive crater where a cannonball had blasted the sand away until coral rock was exposed. The limestone bedrock was barely covered by packed sand in the first place, so anywhere that received a significant impact left the base of the island uncovered. At least with Charlie’s tornadoes the sand was uniformly distributed around the area and they hadn’t explosively penetrated the surface of the ground.
He jogged over to where Caisalya had indicated and started breaking up scorched sand along the edges of the crater with the rake, making sure to spread the sand relatively evenly across the rock. The sand reacted in a variety of ways, depending on the element that disturbed the dunes, but for the most part, the solution was simple. Separating clumps and redistributing the sand.
The herbalist was helping him restore the habitat, healing the battle wounds one at a time. She was reseeding some of the native plants while Coop reset the sand according to her instructions. Coop had intended to do something about the scars left after the siege, but he hadn’t expected to manually transform the dunes that divided the coastal beach from the interior scrubland himself.
When Coop explained his intention for restoration of the damaged dunes, Caisalya encouraged him to work urgently and not to dally. Apparently, disturbed dunes quickly collapse into instability without vegetation. The steady ocean winds blow the sand and force it to migrate inland without the stabilization brought by the roots of dune grasses, which in turn, make it difficult for those same grasses to support themselves.
Caisalya was reestablishing the sea oats and placing small posts in strategic locations that reminded Coop of tiny garden fences while she had him plow the most critically damaged areas. The small barriers would provide a temporary structure for dunes to regrow naturally, though the sands would shift over time, this would prevent them from blowing away completely before then.
In addition to Coop, Caisalya had recruited both of her foragers, Ixia, and several grannies that had been interested in gardening into the restoration efforts. They’d have the dunes set up for a full recovery before the day was done.
A thorough habitat assessment also allowed the herbalist to outline ideal locations for new trails where they would cause the least fragmentation. She drafted another two dozen residents into laying flat stones for the paths, lined with small natural barriers. Coconuts, driftwood, and coral rocks formed a tiny hedge along the newly reformed trails. The windward side would also contribute to the formation of new small dunes as the ocean breeze pushed sand inland. Coop had to admit that their quick reconstruction of the trails put his previous maintenance efforts to shame.
Once the dunes were restored, the scrubland would also recover under the watchful care of the herbalist. The dunes naturally provided a barrier to the low-lying inland area, so they needed the initial attention. Lizards were already darting between surviving pickle grasses while hunting unseen insects, and land crabs reclaimed their territory, waving a single claw from the openings of their holes as they unearthed themselves after being buried in sand-covered gaps in the bedrock.
The beach, in contrast, had already fully rehabilitated itself to his untrained eye. The steady waves washed away any evidence of the hordes of monsters that had stampeded across the coast. Now, the only stampedes were the tiny black and white shelled hermit crabs wandering along the shallows and the sandpipers chasing the waves in and out like they were dancing with the sea. The only difference for the beach was that there were fewer clusters of palm trees leaning over the shallow water. Ixia was already in the process of creating small sandy berms where coconut palms would be encouraged to make a comeback. They would reestablish welcomed shady spots on the beach as they grew.
“Hah! Got another one!” Derek shouted, and Coop turned to see what he’d discovered this time. The man held a small glassy orb up to the sun so that he could observe the swirling red mana inside, like he was evaluating a precious jewel.