Preparations

As soon as Markus returned to the town, he began hurriedly preparing, excited for what was to come. As he ran around the smithy, his fellow workers had an unending stream of questions, all of which Markus answered as concisely as possible. He immediately tasked the best of his fellow smiths with preparing the last of the tributary weapons for the tribes.
Markus began running through the list, rattling off the things he would need to account for. “Farmers, those will likely be handled by Sir Zane, as is likely the case with the carpenters and masons. As for the other smiths, I already have a few in mind.” He thought to himself. “As far as supplies go, however, we will likely need enough tools and rations to last a long period of time, as supplies will have to be handled carefully.”
“Let’s see, taking into consideration the 25 or so workers I will be looking after, and the ten soldiers Sir Zane has said he will be sending with me… not to mention the possibility of others joining the workforce, I should need enough rations to last 40 some odd people.” Upon this realization, he began the work of counting his funds and determining if he would have enough for not just rations, but also the other supplies that would be needed.
The cost of all of these rations would almost perfectly fit within his budget, that being what money he had given by the city. In fact, after all will have been spent, he would be left with just 12 sp.
Markus immediately made his way to the market, speaking with as many merchants as possible to attempt to secure enough rations to last them as long as they may need to get settled.
“Actually,” he thought “perhaps it would be wise to get around three days extra rations, just to be safe.”
He scrambled around the market, placing orders with many merchants, all for delivery slightly less than a day in advance of the time of their journey, to account for the time spent making sure all they need is there..
When all was said and done, he was an exhausted wreck, having been running up and down the town for the entire day. All he knew was that he had to rest, as the only thing he needed to do now was rest.
As he laid down to rest, his thoughts were consumed by the task ahead, thinking primarily of the logistics of running a mine mostly by himself.
“Am i really prepared for this?” he asked aloud, to no one in particular. He eventually came to the realization that he would have to be, or risk letting down both Orel, and Sir Zane. Both people that Markus had a deep respect for.
As his thoughts slowly guided him into the depths of sleep, he sighed, and succumbed to the exhaustion plaguing his body.