Part 4: by TouretteDog

Month Moonstone - 1050
"Growing season's over, so I've got a new project for the lads. With a little bit of digging and creative channel building, we can get a nice moat set up and hopefully keep away most of the wildlife, at least from the north. We'll put a drawbridge over the top of it and we can seal off that side if the elephants get too close for comfort. One of the lads thinks we might even be able to set some traps in there for some critters if we work at it a bit. Might kick up our breeding stocks for food a tad."

Month Opal - 1050
"Those fucking monkeys. I didn't even see them come in, but one of them ran off with something."

"Oh shit. These are not cute little chimpanzees... oh no. These are big mandrills, pissed off and greedy. They feel justified in stealing anything not nailed down, and if they can pry something (for instance a dwarf's arm) loose, it ain't nailed down in their book. A whole horde of them busted in looking for gods know what. One of our war dogs went out to fight them off..."

"Which didn't go so well."

"A few more war dogs ran out and attacked. I have to say I'm slightly terrified by them. One of the bitches actually gave birth while she was attacking, and her puppies joined in on the carnage. At the end of the day, the three mandrills were dead, and they took one war dog with them and injured another one and a puppy."

"The poor dog's in sad shape. He keeps trying to find the dwarf who trained him, and then passing out. A few minutes later, he'll wake up, take another few steps, and pass out again. I'm tempted to have him put out of his misery by the butcher, but nobody will touch him and seems a sad way to treat someone who fought off the mandrills. The puppy is still running around with half his chest missing. Makes it damn disturbing when he humps your leg, I'll tell you that."

Month Obsidian - 1050
"And with that, I'm off. The fort's in passable shape for the next overseer; got the drawbridge hooked up with a lever in the statue garden, there's some traps at the river, entrance, and well, got most of the livestock crammed into a cage near the butcher, and everything looks fit to start the next spring. I'm leaving, if I can dodge the elephants one last time, and if the mandrills don't get me first."

"Here's the fort as I left it. We'll see what the future has for it."

And I'm spent! Next!