714
As Baranka amused himself, his spiritual intuition suddenly stirred. A powerful presence was approaching him through the Spirit World.
He abruptly looked up, and a large fish slapped straight into his face.
Next, a small bag of gray sea salt crystals still mixed with seabed sediment, a small bag of tobacco, and a jumble of dried fish and seafood came clattering down, instantly burying him in a pile of miscellaneous goods reeking of seawater and fish.
Richard jumped down from the Spirit World door in midair, took a small salted dried fish from the Pile of Miscellaneous Items, and tossed it into his mouth. As he sampled the bitter dried fish cured with inferior sea salt, he ground the sand and stones to pieces with his teeth.
Baranka dug himself out of the pile of seafood and sundries, spat out the coarse salt in his mouth, and asked, "Did you just get back from scavenging by the sea?"
"Don't put it like that. This is what they normally eat, but now they don't even have this."
Richard broke apart the little dried fish in his hand. "The ports can't catch any fish now. Is our national economy really going to depend on Transformation Curses?"
"...Not necessarily. We still have plenty of Beyonders who can work. Just have the Zombies and Wraiths plow the fields day and night. I've thought of a line of work for the Werewolves these past few days, too. They have plenty of strength during the full moon, so they can pull plows and turn millstones. Isn't that perfect?"
"A stroke of genius! But won't we still have to rely on Transformation Curses in the short term?"
Baranka hesitated. "Yes, these are growing pains. But our population isn't that large, either. If we hold out like