High altitude construction is difficult enough. But doing so without modern machinery and equipment should have been impossible. Fortunately, we had magic. And with a few metal tools and access to concrete, I was confident we could lay down a route between the double river basin and the Izlandi Kingdom.

The first step had been to connect the road leading to the Oko tribe’s lands to the Oko tribe’s farthest base camp right near the foot of the great mountain range. But instead of going all the way up to the base camp, we decided to loop the road around the mountain so we could turn through the valleys and up towards the gap in the glaciers that I had identified further east.

“Are you sure this is worth the effort?” asked Kelser as he followed behind me.

“You mean making the roads this way?” I said as I used magic to level the ground and compact it underneath.

“It’s a lot more effort than we put into all the roads going from the city to the tribes’ homelands,” he said.

“Most of those roads are on flat terrain, and can be repaired easily and often. This path is going to be difficult even with a perfectly maintained road. We need to make it as robust as possible,” I said.

Kelser didn’t respond. He used magic to clear the earth around the road, making paths for falling debris and soil embankments to protect against rockfalls in areas that they might occur. We tried to make sure that any loose rock further up the mountains was taken care of, but there could never be a guarantee in places like this.

The road we had decided on would have multiple layers. It started with a layer of leveled, compacted earth, which needed to be solid deep into the ground. We used earth magic to make sure there weren’t any weaknesses underground, things like underground water channels, weak rocks, or loose soil. If there were any, we would try to fix them, and if they couldn’t be fixed, we would try to avoid them. Building the road as straight as possible would be necessary if we were planning on moving armies through it, but for a trade route like this one, it was more important for the road to last as long as it possibly could.

Over the compacted earth, a team of humans, many of whom had worked on the other road project, placed a layer of evenly crushed rocks. These evenly crushed rocks were then compacted together by another group of earth magic using humans. Then the whole thing was bound together by a mixture of stone dust and water, which could bind the macadam together while also allowing decent drainage. Over this layer, another team placed increasingly finer layers of material, like broken concrete, crushed rocks, or rough cement, to make tighter layers. On top, we placed large stones, many held together by porous concrete that would let water drain through. In fact, proper drainage was such a large concern for the road with its strange inclines, and rain and snow prone locations, that a team of people would come up at the back of our little procession dousing the whole thing in water and checking if everything was draining properly. We even had to cut separate drainage paths on the sides of the road in many places, just in case there was a large downpour higher up the mountain which the road might not be able to handle directly.

Going through the valley was easy enough, but once we entered the path that avoided the glaciers, we had to start dealing with the large, near impassable mountains that would be impossible to build on. And even if we built something, maintaining the roads at such high altitudes would be a nightmare. Thankfully, we only needed to make the mountain road passable for magic users, so as long as it was there to show the direction and make life a little easier, it would be enough.

The road veered off to take advantage of valleys and low inclines wherever we could reasonably do so. It took us several days to make just a little progress, and there was definitely not enough food in the mountains to maintain our large procession. Thankfully, we had come well provisioned, lugging around more than enough supplies for us to finish the construction.

And we were being smart about it. Every day, a small team of humans would break off and return to the double river basin, replaced with a fresh group that would come to take their place. Timing these groups and their journeys was tough, and sometimes some people wouldn’t arrive in time, or leave too late, or be forced to stay on because the nobody had come to relieve them, but every group that brought new supplies or gave the humans a chance to rest, helped us proceed with the job in a timely manner.

I scratched my head. “I guess there’s no way around this one, huh.”

“Nope,” said Kelser.

The mountain in front of us was massive. It connected to even more mountains on either side, with the mountainous terrains stretching on without a break for miles and miles. We could try to find a way around it, but the road was already much longer than the path Kelser, Kol, and I had taken on our first journey through the mountains. Extending it even further might make it difficult to traverse the road with the supplies a single team could carry on their backs.

I walked up to the edge of the road that I had leveled so far. The other teams had stopped right behind me, all of them done with their jobs for the day, awaiting more leveled earth so they could keep going tomorrow. Tents were already up, the sun was beginning to dip, and campfires had begun crackling in the air, their sounds drifting into my ear.

I put my hands on the steep incline of stone and rock. Further up, I could see the great mass of ice and snow that hung above. I made sure the ice up there wasn’t too loose, and prepared to strike as gently as I could. The first bit of earth magic sent out some quite rumblings through the ground. None of the humans noticed it. Kelser gave me a look.

I went again. The earth shook. People looked over. The rock moved. Cracks snaked up to the snow, clumps of white falling towards my head, only to be swept away by a timely wind. I broke the rock slowly. Making sure to check the snow and ice above periodically. I had to tell everybody but Kelser to take some distance.

Deep breath. Earth magic. Crushing, rolling, broken rocks, cascaded in front of my hands, and rubble pooled around my feet like a puddle. I didn’t stop. Another step, hands on rock, and the process was repeated again. I plowed through the hard rock slowly, deliberately, and all through the night. I told the others they could rest, but they wouldn’t budge. They fought against their own drowsiness to stare at the tunnel I was carving, unable to see deep enough inside.

By the time dawn arrived, I wasn’t anywhere near done. I had to switch out with Kelser, which was when I noticed that the humans had ignored my warnings and were taking all the rubble out of the tunnel. Thankfully, they weren’t laying the road just yet, although the earth had been compacted. As I left the tunnel, I saw two teams of people staring resolutely up at the ice and snow, their hands outstretched. I made sure the snow wasn’t loose, thanked them for their hard work, and slumped against a tent, closing my eyes.

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The next day, the tunnel still wasn’t finished. The day after that, we still weren’t done. A few days into digging, I went out to the other side of the mountain by crossing over it with magic. I made some measurements, and estimated how far the tunnel still had to go. I also judged the optimal level for it to come out on this side. Back in the tunnel, there were teams solidifying the walls and ceilings to prevent cave-ins. Once we reached the other side, I was planning on reinforcing the tunnel with concrete and magic on all sides. But for now, I kept rotating with Kelser and a team of diggers, stealing some sleep in between shifts.

It was repetitive, difficult, and boring work. Sometimes, I wondered why I was doing this at all. Not just the tunnel, but all the effort I was putting into the humans. Was it because I was a human on my planet? Was it because I’d grown closer to them? Or was it because I was certain that they would help me find the clues I needed to return home? I realized, in that deep, dark, cold tunnel, that it was probably a bit of everything, coupled with inertia, and the fulfillment of doing things and building relationships, to replace things that were lost, or feelings that were difficult to pin down.

Silver moonlight broke through the wall like a deluge. I stepped out on the other side, staring once again at a tall mountain, a full moon adorned like a halo at its peak.