Construction on Haku's project began the day after the farm was discovered. To save appearances, even if he trusted the dragon's judgment, Zamor had nevertheless summoned some architects and engineers to evaluate the effectiveness of this project and possibly improve it, for this reason they had not been able to start construction that same day. Haku knew it was just a formality, and indeed there was no change to his original plan; after all, how could perfection be improved?
As for the construction of the canal, it was not difficult to find manpower: after all, great experience was not needed to carry out that work, it was enough to have a spade in hand and follow the instructions of the people in charge. In short, nothing difficult and did not require technical or magical knowledge. Zamor therefore had to do nothing but order all those who weren't ill and not performing other tasks to get to work, which he could do when he wanted since he was the interim leader and that since he would produce medical herbs ( at least initially) this project was within his jurisdiction. And so a large part of the village had been mobilized to be able to build a large cultivation area in the middle of a desert, a plan that everyone until the day before would have considered impossible, but which now they knew was not at all.
Haku's project was simple and ingenious at the same time: first of all, they just had to lengthen the canal that already crossed the whole village to carry the water from the lake to the outside of the oasis. Since the land was flat it was a pretty easy thing to do. To prevent the desert sand from absorbing water, the bottom and banks of the canal would have been covered with clay, which could easily be recovered from the lake; this clay had also been mixed with other types of earth to form a waterproof patina. That way, they wouldn't risk having the desert drink up all the water. Once the canal had been created, several reservoirs had been built adjacent to it following the same pattern; they would have served mainly for the cultivation of semi-aquatic plants (and in the future they could have also been used to cultivate algae to feed the fish contained in the fish farms), but above all they would have been connected to a system of pipes similar to the one already existing in village which, however, had the task of carrying water even at a great distance from the canal and spraying it on the ground; to maximize the surface area to be struck, the smiths had designed these 'fountains' (if you could call them that) to spray water upwards and cause it to fall as it was rain.
Once the water problem was solved, practically half the job was already done; for this, however, the soil had to be made fertile. Haku had then ordered Inpu to modify the soil to make it more like earth and the farmers then fertilized it; within a few days large areas of wet brown earth had appeared in the middle of the desert, ready to be cultivated despite the prohibitive conditions of that place. At that point it was only necessary to solve one last problem, namely the excessive sunlight; to solve the problem, large wooden scaffolds were built following the same design as the one shown in the secret farm, only much larger. Building them was the longest job, even if not the most tiring, since it required much more precision; but eventually, those too were completed. The new fields were covered with strange wooden structures that let in only a part of the sunlight and created enough shade to maintain the temperature suitable for the growth of the plants, and in addition they had the same system of ropes and bulkheads that allowed each field to be completely closed off. opening and protect crops from sandstorms. Building all of this was a titanic work, but thanks to the large amount of manpower they possessed it was possible to achieve it in a short time, just over a week.
Many had noticed that these fields were far too large to be used for medicinal herbs alone; in fact, only a small part of them had so far been sown with these herbs, and already so the harvest would have been sufficient to produce medicine for the whole village for years. It wasn't hard for people to imagine that such surplus fields were used to grow something else as well; for the moment the Council still hadn't released any statement, and both Zamor and Haku had refused to provide any explanation since, technically, this was not within their competence... but by now everyone was sure that soon huge vegetable farms , fruit, grain and other edible plants would have colored that corner of the desert. Finally, even the food crisis that had so frightened them seemed on the verge of being completely resolved.
And of course the credit for all this was Haku... or in general, the dragons. This was exactly what Haku had wanted all along. With that plan he had achieved two important successes: stability in the community, essential for carrying out a plan of integration between the two species, and above all gratitude and respect. Now the dragons were much more accepted by the common people, also because they had interacted with them several times since they had personally contributed to the construction of the canal and the new fields. The climate of tension that hovered over the village before was slowly dissipating. And Haku certainly didn't intend to stop: he had one last plan in mind for the moment, which would allow him to gain even more stability and even more gratitude.
This plan was accomplished the day Rhaegal, Corgorin, Serengal and their friends returned to the village. Haku and Rhaegal had kept in contact during those days, so they knew exactly how much time they had and how to behave. Haku had obviously informed Zamor: this time, he was essential for the success of the plan. The lizardman was happy to know that there was a cure, a little less that for the umpteenth time Haku had acted behind his back; but by now he was so used to it that he almost didn't notice it. A little rhetoric on the dragon's part was enough to make him forget that detail and make him concentrate on the main issue, which is to present the cure to the citizens. First, they had to make sure it could work, so they'd taken Isaac aside and explained everything to him, and then hooked him up with Rhaegal and his crew so they could explain what they'd found. The mage had been somewhat surprised at first, but then he had easily believed in the fact that Haku and Zamor had sent someone to look for the cure right from the start and immediately got to work. After listening to the adventurers' explanation and doing some calculations, Isaac had ensured that using that substance combined with some medicinal herbs and healing magic he could surely create a powerful healing potion that could destroy the blood death in one fell swoop.
So, the cure was the right one. Now there was only one thing to do: let everyone know. And so Zamor had caused rumors to circulate about the possible discovery of a cure. People had obviously started to grumble, and eventually the lizardman pretended to be forced out and told a false story about how he and Haku had arranged to smuggle people in to look for a possible cure, but whose he had preferred not to speak to avoid deluding his people since they didn't know if it could work. Zamor had slyly kept to the line of 'I'm not sure it will work', so as to avoid becoming the target of the populace's wrath in case of failure (although Isaac had assured it would work, it was still best to be careful), but at the same time he had made people really convinced of the possibility of a definitive cure, better than the passive remedies they were currently using to counteract blood death. And when Rhaegal and his group finally returned to the village, as promised the dragon delivered personally and in front of everyone's eyes the substance they had found and which would form the basis for the cure in the hands of Zamor; the lizardman immediately put Isaac to work, who after just a couple of tries was able to create the healing potion he promised. In full view he gave it to a very ailing patient, and he immediately got back to his feet with no sign of the terrible disease on him.
That event was greeted with great joy by the whole village. Isaac immediately made all possible healing potions and used them on all patients. Within a single day, the sick camp was completely emptied: the number of infected dropped to a minimum. Only in some frail patients of health there was some problem, but a few more days of treatment were enough to recover completely. The quarantine remained in effect for another week, during which however the number of newly infected continued to be high, but by now it was enough to go to Isaac as soon as one started sneezing and after drinking the healing potion one was healed immediately. Thanks to this, there was soon no sign of the blood death in the whole village. At first Zamor removed the quarantine for adults, but still keeping the one for children and the elderly still valid; however, after making sure that the disease had really disappeared, he canceled that too and finally the families were completely reunited. Within just two weeks there was hardly any new contagion, and in three the blood death had already become only a weak bogeyman. The defeat of the disease was welcomed with joy by everyone, so much so that when Zamor officially announced the end of the emergency and his consequent resignation as provisional leader, the Council allowed the citizens to celebrate for two whole days.
Rhaegal, Corgorin, Serengal, Carlos, Sarah, Martha, Lisah, Dyana and Atelas were treated as heroes. There were obviously some who tried to say that the dragons had actually known about the cure all along, but hardly anyone listened to them. The happiest of their success was obviously Efren, who had wanted to know everything about their adventure; and they had satisfied him by telling not only him, but also all who were listening, all the wonderful things they had seen and experienced. Very soon these stories spread in the village and many wondered if they were all true, since the underworld they described seemed truly incredible, but every time Atelas showed them his diary they couldn't help but surrender to the evidence, as no one would have been able to imagine such a detailed ecosystem and such majestic creatures. This made the new 'heroes' of the village almost mythical figures, and many of the more adventurous ones began to wonder if they shouldn't go down there themselves to explore that strange world that had remained segregated from the surface for so long; after all, each of the adventurers had remarked in his tales that they had scarcely explored a tiny part of that cave system, and that there was a high possibility that this underworld was far more vast and fantastic than anyone could ever imagine. Faced with such prospects, how could curiosity and the desire for adventure not be awakened?
Haku didn't mind that much; sure, he was interested in the underworld for the endless treasures and resources it could provide him, but its exploration was not in his priorities at the moment. For now, he was content with having gotten what he craved: peace, stability, security, and above all, gratitude and respect. All things that a foolish person could have considered of little value, but which for Haku were essential to ensure that dragons were truly accepted by the community. The future finally looked brighter than ever in his eyes. He just had to keep making the best of every situation that came his way, as he always had. What had happened had taught him that even the apparently most tragic events could offer excellent opportunities, if one was able to seize and use them; he would have treasured this teaching.