The Green Glacier Adventure Clan enjoyed their Christmas break working on many of the things that their small group had always enjoyed doing, and that was largely in providing additional help to those that needed it. Often during Christmas and Thanksgiving, this was often limited to food deliveries to those families in Lyre and Animalia that might need it, and often these were with those that lived in rural areas outside of Lyre and didn't get around all that much, either due to age, money, or youngsters running around the house. It was something that kept them rather busy and was also something that the four male Box Turtle Animalians, Jerry, Peter, Adam, and Tom often enjoyed doing even before they became Animalians. Animalia just provided new opportunities and new strengths, as Lina, Reva, Dela, and Mara joined them. The four females didn't always understand a lot of the rules for role playing adventure games at first, but they did learn and resulted in bonded pairs forming between both sets of four.
The result of this often-had Peter working with them for the bulk of the major projects to provide help for others, which through High School had kept them busy in Lyre/Animalia over Thanksgiving and Christmas. But now with college, some things were different. The Green Glacier Adventure Clan had expanded further as they found out that one of more recent recruits to the Rhino Guard, the Triceratops Dinotopian, Sherry, who had apparently had similar interests in adventure/role playing games and joined the group. Sherry had work with the Animalia PD and couldn't handle ALL the work that the Green Glacier Adventure Clan did, but she was available to help with some of those things, and that came into play as Peter, his friends, and their mates then moved into college. This brought about new schedules and a greater awareness of the world outside Lyre/Animalia, and which after the shooting on the UNLV campus, Peter's parents figured Christmas break might be better spent at Heiya Island, where the Adventure Clan's main members could provide some help with things that were different from what they normally did.
Of course, the arrival of Heiya Island proved a bit more stressful, when a group of young people, many of whom were likely those that had been rescued by Interpol from various kidnapping rings and were still trying to confirm or find surviving family and having trouble doing so. To a degree, the colony government on Heiya Island had offered, with Horizon's backing, conversion for some, along with payments for local therapists to fly in from Japan or any other country in the region to help those deal with these issues. From what Peter had found, many of them had also found help and learned from examples set by the Five Elements and the martial arts classes they taught. It helped many of them get over the worst of things, but it still left many having a bit of a "fangirl syndrome" and the group fawned over Peter's younger siblings. It made for an awkward first meeting, but one of the people that the Adventure Clan had come to help, Aiko who was to be setting things up on Ryouiki Island, another small volcanic island that was part of Japan, and had somehow managed to escape long term settlement.
"A lot of this seems like set up type of stuff," Tom commented as the four male Box Turtle Animalians were setting up specialized concrete blocks.
The formula was designed to be resistant to salt water and would help set up an actual pier on the island. For while people had come to the island to note the old mine that went into the mountain on one end of the mountain and the peach tree that had supposedly been planted back in Japan's feudal era, much of it was closer to taking a ferry from Heiya Island and then transferring from the ferry to the island in what was normally a lifeboat. The waters in this part of the Pacific weren't freezing, but they were cold enough that it was agreed that an actual harbor would need to be built, and one that would enable more workers and material to be brought in to actually build things on the island to allow Animalian colony, in what Peter had seen mentioned by the Japanese representatives on Heiya Island as "Heiya Prefecture," and would essentially put both islands under a similar condition.
"Which is largely the work that is to go on for right now," Aiko spoke as she came into view with Lina, Reva, Dela, and Mara following after her and with Mara taking some notes as she walked, "the discovery of the island was fairly new... and when it was first found, the push for settlement wasn't strong because of the possibility that the mine might have historical significance and all that."
"And was there anything historically interesting?" Jerry wondered as he looked to the others and to some of the engineers that had come along to work on the actual work of mixing the cement while the male Box Turtle Animalians were essentially the muscle to then move the blocks and see if they would stack correctly enough.
"Some things are... but not enough to really set up something like a full-fledged museum there," Aiko answered, "it's sort of like many of the mine shafts that have been abandoned in parts of the US. The mines may be old but weren't necessarily successful as mines."
"It might work as a specialized niche club," Lina commented, "though... the engineers here once they've got everything ready for the construction of a pier that could at least accommodate the ferry from Heiya Island or from the Japanese Home Islands may need to look into things and see what can be opened up safely and what may require lots of concrete molds just to make sure there isn't a collapse."
"That's a thing?" Peter asked as he set one of the blocks down and it easily interlocked with the block that he set it on top of. There was even a bit of a soft thunk as the two pieces fit together. There was an open hole in the middle that would allow for a large metal beam that would help keep the pillar straight once it was set in the water and would provide for additional guides and strength that could be used in the future.
"Very much so," Aiko answered, "largely because soil and dirt can hold together... but would prefer not to have to support large open areas. It is why natural caves tend to be in areas that are rockier and have had much of the interior opened by water washing away the loose topsoil and bits of the rock over time. Things dug in soft soil... while it can hold, it isn't entirely stable with large areas. It's why there are some cases of fossil finds where burrowing animals were found buried in their tunnels as a result of some kind of accident, be it an earthquake or some other action that destabilized the ground that the tunnel needed and lead to a massive collapse, burying anything in the tunnel. It's why many mines have often had structural supports built into the mine while it's active. But wooden supports... which would be the case here, degrade over time."
"And that would be the biggest risk with the mine here... that it's digging was haphazard, and the supports were hasty in nature," Dela spoke, "that's screaming for a major rework if the Aiko wants to use the mine for her club."
"Though, we were also looking over possible alternatives and locations on other parts of the island that would be away from the family areas that are to be set up on the island as well," Mara added, "we'll be back and at college after New Years and all that... but it'd make sense to get things started and help with the planning and preparation that will be needed to get things going."
Peter nodded to that. They were limited by the scheduling issues that related to their Christmas break from college, and some of it was also limited by their respective Christmas celebrations at the hotel on Heiya Island and enjoying some of the restaurant goodies that Heiya Island could also offer. It was all good, but it did still play to a schedule and Peter knew they would have to return to Lyre/Animalia relatively soon so that they could return to college and his parents to their jobs.