Working all night the night before, ending up being teleported to a new planet where it was midday, fighting wolves, then taking a shift on watch and sleeping on a stone floor made Chap cranky in the morning. A caffeine withdrawal headache also didn’t help, it hadn’t hit yet but it was coming.

The [Sergeant], now in more ways than one, walked over and sat down where the others were eating leftover fox-wolf. Rick cleared his throat and raised his hand.

“Just curious did anyone else hear… I’m not crazy… right? In my head?”

Chap lifted his head from where he had been resting it against the wall and looked at Rick and the others. Normally, he would have thought Rick was crazy by that statement alone. Sane people didn’t talk about disembodied voices in their heads but he knew exactly what the guy was talking about. Most of those in the group looked at him warily and confused but a few of them looked relieved. Chap was part of the second group, just glad he wasn’t the only one with that particular secret.

[Sergeant Class Obtained!]

“You heard them too?”

“What?”

“The voice. It said something like [Medic Class Obtained!] and I got a Skill, fucking [Basic First Aid]. Apparently doing a little Self aid-Buddy Care on a couple of scrapes and bruises is enough for… whatever that is.”

Chap looked at ‘Doza and she looked pissed off. He was confused about when she did SABC but that was something for later.

“What’s up?”

“It also said [Corporal Class Obtained!]. I’m not some dumbass army grunt or jarhead!”

Chap laughed at ‘Doza’s expense and leaned his head back against the wall. Only Karli, who was enlisting in the Air Force, wasn’t insulted. Though the two marine recruits, Lindsey and Rick, had the same mentality and stopped trying to sand the corrosion off their newly acquired weapons to flip her the bird with a few choice words. It seemed like Rick was doing it because that was who he was but Chap looked at Lindsey and she didn’t seem as into it despite the cold gaze.

Reacting how she thought she should react. Either that or she wasn’t as oorah as Rick.

“Shut it, you’re not even in yet… Who else got what?”

‘Doza pointed at each of them in turn. Rick, Lindsey, Aydin, Karli, and finally Chap.

“[Warrior]”

“Same as Rick.”

“Nada.”

“[Scribe]”

“If it makes you feel better, I got [Sergeant] and not Staff Sergeant.”

It didn’t but he smirked at her for a moment, he was definitely going to rub it in a bit. If it was a more pressing concern, like the actual fact they heard a voice, he’d leave it be. But he could push a little on what the voice said. Nothing wrong with a little bit of fun, especially since he knew ‘Doza.

Getting back to the task at hand, Chap was about to ask how Karli had gotten [Scribe] but noticed she was already with a notebook and pen in hand. He didn’t ask her what she was writing but he figured a quick glance over her shoulder would show that she was keeping a record of everyone’s classes.

“She’s been writing every time we learn something new if you hadn’t noticed..”

“Someone needs to keep a record of this.”

Chap couldn’t deny her logic, even as simple as it was. If they really were a part of the Lost Generation now, they needed to find the others and a way home. Barring that, they should at least find a way to send information home and let people know about what was going on. It was part of his standing orders after all. The fact that no one else had figured it out wasn’t promising though.

Chap got up and glanced at what she was writing. He gave her a nod as she looked up at him before handing him her notebook.

Really neat handwriting… Is that why the voice called her a [Scribe]? Or would anyone writing be told that?

No one said anything about the classes, being too engrossed in their own thoughts on the matter or just relieved they weren’t going nuts. Chap was a bit of both but figured they’d learn more if it happened again. So far he agreed with Karli’s notes on the matter.

‘Doza and himself were both called military classes because they were military and for a good part of the day before Chap had led an oversized fireteam with ‘Doza as his second in command. And although the names of the rank weren’t exactly the same, it was the same basic structure the USAF used. He was a [Sergeant] because he WAS a Sergeant.

Lindsey and Rick were even easier, they’d fought. It wasn’t a type of combat that any of them could have been familiar with but it still stood, they fought. So [Warrior] did make sense. It reminded him of the first couple of lines of the Airman’s Creed.

I am an American Airman. I am a Warrior. I have answered my nation’s call.

He doubted it was because they had technically answered their nation’s call. Which they had, despite ‘Doza saying they weren’t in yet. They’d each signed away years of their life on the dotted line, for one reason or another. If things had been different they would have served but simply didn’t get the chance to fulfill that commitment for reasons that no one understood. Not their fault.

“What should we do with these?”

Chap was pulled away from his musings by the question. It wasn’t directed at just him but the group in general. And ‘Doza had prosed a good question as she stood next to the dead fox-wolves and gave them kick.

“Thought we were going to smoke them.”

Chap just shrugged. Food was food, although they’d have to get started quickly. The nights were frigid, so it kept them pretty fresh but he didn’t like the idea of them letting them sit long as it got hotter. Chap looked at ‘Doza as she gave one another kick and a smirk grew on his face.

“Alright, Listen up.”

Chap shot air out of his nose as everyone’s head spun to look at him and ‘Doza jumped. He hadn’t yelled at them. Instead, his voice carried itself differently. A tone that was something he was very familiar with but achieved in a completely different way in the past.

[Project Voice]. Chap had accidentally activated the Skill the night before while thinking of the voice in his head when he took his shift on watch. It was a good distraction and he needed it…

There was still no telling what Skills were exactly or why he had one. But he knew what he did was also a skill, not a Skill, that most non-commissioned officers developed. Even though the Skill was a bit different. For one he just had to speak normally and it happened.

As for him and ‘Doza being cops, they learned as junior enlisted because their authority was greater than their rank. You couldn’t really challenge someone out of a vehicle with a cracking voice or a whisper. The thought of a Skill replacing a hard learned skill didn’t seem fair.

It dawned on him though that he’d just gotten everyone’s attention but didn’t actually have anything planned to say. He just wanted to demonstrate the Skill and see ‘Doza’s reaction. Although in retrospect, she’d heard him like that before, even if it was a little off.

But when plans fail as they often did, improvise. Or in his case, when he failed to plan…

“Rick, you brought up smoking the meat, take charge of it. If you need anything with that let me know and we’ll… I don’t fricken know. We’ll figure it out. The rest of you, if you know about cleaning an animal give him a hand. If not I want every one of these buildings searched and everything useful piled up in front of the smithy. Karli, I’d appreciate it if you could make a list of everything we have. Not just what we find, every bag gets checked. Don’t bother with people’s clothes, just the other items. Everyone keeps their personal bag when she’s done, I just want to know what we’ve got… Last, get a wingman, no one leaves these buildings by themselves. If you go in a group, no one gets left by themselves, Eh? Oh, and if I’m not around, [Corporal] Mendoza’s in charge.”

Chap watched as everyone just stood around for a second but they eventually started breaking themselves into two groups. ‘Doza mouthed a quiet threat to him but he wasn’t a lip reader, he just knew ‘Doza had threatened him with something. He gave her a wave before he took up the unenviable task he’d quietly designated to himself. It wasn’t something he’d order the others to do but he knew it needed to be done.

It only took a few minutes to look around the smithy to find some tools that would work before heading outside the village to start digging. Before he left though, he looked again at the two unlucky souls that hadn’t made it. He’d be dealing with them soon enough.

The sight of the corpses inside the building wasn’t as gruesome as the scene ‘Doza had found but it was sad thinking about them. He couldn’t help but wonder if that’s what had happened to most of the lost generation and if there were other survivors out there. They’d have to try to find them.

He wasn’t delusional though, he had no plans to run around playing hero and saving everyone. He’d of course follow his orders and do his part if it came to it but he’d be an idiot if he really thought they were in a position to help anyone.

In reality, it was he and his group that needed saving. Some had gone missing years before, if they were still alive, they were probably better off than sleeping in a ruin and eating fox-wolf. Then again he couldn’t plan on them being saved either… it’d be fine if they hoped for that and it happened but they should assume they were on their own. It wasn’t even in the cards at the moment.

One step at a time…

He made his way out of the village and found a nice spot a little closer to the river. The decision to go closer to the river was to find softer soil to dig in but it also had a nice view through the trees. The river was flowing by gently while splashing a little on a few rocks in the water, the desert landscape with the mountains visible on the side. A few larger rock formations sticking up in the distance with unique appearances. It was a good place for a graveyard, or at least as good as any.

Chap sighed and got to work marking out the graves before he started digging. The tools he found weren’t the best and he needed to be on his knees to even use them because of the broken handles but it had to get done.

Before long, someone dropped to their knees beside him and started using a scrap of metal wrapped in half rotted cloth as a very rough pick to loosen the soil before pulling it out by hand.

“You broke your own rule.”

Lindsey was right but again, he didn’t want to order the others to dig graves. He was trying to keep their thoughts off that part but he’d also forgotten something.

“Aydin volunteered to clear out that building. ‘Doza told him to be careful with the bodies and to ‘not do anything creepy’. We covered them up with a couple of old blankets from one of the houses.”

The order stood that there was supposed to be a complete inventory done but Chap was glad someone stepped up for that. At the same time, he should have told them to leave that part until he was done. It was already too late for that and Chap went back to digging.

Minutes later Lindsey spoke again.

“They fought.”

Chap paused at that and looked at Lindsey. He’d heard what she’d said but waited for an explanation. So far, Lindsey had shown she was pretty good at answering his questions before he could ask them and she didn’t disappoint.

“One of them has split knuckles. Rick pointed out one of the wolves lost a tooth… the holes still bloody. The other guy has… goo. Goo and blood on his thumbs… One of the other wolves lost an eye.”

Good for them…

His thoughts were somewhat dark and sarcastic but Chap was on his hands and knees digging graves. There wasn’t any reason to think anything other than darkly at the moment.

Although, he could at least respect that they went down fighting. It may not have been how anyone had planned for someone to make the ultimate sacrifice, but it was the mark of someone in the service to not just roll over and die. You had to have at least some fighting spirit to join, otherwise, you wouldn’t dare step foot in a recruiting office.

Good for them.

—

Jenna awoke to find her alone in the house. She got up from her spot on the floor and looked around before heading out the front door to find the communal bathroom down the road.

Jenna wasn’t a fan of public restrooms and she didn’t know anyone that was. If she had, they probably deserved to be in an asylum just for that. But what she walked into wasn’t just a public restroom.

Patli’s version of it made roadside truckstops look inviting. It was clean but lacked a few modern conveniences. Like lights, ventilation fans, a flushable toilet instead of a hole to go in, and of course soft toilet paper, she’d gotten some of the local variety from Dess and already dreaded using it. But ultimately it was the smell… and the person that took the stall right inside the door and didn’t bother to close the curtain.

The older lizard woman gave her a cheerful smile and a wave. Jenna sighed and waved back, she had learned in her brief introduction to the village the night before that Lizardfolk were very sociable. She actually liked that about them but didn’t think it should apply when someone was pooping.

Hopefully, that particular situation was a single occurrence. They had curtains for privacy but the senior lizardfolk had chosen not to use them. Why not was anyone’s guess…

Business done, Jenna walked back through the village and soon found herself back at Dess and Zosk’s modest house. The patriarch of the family was in front, piling farming tools into a hand cart, getting ready for a day in his fields. Jenna wasn’t sure what she should be doing and she was about to ask Zosk if he needed help but a movement above her caught her eye as she walked up.

“Morning Jenna! Come on up. I want to show you something. There’s a ladder around back… Careful on the third rung, it’s cracked.”

Jenna looked up to see Dess’ smiling face looking down at her from the flat roof of her home. Jenna looked to Zosk to see what his thoughts on the matter were but he was looking at his hand flexing and extending his fingers repeatedly. He looked up at her and gave a tired sigh before he silently handed her a bundle of cloth and waved her off before pushing his cart down the road. She opened it up and saw that it was a few pieces of dried meat, some bread, and goat cheese.

“Thank you!”

He looked back at her and she could have sworn he gave her a faint smile and a wave before heading out to the fields.

It seemed to her that Zosk was not an early riser by choice but a necessity as he looked to be still waking up. Rather than the confident walk she’d seen the day before, now he tiredly lumbered.

On the bright side, he didn’t seem as grumpy, she wondered if it was just the trip in the wagon that had him worked up. Sitting on the wooden planks in the back wasn’t the most comfortable ride, she doubted the front bench was any better.

Probably, my butt still hurts from that. Why don’t they have cushions? Or a pillow?

“You coming?”

Jenna looked up again at Dess. She bobbed her head, Zosk hadn’t said it was alright to crawl in his house but she was sure it was alright. Jenna didn’t want to be a bad guest.

Still, she headed to the backyard and ensured the gate was secure behind her before climbing up to join the lizard girl on the roof, after getting the alpaca a pet. Even freshly shorn it was still really soft. Just one of the wonders of her new existence. It was cute.

But it wasn’t the only one.

In the low light of morning, Jenna took a moment to take in the village of Patli from a new vantage point. It was marvelous and she wondered what it looked like at sunset, with the colors from the sun slipping behind the horizon in the background.

Patli was still an experience with the sun at her back. It only held a couple hundred people, although probably could have held a couple hundred more with a few adjustments. The buildings were all built out of mudbrick or stone and were generally small, square boxes. She couldn’t see a single building that was two stories tall. There were of course a few structures a little taller than the rest but not tall enough to indicate it held a second story. She wondered if those were the houses of the centaurs she’d seen when they’d arrived. They’d need a lot more headroom than a lizard person. Zosk’s house was also a bit taller and larger than most, so she briefly wondered if it had been a centaur’s home once.

That didn’t mean the village was small. In fact, it was pretty big. At least for the number of people it held and the sizes of their homes. It was surrounded by a ten foot tall wall and houses aside, each property had a fairly large yard either in front or behind.

That’s where the couple hundred more people came in. Most were like Zosk and Dess’ place with the yard taking up three times the area of the house. They could have built another house at the other end of the lot and doubled the population if they wanted. It looked like it had been built with room to grow or been planned to make sure everyone had a place to work their craft on their own property.

Some had tall walls like Zosk’s, some were open but most at least had a waddle fence from what she could see. A few of the courtyards even had walls that were tall enough that she could only guess what was inside even from the roof.

Only guess but at least Jenna could make an educated one. She saw how much the goats liked to climb when they were working on the shed. That wasn’t counting the other critters Dess had.

But Jenna realized that she’d been standing on the roof for a few minutes already, just looking at the village and beyond. She was being rude.

“Sorry… What’d you want to show me?”

Dess had seemed content to let her have a moment but that moment ended the second Jenna had opened her mouth. She nearly tripped backward off the roof as a fuzzy thing was shoved into her face. After blinking and leaning back from the fluff in Dess’ hands, which was literally an inch from her eyeball, she managed to focus her eyes on a baby bird. A big baby bird.

“It’s a Greyrock Falcon! Like the ones we saw yesterday!”

Dess was very energetic and said it like Jenna should know what that was. The entire thing looked like one big, dirty cotton ball with eyes and a beak. It was kind of cute but Jenna had no idea what the whole thing was about. Perhaps seeing her confusion, Dess explained.

“I have a skill… well my level 10 Capstone skill is [It’s time!]. It doesn’t really matter if you know… It basically gives me a sense when one of my animals is about to be born or hatch. It’s not the most powerful skill for a [Beast Tamer] but it’s useful. It makes sure I’m there in case the little one needs help. It’s horrible when the Jerboa start giving birth. I breed three females and it goes off for every baby in the litter. They give birth underground in their burrow, so I can’t even help them… Anyway, last night I woke up when it was going off and ended up spending the night up here with him as he pushed himself out of the egg. I’m glad he waited, I had a chicken sitting on him while I was gone. But here he is! Well, I think it’s a he… It’s hard to tell this early on with most birds and I don’t know much about Grayrocks. I found the egg and didn’t even know it was one until it hatched. But I’m glad I found you, yes I am…”

“Ah, Congratulations.”

Jenna was still uncertain but Dess was too busy with the falcon to notice or care. It gave Jenna a chance to take in the roof. She’d been too preoccupied with the view of the village that she hadn’t paid attention to the large bird cage in the center of the roof with a few smaller ones laid around the outside.

She focused on the large cage and thought of her [Accurate Measurement] Skill. She smiled with a bit of wonder, it wasn’t that she estimated it, she know the exact size. It was 3.2 x 3.3 x 5.1 feet with the higher measurement being the height.

She then started doing the same to the smaller cages. They each had a reed mat on top to provide shade and roosts or nests inside them. She counted 20 birds but only a few different kinds. Most of them were the same kind of songbirds that were happily chirping away. There were also a couple of hummingbirds, a hen that probably was only there for the egg considering the other ones were in a lean-to next to the house, and a single falcon that wasn’t in a cage but roosted on top of the large one. It stared at her, twisting its head around while trying to take her measure. Jenna wasn’t sure about that one and stepped back from its gaze.

“Don’t mind Kook, he’s just young and curious. I found him as a chick, he’s a Harenae Falcon. I’m going to have to sell him when the [Barge Merchant] gets here… oh don’t look at me like that. You’ll love it. They’ll bring you to Zaniya and a [Falconer] will be proud to buy you, you’re a beautiful falcon. They’ll take you to hunt and play… yes you’re a good hunter already…”

Jenna watched with raised brows as Dess wasn’t just doting, she was having a full on conversation with the bird. Strangely enough, Jenna could even follow the falcons half of the conversation to an extent. It actually looked upset at first but soon it was preening itself looking quite content at the praise and even giving a triumphant screech when its hunting prowess was mentioned. She wondered if all Harenae Falcons were that smart. Maybe it was just a [Beast Tamer] thing.

“… Now go on. Stretch those wings and go find some breakfast, but be back by midday. Kook? I mean it! I spotted three grown Grayrocks east of here attacking an apainizi hopper. Go hunt across the river but you better be back to check in. You can go out again after, I just want to make sure you’re okay.”

The sand colored bird screeched at her and took off heading towards the river. Jenna watched him climb and then soar as he quickly disappeared beyond the river to the desert on the far side.

“Kook’s a good bird, I’m going to miss him but he really should bond with someone that can work with him. He’s the first Falcon I’ve raised. So I admit, I’m curious on what the [Barge Merchant] will pay for him. But this little guy… I’ll have to convince pops to let me go to Port Zaniya… Greyrocks get big enough to hold their own against eagles and kill hawks and they’re incredibly fast. If I can manage to tame him and train him a bit, I can go to Zaniya to find a buyer at full price rather than what the barge offers. I’ll probably make more off one sale than that old grump makes all year.”

“What if you can’t tame him?”

Dess smiled down at the little guy and pet his head before carefully putting him into an empty cage.

“Then when I try to give him commands he flies away and lives like any other wild falcon but I’ll still probably level just attempting it. I really don’t mind if one of my animals isn’t tamed and goes wild. It just means I got to take care of them until they were big enough to go out on their own. There are some animals that I can’t do that with, they need to learn from their parents to survive but I usually stick with animals that I know I can tame or have the instincts to survive if I fail. It’s only happened a few times. Should we get started?”

“With what?”

Dess didn’t answer and instead climbed down into the yard and immediately set to work on her chores. Jenna climbed down and watched as she went from animal to animal. Checking their water, their food, playing with them for a moment, or letting them out of their cages to run about the yard. Most were already free though.

She treated every single one of them with care and respect, except one of the two cats. Jenna ate her breakfast and watched as that one bounded its way onto an awning before jumping up to the roof only to duck as a rock flew right over its head.

“Get down from there right now!”

Dess glared up at the cat and picked up another rock. A bigger one. The cat stood defiantly and then nonchalantly hopped down before moving to a wall between their yard and their neighbors to clean itself. Jenna noticed it watching Dess out of the corner of its eye.

“Ugh. Why won’t you just listen. Do. Not. Go. Up. There. I know you understand me. And I know you were up there when I was gone! …I love cats but I hate working with cats… you’re giving your entire species a bad name, you know that right? Why can’t you be more like your brother? …Smart creatures but they’ll learn everything you have to teach them then choose to ignore it or worse, do the exact opposite out of spite… Don’t you dare- Hchhhhss.”

Jeanna’s head spun as Dess jumped between yelling at the cat and calmly explaining to Jenna. The last part was Dess’ response to the cat hissing at her. It apparently didn’t approve of Dess’ tone. For her part, Dess had hissed back.

But the cat, deciding a different approach was needed, moved further down the courtyard wall and looked away, pretending Dess didn’t exist after that.

“Don’t ignore me, I’m talking to you!”

Jenna had to keep herself from laughing at that but wasn’t doing a good job. Watching Dess talk lovingly with her animals or stroke Kook’s ego was one thing but getting into a hissing match with a cat was too much. Dess noticed her struggling and almost immediately her face shifted to match Jenna’s. Dess cracked a smile first and that’s all it took to break Jenna. She giggled uncontrollably which only caused Dess to let it out too. It also caught the attention of the Jerboas and they decided to climb her to see what was going on, which made it worse, it tickled!

After that Dess got back to work while Jenna played with the Jerboas. She wasn’t sure about them at first, considering they were rodents but after seeing them hopping around. They looked like some sort of chimera. Like someone took a large mouse and give it rabbit ears and threw in just a taste of kangaroo for the back legs.

She also was in love with the cute little tufts of fur on the ends of their tails.

Pretty soon she was sitting on the ground with the whole family of them bouncing around her as she shared pieces of bread with them. Dess joined her when she finished. Two of the smaller ones immediately jumped up into her lap as well.

“Cute huh? Dad said they’re not originally from around here and he never saw them growing up. He thinks they’re originally from Chandrar and snuck aboard some ship.”

“They’re an invasive species?”

Dess had to pause for a moment, the phrase not being commonly used.

“I guess but there’s not a lot of them. They don’t do well here in the Chotaxl. There are a lot of different types of deserts in Chandrar, I even got to see some of them on the scrying mirror that the [Barge Merchant] sets up when he comes through. Some looked like this but it’s still not the same, different predators, different plants.”

“Chotaxl?”

Dess gave her a critical look and Jenna realized too late that it was a name she might have been expected to know. Dess just gestured around them.

“The Chotaxl Desert, or the Western Crescent depending on who you ask. It’s all between those mountains and the ocean. Guess it’s not that surprising you don’t know the name, most people don’t even know it’s here. It’s only… 600 miles long and 100 to 150 miles wide.”

Jenna blanched and the size of it but Dess said it like it was nothing. She thought about it and realized that was close to the size of Florida! That was small enough for people not to notice?

“Only?”

“Well yeah, I mean it’s a lot of space but it’s just a sliver of Baleros AND on the wrong side of the continent. If it were on the east coast, Port Zaniya would probably be something even the four great companies might take notice of. On the west coast, it’s not anywhere near as important. Dad said that every couple of years a large trade fleet would come in but it’s mostly just trading up and down the coast, there isn’t exactly any reason for anyone to come here. Less for anyone to bother learning about it.”

“You seem to know a lot about it though.”

“It’s that old bag of scales. He won’t tell me where he learned it all but he’s taught me a lot. He said that I live here, so better to know it. It could become useful one day.”

“My dad’s the same way. He always tried to teach me something new to keep me safe. Especially these past couple years.”

Jenna looked at Dess with a rueful smile. She really missed her dad. Dess smiled back, a bit more happily and patted Jenna on the shoulder.

Silver lining, at least Jenna had made a friend.

Dess patted a little harder and got up, dusting herself off as she rose.

“Come on, my work’s done for now. Let’s bring the old man his lunch and see if we can find some work for a [Builder]. And you! If I catch you on the roof when I get back… I’ll let the old man do what he wants with you! He does need a new pillow case and you have very soft fur… Hchhhhssss.”

The cat had hissed again but now it looked at Dess and the roof and back. It decided to stay off the roof. Not because Dess told it not to go up there and threatened it.

But because it, of course, didn’t want to go up there in the first place. It did what it wanted and she, the angry lizard girl, could choke on a hairball if she thought the cat was walking away for any reason other than it had better things to do. It turned and lifted its tail towards her for good measure.

Jenna felt her face stretching as she fought the growing smile from watching Dess scowl at the cat. Silver linings…

—

Amber Theil

Jeremiah Smith

Colin Danielson

Chap looked at the names he’d written down and tapped his pen against the pocket notebook. They had finished burying two of the bodies an hour ago. As for the third victim, there was no sign of a body and the few remains were a two hours walk away, one way. So they instead built a cairn with a plan to bury her if they found her body.

He looked over the names again before putting it away. It wasn’t the official record, Karli was recording names, birth and death dates, social security numbers, and how they died. It was easy enough information to get once they’d identified the deceased’s bags, with the documentation each and every one of them had. Plus she had their personal effects logged and put away. A ring, a necklace, phone… anything they could maybe one day get back to their loved ones.

No, it was a reminder for himself. Lindsey had rubbed his shoulder then left to give him a moment when he first started writing the names, so he returned to the village alone,

Once there he saw… a lot of sitting around. They’d managed to convert one of the houses into a smoke house by hanging the meat and starting a bunch of small fires on the floor to fill it with smoke. It hadn’t been what he was expecting but he guessed it would do the trick. The building was made of stone so there wasn’t any risk of the fire spreading. The smoke rose from the roof and billowed out of the windows and cracks in the door but it was plenty smoky inside for the creation of fox-wolf jerky as long as they prepped the meat right. But they’d been in the middle of that when he collected the bodies with Lindsey. The strips of meat looked right but he didn’t look at them closely. He didn’t want to look at meat while carrying what he had been carrying.

They’d also cleared out every house and had sorted piles of items. Most of it was garbage. Some were old farm tools, rusted pots, two bows without strings and broken arrows, random bits of leather and cloth… no it was pretty much all garbage. But Rick and Lindsey were both proving that some of it could be salvaged.

Rick sat watching a movie on a laptop with ‘Doza, his hammer lay beside him, cleaned of rust from sanding it down with stones. Lindsey was likewise working on her own weapon of convenience. It actually looked like a bronze short sword now, even if it was a bit rough. She was busy running a stone across the edge in an attempt to sharpen it and he noticed she’d even wrapped the handle in scrap leather for a better grip.

As for the youngest two, Aydin and Karli were sitting on the ground playing checkers with different colored rocks and a board drawn in the dirt.

He thought about giving them something else to do but after a few seconds realized he didn’t have any idea what else there was to do. So rather than make busywork, he went and sat down next to Aydin and Karli and watched the game.

“Sarge.”

Aydin greeted him while Karli paid attention to the board. She made a move taking two of Aydin’s and guaranteed she’d be kinged her next turn if she wanted to. Not that it would matter, there were far more of her gray stones compared to Aydin’s tan stones left on the board, her victory was already a foregone conclusion. As Aydin took about three seconds to analyze his next move Karli handed him her notebook.

“Uh, I made a list of everyone’s skills and hobbies. Could you fill yours in?”

Chap accepted the notebook and gave it a look as he pulled out a pen. It listed each member of the group, what their intended career field was, things they were good at that could be useful and hobbies seemed like a catchall for everything else worth mentioning.

For example, Karli was supposed to be a Cryptologic Linguist. She spoke English and German already. Other skills included sewing, ‘decent cook’, and electronics. Her hobbies were dancing, computer games, makeup, and styling, and she could play the trumpet. It also had her class and Skills. She was a level 3 [Scribe] with [Fast Penmanship] and [Split Focus]…

“[Split Focus]?”

“We tested it out. I can hold a conversation with someone and write something completely different without messing up or losing focus on the conversation.”

“So just a weird way of saying you know how to multitask.”

She gave a nod and smiled before taking out Aydin’s last two pieces. Aydin didn’t seem too upset and Karli started to explain where he had gone wrong.

Chap scanned the information already there for anything interesting. Rick had a skill called [Powerstrike] and Lindsey had [Piercing Thrust]. ‘Doza still only had [Basic First Aid] under her [Medic] Class. Meanwhile under [Corporal] she had [Dangersense]. Rick had put ‘Fitness’ under both skills and hobbies.

Unbeknownst to him, there was a Drake half the world away that would have probably approved of the mentality, then critiqued Rick’s workout routine mercilessly if they ever met. Or maybe given the young man some props by yelling loudly that he had ‘testicles’. Who knew how they stacked up against each other.

As for the list, Aydin claimed to have done amateur MMA, played soccer, and was a wrestler in high school. Lindsey knew how to use a bow and was a certified CNA. And that left only Chap’s spot blank.

Chap wrote down the easy stuff first but thought about the rest. He started with the big things.

Easily the biggest was his education. Chap was halfway to a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, which accounted for 2 years of school completed in a record 5 years… It basically meant he was good at math because he never got to the advanced courses.

He listed his Air Force certifications next and even added to ‘Doza’s list as he noticed she’d forgotten CPR/AED. He knew she had it, they’d done the class together. He knew how to hunt and fish, he underlined fish after a moment, not because he was an expert but because he enjoyed it. With that, he started to stall on what he could consider skills or expertise. Some things he just didn’t feel like putting down. He jotted down ‘decent cook’ as well, which meant he could make pretty good pasta with the right ingredients.

He also tinkered a lot but he wasn’t sure how to put that. It was taking things apart to see how they worked and putting them together. Sure, he knew how a radio worked and what an analog alarm clock looked like on the inside but it was sort of his weird guilty pleasure so he left it off. He knew he wasn’t the only one, ‘Doza hadn’t listed that she drew comics under hobbies. She didn’t know that he knew but someone had found her webcomic series a while ago and clued him in. It wasn’t bad. A bit vulgar at times. No, it was about a group of misfits in the Louisiana bayou and had adult themes. So usually vulgar and occasionally raunchy but it wasn’t bad. It brought up a lot of questions on whether or not it was about her people she knew, being from Louisiana herself.

Under hobbies, Chap jotted down a few things, football, hockey, Violin-very rusty, and after checking on the game being played beside him, added Hnefatafl. Calling it good he handed it back to Karli, who cringed. Probably due to his chicken scratch handwriting.

“What’s hen-”

“It means kings table, it’s a game. Kinda like chess in a way.”

He’d expected the question. It was a strange word. She wrote something down, probably the translation. Once she was done she cleared the board causing Aydin to freeze halfway to reaching for a piece to make his move.

“How do you play?”

Chap gave Aydin a look but the kid didn’t seem to care.

“Well… you need two different colored pieces. Twelve of one and twenty four of the other. One of the twelve has to be different, it’s usually just a taller piece. That’s the king. The rest are soldiers and all of the 24 pieces are soldiers.”

As he explained and Karli grabbed more from her pile of stones, Chap wiped the board clear. Literally, just ran his hand over the spot they’d drawn a checkerboard in the dirt. He then made a grid of 11 squares by 11 squares putting an ‘X’ on each corner and marked five spots in the middle of the board with dots.

“So, you can play it on a 9 by 9 board with sides of 9 and sixteen or on an 11 by 11 or even a 13 by 13. I know the 11 by 11 version better… The thought is that the… guess it’s going to be gray. The gray stones in the middle with the king are being ambushed by the tan stones. This suppose to be the king?”

The entire area was a shade of tan, so the gray rocks were far less common. She nodded handing him a rock that was bigger than the others by enough to be noticeable. He began to set the board.

“So the difference is, in chess, you have two opposing sides that are identical. One side gets to move first but it’s still a battle on fairly equal footing. In King’s table, not only is one side surrounded but they’re also outnumbered two to one.”

“Then how are you supposed to win?”

Aydin was watching as Chap finished setting up the board.

“Because if Chess is a battle, King’s table is an ambush and you play it like an ambush. The attacker’s objective is to take the king. The Defender’s isn’t to wipe out the ambush or capture the enemy king, which there isn’t one, but to get the king to any corner of the board. If they do that, the king escapes and the defenders win. They could lose every piece except the king and still win like that… You can only move in straight lines like rooks in chess and capture pieces by surrounding them. I think of it as flanking.”

He moved the pieces so one gray had a tan on either side of it and removed the gray one from the board.

“The king needs to be completely surrounded by the enemy and unable to move to be captured. What else… ah, the king’s starting position, once he leaves it he can’t go back but any other piece can go there. And these are fortified positions, the attackers cant move through them and cant capture a piece there without surrounding it on four sides. But the defenders cant use it to capture an attacker either. You can play that the king can’t go there either, depending on preference.”

He put a gray piece in a fort, moved a tan piece next to it, and flanked it with another gray but left the tan piece alone. Then he set up another scenario.

“Oh and also you can move your piece between two enemy pieces. So if I move a gray between two tans, it’s not captured. Tan would have to move a piece away and back again to capture it. I think that’s everything.”

“That’s a lot of everything.”

“It just sounds like it, once you’ve played a game or two it’s not bad. You can pick it up pretty quick. Wanna try?”

Karli held up a finger and started writing in her notebook. Her hand nearly blurred as she wrote and in a matter of 20 seconds she put it down again.

“[Fast Penmanship]. Let’s play.”

Chap looked at what she wrote. She’d organized his adhoc description of the game and rules and even included sketches that showed examples of how the pieces moved and how they could be captured or not.

“Let’s play.”

Chap opted to play the slightly more challenging defenders for the first game. Karli was new to it and although Chap played he wasn’t a master. Plus he was out of practice. So the game was slow and sloppy but he managed to get his king out.

They switched sides and played again. This time it was a little smoother and Chap noticed that Karli was trying the same strategy to win that he’d just used. He’d managed to block her and after a bit of back and forth took her king.

The third game she’d managed to use a strategy similar to his in the second. It was close enough to work but different enough that he didn’t automatically see it coming. It also seemed to work faster. All he could do as she closed in was try to remember how she did it. It was impressive and Chap wasn’t sure if it was just luck or if she had the mind for it.

The fourth was played a lot more rapidly and Karli managed to win her second in a row. Chap was kind of surprised.

King’s table was considered a precursor to chess, not its immediate predecessor but they were similar in ways. But it wasn’t a very well known game and few ever played it. He played casually and had only picked it up because it was also called ‘Viking’s chess’ and he had Scandinavian heritage. Ergo, he learned to play. Yet, he wasn’t some master and Karli caught on really quickly.

The fifth game… She destroyed him. He just watched with his eyebrows rising more with each turn as she cut off his king’s escape and surrounded him. It was by far the shortest game of the five. After that, he had to bow out. Chap extended his hand and Karli took it.

“Good game.”

“Good game. Want to play Gomoku?

“I’m good.

Aydin sat down in front of her.

“How do you play?.”

Karli was already drawing an even larger grid pattern on the ground. Chap wasn’t sure what Gomoku was but he’d leave them to it. He had to save a bit of his ego.

“Fuck that was embarrassing Chap. Good job failing to represent. You just lost your big knuckle-draggin’ Viking card for that.”

“Leave my glorious bearded ancestry out of this. Besides, weren’t you watching a movie?”

He rolled his eyes at her… no one was taking his big knuckle draggin’ Viking card away from him. It was in his blood, his blue eyes, his light brown, almost blonde hair, and even tattooed on his skin… Chap was proud of his heritage.

“Laptop died. Does anyone have any cards? Spades?”

Chap looked around but by the judge of things, that was a no. Chap sighed and looked at the sun, he could have been up for a round of spades. But they didn’t have a set of cards and the sun was already heading towards the horizon.

Instead Chap took care of a few things around camp like checking on the smoke house and roughly sweeping off a spot for him to sleep that night before sitting down against the wall again. By then ‘Doza and Rick were playing checkers while Karli was teaching Aydin a few strategies in Gomoku, a strange version of connect four.

“Want to watch a movie?”

Chap looked over to find Lindsey sitting down next to him. Laptop in hand.

“I thought it had a dead battery.”

“Rick’s is dead, mine isn’t.”

Chap looked again and noticed the distinct lack of Marine Corps stickers on the back of the screen. Instead, Lindsey had a small map of the world- their world, a sticker stuck on the back with a few parts colored in. Either where she’d been or where she wanted to go.

“Sure.”

He had nothing better to do. They sat down and ended up picking a tv show instead, well a miniseries with ice zombies and baby dire wolves. He looked up to where their own pup was laying next to Karli, the thing looked very rough and he doubted it would survive much longer. None of them really knew how to care for it.

Lindsey scooted close so they could both see the screen and turned up the music. The iconic intro music drew in others, pushing them further together as they had a group movie night. It probably wasn’t the best choice but Chap watched as a giant died on screen and the protagonist fought the bad guy at the end, wondering if that was what life was like where they were at.

After all, they now had swords and strange wolves and lived in large stone huts with no modern technology except what they had brought with them. He was thinking about it so much that he almost missed the end of the episode…

They really- really fucking should have picked out a better episode with the circumstances. He’d forgotten that was how the battle ended. The character deserved his end but briefly watching a man get torn apart by starving hounds before Lindsey closed out the window-

It was a bit too close to home for them. A silence fell over the group and more than one set of eyes drifted to the building the dead had been found in.

“Hey, Sarge? Gotta question.”

At least until Aydin broke the silence.

“What?”

“Can you teach us to march?”

Chap had to force himself to not roll his eyes. If the kid had been really about to ship out to basic he might have given him a few tips but there wasn’t really any reason anymore.

“Why?”

Aydin looked around at the others. Karli was laying back with her eyes closed, Rick and ‘Doza had left as soon as the screen closed and just sat there talking quietly. Lindsey was still leaning against his side, staring at her laptop… They could probably use another distraction. It was as good as any… even if the idea made him feel tired. Oh well!

“Alright come on. Fall in!”

Aydin stood there for a second but got the hint and went to stand in front of Chap. He just stood there missing a key point of the command, so Chap gave it to him.

“ATen-Hun!”

“Ah, Sarge? Why do you say Hun instead of Shun? Why not just say attention? Why the split?”

Chap pinched his nose. He was already regretting it. Rick had also joined them out of boredom.

Oh well, might as well do it right.

“The atten- part is the preparatory command, It’s so you know you’re about to go to attention. The -Hun is the execution, that’s where everyone snaps to attention. Same as when we say Forwaaard Harch! Forward is preparatory and Harch is execution. As for why the hard H? It’s easier to project the hard H sound of the execution command loud enough so everyone can hear it. Now let’s try that again. Aten-Hun!”

After a while, Lindsey and Karli had also joined in. ‘Doza just watched but it wasn’t like she didn’t know how to march. She just sat back and laughed at them. Which caused his four to lose their bearing but he wasn’t going to get after them for flipping ‘Doza off.

“Wanna join, [Corporal]?”

They were just killing time. And it turned out to be pretty amusing making the four of them march around in circles singing Cadence. Watching them stumble on ‘to the rear, Harch’ or almost trip on ‘change step, Harch’. It was a small group, so they managed to get through every facing movement and marching movement he knew of. Column left and right, column half-left and right, open ranks, eyes right… all of it. It’d take a bit more than one lesson for them to be able to execute the commands without thinking but it was a start.

Chap thought about it instead of the graves as he laid down for bed just after sunset. He couldn’t help but grin, mainly at the memory of them stumbling with cadence as they tried to sing back, he hadn’t warned them. They did get it when he called out the second line though. He half sang and half whispered to himself as he closed his eyes.

“Around. Her hair. She wore a yellow ribbon.”

[Sergeant Level 2]

[Skill- Dangersense obtained!]

—

“Maybe you just have to teach something, that’s what Sarge did? Maybe we can try to teach each other our classes… we might learn more like that.”

“What like teach Chap how to write nicer? You can give it a try Karli but his handwriting is fucking nightmares.”

“Hey, my handwriting’s perfectly acceptable.”

“Chap, your handwriting looks like a right handed toddler that’s writing with its left AND having a seizure… during an earthquake. Doctors look at your handwriting and ask ‘what the fuck’.”

“Fuck you, ‘Doza. It’s not that bad… I doubt that’s how it works. I think I leveled up because I taught you guys to march and facing movements. Because that’s what Non-Commissioned Officers do. Well, TI’s and all that do… point is Sergeants DO teach. Just like how Karli has leveled up by doing what a [Scribe] does but I don’t know if she’ll level from teaching.”

“So if [Corporal] is an NCO, then why haven’t I leveled.”

“What’d you teach?”

“I taught them a cadence and SABC.”

“But just one and when did you teach them SABC? Is that how you got [Medic].”

“No, I taught them the signs of heat exhaustion and heat stroke yesterday while you were digging holes. I got [Medic] the first night after I took care of Karli’s ankle and Rick’s shoulder. Plus making sure you weren’t bleeding after being tackled by a mutt.”

Chap looked over at Karli to see the girl blush. He knew about Rick, the man had tweaked his shoulder after slamming the door shut and bracing for the impact. It wasn’t something that required medical to look at but Chap figured ‘Doza just wanted a reason to get Rick’s shirt off.

“I twisted it and ‘Doza looked it over and wrapped it for me while we were in the other house. It’s a little sore but it’s okay now.”

That would have been good information to know before having her doing facing movements on the same ankle. At least it wasn’t serious otherwise she would have said something… most likely… maybe not. Chap knew a lot of service members that would rather suffer through pain than admit they were injured. But that was another discussion.

“Maybe it’s easier to unlock a class initially than it is to level it. Does it take into account what you know already?”

“Like what? Karli’s not a tactician so how’d she get [Tactician]?

“She used tactics in the game. So maybe that counts?”

“or maybe it’s because she thought like a tactician. And you acted like a medic and Sarge acts like a Sergeant.”

Aydin chimed in. Though his point was missed.

“Maybe it’s because of what we were doing at the time. She became a [Medic] because of what happened with the wolves. She didn’t just wrap Karli’s ankle, she wrapped it how she was trained to wrap it while in a dangerous situation. And Chap has [Sergeant] because he took charge all day, including with the wolves. He leveled again because he continued being a [Sergeant] but he got the class after the wolves.”

“Lindsey, that’s what I just said.”

Aydin

“Why’d you call him Chap? Am I fucking missing something?”

“Bro, I think the point she’s making is it’s like working out. You can get gains going easy but you get bigger ones by pushing yourself and it can even take less time. We got our classes because we had to struggle for them. Sarge went further because teaching isn’t easy.”

“Oh, ok. That makes sense. Thanks, Rick.”

Aydin didn’t sound that thankful but he at least got the difference.

“Although that’s more dangerous. I mean the pushing yourself when working out.”

“So is running around trying to kill a pack of wolves… plus it isn’t really, not if you do it properly.”

“Okay, fuck! Back on topic. Why did Chap level up last night and freckles get a class?”

Chap shot ‘Doza a dirty look. The girl was obviously self conscious about that.

“’Doza… be. nice…I think it’s because I did what I was trained to do like we already said. And Karli? She played a game that requires strategy, a couple different ones. And she took it seriously and destroyed everyone she played… So she did it well. Try doing what a [Corporal] would do and you’ll level.”

Chap saw a hint of a smile on Karli’s freckled face. She had looked down at the floor where she was sitting after the insult but it hadn’t just been Chap giving ‘Doza a dirty look. Of course, Chap knew it wasn’t the end of it but he’d have to talk with ‘Doza about that. He knew that was how she bonded. Hell, that was how a lot of military members bonded, talking shit to each other, but Karli didn’t know that. And besides, you didn’t actually try to hurt someone’s feelings while doing it. ‘Doza would have to be more careful in the future.

“But I’m not a [Corporal]! Why’d I even get that shit?”

“Maybe there’s not a [Senior Airman] class because where ever we are doesn’t have an Air Force, so it gave you something similar. We found bows, arrows, and a sword. There’s no electricity, no paved roads, hand carved masonry… you can see the tool marks… no sign of any real industry. But this isn’t that old. So, whoever built it hasn’t been gone long and they’re a pre-industrial society… I doubt they have planes.”

Lindsey made a good point

“Plus a corporal is directly below a sergeant.”

“That still puts me directly above you, Rick.”

Chap looked at the cheesy grin the two shared and cleared his throat loudly before anyone else could comment. It had gone from a discussion about an important matter to light flirting…

“And at that, I think we should leave it.”

Even with the innuendo, everyone let it go and didn’t even joke.

They’d awoken for their second full day there and Chap had let them know he’d level. The question was then, why? Karli leveled because she scribed more, did that mean Chap had sergeanted more? Did Lindsey and Rick need to warrior more? Well, the first and last were more or less a sure thing. They needed to write more or fight more respectively. But leveling as a [Sergeant] seemed more abstract.

He didn’t know if it was giving commands, keeping order, the marching, or writing out the names of those that had died that had caused him to level. Maybe it was just one thing or maybe it was all of it.

Hell, even the playing king’s table could be considered a morale thing that an NCO might do with their troops. Or even tactics but he didn’t get [Tactician] out of it. Then again from his perspective, a Sergeant was expected to know and use tactics, whether alone, with a partner, a fireteam, a squad… Strategy was for higher ranks.

Granted it wasn’t until after Chap told them the news that Karli had let them know she was still a level 3 [Scribe] but also a level 1 [Tactician]. It had started a debate that went from [Sergeant] to [Tactician] back to [Sergeant] and Chap couldn’t help but feel it was competitiveness at play. Not one class over the other but they all wanted to level or gain classes. They were all military or at least on their way to being military. That took a certain mindset.

Granted Chap didn’t care. Privately he was kind of tickled that he may have lost in his own game to a newcomer but the newcomer turned out to be so naturally gifted she got a class from it, so it saved his ego a bit. It was like watching your team get knocked out of the playoffs but being happy when the team that beat them won the whole thing because it meant your team wasn’t actually bad, they just lost to the champions like everyone else.

“So what’re we doing today Chap?”

‘Doza asked but Chap was momentarily distracted by how she said his name with a bit more inflection than was needed. He noticed her and Lindsey shoot each other a glance and decided he wanted no part of it. It was just a glance and he’d had too many issues with women lately. Instead, he thought about the question and came up with the perfect distraction. Or at least a distraction.

“Can I see your multitool?”

“Sure?”

Chap took the tool and grabbed the two pop can tops they’d cut off, the tabs were still on them. It only took him a minute to do what he wanted to do with the wire cutters part of the multi-tool. Fun fact, it’s actually really quick and easy to make decent fish hooks out of pop tabs. You can even make them barbed.

He then took a paracord bracelet they’d found on one of the deceased backpacks, undid it, and cut it before starting to pull out the individual strands of shiny white thread inside. He tied off three of the strands together and pinned them on the anvil with a weight before starting to braid them together. He looked up and noticed everyone else staring at him.

“We need more than just fox-wolf to eat and the pup hasn’t had anything. I thought we could try fishing.”

Rick got up and went straight for the door.

“I’ll find some poles!”

Good man.

Karli started braiding another line while the others dug around looking for something else to make hooks out of. It probably would have been fine with just a single strand but Chap didn’t want to risk losing his only two hooks. And it didn’t take long before the others started getting into the idea as they started bending paperclips. Though he couldn’t imagine them working that well. Not everyone was though, ‘Doza was shifting through the pile outside and stuck her head back in for a different idea.

“We could try hunting or traps?”

“No. I’m all for fishing but we have plenty of red meat. We need something other than that, we need to find edible plants. A few more days of this and were going to be wishing we’d had some fiber. Not to mention deficiencies from eating only meat in vitamins B, C, K. Then Minerals like calcium and potassium. Antioxidants like Polyphenols. Few other things if it goes on for a while. We can get some of that from fish but we should be looking for fruits, vegetables, nuts, and leafy greens… What? Do you think I got like this just lifting? I took a class in sports medicine at a community college my senior year and worked as a personal trainer.”

Rick had returned with a few long branches and brought the room to silence. You could hear a pin drop… or rather a paperclip as Lindsey let it slip out of her fingers. Karli grabbed her notebook and flipped it open to the right page.

“Why isn’t that on the list?”

“It is! I put fitness. Twice! Fitness isn’t just working out. It’s also diet, proper hydration, proper sleep cycle…”

Chap ran his hand through his hair as Karli amended her list, wondering what else they missed that could be helpful.

Also, he debated putting Rick in charge of fitness.

Chap wasn’t flabby in the least bit and he had a good amount of muscle but he carried his mass differently. He had a respectable amount of bulk to him but not the tone Rick did. He liked to joke around that he had a working man’s body versus a gym rat’s build.

In any case, Chap also didn’t know what a polyphenol was. Rick’s knowledge was an important resource for more than just proper form when doing push ups. Sure maybe Rick could help Chap and the rest of them tone up. Get them all in shape.

More importantly, he could make sure they were getting what they needed and make sure their teeth weren’t falling out in a few weeks.

“Is there anything-”

“Shut up Chap, I’ve got this. Anyone else forget to put something down?”

Chap had been about to ask that question but with a wave of his hand deferred to ‘Doza and went back to braiding fishing line. Aydin raised his hand and he cringed. Not because of the kid or the risk of a dipshit moment but he wondered what else was missing but hoped it was nothing.

“Ummm… I took ballet and fencing lessons in high school. It helped me with soccer and wrestling.”

Fencing? Dammit, Aydin, one of our only weapons is a fucking sword! Dipshit!

“I can’t really use a short sword, I trained with a foil and an Épée.”

Oh. Eh… he’s still a dipshit for not mentioning it.

Also, what did that have to do with sports?

“How does that help with soccer? I’ve heard ballet before. Footwork. But fencing?”

“Reaction times. Ballet is all practiced, you know what everyone’s going to do. In fencing you have to watch your opponent. Their hips, shoulders, arms, legs… Watch and move with them.”

“Fascinating… Scribbles, how bout you?”

Karli looked taken aback by the nickname so Chap just used a placating gesture telling her it was alright. ‘Doza was trying, though she was using an abrasive tone. At least she moved to a less harsh nickname compared to ‘freckles’.

“I wrote the list.”

“Fine. Ricardo?”

“Just told mine.”

“Nothing else?”

“No.”

“Fine, Miss blondie?”

More nicknames and the abrasive tone took a hard turn into insulting. Chap couldn’t help but feel he recognized the way she said ‘fine’ too. He didn’t say anything though and inwardly critiqued ‘Doza on her actions.

Although maybe he should have said something when Lindsey’s eyes burned as she stared at ‘Doza and crossed her arms.

“No.”

“Really, no college?”

“None, I hadn’t started yet.”

“Yet? So, what were you going to go for?”

“Archaeology and Anthropology.”

Lindsey’s eyes were narrowing as she glared straight at ‘Doza. Chap looked back and forth at the two of them. His mind wandered with the new information, it caught his attention and led to something else but he still paid attention halfway. [Split Focus] would have helped.

“Guess you know a little about it if you wanted to go to school for it?”

The two got into a staring contest and Chap watched as Lindsey broke first.

“Well, yeah-”

“On the list.”

“CHAP!”

Chap looked up from his work, he was nearly done. He looked over at his subordinate who was standing there with her arms crossed. She hadn’t done that until Lindsey had…. For Lindsey, who was taller and looked fitter than ‘Doza, it worked. ‘Doza on the other hand was shorter and a lot curvier with a larger bust. She looked less intimidating and more like an overweight Karen. Chap knew she was far from overweight but military uniforms weren’t really designed for her body type. It just threw off the whole look she was trying to convey.

“I noticed you didn’t put that random shit you do in your garage. What else?”

“What random shit?”

Karli looked back and forth with her list in hand but she wasn’t about to write ‘random shit’ down. Chap exhaled sharply through his nose and looked ‘Doza in the eye. She didn’t break eye contact as she spoke again.

“He takes things apart and breaks them.”

“I put them back together after. I just wanna see how they work. I tinker. And I don’t break them.”

“You broke my microwave…”

“No, I didn’t! I broke my own damn microwave… just because you pulled it out of the garage to use it after I moved in doesn’t mean it was yours. And it was broken before I took it apart!”

“Fine…Do you-a deeny… that you take things apart and dick around with them to figure out what they do?”

Okay, that was extremely familiar and Chap thought he knew where she was getting from. It wasn’t just how she said fine but the way she said her accusation was spot on with someone he knew.

“No-”

“Put tinkering on the list… and farming.”

“I’m not a farmer.”

“You said worked on one and grew up on one.”

Chap sighed and shook his head. He knew what was going on now. It was disgraceful in his opinion.

“A hobby farm, all we had was some chickens, ducks, a few turkeys, and a garden. And all I ever did was load and unload hay and detassle corn, it was summer jobs.”

“List.”

“Fine, put it on the list. Poultry and gardening.”

Chap mimicked the first word the same way ‘Doza had been. Which in itself was mimicry of someone else. She grinned when he said it.

“How’d I do? That [Corporal] enough ya think? I was trying to channel Master Sergeant Johnson.”

Even her tone changed immediately. He would give her props for being able to turn it on and off like that but she needed to work on her ‘on’ setting. She also needed to work on her inspiration.

“No.”

“No?”

“Just no. Oh and ‘Doza? What’d YOU forget? I can think of at least one thing… Also, frickin’ hell…no. Just no. Really Johnson? Should I start calling you [Corporal] Johnson? He would like that.”

Her brows crossed and she tried to glare at him as she realized her mistake. He could see it in her face. A look that made her immediately crumble.

For whatever reason, she’d just mimicked the Senior NCO that even other Senior NCOs hated.

Johnson was tough and didn’t put up with bullshit, but had a completely different meter for what constituted bullshit. Namely the same as everyone else but the variable that mattered was whether or not he liked you personally. Be an attractive female, any female really, or go drinking with the fat slob and you could run your patrol car into a ditch and he wouldn’t care. If not, he’d chew you out for your shoelaces not being tucked in immediately after a 10k run.

But ‘Doza wasn’t an idiot. She got that, which only made it stranger that of all people, that was who she tried to convey.

She had D cups, was 23, and was single. She could have run Johnson over with the commander’s patrol car and she’d get off scot free after a bit of flirting at least when it came to him. The bastard would probably even take the blame if she gave him a jar of her bath water to gargle or a pair of panties to wear over his head, whatever the weirdo did… Not that ‘Doza would do either.

She did crash a patrol car once, but that was a different story. Johnson wasn’t there.

Public service announcement- When backing up if you note any obstructions, such as a frickin’ 16 passenger van, wait for the other vehicle to move. Do not, under any circumstance step on the gas and plow into the side of it. You will get yourself a suspended article 15, lose any chance of testing for Staff Sergeant, and only raise the legitimacy of the saying ‘cops are fucking dumb’ within the USAF. Always check your mirrors!

“Fuck you, Chap. I was only going for the ‘Fiine’ part. The way he talks. Don’t you dare call me that.”

“Fine… But you did forget to put something on the list yourself.”

Chap dropped the issue for the moment and decided to conclude business. He didn’t know if she knew that someone else knew and told what they knew to everyone, so he knew… yeah, that.

Either that or she was thinking about something completely different than he was. He told them about her drawings and webcomic. Karli… put it on the list.

He also made a mental note to talk to ‘Doza later about how to deal with subordinates. Namely, there were other ways to do things besides being a prick or mimicking the behavior of an asshole.

Like sitting down and encouraging the group to fill in what they forgot or were too embarrassed to put. Asking questions to get the information like she kind of did with Lindsey. That way ‘Doza could save being a prick for when she actually had to be a prick. Being one did get results. It just wasn’t the best option in his opinion. But he reminded himself he wasn’t exactly the expert either but he’d still give her a few pointers.

It was just one more thing he’d have to talk with people about.

That being done they got back to work. Not long after, with everyone pissed off or annoyed to some degree, they all made their way down to the river. It was the exact reason you shouldn’t be a prick NCO unless you had to be, it drove down morale for no reason.

They’d only managed to make three fishing poles, so they grabbed a wooden pitchfork and made some spears out of some branches. So while Chap fished the rest would fish or spearfish. He didn’t care what they did. He’d brought it up for food but also because fishing was supposed to be quiet and relaxing. Something that he thought was needed. At least for him if no one else enjoyed it.

That was his plan and he walked the quarter mile to the river and soon found himself a nice rock to sit on in the shallows and tossed his short line into the water.

“Join you?”

“Yeah.”

Chap didn’t have to look up at the voice that was growing more familiar to him. But he did look over when he noticed a line didn’t join his.

“Not fishing, eh?”

“No Karli and Aydin have the other rods and I think I’ll leave the spearfishing to Rick.”

She pointed and Chap caught sight of Rick shirtless, knee deep in the river posing with a rickety pitchfork like Poseidon about to smite some fuckers. Karli and Aydin were sitting with their own poles further down, while ‘Doza sat on the shore with her uniform top off talking to Rick in her sand tee.

Each their own. At least everyone is spread out with people they like being around. Hopefully, it’ll get everyone cheered up a bit. Fuck, I don’t feel like talking with ‘Doza… she should know better.

“You good?”

He asked Lindsey, not the other way around. Chap could deal with his problems on his own and jigged his line a few times before looking over at her.

She pursed her lips. He was both checking on her after the ordeal with ‘Doza attempting to act like an NCO and a general open ended question. Things were stabilizing, they had their basic needs covered. That was usually when stress really kicked in. He knew he felt it but stress had been his default for the past couple of months.

It took Lindsey a little bit to answer. Chap just gave her time though, he was there to talk to, an open-door policy of sorts. He’d already let them all know that.

“I was going to do my three year enlistment, get my 36 months in, get out and go to school on my GI bill. I already put it off and now I’m thinking about how I probably have to change that plan… Guess not probably.”

He listened and knew the pain, which might have been why she brought it up to him. He’d spent five years working on a degree whenever he could fit in a class. Days spent working a full shift, sleeping a few hours, waking up to go to class, doing homework, then getting a few more hours of sleep before his next shift. All while trying to balance everything, work, school, and relationships. He sacrificed a lot for that, too much in some ways and it was likely all for nothing now… but it wasn’t about Chap, Lindsey approached him because she was having problems and looking for advice. He’d bet money on it.

“Why Archaeology and Anthropology? Just like history.”

She smiled softly and shook her head before looking up at the sky to give her answer. Again it took a few seconds for her to collect her thoughts. Not surprisingly, it was hard to really explain why you liked something. Especially something you wanted to devote your life to.

“It’s always fascinated me… Everything that’s happened… and everything that we’ve done, since the beginning of time… Only a little bit of it is remembered. So yes and no. I love history but I didn’t want to be a historian, studying facts and dates and people. Working on theories of how it all fits together. Sitting in an office full of books. I wanted to do more than that, I wanted to go out and find the parts we lost… the parts we forgot. And bring them back. It’s not just solving mysteries, it’s about figuring out where we truly came from… I know, how noble of me… It’s stupid.”

“It’s not.”

It wasn’t. She spoke a little unsure of herself at first but quickly gained confidence as she stated what she wanted to do and why. She had a passion for it.

“You know you could always try to do it here, eh?”

Just as much advice to himself. One he’d already considered after hearing about her plans to go to college in the first place. Lindsey’s goals were just a bit more readily accessible.

“Yeah, I’ll drop my application off at middle of nowhere university and get started on that… Sorry, not your problem.”

Chap let out a laugh, she looked at him confused and a little hurt but he calmed down quickly.

“Lindsey. I’m a cop and a Staff Sergeant. I literally get paid to deal with other peoples’ issues… got paid… no I’m still dealing with ‘Doza, I better get some frickin’ backpay if we ever get home. Thing is if you wanna talk, then talk. Part of my job is helping Airmen figure things out. You’re not an Airman, but close enough.”

“Okay then, how do I become an Archaeologist without a school to get a degree…. Eh?”

She leaned in, almost challenging him to give her an answer. It came off with a bit of a playful attitude to him with her mocking his accent. Which was very close to hers but she didn’t have the tendency to throw the Canadian multipurpose suffix at the end of her sentences. But he could see she actually wanted him to answer. It wasn’t all play.

“I was thinking about this earlier… ah for me. I wasn’t really thinking- I mean I was but- nevermind. The thing is, you don’t. You become an [Archaeologist], try to get the Class and be one here. If we get back, then you get the degree and probably go straight to Phd with the papers you could write about this.”

She narrowed her eyes as he explained but he briefly hated the smirk on her face. He knew he had put his foot in his mouth. No need to rub it in… although he would and had to other people in the past. Maybe not for the exact same reason.

“We don’t even know if that is a Class.”

“Then try what we were talking about this morning. If Karli scribes to level in [Scribe], I do what I do as a Staff Sergeant for [Sergeant] then do what an archaeologist would do. We live right next to some collapsed ruins built by a completely unknown civilization… think doing a dig and documenting the find would cut it?”

Lindsey scrutinized him for a moment before turning back to the water. She pursed her lips again, which he realized she did when she was thinking. It was kind of cute. Especially compared to the slight frown and intense blue eyes that made her look angry most of the time. He didn’t mind that either. But Chap just went back to fishing and let her think.

“Think we could try that tomorrow?”

“Last I checked, I’m not doing shit, so yeah. I don’t know anything about Archaeology or Anthropology really. Well, I do but I’m guessing it’s a bit more complex than what the editors show in documentaries. But I can help dig and move rocks. Just let me know what you need.”

Lindsey smiled at him and stared for a second before turning back to the river. He realized he should probably tone it down in his head a bit. She was interesting and cute but his subordinate in a way. Plus he felt the eyes were throwing him off, he had a lot of very good and one extremely bad experiences with blue eyes that kept jumping into his head along with it. Once he got his mind set though, he was alright.

They sat like that for another half hour before he finally got a bite! He set the hook and started backing up, trying to pull the fish to shore. It looked a bit like a perch with gray scales and vertical black stripes. It wasn’t very big, maybe a foot before fisherman’s measurements came into play, where it would grow to at least a foot and a half. Chap held it in place and gave it a solid smack in the head with a rock to put it out of its misery.

He put it on a rock in the shade, baited his hook after bending it back into shape, and rejoined Lindsey to try for another. He got one 45 minutes later and gave Lindsey a turn, she caught their third. All the while she explained the intricacies of her chosen career with a bit of input from him when she asked about the Air Force, the military in general, or engineering.

“Hey, Sarge!”

Chap looked to Aydin and saw him holding up two fish while Karli held one with a stick behind him. He looked to ‘Doza and Rick and spotted a decent sized one next to her while Rick stood as still as possible, holding his spear at the ready. Apparently having gotten rid of his janky trident at some point.

It was a good day, and people were happy. Or at least happier than they were. The wind blowing across the surface of the river was slightly cooler than in the ruined village and there were more options for shade. Chap had had an interesting conversation with an interesting person. Lindsey got to talk about something she was passionate about. Rick got to take his shirt off while ‘Doza got to watch Rick take his shirt off. And even the kids down the way seemed to be proud of the fish they’d caught.

Of course, that meant something screwed up was bound to happen.

“Rick get out of the water!”

Chap wasn’t the one to yell, Lindsey was. She’d looked down at the others and saw what he’d missed. Something big moving against the current right towards the man spearfishing. Rick looked up and saw their faces and turned to look behind him as it sped up. He ran for shore as Chap jumped off his fishing rock and ran to where Rick and ‘Doza were sitting a hundred feet or so down the river embankment. Rick came out of the water and two seconds later so did a large, long legged crocodile. Chap drew his M9 and took aim but swore when he realized Aydin and Karli were in his line of fire. He ran to the side and started firing as soon as he was clear but his M9 seemed useless against a 20 foot croc that bounded out of the water like a dog. It did get the thing’s attention though. He fired again and was forced to switch out magazines as his first came up empty.

“Shit! Lindsey, run!”

Chap fired once and turned to run from the approaching croc just as he heard someone yell a Skill behind him.

“[Power Strike]!”

Rick swung his hammer like a baseball bat swinging low and Chap watched as the handle shattered with the hit. It jarred Rick enough to cause him to lose balance for a moment. Luckily it jarred the croc just as much, if not worse. And although the croc swung around, the shirtless [Warrior] managed to scramble away from its snapping jaws. Its back leg was bent at an odd angle and it wasn’t putting weight on it as it opened its mouth wide and gave a roaring hiss.

From there it was chaos, Rick scrambled to a tree as the croc went back to its original target, and ‘Doza, Ayden, and Karli ran up with fishing spears leveled against the monster reptile in futile stupidity.

Chap swore as it also put them back in his line of fire and forced him to scramble to a new angle to fire off another round but the monster was now determined to get Rick cornered in the tree.

“Rick get down from there, jump! Everyone back to the village!”

He was sounding the retreat. It was injured but even a broken leg didn’t seem to phase it much. Its skin was thick enough to eat 9mm rounds and their only surviving melee weapons were a couple of knives, a baton, and a single short sword. Chap wasn’t counting the sharpened sticks they were using as fishing spears.

The M9 in his hand leveled off with the crocs head ready to lay down fire as soon as Rick jumped but Chap saw Karli point at Rick as he hit the ground and the man seemed to suddenly cut to the side to avoid the croc. [Evasive Tactics] did its work.

“Go!”

Then? They all ran. Ran until they were safely inside the Smithy before turning around and looking back out the door. Chap wasn’t sure when the croc had stopped chasing them. They all collapsed against the back wall and watched out the door. Then… ‘Doza started laughing, she dropped her voice as low as she could get it and added a fair amount of derp as she yelled-

“[POWER STRIKE]!”

Chap couldn’t take it, none of them could and the stone walls echoed with laughter. They laughed for minutes, repeating Rick’s, quickly growing infamous, battle chant. ‘Doza was wiping tears from her eyes, still giggling.

“Did anyone remember to grab the fucking fish?”

Lindsey held up the three they’d caught while Aydin and Karli held up theirs.

“Damn it ‘Doza, you forgot my fish?”

“I forgot it. You can carry your own fucking fish.”

“I was busy! If you didn’t notice I was almost eaten by a- by a- What the hell was that thing?”

“I don’t know but anyone for gathering plants?”

“You can go, I think I’ll stay here a bit and feed the stupid wolf.”

“Alright, Rick. Pretty sure you earned that.”

“Earned? Feeding the wolf? Who’s going to go get my hammer? …and my shirt?”

“Shit!”

Chap looked over at ‘Doza’s tan undershirt and started laughing again.

Least everyone’s in a better mood.

—

Jenna looked on while listening to the crowd and for the first time was truly clued in on how brutal her new life could be. They’d dropped off lunch with Zosk and he’d suggested going to the docks and see if they needed any repairs before the barge arrived. It would have been good work and she would have been paid in coins rather than yellats. When they got down there though, there was a crowd of lizardfolk standing around and even a couple centaurs.

“What happened?”

“Just a body just washed in from upriver.”

“Dead gods. A body?”

“That’s what he said?”

“Surprised a Kapro didn’t get it.”

“Must have already been dead, they like fresh meat.”

“It’s a female, right? Maybe another suicide? Those poor mothers. Perlin said it was something on Rhir-”

“Will you shut your mouth!? Rhozu’s right there! Nagas, it hasn’t even been a week!”

Jenna wondered what that was about and watched as a nearby male bowed his head and turned to walk away. A couple others quickly walked after him while more than a few were shooting the offending male dirty looks. It looked like there was going to be a fight until a late arrival made herself known. The lizardman welcomed the distraction and decided to quietly leave as well.

“Is it someone from Tervas? That’s upriver. What do they look like? My sister’s in Tervas.

“Relax, it’s a human?”

“A human?”

Most of the crowd couldn’t actually see because the ones in the front blocked the view but it was at that point that a few of those at the back of the crowd noticed the only breathing human in their midst. A few started to whisper.

“Do you think she knows who died?”

“Not every human knows each other.”

“But how many humans are around here?”

“Plenty. Well, there’s a lot in Zaniya and in Sa’liquen. Some in Ayaviri.”

“But Zaniya’s downriver and it drifting all the way from Sa’liquen or Ayaviri? Something would have eaten it. Something already tried to.”

“She’s dressed just as strangely.”

That was from a centaur in the front. Who, being over 7 feet tall, could clearly see Jenna over the heads of the much shorter lizardfolk. The ones at the front overheard and turned to get a glimpse of what Jenna was wearing as Dess took Jenna’s arm lightly.

“Were there others going to this militia with you?”

Jenna nodded and a few people started to move out of the way and guided her to the front. The gossiping didn’t stop but Jenna tuned it out before she gasped at the sight.

Oh god… oh, god. Oh, god. what happened to her. Is that… that’s. What happened to her face- Why isn’t anyone doing anything?

The body that had been pulled onto the docks was bloated, clothes torn, chunks ripped out of both. It was definitely a young woman and someone from Earth, the remaining clothes and name brand shoes were enough to go off from. She instinctively backed away, unable to say a word. Until a heavy hand landed on her shoulder and spun her gently. Jenna kept her eyes towards the body until she came face to face with Zosk who had to bend over to be eye to eye with her. He ignored her tears.

“One of yours?”

Jenna looked at the body again but had to dry her eyes before she could get a good look. She was about to say she didn’t know because there was no way to tell if they were on the bus with her but it was still a fellow member of the Lost Generation, an Earther. Even if the woman had come from somewhere completely different than Jenna, it was still one of hers in a way. So she nodded.

“Dess get her home, I’ll be back shortly. The rest of you clear off!”

Zosk was just one Lizardman but he was also the largest Lizardman in Patli, only surpassed in height by the centaurs. He also spoke with an authority that said if they didn’t go somewhere else, he’d make them. So that’s exactly what they did. All but a few that he called out to help with the body.

Jenna walked slowly with Dess back into Patli and towards the east gate and the house.

What happened to her? How did she get like that? What…? Oh, god.

Her mind was repeating the same thing. It wasn’t about seeing a body, it was about seeing a mangled corpse… Even though she kept asking, Jenna wasn’t sure she really wanted to know. The woman’s body had been swollen and leaking, her right hand had looked like it had been ripped off. Her lips, nose, and an entire cheek torn away. The skin and muscle of her right calf was ripped and pulled down to expose the bone. Her eye was still wide open. Although she only had one of them… Jenna only kept moving forward thanks to Dess.

As soon as they entered the house, Dess guided Jenna to her bed and sat her down before getting her a cup of water to sip on. She plopped down next to her and sat quietly for a moment while Jenna’s hand shook slightly, spilling a little water.

“What was her name?”

“I don’t know?”

“You don’t know?”

“Dess, what could have done that to her?”

“There’s a lot of animals and monsters that could-”

Dess sighed and pulled Jenna in for a hug. Despite the fact that Jenna was older than Dess, the lizard girl was the one who was older in a way. Even with her overly energetic and cheerful demeanor, Dess was more mature. She was the product of a far more dangerous and chaotic world. A fact that Jenna hadn’t fully comprehended until that moment. And it wasn’t just the state of the body, it was a lot of it but not all.

Everyone had been so casual about it as if it wasn’t the first time it had happened and wouldn’t be the last. If she’d grown up in Patli, Jenna would have known that was exactly the case. People drowned, people died from monsters, foolish bandits tried to take the [Barge Merchant] and his escort on, people were murdered and their bodies dumped.

The point was, to the people of Patli it was a curiosity, not a concern. A concern was when a dozen bodies drifted downriver that was moving on their own accord, Jenna didn’t know that undead was a potential issue. Or it was a concern if a dozen bodies drifted down river bearing uniforms of one company, another, or more than one. That meant the companies were fighting again whether each other or bandits and the people of Patli buried their valuables in the desert and kept their eyes on the horizon for raiding parties. But a single strangely dressed human? It was only a concern for three. The first of course was Jenna. The second, was Dess but that was an extension of how Jenna was handling it. The third?

Zosk walked through the door.

“We need to talk. Dess go… somewhere.”

“She’s in no condition to talk.”

“Doesn’t matter, go now!”

He gave her a very pointed look. It wasn’t a negotiation, he was ordering his daughter to become scarce. She glared at him right back but got up and walked out the front door, leaving it wide open as she left. Zosk closed it and then knelt down in front of Jenna.

“I’m going to ask questions and you answer them truthfully. I don’t have a truth stone but I’ll know if you’re lying. Did you know her?”

“No.”

“Then why did you say you did?”

Jenna didn’t answer. She couldn’t. She’d decided not to bring up Earth. She wasn’t sure how the people of Patli would handle it. Or if it was safe to do so.

Seeing that she didn’t want to explain, Zosk immediately moved back to less open ended questions.

“Her clothes are like yours, did you come from the same place?”

“Yes.”

“Do know anything about bronze rank adventurers, humans dressed like you, getting murdered in Zaniya half a year past?”

Jenna was about to say no but the question replayed in her head and she realized the implications. He’d met people from Earth before!

And they’d been murdered.

“In Zaniya?”

“Yes. Drunk and spouting off at the mouth in an inn. They may have been low silver rank. Some of the things they said got them and others killed. Not then and there, they were murdered as they slept. Now another strangely dressed human is dead. Do you know anything about them?”

“No.”

“Did you teleport here?”

“What?!”

“They said they teleported into the jungles on the far side of the mountains. I have no idea how they got there or survived crossing the mountains. But you were wandering off the road in the desert with no water, no map, no supplies, a thick coat, and nothing to keep the sun off your face except a thin shirt. You didn’t plan on traveling through a desert, did you? …Did you teleport here?”

His questioning wasn’t harsh. Sure it was direct and he seemed like he had experience in it but he genuinely sounded sympathetic, even worried for her. That didn’t change the fact that Jenna’s heart was in her throat and her tear ducts betrayed her by swinging wide open. She nodded.

“Are people after you?”

She shook her head. She didn’t know why anyone would be. Even if people from Earth were hunted, no one knew she was there.

“Is there anything about you that could end up with Dess in chains or dead?”

Jenna shook her head but then remembered Earth. She had no idea how they’d react to that, so she just shrugged an ‘I don’t know’. Zosk looked concerned but kept on with his questioning.

“Are there others like you out there?”

She hesitated again but nodded. She had no idea about the others but she knew roughly how many had been included in the Lost Generation. But even with a number that was still going up, she was just starting to get a grasp on how big her new world was. Hundreds or even thousands of Earthers could be alive and spread into every corner of the world and never know where the others were. It was a thought due to the fact she didn’t know how connected the world really was.

“Do you…”

For the first time, he hesitated. She looked up at him and watched as he swallowed and whispered.

“Does An’Karr mean anything to you?”

Jenna shook her head. It was unfamiliar.

“Good… don’t ever mention that to anyone. Don’t say it aloud where people can hear you, and expect them to hear you even when you’re alone. Never tell Dess.”

“What does it mean?”

“I don’t know. Those fools brought it up and I think it was what got them killed. They vowed to do something they should have kept private. Promise me, you’ll never speak of it.”

“I promise. Can I ask you something?”

“Yes, but I may not answer.”

“Can you help me find others like me? Ask the [Barge Merchant]? Something?”

Jenna had taken the interrogation alright but the world had been crashing down around her before it even started. She saw the body and realized the world wasn’t safe for them and even though she found people to help, good people, she couldn’t even tell them what was going on. Besides being a risk mentioning her home, she had no idea how any of it worked. Maybe some of the first did. Maybe people from Melbourne or that girl from Michigan, some of them must still be alive. Someone to talk to, to figure out what was going on, and if there was a plan to get home.

Those that were already there had to be special if they were still alive and sane. Because unlike those first to take an involuntary trip, Jenna didn’t have the privileged of being tossed into a complete unknown. She knew things and had a little bit of preparation, even if the app wasn’t really that useful.

She’d heard of the Lost Generation for a couple years, everyone had! And it scared the crap out of them. Ignorance was bliss because when those first, who had become [Innkeepers] and [Doctors] and [Singers], arrived… they knew nothing. Before Jenna arrived, she knew something. It was all the talk. On every channel and on the lips of gossipers, celebrities, and politicians the world over. It was all she could think about at that moment. She knew that of everyone who disappeared, none ever came back!

How many of them had died and left to rot in a river for lizardfolk to gossip over. Died without anyone knowing who they were, no one to remember them or what had happened to them. Never seeing a single friendly face. With the only people that cared about them on a completely different world they couldn’t get back to…

“I…”

Jenna’s whole body shook as she sobbed uncontrollably. She didn’t even notice Zosk had changed positions and was calmly rubbing her back. When she did notice it, it seemed like a very fatherly reaction. Which only made her cry harder. She wanted her dad.

“I won’t ask. That’ll just draw attention but if I hear about strange humans. I’ll let you know. If they’re close I’ll help you get to them. Until then, you can stay here.”

“You’d help me get to them? Let me stay? I didn’t think you’d actually… Why? Why would you help me? We just met.”

“I have my reasons.”

She felt the big lizardman go still as she lunged at him to wrap her arms around him in a hug. Jenna squeezed as hard as she could, still bawling her eyes out. It took him a moment to adjust and continue rubbing her back, although he was stiffer. But Zosk froze again when the door opened.

“Nagas! Jenna!? WHAT DID YOU DO?!”

It took them an hour to get Dess to calm down. She’d pushed her much larger father away and wrapped Jenna protectively in a blanket and then a bear hugged her from behind. Initially, he tried to order her to drop it but Dess stood clawed toe to clawed toe with him. After Jenna spoke up he relented a little.

She told Dess she’d been lost and Zosk had promised to help her find others. He admitted that he’d met humans like Jenna before but wouldn’t say another word about it. A full hour of bickering while Jenna cried but it could have been longer. Jenna only spoke because she hadn’t wanted to hear it anymore.

After that Zosk went to his room and shut the door while Jenna lay in Dess’ bed with her. Jenna knew Dess was treating her like any other lost little critter she came across. Acting like she was some injured puppy without a home. She should have been insulted… no, maybe not insulted by it but it should have felt weird.

To have someone she’d met the day before cuddled up behind her, holding her tight. Someone from a different species on top of that! Yet at that moment, that was exactly what she needed. She needed to know that even without others from Earth, without her dad, there was someone who cared. She wasn’t alone.

The next morning Jenna awoke, tired but less stressed. Dess was still behind her and stirring with an arm under Jenna and her body twisted so one of her legs was up over Jenna’s. It was an awkward position, Jenna was the little spoon but she had noticed that Dess shifted around a lot in her sleep. There was a very good chance it wasn’t intentional.

The human sat up and a minute later, so did the Lizardgirl. Although Jenna sat on the edge of the bed whereas her morning person friend popped right out of bed and to Jenna’s disbelief, right out of her shirt and skirt. She walked away from Jenna wearing only a pair of shorts that hung loose and reached her knees. They had a clasp above the base of her tail and were very modest. Still…

It wasn’t that weird for women to change in front of each other but Zosk was sitting at the table. Neither lizard folk seemed to care one bit about the near naked elephant in the room. Dess was facing away from her, tail whipping back and forth slowly and scales gleaming even in the meager light as she dug through a trunk. When she turned around Jenna adverted her gaze.

“Jenna?”

Dess was speaking to her but she didn’t turn. Jenna gave Zosk a look, a plea for help. He looked at his barely clothed daughter and sighed.

“Jenna, we’re not like humans. Look at Dess. It’s alright.”

It took her a moment to get the courage to look. She wasn’t sure what she’d see. Small, scaly breasts? When she did her mind blanked for a moment.

“Oh.”

Jenna still blushed as she stared at her friend’s chest. More out of embarrassment of the situation than anything else but there was nothing there to see. She didn’t mean that in an insulting way someone might mock someone with A cups. Dess was a lizardfolk female, the keyword was ‘lizard’. There were no mammaries in sight, as should be expected of a reptile person. She had a feminine body with subtle curves at her waist, nice hips, and long, toned legs but one look was enough to explain why she didn’t feel the need to cover her chest. Jenna ended up feeling really stupid.

“It’s alright, Centaurs get weird about it too sometimes, like they don’t walk around with their butts hanging out. Come on, let’s go see if pops gets a new pillow case today.”

Dess got up and went out the door after putting a different top on and wiggling into a skirt designed for her tail. Jenna had fallen asleep fully dressed and with her shoes on. So she started to follow but stopped to look at Zosk. He was sitting in his chair at the table staring at his hand, flexing it into a fist and extending his fingers wide. He looked tired as he did it. She approached him and gave him a kiss on the top of his head. It seemed like the right thing to do.

“Thank you.”

Zosk’s head jerked up in surprise, almost headbutting her. Jenna suspected he’d zoned out and didn’t realize she was still in the room. He looked her in the eyes and she froze at the intensity that was there despite the drained look on his face. He nodded to her and handed her a bundle of cloth. It was plumper than the one the previous day.

“You’re welcome. Make sure she eats some too, she always forgets breakfast. And make sure she doesn’t feed it to the crelers damned animals.”

She nodded and headed out to Dess. Sparing a final glance to Zosk, who was now studying his other hand as nothing else moved. Not even his long tail swayed gently on its own like most lizardfolk she’d seen so far.

Maybe arthritis? Can you get arthritis in your tail?

She didn’t see why not. Zosk looked sore as he moved to massaging his legs, and Jenna vowed to find some Salicyclic and Acetic acids if she could. Aspirin helped with inflammation and she wondered if it might help him work out the kinks in the morning. With that thought, she stepped out into the cool morning air that would soon be sweltering and started another day in Patli.

And it was sweltering! Jenna rubbed the sweat off her face then took a gulp of water before putting her straw hat back on her head, giving it a bit of a wave for a breeze first.

“Is it always this hot here?”

“No, it’s summer, silly. In the winter it gets warm during the day but really cold at night.”

Jenna grabbed another clay tile in gloved hands and with a bit of mortar slapped it down on the roof of the stables. It was her newest job opportunity. They had gone to a man named Midonius, well a centaur named Midonius. He was the [Headman] of Patli and Dess encouraged Jenna to ask for work.

It was a little awkward for her initially because he brought up the docks first and foremost but was thankfully understanding of why she was hesitant to work there. He promised her the job would still be open for her but he’d have someone wash it off first.

That’s when he suggested repairs on the stables next to the desert gate. The back of which was right across the road from Zosk and Dess’ place.

It was probably the only building in all of Patli that didn’t have a flat roof and needed the tiles repaired as well as a few bits and pieces fixed around the stalls where the mules, llamas, and the village’s lone camel and horse had kicked. There were of course a couple of other [Builders] in town but they were also [Farmers] who often lacked the time to do minor repairs for such little coin.

It was still pay though and Jenna moved her way across the roof replacing tiles, careful not to touch ones she’d just set in place or the original ones with her bare skin. She’d burned herself once on the hot ceramic and could feel the heat coming through the leather wraps on her knees and elbows. Meanwhile, Dess was somewhere below her in the stable itself, Jenna had no idea what her new [Beast Tamer] friend was doing but could almost guarantee she was doing something with the animals and not just sitting around.

“This should have probably waited till winter then- ow. The docks might not be too bad.”

She was already regretting not taking the job that didn’t involve superheated ceramic tiles. Where she could dip her feet into the refreshing water while she worked. Although she imagined the pus and blood stain that had most likely been on the docks and considered it a bit less.

The body was of course gone, Zosk had helped move her away from the water and they’d laid it somewhere to dry before burning it. All that would be left was the woman’s watch, a cross on a chain, and her shoes. Zosk had salvaged all of them but didn’t mention it until halfway through the day. Right before she left for the stables in fact. They were now Jenna’s but she had no idea what to do with them.

“I’m done!”

It was more of a cheer for herself than announcing it to Dess but Jenna heard a ‘woohoo’ from below and smiled before carefully making her way off the roof. She managed it with only slightly burning herself once. And as soon as she was down she went into the stables and saw Dess brushing a donkey to no one’s surprise. She looked up when Jenna entered.

“Might help my [Beast Tamer] class or my [Farmer] class, not sure which.”

“What needs to be done in here?”

“You’re the [Builder], you tell me.”

Jenna gave her friend an annoyed look but started making her way down the stalls.

“Broken board, broken boards, and wall needs new mudding, broken board and the hinge is bent, and more mudding, mudding, mudding, boards, another hinge, not sure how to fix that rafter, it’s cracked…”

She listed off everything she could see wrong, not that she had any clue on how to fix it. Some like the mudding was easy. As were the broken boards. She could just pull them out and replace them, there was already a stack of planks and a few tools sitting in the corner she could use. The rafter… all she could do after looking at it was nail some boards up there to help hold it together. Even if she had a plank long enough, that was far beyond her. Heck, even if she knew, she’d never be able to lift it up there herself. Probably not even with Dess help. That left the hinges, which came in metal and wood varieties. The metal ones were either bent or the nails had come out. The wooden one had a dowel that had broken going through it. All fairly easy.

Once she had her plan together, Jenna got to work. She grabbed metal tongs, a hammer, and a small chisel. The tools sitting around. Or at least the ones sitting there that could potentially be useful and headed to the first stall.

“Don’t break those, those belong to the [Farrier].”

Jenna looked at the tools in her hand, not really sure what a [Farrier] was but didn’t see how she could break them. She used the hammer to tap the broken wooden dowel out with the small chisel before digging around and finding a thin cylinder of wood. Couple of taps and it was in place. It wasn’t that easy, having to lift the door, place the dowel, and hammer all at once but she figured it out.

She looked up at the mule watching her before opening the stall door and swinging it in and out. She determined it’d need some oil but it worked.

On to the next!

Jenna made quick work with her repairs. A couple small nails in one hinge, a few good whacks of the hammer with another to straighten it out. She got a boost up on the side of one stall so she could nail some supports on the rafter before patching up the broken boards and making a batch of mudding for the walls. With Dess’ help in dealing with the occupied stalls she had to go in, Jenna finished and walked out of the stables. Tired but happy.

“So what now?”

“Wanna come with me out past the dates? With my Grayrock hatched, any others from the same clutch should have too. I want to see if there’s any that fell out of the nest.”

“Nest?”

“Well yeah, there was a nest up in the trees somewhere. They don’t lay their eggs on the ground you know. Plus I’ve got to reset my traps… their live traps, it’s how I get my animals but I had to set them all off before we went to Sa’liquen. I didn’t want some poor animal dying of thirst.”

“You’re a [Trapper] too?”

“No. I don’t like doing it, Dad says I won’t get a class like that unless it’s my profession or I’m passionate about it. Like how I know how to cook but I’m not a [Cook]. I need to get animals for [Beast Tamer] but I don’t want any of the animals getting hurt. Once I’m higher level, maybe people will bring me animals to tame for them or I can buy animals to tame. That way I don’t have to anymore.”

“I suppose that makes sense… otherwise people would have classes for everything they do.”

“Do you want to go with? It’s not far and people gather herbs and things from there all the time. As long as we don’t go by the river, we’ll be fine.”

“What’s wrong with the river?”

“Kapros. Big meat eating lizards. They stay away from Patli because they don’t like being around a lot of people but they’ll still get close. Don’t worry. I’ve actually seen them before and they’ll only chase you if you’re dumb enough to get in the water with them.”

Jenna thought about it for a moment but she really didn’t have anything better to do. Besides, the biggest threat was probably the local wildlife and Dess knew animals, she wouldn’t lead them to a lion or something. All she had to do was gesture for Dess to lead the way and they were off.

They walked through the fields or rather between two of them. One was yellats, the other was Axomammas. Jenna had had them the night they arrived. They were just really big potatoes.

After that were rows of date trees then across scrubby ground before getting to the first copse of trees. They were very different than the dates they’d just gone through. Rather than palms, the uncultivated trees were scraggly looking, with branches bending off in weird angles sometimes and tuffs of fronds or pine like leaves growing at the ends.

They weren’t that interesting though. It wasn’t like they exploded or were dense enough to blunt an iron ax. They also didn’t have any fruits on them that Jenna could see.

Dess made her way through and soon picked up a couple sticks from the ground. One was longer and had a hole through one end and a string tied in the middle. She quickly ran the string through the hole and stuck a smaller stick in the hole. It took Jenna a moment to realize it was some sort of snare.

“See, I’ll have to find some berries or dead bugs but I’ll put them up here on the little stick, when a bird lands on it it’ll fall. I just attach a weight on this side like so and when the little stick goes it’ll pull the snare tight with the bird’s legs in it… I need to check these a lot. They don’t always catch things but I don’t like leaving the birds tied up by their feet… don’t eat these, they’re poisonous to people.”

Dess had finished her trap quickly before moving and finding small black berries on a nearby shrub. She took a small twig of them and put them on the trap carefully. She didn’t really have to tell Jenna, they didn’t look very appetizing.

“So what else should we look for?”

“Nests but don’t take eggs out of them, I only take eggs and chicks if I find them on the ground. The adults will ignore them anyways… besides that? Fresh Tracks, wounded animals. Don’t touch them unless I tell you to.”

Again, a pointless warning but Jenna couldn’t be annoyed by it. They moved through the trees and set up another snare before going across open land to another small group of trees. Dess hummed to herself as she walked and Jenna looked around, determined to find something of use for Dess. The next group of trees consisted of another bird snare and two cage traps that worked a lot like what Jenna had seen on Earth.

“See the animal will go in here to get the bait and steps on this here and… one caught critter. Usually jerboas, rats, sometimes lizards. I don’t keep the rats. No one buys them and if I let them lose in Patli the neighbors get mad or the cats just eat them.”

Jenna did notice that there were some tracks nearby and Dess pointed out a small burrow under a rock but ignored it.

.Again they moved off, this time out into the desert where two more cage traps and a few more bird snares waited.

“I usually catch most of my birds out here, there’s only so many places to land. Besides that more of the same, although I had to get dad once, I caught a really big spider… nope, nope, nope! I don’t train spiders.”

“Where do you get the snakes?”

“The river but I don’t think I’m going to tame them anymore, there’s only so many things you can teach a snake to do and some of them are venomous.”

“You can sell them for people to make antivenom?”

“Antivenom? You mean antidotes?”

“Yeah.”

Dess gave a curious glance at Jenna for a moment but just shrugged and kept going. They were nearing another group of trees and probably a mile from the date trees. Jenna was starting to wonder how far out they were going but she figured she’d give it a bit more time before she asked. Dess had stayed with her the entire time she was working on the stable, sticking it out till her friend was done was the least Jenna could do. Plus she didn’t feel like walking back alone.

“This is where I found the Grayrock. I didn’t see the nest last time I was here but it was also getting late. Something might, MIGHT have tried to steal the egg from a nest but I doubt they’d have carried it far.”

They moved through the trees where Dess took a few bird traps she’d had stored there but didn’t put them up. It made sense after a moment, why try to trap little birds right next to the big bird’s nest. They weren’t going to go anywhere around there.

It didn’t take long for them to spot it that time around. A large clump of branches and grasses was sitting atop one of the larger trees. Jenna nearly strained her neck as she looked up from different angles trying to see one of the apex birds of prey in the area but there was no large feathered head with a wicked looking beak to be seen. Dess of course was looking at the base of the tree.

“No chicks have fallen but there’s a lot of bones. They must have pushed them out of the nest when they were done. Oooh! Look at this.”

Dess proudly held up a large feather nearly a foot long, it was a mottled light gray, almost silver, and looked in pristine condition. Jenna also noticed a fistful of bones in Dess other hand but decided not to comment on that.

“It’s beautiful!”

“Maybe I can have it made into a quill! It’s kind of big for a quill but maybe! Hmmm… oh, there’s another one!”

The two of them quickly combed the area again, finding one more feather as Dess also collected any bones she could find and put them into a satchel. Jenna was about to ask, she’d learned magic existed but she didn’t know about necromancy. Sensing the coming question Dess answered.

“The old man grinds them up into a powder and mixes it with his compost or just spreads it in his fields. He says it helps.”

“Oh, I’ve heard of that!”

Jenna wasn’t going to let Dess know it was bonemeal from a video game but she assumed that was based on something real. It’d be pretty strange for the developers to put that into the game if it wasn’t. That led to her thinking about her survival app, particularly the part about long term survival and farming but was interrupted by a breath taking screech.

“Uh oh.”

Jenna followed Dess’ eyes and saw a massive bird descending rapidly, its wings tucked in for a high speed dive. It was hardly a roc, or even an eagle but it was still roughly the same size as a large hawk and moving extremely quickly. Dess turned around and started running away from the nest, which seemed like a smart thing to do.

“Just stay near the trees.”

Jenna did as she was told and looked back as the big bird leveled off and zoomed over their heads above the treetops. They made it to the edge of the trees as it turned into a wide arc before zooming straight at them again. But for the second time, it pulled up, not willing to dive into the trees. As soon as it flew past Dess called out and started sprinting.

Jenna not wanting to be left alone with the big scary bird, ran. It wasn’t like she had a bow or even knew how to use one to defend herself with if the falcon decided to go after her in the trees. She doubted she’d be really hurt but also doubted she’d get away without a scratch. She’d seen Kooks talons and the Grayrock flying around them was twice the size of the Harenae.

Jenna saw Dess glance behind her.

“Get down!”

Jenna scrambled behind a rock a second before she felt a slight gust of wind travel over her along with a shadow. Dess had done the same at a bush 10 feet ahead. Jenna was going to wait until the falcon passed again but realized her stupidity a second later when Dess began to run again. She could actually see it coming if she ran while it was in front of her.

That’s how the two moved, ducking behind rocks and bushes to stay away from the swooping falcon before running. Before long they were in a different group of trees, heading towards the village. They both took a drink of water and watched as the mighty bird took one final pass and then turned back towards its nest.

“That’s what your chick’s going to grow into?”

“Yup! Isn’t it great!”

“Sure.”

“It will be, hmmph.”

“Sorry, didn’t mean it like that… just wow!”

Dess’ offended stance lightened at that. They both looked back towards where the nest was and Dess grinned wildly.

“I’m going to make GOLD! Not just copper and silver. Well, Kook might be worth a gold coin or two too but GOLD. I might be able to afford a scrying orb or, or a herdhound pup. NO, maybe I can find a couple of those crazy teleporting rabbits! Or a dusk owl egg, that’d probably cost everything I make but I saw one once! No, that’s probably still too expensive, I know some of those weird green rodents from out east! They cant be too expensive.”

It was pretty obvious to Jenna, besides the scrying orb… whatever that was, the only thing Dess was interested in was animals. It wasn’t a bad vice to have but she wondered if she heard right.

Teleporting rabbits?

The two of them made their way back to the house, where Jenna was pleasantly surprised to see Midonius had already checked the stables and dropped off her pay! It was only four silver, a small bag of coarse wheat flour, and a basket of yellats but she’d earned it!

She was beat though but still helped Dess prepare supper while her friend filled her in on all the animals that she’d want to raise. She was, of course, fixed on the idea of a magical dusk owl but Jenna thought having a dog with hooves that had goat horns coming out of its head sounded really cool too. Not that she didn’t like Dess’ actual dog, Sandy.

That night with a full stomach and ready to tackle the docks in the morning, she laid down for sleep and it came to her quickly. But just as she was drifting off a voice sounded in her head.

[Builder Level 2]

[Skill: Mend obtained!]

Jenna sat up and scratched her head. She was excited but wasn’t sure about her new Skill. At first, she thought it must give her ideas on how to fix things but when she focused on a small crack in the leg of the nearby bed frame and tried to activate the skill, nothing happened. She got not a single drop of knowledge or even a hint. It crossed her mind that she needed to actually touch it and she gave it a shot, Putting her finger against the crack to try again. She had expected knowledge but couldn’t help but grin as she saw the wood mend and the crack was no more.

“Oh, cool!”