Hands of Fate - Survivors of Flight AA214

Chapter 13

Orion - Day of Landing 3

Population of Unnamed Settlement - 9

"Thankful for the meal, thankful for the company," everyone except the newcomers repeated in unison.

"That was really good, Rye," Bianca said, putting away her bowl, with the rest nodding in agreement. There was maybe a bowl left in the pot, and while no one was fighting for seconds, it didn’t seem like they had trouble eating it either, so I was pleased.

"We have to talk about what we are going to do tomorrow," Ethan, the unofficial moderator of our group, said.

"I have to show you all something," Anika said, reaching into her palms to pull out her class card, Herbalist. The crowd around the bowl of stew turned into gasps and congratulations.

"When did that happen, Anika?" Bianca asked.

"When you were out looking for those kids, I was grinding up some bark in my mortar and pestle and then boiling it to extract the salicin. When I finished, I met him. The dealer you all talk about," Anika answered. "My skill lets me isolate compounds I want at a greater yield."

"The guy in the darkness, the man who gives us the cards?" Herman asked.

"Exactly. Wait… you too?" Anika's eyebrows raised at the sudden revelation, and Herman responded with a wink, pulling out his Fisherman card.

"Oh great, everyone has one of those things except me," Alex cried.

I had wondered where Cass was because he would be crying the exact same thing, but he looked tuckered out, his head resting on Bianca’s lap. Someone had filled the new parents in on the magic card system, and they were surprised but not astonished, as if they had seen the trick presented to them before.

"Okay, so we have a fisherman, a cook, a doctor, a builder golem, and an alchemist so far," Bianca said, taking the lead. "That’s two people on food. I think we should focus on getting everyone a class so we can help this community survive better. Marek and Roza, can you say what you did in the real world?"

"I am a housewife," Roza answered shyly. "Marek is a contractor. I… I used to be a seamstress if that helps. I can also cook. Please, I’ll do anything if you find my children."

"They’ll be here tomorrow," Bianca said in a reassuring voice. "I’m sure of it. It makes sense. Three people a day; you guys have triplets, so they will be here together. Orion and Cass were."

"A contractor? Why didn’t you get the Founder class then?" Herman asked, rubbing his chin.

"We don’t know how the system works for sure, but it helps if you do something related to the class before you unlock it. Orion was cooking, and Ethan was helping Alex. I… well," Bianca looked ashamed and didn’t explain her situation. "Anyways, if Marek helps build with Slate, we can make better houses for everyone."

Marek didn’t look interested at all. It seemed as if it didn’t have anything to do with finding his children, he didn’t care. I guess I couldn’t blame him because I was sort of in the same boat.

"Speaking of Slate, what do you have him doing?" Ethan asked.

"He’s making a whole bunch of planks," Bianca responded proudly. "I got a new skill where he can saw a bunch of planks."

"You’re going to make a shelter with planks?" Marek scoffed. "Make bricks, girl. We need more houses."

"I… well, I don’t know how…" Bianca looked like she was out of her depth with the builder role.

"We have a kiln now," I said. "Making bricks isn’t that difficult. If you and Marek can teach Slate how to do it and fire the kiln, he can make bricks throughout the night. We’ll have a pile of bricks in the morning."

"That’s a great idea, Rye! Now that we have an actual builder here, we can make good shelters. Slate can do all the heavy lifting; we just have to tell him where and how," Bianca said with excitement gleaming in her eyes, finally having someone competent at construction.

"The woman said she was a seamstress once? Sooner or later, we’re going to have to do something with our clothing situation," I said.

"Listen, don’t order her around, punk," Marek’s nostrils flared. "You keep asking us to do something for you. How about you do something to find our kids, huh?"

Ignoring the fact that I spent the last few hours trying, I sighed and said, "If they get teleported here, they will be in shock. They will be lying in a cramped hut because you were too busy moaning instead of working. Not every kid is as well-behaved as Cass over there, who thinks it’s all some RPG adventure. They are going to be drenched, and eventually, their clothes are going to degrade and need to be changed."

"What do you mean… drenched?" Marek asked, fear in his eyes.

"Tell them, Herman," I said, going back to my stew.

Herman let out a sigh, rubbing his chin. "I don’t want to break the news. It’s a terrible thing whenever kids are involved, terrible business."

"Spit it out, old man!" Marek barked.

"There’s going to be a storm tomorrow. I am so sorry, Marek," Herman said.

"What?" Marek was in disbelief. "Impossible, how do you know? No signal out here."

"Clouds on the horizon. No mistake about it, I tell ya. No mistake about it. Storm’s brewing," Herman shook his head in apology.

"No, no, he is wrong," Marek said, shaking his head, furious and afraid.

"I reckon he’s seen a few in his days," I said. "Anyways, I sense it too, and you can’t risk it not coming. So we all better work hard before it hits because this shelter is going to get blown away if you don’t, and your kids are going to need raincoats."

"Oh god," Bianca gasped, holding her hand over her mouth. "They are going to be stuck out there in a rainstorm."

"Two of them have jackets," the mother cried out. "They’ll be fine! They’ll be fine."

"Where is your facking golem?" Marek cried.

"How… we’ll work through the night if we have to," the mother pleaded.

"Let’s calm down. We can discuss the best course of action," Bianca said. "Marek, Alex, Ethan, Anika, and I will work on reinforcing the shelter. If we can get Slate to make bricks throughout the night, we can work on—"

"No, no time for bricks. Make tiles instead," Marek said. "Roof tiles. We’ll use the planks and logs for the walls for now."

"Okay, roof tiles. According to Herman, the storm might not hit until midday tomorrow, so that’ll give us some time to work. We need to work at the break of dawn," Bianca said. "Herman can fish us some food. Orion will…"

Bianca looked at me for support, and I spoke. "If Herman can fish our food, I can work with… the mother to—"

"Her name is Roza," Bianca scolded me.

"Yes, Roza, to maybe make a spinning wheel or… we can use those muskrat hides to make something," I pondered.

"Spinning wheel? Do we even have fabric?" Anika asked.

"I saw some flax in my travels. It could do for now. I was just wondering how to tan those hides," I pointed to the two dead furs.

"I can make something out of the tree bark, but it will take a while to cure," Anika answered. "And a spinning wheel and harvesting flax? That’s days of work, Orion."

"Peter and Julian both have jackets," Roza said. "It’s Natalia I worry about."

Herman took off his rain jacket and presented it to the mother. She thanked him for it and promised to return it.

"I guess I can help with the shelter reinforcement," I said, shrugging.

"No. With Slate and the rest of us, we can manage," Bianca said. "Me and Roza will search one way, and you will search the other way. We will nip those children in the bud and get them back before the storm hits."

Somewhere along the way, we just accepted Bianca as our leader. Maybe it was the class or the fact that the rest of us were unwilling to take the role. It would be like this for a while, our frantic scrambling to get everyone used to the new system, used to the fact that they aren’t home anymore where everything can be bought by a credit card down their block. We had to keep moving forward no matter what.

"I’ll need to save that stew for myself tomorrow," I said, picking up the stew pot in the center. "Try not to eat it; it has a buff that might be useful."

"There’s also something else we should do," Anika said. "We need to make a sundial and keep track of time. If we know the exact time when the survivors are coming, we can prepare better."

"Might be no use to us tomorrow. It’s a good idea, but the clouds will be out tomorrow," Herman said.

I came to a sudden realization.

"I can use my buffs to keep track of time. We can use a clay pot with a hole in it to make a sand hourglass. I can keep adjusting the sand until I get an hour exactly or even three hours," I said.

"That’s brilliant," Bianca said, clapping her hands in excitement.

"If we wake up at dawn, we can track how many hours until each survivor teleports here, but we need to figure out approximately the time they do," Ethan said.

"Sounds good. I was also thinking we could make urns or torches around the base. Orion has that neat skill so that we can set up light stops or something," Bianca suggested.

"Good idea, but for now, if you need to work in the dark or go to the kiln, ask me for a torch," I showed them my Firewielder card.

The meeting broke after that, with Marek insisting that Bianca show him her builder golem and how to teach him to make roofing tiles. Both Marek and Roza looked like they weren’t going to get any sleep tonight with their children missing. I couldn’t blame them because I would do the same if Cass were in the same situation. I worked in the dark with a torch to design a clay pot like a bowl with two handles so I could hold it upright with sticks when it was done. I poked a pinhole through the bottom where it would pour and sent it to the kiln where Slate was firing off roof tiles. The poor golem would work tirelessly without rest, firing tiles and collecting mud between firings, though it looked like he was getting more intelligent with Marek guiding him. I didn’t find out until the next day that Marek would receive a Builder class card through the night and level it twice. When Marek showed me his card, the text was completely in Polish.

The day after, Marek had woken me up just before dawn break. Apparently, he was listening to our meeting about keeping time. Marek was busy, somehow lifting a stack of tiles like they weighed nothing. He was tiling the top of our shelter with clay tiles that Slate spent the entire night firing. The golem Slate was helping him out, a torch wedged between one of his shoulder joints. Slate was ever the quick learner and apprentice to Marek, who was teaching him how to properly line the tiles across the roof. Half of the shelter was tiled with clay tiles, and we finally had three walls of planks and logs. From the outside, our shelter looked like a cottage-core open garage. Did Marek really work through the night? Maybe he had a skill?

Wiping my eyes and feeling miserable, I did my duty and came to the stockpile, now growing ever larger, to find the clay hourglass I ordered yesterday to be fired. I turned the bowl upside down and put sticks through the handles to keep it upright. When that was done, I took another finished clay bowl and placed it beneath the upside-down bowl to catch the sand it would drip. I ate the stew I left overnight and began to fill the top of the hourglass with sand. Pulling out my buff card, I checked the time and had three hours left. I would time for one hour for now. The sand trickled down slowly, and when an hour passed, I swapped the bowl out for another bowl. I marked the clay pot with my knife at the line of the sand that would signify this much sand was needed for an hour’s worth. When another hour finished, I would have my system of keeping time by swapping the hourly bowls and emptying my main hourglass bowl. I knew now it was approximately two hours past dawn.

When Anika and Ethan woke up, I told them about the system, and then we left two pieces of a distinct marble stone next to the hourglass to signify the time, two stones (hour) past dawn. They told me they would take care of the time as we started organizing a search party for new survivors. Bianca and Roza went off in the other direction of the beach shore to search for Roza and Marek’s kids, while I went off in the other direction of the beach shore for any survivors, with a certain younger brother following me.