“Do you remember what I told Tatty about the red boxes?”
“open as soon as I get one, yes?”
“ yes. They could be telling you you have damage or maybe someone is about to kill you from behind. So keep your eyes open for them, they wont block you vision. You can set it to auto open, we have. Just think set red box to auto open”
Ella thought set to auto open red box then saved all changes.
The three of them went into the garden.
“tell me what you got.”
She explained her stats and skills
“ staff and pole weapons. Can you make anything?”
Checking the system she shook her head. Lex went into his menu and created a long metal shaft with half moon blades at each end. He handed to his sister and asked her to check the weight.
She held it for a few seconds and then spun it round and thrust it forward.
“ could you make it a little heavier at the ends? The balance is off.”
Taking the weapon back he added more metal to the blades. He spun it round and balanced it on his fingers.
“ try now”
Taking it, she spun it and thrust it again. Smiling she nodded.
“now. Memorize it and name it. Once you’ve done that absorb it into its own folder, set it as prime weapon , and set for quick summon load out. I have mine set like that.”
With a look of concentration on her face, she absorbed it and set it up. She then re summoned it and it grew in her hands in seconds.
“it seems that it sinks in to my arms and re-appears from my arms.”
“ good. Now we can spend the afternoon in practice , to get you used to the use and attacks.”
All afternoon both Lex and Tatty sparred with Ella. All three learned new skills and improved their technics. Noticing how dark it was Lex checked the time on his HUD. Noticing it was 9 pm he called a stop and went in to light the stove. While the fire started the three washed down their sweaty bodies. Lex reheated left over stew and sliced crusty bread and a pot of the potato like veggies. It was a basic but filling meal.
“ we’ll have to hunt tomorrow, get things cooked up ready for our journey. We’ll go day after tomorrow, I want to find out if we’re in a friendly world or not.”
“ as far as my scans show the lifeforms are peaceful. But I do not know the races and how they will react to outsiders.” this was sent to the two girls as chat boxes.
“ so that’s alloy. It’s the first times she has communicated with us.”
“ she speaks to me as a voice but you only have basic nano so this is the only way for us to talk at a distance.”
After cleaning up, all three turned in for the night. Ella and Tatty curled up together.
“ something's going on there.” Lex said to himself. After she did have her own bed.
“ they do seem to have grown closer” Alloy said “ I believe the pair have developed feelings.”
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
“ wow. My sisters a furry” Lex chuckled as he blew out the last of the candles. He climbed into bed and closed his eyes.
“it’s morning time to get up.”
Lex lit the stove to warm the room, and sliced the last of the bread and toasted it.
“this is the last of our food. So eat up and we need to go hunting and gathering.”
Entering the woods Lex asked Alloy to scan for anything that can be hunted for food.
The map appeared in Lexs’ vision and displayed 10 blue dots and 4 red.
“what are the red dots for?”
“ hostile lifeforms”
Lex pulled out his shield and pick and told the girls to get their weapons out and get ready for hostiles.”
4 hairy humanoid ape creatures carrying club type weapons approached from the trees. Lex took point in an offensive stance with Ella and Tatty behind in a triangle form.
The lead ape lunged at Lex, he lifted his shield to block, swinging his pick down catching its shoulder. Tatty dove at one of the apes and Ella swung her staff at another. Lex pinned down the first ape and drove the spike through it’s chest, pinning to the floor. Spinning round to catch a second in the ribs, knocking it sideways.
Tatty’s ape was virtually ripped to shreds by her claws. She then took her place at Lex’s side.
Ella parried the club and thrust her staff at the apes chest, impaling it through to the back. The apes were big but slow and quite weak.
Pinning the final ape down Lex called Ella over to finish it. She swung her half moon blade down and cut the head off.
“ that’s it for now. Has your level gone up yet?”
Ella checked her HUD and she had indeed levelled up. She had 10 points which she added 5 to strength and speed and saved settings.
“ cool, we’re all level 2 now. I better get the cores out of these things”
Creating a sharp knife , Lex named it coring knife and memorized it. He cut out all four cores and cleaned them off and put them in his rucksack.
The trio then went hunting for food.
After hunting several rabbit type creatures and two that looked like peacocks, the trio returned back to the cottage to cook the meat for the upcoming journey.
“we need bigger bags” Lex said
“ I do have a design for a small 2 wheeled wagon you can pull along.”
“Sounds good. I can use the wooden planks from the shed and the barrel end will do for wheels.”
Lex created a hammer, saw and a basic chisel. And started making the wagon. When it was finished it was a basic box trolly 3 feet by 4 feet and 3 feet high. It had two wheels and shoulder straps attached to two ropes to pull it along.
He loaded it up with the bags and pot and plates, leaving enough for dinner and breakfast. Leaving space for the bedding and food to be packed in the morning.
Lex had found a wheat type crop , so using some baking powder he created a type of soda bread cobs to take with them.
“ its not as good as real bread but it will do for on the road.”
“ I remember making these with mom as a kid. They should be ok with the stew.”
“ I’ll keep a couple out for tonight to test em out and keep the rest for tomorrow.”
Ella and Tatty went outside to watch the sunset leaving Lex to finish preparations for the journey.
After a while the girls came back in holding hands and sat at the table waiting for dinner to be served.
“ why do I feel like the bloody butler.” Lex moaned as he set out the food. “ you two can wash up the dishes after”
“fine” both girls said in unison.
“ when did you two get so close?” Lex said while dipping the bread in the stew.
Ella blushed slightly “ it just sort of happened. We’re taking it slow because Tatty’s new to feeling this way.”
“ok , be careful not to hurt her though, she’s not like your other girlfriends.”
“ I know. That’s why we’re taking it slow. You don’t mind do you? You don’t like her do you?”
“well.” Lex stroked his chin “I think she’s cute but I think of her more of a little sister than a romantic person.”
“ Ok that’s good. I don’t want to have bad feelings between us.”
“No probs sis. We’re good. Besides I like woman with red hair and long legs. She’s too short for my liking”
Tatty was 5 ft tall and Lex was 6 ft 3 he would feel like he was dating a child. She was closer to Ella’s 5 ft 5. Lex liked a leggy tall woman preferably a ginger but he wasn’t too picky as long as he could actually have a conversation and not boring crap.
“ I’m going to bed. Blow the candles when you settle.”
“ok , good night.”
Lex blew out half the candles and went to bed he was feeling a little heavy after absorbing the nails and metal tools he found in the shed. Alloy had said he would feel better after a good sleep when his body had acclimatised .
“ I will keep scanning for unfriendlys”
“ your speech is changing . are you ok?”
“i am assimilating language from your conversations , so you could say it’s evolving.”
“ Oh , ok . goodnight Al”
“ goodnight Lex”
Ella and Tatty stayed up for another hour just chatting and cuddled up on the door step watching the night sky. The sky was clear a deep plum colour and the stars had sheens of pinks , blues or greens. Alien but beautiful.
They returned inside and blew out the candles carrying one to bed and blowing it out when the got in. After goodnight kisses they settled to sleep.