The clockwork fish flopped helplessly on the aluminum desk, unable to float into the air. Mark looked at it and sighed. Uncoiling the tubes connected to his container of hydrogen, he plugged them into the fish. Nothing happened. He had exhausted his supply. All he could do now was wait for his partner, Nora, to visit with the day's worth of scrap metal and other potential resources.

Mark looked at the shiny scales of the automaton and saw his face reflected back at him. In the end, he was just like the fish, confined to the boundaries of his clan's camp and unable to explore the dangerous world outside. Not yet at least. He wished he were one of the blessed. Sitting back in his chair, Mark imagined flying to massive mountains of scrap metal, scavenging for the pieces he needed. But alas, he was unblessed. A feeble creature with no special abilities.

That was when several loud bangs that shook the room snapped him out of his reverie. He groaned internally as he noticed the small dents that had formed on the metal doors of his wagon. He would have to straighten out the iron sheets later. Based on the force of the knocks, it was definitely one of the blessed on the other side. He checked the clock and realized it was already time for a visit from his partner. Both a blessing and a curse.

"I'm coming! I'm coming!" Mark yelled as he scrambled to his feet.

Slamming the red button on the side of the wall, he squinted as sunlight started pouring into his small room through the slowly opening doors.

Mark watched as the unmistakable silhouette of Nora got closer and more defined as she walked up the ramp and stopped at the entrance, blocking it completely.

She was a little shorter than him, with coffee-colored skin and an athletic build. Her dark, wavy hair had been tied up into a long ponytail, and it was evident that she was in a very bad mood. She held a large bulky leather bag full of scrap metal, which she promptly dropped on his foot. He howled in pain.

"That's today's haul. Show me your progress on your enhancements." She stepped over the threshold and Mark backed away uneasily.

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"Oh great. It's you." he let out a forced laugh. "You know... it takes a lot of time to do anything significant on a project like this. Maybe if you let me be I'd get it done faster."

"So nothing? At all?" She asked quietly, but her piercing orange eyes were anything but calm.

The girl's hand shot out, grabbing him by the collar. She slammed him into the wall.

"It's been one whole month since I was assigned to you." She growled. "You should be done by now. If the Elder hadn't made us help you pathetic unblessed wretches, we would have left you all in the dust. Don't you guys know fucking gratitude? Don't you have shame? How long do I have to fucking wait till you finish your fucking toys?" Her knuckles dug deeper into his neck.

Mark felt a lump in his throat. It wasn't his fault that he hadn't gotten blessed. Why did he have to decipher and piece together ancient tech to achieve feats that the blessed could do so effortlessly? And why was she yelling at him for that? It was unfair. So very unfair.

"How would I know!" He shouted. "You've always had your stupid explody powers ever since you were born!" He could hear his voice quaver, much to his chagrin. "Of course, you think it's easy to do this shit every day! Why can't you understand that- that it's hard for some of us?"

Nora's expression softened slightly as she let go of his shirt. "Just... finish it, ok? All your other unblessed friends are done with their enhancements." Sighing, she jumped out of the wagon.

Mark slid down the wall and gazed at the metal fish still feebly struggling on his table. He would probably be able to finish that with the contents of this drop-off. Even if she hadn't found more hydrogen canisters, he could probably find another way to get it off the ground with all the new resources he'd just received. But he couldn't hunt monsters with just a few lightweight fish. He needed at least a shoal of them, and that wasn't going to happen any time soon. He regretted embarking on such a long and difficult project. But alas, it was too late to turn back now.

Mark had always hated being treated like a sick puppy, a burden to the group that was better off gone. He had vowed to show the blessed that an unblessed could perform just as well as them in a hunt, and when he'd first seen fish at the last oasis their clan had stopped at, he'd fallen in love with their graceful swimming and their breathtakingly synchronized movements. When he'd started on the project, he'd envisioned a massive glinting tornado at his disposal, capable of besting any blessed hunter, but now, it seemed more like a far-fetched dream.