Kara leans forward, looming over Starling who is trapped on the bed beneath her. “So let me get this straight. You swan-in out of nowhere, invade one of our most stable foraging spots, fill it with some sort of burning resin, get pretty horrifically injured in the process, collapse in the open so we find you and then you proceed to tie up our limited medical resources? Is that about right?”
Starling looks up at Kara, absolutely stunned by her attitude. “Safest? That was safe?” They reply, voice sharp with professional disdain. “The completely unmarked one with ancient ruins nobody noticed and some kind of hostile entity living in it? That spot? Tell me, how many other 'vital resources' are you leaving completely unprotected? No warning signs, no guard rotation, not even basic safety protocols. Have you even heard of a geological assessment?”
Kara interrupts Starling’s tirade by slamming her hand into the wooden wall, which Starling realises isn’t shaped wood but a network of roots that have fused together. Something clicks in their mind as they realise Exactly where they are.
“You have No idea what we are dealing with out here-” Kara starts to say, but Starling interrupts her, rising up from the bed in fury.
“Actually,” Starling cuts in icily “I do! My entire professional career has been about keeping people safe in the wild. So when I say that you have absolutely no idea what you are doing you should listen to me. I am the expert here, not you. Sending people to forage in that tunnel was a death sentence that you somehow got lucky enough to avoid again and again!”
[Wisdom Check Failed: 8 (-2 Compromised)]
[Warning: Past Trauma Response Triggered]
[Memory Suppression Active]
The crystal finger pulses with a sudden violet light as Starling's own words hit them. Their breath catches, in their throat and for a second both Kara and Starling stop arguing and just stare at the finger.
Kara's eyes snap from the finger to Starling's face, her lip curling into a sneer. "An expert in keeping people safe?" Her voice drips with sarcasm. "That would be the expert who my people found unconscious and exposed in the open forest? Burns across your body, bruises, broken rib, and whatever that is." She gestures at the crystalline finger. "Looks to me like you're just another reckless fool who got in over their head. The only difference is you've managed to cost us valuable medical supplies while lecturing me about safety."
"At least I was mapping and assessing the dangers," Starling snaps back, trying to sit up straighter despite the pain. "Unlike whoever keeps sending your people down that tunnel blind. Do you even know what's down there? Have you documented any of the hazards? Set up proper..." Their voice catches as their crystal finger pulses again, the memory of the burning sap and collapsing chamber flashing through their mind. "You got lucky. That tunnel could have collapsed at any time. One shift in the ground, one wrong move..."
[Trauma Response Active]
[Warning: Memory Suppression Failing]
[Emotional State: Unstable]
"Kara," Helen says hesitantly from the other side of the curtain. "I wonder if this is the time for this... They are still recovering from some pretty nasty injuries."
"Indeed." Armaan's measured voice joins in. "Their vitals were quite unstable just hours ago. I am looking at them now and this person is in the middle of a significant stress response. You are pushing them too hard. Physical Assessment is telling me-"
"I don't care about their vitals," Kara snaps, cutting off Armaan while not taking her eyes off Starling. "What I care about is that we've lost our best source of tubers, furs and meat because this fool decided to-"
“You were hunting the tunnel-sloths!” Starling shouts in shock, pushing themself to their feet with a grunt of pain. Rising to their full height, Starling realises they loom over the woman in the ridiculous business attire.
"Those 'tunnel-sloths' as you call them are the only reliable source of meat we've found that isn't trying to kill us," Kara snarls, standing her ground despite Starling towering over her. "What exactly do you think we've been eating out here? Berries and good intentions? This isn't a nature reserve - its survival. And thanks to your expert intervention, we now have eleven people to feed and one less food source to do it with."
“Those creatures were foragers, they were stockpiling the food for a reason. If you’ve been hunting the adults who were collecting food you have probably left a nest of young without a food source!” Starling kneads their forehead with their hand in frustration, reeling in shock at the naivety of these people. “By indiscriminately hunting you have potentially wiped out an entire population! Not only have you disrupted the local ecosystem by not thinking about your actions but you may have wiped out your own food source with your idiocy!” Starling closes their hand into a fist and suddenly there is a waterskin there, without thinking they take a swig of the tepid water, slaking their powerful thirst. Kara stares at the waterskin in absolute shock.
[WARNING: Emotional State Critical]
[Foundation Aspect: Local Settlement Inventory Accessed]
[Storage Network Connection Created. Settlement Inventories Linked!]
It takes Starling a second to work out why Kara has stopped arguing, their gaze following hers until they see the waterskin in their grip. “Oh.” they manage, stunned themselves.
There is a rustle from the other alcove in this space, now that Starling is standing it’s obvious they are in the root structure underneath the tree in the clearing they originally woke up in. It seems it has continued to grow and change since they were last here. The space is much much larger, with roots making a smooth floor and these curtain covered alcoves in one side. The space must have expanded underground to have this much room here.An unfamiliar, deeper male voice breaks the silence. “Hey! What's going on out there? Can’t an old man get some rest in peace these days?” The curtain covering the alcove the voice came from is pulled aside and a man shuffles into the room. His torso is swathed in bandages that are stained red, with hard looking protrusions pressing against the inside of the wrapping that covers him. He looks around, taking in the tableau and then stops when his eyes fall on Starling. “You!” He says, voice thick with emotion. “The forest! I remember you. You are the one who…” he runs the fingers of his right hand over the hard protrusions under the bandages, while his left hangs loosely at his side.
Everyone watches in silence as the man in the torn postal uniform staggers over to Starling and Kara, he looks Starling up and down for a second then reaches out, ignoring Starling’s sudden flinch, and wraps his right arm around them, hugging them tight. He is careful not to let the left side of his body touch Starling.
“You saved my life. I can’t thank you enough. Without your quick action I would have died, and we would never have realised the sap has so many useful properties. Thank you so much.” He leans back and makes eye contact with Starling, eyes welling with emotion. “My friend you are very welcome to stay with us as long as you need! What is your name? I’m Jeff.” He breaks from the hug and steps back, holding out a calloused hand for a handshake.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Starling reaches out with their unchanged hand and awkwardly shakes the man’s hand, still self-consciously holding the waterskin in the other. “It.. it was nothing, I just rendered first aid to someone in trouble.” they say weakly, pausing before adding ‘Starling, my name is Starling.” while trying to put the Waterskin back wherever it came from, making motions like they were putting it on an invisible shelf. Behind them Kara was silent, eyes flicking back and forth like they were looking at something only they could see. They stop after a second, just as Jeff releases Starling’s hand with a warm smile.
“You... you took that from the Settlement Inventory. How did you do that? I can see that one of our waterskins is missing from the inventory list. We only have a couple - they were found by one of the foragers! We don’t have the tools to make something like that yet.”
“What inventory list?” Jeff asks, turning to Kara in confusion, “You mean the settlement inventory? The one you can see with that skill? Starling was able to pull that Waterskin from the storage shelves from here?”
Kara looks up at both of them, shock on her face. “It looks like it, I didn’t realise we could do things like that here. I… They must have a skill we haven’t seen yet. Something that lets them see and interact with inventories?”
Starling blushes uncomfortably as all four people in the room look at them in a mix of awe and fear.
“Crap, I am so sorry” Starling says, still awkwardly trying to return the waterskin to wherever it came from. “I just needed a drink and then it was there. I didn't intend on stealing it or anything.” They add, glancing nervously between the others.“Wait,” Helen says slowly, piecing it together “Can they just take whatever they want from our stores, from anywhere?” Her eyes darted from Kara to Jeff, clearly unsure whether to be impressed or alarmed.
Kara bristles and crosses her arms, staring Starling down. “Hand it over Starling, and don’t take anything-”
Jeff cuts Kara off, interrupting her as he realises the implications of this power. “Damn, this is unbelievable, you could.. You could carry food and medicine to people without needing to actually move it! We could just have a core store of building materials and you can hand people the tools and resources they need! This is.. This changes everything! With your power, we could really transform this place, make it even safer! If only we could find the person who built this shelter, then we wouldn’t need to worry at all!”
Guilt flooded Starling, it would be so easy to reveal themselves right now to this group, explain their burgeoning powers, help them build and adapt this space even more to their requirements. But something made them hold back, it was both a relief and a pain. Starling realised they hated the part of them that kept pulling away. Hated it with an intensity that almost hurt itself. Their crystal finger flashed purple once again, surprising everyone.
The purple glow faded, but the ache in Starling's chest didn't. They found themselves looking around at the intricate root structure - their creation - that these people have turned into a home. Shelves and storage spaces they never intended have been woven into the walls. Places for beds and rest areas have formed naturally from their power. The space itself has grown substantially, like the tree has pushed it’s roots further out to make space and the trunk higher for clearance. There are signs that a community live here. Belongings in little alcoves, cooking utensils stacked near the water source. It’s clear that not everybody sleeps here but this is the meeting place, the core of this community. And Starling created it by accident.
"Here." Starling thrusts the waterskin at Kara, desperate to change the subject. "I really am sorry about taking it. I should go, I've already caused enough-"
"Nonsense!" Jeff interrupts, then winces and touches his crystallized wounds. "You need rest, and we need your help. Look at what you did for me - imagine how many others you could help! Unless..." His expression softens with understanding. "Unless there's a reason you prefer to be alone?"
[Warning: Empathy Check Incoming]
[Subject Displaying Understanding of Isolation Patterns]
[Psychological Barriers: Heightened]
Starling feels the familiar urge to run growing stronger. The idea of helping, of being needed, sends tendrils of panic through their chest. Their voice comes out barely above a whisper. "I just... I'm not good for people to be around. Things go wrong. People get hurt."
"Like how I got hurt?" Jeff asks gently. "Because from where I'm standing, I'd be dead if you weren't around."
Just as Starling struggles to find words to respond to Jeff's statement about saving him, Kara makes a small sound of surprise.
"Wait... there's..." Her eyes do that strange darting thing again, like she is reading off a sheet nobody else can see. "There's another inventory. I can see it but I can't... it's like it's just out of reach. Wood, different quality than ours. Where is this coming from? Did someone store something in the wrong place? I thought I could only track things in the alcoves over there…"
Kara gestures across the room to an area that has reconfigured itself into a variety of cubby holes and shelves, with different items carefully arranged in and on them. “No," Kara continues, frowning in concentration. "It's... different somehow. Like there's another storage area connected to ours now, but I can't quite..." She trails off, her earlier hostility forgotten in her fascination with this new development.
"Could this help us track supplies between camps?" Jeff asks thoughtfully. "We've been having trouble coordinating resources with the river settlement..."
The conversation is shifting to practical matters, taking the pressure off Starling. But they find themselves frozen, torn between the urge to run and the growing realization that their accidental creations might actually be helping people. The crystal finger pulses softly, but this time it's not from panic - it's responding to something else, something that feels almost like...hope?
Wait… river settlement?
“Do you have another settlement? Down by the water? I’ve been down there… it’s really dangerous.” Starling interrupted Kara’s thoughts with urgent concern.
Jeff turns to Starling. "Well we thought so too at first - the tree-crabs were a huge problem. But then we found this interesting spot. There's this massive dead crab impaled on some kind of stake. The weird thing is, the stake seems to have changed since we first found it."
Starling grabs Jeff’s arm, urgency still beating through their chest. “Changed? What do you mean it has changed?”
“"It's gotten bigger, stronger. The crab's shell... it's like it's become a whole structure. The roots of nearby trees have grown up through it, turning it into this natural shelter. It’s got openings that are big enough for us to get into, but the bigger crabs can’t follow us in, and they don’t seem to like going near it either.’Helen nods enthusiastically. "Those elephant creatures love it too! They come down to drink and rest there. It's like having guards - nothing dangerous comes close when they're around."
Starling remembers that desperate moment, falling with the branch-turned-stake, hoping it would save them. They had no idea their panic-driven defense would evolve into something so elaborate, so protective.
[Foundation Aspect: Defensive Structure Evolution Detected]
[Note: Structures continue to develop based on environmental needs]
[Warning: Unauthorized modifications may occur without direct input]
I made that shelter… when I killed that crab with the stake. I didn’t even consider it. Everything I touch seems to be wanting to make people safe and protected. I don’t understand why I have these powers. Kara’s seem much more limited, Jeff doesn’t even seem to have any. Why do I have this… responsibility? I just want to be safe, warm, alone in my own space - where nobody can be hurt by my actions. Why does this keep pulling me back towards other people?
“I called them Tree-phalants… when I met them.” Starling says cautiously. “I think they are intelligent, compassionate even. One of them protected me when I drank from the river, it was a powerful experience.” Starling looks up, resolve in their eyes, their thoughts still ringing in their head. “It’s dangerous between here and there, but… I can show you safe paths - keep your people away from danger. Just until I heal, until I can travel again. Pay my way.”
Kara starts to protest, but Jeff lays a gentle hand on her shoulder. “You say you can keep people safe?” he says kindly. “Just do that, help us keep our people safe, that's all you need to do… we can figure out the rest later”
Starling’s crystal finger pulses one more time, a deep resonant red rather than the purple of the striations, as though acknowledging this compromise between running and staying.
[Ability Level Increased: Wisdom has grown through risk assessment]
[Growth Note: Acknowledging past actions' positive outcomes improves judgment]
[Current Level: 9 (-1 Compromised)]