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We stay in the new coveralls as we get back to the hut. They are seriously impressive, although a bit weird at some places due to their wide adjustment possibility, but is as close to one-size-fits-all as I've ever seen or heard about. Basically the material overlap a lot at all the major seams and works like the material is very flexible velcro without feeling so, and most seams are double overlap, so a knife or something cannot just be slid between and into the body, and the arms and legs have large adjustment in width and length. Neither me nor Reiley think that Xuela really understood the clothes construction, because the coveralls separate into an inside of the leg and pants piece and two torso side pieces and you basic fit it together as you want and the material just sticks together. It is possible to not attach the pieces fully in the back, so Xuela could have left room for her wings, although she did say that 'ground colours' doesn't suit her, and it wouldn't surprise me if Xuela took one look and decided 'nope' due to the colours and camouflage pattern. Not that we complain, because these are damn nice. We've even folded up a collar with a high back to protect the neck, and have some wrist and back-of-the-hand protection, which also helps against sunburn. Hell, the material even feels nice and seems to breath okay and I'm not soaking in sweat. The top of our new boots seem to be in the same material as we can attach them together. The soles are not the same material, and thicker and grooved for improved grip.
The camouflage isn't utterly amazing nature mimicking, but it is a good camouflage in different size blotches that should work well in most green-yellow-brown terrain like here, and okay in others. It was hard to see Reiley standing 20m away, and if she crouched and had a few branches or leaves breaking up her outline it was very effective. It was basically her non-camouflaged kit that made her easier to see, and she said the same about me except my skin is easier to see, so I guess it will work for people with different visual spectrums. Specialized camouflage can be amazing, but tend to stand out in other terrain, so I am very happy with this.
What is amazing is the fact that the material it is very cut and puncture resistant, and doing those quick tests on a piece made me realise that the material instantly stiffens if a lot of force is quickly applied. Like it's some kind of non-newtonian fabric. So it really is armour, and we might be beaten or crushed to death in it, but a spear, arrow, axe or sword, shouldn't be a huge problem and give more than bruises, and the boots material have the same reaction. Hell, I think the material might even stop a bullet, and I kind of want to test shooting my crossbow at it, but I don't want to damage either the bolt or the coverall. No wonder it was a red Star Fall, and the intended owners would be pissed if they knew. Apparently Xuela swooped in and stole the 'sky egg' from a group of 'evil ugly people' heading towards it during a cloudy foggy morning, and she don't think they even noticed her doing it since she never got closer than half a kilometer. In that kind of weather she must be hard to see at that distance, and she kept low going in and out and she even took the parachute and egg covering as she thought it would be useful, but the parachute practically disintegrated in her hands and the covering didn't last long. Xuela is proud over her sneaky 'joink', especially as the group seemed to be the raiders heading back north towards their camp, as there is a camp on an island cliff in a river.
Reiley is impressed that my culture have similar material and possibilities, just not made into a single garment. As far as I know. Military secrets and all that. If the coveralls had gloves, and a hood or a helmet, we would be very well protected against what a person might do to us, and it will be a nasty surprise for them. I'm happy the 'evil ugly people' didn't get it, but I assume others might get similar, so we need to find creative ways to hurt someone wearing similar. It's not fool proof, and there are of course fire, gas, acid, poison and so on. We need to distillate alcohol that burn well, and figure out a quick way of lighting it. We also have to figure out if we can weaponize number 3 sap. Using it on arrows and blades might help in combat, but they you need a penetrating hit. Splashing someone in the face might work well enough, but still take time until effect. There are dangers with using sanctuary flowers, but for now that might be the best defence.
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Xuela returns and she is happy we are wearing the new coveralls, and that they fit so well. We show her the bed and she puts her bag under the bed, and leans her lute against the wall. Xuela have a smile and makes weird but happy noises as she lies on her stomach on the bed, although she mention that proper fabric would be nicer. Yeah, it would be, but neither of us have enough for that.
We visit the cliff work area and talk about the plans we have for it, and the path to her future hut, but it will be hard work just making the paths, especially if the paths need to be good enough to carry quite big and heavy logs up on, and really used for a lot of trips carrying clay bricks and so on. Even using rope and lifting a log up will be hard as there are quite sharp rocks and edges, and the rope will fray. A falling log can do a lot of damage to structures below. The path will also have to be big enough that Xuela with her wings can walk up and down it. She can't always fly, and she might not be the only flying person in this world, so we really have to camouflage our constructions and try to hide our movement up and down, but simple netting and hanging vegetation will help with that, and we can make planters at certain locations to break up the outline and hide even more. Reiley and Xuela agree and both like how well camouflaged the hut is, and Xuela like that I've made a net with leaves above the proper stone roof, and will accept something similar to hide her hut as the shade is also nice. Xuela dislike rain, so adding roof over some of the path up is quite attractive for her, but in the beginning it might be leaves as tiles or stone is a future upgrade. Xuela understand camouflage but have weird priorities as she still think I should wear that high visibility jacket more as it is very pretty. Hiding and camouflage means we can't really cut down and use trees growing on the cliff sides, slope or crevices, although a couple will have to be cut.
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It will be a long project, and we're going to need plenty of wood ash cement and bricks just for the paths, and a lot of work with a stone sledge to smooth out some sections of the paths. We could really use a sledge hammer or pick axe. Getting enough iron for that will take a lot of time if there actually is enough iron in that creek. And I want to prioritize a knife, an axe and two steel helmets. If we need to fight, I want me and Reiley to have proper armour on our heads too. Actually I wonder if a full steel helmet will fuck with the damn alien bastards radio link? Tin foil hat it with a helmet faraday cage. Although there is probably another antenna implanted in the body, and it won't be a proper faraday cage since the neck is in the way. Still, might dampen signals and help against being tracked or something.
Instead of bringing all the clay and wood up here to make bricks, we will use the jungle work area where the furnace is. Once the clay is dry and fired, they will be lighter, and it is just overall less work. I want to fire the iron crucible, but tomorrow is the start of a new week, so we focus on map making while making another kiln burn. To prove her usefulness, Xuela is eager to use the compass and take a few readings, so after I have shown her how, she flies off to a mountain top inland to take a few headings. She will then do the mountain across the valley.
Xuela doesn't have much arm or leg strength, and sure isn't a fighter, but something like a crossbow would suit her. Shooting arrows from a high is useful, and a crossbow will be easier to learn and more powerful than a bow. Her kind only have knives, spears, swords, clubs and 'darts', and Xuela didn't know what either a bow or crossbow was and the prototype crossbow will be improved, ergonomically adapted and lightened a bit for her. Reiley is already good and faster with her bow, but me and Xuela need to practise as this is a dangerous world. Reiley insist that I practise with the machete, spear, crossbow and bow, while Xuela only need to practise with the crossbow, although she should know how to handle a spear too. Still, just Xuela dropping rocks from high will be dangerous enough, and Xuela claim to be good at that, since her culture have two popular games involving that in some kind of flying bowling and dart. Xuela's knife belt can have additional pockets, so she will make a pocket for a sanctuary bottle or two, and being able to bomb a dinosaurs path with them might be very effective or at least delaying, depending on the wind. Just being told about the flowers below seem to have done wonders for Xuela's willingness to visit the open area low ground around here - at least when it's not raining - and she really want those flower bottles for her own safety while flying about.
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The map making goes well, and it feels good to do something like this. In the end we have a 1 by 1.5 meter wall map, where middle lower half against the sea has gotten marked. This will be our local area map and will be a working map we improve as the time goes by. When there is time and opportunity, Xuela will take measurements to improve this and for a larger scale map. Hopefully we will have leather to make more portable and durable maps we can bring along, and we need to start naming things, as calling the rivers 'north river' and 'south river' it just stupid. So the south river will be call Tiola's river and the north might be raider river as it probably leads to the raider camp.
Xuela didn't bother being methodical in her scouting and we guess she understandably was in a bit of panic mode. But there are active geothermal and pretty coloured ponds that burned her skin somewhere among the mountains, and snow capped mountains far in the distance, plus a forest that 'glows at night'. I would really like to see that. Xuela have quite a lot of tales what she seen, but needs to eventually methodically scout as 'it might be somewhere around here, I think' is not precise enough for a map. She have seen a few other Boon Spires, but with the same precise estimation of their exact location. Xuela have that same 'direction vision' that Tiola had, but still just one location that we heard her set here on the cliff, so she can get a fix point. It will be interesting if she gets an upgraded version tomorrow. She must have travelled way further than I'll ever do.
Reiley and Xuela likes my idea for a written language and we will develop it together. There will be many brainstorming sessions to figure out things we need a glyph for, and to make that glyph fairly logical. Names will be hard, as that does take sounds, and that will basically have to be taught what glyph is which sound and inflections, where each person makes their own notation beside the glyph in a form of ABC book. It will actually be interesting to see which glyphs gets chosen for each sound. Numbers are another issue, since we could do something simple and space efficient like those Cistercian monks did instead of going Roman, but I would prefer something positional with decimals. On reason is that we might use this glyph system for long range communication via smoke, light or sound signals, and having ten different codes to make any number is practical. One glyph that can change in 10000 different ways is not.
To be able to send short long distance messages, we basically just need to add a code beside the glyph in the glyph book. 9 bits would mean 512 glyphs if short-long signal code is used for every bit, and just adding a tenth bit would double it to 1024 words. Memorising the code for those 512 glyphs will be too hard, but a wooden slat book takes space even with small glyphs. Hanging on the wall would have been practical, and having 16 glyphs per slat would work, and it would make finding the right easier as that is 4 bits. It's likely that there will be blank spots to make organisation logical and easier to find, plus making room for expansion. No matter what, once the book and glyph code exist light, smoke or sound signals can be used. Especially at night and clear weather a line of sight light signal will reach far and smoke could be used fairly well. Something like a bullroarer doesn't need any fire and works for shorter distances in terrain and weather. I need to experiment with shape and size to find something that is loud.
Glyphs and such will be something to do long evenings. I should make a couple of simple games and dices. Xuela shows her lute, and start to play music, but we quickly convince her to stick to just music without singing.