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Since tomorrow is the start of a new week and I really want to see a Pillar of light, we scout a better trail up to the ridge. We're going up in the murky light before sunrise, and a good trail isn't bad since Reiley like my terrace plan and my plan of following just below the ridge inland to avoid most large predators. Besides finding those berries I also want to map the surroundings by triangulation and plan on going as high inland as I can during a morning before noon, to return before nightfall. Going back down a marked trail should be easier, and if one day is just used to make a better trail along the ridge, so be it. Time is the only thing we have plenty off.
We basically end up using the same trail I took last time that start a bit away from the blocking door, and we will make sure the first part looks 'well worn'. Hopefully any person going up or down might go for that thinking the trail is just to reach the ridge and miss trying the side trail towards the huge cliff and to the hut. I will add daub, moss and ferns to the outside of the blocking door so it looks like a more natural part of the cliff instead of cut logs. A person might think it's just another short dead end and miss that it isn't natural.
The canoe will be important, since going down and up those ridges without using a trail could take most of the day, and might mean a night in the open. It is probably safer and better to follow the ridge inland until the ridges join and then go back out towards the coast again. It would still take a long time. Travelling south is a similar problem since that is big dangerous dinosaur land, and no ridges to use. There might be a Chosen nearby, but it is unlikely that we will be able to reach him or her. That canoe is a priority for the next Pillars of light along with the first terrace, and we can also do a bit of exploring instead of going in blind. Dinosaur planet is dangerous, and the Chosen might be a dangerous bastard no matter what sex the person have. Some of those raiders where women, but often knowing if an alien is male, female or something else is damn hard without them saying so. Apparently the nifty translation classify everyone capable of giving birth as female. Then again the damn alien bastards can tweak that translation however they want.
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I start to do mortise and tenon joints and build furniture while Reiley weaves that mattress. She will weave a lot of different types of baskets from cut-off branches too. Just storing wood and loose stuff like those flakes it so much easier when its in a basket, and much tidier and easier to move. For now, the hut is our home and we need to keep it clean and use the space efficient. It isn't a big space, and honestly like a small one room flat, and the ground isn't flat. Making a bunk bed is just a bad idea for several reasons, and we discussed about having the beds up on the loft in the future, as the loft is good for that and it maximize floor space for crafts and normal work. I had planned to add a 10-12 square meter loft for storage as it will increase the floor space by more than 50 percent, and the new plan is to split the loft in half and add a low wall up towards the roof in the front and add weaved curtains as doors so we each get our own small bedroom and some privacy. Reiley never had her own room before and think it's a luxury, but I'm gonna need that privacy sooner rather than later. Since it's heading for summer we shouldn't have to use the blankets for warmth and can sleep on them instead, or half wrap us into them.
There might be an issue with the loft being too warm if the kiln is running, but that bulging eyebrow dormer window will happen, and we need to add some kind of window and door at the gap in the cliff, but it is hard to reach and easier and safer to do once the loft floor is in place. Both windows would also act as higher lookouts, and the eyebrow dormer window might be used to roll or pour something like some kind of molotov or flame weapon at attackers by the door. Or just number 3 sap filled bottle if we can stop it from hardening. The rain gutter is a problem and I have to do some kind of 'pull to release and fall' solution on that. I'm not that worried about the hut catching fire as everything will land about 70-100 cm in front of the wall, and we will probably smear a bit of clay on the outside anyway. In the end killing or hurting attackers trying to get in is the priority, and I'm thinking about traps, but they have to be safe and not released by accident. So we talk and plan the construction as we continue to work.
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As the day progress we finish project after project, and we try to find signs and Reiley have me practice signing as we work and talk. We won't finish all today, and I've focused on a table, another three legged stool, and a bed. It went well to sharpen one of those titanium pieces, so I built a small planer too. It is not that good, but better than nothing, and I don't want to have splinters in my butt or foot. Going barefoot is the norm in the hut. We will only manage to finish one bed with mattress today, and it's better to make good beds, and one of us will sleep another night on the floor. Reiley insist the first bed is mine, and I honestly don't resist. Sure, the second one will probably be slightly better built, but it is a bed and I did after all build most of this hut by myself and it was hard work, and she is used to sleeping on a pelt over springy branches on the floor.
Tomorrow will be interesting if what Reiley told me about visions and the pillars of light turns out to be true. I bet it will. We talk more about our cultures and it is interesting. Especially the facts about her society is one where women are the ones out hunting and going to war, while the men stay home and take of the children, the household and do crafts. The men are slightly bigger and have more muscles, but that doesn't matter. The men usually have two or three wife's since they have a big gender imbalance, but that gender imbalances is greater than that so many women don't form families. A raiding force kidnapping or killing another Clans men and sons is a classic military tactic since her kinds men and women are only fertile for a part of the year, and men have a limited amount of 'loads' during that period, and every year are longer than Earth years too at 463 days. So more men, combined with the gender imbalance with more women that usually have several children, means a Clan can recover from war losses 'quicker'. Remove the men and it doesn't matter how many women the Clan have.
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I'm starting to get the impression that Reiley appreciate me building the hut and doing crafts for more than just the work getting done, and she have suggested that I should stay up here where it is safer and that she can fetch stuff. And she might not care that I'm another species. Eventually I noticed how she asked about certain things about human culture, family life, human women, sex life and children. And that I'm fairly convinced that there can be no children due to genetic incompatibility. I know children will be impossible since we are from completely different planets and ecosystems, and her DNA will be far far different from mine. I can't make a monkey pregnant, and humans and monkeys are from the same lineage. I'm probably genetically closer to a banana than Reiley. The small significant 'but' is that those damn alien bastards might have done something incredibly creative. Either now or far back in history. The question is if they're that damn good, and if they would involve pregnant women and children in all of this. I have the nagging suspicion that those bastard would if they could. And they seem to have cracked Faster Than Light travel, teleportation and tweaking an ecosystem. There is no freaking way everything on this planet is by chance. Like some of those Dinosaurs look far too much like a few from Earth, and there is those coconut trees. Going by what Reiley said about her and others experiences, it feels like those Aliens have taken stuff from different planets, but a lot would obviously not combine unless 'tinkered' with, and I assume our gut bacteria might have been tinkered with too, so something like people poop and microbes don't completely ravage the ecosystem. Or just an influenza type virus one person carries ends up killing every other living being. It would after all destroy all their hard work and 'fun', but so would introducing a too powerful species, and it can only be species with compatible atmosphere requirements. Breathing is kind of important.
I hate to be the cold hearted logical asshole, but honestly, it's unlikely that either of us will ever see another one of our own species again and if we do, they might be complete assholes. So I should be grateful to find someone that might want to form that kind of intimate connection with me, and it doesn't have to involve sex. A relationship is not just about sex, although sex might come down to if I am willing to have sex with Reiley considering she is another species, or if I am strong enough to resist temptation. Considering my thoughts and reactions, I'm fairly certain the main issue will be about risking pregnancy sooner or later - unless she have barbs in her vagina or something like corrosive excretions. Reiley is after all an Alien, and I'm an Alien to her. I sure don't want to risk her becoming pregnant in this horrible world. Didn't Casanova use animal gut condoms? I will honestly try to catch another fur pig to see if that got something usable, and fur is especially useful as Reiley thinks she can prepare it and other leather goods. She is trying with the fur pigs fur.
Then there is the issue of the Aliens surveillance through our eyes and ears and probably a bomb in our heads. When Reiley was out to pee and couldn't hear me, I made sure to talk to the damn alien bastard and describe what I think they've done and how it works. And I used 'Spirits' and other phrases as I think they are voice commands to wake up the computor. I've even made a sketch in my notebook, and since I've seen it, they should too. They might not appreciate that I won't play along with their pretending to be Spirits and Gods, but they dumped me on Dinosaur planet and I don't expect to live long. So, they can go fuck themselves!
If I had thought about it before I might have tried to stopped Reiley from burning Tiola's head. There is a high chance I eventually will try to carve a dead Chosen's head open just to look for tech that shouldn't be there.
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We're starting to loose light, so we head down to collect more salt and saltwater before pooping on the way up. Salt production have ramped up and we basically have all the salt we need for now, but we will stock up, and doing salt glazing and meat preparing might take a lot, and so will tanning according to Reiley. The pot I filled with water is surprisingly water resistant, but not completely, so letting pottery glow yellow for longer might be better. I will also try to add salt to the wood or interior before firing. Then again I need to make a few porous pots that shouldn't be more then dull red. How good of a water filter for microbes are one of those pots? And will I be able to clean it?
After collecting a whole bunch of fluffy looking ferns we return and stuff the mattress with those ferns. Yeah, it feels a bit weird lying on with bare skin, but better than branches and leaves and considering the options? This is a good mattress even on the stone floor. Almost too soft. But on top of the bed slats it feels like a real bed, and I can't help but smile as I lie there. Reiley even made a smaller weaved bag as a pillow. Reiley anxiously asks if I really like it, and I praise her suggestion and craft, and my praise is rewarded with one of those lovely fanged smiles. Tomorrow we will hopefully make another bed, but this is after all Dinosaur planet and the start of a new week, so shit might happen.
We work a bit more but start to relax, wash ourselves and then prepare to eat. It has been a good day, and we need to be up early tomorrow, so I set an alarm on my watch. We have a table with stools, and also pottery, so we make it a bit official, and as I set the table Reiley prepare the food. It's simple food and the sweet berries are a nice addition, but sitting here in the hut I built, at a stone table with food I caught served on pottery I made... Yeah it feels good and it is a moral boost, beside feeling more civilized. Feeling clean helps. Seeing Reiley's beautiful smile across the small table as we talk and eat makes it almost feel like a date. Her hot pink clothes makes it a bit weird but it also accentuate how human she is, and I admit: I just want to hold her against me, and feel her body against mine. I want to make her happy. I want to see her smile. I want to taste her lips. I want to gently explore her body and find out if I can make her feel pleasure no matter how, and I want to be rewarded by whatever sounds and moans of pleasure she makes.
Reiley insist on doing the dishes, so I just stand leaning in the window looking out across the sea and land below and look at the freaking Dinosaurs grazing as the sun is setting. How long will my life here be? Tomorrow will be interesting, and might become very very interesting indeed. I'm curious about those orange visions too. What is that weird smell? I notice a yellow flower with two purple lines stuck in the next window by the wall, and as I turn to Reiley, her face and body push up against me. She is naked and one hand begins to seductively caress my stomach, while she looks me in the eyes with an intense look.
"I can smell the flowers in the jungle below..."
I see Reiley's small fangs as she bites her lower lip. So I reach and fling the flower out and away without looking. There is a look of 'No!' in her eyes as she see the flower disappear, but as Reiley look back at me I'm smiling.
"You are so incredibly sexy that I don't need that flower, and I want us to enjoy each other with a clear mind."
Reiley shivers as I glide my arm up her back. I caress the back of her head and kiss her.