Chapter 4

Orion - Day 1 of Landing

The projectile vomit landed a meter from my feet, causing both me and Cass to step back. The crazed woman, or girl, had a wild look in her sunken eyes. Her disheveled auburn hair and pale freckled face made her look like an undead witch. She had been carrying a green cauldron filled with water, now toppled over and wetting the sand near the campfire.

I took a piece of driftwood, lit it with the campfire, and pointed it at the sick girl. "Who are you?"

More coughing and vomiting followed as she wailed holding her head, “My head... make it stop. I shouldn’t have... it was all that golem’s fault.”

“Cass, stay behind me,” I said as my brother hid behind my legs.

“Rye, I think she’s sick,” Cass said with concern.

“Oh, she’s sick alright,” I replied.

“No, please,” the girl wailed. “I’m like you, see, look.”

She got back up from her heaving, wiped her mouth with the back of her forearms, and then reached into her palms, pulling out a card. “Look, I’m like you.”

The blue glowing card read, “Familiar: Golem.”

Cass’s eyes widened and he shouted, “COOL! Do that again! Can you pull that card out of your hand again?”

“You’re a golem?” I asked.

“Again, again!” Cass ordered.

“No... I have one,” the sick girl said between heavy breaths. “I think I have food poisoning, oh god.”

“Are you from the plane, or is this your... Do you live around here?” I asked.

“What?! No, I was sitting behind you on the plane,” she said, offended. “Listen, my name is Bianca, and I was on a flight too, and I... I... Oh god... I feel sick, just wait.”

She ran off back into the darkness, leaving me and Cass speechless. I kept my guard up with the makeshift torch, scanning the area for other signs of people. Was it only her? Thankful it was a fellow survivor of the plane crash and not some crazed native, I relaxed. Cass left my shadow and ventured forward before I tugged on his shirt.

“Don’t follow her, you might get lost. We’ll wait here,” I commanded.

“But Rye, she has that cool card trick!” Cass said, frowning and giving me his puppy dog look.

Not sure if I would have told him, but I figured the cat was out of the bag already. I reached into my palms and pulled out the Firewielder card. Cass gave me a bewildered look of awe and tried his best to snatch it out of the air as I held it before him, his fingers phasing through the card. The card vanished back into my palms in wisps of blue trails.

“Rye! You can do it too!” Cass nearly shouted. “How! Teach me Rye, teach me Rye.”

Cass chanted "teach me, Rye" over and over before I answered.

“I don’t know... it’s corny to say, but it feels like we are in some kind of simulation or video game,” I answered. “I was taken to this place and some guy dealt me cards and... when I came back, I could do this.”

I showed him the trick again, this time showing my Forager skill card.

“No fair. I want to do that. That’s not fair! That’s not fair! That’s not fair!” Cass shouted.

“Listen, maybe you are too young to accept the terms of service or something, I dunno. Don’t blame me, and stop yelling, you’ll attract something.” I reprimanded him. Cass stopped his shouting, but it wasn’t due to anything I said. My younger brother looked behind me and stared at the moon. I followed his gaze and my jaw dropped.

“I knew it,” Cass said. “We’re on another planet, Rye! It has to be! Look, that moon is green and has rings around it!”

Horror. I felt a sinking horror in my spine as I stared at the moon. The moon in the sky glowed a faint green as if it's surface was covered in grass, and a sparkling line ran across the axis of its heavenly body. I felt lightheaded at the implication and said under my breath, “It has to be a mistake.”

With no light pollution wherever we were, the sky was vibrant with stars and unseen and unrecognizable constellations. Cass pointed in a direction and said, “Look, no big dipper. No little dipper either, Rye. We can’t be on Earth. We can’t be.”

Cass was right, but I refused to believe we were on a different planet or, god forbid, a different dimension. This was a simulation or some kind of virtual reality---it had to be. We were still on Earth. Some technician will plug us out to find we were just sitting in some gaming room in Miami.

“That’s why you have those cards, Rye! I’ll get them too. Oh man, I can’t wait. I want to shoot fireballs and get a sword!” Cass shouted.

“You watch too much anime,” I said, trying to calm him down, though my own heart was beating away against my ribcage.

Rustling came from the clearing in the forest, and the pale auburn-haired figure emerged, her face looking red and more sheepish than before.

“Sorry, I had to... I feel sick,” the girl who called herself Bianca said.

I glanced at the green bucket lying on the ground and back to Bianca. “You didn’t happen to drink the water around here, did you?”

“Yeah, I was thirsty... Oh god, don’t tell me it’s poison,” she said.

“Not poison... I don’t think. It’s just unsafe. You have to boil fresh water,” I replied.

“Oh god,” Bianca rubbed her forehead. “I was just so thirsty... I lost my bag and my water bottle and my phone, and the plane crashed and I just...”

The girl started sniffling, and I felt awkward watching her. “It’s okay... just don’t drink any water until we boil it. If you made it, others did too. We’ll be okay, Bianca.”

Bianca nodded and came over, holding her arms open. I immediately shunned her with the flat of my palm. With her attempts to hug me spurned, she turned to my younger brother, who held his nose as Bianca came down and hugged him instead.

“I’m just so glad to find other people. I was all alone and...” she sniffled.

“Rye, she smells like puke,” Cass said.

“Don’t be rude,” I whispered, as if Bianca couldn’t hear me.

“You hug her then,” Cass whispered back, again as if the person we were talking about wasn’t right before us.

“I don’t like being touched by strangers,” I said. “Girls love little kids, so just...”

My brother’s annoyed face and gritted teeth changed quickly as we both stared slack-jawed at a set of glowing blue eyes in the darkness. The rock monster stomped its way through the clearing, its gaze of death fixated on the three of us.

“Cass, take the girl and run for the ocean. I’ll stall it,” I said. Rock monsters hated water. It'll be safe there.

I steadied the makeshift torch in my hand like a sword and pointed it at the rock-armored creature. Somehow I knew my Firewielder card made the flame on the end of the driftwood blaze hungrily in the night. I stood on my tiptoes and tried to make myself look as big as possible. Rushing forward, I went for its face, the flame end of the wooden club crashing into the monster’s eyes and exploding in sparks and flying cinder. It recoiled and stood in its place, like an unmoving mountain, with a look in its eyes as if daring me to try that again. Or it could have been hungry, it was hard to tell since the creature really couldn't make facial expressions.

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“What are you doing?!” Bianca yelled and then proceeded to hold her head in pain.

“I’m protecting you guys, get away from here!” I yelled, waving my hands to signal them to leave.

“That’s my golem!” She held out her Familiar: Golem card as if she was a police officer.

“What?” I cried.

“COOL!” Cass yelled. Cass ran towards the rock thing, dodging my attempts to cuff him, and tried to climb it.

“Cass, get away from that thing!” I yelled.

“Relax, it won’t hurt him. It can barely hurt wood,” Bianca sighed. “Oh god, I think I have to lie down.”

The rock golem marched off to find leaves as Bianca summoned cards and threw them at trees.

“Wait!” I shouted as the golem started stripping nearby palms and trees of leaves.

The golem piled the leaves near a flat spot on the beach, and Bianca lay down on it holding her head.

“You’re just going to sleep there?” I asked her incredulously.

“I’m cold, can you hold me?” Bianca asked as she lay down and closed her eyes.

“No. And Cass, get down from there,” I ordered, but my brother didn’t listen as the golem brought over a large banana leaf and covered Bianca with it.

“Give me your hoodie, please,” Bianca asked, her eyes still closed and her body shivering beneath the piles of leaves.

The weather was getting chillier with the night, but I could handle it without my hoodie. I took it off and gave it to her, and she blanketed herself with it wrapping my sleeves around her.

“Can you explain?” I asked. “Why do you have a golem?”

As I asked, the golem came over and stretched its body like an accordion over Bianca. I moved to get clear, and Cass was dislodged from the golem’s back and stood next to me. The golem made a makeshift shelter over where Bianca was resting, her left arm finally pulling itself through the left sleeve.

“Card. Like you,” Bianca murmured and let out a yawn. Cass listened with undivided attention. “Ghost gave. Darkness. Build chair. Slate.”

She continued murmuring nonsensical words while Cass and I watched over her for a few minutes. She rambled on about her life as a student, why she was in Florida, her family, all of which I didn’t pay attention to, but I tried to prod her more about her powers and meeting the strange card dealer. It was clear she was exhausted, sick, and just wanted to sleep. The golem locked in place as a makeshift shelter, its eyes dimming. I kept my eyes on Cass as he wandered off and returned with a giant banana leaf like Bianca's, lying down beside her in the golem’s makeshift body canopy. Before I could lecture him about sleeping next to strangers, I relented, realizing it was probably the safest place for him.

I tossed another log onto the fire and used my oyster shells as containers to fetch water from the green leafy bucket Bianca had brought. The bucket at this point had maybe a third of its content left, the rest leaking onto the sands beside it. I boiled the water over the fire, using a flat rock as a tray, and sipped on the cooled boiled water from the shells. It still carried a faint taste of the ocean, briny from the liquor in the oyster shells. An idea struck me as I examined another oyster shell filled with boiled water.

I pulled out my Cook card from my wallet alongside the oyster shell, prompting another card to appear.

Rock Clam Broth - F

Remove Chill for 3 hours.

Despite the growing night chill, my body felt warmer without my outerwear. Glancing back at the two sleeping figures wrapped in leaves, I decided against joining them. Sleep wouldn’t come easily tonight, and someone needed to keep watch. The night was still young, and I was eager to test out my new cards. First, I would need a tool.

Pockets. If I had to describe my brother Cass’ choice of clothing, it was pockets. His green army shirt had two pockets in the front, and his cargo pants had a total of eight pockets: the usual four front and back and two more on each leg. I wondered how he could walk around with all that stuff in them. I rummaged through his pockets, found his walking rock collection, and picked out a jagged piece of obsidian shaped like a pencil-sized arrowhead. The ends weren’t sharp enough to prick my fingers as I felt along the edge, but it would do for now, and I commandeered the rock into my own pockets. Taking my makeshift torch, I ventured forth onto the dark beach looking for more stuff to cook up. I wasn’t too worried about getting lost; the dim glowing eyes of the golem and the campfire’s light would guide my way back to the “camp.”

Using the sounds of the waves, I headed toward the sea. When I saw the waves before me, I started walking parallel to the water and down the beach, turning my head every so often to make sure I could still see the campfire behind me. I waved my torch and spotted faint blue lights fading in and out of my vision. A small creature on the beach was digging and moving in a zig-zag pattern across the sand. I came up to grab the crustacean, which was about the size of a grapefruit. The crab I grabbed snipped my hands, and I dropped it. Feeling annoyed, I stomped on its carapace as it scurried away. With my foot on its body, I yanked its claws off and put the claws into my pocket. I found two more crabs, declawed them the same way, and then washed all three with my hands in the ocean.

With a total of three crabs, I walked back to the campfire. I nodded at the golem and said as I rested by the campfire, “Sorry about earlier... you know, about the whole head-hitting thing. I didn’t know you belonged to, umm... what was her name... the girl.”

It didn’t acknowledge me or the comment as it remained vigilant as the makeshift canopy.

I threw the crabs into the leaf bucket that the girl brought to hold before I started grabbing some things I needed from the nearby plants. I took two crabs and started tying them and their dismembered claws that I previously held in my pockets to a drenched branch using some vines. I started sharpening the edge of the obsidian rock that I borrowed from Cass across another flat rock lying on the beach. The work tore up my hands something awful. When it was adequately sharp and the crabs were struggling against their ropes, I stabbed them both right above their eyes with the knife to test its sharpness and to put the poor things out of their misery. I then proceeded to take my makeshift crab skewers and roasted them on the open fire, some of their juices splashing onto the campfire and making it flicker and spark. I turned the skewer to the other side, making sure both sides cooked evenly.

When I started smelling smoke, I pulled the branch away from the fire and set it next to me. The one crab I had left alive started moving, and I placed the flat rock on top of the creature hoping to save it later. The crispy vines that were strapping the crabs onto the stick were burnt to a crisp by now but gave off a thyme scent, and the wood itself gave off notes of hickory. I pulled the carapace off of the bigger one, and it presented me with pure crab butter. I checked my Cook card to see a new temporary card spawned from it.

Fire-Roasted Crab Roe - C

Weak Protection against Fire Magic - 1 hour

Tough Skin - 1 hour

Like a bowl, I tilted the crab’s shell towards my mouth and started sucking on the crab’s brains. It was gritty, but the fattiness, smokiness, and brininess of the crab brain juice was heavenly. I savored it and thought Cass would love this, though he was always squeamish about eating innards and anything but the claw meat. Speaking of the claw meat, I used a rock to break the claws and removed the broken shell to reveal the juicy meat.

Fire-Roasted Crab Meat - C

Slight increase experience gain - 1 hour

Tough Skin - 1 hour

Both cards were merely information cards that disappeared when my food was finished. I wondered if these stats or buffs meant anything. According to my Soul Food card, eating food I made myself gave me buffs, but how could I tell if I was getting more experience? Fire magic? I examined my hands where I started scraping up raw due to sharpening the obsidian rock. The part of my hand that was once pink and sore started callousing over in a thick shell. It still hurt something awful, and the pain throbbed underneath it. With my other hand, I reached for the fire and immediately pulled it back when it got too hot.

So it didn’t protect much against real fires or heat. I just need a wizard to hit me with a fire spell to test it out, surely.

Sometime through this, I had accepted something was off about this place that I was in and had a "No Longer in Kansas" moment. The rules of this world were different, and I had to learn them quickly to protect myself and, more importantly, to protect Cass. If I could make better food, I could get better buffs, and well... I think humans needed to eat to survive anyway. I would need pots, pans, and clean water. I would need salt, sugar, oil, and tallow. I would need shelter from the elements like rain. God, a rainstorm right now would kill us. I thought about all the things I needed to do, and somehow I felt better knowing another adult was here with me and this golem creature was here to help as well.

The sea and forest were abundant with forage and sources of food. I just needed tools to gather them. A knife, a stove, a large pot, a grill, a fishing rod, traps, seashells, charcoal, soap, and so much more, and all I have so far is a fire. I looked at Cass’ rock and realized I could knock one of those things off my list.

Stripping the bark from palm leaves and then peeling off fibers from the bark like string cheese, I made tiny strings. I got an arm-length wood stick and snapped it to make a piece as long as my hand. I started grinding and chipping the dull end of Cass’ obsidian rock. When it was in the shape I wanted, I jammed the end into the stump of the branch and wedged it in there. I then started wrapping the stumps of the rock that was embedded into the knife to the branch with string and vines. All the while I was working, I noticed the golem’s eyes lit up as if he was paying attention. The dim blue that emitted from his head followed my movements as I wandered around looking for material. When I was happy with the construction of the knife, I began sharpening it even further. I sucked on the cold brains of the other crab I cooked before I worked and, like work gloves, my hands were protected against the constant friction of me trying to sharpen the edge of the knife.

Finally done, I ran the knife across the banana leaf, the plastic fabric of the leaf easily parting away like butter. Almost as a newly acquired reflex, I reached into my card holdings in my palms and felt instinctively that a new card was there. The art on the card was a man holding a hammer and a board with a nail in it.

Crafting - 1

With the Crafting card up and my newly crafted knife in my hand, a new card popped up.

Obsidian Knife

Quality D

Not surprised about the D grade the card system gave it. The thing looked like something out of a paleolithic archeological dig. It would have to do for now, but I felt exhausted. How much time had passed? I thought I’d be able to hold out through the night, but my eyelids were heavy. I came over to where my brother was sleeping and laid down next to him. I would just rest my eyes for a bit.

After what felt like a minute, I woke up to my brother jostling me to wakefulness.

“Rye, wake up, someone’s here!” Cass said.

“That girl? Just tell her to let me sleep for a few more minutes,” I groaned.

“No. Someone else. It’s a guy.”