Luna had given Parrot a little time to get his copy of the map done, then picked it up and stuffed it back into her pocket after it transformed back into the wooden cube shape. Parrot promised to let her know before he set sail, but he expected to be done in the evening and he would not set sail in the dark if he could help it. After the day of unloading everyone needed a good night’s rest.
Luna went over towards the beach and observed the flurry of activity. Mostly men were still hauling boxes of equipment up the beach, while the women were working on setting up a small tent village. They had organized a kind of day care, with two young women watching over the children.
Luna now saw that she could not have picked a better spot for her tent. It was out of the way of all the coming and going and the settlers, maybe soon villagers, were setting up their temporary tents near the river. Luna walked around for a bit, drawing some attention with her outfit and weapons on display, looking for William. She needed a quick talk with their council and keep them informed.
She finally spotted the group a bit away from the tent site and as she walked over she could start to make out a heated argument about who would be building where and who should be prioritized. Just like Parrot had told her. The group heard Luna approach and turned towards her. William looked relieved that their ‘discussion’ had been interrupted.
“Luna, what brings you over to us?” He quickly inquired before the other people could get a word in.
Luna made a small wave with one hand as a greeting and got straight to the point. “First. Before you build anything solid, you have to cut down the closer trees and build a stockade for the village.” She was standing in front of a half circle of the group, that they were all men was not a big surprise. Before she could elaborate on the reasons for the urgency of a wall she was interrupted.
“Now listen here girl. I know you’re supposed to be some Pathfinder, but you don’t get to tell us what we do.” A younger looking man said from the rear of the group, which elicited approving nods from the other men around him. Luna focused on the man to find out his level.
[Christoph]
Level 37, Human
She raised an eyebrow at him and asked in a honeysweet voice. “So did Christoph just decide for all of you that you weren’t going to listen to the reasons why I recommend it?”
An awkward shuffle ensued, until William spoke up again. “No. He doesn’t speak for us. I for one would very much like to hear what you have to say.”
Luna ignored the venomous look Christoph was giving her for calling him out in front of everyone. “I am here for exactly one reason, to scout the area and find out if anything else lives around here. I would still be on my longer circular route around the settlement and would have climbed the hills to our north” she pointed towards them, where they could just be seen above the tree line, “if I had not spotted the first larger animals.”
She was once more interrupted, this time by another man. “Pah, some animals. We’re over 100 grown adults here right now and few of us have a Combat Class as their second, not at a high level, but enough to scare away some random animals.”
Luna just sighed. “Would you just shut up for a moment. Near the hills I found deer like animals and one of them, at level 27, was classified as a Monster. And before you start trying to talk that down, it wasn’t the only one. A level 32 Monster cat, called a Jaguar, attacked them and took down one of the deer. And don’t get fooled by it being called a cat, it was at least 80kg heavy.”
At this point Luna was trying to look as tall as possible and raised her finger to emphasize her next point. “It could take down you, or your wife, your kids, even myself, with the same ease, if it manages to ambush any one of us.” She had pointed at random people with each possible victim she listed and now it seems she was finally getting through to them.
At once everyone started talking at once, bringing up ideas on how to proceed, but William once again jumped in to get them in order. “Silence!” he bellowed. When silence had descended once more he asked Luna. “Do you have a suggestion?”
Luna nodded and waved for the group to follow her, while talking loudly over her shoulder. “Indeed I do. We are lucky to have a location that only requires us to build the stockade in two directions.” She pointed to the south. “Here the river builds a solid obstacle and the beach behind us is cut off from access as well. Which leaves east and north.
She stopped in a location roughly a hundred meters away from where the beach started and turned around to address the group again. “As I see it there are two options. Option one is you go for a 100 hundred meter radius for the village proper, starting here and going a quarter circle over to the north and then west to end at the cliff. That would mean roughly 150 meters of stockade, which should be manageable with the number of people you have. Option two would be a radius of just 50 meters, that is just around 80 meter stockade, but that would make it impossible to set up even small fields inside the stockade. Your choice.”
Her quick math to calculate the length of the stockade was discussed quickly and someone confirmed the numbers, which earned her another approving nod from some of the men. They quickly settled on the longer stockade and would start working on it immediately. Luna cautioned them to always work in crews of a few men, as single humans walking into the forest might not come back out alive.
Her message delivered, she set back out along the river. Her next priority was to find out if the river had easily accessible banks and if any smaller streams were coming down from the hills nearby. Places with easy access to freshwater were always a sure way to find animals and she needed to find out more about the wildlife.
While the ground she was walking on seemed to be flat, the river had been a good two meters below her in its riverbed earlier and now the water was nearly at the edge. The trees were also getting closer to the river now and she only had a few meters left between the river and the rising hills on her left. Only a hundred meters later the stone had vanished into the river and it now extended neatly up to the trees and earth was rising from the water. Luna climbed up the small earthen rise and realized that the group of hills must be extending up to the river here. She kept close to the river and soon found a small stream of water coming down through the forested hills.
For the whole walk Luna had been checking for tracks on the earthy ground next to the river rocks. So far she had not seen anything that could be attributed to a larger animal, but now with the river much more easily accessible and the small stream coming down the mountain she quickly found deer tracks near the water and followed them on a frequently traveled deer trail through the forest. It was leading up the hill, in a roughly north west direction and Luna decided she might as well use the well traveled path.
The underbrush in the forest near the coast had been rather sparse, but here with abundant water coming down from the hills and a light canopy the ground was covered in green bushes, ferns and other plants. In some areas the forest floor was overrun by brambles and vines that were impossible to cross and the deer trail swerved around them. Upon entering the thicker part of the forest Luna had slung the bow over her shoulder and was now wielding her machete to cut away offending vines that still got in her way.
The deer trail soon turned further north and the climb started to become steeper. The underbrush got noticeably lighter the higher Luna climbed and the trees changed from the deciduous trees to coniferous trees at the point when the first rocks started to peek out from the ground. The bow back in her hand Luna carefully moved out between the last trees, the last 50 meters up to the hilltop were only covered by grass and a few bushes, the actual peak formed a single outcropping of rock standing out from the surrounding area by another two or three meters.
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Luna quickly made it up the hill, while carefully scanning her surroundings for animals. Nothing moved and she did not see anything suspicious anywhere, but after seeing the large Jaguar appear out of nowhere that did not make her feel any better. The last steps up the rock on the hilltop behind her Luna finally had a chance to see more of this new world she had stopped upon. She first turned south west and could just make out where the river ran into the bay where they had landed, the humans working on setting up their camp only visible as small dots, even with her improved vision.
To the south of the river the land rose again, but not as much as on this side. It leveled out after only a few meters up and a thick forest hid anything else that might be behind or under it from Luna’s view.
Luna turned towards the east and that is where the first big surprise was waiting for her. In the distance she could make out a large body of water, from which the river was flowing into the sea. If that was in fact a lake up there, it would be a really good place to find more animals and maybe set up a second settlement at some point. She would leave it to other people to worry about that and figure out if the river could be used to travel further inland with boats or barges.
The hill she was currently standing on belonged to a chain of hills running past the lake in a east to north-east direction. Beyond that in the east and north east she could only make out the green of forests and maybe grassland, but nothing definitive. Directly north of the hills the land fell off quickly, with lots of rocky ground and only few trees, until it met another river running through the valley. On the other side of the river the usual forest green canopy started up again and everything else beyond that was lost to her.
And finally to the west was a bit of land and then the endless ocean as far as her eyes could reach. The sun was currently on its way down to sink into the water and Luna realized that she had spent more time climbing the hills than expected and had to hurry if she wanted to make it back before dark.
Luna took one more look around and only saw a few of the same deer she had seen yesterday on a nearby hill, but nothing else stood out. She climbed down the rock and started the trek back towards the beach. She tried to stay vigilant, but the forest got denser quickly and she had to resort to using the machete to clear an occasional vine or bramble again.
Her attention was on cutting down a few vines that blocked her path when she heard a squealing behind her and was suddenly hit in the legs and stumbled over herself and fell to the ground. She kept rolling, managing to turn the machete blade away from her and struggled back to one knee. A few feet away from her stood some kind of wild boar, which had seemingly felt threatened and charged her. Luckily this one did not have any kind of tusks and was rather small, but it had still hurt like hell to get barreled over by it a full sprint.
Luna slipped the bow from her shoulder, praying that it had not been damaged by her roll and dropped it at her side. Next she grabbed her axe and rose back to both feet, staying in a low crouch ready to jump away. The boar did not move towards her any further and Luna backed away a step. She rose back up to her full height, which turned out to be a mistake as the boar instantly charged her again. Seeing it clearly from her full height, the boar barely reached her knees, but it was damn quick on its feet.
[Boar]
Level 9
Luna jumped to the side and some brambles tangled in her cloth and she had to forcefully tear herself away. The time she lost doing that was enough for the boar to turn around again and start charging again. With only a second to react Luna did a small sidestep and struck in an overhead strike with the pick side of her axe. Thanks to training or luck the spike hit the boar in the eye, penetrating deeply into its brain. While that did finish off the boar, it did not stop the momentum and Luna went tumbling to the ground for a second time.
She just lay there on the ground for a few seconds telling herself how damn stupid it had been to try to cross through the middle of the forest, she should have gone back using the same deer trail she had used to get up the hill. This could have gone a lot worse than it had and she promised herself to avoid areas in which she had no proper vision in the future.
Luna scrambled back up and when she picked up the boar she noticed how small and light it really was. By her guess the animal was just barely 20kg, and since she was not carrying her backpack she decided the boar would serve nicely for dinner. To Luna’s great relief her bow was undamaged, mainly thanks to the forest floor offering enough cushion to prevent it.
Axe back in its sling on her hip, bow on her shoulder and the boar awkwardly balanced over the other shoulder she made her back through the forest. A few minutes later the ground got steeper and Luna was able to make out the soft noise of the nearby river. She came out roughly half the distance between the settler camp and the place where she first turned north into the hills.
When Luna reached the settler camp night had fallen and the first thing she saw was the big number of fires going. Someone had organized for small ones to build an outer perimeter around their camp, and in total three groups of two men were keeping watch right now. When Luna appeared in the fire light a small commotion broke out until it was clear who was approaching.
Luna waved towards the people and walked between the fires, looking for William. She found him at one of the three central fires, at which various types of food were being prepared over the flame or in the embers of the fire. Dropping the boar she told him. “I have no idea how you want to distribute the boar, just leave a big piece for me. I have to find Parrot.”
William wasn’t looking too happy to be settled with the ungrateful task of portioning not enough boar between too many people, but a little fresh meat was better than none and some of their fishers had been successful with fishing lines and rowboats out in the bay, so it wasn’t the only fresh food right now.
Luna did not care much about his problem, the day had taken a large toll on her and what she needed most was hot food and sleep, but first she had to get the damn Class Tablet and check in with Parrot. She found him at his tent drinking some type of liquor straight from the bottle with his feet propped up on the table.
When Luna stepped in he raised the bottle in a salute. “There you are.” Looking her over he could see what kind of day she had. “That kind of day, huh. Here, take a swig. Always helps!”
Luna had dropped into a chair and he slid the bottle over to her. Unsure what else to do she simply took a long sip and tried to swallow, only to spit out the foul tasting mixture. “By the gods. What is that stuff? It tastes like someone died in that bottle.” Luna accused Parrot.
“It’s an acquired taste, but that is a little harsh. Show some respect to a sailor's best friend. Since you don’t want to drink with me, let's get this over with so I can sleep on a ship tonight.” Parrot stood up and pulled the Class Tablet from a chest. After handing it off to Luna he simply shouldered the chest and started to walk towards the beach.
“See you in a few months. I’ll try to hurry, if we can get out of here that is. Still no idea what that wall was. Whatever, try not to die! Oh one last thing, I left the Class Stone with William, not that they can do much with it right now and he also has a list of all the settlers and their Classes.” And that was it. Parrot was disappearing into the darkness and Luna walked back over to William, the Class Tablet wrapped in her cloak and stuffed behind her belt.
“William. I need a favor. My tent is still over there.” She pointed towards a dark spot outside of the half circle of fires.
“No it isn’t, William replied. “I had some people move it. It’s just behind this row of tents, the last tent towards the beach. I personally helped get your backpack and chest over there, to make sure nobody went through your stuff.”
That was unexpectedly helpful and Luna thanked him profusely. She walked towards the beach and just as he had said, there was her tent. Now in the open instead of between bushes, but still standing a bit apart from the other tents and out of the way. Luna crawled inside and opened the chest with her key, taking out some things to hide the class tablet under, just in case. Before putting it in, Luna remembered the second item Michelle had given her and she slapped her head. She rummaged through her backpack and retrieved the Homerfinder from between her clothes. She layed it onto the class tablet and injected some mana into it and suddenly the previously inert needle started rotating.
Luna looked at it confused until she realized that with the class tablet right under it and extending on all four sides, it was trying to point into all directions at the same time. She closed the lid on the Homefinder and stuffed it into a pocket, then finally dropped the class tablet in her chest, closed and locked it. Hopefully some dinner was ready by now.