Camellia circled the old crashed vessel. There was little for Camellia to do with the ship. In fact, there was nothing to do. She’d already examined Eva’s little flyer, with the help and guidance of Eva. It was strange to study an artifact with one of its originators looking on. Camellia highly recommended the process. Eva had solved Camellia’s puzzle in a matter of minutes.

In regards to the original puzzle – the symbol – Camellia now understood it to mean ‘Recycled material.’ She could not explain the process; she only knew that the Lurriens prided themselves on reusing whatever materials had gone into the probe and every other object they manufactured.

Meladee looked at the sky. “Gonna get dark.” Meladee glanced at Camellia. “Gonna get cold.”

Twilight fell around them, and the sun sunk below the horizon. Already, it took the warmth out of the air and absconded with it, to another part of Iruedim, where it would soon be day.

Camellia stopped pacing. “Oh, I know.” She took one last look at the ship and turned back to face Meladee. “I guess that’s it. We just help Eva find a new place to live.” She shrugged. “We can’t say a thing about this though or where Eva comes from.”

Eva sat on the edge of her flyer. “Because I’m the only android.”

Meladee held up a finger. “Bingo.” She waved her companions towards Faustina. “Come on. Let’s sleep. I think we’re done for the day.” She pointed at Camellia. “You learned your Lurrien ABC’s.” Meladee pointed to Eva. “And, you’re going to live in Tagtrum.”

Camellia stopped and half-laughed. “Just a minute. Who said she was going to live in Tagtrum? What about Groaza? Come to think of it – what about Ponk?”

Eva’s eyes moved between the two women.

Meladee spread her hands. “We’ve got the best holidays. Parades on New Year’s, costumes, and lots of free candy and chocolate.”

Camellia gave a thoughtful nod but countered, “Groazan New Year’s has masked balls, costumes, good food, plenty of chocolate. But, no candy.”

Meladee smirked. “We Tagtrumians have a monopoly on sickeningly sweet foodstuffs.”

Eva smiled. “I don’t eat organic food, and candy is last on my list of potential consumables.”

“We’ve got other holidays,” Meladee quickly added. “We’ve got Midwinter. Loads of presents in shiny paper and trees indoors.”

Eva raised her eyebrows. “That’s interesting. Midwinter is a holiday that Groazans don’t celebrate?”

“No...not exactly.” Meladee frowned and crossed her arms.

Camellia couldn’t help but smile. “Groaza is much the same for Midwinter, but we don’t use real trees.”

Meladee grumbled, “They get these weird, leafless things made out of wire or iron and hang baubles on them.”

“I’m rather fond of iron,” Eva said with a smile.

Meladee growled.

Or, was that Meladee?

Camellia peered into the twilight. Just ahead of their ship, she saw the shape of four squat animals. Wolves.

One bent and chomped at a piece of discarded food. The others watched the three women.

Camellia felt her mouth fall open. She stared.

“God. Who left food out?” Meladee backed away.

“You.” Eva hopped off her ship’s wing and strode towards the wolves.

“Don’t hit my ship,” Meladee called.

Camellia’s face seemed frozen in shock. “Oh, you’ve got to help her.”

“I’m thinking. I’m thinking of spells that don’t involve fire,” Meladee hissed.

Camellia couldn’t imagine how many spells involved fire, but she was sure it was a lot. And, Meladee did seem the person to like that kind of thing.

One of the wolves crouched low and growled at Eva.

The wolf jumped.

Eva dodged to the right, spun her staff, and caught it in the flank. It landed on all four paws, without much of a sound.

The rest of the wolves ran for Eva. One bit for her legs. Eva cracked it over the head, and it yelped. A second wolf nipped at Eva. She swung her staff and whipped it across the face.

From then on, the wolves didn’t attack one at a time. They moved together. Eva spun her staff and hit two; one in the face, and one in the gut. The third got her on the wrist, and Eva said something unintelligible. Eva pulled her gun and shot the fourth, the biggest wolf, in the head. The rest ran away.

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Eva watched them go. She fingered her wrist and turned back to rejoin Camellia and Meladee.

“So…I’m sorry about the whole leaving food out thing. And, about just watching you. Cause I could have helped, but you’re pretty mesmerizing. Real fast,” Meladee mumbled.

“I could have been faster.” Eva showed them her wrist.

Camellia gasped and put a hand to her cheek. She saw wire and metal through the slit.

“The flesh that crawls over and infects my land makes most of the animals slower. I’ve gotten used to that.” Eva touched the gap. “It’ll mend.”

Camellia’s heart started to beat at a normal pace. She hadn’t realized how fast it’d been going. She moved her hand from her cheek to her chest.

“So…” Meladee began. “Two things. One – flesh? That sounds a bit worse than I dunno…monsters. Why didn’t you call it that to begin with because that evokes a whole different image, and I’m starting to think Lurren is a bit more of a shithole than you’ve let on.”

Eva glared at Meladee.

Meladee held up two fingers. “Two. If you want to live in Tagtrum, you can’t get hurt. Not even that little. You’re going to have to pick a really safe career.” Meladee gestured to Eva’s wrist. “Cause if I was your neighbor, and I saw that.” Meladee shook her head. “It’d be over for you.”

Eva let her hand fall to her side and drooped. Her head hung and her hair covered her face.

Camellia thought there might be no place on Iruedim that Eva fit, like she fit in her lost Lurren. Even Ponk, a place with steam and proto-robots, would not be a perfect fit. Eva would be a curiosity to them, if they ever found out. She might even be a candidate for immediate dissection. If nothing fit, where would Eva go?

Camellia sighed.

“Let’s just sleep,” Meladee said.

The following evening, the trio sat below deck. Camellia had a plan. At least, she knew what she wanted to do, and she wished her new friends would come along for it. Truthfully, it was more than a wish. She needed Eva; she needed Meladee, but first, she needed to tell them.

“So, I’ve done a lot of thinking,” Camellia said. She looked Eva in the eyes. “You don’t need to live in Tagtrum or Groaza.”

Meladee interrupted, “She doesn’t? What did I miss?”

“Whichever one you choose will be just another prison for you.”

Meladee scoffed. “How is Tagtrum a prison?”

Camellia ignored the comment. “You can go back to Lurren and change things. You could…”

Eva shook her head. “I couldn’t go back. I can’t look at that flesh anymore and feel so…”

“Helpless?” Camellia stared at Eva. “We have records of the Lurrien war, but they’ve been reduced to stories. How good were your records on the subject? Do you remember what weapons affected the monsters? There are no monsters on the rest of Iruedim. Something has to work.”

Eva shook her head. “I have no idea. We don’t study that history. All we were taught was that Lurriens had a duty to contain the creature.”

“Yes, how?” Camellia asked, leaning forward.

“Aside from the storms around our continent, I don’t know. Creature containment was confidential. Winter affected it, but it always came back.”

Meladee put a hand on Camellia’s arm. “Wait. You want to go to Lurren and kill monsters?”

Camellia took a deep breath. “I want a ship. For what I have in mind, I’d need a bigger one. Do you think we could get a larger ship?” Camellia asked. She gestured to the walls around them. “Perhaps one the size of Faustina or maybe a little bigger?”

“The creature has all the ships. It was difficult enough to steal this one from the edge of the flesh and repair it,” Eva said.

“If we had a ship…” I could show it to the other anthropologists, especially Adalhard. Camellia pushed the thought out of her mind. She planned to aim higher, to do something that would take the focus off Eva and, possibly, make her career. She took a deep breath. “If we had a ship, we could check what’s outside the wormhole.”

Meladee flung her hands up. “Whoa! What good does that do?”

Camellia sighed. She gestured to Eva. “If you don’t want to get another ship, will you at least look out the wormhole for me, with your little vessel?”

“I won’t do that,” Eva objected. “My fighter’s sensors state that wormhole’s unstable. It’s going to shift soon. If I go out there, I may not be able to get back.” Eva shook her head and repeated, “I won’t do that.”

Camellia sighed. “Alright, no wormhole – not yet. But, I still think we could get a ship. I still think there might be a way to get through that flesh.”

“She’s nuts,” Meladee addressed Eva.

Eva frowned. She didn’t agree or disagree.

Camellia looked at both her new friends. “Let me tell you what I’m thinking. Just let me talk.”

Eva stared blankly but with attention. Meladee narrowed her eyes.

Camellia looked first at Meladee. “We badly need some new technology. Iruedim is stalled. We need to see what’s outside the wormhole, and just in case its hostile, we need to be prepared. The few times a hostile group came through the wormhole we had advanced technology to fend them off. Now, it’s sitting under a pile of flesh.”

Camellia looked at Eva next. “You want to go back and retrieve your friends. Admit it. You don’t want to live in Tagtrum. I don’t think you want to live in Groaza. At the very least, let’s see if we can rescue more of your people. If you get them, you can take something of home with you.”

“I’m the only truly advanced robot. They aren’t the same as me,” Eva said, but she frowned at Camellia’s denouncement.

“Obviously, we’re not the ideal people for this job. But, if we won’t go to Lurren, I think we should do some research and take our findings to someone who can do something about that thing and maybe recover a ship. We know Iruedian weapons affect that creature. Between my research skills and Eva’s knowledge, we might discover something that others missed.” Camellia could see that they were skeptical still. She reached into her bag and pulled out a book. She flipped through to one of the only renderings of a Lurrien monster. She handed the book to Eva. “Meladee and I are never going to see that thing. We won’t live long enough, but I imagine you could live indefinitely. You want to see it all happen again?”

Eva took the picture and stared at it. She frowned. “We can do your research.”

“Yeah, I can be okay with that.” Meladee nodded. “If it’s just a little trip to a library, that’ll be fine. Then, we hand all our work over to the heroes and start a bed and breakfast.”

Camellia smiled. “Uh…” She let the bed and breakfast comment pass. “So, we can still use your ship?”

“Yeah, that’s fine.” Meladee got up from her seat. “Now, I have to go to sleep. Tomorrow we can figure out where to go and how to get there.”

“I agree.” Camellia yawned and rose from her seat. “Oh, Eva do you sleep tonight?”

“I may as well. Though, I could keep watch.”

“Go to sleep,” Meladee ordered. “If we all get eaten by a dragon in the night, none of this will be our problem anymore.”

“So true,” Camellia agreed, with a nod. She hadn’t achieved her plan, but she got close enough. Close enough could be good enough.