The light filtering through the rough fabric of Jun's bag gave it a sparkling quality that almost made it beautiful. Almost. The effect was ruined by the knowledge that the majestic slabs and alien curves that reached out in some abstract defiance was simply a pile of junk that Jun happened to be carrying when he arrived here.

Sachiko stretched -or tried to, anyway. Her body felt cold and her limbs were stiff as rigor mortis, barely moving. She was so used to the warmth provided by Jun's head that she had almost forgotten what it felt like to go torpid. Sachiko sighed and waited for her body to warm.

Outside she could hear the sounds of conversation. Jun was talking with Amardamu, trading questions for answers as the two presumably made their way to his village. The rocking was annoying, and she could feel that one of Jun's unidentifiable possessions had fallen on her, but it could've been worse. She could tell he was trying to keep the bag still as best he could, and from his perspective she could imagine the bag really would appear quite steady.

It took approximately an hour for boredom to win the day. Tired of listening in on a conversation she wasn't party to, Sachiko pushed the strange cannister off of herself and scooched against one of Jun's books. The bag's fabric was rough, but not enough to climb, and so she decided to reach over the top of the book and pull herself up instead. The ground was less steady here. Their own pendulums on a grand scale, the taller objects wobbled as violently as they could in the relatively confined space. Relatively. Sachiko hated that she was small enough to consider this spacious.

Reaching up, she grasped the open end of the bag and squeezed her head through it. What met her was bright, warm and dry.

They weren't in the forest anymore.

All around them was a wall of golden-yellow stalks, rising to roughly chest-height against the giants. The stalks were distant, though, and evidently Amardamu was leading them by road.

Cultivar gave way to cultivar as they passed through dozens of kilometers of tree-less farmland. When the plants were short enough, she could see that canals had been dug to irrigate the crops, of which there would only be one kind per field. Ocassionally, she would see a giant tending to them, sometimes dressed plainly as Amardamu and othertimes in colourful skirts and shawls decorated with rows of geometric patterns.

Before long, they had arrived before the most bizzare sight Sachiko had seen yet: a house the size of an early-modern arcology. The lumpy plaster-white walls were shaped into an unnatural cuboid fourty meters tall and at least twice that number lengthwise. Great rectangular holes punched through the walls to serve as windows and doorframes, guarded by shutters and a door-proper made of strips of carved wood bars joined together to form solid panels that had become greviously warped and bleached by the elements. Even from here, she could tell some of the gaps were large enough for her to crawl through.

Around the house stretched a low wall of the same material, enclosing a variety of vases and a pile of logs. Speaking of logs, when Amardamu opened the door, Sachiko could see now that the vast cavern within was supported by great logs whose ends she had seen poking out just below the roof.

If it all weren't so impressively huge, Sachiko would have found the scene hilarious. It was like the giants wanted to live up to every stereotype her people had dreamed up and more - from building with unimaginative angles to cutting dead wood into shapes they could've easily grown. No one would believe her if she published a book about it back home; even children's stories painted them less brutishly.

Amardamu admitted them into the hovel, which compared to the sheer intensity of the sunlight outside was dark enough to require a moment to adjust. In the dimness, she could see a vibrant rug was laid out on the packed-earth ground and arrayed through alcoves in the walls were wood-bar shelves. Here and there sat clay pots, wicker baskets and numerous stone tools.

The world violently shook, tilting up into the air as Jun kneeled down to fiddle with his shoes. Seeing Amardamu's eyes drawn near her position, Sachiko ducked down into the bag.

"What'cher doin' that for, boy? Keep yer' shoes on!" he chastised, and she wondered the same thing. Cultural?

"Sorry?" Jun at least, seemed equally confused.

The world shook as it descended, and Sachiko gave a wary glance to the shifting contents as it did so. Thankfully, no danger presented itself, and once again, she was forced to listen in on their conversation from these dark confines.

There was a scraping noise of blunt metal against wood. "Here, I don't feel right about sending ya' off without a weap'n. The knife's a piece-a shit, but it's all I c'n spare."

"Thanks!"

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"Yer welcome lad; I wish I could do more fer ya. I'm sure if y' told those stories over in Susa, thy'd pay good coin t' hear. Inna mean time, stay wit me a few. I'll teach'ya t' fish an you can buy yerself some goods wi'-th' catch."

"I'd be honored, Mr. Amardamu." Sachiko didn't like that he'd made the decision without her, but she couldn't blame him. Useful skills and money both were too valuable to pass up.

"I told ya - it's Amardamu; don't know where ya' gettin' the rest from."

They talked some more and lunch was served - some dish of meat and vegetables from what she'd heard and smelled. Sachiko glumly chewed on her nutrition bar in the darkness. After they'd eaten, Amardamu had taken to showing Jun around the village, introducing him to a wirlwind of names-without-faces. Feeling it too risky, Sachiko remained in the bag. At least some of the conversations were mildly amusing.

"Oy, Amardamu you old git, you sure that's not a spirit?"

"Nah, jus' a traveller down on his luck."

"But them eyes..."

"Y' never seen 'n easterling b'fore, boy? The're all like that; Ignorent shit neve' lef' yer mum's sigh' - thinka women's jus' gonna walk inta yer' arms. Ha!"

To Jun's credit, he tried to get some time alone, but every attempt was foiled by the too-friendly man and his never-ending tour. It was only after dinner (another meal of meat and vegetables, although the meat smelled quite different this time) that the two finally retired for the night and Jun gave her the all-clear.

"Finally!" Sachiko yelled, clambering out of the unzipped bag and bursting into the air. Sweet freedom! Turning around, she was surprised just how haggard Jun looked.

"Sorry," he whispered. "I swear I didn't forget you!" His face was the bright red of irritation, and his entire posture spoke of exhaustion. Between his messy hair, the stains that had started to grow and the dried blood from their first monster, Jun looked the image of a punished man. Sachiko let herself drift a little bit further away from him.

"Don't worry," she said, trying to smile for his comfort, "I figured as much."

Jun gulped and nodded. "Did you hear what we were talking about?"

"I followed most of it. He gave you a knife, right?"

"Yeah," he said, bringing out a savage looking black and silver-edged blade. "I'm surprised it's iron; I thought they were bronze-age."

Sachiko shrugged. Savage as it looked, she could tell it wouldn't hold an edge. Too soft. And history had never particularly interested her.

"You're not mad about me staying?" he asked, nervous.

Sachiko chuffed and smiled at his temerity; he was learning. "Nah, you made the right call. Although, what did Amar-whatever mean by fish?"

This seemed to surprise Jun, as it took a few seconds for him to collect his thoughts. "Remember those silvery animals in the river?" he asked, searching Sachiko's face for any signs of annoyance, "Well, they're called fish. And hunting them is called fishing. Do you really not know what fish are?" He seemed seriously confused.

Sachiko shook her head. "I mean, I know that there are aquatic vertebrates in Earth's oceans, but the lessons were pretty short: monsters used to live in the water, they're dead now, yadda yadda ecological collapse on a planet you've never been to." She had to admit, though, that after seeing what an intact forest looks like, it was more difficult to be aloof about the matter.

Jun seemed shocked, as if the full weight of her words that night in the cave were only just sinking in. "Jesus..." he whispered.

Sachiko let him have his moment, deciding instead to think about the future. Amardamu's offer was even better than she had thought - not only money, but a stable source of food for Jun so long as they stayed near waterways. Indeed, if fishing meant to hunt the "fish", then Jun would need a more appropriate weapon as well; a knife wouldn't do. He'd need something with reach...

"Actually, speaking of fishing, I've got an idea. Pass your scissors," she ordered.

This shocked Jun out of his contemplation, and he was quick to procure the as-expected-taller-than-Sachiko tool. Like many of her own tools back home, the scissors were simply cut sheets of metal, threaded on an axis. The steel looked far superior to the knife's.

"I could split these," she said, mentally considering how best to remove the axis, "and you could attach one of the blades onto a stick of your own. I could even use my vibroknife to make the rest of it sharp, too. Wouldn't be especially big or sturdy to your scale, but at least it'd be sharp and have reach."

Jun's eyes were almost sparkling with excitement. He exclaimed, "Sachiko you're a genius!", and she couldn't help but hold herself straighter and smile with pride.

When she'd had her fill of preening, she continued, "We'll need something to secure it to, though. Ask your friend to help find you a pole. Also," she said, another idea forming, "I want a cut."

"A cut?"

She gestured at the scissors. "Of the metal. I could make a pretty killer spear of my own if I attached the vibroknife to a length of it."

Jun hummed, twiddling the scissors in his hands. "I think there's a bit of metal that goes under the handles. Maybe you could use that?"

Sachiko grinned. "Perfect."

Time and curses alike flew as the poor tool was cut into, the guts shaved and then intermingled with those of Jun's other possessions. An hour later, they had their result:

The makeshift spear looked like a toy in Jun's hands - not even a toothpick. Nevertheless, she had to caution the idiot from flicking the tip, lest the vibroblade go right through his finger as it had the significantly tougher steel. It was crude, there was no getting around that, but between Jun's monstrously tough knots and the glue (apparently, that had been one of the cylinders in his possession) binding it together, the spear felt sturdy when he passed its two-meter length into her hands.

Somehow, this felt right.

"Alright, I'm going to find a spot somewhere out of sight," Sachiko said, flipping the vibroblade back to conserve energy. Picking a window, she took a moment to stand on the sill before addressing Jun more earnestly, "Thanks."

He smiled.