I studied Alex, trying not to be obvious about it. She listened intently to Ham as he described how his armor worked and charged using the crystals above us in the camp for a faster charge, rather than just waiting. Her questions about the world reminded me of Ham's questions when I’d first found him in the forest fighting a level 3 Compy. I didn’t need to rescue him; instead, he fought with everything he had, even though he clearly didn’t know as much as a young child of our people.

These humans lacked knowledge, along with elders to guide them through the world. In our clan, our elders helped us in our journey, guiding us down paths to growth and away from deadend journeys. What’s more, the elders taught even the youngest about how the greater universe interacted with such a small place as my village. It all connected, though that connection became stronger once you became a citizen. Soon, I’d explore the universe and the bigger cities as a full Citizen of the System universe. Until then, I was stuck here on this planet.

Not that I minded too much. Dengu couldn’t leave yet either. I wouldn’t leave him behind; we were bonded for life. Or, until he broke the bond, at least. I wasn’t going to break it for anything. He rested near me, and the bond between us hummed. The poison worked its way out as he ate food and relaxed. Thankfully, he healed faster than I did. Most beats did, but the healing crystal helped. The drained crystal hid under my shirt, and I worried about heading to the dungeon without that backup. It’d take a few days to recharge, unless I found a good place for it to soak up more water energy.

The fire crackled in front of me as I added another dried branch. The flames leaped higher, bringing it to the point that cooking some turtle soup wouldn’t take forever. Quietly, I pulled the reinforced wooden cooking bowl out of one of the storage areas near the wall and then added some water from a jug.

Alex’s voice filled the small camp as she explained the crash of the vessel she’d traveled on. Then, how their village in the compound had grown. Her voice rose as she spoke of another crash. Something called a shuttle, and leveling in the jungle over several days. Ham took over discussing what he knew from his visitors. Her story left me with several questions and I almost asked, the questions for the strange woman hovering on the tip of my tongue, but instead of the rush of things I wanted to know, I asked only the most pressing question.

“Alex, can I get some turtle meat from you?” I asked, pausing the conversation between the humans.

Dark eyes snapped to me, but she nodded as Ham stopped talking. A shiver went up my spine with all of her attention on me. My fingers itched to grab my bow. The bond between Dengu and I trembled, as his emotions pushed me to look away. My eyes fell as she pulled out a huge hunk of meat. More than we’d usually get out of one of the small turtles we hunted, and with the extra mouths to feed, I was thankful.

“Won’t the wood burn?” she asked, staring at the wooden pot. Then she pulled out another large piece.

My mouth watered thinking of the soup. So much meat. So much soup. Too bad the tadpoles had heard the dying call of the turtle. With Alex’s storage crystal, we could make the special soup for weeks with how much meat she had stored.

“No, it's reinforced by a shaper,” I explained as I took the meat and set it on a flat clean stone. I pulled out a small metal knife to cut up the bigger chunk into smaller pieces. “Some of my people can shape wood like clay, and make it so it doesn’t break or burn easily.” I snuck glances at her as I spoke, trying to figure out what kept me on guard around her. Ham didn’t give me the same feeling of danger. Then again, when he glanced at me it reminded me of how my father looked at my mother.

With his weird skin color and rounded ears, I wasn’t sure how I felt about the glances and the admiration. Ham was cute, in his own way, but there was so much he didn’t know that sometimes it felt like he was much younger than me.

Dengu huffed from where he rested on the floor. ‘Food?’ His head turned toward Alex and he huffed again. He needed more food, but the dried supplies in the camp weren’t good for him. He was a true carnivore, and could only eat raw meat.

“He reminds me of a dog,” said Alex. She pulled another large chunk of meat and tossed it in his direction. Thankfully, this one didn’t look like turtle meat. He snapped it out of the air with glee. Food won him over every time, and his hesitation around her dimmed the more she fed him.

Mine lingered.

“He likes turtle meat, but it’s a delicacy. Wait till you try the soup.” The dish was a rare treat, and usually we only hunted the little ones around level 15, right after they became turtles rather than ravenous tadpoles. The turtles didn’t swarm you like the tadpoles. “I hunt the smaller ones with my father for celebrations.” Worse were if the tadpoles turned into the fast version of their kind, versus the protected version. While they tasted even better than the turtles, hunting them became much more dangerous.

“Ah well, that was Allosaurus. I have a good amount of it stored from a recent attack at the compound. Dengu doesn’t seem to mind…” Alex hesitated before she continued, “Is your family nearby?”

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I shrugged, wondering how she’d hunted down one of the large predators. We normally left them alone as much as possible. “My village is north, about a two day journey from here if you run.” Thinking of my village reminded me of the dungeon. My family didn’t mind me hunting and training with Ham and being gone for several days. Unlike me, they’d run into other species before, and wanted me to use it as a learning experience. Ham, Dengu, and I weren’t enough to form a team to try the dungeon, which was the bigger concern. My parents had already mapped out who I’d run it with next year. Too bad for them, Alex had showed up. I wasn’t going to wait. “This will be a treat, and we can eat the entire pot.”

Alex smiled, showing off slightly pointed teeth. These humans were weird, and very different from one another, but from what Ham had said, the were all still human. He even had hair that grew on his body, not just on his head. It wasn’t the same for Alex. At least, her arms didn’t have the same dark hair.

“I’m excited,” said Alex. “Good food is important to me. I’m one of those people that’s always hungry.”

“If you are hunting and growing, that makes sense,” I replied. After a big hunt, my people celebrated with food and drink. More than usual. I took a deep breath to ask about her sharp teeth.

Ham fiddled with something on his armor and spoke up before I could. “I hope I get the skill I want.” This again. It was all he’d spoken about for the last three days as we tried to come up with a plan to kill the turtle. He’d leveled twice from this hunt and he had a good shot at getting what he wanted.

“Are you going to level after food?” I asked, deciding to go with the safe topic. We’d have plenty of time to get to know one another in the dungeon. I planned to take it nice and slow between fights, with plenty of time to recover. Plus, with Alex having a storage stone we could prepare completely differently than most parties. We weren’t limited by what we could carry.

Alex frowned, her head moving between the two of us. Her eyebrows were close together.

“Yeah, I’ll want to tinker with my armor after leveling. The dungeon doesn’t open till dawn, right?” He finally glanced up from his armor at me for confirmation.

“Correct.” I tossed a bunch of the cut up meat into the pot, stirring it before cutting up more.

“Wait, you don’t get skills until you level?” she asked, staring at Ham.

“Yeah, it's a limitation of my class.” Ham chuckled. “I’m hoping to get something to recharge the crystals, or some type of attack besides punching. I might have been talking about it nonstop for the last couple of days.”

“But you can teach yourself skills if you practice…” she replied.

“That only works if you know what you're doing,” I interrupted, but she’d hit one of Ham’s weak areas. He didn’t like to practice or train. No matter how much I urged him to, he’d rather get in a fight with a creature. He was always mumbling something about gaining levels faster that way. It had worked, I supposed, since he was close to my level after only being here for less than a season, but over time he needed to direct his growth with his skills a little better. The only way to do that was to put in the work.

“Yeah, but couldn’t you learn more hand-to-hand combat and increase your punching skill?” she asked.

“I’d need to know someone who knows hand-to-hand combat,” explained Ham. “Lenna offered to teach me the bow and knife, but I’m more of a melee fighter.”

Alex stood up with a smile. The fire light reflected in her eyes. “Well, I can teach you how to fight up close.” She glanced at me. “How long until the soup is ready?”

“I need to gather some mushrooms from the forest, and it needs to simmer for a while.” I stirred the soup again, and glanced at the meat that still needed to be cut up. “You have time.”

“Hand to hand?” Ham asked with a bright smile. “Nothing with your knife, right?”

“Of course, it will let me try to learn a few things as well.” The smirk that crossed Alex’s face made another slight shiver run up my back. Thankfully, she was on my team for the dungeon. I hoped she was, at least.

Ham led the way, leaving his armor standing near his bedroll, and Alex followed him out of the camp leaving me alone with Dengu.

I glared at the meat on the cutting board and focused on cutting it up. The conversation had distracted me from the work. Not to mention the glimpse of the crystal fire ring on her belt had surprised me. Alex not only had a burning knife, but a storage stone and that ring, something I hadn’t seen before. Her humming earlier had caused the crystals to glow brighter. Somehow, she could interact with them unlike anyone else in the village.

Still, I didn’t want to be cooking all night, so I hurried up and mixed the meat into the wooden pot. I needed to hunt down some mushrooms and herbs to add to the soup, but for now, I could get the meat warming up, at least.

“Dengu, don’t eat from the pot. If you do, I’ll let Alex know, and you don’t get any more treats…”

Dengu’s eyes went wider than normal and he bit into the hunk of meat he still had as he slowly tore small pieces off before eating. Normally, he ate a large meal every couple of days, but when he got hurt he needed to eat more to recover. The quill wounds were healed on the outside from the crystal, but until he slept he wouldn’t be at his peak. Tomorrow, when we all entered the dungeon, we needed to be at our best, ready to fight and learn.

My father might be a little upset about me doing it now, but I wasn’t going to stall for a year because we didn’t have many people my age in our village. Getting stuck at level 25 until I completed the dungeon wasn’t my path; I’d found my own party. Tossing the rest of the meat into the pot, I headed outside, pausing to watch the training.

Alex moved fast and with purpose. She fought well with her spear, and it turned out she fought well without it, too. Ham punched at her and she blocked with her arm, smirking. We’d make a good team, once we could become a team and not just a group of people. We wouldn’t have a choice, soon. Finish the dungeon, or fail and lose the opportunity to complete that one. The next low-level dungeon was a long way off, through some dangerous terrain for someone only level 25. I shook my head and crept into the ferns. Doubting us wouldn’t help. It was time to hunt some mushrooms, and hope for the best.