CHIRPS-AT-THE-MOON
Having an alien in the village had both good sides and bad sides. The good sides were that she knew things about how to do things somewhat better. And she was quite humble about that, so often the final skill improvement went to locals. That alleviated the fears of the locals that she would rise through the ranks insanely fast. She became quite proficient in foraging for certain things especially as she had Longstrider as a foundation skill and her many trips as well as her dedication to understanding this skill well allowed her to advance it surprisingly fast. The negative thing was the drones. They were easily handled but a low level nuisance nonetheless. The fact that their materials were strange and potentially dangerous according to Skips, didn’t make things better. As such, while Skips, the alien, was content with leading the things away, the others were less happy and so, a plan was hedged to try to persuade her kid Shivers and the alien to handle that weird element in the alien that according to her was causing her discomfort and allowed the drones to find her. She ran off to the place the aliens settled, though without a repository, it could not be called a village. Before Skips did, she returned her agricultural and foraging skills to the repository and took one particular skill at the highest level she could afford. Then, after the sun had set, she used her foundational Longstrider skill to depart. Chirps looked at her kid Shivers, who wanted to follow her and patted xir. “Be careful! The System gave you a quest. Whatever happens now, make sure to fulfil that one!”
Shivers-In-Sunlight agreed: “Certainly so. When we resolve this matter, Skips can assist me in it. System willing, this is easy.”
“System willing.” Chirps-At-The-Moon repeated, it sounded like a prayer.
CVETKA KRALJ
“So, you are telling me that there is an existing System that had integrated the planet and yet… things are like this?” Cvetka asked.
“Like this?” The person that once was Sarah didn’t understand.
“Primitive?” Cvetka asked.
“Why shouldn’t it be like this? There are high amounts of skill in many disciplines here on Tsanh. Village-of-the-Oasis-of-swimming-flowers-that-is-the-source-of-the-river-that-feeds-a-million-mouths has desalination and drip irrigation for their crops. Human villages only started this practice about 70 years before the system initiation. Tsanh is different from earth because it is Tsanh. It has its own geography, ecosystems and development,” the creature said, stopped and looked at Cvetka: “And if you just remove the tracker, and relay the fact that integration is not possible, you can go away, integrate somewhere else and forget that you ever spent some time on a mountain at the edge of the Kha Zha plain.”
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“It’s too late for me for that plan. I have just turned 16. As soon as I hit system space, I join the system.” Cvetka said.
“Then don’t hit system space. Why do I have to solve your issue with that?” she asked in an exasperated manner.
Cvetka looked at her and furrowed her brows: “I guess, this area is not in integrated space, so this might work… but the tracker… This is not what I can do.”
Sarah nodded: “I see.” She then looked into the distance for a moment before continuing. “Have the weapons chambers been stocked?”
Cvetka responded: “I mean, yes, but I could still kill you if I do something wrong!” She didn’t mention that then Darwin would want her ass on a plate and that scared her more than killing the weird kid. She had manners after all.
Before she knew what happened, only a cloud of dust hung in the air.
It was not exactly hard to guess where she went and immediately, Cvetka ran back to the compound, towards the weapons chamber and looked for any sign of the person. She cussed. She looked around. She once again cussed: “They are going to have my head for this! Fuck!” The last word was screamed loudly. People in their nightclothes peeked out of their rooms, asked what happened, got confused by her fast attempts of an explanation, harangued her when all she wanted to do was find Sarah and save her own skin. As she once again tried to tell them about the alien Sarah that was around, she heard a scream. From the outside. People ran to the source of the scream, some grabbed weapons, others forgot even to put on shoes.
SKIPS-ONE-STEP
‘Well, that one was for the loo!’ she thought. Things went badly and she had to run. That girl was insistent on doing anything but helping. She looked scared, terrified even. More so than Skips would have thought to be appropriate. She ran to the compound, but only when she ran inside, she realised two things: She had no idea where the weapons chamber was or if it had a blade usable for this and that she accidentally ran into Rush’s building. Mentally, she cursed. She checked the rooms, almost gagged as she accidentally opened the bedroom and its toys, eventually found the kitchen, which was, while not what she wanted, acceptable for her needs. She struggled against the weight of the fridge as she tried to block the door. Eventually, she stopped. It was too much of a struggle, it wasted too much time. She instead looked through the various cabinets and cupboards, looking for anything useful until she found two things that she needed: His liquor stash and a kitchen knife. She poured liquor over the knife to disinfect it. Then, she made a cut near her throat where she felt that horrible thing reside. It hurt so much and it felt suicidal, but she forced herself to continue. She forced herself to be quiet as well, literally stopping to hold her own mouth shut when the pain became too much. She then pressed against skin next to the bleeding wound, that aspired to paint the world red, until something, the size of a grain of rice dislodged and fell.
At that moment, something long, grey crashed through the window.