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Royal climber chapter 2
🕑 Added 2021-12-11 04:22:28 +0000 UTCUnedited
Royal climber
Chapter 2
Food poisoning
The two Tower Guards at the entrance to the Tower opened the gate as she walked towards them. Unlike the two guards at the front of the tax building, these two didn't seem to be very alert. She showed them her paperwork as she approached. They glanced at it, but didn’t seem to read it at all. They handed it back and motioned her through.
“If this is your first time, take the door to the left.” One of the bored guards said after giving her a second glance.
She did as she was told. The door was just past the iron gate. There were two doors in the long hallway that led to the tower. She opened the door and found herself facing a Female Army Corporal. The woman was reading a newspaper, but quickly put it down and gave Kat a nod.
“If you have anything of value, you can hand it over and we will keep it for one year. If you fail to pick it up after a year, then we will sell it to an auction house or pass it on in the case of clothing.” The Corporal told her.
Kat nodded expecting it. She knew the other woman left out a few things like, it shouldn’t take more than three months for the first second floor. Also that you cannot enter the Tower, at least for the first time, with anything. Anything you might bring with you, including items from the Tower itself, would disappear. The Tower, it seemed, liked everyone starting on the same footing.
Once one reached the tenth floor and every tenth floor after it then you could enter Massachuttes city or leave the Tower. One could return at any time to Massachuttes city and start your accent once more where you left off. You could only go one direction in the Tower, which was straight up.
Kat pulled out her father’s knighted dagger, and, hilt first, handed it to the woman behind the counter. The woman took it and read the inscription on the hilt. Kat knew the moment the Corporal was done because the woman frowned. She looked up at Kat and asked.
“This is Knighted sergeant's dagger. How did you get it?” The Corporal asked her.
“Sergeant Kelly is my father, and he fell in the Tower.” Kat told the woman handing over her papers. “That was all that his crew could bring back.”
The woman’s frown cleared up and she looked down at the Dagger again. “I knew him. He ran a good crew. Shame he fell so close to the fiftieth floor.”
“Yes.” Kat said simply. She didn’t know what else to say.
“We have some rags if you want to save the dress.” The woman said, putting the knife in a box and writing her name on a small piece of paper on it.
“Yes, please.” Kat replied, relieved.
“Just head on back. The rags are in the basket. Pick one that’s your size. It doesn’t matter which one. They are from the lost or forgotten box.”
“Thank you.” Kat said, and walked through the door beside the woman. She knew what lost and forgotten meant. Lost meant dead, and forgotten meant that the woman who had worn it had reached the tenth floor and forgotten to come back for it. After looking at the dress she further concluded that the woman who left the dress behind most likely did it on purpose.
She picked a clean gray dress that was in her size, and put it on. It smelled funny, and was big around her chest. She had to tie a knot in the back under her hair so that it was appropriate to wear. She also had to roll one of the sleeves up, and the dress dragged on the ground as she walked. Otherwise it was fine to wear for such a short time. She wondered why any woman would care about the dress, or at least enough that they would change into another dress. It wasn’t, in her opinion, worth saving. Then again if a woman showed up with luggage and this was in it, then it might explain why it was in the ugly dress bin.
She turned in her dress and the Corporal bid her good luck. Kat then left the room and went outside to the hallway. As she stepped away from the door and continued on her journey towards the Tower she looked around. The hallway was made of brick, and had an arched ceiling. It reminded her of a fort that her father had worked at when her mother had been still with them. She had spent hours playing in the battery where the cannons were stored.
At the end of the tunnel she first thought a shadow was obscuring the door, but the closer she got, the more she realized something was off. It wasn’t until she stood in front of what she thought was a door did she realize that there was nothing here, but blackness. Her father talked about the door, but he talked about it like it was a physical thing. This was a physical thing. It was a doorway to nothingness.
She raised her hand and pressed it into the darkness and felt nothing out of the ordinary. She pulled it back out and turned around to look behind her, but all she saw was the guards at the gates backs. She turned once more and tried to see if she could see anything in the darkness, but failed. Taking a deep breath she stepped into the darkness and felt nothingness.
For a moment that lasted for all of eternity she hung in the darkness. It broke suddenly and wet heat sucked at her breath. She had experienced humidity before, but nothing like this. It felt like she had stepped into a bakery. It took her mind a second or two to catch up with her body, and she realized that she had her eyes closed. Opening them she found herself standing in a very different world than the one she had been in a second or so before.
She knew every floor was different for everyone. There was an old Latin saying that you couldn’t step on the same floor twice. Basically it meant that each floor was different for everyone no matter what floor a person entered. One person could get a jungle floor while another could get a grassland. Also, the only floors that were repeatable were the ones that ended in zero, and even then it was alway different environment and different enemies.
The floor she found herself standing on, was filled with red sand. The grains of sand were bigger than the ones she had seen when her father had taken her to the ocean. It had been for training and not a holiday, but she still enjoyed it. This was something completely different. Looking around she saw nothing but more red sand. She turned in a slow circle and looked, hoping to see something that wasn’t more red sand. She had nearly turned around completely when she saw something black in the distance. She couldn’t see what it was, but it wasn’t more red sand and that was good enough for her.
It was only after she took a few steps she felt that something was wrong. Looking down she saw that she was now wearing a pair of pants and a shirt. She had expected it, well before she had entered the Tower in fact, but seeing and feeling it made it somehow different. She had never worn pants befor and it felt restricting. She was also not wearing underclothes, which she hadn’t imagined. No one had told her that the Tower wouldn’t give her underclothes. It never even occurred to her that she might not get it. She just thought it was just something you didn’t speak about.
She knew that she would get shoes, pants and a shirt from the Tower as everyone who entered the Tower for the first time got them. She had just assumed that they also meant the underclothes that went with it. It only occurred to her now, that they had meant only pants and the shirt. It was decidedly off putting.
“Ignore the unimportant, focus on the important.” Kat told herself and started walking again. “Need to find a water source. It’s hot, but not blazing hot. It’s survivable. Shelter is next, then food.”
The sky was covered with really white clouds. She couldn’t pinpoint the sun as the clouds all seemed to glow white. She knew that there might not be any sun, and the floors of the Tower could be very different from the real world. She just hoped this floor had a day and night or things might get a bit hard.
She knew from her father, and many other sources, that the first floor was the most important floor in the Tower. It was the only floor where one could gain a skill, and if they worked at it, gain a second one as well. In fact the way to clean the floor was simply to find a skill stone, or tree, or whatever gave the skill on your floor and accept it. As soon as you did you were sent to the next floor. According to both her father and her Uncle, finding the skill wasn't the hard part. It was finding the right skill which was the hard part.
They had debated many a night on what type of skill was the right skill. In the end they had both come to the conclusion that one added to one of the three climber attributes which were Vitality, Body, and Soul or Magic. Her uncle called it his Soul, and her Father called it Magic. Adding to Vitality meant adding to health and the bodies ability to heal and resist damage. It made the climbers bones stronger, their skin tougher to cut or bruise, and helped them survive from extreme weather climates.
Body meant movement. It increased a climber's strength, made them move faster, gave them the ability to move like an acrobat, and improved their hand and eye coordination. Soul or Magic meant the same thing. It was about the climber's ability to manipulate magic. It increased their mana, and their ability to fill their soul up with mana again. According to her Uncle, it also strengthens the Soul to resist magical attacks or effects. Those who had a skill that gave them the attribute Magic were called the Magi and were the rarest of the rare among the climbers.
Her Uncle was all for her to get a magical skill. Her father on the other hand argued for her to wait until she got her second skill. The second skill was one that she had to find, and it had nothing to do with whatever gave out the skills on the floor. Her fathers was great hearing. He could hear a mouse squeak two miles away. It made him such a good scout then a leader when he was in the Tower. Or at least that was what her Uncle had always said about her Father. Her Uncle didn’t find a second skill and it greatly hampered his growth forever afterwards.
To find the second skill one had to at least spend twenty days on the floor if possible. That was why finding water, shelter, and food in that order, was so important. There weren't that many dangers on the first floor like monsters that she had to beat, at least from what other people had said. The biggest problem on the first floor was the environment, and that the person doesn’t have the Climber's ability to eventually heal from all wounds. It was something people got when they got their first skill. A climber could lose a leg and over the course of a few years they could grow it back. It would be faster if a person had high vitality as it fell under that attribute.
So the first thing Kat did was to try and figure out if trying to stay on the first floor was feasible at least until she got her second skill. So far it was still a maybe. She needed to find a source of water, and then she needed to find what this floor's weather was like. Some desserts like this could be very hot during the day, but very cold during the night. She needed to know if she would be able to survive even if she had all three survival requirements: water, shelter, and food.
She was bumped out of her head by the realization that the black thing looked like a tombstone on the top of a red colored sandy hill. It was a tall hill, and it was a struggle getting up it. Which was bad as more exertion meant the need for more water and food to survive. She already had a plan for shelter, but it was useless without finding a source of water. That she needed to find before she looked for anything else.
She made it to the top of the hill and stood next to the tombstone looking thing. She ignored it for the time being as she scanned the area behind the hill. In the distance, she saw three more tombstone looking things. One was west of her, or at least it would be west if there was a sun. Still she arbitrarily made her right, west. There was one halfway to her right and her front, and one more to her left. There was one more object that she was able to spot. That was what looked like a tree without leaves to her far left.
“Trees mean water.” She muttered to herself happily. Turning away from her potential water source, she walked over to the tombstone-like thing in front of her. She slowly circled it making sure she was at least six feet away from it. She wasn’t superstitious, but it didn’t pay to tempt fates especially in the Tower.
There wasn’t any writing on the stone tombstone looking thing, nor did she see anything out of the ordinary except the red sand. There wasn’t even a bump where a body might lie under the ground. Hoping she was right and it was a skill stone she approached it from the side so not to stand on a body if this was a burial ground. She didn’t want to offend any lingering spirit after all. She reached out with her finger tips and touched the thing.
Immediately she knew she was right, and it was a skill stone. The skill was wind, or rather a very tiny gust of wind. The skill would create a tiny gust of wind only slightly greater than one she could stir up just by waving her hand around. The only thing going for it was that it was a spell skill. It would give her the rare ability of Magic. Otherwise it was a very poor skill. She refused it and took her hand off the stone.
Looking around to orient herself again. She started walking towards the tree in the distance. She ignored the other skill stones for now. Going down the hill she found took less energy, but was far more dangerous as the sand around her started flowing downwards like an avalanche. She fell half way down and was carried to the bottom by the sand. She was unhurt, but embarrassed. The good news, she learned, was that the legend about the Tower granted clothes was true. It was both refused to get dirty and it would repair itself.
What it didn’t do was prevent sand from entering past her clothes. She shook herself and her clothes and got most of the sand off. Then she started her journey again. The tree must have been much further than she expected because it took her an hour to reach the tree.
It looked like a normal tree with blackish brown bark covering it, but just without leaves. It also had a pool of water around the base of it’s stump. Smiling, she nearly ran and dunked her head into the water, but her father’s memory popped up in her head and reminded her just how bad an idea that was. He even gave her a slap across the back of her head like he used to do when she did something especially stupid.
She was glad she didn’t ignore her training as she looked at the water. At first it looked like it was deserted, but then the lobster looking thing in the water moved. The lobster blended into the red sand so seamlessly that she might not have spotted it had it not moved. It was about two feet in length and had huge oversized claws that looked powerful enough to break her bones.
“Food and water.” She told herself with a smile. “Only, how do I kill you?” Looking up, she got her answer.
Breaking off a branch of the tree was easy. The wood wasn’t too hard nor was it too soft. It’s consistency was perfect for what she wanted to do. It even broke off in kind of a point so she didn't have to create one. Her father had trained her on all sorts of weapons, but he made sure she knew how to use a spear because it was one of the easiest weapons to create. Well, as long as you had trees or something like them around.
She raised her spear and the unmoving lobster and with all of her strength she brought it down onto the middle of the lobsters back. The sharp point easily pierced the shell and drove deep into the lobster. Smiling, she pulled the spear out. Even better, the point was stuck in the lobster so it came out with the spear.
“Food.” She said with a happy smile as she looked at the now dead lobster.
Then she heard something by her feet. Frowning she looked down and to her horror she saw that the water was draining into the ground. She dropped the spear with the lobster still attached and dove for the water. She sunk both her hands into the water and pulled some water up before she drank some of it. By the time she drank what remained in her hand the rest of the water was gone. She had gotten maybe one hand full before the rest leaked from her hands.
“Dratted. Oh well, I learned something new.” Kat told herself looking at where the water used to be. She signed and then looked at the dead lobster still stuck on her spear.
“Now, did the water leave because you were dead or because I took you from the water?” She asked it. After not receiving an answer she turned to look around her at the unending red sand. “Let’s hope there are more trees with lobster infested waters, yea?”
She stood up and carrying the spear and Lobster, she headed towards where she had seen the closest skill stone. Trying to ignore the feeling of panic in her chest, she started whistling. She knew, worst case, she could just accept a skill and move on from this floor, but she really didn’t want to do that. She wanted to succeed in the Tower, and not be one of those who were only able to progress because of people like her father.
She stuck a piece of wood from her spear into her mouth. While she had a habit of biting things while she worked, she also did it as her father recommended it. He had told her that it would help keep hunger and thirst at bay. It had worked in the past, so she did it again and hoped for the best.
The next skill stone was, ironically, a water summoning spell. A thing she needed desperately, but couldn’t accept without leaving the floor minus the second skill that was still possible to get. It was also her second magic skill. SOmething her Uncle would have been happy for her to take. Looking around she only saw more skill stones in the distance. She didn’t spot any more trees. Not giving up, she headed to the next still stone.
Four skill stones later she finally saw a tree in the distance. The good news was the sun or whatever was lighting the floor hadn’t dimmed. That could mean that this floor had longer days than the real world, or there was no night which might be a problem if she couldn’t keep track of days or if she had problems with sleeping. She was getting tired, but she was also very thirsty. Not wanting to stop until she found some water, or she had too, she kept on moving. Looking for a tree and a potential water source.
Luckily the tree did have a pool of water surrounding its base like the last tree had. She didn’t immediately rush in, but instead looked for anything inside the water. Her restraint was rewarded when she spotted movement which led her to find a second lobster looking thing. She had already eaten her last lobster, and wasn’t in a hurry to eat this one. The meat of the lobster had been salty and dried out her mouth something fierce.
“Let’s not take you out of the water or kill you just yet.” She muttered to the second lobster which was slowly waving it’s claws at her.
Taking her spear, she flipped it over and broke off the other end so she had a flatter end than the pointy one she had on the other end. Gripping the spear tightly in her hands she lowered it until it was over the lobster who was clicking its claws at her now. Then in a flash she pressed the blunt end down on the top of the lobster, pinning it to the ground carefully so as not to kill it.
She slid her hand down the shaft of her homemade spear, she knelt down so that her face was near the water. Careful to keep away from the lobster that she had pinned down, she brought her mouth to the edge of the pool. Nothing jumped out at her, nor was the Lobster able to reach her, so she started to drink.
A few mouthfuls in, and she accidentally let the pressure on the lobster up. It immediately slipped out of the blunt end of her spear and headed right towards her. Thankfully she was faster and pulled her head back away from the pool. The lobster stopped at the edge of the pool and she noted it didn't breach the top of the water. It stayed below, inside of it.
“You don’t like coming out do you?” She asked the thing. It didn’t respond.
While she was still thirsty, she knew from past experience that she would be fine for now. She had both food and water taken care of, now she needed shelter. She didn’t have much to work with, but she did have her Tower given clothes.
They were unique from all other things a person could get in the Tower mainly because they were the only thing that was forever. Well, as long as the climber didn’t toss them away. They were self cleaning, but that wasn’t that rare in the Tower. Many crafted clothing had that. It was also self repairing, but once again it wasn’t that rare of an enchantment. No, what was different from all other clothing no matter what Tower a person climbed, was the fact that as long as the climber was wearing them, they would remain. The clothes could be completely destroyed where there wasn’t a single thread left, but a few seconds later it would appear and grow back.
While powerful, most climbers didn’t keep them as they were impossible to enchant outside of the enchantments already on them. Her father wore his under his clothing for years, and her uncle had made fun of him about it even after he stopped. He never told her why he wore them under his clothing, or why he stopped wearing them. Wearing them now, she still couldn’t understand why he wore them for so long. They weren’t comfortable. They were restricting, and she could imagine how bad it would be if worn under her clothing. Still, she did have to admit, they were better than no underwear.
They were also great survival gear if a climber had nothing else. Using her hands, she dug a hole in the sand and then pulled her shirt off. Breaking her spear up into pieces she draped her shirt over one part of the ditch so it would cover her head. Then she used the wood as spikes and secured the edges of her shirt to the outer edges of her ditch.
Once she was done securing her shirt, she slid into the hole and started collapsing the back end of the hole. The sand covered her lower body while her head remained free under her shirt roof. Making herself comfortable, she squirmed around until she had created a bed of sand. As soon as she was comfortable she closed her eyes and to her surprise quickly fell asleep.
Some time later she was woken up by something crawling over her. Shouting in terror, she sat up and grabbed the thing that had been crawling over her, and squeezed it. She felt something like tiny sticks break and the soft thing in her hand squish. Her heart beating a mile a minute she looked down and saw the thing she had killed was a tiny mouse. Bits of flesh and blood were coming out between her fingers that were now clenched into a fist.
“By the maker.” She whispered to herself and flung what was left of the mouse she had crushed. Taking a deep breath she checked herself over, but didn’t see any wounds or bites. Aside from the gore in her hand, she didn’t see anything worrying. Looking over at the tree, which was about ten or so feet away, she thought about washing her hand off, but didn’t want to spoil her only water source. Especially after she had such a hard time finding it.
Instead she buried her hand in the red sand and tried to use it to wipe it clean that way. It kind of worked, but it left red and black stains behind. Signing, she wiped the rest off on her pant leg. To her surprise, that worked much better. The stain, with a little scrubbing, faded away. What was even better, the dirt and gore didn’t stay on her pant leg. It fell off after a few seconds like dust being blown away by the wind. Not that there was any wind where she was. There hadn’t been any wind since she got there, which only now she felt was weird.
She got up and pulled the wooden stake out of her shirt and tossed them away. Before she did she found a splinter and put it in her mouth to keep her hunger away. The last thing she wanted to do was lose her only source of water. She sat there in her hole and watched as her shirt repaired itself. It was an odd thing to watch. The sides of the rips came together like a ghost had pinched it then treads appeared from both sides of the rip and weave themselves together. When the weaves stopped there wasn’t any sign that her shirt had been ripped. After her shirt was done repairing itself she put it on, glad not to be indecent anymore.
Standing up, she made her way towards the watering hole. The water and lobster were still there by the truck of the tree. Reaching up, she found a tree limb and pulled it down towards her trying to break it off. She had to really try this time as the tree limb was much stronger than the one she had used before. Finally it broke, but it didn’t break cleanly. She had to twist it and pull at it until she was finally able to tear it away from the rest of the tree. It wasn’t a spear like her last one. Mainly because the end was a twisted snarl of wood. The other end of the wood was too thin, and weak to make into a spear point. So it was a staff instead of a spear.
Taking a deep breath she looked at the lobster in the pool who was in turn looking at her. Pointing the twisted, but thick end at the lobster she stabbed her staff downwards. The lobster tried to move out of the way, but it was much too slow. She didn’t use enough force to crush the lobster, but only enough to pin it to the ground. Once it was pinned, she slid her hands down as she slowly dropped to her knees, and dipped her mouth to the water. The water tasted just as fresh as the day before. Sighing in relief, she pulled her new spear out of the water and released the lobster.
She moved away from the tree in case the lobster wanted to leave the pool of water and return the rough treatment it had endured. Sitting down on the opposite side of the tree from where what was left of the hole she had dug the day before to sleep in, she took stock. She had a clean source of water, and maybe some food if there were more mice around. The lobster was still a viable source of food, if she somehow lost the source of water. She knew the lobster was safe to eat mainly because she hadn’t had a case of the flux.
The light was still coming from the almost too white clouds above her, and she hadn’t remembered it dimming in the slightest. She was still unable to pinpoint a single spot where she could say was the sun in the sky. The light was still coming from all the clouds. Thinking about the light she thought about night time. She was not sure if there might be a night time on this floor. She admitted to herself that it still might get dark at some point, but she was starting to doubt it.
“Water, shelter, and food are taken care of, now what?” She asked herself as she scanned the desert around her. She couldn’t see the skill stone from where she was at, but she knew what general direction they were in. Thinking about trying to find them made her nervous. The last thing she wanted to do was lose her only water supply because she couldn’t fine her way back.
“I’ll have to mark my trail somehow.” She thought to herself as she looked at the endless red sand dunes that encircled the tree and tried to think of a way to do it. She absently bit the loing splinter of wood in her mouth as she thought it over. Then she looked down at her new staff and an idea popped into her head.
“No time like the present.” She told herself as she stood up. She was about to brush the sand off, but it fell off without any help leaving behind nice and clean white cloth. She did run her hand over her pant leg and marveled at how smooth it was. It was Tower material, and not something that could be found outside of it. Some of her father’s armor had the same feel to it.
Picking up her staff she started out towards where she thought the closest skill stone was. Dragging her staff behind her to mark her trail, she made her way forward. After she had gone a couple of yards she stopped and looked back. The trail she was leaving behind with her staff was still there. There was no wind to wipe the thin line away. Letting out a breath in relief she turned back around and continued on her journey.
Some time later, and many dunes, she found the next skill stone. She placed her hand on it and sighed in disgust. The Tower told her without words what the skill was. It was a skill that allowed the person to punch better. It was by far the worst skill she had found yet.
“I thought the stills got better the further you got from where you entered the floor.” She said out loud to the Tower, looking up. The Tower didn’t respond.
Looking back at her trail behind her, she thought about heading to the next skill stone. She was not tired just yet, but she was starting to get thirsty. Turning to her right, she looked at where she thought the next skill stone was and made her decision. She started down the dune on which the skill stone was, and headed off into the unmarked desert. She found the next skill stone and the Tower spoke without words and explained how the skill worked. It was a bow and arrow skill, much like her father’s skill, but much weaker.
She left it be, and started off to the last skill stone that she had seen from the large dune before she found her tree. She was getting very thirsty now, but knew she could continue on without too many problems. She bit the splinter of wood and spun it around with her tongue as she walked towards her next destination. The skill, when she found the skill stone, was a shield blocking technique. It was nice, but it felt very weak to Kat. Turning away she started her long journey back to her tree following her footsteps and the thin line she had carved into the sand.
Suffering from extreme thirst, Kat nearly ran to the tree when it appeared over the sand dunes. She forced herself to walk, not wanting to fall in a sand avalanche. It was one of the hardest things she had done so far. She did have enough lucidity to look for the lobster when she reached the pool. The stupid thing was hidning on the other side of the tree trunk. She pinned it down and drank her fill.
She had spit her splinter of wood out when she drank the water and it was now covered in sand. Sighing at the sight she reached up and broke a small branch off that was thinner than her finger and stuck it into the side of her mouth. Feeling really tired, she went back to her hole and found the wooden stakes she had tossed away. In a few minutes she had her shirt off and her shelter in place. After covering her legs in sand, she layed down and was soon asleep.
That night she dreamed of the day she found out her father had perished in the Tower. In the dream she was sitting by the hearth reading about the many types of monsters that could be found both in and out of the Tower. Her father had assigned it to her for homework before he left with Uncle for the Tower. They were attempting to reach the fiftieth floor. He had told her that he had put it off long enough before he had left.
She was sitting in her fathers thick comfortable chair when there came a knock on the door. She got up just like she had that day. Her father’s secretary, Howard, was standing by the door with his hat in his hands. Just like then, she knew something bad had happened. In her dream Howard became irate and demanded that she leave her home. He told her that it wasn’t her’s anymore, and that she had to leave right at that moment.
It didn’t happen that way. Howard did tell her that she would have to move out, but the new Lord of the village wouldn’t be there for a few months. In reality she had stayed in her old house for a week before gathering up a few of her fathers things and selling them to earn enough money to reach the tower. She had left that day and never looked back.
Hunger woke her up the next morning. She sat up, pulling her shirt that was above her out of the way. In doing so it pulled the wooden stakes out of the sand. Turning her head to the left she found a mouse cleaning its whiskers not far from her. She leaned over towards it, but froze when it stopped cleaning to look at her. Holding her breath she reached out and snatched the unsuspecting mouse with her hand.
Holding the mouse high in the air she celebrated finding her breakfast. She pulled a sliver of wood out of her staff, and used it to field dress the mouse. She swirled her stick in her mouth back and forth as she gutted and cleaned the tiny mouse. When she was done she went to the pool of water and with quick splashes that brought the lobster towards her she washed the meat off. Retreating away from the lobster which was now right next to the edge of the pool, she ate the meat raw knowing it would take too long to start a fire.
After her meal, she remained by the tree thinking about what to do next. She knew she had to move on. The skill stones around her were too weak. Laying in the shade, with her belly not quite full, but better than it had been, she thought about where she should go. A few hours later the Flux hit her
