When Eleniah and Meten strolled into the new base Darten had built under Kay’s direction, there were a total of four buildings finished.

“You didn’t mention your nephew knowing any building spells,” Eleniah said to Meten as they walked towards the sound of voices.

“He didn’t.”

They shared a look.

“Well, let’s go see what happened.”

They stepped inside the largest of the buildings. The way in was an empty doorway with no door, and it was dark inside with no lights. The building, like the other two large structures, was a long rectangle.

“Kay?” Eleniah called into the building.

“Oh! You’re back!” Eleniah vaguely made out the sight of Kay’s head popping up from the floor in the back of the building. “We’re almost done, be right out!”

“I’m almost done!” Darten snapped from below, his voice slightly muffled but still audible to Eleniah’s tier-five hearing. “You aren’t doing anything!”

“I helped you figure out you could do it at all!”

“That was hours ago! You’re just watching me and training now!”

“Fine!” His head popped up again. “Darten is almost done! We’ll be out right after!”

“Thank you!”

Eleniah and Meten chuckled and waited for them.

A minute later, after some small tremors, Kay came up the stairs with Darten following him.

“Welcome back.” Kay greeted them with a smile.

“What happened?” Eleniah asked, cutting to the chase.

“We fought a Treant and decided that was enough tree cutting for now, and Darten mentioned that there are Earth Mages that can make buildings, so after we talked a little and he figured some things out, we made a little base.” He walked out of the empty doorway and gestured around with both arms. “Welcome, to our unnamed base!”

Eleniah sighed and shook her head, “You just decided to make a base?”

“Yes, yes I did. And Darten got five levels and tiered up his Earth Manipulator class!” He grinned at her cheekily. “I’d say it was a few hours well spent.”

“Alright,” She shook her head again, this time with a smile on her face. “Show us around the base you designed.”

“Alright!” He walked back into the building they were in, “This is the dining area, with the kitchen in the back. Notice the nice little fire pit Darten made in the floor. Below us, down these stairs, is the pantry slash storage area since we don’t have another building for non-food storage yet. It’s underground to make it easier to store foods that will go bad. Cooler down here, you see.” He led them back up the stairs and outside. “That building over there.” He pointed at the first one Darten had made, “Is the house for Eleniah and me, with a room for each of us. No furniture in any of these yet, but we have bedrolls for sleeping, and we can make stuff.” He pointed at the next one, which was only a few feet away from the first, “That’s Darten and Meten’s place, also with separate sleeping rooms. And finally, an outhouse with a connected septic tank for hygiene. Since we don’t have doors yet, the entrance to the outhouse curves around so you can’t see in.”

The four buildings were oriented the same way, out from the cliff, and sat in a row. They were all made of the same orange-ish stone that made up the cliff, and they were all sized so Darten could easily fit inside.

“Nicely done, Darten,” Eleniah commented as she looked over the four buildings.

“Thanks.” He replied, “But to be honest, I wouldn’t have been able to do it without Kay convincing me it was possible and showing me how. He did a lot of the designing, too, as little as there is. I didn’t even think about making the roofs slanted to keep rain from pooling on them.”

Kay waved off the praise. “I played a lot of city-building games; it’s no big deal.”

“Well, on our end, we didn’t find any precious materials, but we didn’t go all that far away either. There are a few monsters and different animals in the area close-by, but nothing that’s all that threatening.”

“Good.” Kay smiled again. “Then we won’t have any problems settling in for the duration of our trip.”

Eleniah shook her head again.

Meten glanced between the two of them and grabbed Darten’s arm. “Nephew, show me what you’ve built and the things you’ve learned today, will you?”

“That was blatantly obvious,” Darten murmured as he let himself get dragged off.

“There is such a thing as tact, nephew.”

“And you usually don’t have any, uncle.”

Eleniah waited until they were out of earshot, then stepped forward and put a hand on Kay’s shoulder. “I’m sorry.”

He frowned. “For what?”

“I told you you were in charge and you’d make the decisions, even if it was for training, and then the instant we had important decisions come up, I immediately took over.”

Kay chuckled. “Yeah, but what else were you going to do? I’ve been ‘in charge’ for a few days at most; I don’t have the experience to react properly yet.”

“But I still treated you poorly. I acted like I was handing you something, then yanked it back the instant it was useful.”

He shrugged. “If that’s how you think of it, then alright, I accept your apology.”

“Thank you.” She smiled and stepped out of his personal space.

“Now, how do we go from here?”

“I think that depends on you since you are in charge.”

He sighed and rubbed the back of his head. “That still feels strange, but I’ll go with it for now.” He paused and thought, “For now, let’s say I’m in charge, but you’re definitely my adviser and have veto power on important decisions, as long as you explain why you’re changing things. For quick decisions, I’ll defer to you until I think I can handle it.”

Eleniah nodded along, then shrugged at the end. “I suggest you become able to handle it quickly. Rapid decisions during times of need are the most important parts of being in charge. That, and being able to handle the consequences of your decisions.”

Kay stared at her for a moment, his expression dead serious. “Okay.” He stared off into the distance for a while. When he was done thinking, he turned back to her and changed the subject. “Why are we adding random strangers to the group?”

“Three important reasons.” She held up a finger for each one, “First, diversity of use. You could also call it convenient. More people up to a point, and more diverse people even further, are useful for many reasons. Second…” She turned and looked at the two relatives going over one of the buildings in the distance. She shrugged. “Based on knowing both of us, I decided it was best to help people. They obviously have some other reason to be out here besides training and exploring, and they immediately asked for help in a roundabout way. Currently, they’re feeling us out, just like we are to them, but I think in the end, we’ll either help them and split or merge into a large group. Either works and helping people is good, most of the time.” She turned back to him, “And third, it gets lonely, even with two people.” She smiled at him, “As cool as we both are, just the two of us alone for a long time wouldn’t be healthy.”

“Three of us.” Kay corrected her. “You forget our little friend.” He smirked.

She glanced down at Murunel’s sleeping form in the ball. “True, three of us.” She gave Kay a look as he continued to grin oddly. “What?”

“Nothing, it’s a reference.” He laughed a little. “Anyway, I get it, and we’ll feel them out and see what happens. I can say for sure that Darten seems pretty cool so far.”

“Yeah, and Meten is a bit of a trickster.”

“Am I?” Meten suddenly called from only a short distance away.

“You certainly like trying to sneak up on people!” Kay called back.

Eleniah grinned, glad he hadn’t been surprised; it meant he’d been learning from his training.

“Well, it seems like the two of you have finished the more private parts of the conversation, so I thought I’d offer something.” He looked at Kay expectantly.

“What’s that?” Kay asked.

“Well, you’ve advanced my nephew’s skills several times today just with suggestion and direction, so I thought I’d offer some training to you.” He held out his glaive. “It isn’t exactly the same, but I think I could teach you a thing or two about wielding you halberd there.”

Kay looked from Meten’s weapon to his own, sitting just in the doorway of the nearest building. “I think I’ll take you up on that.”

“Wonderful!” He gestured for Kay to grab his weapon. “Let’s start now.”