Day 3.6

August finished tying off the last vines on the left side of the structure around the same time Rittan finished the last holes for the uprights. They’d been working mostly in silence at this point, August just trying to sort everything out in his head, while Rittan seemed to be enjoying the sunlight.

“Alright, can you lift this up off the ground?” August said hesitantly. “I’ll get the posts in.”

“Certainly,” Rittan said, placing the [Wooden Shovel] on the ground and moving to the middle of the structure.

August watched Rittan lift the peak brace up into the air, the uprights dangling like giant wind chimes as he pulled the entire thing up over his head. August moved forward, grabbing the first of them and worked it into the hole before moving on to the next.

Years ago, he’d spent a week helping Alex move everything his parents had owned halfway across the state. It had been an endurance run and one that had sorely tested his own ability to push through constantly building frustrations.

Even something as simple as working together to lift a box or pushing a table through a doorway was enough for them to snap at each other or mutter a mean comment beneath their breaths. It was entirely different from how they usually functioned, and it was probably the first time August started to realise that Alex had glaring flaws of his own.

The number of times he’d wanted to outright hit the guy—and his dad, for that matter, had been steadily rising through the trip. It had eventually become too much for him to deal with, and rather than explode, he’d ended up calling it quits on the second last day, unable to force himself to deal with another full day of bullshit from the three of them.

Compared to now, with Rittan, there was something strange about how smoothly they’d been working together. The cooperation hadn’t truly been tested yet, sure, not with such a small amount of time, and maybe he was on a hair-trigger because of the guy’s unusual appearance.

Either way, August kept waiting for those little moments where one of them would be a little too slow to move, a little too indecisive, and the quiet frustrations would begin to build.

“Think you can tie these ones on if I pass them up to you?” August asked, burying the third one.

“I believe so,” Rittan nodded, holding his lowest pair of arms out.

August pushed the last of the posts in and then kicked dirt into the hole after it before swinging around the frame to pick up one of the branches on the other side. He got it up off the ground, angling it all the way up until he could lean it against the brace.

Rittan took hold of it, freeing him up to hand him the stack of vine on the ground. Each of Rittan’s hands worked in perfect unison once more, lifting the upright into position while simultaneously tieing it off.

August moved to lift the second, third and fourth upright as they repeated the process one after another. Then he went past and buried them into the pre-dug holes and kicked dirt in to help secure them.

Rittan spent a few minutes redoing the knots of the vine as some of them were too loose, and once it was as sturdy as possible, the Voithos ducked down, stepping outside of the structure and leaving it standing on its own for the first time.

Basic A-Frame Hut Unlocked

Rittan would still need to stoop to avoid hitting his head against the top, but at least it was better than the [Lean-To].

“It needs a bunch of cross-sections to help hold it together,” August said, the new knowledge of the blueprint telling him it was half-finished at best.

“Indeed,” Rittan said, crossing his arms and smiling at the structure. “How do you plan to cover the walls?”

The blueprint had multiple options in that regard—large leaves, leafy branches were the most basic. A step up from that was to stack branches horizontally up the walls of the [A-Frame Hut], tying each of them to the frame and working up to the peak. The idea of only having a thin layer of leaves to protect them sucked, so it was a pretty clear choice.

August stepped around the side of it and grabbed one of the many branches Rittan had brought back on his last trip, placing it at the base of the frame and then using his foot to push it flat again two of the angled uprights.

“We can stack these all the way up, but we’re going to need more vine to tie them all to the frame,” August said, rubbing his neck. “We have about five stacks left. Do you want to get the vine or tie these up? I’ll do whichever you don’t want to do.”

Pushing the responsibility back onto Rittan felt like a weight off his shoulders, and he’d learned from the previous attempt that if he left any leeway, Rittan would offload it straight back onto him. August was surprised to find that someone was actually better at avoiding leadership than he was.

“I am fine with completing either task,” Rittan said, thinking over the choice. “However, I am enjoying being able to move around after so long, so I think I’d like to get the vine.”

“Perfect,” August said, pushing more positivity into his voice than was perhaps warranted, hoping to reinforce the idea of choosing for himself. “We have—maybe six hours of daylight left? Let’s get this done before we’re working in the dark.”

Rittan agreed and strode off into the forest to complete his chosen task, leaving Ladybug investigating the structure they’d built.

“What do you think, Ladybug?” August said, beckoning the monster close. “Is it fit for a lady of your calibre?”

Ladybug butted up against his hand in answer, and he used [Tame] once more to feed her some of his mana. Once he was done, he moved back to the pile of branches and began sorting the ones that would work best for the walls before dumping them all next to the [A-Frame Hut].

The vine he still had access to was thick enough that it was actually detrimental to compacting the branches together—what he would give for some actual twine or even rope. The process was slow, stacking each branch and tying both ends to the main structure.

Every question he’d asked Rittan had just led to more unfamiliar places and unfamiliar people—it was daunting how little he really knew of this new world. The society he’d spoken of sounded so far fetched as well, a billion people packed into a single city? Each person with their own personal drone?

What about the implication that those drones actively record the daily lives of each of them? Was it protection in case of incidents? Or was it the governing body of Hekaton invading the lives of its people?

It wouldn’t have surprised him either way; the Gaians who would wipe out the Voithos and call it ‘decommissioning’ seemed as far removed from ethical concerns as a society could be.