Day 4

Surprising even himself, August was the first to wake up—and after he’d managed to force himself up into a sitting position, he turned to check on Rittan. All of the decorum, lounging and affect he’d taken on as they’d spoke late into the night was gone, and in its place was a sleepy guy with his mouth open, breathing audible and his many limbs curling around himself in a protective cocoon.

August smirked to himself before checking on the other occupant—Ladybug was messing about with one of the lengths of the vine, clearly taking some inspiration from Rittan’s mummy impression.

“Messing around on the job, Lady?” August said, amused, startling the creature into turning around. “Caught you.”

Ladybug trilled and butted up against his arm until he scratched the monster behind the ears. Whilst he petted her, he turned his thoughts to the work they needed to finish today. The front door to the [A-Frame Hut] wouldn’t take long, and the design would be much like the back end, only with a door framed out with branches. They’d need to collect more wood and probably some vine as the vast majority of it had been used upon the walls.

August carefully got up, avoiding waking Rittan for now and moving out of the shelter—the Mitikos was missing from the shoreline, which was an alarming observation. The fact that it had been moving around in the dark while he’d been asleep wasn’t a nice thought. He spent several minutes just scanning every inch of the opposite shore, but no matter where he looked, he couldn’t see any sign of the creature.

Eventually, he gave up and moved to the lakeside, kneeling down to scoop up some of the water—it was as refreshing as it always seemed to be. August removed three of the Sadapples from his inventory, placing two at the front of the [A-Frame Hut] and then forcing himself to start in on the third.

“Ladybug,” August said, face scrunched up in agony. “You and I are going into the forest again to look for materials—I’m counting on you, okay?”

Ladybug trilled, and he used a second long burst of [Tame] to reward the creatures response—whether it would do anything towards helping her understand was entirely up in the air. August removed his spear and stepped into the treeline, eyes darting around the trees for any sign of movement. A chain zipped past his shoulder, carrying Ladybug up into the branches high above. August lost track of her as she began circling his position in a blur, appearing and vanishing from his sight as the trees covered her pathway.

The white outline of [Locate Object] dominated his vision, making it a simple task to begin absorbing loose branches into his inventory or using his [Flint Knife] to cut out vine sections. August found a young tree, green, thin and still at the beginning of its growth cycle; one day, it would have become like the monstrosities it was surrounded by, but for now, it was barely as thick as his arm.

August removed his [Flint Axe] and set to severing its future potential, or perhaps changing it entirely, as he had an idea for this piece. Chopping down even that one nubile tree was more taxing than he expected, so he kept himself to already detached pieces after that, scooping up branches, vine and stripping bark from the younger greener trees as he went.

The way the Blueprints seemed to work was that if it covered some part of a technology that he hadn’t yet discovered or unlocked, he’d find some measure of direction there. The tools and the spear both had some fringe information on things that went into their structure—one of those was natural adhesives—Tree sap and bee’s wax both had a place in that kind of thing. However, when it came to other methods of securing them, there was also a non-trivial amount of information about rope.

It was a funny thought; he’d always taken things like rope, string, twine, thread and others things of that nature for granted. Before the blueprints, he hadn’t even considered what kind of process even outputted something like a rope, where the base materials came from, or even what they were. August wondered how many other things in his life he’d taken for granted like that—clothing was another one, his best idea for solving that had been to make wooden armour or tie together a netting of leaves at best.

A rope had always been a solid, whole and completed object in his mind, but August knew now that it wasn’t the case.

The blueprints spoke of tearing apart sheets of bark down into thin green fibres. It told him something of braiding, of platting those fibres together, of winding them tight, of creating cords of strong, enduring cord. It spoke of repeating that process, binding the cords together to make thicker ropes or cables; there were hints at more—elaborate patterns and esoteric treatments. He didn’t know all of it, not even a fraction of what was probably there to know, but it would be enough to make a start.

August returned to the lake with an inventory filled with materials, stepping out to find Rittan waiting by the [A-Frame Hut].

Ladybug tossed herself out into the open, chains trailing behind her in the air, and she twisted around and landed feet first between them—the chains retracted with a clink.

“An impressive landing,” Rittan said, smiling.

Ladybug preened.

“I apologize for sleeping in, August,” Rittan said, ducking his head.

“After an eternity of not being able to sleep, I think you deserve at least a couple of those,” August said, not at all concerned. “I’ve got most of the stuff needed for the front; we’ll need to go get more branches if we make anything else today, though—I wasn’t sure how much you eat, so if you’re still hungry, I’ve got heaps of those Sadapples.”

“I—am content for now,” Rittan admitted, scratching his cheek with one of his many hands. “I’m sure you’ve noticed, but the monster across the lake is gone.”

“Yeah, I spotted that,” August admitted, stopping next to the [A-Frame Hut] and removing most of the materials he’d collected. “There nowhere for it to go except back over the ridge, so I guess it climbed back up and left—sorry, I hope it climbed back up and left.”

“Indeed,” Rittan said, sending a glance across the water. “Then I suppose we must use the day while it avails itself to us—to work?”

“Yeah,” August nodded. “To work.”