Time: 0 Days 1 hour 15 minutes until Market opens

Points Gained: 6674

Fire blazing in the night, Urist watched as the timer kept ticking down to zero. He wasn’t sitting alone though as Uria sat with him on guard duty to spend the last of the fading light together.

It’s been quite a productive day with what we’ve gotten done. All that’s left to see is what comes after this timer. I told the others after dinner about how close the timer was to reaching zero. Only to get mostly shrugs saying along the lines of them having great faith in him dealing with any problems so they didn’t raise many questions.

Which he took it as. We’re lazy and don’t wanna think about it. You think better than us so it's better to leave it to you.

After that, they turned in to sleep leaving Urist to sigh to himself. How can they trust me with their lives? Do they not care about living? What if I fail? Even if I have useful hands now what if it’s not enough?

Fear from the past and the unknown future crawled their ugly way into his head making him want to scream. The only thing stopping him was Uria sitting by him as he didn’t want to worry her of his mental crisis. They sat in silence, soaking in the heat of the flames that tickled their skin as the night grew darker. In the darkness, billions of stars twinkled in the horizon embellishing the three moons that came out to play.

Stoking the fire for a bit with a stick Uria broke the silence. “Hey, Urist. Are you sure that's how the market functions? If it’s like how you think then how will that be such a bad thing for us?”

Scruffing his hair Urist replied, “It’s what comes after the market that I’m afraid of. I’m sure I told you that I come from another world Uria and I was a human, not a dwarf. And this world feels strange, it feels… It feels too perfect.

“The weather hasn’t changed much and it hasn’t been raining, yet the river levels haven’t dropped. We are catching a steady supply of squirrels that haven't fallen off and the metal on the mountain is split too well for my taste. Another thing is we haven’t run into any carnivores to speak of and there should be more poisonous plants.

“My cloudy memories are telling me to work faster as if it knows danger is on the horizon and as we are we’re not prepared to face it.”

Uria tilted her head slightly milling over Urist thoughts, “So you're worried because everything is too perfect and after the market releases things will change. And you're fearing such a change since you don’t know what those changes will be correct?”

Drinking some Woozoo tea Urist nodded his head, “I’m quite happy how we’re doing right now. You guys are my family now. I don’t want anything to happen to you all so I have to keep moving, thinking, and improving. I’m afraid… Afraid that we won’t be strong enough to what's to come.”

Urist kept staring into the fire listing off his thoughts as Uria watched the firelight flicker off his face. How serious he was, how deep his fear went and how he tried to carry the world on his back. It felt familiar to her and in turn, made her frown at how he was taking all the burden by himself.

In a sudden fit, she leaned her head on Urist shoulder to try and stop him from rambling.

Thanks to the close contact Urist began to stutter. “Wha-wha-what are you doing Uria!”

“It isn’t fair dummy. You shouldn’t be thinking about this by yourself. If you think of us as a family then share the burden with us even if they are lazy they’ll help out. And don’t beat yourself over the future look at how far we’ve come! We can filter water, grow food, make bricks, bowls, tableware, and soon a forge where we can craft metal. In just a week we’ve done so much that I can’t even name everything off the top of my head.”

Tilting her head up she looked Urist in the eye, “So rely on us more you dummy we’re all in this together.”

Urist stared at her big brown eyes as a shy smile slowly crept on his face, “Thanks Uria, I needed that. Hey, Uria can you promise me something?”

Raising an eyebrow Uria asked, “What?”

Coughing, Urist brought up his resolve, “Can you always be by my s--”

Warning. Dear inhabitants, the world is evolving. Please get to safety as changes might be violent in your area.

The market will open at the intended time for civilization leaders.

This is the only warning.

You have been advised.

0 Days 0 hours 59 minutes until Market opens

Points Gained: 6674

This time, Urist wasn’t the only one to have the warning resound in his brain. Uria and the other dwarfs sleeping inside the cave had gotten the message and were confused. Urmom came out of the cave leading the pack bewildered dwarfs. “Boss is that the red text you’ve been talking about? What should we do?”

Urist face turned serious and got up together with Uria. He gave everyone a long stare before his thoughts settled and started giving out orders. “ Everyone, ready your stone spears by the entrance of the cave. Throw more wood on the fire and make it as bright as we can for tonight. We’ll keep two people guarding the cave entrance as usual and if anything happens the guards will yell to alert the rest of us.

“If they ring the alarm grab your spears near the wall and we’ll use the bamboo door as a defensive wall and stab anything that tries to come in after the guards fall back. Is everyone alright with this? If so go back to sleep and get some rest we’ll have a hard day ahead of us.”

Everyone felt more at ease with Urist instructions and head back to sleep after putting their spears on the wall. Leaving Uria and Urist alone once again on guard duty soon silence resumed and the two sat near a blazing fire.

Uria was the one to break the ice, “So umm, before that whole warning what were you saying?”

Urist blushed and looked away, “It’s nothing don’t worry about it, don’t worry about it!”

Seeing him act in such a way Uria chuckled feeling mischievous, “Don’t worry dummy I know what you said.”

“Wha?”

Leaning on his shoulder once again Uria whispered, “I’ll always be by your side.”

“Promise?”

“Promise.”

It would have been a touching moment between the two if it wasn’t for beasts roaring in the surrounding area. Unconsciously Urist and Uria were holding hands and readying their weapons for a fight.