The things were new. New, and apparently also very much hurt for the sun. He had been saying how much it hurt for the past...time? Even now, he was still going.

"I'm going to die. My hands are going to just pop off. I hate laundry. I mean it's hardly the worst thing that I could be doing. Like scooping horse poo. Or being dead. But, I still hate laundry. My hands are throbbing. They're raw! They burn!"

How could they burn though? Wasn't burn with fire? Was laundry like fire? Laundry. How scary.

"What? No. It's just...a description of the pain. It's like it was on fire."

But it's not on fire.

"Don't question it."

The sun wasn't very good at learn-moving to others. He wasn't even answering questions!

"I answer questions. I just don't answer stupid questions. Also from now on known as stuques."

What? Why was the sun making words? That made no "sense." He was too stupid to make words. It could make words of course. Since it was a narcissist.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA-"

"Something you'd like to share?"

"Geh, uh, no."

"Talking to the spirit huh."

"So, can everyone see spirits here? In my tribe barely anyone saw it."

"No. Back to work."

"Yes sir. Would it hurt them to answer a question?"

It could ask the same to him.

"You and your logic."

Yes. "Logic." As in it made sense. Much sense. Fool-thing.

"That's not even a word."

It is, yes. Because it so-says. Hey, this fun-was!

"Stopping messing up the word ordeeeeeer."

No. Heh.

"That was just weird. An emotionless 'heh' just sounds so...weird."

No. It sounded like him. Close enough anyway.

"No! It's not! Sir, is there any more? I'm done."

The sun was putting the laundry on to the thing.

"It's a rope. And yes, laundry and laundry are different."

"Hmm. You finished faster than expected. Well, this is just to show you the ropes."

The ropes? Were they...normal-not?

"Now, you can learn how basic fortifications are set-up."

Odo was already moving when the sun moved after it quickly. They went past many caves-but-not-caves that had four weird-look things in each. Then, they stopped where the more that way was just rock. Many things were already here, hitting club-like things into the ground, then moving the ground away with other things. A big ground was already there and was still being up-grounded. Odo picked up a club-thing and made it move fast through the up-down space where the sun made it stop.

"Start digging."

Then, Odo left. The other things looked at them as soon as Odo left. Some of them were as big-not as the sun. Some were big more and some were even more big-not than the sun. One thing that was the same almost as the sun moved close.

"The name's Stix. Not to be confused with Styx. That guy's scary. Hahaha, well you are?"

"Uh, no name."

"I see. Orphan? Or feral?"

"I'm an orphan. By the way, what's a feral?"

"Us demons don't just throw kids out like that. Not without a name at least. So they're either orphans or feral. Ferals are rare, but not as much as you'd think. Though they were more common before the Voidlands happened. Anyway, it's when a demon is just born without parents. Like just 'poof.' Not exactly it, but well, I never went to school. Too much competition. Others just can't afford it."

"First, what do you mean the Voidlands happened? I'm from there by the way. And two... what's a school?"

"Oh wow. That does explain you not knowing such common knowledge. Not that I'm calling you stupid."

Stix moved closer, and said more loud-not, "I am by the way."

The sun was making a 'I don't know what to say' face. Fun. This Stix knew how to do things.

"So. The Voidlands just appeared one day. I don't know the technical explanation, they just did. Personally, I'm with the cultists. It's definitely the humans fault. If anything bad happens, blame the humans. They're always messing things up. We do too, but if one of us messed up that place, which the Voidlands did, they'd get lynched publicly. And violently. Schools are...where you go if you want to learn more than what I know about random things. Or something. I think. Well, schools are schools."

"What's-"

"No more questions! We're gonna get yelled at for any more than this. Or worse if Odo checks in."

See? He asked just as many questions as it. More, even. Still, it learned either way. Heh.

"Still weird."

Still stupid.

"Nice talking to you."

Too.

Thunk. Whish. Crunch. Whish.

The club-thing made weird noises when it hit the ground. Then the ground went up and away to a many grounds. Each thing had many grounds near it. Then each thing put more ground on the many grounds.

"So, how is this basic fortifications."

"Grunt well, this is still grunt a fortification."

"How? It's a wide, shallow, and long hole in the ground."

"It's a trench. And we use it to stab stuff from below. Easier that way. And breaks charges. Usually."

"Oh. Why is it useful for me to know?"

"I dunno. Why is it useful to know how many teeth a wolf has in its mouth?"

"How many?"

"That wasn't the point you should be focusing on..."

"It's not?"

"No."

"Oh."

What an intelligence "conversation."

"Was that sarcastic?"

Thunk. Whish. Crunch. Whish.

Depends. What was a sarcastic?

Thunk. Whish. Crunch. Whish.

"Right."

Hey! What was a sarcastic!

Thunk. Whish. Crunch. Whish.

"You wouldn't get it even if I told you."

Fooun. Of course it would.

Thunk. Whish. Crunch. Whish.

"Did you just combine my fake name and fool!?"

Yes. "Combine!"

Thunk. Whish. Crunch. Whish.

"Hey. You've been making a difficult expression for a while now. Are you ok? If your stomach hurts get that checked out."

"Oh, well thanks for-"

Thunk. Whish. Crunch. Whish.

"Wouldn't want another 'monsters exploding out of random people' incident."

Thunk. Whish. Crunch. Whish.

"What!?"

Thunk. Whi-thud.

The sun dropped his club-thing.

"Oh, don't worry. It's pretty rare. Usually only happens every three months or so."

Thunk. Whish. Crunch. Whish.

"That's not very comforting."

"Pfft. Just a couple deaths usually. I mean we lose like five-ish at most. Not like the first time. That was horrible. Anyway, unless you're unlucky they don't even kill you. The normal ones are only big enough to pop out half your torso. Since they don't usualy try to mangle it coming out, it's actually survivable. Painful, but survivable. Also why you don't eat random-woah."

The sun was blaarghing again.

"I ate lots of things! I'm gonna dieeeee!"

"Relax. It's like one in twenty. Plus they die inside most of the time. Then they're just normal food."

"Karxide. You guys are all crazy."

"Hahahaha. Funny guy, eh? Toughen up. You're from the Voidlands, shoulda seen worse than this!"

"NO! We never had chest-bursting monsters! Well, back-bursting yes, but that's different."

"...how is that any different?"

"It just is. Chest bursting is scary. Back bursters are lame."

"Ok then. Whatever floats your boat kid. Crazy."

Thunk. Whish. Crunch. Whish.

"So. Is this all we do?"

"Unless you wanna carry the dirt away, yeah."

"Dirt!" New!

"How big is this gonna be?"

Stix was making sun's 'are you stupid' face. It looked more normal on Stix's face. Since the sun was the stupid one, not the stupid-say-others one.

"Enough for the camp, and then some. Since, we gotta construct another fortress here."

"What!? A fortress! I wanna see! DIG STIX! DIG!"

And he called it the weird one.

"Uh sure."

Thunk. Whish. Crunch. Whish. Thunk. Whish. Crunch. Whish. Thunk. Whish. Crunch. Whish. Thunk. Whish. Crunch. Whish. Thunk. Whish. Crunch. Whish. Thunk. Whish. Crunch. Whish. Thunk. Whish. Crunch. Whish. Thunk. Whish.

When the sun that was high in the before-dig became close to the ground, the digging stopped. Many things, more than it had numbers for were all moving out of the "trench" and towards the "camp." Soon, they pulled out the "dinner," as the many things called it. It was just food though. Why not call it food?

"My arms are dead."

"Meh. You need more excercise. How exactly were you alive in the Voidlands...?"

"Hey! I hit things! Not...this!"

The sun's hands moved everywhere and it went up, and went back down. It was eating a "dinner" that a big thing was giving to everything. It wasn't sure what it was, but didn't care, since it had all the mana it could ever want from the things. It didn't try to eat more though, since it wasn't sure if it would be good to do so. It had done so with the sun once and he told all about how that wasn't good. It generally didn't care, but it could care just a little about what the sun said sometimes. When it felt like it. And the things that were everywhere and made monsters become dead were very logic-strong.

"Strength and no stamina? That's weird and weak."

"Yeah, I guess. It's never been a problem before..."

"Well, that's probably why you got put on little tasks instead of the fun ones. Like hunting parties."

"Ugh."

"Just keep working and eventually it will build up, no? Demons have plenty of time. Not to mention, you can go to school afterwards."

"I thought you said you didn't go?"

"Well, it's not a bad option. Plus I have a library at home. That I just choose not to use. You probably don't. So I can skip school, you might want to try though. Even I have to attend at some point, but that's for a different kind of school."

"Oh. I mean, aren't I stuck here?"

"Nah. If you're not dead, then you can probably just leave. Whether you make it to a city or not though..."

"Ah. I see."

"I mean, this place is pretty good. You have some senior military officers here, so you can kill stuff to level up in relative safety. And learn from other people who actually know what they're doing."

"So like an apprenticeship."

"Yea."

Ring. Ring. RING.

There was a big thing hitting a...weird thing with a small club. It made a noise whenever it hit. Every other thing was already moving. The ones from the digging went to camp and others from camp came out, towards the many manas coming from a way.

"Another horde. So annoying."

"Wait, what?"

"Don't worry. You only have a slight chance of dying even if you stay here. If you go back to camp with the others it's even lower."

Stix was running towards the manas, and "yelled" back, "I got fighting to do!"

"Wait, I'm coming too!"

What? The sun was trying to die?

"I can do this."

That's what he said with the thing. He still almost died. And it was a 'shattered' now.

"But that was with two of us. There's like a thousand now."

Sure. Whatever. Not like it was the one that would be hurt. It could see and eat to its happiness as it looked at the battle. Since fighting was fun to watch. Also, it was pretty sure he could find a way to die in a thousand too. The one in a thousand.

"Hey!"

Meh. Too bad it couldn't yell at them while looking. Like telling the one getting bit to die faster so the one behind it with the fun looking mana could fight instead. Also so it could eat the mana-fun when that one died. Priorities.

Spoiler: Status Unnamed Corrupted Spirit Level: 10/10 Species: Shattered Corrupt Wisp (E-) Affinities: Darkness, Death, Pseudo-void Age: 663 years Titles: Size: 5 lems Status Points: 19 Health Points (HP): NA Mana Points (MP): 5/5 Intelligence 14 Wisdom 12