Don woke in near darkness. He was on something hard, too hard to be his recliner. It smelled worse than it should have too. Was that smoke? Did something break in his pod? What were theses warm squishy things all around him? He poked one and it squeaked, bolted upright and caused a chain reaction. Don was suddenly surrounded by startled Gobs. They had crowded around him in the night, including him in their customary sleeping pile.

The squeaking rose in volume as the Gobs disentangled themselves and a few of the more energetic ones started wrestling, tripping nearby gobs and getting tangled again. Don took a few light scratches but didn’t react. The memories of the previous days flooded back to him. He clutched his head trying to make sense of the jumble of images and impressions while his new tribe woke up around him. A small hand with too few fingers pulled one of Don’s hands away. Kat stood in front of him.

“Come Don, we work now.” He pulled on Don’s arm and Don had no choice but to go with him or be pulled onto his face. “I show you, we find food and things.”

Don let himself get pulled up by the tiny Gob. He then promptly fell onto one of the wrestling pairs as his right leg buckled under him. The fighting Gobs were dazed and Don tried to get off them only to fall again. The squashed Gobs pushed him away and kicked him a couple of times, squeaking angrily before joining the stream of Gobs heading for the cave entrance.

“Sorry” he called after them and tried to get to his feet a third time. The same leg buckled. Don began to panic, something was definitely wrong. A soft hooting came from behind Don and small fingers prodded his legs. Don jumped but relaxed when he saw Grey leaning over his leg, one hand on her spoon, the other poking at Don’s leg. She was making the soothing noises but stopped when she reached Don’s knee. A look of concentration stole over Grey’s face and Don was just about to thank her for the food last night when She jabbed a finger into a wound which was mostly filled in with mud. She dug out the majority of the mud and the wound started seeping blood.

“Agh” Don yelled out grabbing at his leg. Grey turned to Kat and squeaked a short message before hobbling off deeper into the cave.

“You go with Grey. She fix you. You work here. When fixed, I show how to find foods” Kat explained. He shouted half the words over his shoulder, speeding towards the cave entrance, following the rest of the Gob’s who had already gone.

Don twisted to look for Grey. She was tottering along, visible in the faint glow of a few lingering embers. The steady tok-tok-tok of her spoon made her easy to find. Feeling a little foolish, Don crawled after her, half dragging his injured leg. Grey was slow enough so that he caught up with her soon enough. She led him around a corner and into a recessed nook. It was barely large enough for Don to sit inside of even with his legs sticking out into the main cavern. The space was filled with an overwhelming number of aromas and Don looked around, trying to make out his surroundings in the dim light. Grey pulled a rotting cloth. It uncovered an alcove of glass jars filled with various glowing substances. Small pinpricks of light bobbed in one, a flower with a luminous bulb in another, one was filled with moss, another with grubs. Individually they barely made an impact but the collection managed to illuminate the space enough for Don’s eyes to start picking out details. There were a few rudimentary tools tucked away on a natural shelf, little more than a long hole in the wall. Every other square inch of wall space was occupied by clumps, strands and knots of plants, In one corner a small stream of water flowed from a crack in the wall and into a shallow pool before running across the floor a short distance to disappear under another wall. The ceiling was hung with dozens of gourds, dangling like bats over Grey's head but coming dangerously close to Don’s even while he was sitting.

Grey took two stones off the shelf. One was a rough approximation of a shallow, lopsided bowl and the other was fairly rod-like with one bulbous end. She dipped her hand into the pool and sprinkled some water into the base of the bowl. Without looking, she reached over her head, pinching off small bits of three different plants. She tossed the clippings into the bowl which she held in place with her feet. With both hands gripping the long stone, she began to mash the plants into a paste, adding small amounts of water to the mixture regularly as she went. Don watched in fascination as the crushed plants released new, fresh odors into the room. Without warning, Grey scooped the paste out of the bowl and slapped it onto Don’s injured knee. It burned and Don moved to scrape it away but a sharp crack from Grey’s spoon kept his fingers away. Grey then took a long flat vine from the wall and wrapped it around Don’s leg, sealing the paste into the wound. Don didn’t fully understand what was going on but he figured this must be related to the ‘fix’ Kat mentioned earlier.

Grey then slid the stone bowl and rod towards Don. She pinched off a few leaves of a dry plant which rattled at her touch. She held it in front of Don and squeaked. After waiting for a few seconds she hit Don on the head with her spoon and repeated the same squeak. Don took a guess and tried to imitate her squeak. Grey didn’t hit him again but shook her head, her drooping ears flapping before she squeaked again. This repeated until Don had come close enough for Grey’s satisfaction. She tossed the leaves into the bowl and pressed the rod into Don’s hand. She pointed at the bowl and made a pantomime of grinding. She taught Don another squeak. Don got the picture and got to work.

His first attempt was pretty embarrassing. He quickly tipped the bowl over and spilled the nearly untouched leaves onto the floor. He collected the leaves and tried to hold the bowl with his feet like he saw Grey do but the binding around his knee pulled tight and prevented him from pressing his feet together. He settled on placing the bowl in the crook of his uninjured knee, holding it with his left hand as he ground with his right. He didn’t spill anything this time but it seemed to take forever for the plants to grind down. Grey snatched various plants and combined them while this was happening but Don focused on his task, ignoring her. Eventually, she peered into his bowl. She shook her head, took the rod and showed Don how to scrape the plants against the sides of the bowl rather than just smashing them. She handed the bowl back making the squeaks for “grind” and “plant” as far as Don could guess so Don continued grinding his leaves. When they were powder Don got Grey's attention. She looked into the bowl and nodded.

She poured the powder into a deeper bowl and handed Don more leaves to grind, testing him on his squeaks first. This continued until Don had produced a handful of leaf powder. At the end of this exercise, Grey taught him the squeak for the powder he had produced. Next, she made a quick sequence of squeaks. Don could make out the ones he knew now but the greater meaning was still lost on him. He simply watched Grey expectantly.

Grey scooped some water out of the pool, gulping it down and wiping her mouth with her forearm before refilling her cup and offering it to Don. She didn’t miss the opportunity to educate Don again.

Don only needed a few tries this time to get the squeak right. He was getting better at telling the noises apart. He took the makeshift cup and took a few greedy gulps. His throat was incredibly dry and he choked a little. He wasn’t used to drinking and it would take some practice.

Grey took the cup back and used it to pour some water into the powder Don had prepared, swirling the container to mix it as she went. The mixture slowly turned yellow and she nodded, satisfied. She poured the yellow mixture into an empty gourd she pulled from a clattering pile and hung it from the ceiling. Don had no Idea how Grey planned on finding that particular gourd again. This process repeated for hours. Eventually, Don was allowed to mix the water with the powders he prepared. It got a bit easier each time Don went through the steps.

When large swaths of the walls were cleared of plants, Don heard the noises of Gobs returning to the cave entrance. The gabbling, squeaking, and pattering echoed slightly as the Gobs passed the threshold and clattered down the loose slope. Grey stood shakily, pulled several gourds down from the ceiling and motioned for Don to follow her. Don set down his bowl and crawled after her, still not trusting his legs. Don still couldn’t understand what the Gobs said to each other but their noises sounded more like a language now that he had learned a few of the words.

The Gobs came into view around the bend covered in fresh mud and leaves, as quarrelsome as always, scratching at each other with their squeaks as much as their claws. Somehow, Don could understand the general tone behind their squeaking. A pair who were scratching at each other were exasperated. They were empty-handed which aided their fight. Others were weighed down by rabbits and much more content.

Don looked for Kat, desperate to talk about anything more thrilling than “grind plant” or “mix powder water”. He was also curious what he would bring back. As Don scanned the crowd he realized he didn’t know what Kat looked like. He could only tell him apart so far because he was the only one who could speak. Don thought maybe he could tell them apart by their distinct noses. One of the gobs held a swollen nose dripping with green blood. That strategy probably wouldn’t work. It looked like their noses would change shape too often for that to be reliable. Their teeth were an option but Don didn’t like the idea of getting any closer to their foul-smelling mouths than he had to. Don settled on learning the patterns on the skin around the gobs eyes. They were distinct enough for him to figure something out eventually.

As the Gobs filed in they all passed Grey who poked at them, stopping one from time to time and giving them a drink from one of her gourds before letting them pass. The one with a bleeding nose perked up noticeably after his draft and wasted no time getting into an argument with one of his companions.

The gobs who were let past Grey spread out into the cave, leaving their prizes in three distinct piles. One pile of rabbits grew near the dead fire from the night before. A larger pile of sticks grew on the ashes. By the alcove where Don worked, a small green pile grew, more plants Don guessed.

A late arrival came sliding down from the cave mouth with a sack, just as mud-caked as the Gob, slung over its shoulder. Kat jogged up to Don with his recognizable smile.

“I get lots of good stuff, look” He said opening up the sack to show Don it contents. A tangle of plants filled the bottom of the sack, easily matching the amount in the pile next to the alcove.

“Wow,” Don said, not having to feign surprise “Lots of plants.” he used the Gob squeak for plants and Kat’s large eyes lit up.

“Kat is the best finder, best sneaker too” He bragged with pride “You is smart to learn Gob words so soon. Did Grey hit you lots?” He asked with his grin widening even further.

“Not too much” Don said rubbing at a couple of lumps which rivaled his budding horns.

“You is really smart then. Grey say stupid heads need more hitting. What your INT?” Kat asked the last part conspiratorially, leaning in even though none of the other Gobs could understand their conversation. Unfortunately, Don didn’t understand it either.

“What’s INT?” he asked.

Kat’s eyes widened so much Don was afraid they would fall out of his head.

“You don’t know stats? I thought you would because you speak humie.” Kat narrowed his eyes and looked from side to side, confirming that there were no more than six gobs around who could overhear them. He continued in a whisper.

“Kat teach you magic spell, humie spell let you see stats. It show how strong, how smart, how fast. Is good spell.”

Don wasn’t sure what a spell was but he liked the idea of getting more information. As it was he was hopelessly confused most of the time.

“Say magic word to use spell, Status” Kat ended with a flourish, puffing out his chest, clearly feeling more impressive than he looked.

“Status?” Don asked. A blue panel appeared in the air before don. He recognized the layout and font from his wall screen.

Accessing your STATUS screen will end immersion mode.

Immersion mode can be reactivated at any time from the options menu.

Are you sure you want to view your stats? Y/N