Waking from the sleep he had been in for what felt like days, Jake had flash backs of his last conscious memory. Standing in defence of those around him with the other wings, gazing upon in fear at the fog covered figure. Who or what was here. It seemed like they were a bit of every race but how could that be? Interrace offspring always took all of the traits of one species excluding things such as eye, hair and skin colour.

Slowly rising to his feet, he looked up to see the collapsed figures around him but looking upon Frey’s back due to how she fell, there was a intricate red marking on her back which was visible due to an obvious new rip in the shirt she was wearing. Getting to his feet, he saw markings on all of their backs in the same colour. Reaching around pass his wings, he felt the rip in the same spot as the others around him but didn’t feel anything there.

He reached down to touch the marking which was the shape of a compass on Johns back to feel that there was nothing there as well. So, it’s like a tattoo? He could see 6 different markings out of the 8 people on the ground. John had a compass, Frey had what looked like a hammer and a crystal, Glaze had an outline of a ball sitting on a cushion, Wolf had an intricate set of claws and Lilly had a magnifying glass.

On the back of everyone else was an series of curved x’s. These were in different shapes, sizes and designs but whatever the figure did to them, they were all together.

Jake tried to find a reflective surface as to see what his marking was as John rose to look at Jake and looked at the others.

“Why do we have these markings?” John questioned

“I wish I knew but I woke to find all of us on the ground and these markings on us.” Jake responded.

“Well what’s my mark?”

“A compass. What is mine?”

“Turn around.”

Jake turned around in hesitant anticipation to shown John to receive a confused look on his face.

“Well? What is it?” Jake slowly asked.

“It’s weird. I don’t know what shape it is, but every time I changed my gaze slightly, I can see something new in it.”

“What the hell is that?” Came from across the room as Glaze starred at Jake’s marking.

************

As the day reached its close, only Wolf and Lilly woke up and as much as Lilly tried, she was in denial trying to wake Jesse but he was dead. It was clear that the x meant that whatever the figure did, they wanted them to die. After nightfall, the 6 survivors covered the bodies of their recent friends with tarps they found on the deck and went to sleep with someone watching over them in case of something happening.

The next day everyone rose onto the deck of the ship with Jake first seeing the new setting they were in. Not only was the fog gone, so was the swampy environment they found themselves in. They were now in a mountainous region overlooking the sea, a black desert, frozen orange tundra and a white forest which as far as they all knew, shouldn’t exist. The most important landmark that was there was the ruins of a large city which surprisingly was the same design as the ship. “U-um, does anyone else have a watch or such that shows the date?” Frey enviously spoke from within the group.

“I do, why?” John replied.

“W-we got knocked unconscious on the 7th of Heptal, r-right?”

“I thought it was the 8th.” Glaze said.

“We-well it’s the 14th according to m-my watch.” Frey shyly said. At those words, anyone who could checked their device to see the same number.

“Who tampered with our devices?” John angerly questioned the group. “There is no way we would even survive sleeping for that long.”

“Well, it was probably that thing that showed up.” Lilly blankly stated. She went to look at the bridge door before gazing out to the strange landscape they were currently in. “It managed to knock all of us out by raising it’s arm. Surely it could do more than that.”

Jake suddenly realised something considering it was about 11 am. “When was the last time any of you have eaten?”

He looked at their calculating faces only to see realisation on all of them.

“We don’t need food!?” Frey yelled in confusion. “Has anyone even needed to go to the bathroom? Do we need to even drink!?”

So these marks are more than just symbols. Jake thought to himself. What else did that fog thing do to us. The group of five spent the next few days exploring the ship and seeing how it worked and discovering the prisoner had vanished but there was a large amount of blood which suggested he was no longer alive. Going into the bridge after spending a few days exploring revealed that the bodies of the four who should be decomposing were gone which made an already mourning Lilly fall ever further into despair as she couldn’t even bury her husband’s body. Jake and John also couldn’t take Jane and Zane back to their families, granted anyone could even get home.

Lilly and Frey stayed out of the room and went elsewhere so Frey could help Lilly while she cried. The rest of them searched the control room for clues on how to pilot the ship and spent several hours trying to find a manual as unlikely as it would be. They needed Lilly but she wouldn’t be able to help in her current state.

**********

Three days had passed before Jake bumped a switch on a central console while trying to figure out how to turn the ship on. A periscope dropped onto him dazing him a bit knocking him onto the console and caused a lot of things to change.

The ship suddenly started, causing a jolt and in the centre of the room, rose a large circular panel with a gap at the back. Once it stopped, there large blue clear screens appeared on top of the console.

Everyone rushed in excluding Lilly who was still in grief and refused to go where her husband had died and disappeared from.

“What the fuck did you just do?” Frey asked. As she panned her head around to see the interior, she could see that the control panels where all glowing with a pulsing blue and silver going throughout.

“So while trying to figure out how to start this thing, thank you very much, I hit a switch which dropped that on my head” pointing to the periscope, “And in a stunned state, I hit the panel behind me an suddenly everything turned on.”

“Do you know how to control it.” Said Lilly from the door in a monotone voice.

“No, would you mind showing us?” Jake asked with curiosity.

The seemingly deflated woman walked over to the central console Jake was at and started showing them all how to start and control the ships basic functions. As she was doing this, she had a happy smile but a sombre gaze as she taught them.

**********

From outside the ship sitting among the ruins of the city, the female entity watched with interest through the ships systems as the survivors explored and attempted to learn the Valkyrie’s controls with slow but visible progress. What was most surprising to her is the female form teaching the others in quick and efficient detail of the her vessel’s basic controls.

But to the entity, this did not matter as her ship served its purpose and allowed the tags to progress and improve. With the bodies of the three she deemed unworthy sent back to where they came from, things could progress as intended.