After Marcus had handed over his sculpture in return for tools, the atmosphere of the meeting changed; now there was no more bargaining. Perhaps the Kanagara would have left, but their leader, Lupelele, explained that they had to wait for the tide to turn. While they did so, the other members of the tribe asked questions, mostly about the planet that Marcus and Sina had come from. Now and then, Marcus noticed Lupelele taking a discreet look at her sculpture and always it made her smile.

The relaxed conversation was also an opportunity for Marcus to learn as much as he could about Grimworld, starting with the region they were in. And what the Kanagara told him led him to spring to his feet and find a stick and a patch of sandy dirt to draw in. ‘Please,’ he said, ‘show me on a map.’

He drew a curve for the two headlands. ‘This is us, here, now. You say that the Red Moon tribe are cannibals, and they are north? Where exactly?’

The youngest of the Kanagarans, a male probably just out of his teens, got up and took the stick. After a pause to check and receive a nod from Lupelele, he drew two more bays, a smaller one to the south and a larger one to the north.

A menu alert flashed briefly at the corner of his vision and Marcus opened it.

Congratulations! You have discovered Mapmaking

You have a map that will automatically update as you learn about new regions

As Marcus found his new map, which blocked half his vision until he flicked it away, the young man was stabbing the stick repeatedly into an area inland of the top bay. His face was contorted with sudden anger. ‘There. There are the killers.’

‘And the slavers? Ark-Andulan, I think you called them?’

‘Here.’ This time the youth drew a river some distance to the south, dragged it inland and made a sweeping circle. ‘They have their fort on the riverbank. And they sail even as far as our islands trying to capture us.’ He was about to mark the Kanagaran island or islands, almost directly to the east, when Lupelele shouted at him and young man dropped the stick with a guilty expression.

‘We are no threat to you,’ said Marcus to their leader.

‘What you don’t know, you cannot reveal under torture.’

‘Oh God.’ Sina, who had been standing watching as the map took shape, suddenly squatted back down. ‘Cannibals; slavers; torturers. I want to go home.’

‘I know,’ said Marcus sympathetically, trying to disguise the fact that in his own heart a delight at being young again outweighed his fears of cannibals and slavers. Every day here on this world, with this body, gave him more pleasure than he could have dreamed of back on Earth.

‘I have a good idea,’ Sina looked up hopefully at Lupelele, ‘why don’t you take us with you?’

There was a stillness among all the people of Kanagara now and the youth who had been drawing the map looked at Sina open-mouthed with an expression that Marcus judged to be one of considerable desire.

‘We can help you. Marcus can make more of those birds. I have… well, dancing and music skills.’

Lupelele stood up and crossed her arms, the lines of the tattoos on each meeting to create an impression of an uneven row of fence posts. ‘My God-view says your standing with us is now seven. We will not trust you to come among us until that standing is fifty.’

‘What can we do to make it fifty?’ asked Sina immediately.

‘More trades. Help in battles. Quests to bring us information or items we need.’

‘We’ll do it, won’t we Marcus? We’ll become friends with the Kanagarans.’

‘We will indeed.’ He looked over at their leader; she was frowning. ‘How can we help you?’

Lupelele’s frown changed to an expression of sadness. ‘If you can rescue any of our people from the Ark-Andulan, that will mean a great deal to us.’

As soon as she had spoken these words, the interface at the corner of his vision flashed. But it took a moment to flick through the menus to find out why. Marcus had a dozen new crafting quests, which had appeared when he had traded for all the tools of the Kanagarans. It took a moment to close these menus by throwing his eyes to the side for each one, until he came to the most recent:

Quest: Rescue the Kanagaran Slaves

Release Kanagaran people who are being held as slaves by the Ark-Andulan.

Requirements: Standing with Kanagara 5.

Reward: Plus 5 standing with Kanagara per released slave.

‘I see,’ said Marcus. Then he looked at Sina. ‘Do you see it too?’

‘Yes, but it’s of no use to us. How are we going to be able to release anyone? Probably, we’ll be captured ourselves soon enough.’

After a glance at Lupelele – she was stony-faced – Marcus gave a shrug. ‘You never know. Do you see the new map menu? And the new crafting quests?’

Sina just stared at him with eyes that seemed full of despair.

‘We can leave,’ having studied the sea, Lupelele addressed her people and they began to walk towards their catamaran.

‘Take me with you, I’m begging you!’ Sina suddenly ran to the leader of the Kanagara and took her arm. 'Please, I'll be a hard worker. You’ll see.’

Scowling now, Lupelele pulled herself free. ‘We listen to the God-menu. We are a faithful people.’

‘Come back soon,’ said Marcus hurriedly. ‘I’ll have another sculpture for you.’

‘Perhaps.’

He followed the Kanagara down the beach and helped them push their ship back into the waves. After some time he returned to the fire, Sina was squatting, arms around her legs, tears in her eyes. ‘Sorry,’ she said. ‘I just want to be safe.’

‘I know.’ Marcus sat down and, after hesitating, put his arm around her. Her response was to give him a brief look of gratitude. With a gesture of his other arm towards the cloth sack full of tools, he said, ‘look on the bright side, it’s been a good morning. We have tools, we have more food. How about we check the new quests and see if we can make some progress towards being able to protect ourselves?’

‘Thank you, Marcus,’ Sina took a deep breath and then stood up. ‘Do you think that jerky counts as meat?’

‘It is meat, why?’

‘The pet quest. We could do with a tame...’ she paused and looked distracted for a moment, ‘Otaxel.’

Marcus found the quest and reminded himself of the requirements. ‘Animal Handling One will be needed as well.’

As he spoke, Sina was looking around, as though for an animal she could handle and Marcus was working towards a joke about this when he saw her stiffen with an expression of sorrow. Following her gaze, he saw that the catamaran of the Kanagara was rounding the northern headland and would be soon be out of sight. Instead, therefore, of making a smart remark he might regret, Marcus tried to be positive. ‘One of our quests is to build an animal pen. Let’s do that and try to catch a creature with the jerky as a lure.’

‘Very well.’

***

It was late afternoon by the time the animal pen was complete. After a short discussion they had agreed to build it about half the distance from their hidden lean-tos and the beach. Marcus had then experienced the curious, sleep-walking effect of answering yes to the question in a pop-up box of whether he wished to build a small animal pen. With efficient steps and steady application to sawing, hammering, and digging he found himself working hard for most of the day.

Although there were times when his thoughts drifted, on the whole the experience was interesting. He watched himself construct clever slots through which long tendrils of sinuous branches from a willow-like tree were slid at the four corners and which ensured the layers of branches that were worked in and out of the posts would be tight and sturdy. The post-holes he carved out of the ground with a tool like a small pickaxe were deep and when he hammered them in by dropping a large rock several times on each, he felt great satisfaction in how firm they were. The finished pen, with its posts tightly bound by wattle, was ideal for a creature with the size and agility of a sheep. A dog might be able to scramble out, certainly anything bigger, like that Otaxel, could not be confined here.

As he gazed at the completed pen with considerable satisfaction, he saw Sina looking at her hands.

‘Have you heard the expression, “horny handed son of toil”?’ she asked him.

‘I have.’

‘I believe I have become a horny handed daughter of toil.’ She showed him hands that were blistered.

Strangely, his own were too. And that should have been painful.

‘It doesn’t hurt though, does it?’ Marcus asked and Sina shook her head in wonderment.

‘Look at your health sub-menu,’ she said after a moment.

Although he was getting the hang of the pop up message boxes, Marcus could not find one called health. ‘Where’s that?’ he asked eventually, overcoming a reluctance to appear less able at this game than her.

‘You have to have your basic character sheet open first. Mine shows that I’m hungry, down to seventy-four from one hundred; thirsty, sixty-six; injured, ninety-eight; and tired, seventy-two.’

Now it was obvious and Marcus opened his own health tab.

Marcus – Health

Hunger: moderate, 71/100

Thirst: moderate, 68/100

Injury: very minor blistering on hands, 97/100

Tiredness: moderate, 76/100

‘I have it. Oh, I am thirsty.’ Reminded by his health menu that he really was thirsty, Marcus went to the river. As he felt the relief of a long, cool drink, he noted that his thirst had gone and his score was 100/100.

Marcus was going to suggest to Sina that they take a break from the plan to obtain Animal Handling and tame an Otaxel. Now they had meat and a pen to try to corral some small animal, he was quite optimistic of making progress. And if they could get that powerful beast as some kind of guard dog, well he’d certainly feel a lot safer at night. Yet all this was likely to take time, if it was possible at all, while his trip to the river had reminded Marcus that with their new tools they could create bowls and cup.

While thinking over the everyday items they should build and walking back towards the bushes of their camp, a new menu message popped up.

War with the Ark Andulan tribe

An Ark Andulan raiding party have entered your territory. Your current standing with the Ark Andulan is -100 (hostile). You are at war with the Ark Andulan.

Reward: retain your life and freedom.