The rest of his skewers cooked quickly, the open fire causing the meat to sizzle on contact. Haiko had returned to her previous spot, one leg barely in range of his life sense.

He turned his mind towards the upcoming discussion, working out his own framework for a system of rules and trying to figure out what their own might be. Boko had said he would come up with something interesting, but that had most likely been a joke.

It was possible that they had some core societal difference that went counter to human values and one that he’d managed to somehow miss through the discussion they’d already had, but it seemed unlikely given what he’d heard.

He was expecting some kind of food or shelter rule, based on Gaian society and Rittan’s reaction to finding out about how some humans treated each other. Something like everyone gets access to free food, and no cost would be associated with it. That was doable, provided they actually secured multiple long-term food sources.

Some fundamental right to privacy was probably a good idea as a suggestion as well, if it was even possible in these conditions. Now they were sharing everything they had, but eventually, they might accrue some personal belongings that actually held value, and at that point, it would become important. A rule to prevent theft or damaging of personal possessions was probably a good idea, even if none of the Voithos seemed like the type to take or break anything without asking first.

A blanket rule of doing no harm to others would be something he would definitely propose, and unless they were secretly all sadists, then he doubted they’d have a problem with that, either. Crystalising the rule of everyone having a vote was probably a good idea as well, rather than leaving it as some amorphous agreement.

August tossed the last of his finished skewers into the fire, wondering how long he could get away with just staying by the fire. Rittan would probably come to find him if he did, and then he’d end up having to get up again anyway. Still, he gave it a couple of minutes before finally pushing himself to his feet and then went out of his way to make some noise as he was leaving the hut to give them some warning as to his approach.

The hanging shade for their hut was still pinned up, leaving the light of the campfire to spill out through the entrance, casting odd shadows. Ladybug seemed interested in the fact that he’d emerged from the hut so quickly, while Morningstar just seemed interested in the other monster making noise.

August stepped into sight of the entrance, the hanging shade blocking him from seeing much more than Rittan’s lower body beside the fire, but the two mental renders of Rittan and Haiko were enough to give him a good idea of where some of them were. Thankfully, neither of them was moving all that much.

“August,” Rittan said, speaking to his legs. “I was just about to come to find you.”

August twisted down to sit in the doorway, the other three Voithos coming into view, all looking at him from different places inside the hut—the sudden attention felt like a wave of physical pressure pressing down on his shoulders, and he fought not to sag beneath it.

“Good timing,” August said, “You guys talking about the whole rule situation yet?”

“Not exactly,” Haiko said, leaning forward slightly. “We were actually talking about cutting down more trees—Rittan mentioned the roof of the undercover area would need them.”

August nodded.

“Yeah, they don’t need to be anywhere near as thick as the uprights,” August nodded, “We could get away with using those really thin trees with the white bark that are everywhere. They should be tall enough to stretch between the uprights.”

“I wasn’t sure about how it would fit together,” Rittan admitted, “Is it one cross beam between each pair of uprights?”

“Yes, essentially bisecting the whole structure into six segments,” August explained, “But we can also do the same for the entire outside of it; that way, we could wall the whole structure off if we wanted.”

“Like one big rectangular room?” Boko said, tilting his head.

“More or less, we can either make some divets in the top of the posts to hold the crossbeams or use vine to tie them up,” August admitted, “Functionality over style, at least for now.”

“I’d say It’s going to be very stylish—an open plan cottage, high ceilings and very spacious. It’s built on the lakeside. The nearest neighbours are hundreds of miles away and with views to absolutely die for,” Haiko said like she was some kind of alien real estate agent. “What’s not to love?”

“When you put it like that,” August said, impressed despite himself. “It almost sounds nice.”

“I’ll tell you what’s not to love,” Kalter said, voice dry. “The monsters crawling out of the lake to eat us in the middle of the night.”

“Everything has a downside if you search hard enough,” Haiko said, flapping her hand at Kalter.

“Not like I had to search very hard at all,” Kalter snorted.

“What about the roof itself?” Rittan asked, “Will we be using those large leaves again? I imagine we will need to add some more framing to keep them in place.”

“You’re right, some long branches can act as a grid, and we can tie the leaves to those,” August nodded, “Means we’re going to have to go into the forest again for some more gathering; I think we’re entirely out of leaves now.”

August rubbed a knuckle against his eye to clear it of gunk—he was going to need to go for a proper bath in the lake; he added it to his mental list of things to do.

“Which means we may encounter more Efkini,” Kalter said, humming. “We should prepare some more equipment—more of those good axes you made today.”

“The other teeth probably won’t be as good for it, but given how strong you all are, that might not matter too much,” August admitted, “Good idea, Kalter; I’ll do that first thing tomorrow morning.”

Kalter leaned back on her hands and glanced away. Boko, the closest person to her, glanced over at the movement before turning back again.

“Thanks for the clothes, August,” Boko said, plucking the twine holding his vest together to punctuate what he was talking about. “I was starting to feel a little bit nervous running around with little Boko flopping about.”

Rittan laughed out loud at the nickname, which sent a ripple of amusement through the hut, affecting the others just the same.

“Yes, we all spent several days naked before anyone remembered that clothing even existed,” Rittan said, smiling. “In our defence, we had more pressing issues to deal with, and it’s not exactly cold here, even at night.”

“I’m noticing that,” Boko said, amused. “Suppose I should be glad it’s not snowing; that would make the whole naked thing really embarrassing.”

“Perhaps we should move the topic to something more—” Haiko said, smiling. “Substantial than little Boko.”

Kalter snorted.

“Hey,” Boko laughed, trying and failing to affect a wounded tone. “You can’t say that.”

August cracked a smile at the byplay and the confidence with which he was able to take a joke like that. He turned his gaze down to the fire, content for someone else to steer the conversation.

“Indeed,” Rittan said, trying not to smile. “I believe we were deciding on the rules our little community would grow under?”