August stopped far enough away that only Boko was still within his newly expanded range and murmured to Ladybug that she was free to go back to messing about with Morningstar. Ladybug trilled, before diving off his shoulder, already searching out the elusive Efkini that he could see standing on the log that Rittan was dragging back towards camp.

“You’ve returned,” Haiko said, eyeing them both. “But what news do you bring with you from the world outside our humble home?”

“It’s pretty much as bad as he said it was,” Boko said, planting a pair of hands on his hips. “Experiments everywhere, and no Hekaton in sight—if you harboured any doubts before, you can put those to rest.”

“Well, if I’m to play the role of the paranoid damsel, then I suppose you two could have formed a secret alliance to keep some terrible secret from reaching my ears,” Haiko said, touching a finger to her chin and leaving a slight splash of wet clay behind. “What if there’s a bustling city all around us? Am I now forever trapped by my trust in our saviour and his chosen champion?”

“Sounds to me as if the only thing you’re trapped by is a thirty-minute walk,” Boko said, amused. “If you’ve got that many doubts, I’d suggest you avail yourself to the top of the crater and have a look yourself.”

“Unless, of course, we already thought of that,” August said, voice dry. “It took a bit of convincing, but the bustling city has agreed to keep it down, just in case you checked—the veil won’t be pulled back quite so easily.”

“You brutes—you’ve thought of everything, haven’t you?” Haiko said, turning her head away and leaving another faint streak of wet clay across her cheek in the process. “Am I stuck here, fated to toil away while you sneak off in the dead of night to have grand adventures?”

Kalter caught the tail-end of the conversation as she dropped the end of her tree in the pile before coming to stand with them, hand brushing across her face in a failed attempt to wipe away the sweat away from her eyes. Rittan followed her example, only a few meters behind her, and another murdered tree joined the stack with a dull thump.

“If you call cutting down bamboo for two hours an adventure, you’re more than welcome to go next time,” Boko said, laughing. “Careful though, princess, because there are monsters out there.”

August shifted slightly as Kalter passed through the edge of his range before taking a half step backwards. Kalter turned to look at him, and he attempted to cover the action by taking hold of the twine holding his leafy pants together and making as if to tighten it.

“Kalter, did you hear?” Haiko preened, a pair of hands pressed together beside her face. “He called me princess.”

“Uhuh,” Kalter said, using the crook of her arm in a second attempt to clear her vision. “You two don’t look any worse for wear—how bad is it out there?”

Boko and August shared a glance for a moment as he straightened again, shifting another step back to face all of them as Rittan joined the group.

“There were about three dozen Otrogon in sight of the top of the crater, and they most likely won’t be coming down here because of how their echolocation renders the environment,” August said, putting together everything he’d been thinking about. “They stay away from the cliff for the same reason—sheer drops probably look pretty bad from their perspective.”

“Three dozen?” Rittan said, dusting off his lower pair of hands. “A veritable army, considering the size of the bones you found.”

“They seem to average a bit bigger than that one overall,” Boko said, speaking up. “Might have been young compared to the others.”

“There aren’t any other types of monsters on this side of the crater, or at least up until the bamboo forest,” August said, “We almost went in to check on the metal ring, but the big Otrogon was in there, eating its way through everything—seemed like a bad idea to go in after it.”

“You got the bamboo?” Kalter asked.

“Stacks of it,” Boko chimed in, clapping a hand over his bicep. “We’re not going to run out any time soon.”

“I’ll start making a pile once we’re done talking,” August said, shaking out his leg a bit in an attempt to dislodge the now continuous ache. “The garden looks good—thanks for taking care of that.”

“You are most welcome, although it was a group effort,” Rittan said, smiling. “We intended to see you off, but Boko seems to be quite adept at sneaking out under cover of darkness.”

“Haiko already made that joke,” Boko said, but he still laughed at it. “You’ve been hard at work—we haven’t even put the roof on yet, and you’re already preparing for an extension?”

August had seen the strip of holes marked out alongside the others—three pillars wide, six long—in much the same manner he’d been thinking of. They hadn’t dug any of them out yet, but there were half a dozen trees already in the stack, one for each potential hole.

“We were thinking about making it wider to avoid having everything in a single column,” Rittan admitted, “If we start enclosing it, there will be a lot of traffic in that one area, and it could become crowded—I hope you don’t mind.”

Despite Boko being the one who’d brought it up, the question had been directed at August, and he actually almost missed that fact, only realising it when the silence had stretched for a beat too long, and he turned back to find most of the group watching him.

“I was thinking of doing pretty much the exact same thing—we can widen it or lengthen it as much as we need to; it’s just a matter of scaling the resource cost,” August said, reaching up to touch his neck. “You don’t need my permission, though; if you think it’s a good idea, go for it.”

“Thank you,” Rittan said, smiling.

“Bossman,” Boko said, “You going to tell them about the whole taming thing?”

August considered telling him that, once again, he wasn’t the boss, but at this point, he was almost certain Boko was doing it because of that, so he just let it slide, knowing an unwinnable battle when he saw one. He took a moment to figure out how to best present his case and then decided to just say it.

“I want to tame an Otrogon, to use as a beast of burden, to cut down bamboo for us or as transport around the island,” August said, clearing his throat. “That’s not going to be a simple task, and I don’t think I can do it on my own—I’d like to put it to a vote on whether we can attempt something like that as a group in the future.”

There were a few glances between the group at that.

“Figure we can restrain one of them with chains, pin it down long enough for him to make it friendly,” Boko said, “I’ve got some experience with fighting them as well, and I’m pretty sure we can do it without too much risk.”

“The more of them we have on our side, the less of them are out there trying to kill us,” Kalter said, clearly in favour of it. “Are we voting now?”

“There is no reason we should rush to make a decision right now,” Haiko said, speaking up again. “Let’s take a few hours to think about it, and tonight we can come to a decision together—yes?”

“That sounds rather reasonable to me,” Rittan said, nodding. “Perhaps we can discuss the summoning that will be taking place tomorrow, as well.”

“Perfect,” Haiko said, clapping a pair of hands together. “Now, I can’t help but notice that there’s absolutely no shade to be found—what exactly does a princess have to do around here to get a roof over her head?”

“Come on, princess,” Kalter said, rolling her eyes. “I could use a break anyway.”

Kalter took her by the shoulder, bullying her back towards the [A-Frame-Hut]. August watched them go before turning to look up at the pillars, figuring out how best to use them.