They walked along the beach toward their new home. Felix opened up his inventory and checked out his share of the haul; three dozen of the sealant goo. He was sure it wasn’t worth the effort.
He didn’t say anything to Koale about it. It’d lead to nothing good and he was beat. In the morning though, in the morning he’d give Koale a good ribbing for causing such a mess.
The sun sank down below the horizon and the stars shone bright. The waves glistened in the torchlight. Up ahead, they could just make out the newly built walls. They looked imposing from the distance.
Felix pulled out his jerky out and tore at it. With all that running, he was ravenous. He’d have something else to eat in the kitchen before he slept, but he didn’t want to wait.
From out of the jungle, came a bellow. It was a whole lot closer than it should have been.
Behind them, the enraged landshark was bounding up the beach. It huffed as it ran, but it was moving quick.
Felix dropped the jerky and ran. Koale was a half-step behind him as they sprinted to the gate. As they neared, Felix shouted. “Open the gate! Open the gate!”
Surely one of them was awake. Surely they heard the ruckus and went to the wall. “Open the gate!”
They reached the gate. Felix pounded on it with his fist. “Let us in,” shouted Koale.
“I hear you already, shut up,” said Trent from the far side of the wall. The gate swung toward them ever so slowly.
The landshark’s strides ate up the distance between them.
As soon as they could fit their fingers in, Koale and Felix began to pull the heavy door open. They heaved as they listened to the heavy thud behind them racing nearer.
The door was open wide enough to slip in. Felix shoved Koale through the door than leapt inside himself. As soon as he was inside, he was once more tugging at the door, this time to close it.
“Close it! Hurry,” he said. He waved Trent back to the door. Koale had already joined him.
When Trent pitched in the door swung at a stately pace. It thunked closed and Felix dropped to the ground panting. He grinned up at Koale, “We made it.”
If Koale replied, it was lost in a tremendous smack of flesh on wood. The wood creaked and groaned.
Trent looked at the two. “What the hell did you two idiots do now?”
Renessa ran up from her hut, spear in hand. “I’d like to know myself.”
Felix scrambled to his feet and looked at Nessa. “This is a good news, bad news sort of situation.”
Another crash at the gate. The wall cracked ominously.
Renessa waved her hand. “Get to the point.”
“It’s a landshark,” said Felix.
“Landshark?”
Koale stood back, facing the wall, his blowgun ready. “Lots of teeth, really big, and angry.”
Felix shrugged. “Basically.”
Renessa closed her eyes and grit her teeth. “We will talk about this later. Get out of the way”
Felix readied his crossbow and joined Koale. Trent had his shield and club out. Eyes were locked on the wall.
There was another crash. Wood bowed in and splintered. Through the cracks, the beady eyes of their foe would be seen. It panted and stared at them before launching itself at the wall once more.
The wall shuddered and the fracture widened. The landshark put its front legs on the dangerously angled logs and stuck its head inside.
Nessa leapt forward and stabbed with her spear. A small gash appeared along its long nose.
The landshark jumped back and howled. It threw itself at the wall one last time. The barrier fell in a shower of wood and splinters.
The landshark rebounded upright and padded forward.
Trent stood still, shield and mace slack. He watched the thing approach, nearly as tall as he was and four times the weight.
Renessa stood alone between the beast and her companions, spear leveled and ready.
Koale regained his wits first and blew his dart. Felix fired his crossbow a beat later. Neither were anything resembling accurate with their chosen weapons as of yet, but it wasn’t a precision target either.
The dart struck the landshark but glanced off the thick hide. The bolt buried itself deep in the flank of the creature. It elicited a low growl and a small trickle of blood but no other discernible effect.
“Give me your bolts,” said Koale.
Without time to argue, Felix summoned his bolts from his inventory and handed over all but a small handful. His friend stepped away to do something, but Felix was too busy to watch
Renessa took a lunge at the landshark as it got within range.
Felix stepped on the stirrup of his crossbow and pulled back on the drawstring.
The landshark swatted the spear out of Renessa’s hands. She tumbled from the impact and the weapon clattered to the ground.
Felix’s hands shook. He loaded a bolt into place, trying, needing to hurry.
“Nessa!” shouted Trent, shocked out of his trance.
Felix raised his weapon and fired again. The bolt struck home into the chest of the beast.
It raised up its claws above the prone Renessa.
Trent slammed, shield first into the side of the landshark. The impact made it stumble and its claws merely grazed Renessa.
Stirrup. Drawstring.
The landshark turned and swiped at Trent, sending him sprawling to the ground. Blood arced gracefully through the air behind him.
Koale handed Felix a bolt. Felix loaded and aimed. The bolt head had a strange sheen to it, but there was no time to look further. He fired. The bolt hit where the neck of the creature would be, if it had one. Again, no obvious effect.
The landshark turned its attention to Felix. Shit. Unloaded weapon and the only thing he had otherwise was a knife. That wasn’t going to do.
He raced back into the base and dashed into the kitchen. He ducked behind a table, pulling it to its side as makeshift cover, and frantically started loading his weapon.
He looked up in time to see the landshark charge the door. Charged through the door. It left a gaping hole where the door used to be. The walls surrounding it were shattered and ragged.
Felix shot it one last time, dropped his crossbow and pulled his knife.
The landshark stared at him, it was breathing heavily and wobbled on its feet.
Felix held his knife in front of him and half crouched like he’d seen in the movies, what seemed like ages ago. What the hell was he doing?
Koale and Renessa crept through the hole the monstrosity had made. Koale held up one finger over his mouth.
Felix took a deep breath to steady his nerves. “Come and get me.” He beckoned it with a wave of his hand.
The hulking beat lunged at him and Felix threw himself to the side. He wasn’t quick enough.
The landshark caught his left foot in its jaws and crunched down. The rows of teeth made short work of it and he, minus a foot, fell free.
Felix crumpled to the floor. His head felt light and his world narrowed to the bleeding stump where his foot used to be. Someone was screaming. Felix was pretty sure it was him.
He heard a loud thunk from the center of the room over the din.
He looked up to see Renessa on the thing’s back, plunging her spear in again and again. The beast itself was slumped on the ground. Koale was rushing around it to get to him.
He wavered and everything went dark.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
Felix woke up lying in his bed. He stared at the ceiling. Had he died again?
He thought back. He had taunted a being composed of naught but teeth and anger to charge him. If he had died, he certainly deserved it.
He hurt way more than he had last time, though. And his left foot felt weird.
Images of the bleeding stump made his stomach turn and sent phantom pain up his leg. Felix sat up and looked at his feet. Still two. Or rather, two again.
Died then? They healed fast on this planet, but not anything
like this. He wiggled his toes. It was not painful. Not quite. His whole foot was extremely sensitive. It was just as well that thing ate his boot. He wouldn’t be able to stand wearing it anyway.
Other than the missing boot, he was clothed. That cast doubt on his death. Besides, Koale was coming to help him when he blacked out.
But perhaps if he died, maybe they had clothed him before he came to. He hadn't been around anyone else post-death before. He wasn't sure if that was feasible.
Felix sat there for a while, staring at his unshod foot and wiggling toes. He debated with himself on whether he had managed another rebirth.
He very firmly did not think of his foot, missing from the mid-calf down. Of the blood gushing onto the wooden floor and running along the edges of the planks. Of-
It was the sharpness of the memory that finally convinced Felix he had lived. No convenient memory dulling this time. It would haunt his dreams for the foreseeable future.
Which is not to say Felix didn't feel numb. He did. It was a different numb, however. It was difficult to be worked up over an injury that clearly didn't exist any longer.
It was jarring more than anything. They had regen tanks in the civilized world, of course, but regrowing a foot would have taken a month at least. This had taken-- how long had it taken?
Felix slid off this bed. He sucked in his breath and lifted his new foot. It didn’t hurt, but it felt a lot. Overwhelmingly so.
He gingerly set his foot down as slow as he could. As he grew accustomed to the sensation, he added more weight until he eventually stood evenly on both feet. He lingered, letting his foot get used to bearing his weight.
He took a step and the sensation knocked him on his ass.
Once the feeling subsided and he could think again, he pulled himself upright. It took a while as he was careful not to hit his foot on anything.
Felix took an experimental hop, landing on his good foot. It was a little tingly, but manageable. He wouldn’t be able to keep it up all day, but it’d be good enough to get him some food and figure out what happened.
He slowly hopped his way to the door and pushed it open. The light hit his face and he was blinded momentarily. When his eyes adjusted, he wanted to hop back inside his hut.
Several yards of the wall were cracked and splintered. Blood was splattered all over the wall. There was also the rather obvious giant hole where the beast had burst through. The metal reinforcements were visible through it. They twisted and stretched towards the sky. Even the braces holding up the gate were damaged.
And then there was the kitchen. The door was just gone. A good chunk of the wall was as well; so much was missing, Felix was surprised the roof was intact. He couldn't make out how bad it was inside. It was too dark to see.
It was a long, slow procession to the kitchen. Hop. Catch balance. Hop again. He had more than enough time to really soak in the destruction their recklessness had wrought.
Trent walked out of the kitchen. When he saw Felix hopping towards him, he leaned back against an undamaged portion of the wall. He watched Felix struggle closer.
“You could help,” said Felix.
“I could,” Trent agreed. He didn't move and simply watched Felix's slow procession.
Felix fumed but would not give the man the satisfaction of grousing out loud. He hopped with what dignity he could through the kitchen door.
Inside, the kitchen was trashed. Blood was everywhere. A giant stain spread where the landshark had fallen. The stain where he had fallen was far larger than he would like as well. It was a lot of blood. Felix felt woozy looking at it.
Forcing his eyes away, he took in the rest of the large room. The table he had hid behind was smashed. Most of the furniture was. The oven seemed to be intact still, as were three chairs. Renessa and Koale occupied two of them.
“Good. I was tired of waiting. Sit.”
As Felix worked his way to the indicated seat, he saw Renessa staring hard behind him. He glanced back over his shoulder.
Trent had followed him inside and stood near the former door, arms crossed on his chest. His eyes were locked on Renessa. The standoff didn’t last long, and even before Felix turned back around, Trent had looked away and began shuffling back outside.
Felix took a seat and eased his foot to the ground. He only winced a little. Koale wouldn’t look at him. Renessa wouldn’t look away. This was going to be unpleasant.
Once he had settled in, Renessa handed Felix a hunk of bread. “Put that away for now. We’re going to have a little chat, and I have a feeling if I wait for you to finish, you can draw that bread out for a hot minute.”
Felix stashed the bread in his inventory without comment. Speaking would only lead to more hot water, he was certain.
“So,” said Renessa, “You want to tell me what happened yesterday?”
Felix scratched the back of his head, “I think the end was pretty clear. Giant, toothy monster hell-bent on eating Koale and I. Broken walls, much kicking of our asses, an eating of a foot, but we got it in the end.”
Renessa smiled sweetly. Felix’s spirit sunk. This was worse than he thought. “From the beginning, please,” she said.
Felix told the tale, emphasizing the obsidian they found and how they scoured the mountainside looking for more. It was a grand story.
“So what did you find in the cave then?” asked Renessa.
“We found the landshark goo.”
“And you two knew landsharks made it?”
“Yes.” Felix winced. Renessa might as well be physically rubbing his nose in the whole endeavor.
“And so you took it, why again?”
Felix thought back to the argument he had with Koale in the cave. That it was dangerous, that it would be there later, that it was an optional material anyway. He took a deep breath and looked Renessa in the eye, “I insisted we did. The goo has the trait of ‘sealant’ and we need it for the ship.”
Koale shot him a glance but didn’t say anything.
“An optional one, correct?”
“Yes, but we were there to take it, and knowing what we know of the system, having it will give us a better chance at success when we do need the ship.”
Irritation flashed across Renessa’s face. She closed her eyes and collected herself. She dismissed Felix’s comment with a wave of her hand. “So you gambled on a hope and a prayer. Then, when you went bust, you led the danger back here."
"Well, what do you expect? You saw that thing, it took all four of us and it still wasn't easy."
Renessa's eyes narrowed. "Death isn't permanent here, and I know you know that. One of you could have lead it away while the other came back with your haul."
The idea of running away and leaving Koale behind hit too close to home. Memories of that first landshark surfaced. The creature with its jaws clamped onto Koale's, hopefully dead, body and shaking it apart. He didn't lie this time. Not quite. "We don't know how that works. We don't know if we can rely on it. We lost some time, but it was the less risky choice."
Renessa jumped up and strode to Felix, poking a finger into his chest. "Trent died last night," she hissed.
Felix sat up straight. "What?" He looked at Koale for help, but the Lisnoir avoided his eyes.
"You were so concerned about saving yourselves from risk, but you were more than willing to let my husband pay that price for you."
"I'm sorry, we didn't mean..." Felix trailed off. He didn't know what to say.
Renessa turned her back and Felix could hear her take a deep breath. "I know. Here's the thing, though: even in the best case, you two caused damage that will take a full day to repair. Maybe more. The metal reinforcements can't be replaced right now. And we know the raiders may be incoming at any moment."
"I don't understand why we can't replace the reinforcements," said Felix. "We were running low, but we should still have enough for that at least."
"We're out, okay?" Renessa turned back around and slumped into her chair. "You two are great at
solving problems," she said, waving a hand to include Koale. "You really are. But you cause as many problems as you solve. You need to leave the camp for a while."
Felix's jaw went slack and he just stared. He knew she was mad, but banishing them?
Renessa held up a stalling hand. "Not forever," she said, "Just until we take care of the raiders or are sure they aren't coming."
Felix grit his teeth. "There are walls here now because of us. There is metal at all because of us."
Koale looked up with alarm and shook his head in the negative.
Felix ignored him. "You two had food, sure, but everything that is here now? That's us. And you are booting us out?"
"We don't have time to keep cleaning up your messes right now, okay? I just need you gone. Just until we can get back on our feet again."
Felix opened his mouth but was interrupted by Koale. "We'll be at the ship base, should you need us," he said. With that he scooped Felix up and tossed him over his shoulder.
"Put me down, I wasn't done," said Felix.
"If you would like the chance to return ever, I suggest that you are."
Felix could see his point, but it didn't make him less angry. "This is bullshit."
"I saw from the way you were walking earlier that your foot is still troubling you," said Koale, ignoring Felix's comment. "You still have your old spear in storage, yes? You can use that for support for now."
Felix sulked atop Koale's shoulder as they made their way back to their hut. If it was still their hut.
Once inside, Koale put down Felix carefully. Felix hobbled over to his storage box and pulled out the spear. He didn't have much in there. Both of his old spears, the atlatl, his old right boot made of glider leather, and- this was new. There was a stack of several hundred nails.
He had not had that before. The camp as a whole had not. Now he knew where the metal stockpiles had gone, and why they couldn't replace the reinforcements on the damaged section.
Felix looked at the nails and the implications of what they had done hit home. No, they hadn't meant for any of what happened to happen, but they had messed up royally all the same.
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