“OK, you two just sit down,” Akari said, “And Sadie and I can check the snares.”

  “Do you remember where mine is?” Danielle asked.

  “I, um. I think so?” Akari said uncertainly.

  “I’ll check it,” Danielle said. “Then I’m taking a 15-minute rest, though, and so are you.”

  “OK, I can live with that,” Akari said.

  “And I can live with not knowing if I caught anything,” Heather said, sitting down by the firewood.

  The others chuckled and moved into the woods. Danielle found that her snare had come out of position, somehow, and was tangled with the bush it was anchored to. She did her best to reset it, uncertain of what had caused the problem. Then she went back to the road, and found Heather moving the firewood into one of the shopping bags.

  “You really want something else to carry?” Danielle asked skeptically.

  “Hey, if anyone snares a rabbit, we gotta cook it, right?” Heather said. “I don’t think it’ll be – “

  Suddenly, an animal shriek rang out. Danielle leaped to her feet, adrenalin washing away her fatigue, and even Heather came up on one knee and got her staff in her hands. Sadie came running to join them, bow out and arrow on the string. They all paused to listen for a long moment.

  “Akari?” Danielle called, loudly. “Are you OK?”

  “I got one!” Akari called back triumphantly. “They scream! I didn’t know they could scream!”

  “Got one what?” Sadie called, a bit quieter, as she lowered her bow.

  “Some kind of rabbit! Give me a few minutes, I have to let the blood out,” Akari called back.

  “Are you sure you want to do that right next to your snare?” Danielle called.

  “I moved away a little,” Akari called defensively. “I definitely don’t want to do it at home! Or worse, leave a trail of blood all the way home. Is there a trick to this? I’ve never done anything but fish before.”

  “Search me,” Sadie replied. “I’ve never even done fish before. I’m glad you have, honestly, you can help us get it right, and we won’t be completely dependent on that guidebook.”

  “I think I’ve got it good enough,” Akari said. “Got a red shopping bag? It’ll get gross, but I can wash it in the shower, and it can be reserved for carrying stuff from trapping and snaring.”

  Heather rummaged in her bag of bags, looking for a red one. “Yeah, I found a mostly-red one. Any objection to a cute cats pattern on it?”

  “Cats hunt!” Akari called back.

  “I’ll take it to her,” Sadie said, then stood with a quiet “oof.”

  It turned out Akari had come back toward the road far enough that Sadie didn’t actually go out of sight, delivering the bag. She stood, leaning against a tree, while Akari finished whatever she was doing; Danielle was relieved not to have to watch, though she supposed she would be practicing the skill for herself soon enough.

  Eventually, they came back up onto the road, Sadie carrying one of Akari’s scavenging bags, and Akari gingerly carrying the red bag with the cats, now weighed down by her catch.

  “Can we stuff the bags into one of you guys’ bags?” Heather asked. “I think if we do, I can handle the firewood and the rabbit.”

  “Are you sure?” Akari asked. “I mean, someone has to take the rabbit, and it’s lighter than the bag I was carrying, but it’s also kind of gross.”

  “It’s food, right?” Heather said. “We’re all going to have to get used to dealing with it soon enough.”

  “Hah! It’s like you’re reading my mind,” Danielle said. “I was just thinking that about the, you know, the stuff Akari was doing just now.”

  “Yeah. We are, but I didn’t want to rub it in, yet,” Akari said.

  “Next time, we bring those spades,” Sadie said. “Burying the guts without any kind of shovel was annoying.”

  “Learning is happening!” Danielle exclaimed. “Joy and rapturation! And I’m only about 60% sarcastic right now! Oh – how much mana did you get?”

  “Oh! Right, that!” Akari exclaimed in turn. “Let me look – huh. None in my mana pool. There’s a System message minimized, though. I think it came in that way, instead of waiting for me to do it? Never had that before.”

  “Huh. Like, instead of coming up in front of your eyes, it just went straight to a minimized-message reminder?” Heather asked. “I’ve never seen that either.”

  “It says, Mana burst detected. 25 mana has been added to your base level. Remaining cost to level, 1165 mana.” Akari blinked. “Where’d the other ten go?”

  “Ooh, it must be from background mana absorption – we’ve been outside for almost two whole days now, after all,” Danielle reminded her. “The rest of us probably have 1190!”

  “My Payment Plan still says I have zero stored mana,” Sadie said.

  “Let me check mine,” Akari said, her eyes flicking back and forth in response to the interface. “OK, it’s not going to Payment Plan, because mine still says I have two mana stored. It’s somewhere else.”

  “Maybe you should look for it after we get home,” Danielle suggested. “Especially if you still have anything you need to do outside with the, um, with the meat.”

  “Oh, yeah. I might need to get a look at the guidebook, and then come back out and do a few things,” Akari admitted.

  “We better get moving, then,” Sadie said. “It’s not really getting dark yet, but that sun does seem kind of low.”

  Heather took that as her cue to stand up, partly stifling a groan. “OK, here we go. Um, do you want to do the linking arms thing?”

  “I think we better,” Akari said. “I’ll be a lot easier to let you lean on us and stay upright, than to let you collapse and then have to actually carry you!”

  Sadie chuckled. “Last lap, and then we take a whole day off, like we said.”

  Heather nodded. The four of them linked arms again and hiked down the road. Heather stumbled a couple of times, and they had to pause while she got her feet back under her, but they didn’t let her fall. They did slow down some, especially since Danielle was also starting to limp noticeably. By the time they got back into the ruined town, the long shadows were starting to darken the spaces in and between ruined buildings, even though the east/west roads were still bright. They knew the corner to turn off to their less-obvious path south, at least, so they still chose not to take the main road to the Rooms.

  Sadie and Akari kept their drooping roommates on track as they did the last stretch through the woods past the Rooms themselves, with the light fading with every step. When they got within sight of the building, it was plain to see that a lot of other Sent had taken the arrival of sunset as a warning to get back inside, too; waiting for the walkway and the three balconies all to be clear at once gave them a longer rest than they wanted in the woods, and they ended up navigating the drop from the normal ground level into the walkway in full dark. They all let down their bags at the edge this time, and climbed down unencumbered.

  Heather immediately staggered inside and claimed the restroom while the other three ferried the bags inside. Akari stashed the rabbit under the sink, and washed her hands before heading back to the bookcase. Danielle got the bagged meals out of the cold box and set them on the end of the counter, then took hers to her bed. She took off her boots and sat all the way back against the wall, with her feet sticking out in front of her. Sadie leaned against the door until Heather came out of the restroom, then took her place, while Heather collected her brown bag and more or less copied Danielle’s position. Sadie joined them after washing her hands, and for several minutes the silence was broken only by the sounds of rustling pages and crunching apples.

  “Sadie, do you think you could stand to go out and hold a flashlight for me while I skin the rabbit?” Akari finally asked.

  “Does it absolutely have to be done tonight?” Sadie asked unenthusiastically.

  “Well, I’m not positive actually, but I think it’s safest for the meat,” Akari said. “We’re going to have to cook it at least a little. I’m thinking I cut it up into quarters, and we light up one of the camp stoves and boil it. Roasting would probably be tastier, but you know… it’s like midnight already.”

  Danielle looked at her watch. “It’s a little after ten, actually,” she corrected.

  “You should eat, Akari,” Heather said. “I’m actually kind of feeling better with some food.”

  “I’ll eat once the meat’s in the pot,” Akari promised. “It’ll keep me from falling asleep while it cooks.”

  “Aaaall right,” Sadie said with a groan. “I’m coming.”

  Sadie and Akari went out the door with the red bag. Danielle finished her meal, then tried to stand up and hissed as her feet hit the floor.

  “Are you OK?” Heather asked.

  “My feet are swelling up,” Danielle admitted. “I think it’s just because, you know. I might have never done that much walking all in one day in my life.”

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  “Let me heal you,” Heather said. “My pool’s full anyway.”

  “Actually, let me try something first. Actually, let me use the toilet first, and then try something,” Danielle replied.

  Heather chuckled. “Yeah, OK. In a few minutes, then.”

  Danielle limped to the restroom, though limping didn’t quite work right when both of her feet were equally in pain. She decided to clean up for bed while she was up, so she wouldn’t have to get up again. When she was finally done with that, she hobbled back to her bed, and sat with one foot up on her other knee, where she could see it.

  “OK, I’m going to try out my medical diagnosis Skill,” Danielle said. “Feel free to watch and see if anything visible happens.”

  “Oh! OK, I’m watching,” Heather said, leaning towards her.

  Danielle activated the Skill, and directed it at her own foot. She could feel the mana wash over her, and immediately she was reaching to take her socks off. She whipped off the outer sock, then had the inner layer pulled almost down to her ankle when she just as suddenly slowed, and began peeling much more gently. It was then that she really realized her hands were moving as much at the whim of the Skill as her mind. Yet, even as she wondered what was going on, words came: diagnosing the foot required a view of the foot, therefore the sock must come off. Known symptoms suggested blisters, which could stick to clothing, therefore the clothing in the affected area should be removed slowly and carefully. The inner sock did stick a little. The Skill whispered, as if in her ear, but without the tickle of breath that would go with a real voice. Look at the sock; a spot of blood. Look at the foot; there, the source of the blood. Other blisters in other spots, gentle touch to see if any were broken; they were not. Check the sock again, this time look for yellow. None.

  “Is the Skill doing anything?” Heather asked.

  “I – I guess this is what a lore Skill feels like,” Danielle told her. “It’s telling me what to do. Almost puppeting me, sometimes, but I think I could resist if I needed to. Oh – it just ended.”

  “Oh, my mom said that about her lore Skill,” Heather said. “She said it would move her if she let it, but it never really overrode her if she was trying to do anything specific. Were you paying attention? Mom told me lore Skills can teach you stuff, but only if you pay attention. They don’t just shove information into your brain, they kind of show you how to do it.”

  “I think there’s some information coming in besides the movements, though? I knew why it was doing stuff too.”

  “Yeah, but the information isn’t in your memory – it’s like if someone was just whispering it in your ear. At least, that’s how Mom explained it. If you take notes, you’ll learn how to do stuff, but if you just let it puppet you along and don’t pay attention, it’ll never sink in,” Heather explained.

  “Ah. Hm. I think this time, I learned to be careful removing clothes where there might be blisters or, uh, broken skin in general, I guess?” Danielle shook her head. “Anyway, next time I guess I should take the socks off first, so the Skill won’t have to make me do that part, and I’ll have more time to observe the important phase.”

  “Hah, yep, you sound like my mom already,” Heather said with a chuckle. “What’s the actual diagnosis for that foot, by the way?”

  “Oh – I have another popped blister, but all the other ones are closed, so they don’t need anything else right now,” Danielle said. “Nothing I couldn’t have figured out myself, really, but the point was to learn how the Skill goes.”

  “Yeah. Do the other one, see if you learn more,” Heather urged.

  Danielle nodded and switched which foot was up. She took off both socks before activating the Skill this time – carefully – and checked the inner sock for blood and ‘yellow’ (Whatever that was supposed to be.) She didn’t find any. She started the Skill after that, and found herself gently and carefully pressing the blisters to see if they were really sealed and how painful it was, then examining the skin around them and checking the degree of swelling.

  “Prognosis on this one is, no open wounds, patient needs to rest the foot,” Danielle said with a grin. “What an amazing use of mana! Heh.”

  “Well, it was good for learning how the Skill acts, right?” Heather said, moving closer to the footboard of their beds. “Get the popped one over here where I can see it, and I’ll heal it,” she added.

  “Right, thanks, just a second.” Danielle rearranged herself on the bed so Heather could reach her ankle, and concentrated on pulling back her Trait so the healing wouldn’t be harder than necessary.

  “All done,” Heather said.

  “Thanks. How much mana do you have left?” Danielle asked.

  “Eight points – I was full, like I said, and it was a two-point healing again. Do you think I should store a couple points? I feel like I might just sleep a whole twelve hours,” Heather admitted tiredly.

  “Actually, you might want to make a mana token,” Danielle suggested. “You’ll probably want a few when that summer trade catalog thing happens, and there’ll never be a better time than now, with a long rest and a whole day of probably nothing dangerous ahead of us.”

  “Good point,” Heather said. “Um, maybe when Akari and Sadie come back, I’ll do that. Just in case, because they are out there doing new things with a knife in the dark.”

  “Oh, yeah, also a good point.” Danielle rolled over into a more comfortable position. “You know, it doesn’t usually take much light to keep me awake, but tonight might be an – ” she interrupted herself with a long yawn. “An exception,” she finished.

  Heather chuckled. “I know what you mean. Maybe I’ll just store one point now, and make a token in the morning if nobody wakes me up before then.”

  “That should work. Sleep well if you can sleep, I guess,” Danielle said.

  “Pretty sure I can,” Heather said, getting under her blanket. “Don’t let ‘em wake me on purpose unless they really need to, please.”

  “I won’t if I’m awake to stop them,” Danielle promised, then yawned again. “Goodnight.”

  Danielle wasn’t sure if she had actually drifted off, or just zoned out a bit, when Sadie and Akari finally returned. Akari took the red bag into the bathroom, and Danielle heard the shower running. Sadie, meanwhile, came into the kitchen area and started rummaging among the bags.

  “Are you asleep over there?” She asked, not quite in a whisper, but softly.

  “Heather is, I think,” Danielle answered. “She said not to wake her on purpose unless you need healing. She’s probably going to make a mana token for money in the morning, since we know tomorrow will be a rest day, probably pretty safe.”

  “Makes sense,” Sadie said. “Did she heal you at all?”

  “Two points again,” Danielle reported.

  “Cool. For your masterminding interests, Akari tried her Weapon Sense Skill with the knife, to see if it did nothing or just not much with unfamiliar weapons, and she said it felt like it was kind of in ‘learning mode,’ so it did something, and it might be useful after a while, but not yet. She thinks it kind of sped up the whole getting familiar with the weapon thing.” Sadie started setting up a camp stove on the countertop as she talked.

  “How’d the skinning part go?” Danielle asked.

  “Eh, we got the skin off, and cut it into strips. I don’t know if it’ll be usable for much, but right now, just using it to figure out how to deal with skins is probably still a good use.” Sadie came into the bedroom proper, just far enough to reach her footlocker – so not very far, since her footlocker was closest to the open end of the kitchen, and the hallway beyond. “I guess a lot of things are like that right now, you know? We’re learning our System Skills, our survival skills, our equipment, everything.” She brought the small pot from the Necessities Store’s camping aisle over to the kitchen then looked between it and the camp stove. “We didn’t bring any dish soap, did we.”

  “Soap is soap,” Danielle said, yawning again. “We talked about that, remember? Your dad and Everpure? Liquid soap might be easier, but bar soap should still get a dish clean.”

  “Right – right, OK. I can do that.” Sadie took the pot around the dividing wall to the sink annex, and Danielle heard running water and sloshing sounds, then more running water. Eventually Sadie brought the pot back, partly full of water, and set it on the camp stove. Then she made another quick dive into her footlocker, and came back with her tinder box. “The guide was wrong,” she said, using the spring sparker to light the gas. “Other people might need twine, and I don’t exactly regret looking for good fiber plants, but with all the twine we scavenged I think what we need most is containers.”

  “Gonna make Sadie-ware?” Danielle joked.

  “Heh, yeah, maybe. But probably first, a bucket. For washing stuff in, because that sink isn’t all that deep,” Sadie explained.

  “Oh. We need a dish pan,” Danielle realized.

  “And a hide-washing bucket, probably,” Akari said, gingerly setting the red bag on the counter. “I washed everything until it wasn’t running pink anymore,” she told Sadie.

  “Best we can do,” Sadie agreed. “The water’s just starting, go ahead and put in the pieces.”

  Akari nodded and started putting pieces of meat into the pot. It took some arranging to make them all just barely fit.

  “It’s not all under water,” Akari said with a frown. “Is it going to be ok?”

  “I think so. Some of it will be more steamed than boiled, but as long as it all gets hot, that’s what really matters,” Sadie replied.

  “Just get it up to germ killing temperature, and don’t overcook it,” Danielle proposed, “and tomorrow we can finish it off over a fire to give it a better look and flavor and stuff.”

  “Oh, yeah, that sounds way better than just eating plain boiled meat,” Akari said.

  “We should probably add some salt to the water, anyway,” Sadie said. “It’ll help kill germs and improve the flavor, too.”

  “Good idea. Let me get mine from my chest, we can find the scavenged ones later,” Akari said. She glanced at Heather as she passed. “Asleep with the lights on?” she asked.

  “She was that tired. She said please don’t wake her unless you need healing,” Danielle reported again.

  “She was a real trooper today,” Akari said, returning to the kitchen with one of the pre-filled salt shakers that the Necessities Store sold in three packs with pepper and mixed herb shakers. She poured some out into her hand, then showed Sadie. “Think this’ll be enough?”

  “I know less than you. Sprinkle it around and call it good enough, I guess,” Sadie replied.

  They all fell silent while the pot steamed, and Danielle almost fell asleep again, until Sadie said, “It’s boiling now – count us off ten minutes, Danielle."

  Danielle yawned again. “OK. Ten minutes. We better talk about something, or I’ll fall asleep, though.”

  “What do you want to talk about?” Sadie asked.

  “I dunno. Um, what do you want to do tomorrow?” Danielle tried.

  “Well, since we agreed to a rest day, I’m thinking of switching my active Career to scholar for the day and studying the crafting book more. And maybe the guidebook,” Sadie said.

  “I might need the crafting book to learn about tanning hides,” Akari put in, “or smoking them – that’s a thing you can do with animal hides, right?”

  “I don’t know,” Sadie admitted. “I think so? So yeah, basically a study day. And making a fire in the afternoon to cook the rabbit more, like you said. That was a good idea.”

  “So it’s oatmeal for breakfast and rabbit for dinner?” Akari said. “Are we skipping lunch again? We need food for our bodies to work with if we’re going to build muscle and stamina and stuff.”

  “We can have some jerky with brunch,” Danielle said. “I doubt any of us will be up early tomorrow. For one thing, it’s already after eleven.”

  “And for another thing, we’re all tired, and you and Heather are exhausted,” Sadie added.

  “Yeah. I like the idea of a study day, though,” Danielle said. “I want to use one of the plainer notebooks we found, and make myself notes about what plants and stuff to look for, and what stuff I want to learn to make. I might not have made it my Class, like you, but I’m pretty sure I’m still going to need to learn some System Skills and some mundane skills for making stuff we need. Probably most of us are going to have to, to get everything made. And by us, I mean us Sent, not just us SHADies.”

  “Shadies?” Akari repeated. “Really?”

  “I might be a little too tired for good planning,” Danielle admitted with a smile.

  Akari barked a loud laugh, then covered her mouth. Everyone awake held their breaths a moment – figuratively at least – waiting to see if it woke Heather up. Heather mumbled something indistinct and rolled over in her bed, but didn’t seem to have come properly awake.

  “Sorry,” Akari whispered.

  “How’s the time?” Sadie asked.

  “Oh, uh, about nine and a half minutes,” Danielle said.

  “Almost there,” Akari said. “Do you think we should just leave it in the pot overnight?”

  “I don’t know why not,” Sadie answered. “It’s not like we have anything better than boiled salty water to cover it with.”

  “Huh. You’re right, we really need containers,” Akari said.

  “There’s the official ten minutes,” Danielle said. “Do me a favor and turn off the main light, if you can do without it now?”

  “Give us a minute to get the stove taken down and everything,” Sadie said.

  “Actually, let’s just set the pot on the other counter, turn off the flame, and then take our showers and stuff while everything cools down,” Akari proposed.

  “Oh, right. OK, yeah, then those two can have the shower in the morning,” Sadie agreed.

  “And by the time we’re both done, the meat will be cool enough to go in the box,” Akari concluded. “You want first shower?”

  They turned off the main light, and Danielle drifted off to the sound of running water, and the occasional flip of a page.

  https://discord.gg/u5dtzpShv2