Andy motioned for Omar to move down, then he descended another step, letting the hatch fall closed. “Did you all get that?”
Omar grunted, nodding, and Lucy said, “Yes.”
Andy hadn’t even realized Bella was there, but she pushed forward, peering up at him. “It didn’t say kill. It said to deal with. I think we should try to speak with them.” She touched the necklace hanging around her neck—the translation charm Jilly had given her.
Violet crowded into the little circular shaft, also peering up at Andy. “You should still scout around. Maybe you’ll get a better idea of what they want or if they’re outright hostile before you approach. You can hide from them, right?”
Her assumption that it would be him who approached the harpies—if that was what those creatures had been—wasn’t lost on Andy. It didn’t really matter, though, because he’d had the same idea. If not him, then who? He nodded at Violet’s words, but he was still looking at Bella’s charm. “Do you think I could borrow that?”
Bella stared at him, her mouth working as if she were considering and then discarding various responses. After a moment, she smiled and shrugged, reaching back to unclasp the necklace. “I wanted to think of a reason I should be the one to speak to them, but it doesn’t make sense. Like Violet said, you can sneak around and get a look at things, and if they catch you, at least you can try to talk.”
“Thanks, Bella.”
“No worries. Here, step down from there.”
Omar shifted to the side, squeezing back beside Lucy, and Andy came down off the ladder. He unbuttoned his drake-hide coat, but before Bella could put the silver chain around his neck, Lucy pushed forward and reached up to tug the other magical necklace out from under his shirt. “You should take this off so they don’t get tangled.”
Andy nodded, pulling the leather cord decorated with blue stones and crocodile teeth over his head. He handed it to Lucy. “Hold it for me?”
“Sure.” She stepped back, making room for Bella in the narrow space as she pulled the cord over her head.
“Come on, stoop down, Andy.”
“Uh, right.” Andy leaned forward so Bella could fasten the chain around his neck. He felt a faint tingle on his skin as the cool metal touched him. When he straightened, he looked at the crowd of faces in the passageway watching what they were doing, and focused on Violet’s bright brown eyes. “We’re all sure I should go up there, right? I mean, the System did hint that something or someone might be working against us.”
Violet met his gaze, and her response was firm. “We have to know what’s going on up there. If someone’s working against us, that’s all the more reason we need to know. I’m hoping it just means the harpies are looking to stay, which would explain how their goals are at odds with ours.”
Frank Dunlap, near the back of the crowd, called out gruffly, “Yeah, and if they don’t want to leave, then you need to let them know what’s in store for them!”
“How long should we wait before coming to look for you?” Bella asked.
Andy looked at her, saw Omar nodding along with the sentiment, and shrugged. “Give me a couple of hours, I guess.”
Lucy pushed forward again, earning a sharp look from Bella as she nudged between her and Omar. “Hours?”
“I mean, yeah. I have to move slowly, and if I end up talking to them, it could take a while.” Once again, he turned to Violet. “You’ll mark the time? Two hours before you guys do anything, okay?”
She nodded. “Okay, Andy.”
Andy gripped his spear and turned back to the ladder. “Right. Here I go.”
He climbed to the top, and when he reached the hatch, he cast Cloak of Shifting Smoke. As the warm mana coiled around his flesh, he pushed his way out of the tunnel, careful to move slowly so the hatch opening and closing wouldn’t attract attention. Glancing left and right, Andy stepped out onto the rain-soaked platform.
Judging by the state of the park, he was a little surprised that the platform Tucker and the others had built was still there. It wasn’t the same, though; the wind and rain had pushed sandy soil up against it so it no longer appeared to be raised. The ground sloped away to the east, but when he turned to look west, he saw the edge again. Rather than walk in the loose sludge, he hopped off on that side.
Turning left and right, he scanned the ground and treetops, and he counted nine of the figures up in the branches nearby, but none on the ground. Moreover, as he squinted through the sheeting rain, he saw the trees weren’t exactly ubiquitous; there were ten or twenty of the big trunks near the platform, but further out, he could see open ground.
Andy used the hatch as a landmark and pointed himself in the general direction of the old dog park; he wanted to see if he could lay eyes on the System node. He jogged through the standing water, his sneakers already beyond soaked, and was only about ten strides from the hatchway when he found his feet hitting hard ground—the road. Using the submerged pavement as a guide, he made his way down the lane.
The base of one of the big magical mesquites had lifted the ground out of the water with its bulky trunk and roots, exposing a corner of pavement. It gave Andy the clue he needed to turn down the central lane. Squinting into the distance, he saw the settlement fence overgrown with thick green vines and spiky shrubs. He thought they might be a mana-changed variant of tumbleweeds. He turned to the right, and the faint blue glow of the node guided him the rest of the way to the former park.
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It was hard to hear anything over the pounding of the rain, but when he hunkered near the last trunk between himself and the open area where the node hovered, something trilled above him, and he paused to look up. Outlined in faint tones of amber, he saw two of the harpy creatures not ten feet from him, huddled together near the trunk on a wide branch. Neither wore any clothing, but their dense feathers covered most of their flesh.
One of the creatures was noticeably larger than the other and seemed to be comforting the smaller one…or maybe grooming. It was gently passing the smaller harpy’s feathers between its talons, cooing and trilling softly as it worked. Andy wondered if it was trying to dry them. He would have said it was a fruitless effort in the storm, but there, near the base of the trunk, the rain hardly touched him. Suddenly it occurred to him that perhaps the trees were the reason for the harpies’ presence. Were they simply seeking shelter?
As he stood there, watching and wondering, focusing on the strange creatures, he felt some warmth from the translation charm, and a wondrous thing happened: their coos and trills changed in pitch and rhythm until they morphed into the familiar shape of English words.
“…will end soon. You’ll feel the sun again.”
“I’m hungry,” the smaller harpy cried.
“Meat will be plentiful. Hush.”
“But when?”
“The rain is half today what it was before we slept. One more day and the elders will hunt. The sun will return.”
Andy stared, his mind reeling. They sounded like people. Of course, he knew the coming of mana had caused mutations among many humans, awakening bloodlines or something else—he wasn’t sure of the exact mechanism—but they seemed so adapted to their plight. Did the mutation come with some sort of mental adjustment? Had the System done that to them the way it could add knowledge when a person learned a spell or a skill?
Part of him wanted to speak to the harpies right then and there, but he decided to bide his time; there didn’t seem to be a rush, and the harpy had mentioned “meat,” so Andy wanted to be strategic with his first contact. Instead, he focused on the glowing orb of the System node and moved from one tree to another, trying to get to the other side of the clearing where one of the park’s original old-fashioned mesquite trees partially sheltered the area near the node.
He was careful not to splash, but the pouring rain did a good job of masking his movements in any case. Besides the rain, it was dark, and he wasn’t sure the harpies had anything like night vision. When he reached the smaller mesquite and was just five or so big steps from the node, he hunkered down in his coat and slowly advanced. He was sure the rain had to be making some sort of outline around him, despite his magical camouflage, but he figured if he was slow and stood very still when he was near the node, the magic would still work with the darkness to conceal him.
As soon as he touched the warm, glowing orb, the System hit him with an announcement:
***Congratulations, Andy! You and your community members have succeeded in exploring the tunnels beneath the mesa! As a result, you’ve gained experience toward your next level, and your settlement has earned new Boon options. See the Settlement Menu for further details.***
Andy waved the message aside and then opened the Settlement Menu:
Settlement Name: Sleepy Saguaro Trailer Park
Leader: Andy West
Successor: Violet Ruiz
Active Effects: --
Settlement Level: 3
Citizens: 118
Boons:
System Node
Freshwater Spring
Natural Bulwark
Forager’s Bounty
Settlement Alliance Link
Boon Points: 2
Boons Available:
Hearthflame Ember
Whisperwood Grove
System Trade Beacon
Deep Veins
Fisher’s Bounty
Deepwater Port
Quests Available:
- Restore Order to the Settlement
Objective: Disorder and damage threaten your settlement. Rebuild and adapt your infrastructure to restore stability and healthy living conditions. Threats: Morale will decline as long as needs go unmet and disorder continues. Reward: Temporary increase to natural production and inspiration for craftsfolk. - Relocate Your System Node to a Secure Location
Objective: You’ve left your node unattended for too long, and competing denizens threaten your settlement’s security. Move your node to an area where it can be defended in times of strife. Threats: Potential enemies may notice the node’s movement and attempt to stop you. Reward: Improved security for your settlement and, depending on the risks you face, a possible Boon point.
Right away, Andy spotted changes in the displayed text, starting with the number of citizens. The last time he’d looked, they’d had 103. Of course, they’d added Bree and the two draconic folk from the lake cavern, but he could only assume the rest of the new members were people who’d joined Grace Refuge. More than that, he saw the new boons available: Fisher’s Bounty and Deepwater Port. He figured they both involved the underground lake.
On a whim, Andy stared at the settlement name, and when a prompt appeared asking him if he wanted to change it, he whispered, “Yes.” He and the others had spoken about it several times, and everyone agreed that their home was no longer a trailer park, nor was it sleepy. Everyone had thought they should keep “saguaro” in the name, just because there were some of the big cacti in the desert nearby. Even so, Andy made an executive decision in light of the new magical mesquite trees that had populated the top of the mesa. When the System prompted him for a new name, he whispered, “Mesquite Mesa.”
The entire process only took a few seconds, and when he saw the name change on the menu, Andy let his eyes linger on the second quest. He needed to move the node, and it sounded like if he faced some danger along the way, they might get a Boon Point out of it.
“How, though?” he whispered, tugging on the node, only to find it was quite firmly affixed to the spot where it floated. Even as he asked the question, a new System message appeared:
***Do you wish to relocate your System Node? Yes/No. WARNING: The node cannot be concealed, and moving it may draw the attention of hostile denizens.***
Before he could answer, a terrible screech tore through the constant splashing white noise of the downpour and Andy spun, spear ready to defend himself, only to see an enormous raptor swoop out of the sky to spear one of the harpies perched nearby with its dagger-like talons. The harpy screamed. It flapped its free wing in a panic, the other pinned by the gigantic bird’s terrible grip. It screamed again, its voice disturbingly human, clawing at the oversized eagle, but the giant bird screeched again, its voice tearing the darkness like a sonic boom as it flapped its massive wings, trying to dislodge the harpy from its perch.
Just then, another of the harpies leaped from a nearby branch onto the giant bird, biting and clawing. It was then that Andy realized the two harpies were the ones he’d been listening to earlier. The attacking bird was massive and powerful, and it looked like a losing battle for the two harpies. Andy glanced at the nearby trees, but none of the other harpies moved to help. Were they frightened? Callous? Scowling, with half his mind calling the other half an insane fool, he gripped his spear and charged.