Goblore Pt. 03

Chief among those who wanted to fight was Huntress and Kalvis. The former because she trusted nobody but herself, and the latter due to a clear thirst for revenge. Neither was a sustainable foundation on which to build a defence, but it wasn't nothing.

Another potential source of support was Glora, the village's religious head. Her and a small group of the more devoutly religious members of the expedition formed a powerful bloc, roughly 1/4th of the total population of Temporary. With their zeal, they could have the basis for a militia on their hands.

"The only problem," Jesse muttered to himself as he puttered around the workshop, "Is that she tried to kill me."

Vee waved him off. "Minor details."

"It didn't feel minor!"

She put down her pen, stepping over to his side of the room to look at the collection of miscellaneous wires and electronic components on his desk. "How goes the battery...winder?"

"Charger. And not good." He set the long cigarette lighter plug down. "I feel like I'm in my high school shop class again. These wires do...something, that connects and converts power from the battery to the port, which then supplies power to the USB cable and charges my phone. But the specifics are eluding me."

"Can't you find the answer in the library?" Vee asked.

He shook his head, pointing to the black brick on the far end of the table. "It's down to 5% charge as it is. And the information is really general. There are no technical manuals, but there is an extensive history of the Current War."

She tilted her head. "How does your world have information on our fight with the Folk?"

Jesse opened his mouth to explain, then shook his head. "It would take too long to explain that dumb pun based on the turn of the century's most esoteric dick measuring competition. And I don't-" His voice cut off mid sentence. "Wait...I think...it can't be that simple, can it?"

His hands flew to a small knife that Vee had lent him. He cut the port end that lead to the cigarette lighter section off and started stripping wire. There were four tiny wires within, colour coded: white, green, black, red. He tugged at those as well, peeling back the protective rubber coating.

"Why are you destroying those? Don't you need them?"

"I'm not destroying them. I'm exposing the bare wire. Need some length for this.

Vee huffed. "Well, if you're not destroying it, just what the hell are you doing?"

"Sorry. Okay, so, the bare copper here is important. It's what sends the power, the controlled lightning, along. We got four cables here. Now I'm going to bet that the green and white cables are data, information. Don't need those. The red and black ones, however, correspond to conventional positive and negative terminals. The same colours on jumper cables! And since a battery provides direct current already..." He tied the red wire around the positive terminal, the black around the negative terminal, and held his breath. After a quick prayer to Saint Nikola, he plugged the charger into his phone.

He held his breath. This was it. Either this worked or he was stuck with the little he'd already written down. No smoke or spark yet, that was good.

He saw it. The little green battery icon, followed by the percentage charge.

"Holy fuck!" he cried, and picked Vee up off the ground, "I did it! I'm the best fucking electrical engineer on the planet!"

Jesse swung her around, laughing like a man without full possession of his faculties. The elation took a while to fade, and by that time Vee had become visibly dizzy.

"While I'm happy you've found success," she said a little shakily, "I'd really like to be on the ground again."

He sputtered an apology and gently lowered her down. She caught herself on the closest wall, shaking off the disorientation.

"I don't think it's good for either battery to do this for long periods of time. I'll have to charge it in spurts. Otherwise...holy hell, we got ourselves at least a couple more charges. The battery's only a few years old, it should have a lot of its natural life remaining."

"So this is not a permanent solution? The battery from your conveyance is limited as well?"

"Exactly. If we think of the power in terms of water, I'm opening the locks between a nearly drained reservoir and a largely full one. The influx of water will stave off complete depletion in the short term, but the draw that drained the first lake is still there. And there aren't any more batteries to find. Once this one's dead, that's it. Even if we could pull out the car engine whole, there's almost no gas on this planet to make it run."

"Then we should preserve as much information as possible, shouldn't we?" she said, then tapped her finger on the open notebook next to the charging phone. "Your language. Teach me."

Jesse let out a breath. "I'm...not really sure how. Or where to start."

Vee thought for a moment. Then, she rushed over to her desk, fetched a sheet of paper and a pen, and slapped it on the desk.

"Let's start with something easy. Table. How do you write it in Human?" she asked, handing him the pen. He took it and wrote the word at the top of the page. Next to it, she scrawled a set of her own curious characters. "Alright. You show me what each symbol represents and I do the same with mine. Eventually we'll figure it out."

He stared down at the two words, so radically different but, to his ear, pronounced the same. "I still don't understand how we can so easily understand each other. How can our worlds take such divergent paths yet both land upon the same language?"

"I suggest you don't investigate it too closely," she cautioned, her attention turning to the wall farthest from the door, "Whatever force put you here did so with a purpose, I believe. One does not stumble blindly into such a circumstance. Whoever left you here wanted you to interfere, and it would be much more difficult, not to mention time consuming, if you had to spend weeks mastering our speech first."

Jesse had to agree. Some kind of gift left to him by the wall guardian to help him integrate, maybe? Having such a powerful creature manipulate his brain like that had horrifying potential, he realized in retrospect. But there was nothing he could do about it but keep going and hope that whatever that entity had done, it had been in his favour.

***

Jesse's next few days were crammed full, his myriad plans running him between buildings like a firefighter at a gender reveal party. There was Kalvis' smithy, Vee's workshop and language lessons, Miri's botanical expertise and food storage mission, and a half dozen other ideas from both his own mind and that of the women in the village. One Kith he'd never met had an elaborate scheme to harvest razorreefs to use as the tips of spiked weapons, whereas another had the idea of using sea shells from the beach to create a highly caustic quicklime solution. Many of the plans were not viable in the time allotted, but the idea that he wasn't alone in this mission was heartening.

The primary project, in terms of energy and time expenditure, was going to be the wall. He took half a day just to survey out the village and planting stakes that delineated where they needed to dig. He felt a mix of emotions. A vague sense of satisfaction at having a plan he thought of expressed in reality mingled with an itch at the back of his mind that he'd made a mistake. Were they prioritizing defensive fieldworks at the expense of preparing for a more sensible course of action? Was he leading these academics down a plan of action that's going to get them all killed?

He consoled himself knowing that not only had Nell and many of the others had agreed with this plan as at least a fallback point, but that the Kith deserved to protect themselves against someone trying to shove them out of their little village. From what they described, the Folk trying to boss them around haven't lived in these parts for centuries or longer. Ancient claims mattered little to people trying to survive. Maybe if they'd come out and wanted to negotiate, to strike a deal that got the Kith moving somewhere else, there'd be more to discuss. But given what had happened to the men in their group, torn up by those ravenous Wolven, Jesse could put no faith in them keeping their word. This may be unfamiliar territory for him, but he knew a bully when he saw one. And Jesse hated bullies.

Digging was slow at first, limited by the lack of sufficient tools. They had enough to till soil, and plenty of axes to chop at clusters of roots and stumps left behind in the initial sweep of the clearing, but they hadn't performed any significant earth moving beyond what was necessary for the cellar. The few shovels they had were a smattering of light spades and picks for unearthing gems or fossils and the like, as well as a smattering of new ones carved out of wood. As more were produced, some of the many tools they'd need, more people could work on the berm at a time. He focused the digging party on the wall build up to the north of the village. That was where they'd seen the Folk mass their forces, and though it wasn't assured that they'd approach from there, it was as good a place to start as any.

The most enthusiastic about the project were members of Glora's little group. Equipped with the same dower expression she wore, what they lacked in spirited conversation they more than made up for in work ethic. He even found himself working alongside the religious fanatic herself, both of them sweating in the midday sun in a ditch that reached up to just below his knees. Her robe had been put away for the moment, her wild blonde hair tied in a ponytail. He couldn't help but look over at her once in a while. Under that robe she had hid some of the widest hips he'd seen in these villagers, with a chest to match.

"I'm not going to apologize."

"Sorry?" he asked, averting his gaze.

"I assume that's why you keep staring at me when you think I'm not looking. You want me to plead forgiveness for my assumption that you were a threat to this community," she clarified, her voice toneless and clipped.

"Okay?" he said, taking the chance to plant his shovel and lean against the handle. "I don't need an apology. Just tell me it won't happen again and I'll be fine."

"I'm not going to say that either."

"Then why the fuck did you start this conversation?" Jesse asked, bile leaking into his words despite his best efforts.

She exhaled. "I'd like to thank you."

A pause. "Okay...I'll admit, I wasn't expecting that."

"Quite. Before you arrived, I was quite vocal in my belief that Temporary was a death sentence the moment someone stronger than a single biterbeast came at us. Many of our number would have taken that offer by the Folk commander which would have had us likely shuffled off into bondage. Now we won't, or at the very least, will make the Folk pay for their intrusion in blood. And so, I want to express my gratitude."

"Huh. Well...you're welcome."

"I will no longer forbid my flock from breeding with you, if they desire."

Jesse tilted his head. "I'm...not sure how to respond to that."

"The texts are very clear on the matter. Vivia, Goddess of Life and Growth, encourages us to be fruitful and raise our numbers. And if we are to build a community here that lasts, it will be with help of our progeny. I expect you to assist us."

"Look, I'm flattered, but-"

"If it's a matter of worrying about their care, do not fret! My flock will see to the children's every need. All you need to be is the sire, nothing more. Vee confirmed you are fertile, so I expect to do your part for the community."

And then they went back to digging.

***

"Behold!"

Vee looked at the amalgam of metal and wood with a raised eyebrow.

"I'm...guessing that's the thing you wanted Kalvis' help to build. But what is it, really?"

"It's a crossbow! Well, it's his version of a crossbow. He worked super hard on making it with the tools and metal we had on hand, including some of the last bits of iron. It's not operated by a crank, like I was expecting. Instead he...actually, I'm not quite sure how the mechanism. He showed me but I didn't catch all of it."

He held out the weapon to Vee, who picked it up with significant strain. Despite it being designed for Kith proportions, it was still nearly as tall as she was. A long rectangle of wood bracketed at the front by the familiar concave shape of a bow, with a stiff but elastic rope strung between both sides. A strange clamping arrangement met the rope, the draw string, where it intersected with the wood. The other end, the butt, of the weapon ended in a strange handled arrangement.

"I fail to see how this is better than just making a regular bow," she said, looking the device over before resting it on the ground, leaning it back toward Jesse. "In fact, isn't this front part just a slightly smaller version of a bow? Why can't we just use that?"

He picked the crossbow back up. "Well, despite the weight, you don't need to be strong to use a crossbow. Have you seen Huntress' arms? She's jacked! We don't have time for y'all to get fit, but we can get these made and put them in Kith hands where y'all can train to use them. Maybe prop them up on sandbags to ease arm strain. It works, I believe, kinda like this."

He disengaged the little clamp on the wood and revealed the stock of the weapon to be actually in two pieces. A longer U-shaped section on the bottom, cradling a smaller sliding portion in the groove. Releasing the tension allowed the sliding portion to push out beyond the curved bow part, where he clipped the string, pressed the bow into the ground by the handle, and pushed. The slide with the string attached pulled back, clicking on pairs of identical bronze teeth near the back of the device, until it slotted into place on the final notch. Then, he brought the curvy handle up to nestle into his shoulder, and pulled at a little lever on the bottom.

*THWIP* The taut cable snapped back, sending the slide forward in a blur. Vee's eyes widened.

"Oh! You use your body weight to put energy in, and the mechanism transfers that energy into the arrow! Ingenious! What does it fire?"

Jesse reached over to the side of the desk and grabbed a quiver with three wooden shafts sticking out the top. "I borrowed these from Huntress. Her arrows are fletched, and mine would go farther if they were but I just needed a few bolts for testing. Need tips too, else they'll just thunk off a target."

Vee continued to examine the weapon, bending over to run her finger along the notched sections along the side. "From what you described, it involved an elaborate cranking mechanism? We have something like that for lifting things, but I doubt we could make them in sufficient quantity along with the rest of this thing. From what I can see, this design is significantly less metal and casting intensive. Just the teeth and the latch, see?" She pointed at the indicated parts of the weapon. "The rest is wood, and though the specific shape and kind we want for the project is not infinite, we live within walking distance of a densely packed forest. Wood is readily available where iron is not."

"I suppose. The lack of metal was one of the things I was worrying about, actually. Hopefully once we get my car back, we can alleviate that problem. At least in the short term."

"Yes...about that...is it really necessary for you to be the one to go?" Vee asked. Before he could answer, she added, "It's just that last time, from what you said, you nearly died. You already showed Huntress where your cart is. Couldn't you stay in the village and work on, well, one of the dozen projects we need working on?"

Maybe it rational to want to protect himself, to focus on the bigger picture and let others do the hard work for him. But he shook that thought off.

"I'm not a coward, Vee. I'll admit...I was terrified when I was chased down by that Wolven. But if your people are going to put themselves in danger of being mauled or shot full of arrows, I'm doing the same. Besides, Kalvis is brilliant, but it's still an alien piece of tech to him. I don't want the team that goes out stuck for any length of time just because they don't know where to cut first. I mean, I suppose I don't know much more than they do, but I at least know what a weld point looks like."

Vee didn't object verbally, but she didn't look convinced either. She turned to her workbench to tap at one of the beakers of coloured liquids. Jesse tried to come up with the words to assuage her fears but they didn't come to his lips.

After a deathly somber silence, Vee spoke once more. Her voice was a low croak, her throat tight. "I just don't want to see you hurt, is all. We've lost so many already."

Jesse kneeled down and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, it's okay. Huntress'll have got my back. And if worse comes to worse we can just take the raft back to the village. We won't be stranded out there like we were before."

Vee nodded, though she kept her back turned to him. "I know. And I don't mean to coddle you or pretend you wouldn't be valuable out there. But your arrival has been one of the only fragments of good news since we capsized. You and your device are so full of wonders and mysteries and I am genuinely excited to explore them with you. To think of you snatched away by a careless arrow and losing that. Losing you..." She turned to face Jesse, letting him see just a hint of dewing around her eyes. "You are important to our little village. You are important...to me."

He gave her a weak smile. "And you're important to me, Vee. You were the first to stand up for me in this whole world. I'll do my best to come back in one piece. And after all of this bullshit with the Folk is settled, I'd be honoured to tell you everything you could ever want to know about me and my world. Would you do the same?"

"Of course!" she said, voice lightening a touch, "But I can't imagine what we have to offer in comparison."

"Nonsense. I'm just a guy with a phone and a basic education. I have no idea what you're even doing on the table there. Some kind of chemical reaction?"

She nodded, gratefully taking the lead. "Oh, this? Well, I was listening to you talk about your people's form of alchemy, and I got an idea..."

***

The next day, Jesse met up with the little team that was forming for their perspective mission to retrieve his car outside the little warehouse next to the dock. Kalvis was a must; he had all the experience with metals and the tools/brawn to make anything happen. Huntress was going along too, as she was the only one realistically capable of fending off a predator if they ran into one. Or, he realized with an internal shiver, another Wolven. The only other critical member of the team was Keela. Without the boat, none of their plan would be possible.

"No," the boat's captain said, and returned to her work, scratching notes in quick shorthand on the wooden crates with a chunk of white chalk.

The flat denial caught them off guard. Her participation had been, perhaps unwisely, assumed.

"This is kinda important," Jesse said.

"I got a dozen "kinda important" things to do for this community. I don't got days to waste on a magical self propelled carriage."

"It's not magical!"

She rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Listen, you might not be Folk, but that doesn't mean I trust you."

Huntress stepped forward. "It exists. I've seen it."

"Like I'd ever trust you. You're even crazier than he is!"

The bow woman's eye twitched. "You don't need to believe it. Just take us up river and you'll be able to confirm it for yourself."

"Does Nell know about this?"

"She approved it," Kalvis replied. His gaze was snapping between Keela and Huntress worriedly. "Jesse hasn't let us down yet. And if there is a source of steel out there, we'd be willing to part with a percentage."