Hands of Fate - Survivors of Flight AA214

Chapter 12

Bianca - Day of Landing 3

Population of Unnamed Settlement - 6

“Hello again,” I said with some cheer to the ghost card dealer who sat in front of me.

It couldn’t hurt to try to befriend a magical ghost who decided the fate of my class. The dealer ignored my greeting and wasted no time pulling out a package. It was wrapped in foil like a chocolate bar and tied with a ribbon. It floated towards me hovering in the air before my grasp.

“Is this for me?” I asked.

“A choice must be made. The cards are dealt.” The dealer’s voice came out thin and whispery.

I unwrapped my gift and three cards fell out and perfectly distributed themselves in a line of three evenly spaced horizontally before me before the table. My board had all my cards organized and one open slot available for a card.

“A choice huh? I can only keep one of these?” I asked.

“Choose the card to play holder.” The dealer said.

The first card on the left was a picture of a Golem wearing a pair of boxing gloves.

Battle Golem - C

Aside from helping you build and do minor tasks, your golem will defend you when you are attacked.

The card in the middle was a picture of a Golem wearing a mortarboard.

Brain Boost - C

Your golem learns and solves problems faster and will take more initiative as you level

The card on the right was a picture of a Golem with a chainsaw.

Walking Sawmill - C

Your golem can saw lumber. The saw can not be used for combat.

They all sounded so useful. I mulled my decision over picking up each card and weighing the pros and cons of each. I didn’t think I would ever be attacked so it didn’t make sense that I would pick Battle Golem. I’m not a fighter and so far the animals around here have been pretty harmless if you leave them alone. Besides, Orion said I should pick something that benefits the group. It seemed like a really really selfish decision to choose a personal bodyguard over something that can help the group.

The decision came between the Brain Boost and the Walking Sawmill perk. The difference between the two was the Walking Sawmill perk was one that was immediately beneficial. If we can get planks and straight pieces of lumber, it would help us immediately in the present. I’m sure Anika and Orion can figure out how to build so many useful things with that. Brain Boost however will be more beneficial later on when we figure out how to make our own sawmill.

I thought about the people that might be coming and the fact that we needed to build more shelter and more buildings and just more of everything and made my choice. The Walking Sawmill perk card is slotted into the empty spot next to my Familiar: Golem card. A light blue line connected the two cards, they both lit up and fixed to the board after.

“The cards have been dealt. Until we meet again, fellow holder.” The dealer said and like a light bulb switch, the darkness of the cosmic void disappeared and I was immediately back in the forest walking behind Cass and Anika.

“Oh god, how long was I out?” I asked.

“Out?” Anika asked, her eyebrows raising.

“I... I went to that place again. You know the place with the cards. How long was I gone for?” I asked.

“OHH you met the card dealer? Did you ask him about me?” Cass said with excitement, “Did you ask him when I’ll get my class?”

I shook my head which broke the little fella’s heart. I’ll ask him next time sweetie don’t worry. Anika shrugged and said, “You didn’t go anywhere, you were here with us marching.”

“But... I must have been there for at least 10 minutes.” I said.

“Ani is right, you were here marching with us the whole time,” Cass said wondering if I hit my head.

“Oh... I... well it might be...”

“It probably doesn’t take place in real-time, wherever you go when you pick your cards,” Anika explained. “Hopefully I’ll be there myself soon.”

That made sense remembering what happened with Ethan. He didn't get teleported anywhere and got his class instantly.

We continued following the sound of the flowing river until we spotted it in sight. Upon seeing us some muskrat scurried away. The river we came to was teeming with turtles. The turtles were these long-neck cat-sized creatures that had long anteater snouts and blue veins on their backs. The water was crystal clear and flowed downhill. Anika explained that the turtles looked like they were filter feeders, sucking up algae and feeding on the impurities of the river making it so crystal clear you can see the fish swimming through it.

Cass chased dragonflies and explored the river, I had told him not to wander too far away or Orion would kill me. Me and Anika took off our clothes, feeling a bit bashful in our nakedness, and leaving them piled up near the river on a dry flat rock. I looked around for any perverts and it looked like Cass wasn’t at all curious in the naked female form. He was young but he was still at the age where he should be somewhat interested so it was curious.

“We’ll have to make detergent soon,” Anika said sniffing her clothes with a frown and placing it down on the rock.

“And a new set of clothes,” I nodded. “Wait you can make detergent?”

“We’ll have to make lye, it’s important for soaps and detergents. Worse comes to worse we can also use urine.” Anika said casually as we started testing the waters with our feet. The water was fine but still sent a chill up my spine as I dunked myself into it.

“Urine? Like pee? OUR pee? Yuck.” I said.

“The Romans used urine all the time as it was used for many things like tanning and laundry. I think a Roman emperor once wanted to tax it.”

“Huh... interesting. Speaking of that I think we should make an outhouse next.” I said and Anika agreed.

When the last of the mud and grime came off our bodies, we shook like wet dogs coming out of the river. We sat by the rocks on the riverbed that had our clothes and waited for our bodies to dry. Cass had a piece of rope tied to some rock trap thing near us and was waiting behind a bush for a muskrat to take the bait he placed under it. When the muskrat came under it, Cass pulled on it but the rope wasn’t taut enough so the muskrat scattered away before the rock fell on it. I yelled at him to come back when it looked like he was wandering further into the woods to find more bait for his trap.

After drying we put on our clothes and headed back to the base camp. On our way to base camp, Anika was pulling bark from various trees and nodding to herself.

“I think we can use it for parchment and signs. Also... I’m not sure but maybe aspirin as well.” Anika said.

“Wow, you can make aspirin from that?”

“The willow tree variety isn’t the same on Earth well... at least where we come from but it wouldn’t hurt to try. It might help me unlock a class.” Anika said.

As we were walking back I took a look at all my cards with pride. My Pottery card in particular was my pride and joy. It was currently level 3 and I had noticed it had a mark on it begging me to check it out, like a notification on a cellphone. I tapped on my level 3 Pottery Card and 3 cards popped into existence before me.

Glazed Pots

Your pots have a coat of glaze on them making them more water resistant.

Lightweight Pots

Your pots weigh 20% less

Consistency

Increases the consistency and smoothness of your pots, which may increase value

Like my meeting with the strange card dealer, they weren't going to go away until I made I choice and I selected Lightweight Pots. I thought about how heavy water pots can be and if new people arrive, some of them may not have the strength to carry stuff. Glazed might have been good but eventually, I'll learn how to glaze my pots. Magically making them lighter might be something I wouldn't ever be able to achieve.

Upon my arrival back at camp I went to check on Slate to see his new abilities while Anika took over for Ethan to tend the kiln. Ethan followed Cass to the trail of the river to wash up himself. Anika put a cover on the kiln and together we checked our finished pottery.

Thanks to my Pottery skill card, the pottery I made came out better than expected, almost like a real professional made it. Upon closer examination, there was some roughness and they weren't all symmetrical. The water jug I made was C quality according to my card and came out blood red. I’ll have to ask around about how to glaze it. I’ll also have to get Slate or someone else to make a pottery wheel to make even fancier pots and level up my skill further. When I checked the hut and the stockpile, there were corpses of muskrats left there but no signs of Orion. In the future, I will assign Slate to start making another kiln based on the previous design. Ctrl+c and ctrl+v, then another kiln would be constructed next to the one we already had.

The second copy-and-paste kiln would be put on hold as I brought out my Familiar: Golem card and selected it. Besides the Gather, Build, and Stockpile cards that came up when I brought out the card, there was now a new task card called “Saw”. I picked out one of the larger pieces of log in the stockpile that Slate had felled and thought about the best way to divide it. I would cut off the ends of the logs and make planks in my mind. I threw the Saw card onto the log and Slate stopped carrying the slop of clay to come over to the log. When I examined Slate he appeared to be just a bit taller and less snowman-like or stumpy. I didn’t see a saw on his hands as his hands which were once club-like talons, now resembled four stubby finger Simpsonesque hands.

Slate examined the log and the lines I made it on and brought one of his arms up. A blue light shimmered in his palms and a circle-spinning razor disc made out of azure radiance appeared, his hand now looked like a giant rock lollipop with a blue top. The razor disc and his hand came down on the end and sawed it cleanly off, leaving a flat top. More cuts came and Slate made quick work of the wood. I didn’t know exactly what I was going to use the planks for but I ordered Slate to make more and set a work order for several logs which he started on. We had plenty of logs but no planks, that would soon change.

Going back to the hut, it was now a buzz of activity. Orion was chopping up meat and vegetables. Alex had returned, unharmed, fortunately, and he brought two newcomers. This time, however, they were both adults. I mean, adult adults. They looked to be in their forties, maybe older thirties. The older man had a light brown goatee and a thinning buzzcut and he looked perpetually constipated while the woman had blond hair and sharp but sad eyes. The couple appeared to look frantic, the husband pacing while the wife nervously looked around.

“Have you seen children here? We are missing our children, please help us.” The woman was on the verge of a breakdown, her light accent telling me she was from Eastern Europe.

The man spoke with a thicker Eastern European accent, “This idiota won’t tell us anything, he keep swinging sword at tree.”

Alex shrugged, “I told them there were no children here.”

“What about Cass?”

“Oh right, I mean he doesn’t count. He said children, not a child,” Alex again shrugged.

“Who is Cass? We know no Cass, we are looking for three children. Same age, they are umm... how you say triplets.” The mother pleaded, tears in her eyes.

“My name is Marek and dis is my wife Roza, we were on the plane when it crashed. We’re looking for our children. Two boys, one girl.” Marek had a pleading desperate look that was also dangerous, like a cornered mother bear that was willing to do anything to protect his children.

“Wait... did you two just appear now? At the beach?” I asked them.

Marek and Roza both stared in confusion not understanding the question.

“Everyone here comes in three... at least so far. Oh no...” I explained and realized something terrible.

If anything this made them more confused and then immediately upset. When I had explained to them what happened so far they finally got it but couldn’t believe it. Their family might be separated for a day but one of their children might have come through. The hour was getting late and sunset was approaching.

“Damn, Bianca what’s wrong?”

“Yes, what is it?”

I was staring at the position of the sun on the horizon and then scanned the beach and said, “I think we have one more person out there. We might have a missing child on our hands.”