Homestead Survival

<06 August 2024, GRAND MESA OF SUMMER , A+>
[Theo and Julia]
After an hour of hiking down the steep and narrow path, Theo and Julia figured out what had been flying through the air in the dark of the night. The answer was strange: giant feathered bats. After Theo had looked into a shallow alcove, he had seen a massive six-foot-tall bat-like creature.

Theo quickly ushered them back up the goat trail and spoke quietly. "It looks like there are a good number of these little alcoves, and the things that are in them are not nice looking."

"What do you want to do?" Julia asked equally quietly.

"I think we need to keep going, but I also think we should try not to disturb the big fuck off bat things," Theo said, and then he noticed that the blood had visibly drained from Julia's face. "You okay?"

"I don't like bats." Julia said quietly, "What bat things are you talking about?"

So Theo described them. "It looked like a giant bat that was black as night, but rather than just leathery skin, it had black and dark grey feathers covering its head and wings. The underside of its body was still mostly leather, as were the bottoms of its wings. It was nearly six feet tall and standing in the back of the alcove with its eyes closed."

"That... Sounds terrible," Julia said, a quiver in her voice. "Theo, I really hate bats."

Theo placed a hand on her shoulder, "We can skip out on the lowlands. We can probably find what we need up here or maybe somewhere else. Maybe we can dig up what we need."

Julia looked tempted, very tempted, but she shook her head. "No, we need to know what is down there, so if we need something later, then we will either know where it is or at least how to get down to it. Plus, we should look at whether it would be worth it to establish a better trail to the lowlands."

Though she was making good points, Theo could not help but notice that Julia was not happy about this. So he squeezed her shoulder reassuringly. "Let's just take it one step at a time; they look like they are sleeping, so as long as we are quiet, we should be okay. So, let's just go slow and steady. Deal?"

Julia nodded her head. As they started down again, Theo had to take in some slack on the rope, tying them together, as Julia was staying close to his back. They rounded the corner, and Julia let out a quiet squeak at the sight of the tall, bat-like creature. Her hand reached out and grabbed onto his arm. Theo looked back, smiled, and extended his hand to her so she could hold onto him without impeding either of their range of movement too much.

They worked their way past the first alcove and went around a small protrusion, and Julia immediately let out a sad whimper; Theo looked and saw hundreds more of the alcoves and bat creatures. Theo looked back at her, squeezing her hand and smiling reassuringly. Then he turned and began to lead her onwards.

It took them four hours, and the sun was nearly at its zenith when they stopped encountering the bats. Julia relaxed when they had put several twists and turns between herself and the alcoves. She let out a long breath. "That was terrible."

"Yeah, they were quite intimidating." Theo agreed; even at the end, he had wondered if passing the creatures was a wise choice.

"But it's done, and we know that we can do it now," Julia said, hyping herself up as the thought of having to do that going back up had surely occurred to her.

The two of them came upon a turnaround that led to the next leg of the goat path after a scramble downwards of roughly ten feet. They decided to eat there, sitting with their backs against the face of the cliff.

"So, can I ask why you hate bats?" Theo inquired.

"I just don't like them," Julia said with a shrug, "On a logical level, I know that bats, not those things in the alcoves, but regular ass bats are not bad and generally good for the environment and insect control, and I know that realistically they can't really hurt me, but I just... I don't like them."

They ate in silence for a while longer, drinking water from their water skins. Theo was next to speak, "I hate horses. I know how to ride, and I even took a couple of lessons, but I hate horses, and horses hate me."

Julia chuckled, "What does that mean?"

Theo shrugged, "The guy who was teaching me told me that big guys and horses don't get along, mostly because we both recognize that the other is large enough to hurt us. He said that without fail, any big guy that rides horses either already hates or ends up hating horses."

"That is interesting," Julia said, taking another bite of her food. "Do you think you could hurt a horse?"

"I mean, their legs are very delicate, all things considered," Theo said, "but in all honesty, for some of the smaller horses that I rode, even riding them wrong could have hurt them just based on my weight."

Julia thought about that for a moment. "You are the only person I have seen for a while now, so I guess I forget that you are rather large. How tall are you, actually?"

"Six feet five inches tall," Theo said, then a thought occurred to him. "I wonder if that is as set in stone now as it was?"

"What do you mean by that?"

"Well, I wonder if there are people, like the System equivalent of a plastic surgeon, who have skills that let them manipulate others, but maybe on a much grander scale," Theo said, imagining a man who could make you grow or shrink with a wave of his hand.

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"That is interesting," Julia said, "and I would not doubt it... Is there something you would change?"

Theo gave her a playful look with fully raised eyebrows as if to say, 'You know.' Julia punched him in the shoulder with a laugh, "Alright, pervert. Is there something that you would change that isn't what every man would automatically increase?"

"No, I am pretty comfortable with who I am and how I look," Theo said, then got a thoughtful look in his eye. "Although I think that purple hair might look good on me."

"Nope," Julia said, squashing that thought quickly. "I think you should leave it as is."

"Oh, fine." Theo chuckled. He stood up and then helped Julia to her feet. They both looked down at the short vertical section they had to do. "It's only like ten feet, but on this narrow trail and with a several-hundred-foot drop on the one side, I want to be careful."

"Me too!" Agreed, Julia vehemently. "How do you want to do this?"

"Well, I think I should go down first, and then you should come down; that way, if you slip, I can catch you," Theo said.

"What happens if you slip?" Julia asked.

Theo handed her his dagger, "Then you cut the rope and carry on without me, 'cause I am probably dead if I go over the edge."

"No!" Julia said with a level of emotion that surprised Theo.

"Why not?" Theo said hesitantly.

"I think I can wedge myself in that crack there," Julia said, gesturing to a crack in the cliff face, "it should give you enough rope to get down if I am in there; that way, if you slip, then you can have a few moments to try and grab on and climb back to the trail."

"Fine," Theo said, putting his dagger, which she had refused, into his pouch. "Alright, let's do this."

Julia wedged herself into the crack of stone, and Theo worked his way down; when he was standing on the flat-ish surface of the trail once more, he called up, "Alright, Julia, come on down."

Julia appeared moments later and scrambled down the vertical section. "Alright, let's keep rocking and rolling."

Theo nodded and took the lead once more.

Roughly four uneventful hours later, there was roughly an hour of sunlight left, but Theo and Julia had made it to the bottom of the trail. They were greeted by a floating line of text that they had not seen since the first day of all this.

<THE VALLEYS OF AR'HA'NURA, A->

"We're not in Kansas anymore, Toto," Julia muttered under her breath as they both took in what they had been calling the lowlands.

"Wait, am I Toto in this case?" Theo asked.

"Well, I'm willing to bet that I look better in the ruby slippers than you do, so yeah, you get to be Toto," Julia said, wondering where they should set up camp for the night.

"Fair enough," Theo said, blushing as his mind took the idea of Julia in red slippers to a more passionate place. "Anyways, what is the plan as far as camp?"

Julia was looking around, and she spotted a small cave, probably a few hundred yards off. "Why don't we go check that cave out, and if it's occupied or if it's too deep to be safe, we can just go find a place in the trees."

Theo nodded, and they started walking over to the cave. It took them about fifteen minutes. When they looked in, it was quickly decided that they would stay there for the night. The cave entrance was a roughly ten-foot tunnel that went back about seven feet before widening out to a chamber that was roughly circular and about twenty feet across. The floor was mostly flat and level. All of this combined to make it an excellent camp for the night.

Theo watched Julia set a triple layer of Ward runes at the mouth of the cave, and then they ran to the nearest tree and spent the remainder of the daylight gathering as much firewood as they could. Just as the sun set, they heard strange guttural cries start. Julia shuddered, "You were not joking about it being unnerving. Even in a cave, I feel like we are being watched."

Theo nodded and finished lighting a fire close enough to the entrance that it would vent the smoke out, but far enough in that they would be kept warm. As they ate their dinner, they heard a large group of deep voices begin to sing long, slow notes of a dirge.

"DRAKARN, VOKN'UMR.
SULVETHELEN, HÛRM'NOR.
GRUMDAUN, THALDAUN.
ZORUN'GLAV, VRAG'NOR."

"What the fuck is that?" Julia asked.

"I have no idea; that was one of the things that I heard last night," Theo said, listening to the haunting song repeat. "It is kind of pretty, very funeral-esque. But I like it."

Julia listened, "It is very powerful."

They listened silently. For a while, until Julia noticed Theo nodding off.

"Go to sleep," Julia said when she saw Theo force himself awake. "If something happens, I will wake you."

"You sure?" Theo said, and Julia nodded.

Theo smiled at her and lay down, asleep before his head hit his arm.

[Julia]
Julia was listening to the hubbub of noises and trying to ignore the feeling of being watched. She was mostly successful. For several hours, she monitored the fire, adding wood when she needed to. It was when she went to add another log to the flame that she saw it.

A small green man, on the edge of her Ward runes, she wondered if it would try to attack her. But it did not. It simply watched its pointed teeth and partially opened jaw, not giving her a great impression of its overall Intelligence.

She wondered if it would try anything, but before she could do anything, another larger green man showed up, looked at Julia with a snarl, and grabbed the smaller of the two before turning and throwing the smaller creature deep into the darkness. Then it took off after the smaller Goblin.

"What the hell was that?" She muttered to herself. "It was probably the goblins that Oreburn mentioned, but why did it sit there watching, and why did that bigger one throw it away from us?"

She let Theo sleep, and after roughly seven hours, he sat up, letting her fall asleep after she told him of what had happened.

[Theo]
Theo had listened to what Julia had to say about the Goblins, and he was not happy. Oreburn had called them meddlesome. He still wondered what meddlesome meant to something like Oreburn.

Theo hoped that they would just watch as they apparently had been. He also wondered if this meant that the Goblins had a better way up and down the Mesa, as he could only guess that the strange guttural cries he heard last night and tonight were the Goblins.

Theo looked over at Julia. He knew they would be okay if they stuck together. With that thought, Theo moved to the front of the cave next to the fire and stood out for the rest of the night.

<07 August 2024, THE VALLEYS OF AR'HA'NURA , A->
[Theo and Julia]

Julia woke up and ate with Theo. They spent roughly an hour just eating and packing away their things.

"So what's the plan?" Julia asked.

"Well, we are looking for sand, clay, and any ores we can get our hands on. If we can find a large deposit of chalk or limestone, that would be fantastic. And then anything else that is useful." Theo said. "But I also think that we should use this cave as a base of operations. That way, we have a known point to start from each day."

"I like that," Julia said. "So, anything else that you think I should know?"

"Nope. Anything else I should know?" Theo asked.

With a deadpan expression, Julia spoke, "You have amazing calves."

Theo smirked and then, with an equally deadpan expression, said, "Well then, by all means, let me lead the way."

Theo rose up on his tip-toes and flexed as hard as he could, walking towards the cave entrance. They both bust out laughing, and Julia comes to stand next to him.

"Good to go?" Theo asked once more.

With a thumbs up from Julia, the two of them stepped out into the sun to start their day.