Summoned! To Grimworld

Chapter 2: In Polite Society One Does Not Compare Character Sheets

While the princess admired her new looks, Marcus picked up a stone that was about fist sized and hammered away at the bark of a tree until he'd torn substantial strips from it. While the bark itself was grey, the inside of the tree was dark red, so the impact of his efforts were very visible. Then he walked about ten metres and did the same to another tree.

'What are you doing?' asked Sina.

Pleased with his foresight, Marcus gestured with a finger. 'From that tree to this one is a line. As far as I can judge, the line points to where the spaceship crashed.'

Sina looked blankly at him.

'I wanted to mark it, while the direction was clear in my mind. It's very easy to lose your sense of direction outdoors, we don't even know for sure the motions of the sun here.'

'Oh, I see. Well done.' She picked up a stone and walking past the imaginary line, started damaging the bark of another tree.

'What are you doing?' Marcus asked.

'The sea is this way. I think we should go to the sea. For fish and bathing.'

'Remember what the AI said about predators. We should go to the spacecraft wreckage first and get metal to make spears with.'

'I think the coast would be safer. Don't lions and tigers live in forests?'

Although he wanted to give the princess an authoritative answer, Marcus found that he did not know if predators like lions hunted on beaches. What he did feel, very strongly, was that they needed metal from the ruined spacecraft. To extract metal from some kind of mining process was an enormous challenge, involving locating ores, hard digging, and the creation of a high-temperature furnace, not to mention molds and appropriate tools. Yet there were probably sharp pieces of tough metal just lying around near the crash site.

All he said was, 'I must go and get my parachute. We'll need them. You get yours too... please.'

'I'll come with you.'

'It's only over there,' Marcus pointed to the bright greens and whites of his parachute, clearly visible through the spaces between tree trunks.

Sina blinked. 'Honestly, I'm a little scared. Why don't we go together and do yours, then mine.'

The sincerity of her words softened Marcus and he nodded. 'All right.'

Footsteps crunching on fallen branches, they walked through a wood that was pleasant enough. Blocks of sunlight penetrated the canopy and picked out small purple flowers. Insects very similar to bluebottles shone with an indigo iridescence as they zig-zagged through the blocks of light. A memory flashed up of a painting in these colours, one he'd long forgotten. Not only were the colours right – gold, purple and indigo – so were the proportions. What had he been thinking back then? Similarly cheerful thoughts, he was sure.

'Did you see the interface rectangles?' asked Marcus.