The bark wolf alpha's body lay where they'd left it, just beyond the outer treeline. The rain had softened the ground beneath it, turning the soil a dark ochre. Its mass had sunk into the earth like a felled statue, half-swallowed by vines. Even in death, it radiated something primal, its layered hide gleamed faintly in the dappled morning light.
Raif crouched beside it, fingers brushing the edge of a shattered fang. "This one's still good," he said, passing it to Bren.
Bren turned it over in his hand, then nodded. "Clean fracture. We can grind that into two blades easy."
Kael hovered near the flanks, blade out, already peeling strips of bark-hide from the creature's rear leg. His motions were careful but efficient, as if he'd done it a dozen times before.
Daly muttered, "Should've hoisted the body first."
Raif didn't answer right away. He shifted position, driving his blade beneath the outer bark-hide and working the edge sideways, careful not to shear the fibre layers. Daly hovered behind him.
"You disagree?" Raif said without looking up.
"I just think if we'd prepped better, tree winch, a wedge brace, we'd have had this cleaned down already," Daly said, brushing sweat from his forehead. "Spending energy we don't have doing it the wrong way."
Raif leaned back, wiping his hands. "We didn't know it would rain. Didn't know how deep it'd sink."
Daly sniffed. "Still predictable."
Raif stood and turned to face him. "You want to waste time fixing every mistake, or do you want results?"
Daly opened his mouth, then shut it. He bent down and started cutting again.
"You're good with tools," Raif said after a moment. "But this place doesn't care what we planned. It only gives us what we carry."
Daly didn't reply, but the next few cuts he made were smoother, tighter.
Bren called out from the far side. "Need hands on the back haunch. This joint's dense as stone."
Raif and Daly exchanged a glance and wordlessly moved to help.
The carcass gave off a thick, damp stench, sap-sour and earthy, with the bite of rot lingering in the air. Every pull of the knife dragged strands of sinew like wet rope. Bark peeled back in heavy sheets, damp and veined with pulpy underflesh. Its muscle was corded, bones heavier than any wolf should carry.
Raif moved slower than the others, eyes flicking not just to the work, but to the creature's broken jaw, its crushed side.
Fara stood a few paces from the edge of the clearing, arms crossed, watching.
"You don't like the mess?" Raif asked.
Fara shrugged. "Doesn't bother me. Just thinking."
He waited.
"My father could've carved this better," she said finally, eyes on the corpse. "Would've taken the joints apart clean. No splinter. No waste."
Raif nodded. "Sounds like he knew what he was doing."
"More than most." She ran her thumb along a fang shard at her feet.
Across the clearing, Goss paused mid-step, gaze narrowing.
"Shoulder plate's intact," Bren called. "Could work that into a half-shield. Mark it."
Kael shifted closer, kneeling beside the shield plate and tapping it twice with the butt of his blade. He pointed to the curvature, then mimed an arc with his arm.
"Wants it shaped into a wrap guard," Bren translated. "Could double as forearm protection."
Daly leaned in, nodding. "If we sand the underside smooth and back it with fibre netting, it'll hold."
"Good," Raif said. "Cut it out clean. Don't crack the edge."
The group moved steadily now. Bren issued quiet commands. Daly worked in sharper, focused strokes. Even Kael began shaping down a fang with small motions, curling the edge like a hook.
"Don't slice along the grain," Bren muttered toward Daly.
"I'm not blind," Daly snapped. "Just working faster than you."
"Speed isn't the goal. Blades that snap in a fight don't help anyone."
Kael gave a single, slow nod, as if seconding the point.
Raif let the rhythm build. For the first time in a while, the silence that followed wasn't from fear, it was from focus.
Later, as they hauled materials back to camp, Kael veered toward a tree with deep, unnatural scoring. Raif followed.
He traced one of the marks. "You didn't make these."
Kael shook his head.
"Something else, huh?"
Kael shrugged. Not unsure, uncategorised.
A chime sounded faintly.
[Optional Quest Unlocked: Craft 5 Advanced Weapons – Reward: +5 KE]
They returned to camp, each man weighed down by sinew-bound bundles. Daly dropped a curved bone with a grunt. Kael carried a bark-plated shield piece, Raif a bundle of fang-studded cords.
"Get it all?" Lira asked.
"Most," Raif said. "Back plating's still out there."
"Dry what you've got," Eloin said, already setting up a rack.
Daly eyed the materials. "Won't be worth much unless we finish the kiln."
Nearby, Fara crouched near the cords. Goss approached.
"They grow in spirals," she said, tracing one fang. "Tension's in the bite."
"Handled teeth before?"
"My father taught me. Said you could read an animal's story by the wear."
Goss studied her. "Did he fight?"
"He protected people." Her voice had a hard edge now.
Goss raised an eyebrow. "What was his name?"
Fara's jaw tightened. "Does it matter?"
"It might," Goss said gently.
She held his gaze for a moment. "Not to you."
Then she stood and walked off, brushing past him without another word.
Goss watched her leave, brows furrowed. A name itched at the edge of memory.
Kael adjusted the rack beside him without a word, securing each tie. Raif joined him a moment later, crouching to inspect the gathered bundles. Raif watched, then turned to inspect the bundles: sinew, chitin shards, rows of sorted teeth.
"These'll shape well," he said to Daly.
Daly glanced toward the incomplete cistern frame near the edge of camp. "If we split the group evenly, half on the kiln, half on the cistern, we could finish both inside three days. Two, if the weather holds."
Eloin, overhearing, chimed in. "Assuming no one's sick or limping. The kiln needs stonework resealed, and the cistern still lacks the upper funnel ring."
Raif considered that, fingers still absently tapping his charcoal nub against his bark sheet. "What if we rotate crews? Morning on one, afternoon on the other. Less strain, same output."
"Then we lose cohesion," Daly countered. "No one gets momentum on the work."
"But everyone stays mobile. And we get both moving." Raif glanced around. "We can't let one stall the other. The water's a necessity, the weapons are protection. I'm not choosing between them."
Kael gave a sharp nod from the edge of the firelight.
Raif looked to Eloin. "Think you can manage the cistern side if Daly's on the kiln?"
"I can," Eloin said, voice tired but steady.
"Then that's the plan. Two days, if we can make it."
Bren, who had been silently coiling sinew in the corner, chimed in, "You'll need the west-side stones patched before the kiln can hold proper heat."
Eloin nodded. "I'll take the funnel shaping on the cistern. We still haven't sealed the lower ring, and the intake chute needs bark-mesh lining or it'll clog the first time it rains."
"I can run reed-binds for the mesh," Lira offered. "If we soak them overnight, they'll flex without splitting."
Raif glanced around the fire, eyes lingering on each face. "No one pushes past their limits. If it takes three days, it takes three. But we don't stall both. Not now."
Daly crossed his arms. "Then we need to start at first light. Half of us build, half prep material. Rotate at midday."
"Sounds like a rhythm," Raif said. "We'll keep it moving."
Kael passed him, tapping his chest, then pointing slightly eastward, toward where they'd first seen the markings, now quiet in the dark.
"You want to investigate."
Kael nodded.
"Take Rix with you, but no fighting. Just watch and come back."
Kael nods before jogging to Rix. Rix questions him for a moment before turning to Raif and nodding. It seems like he understood the hidden meaning to both of them leaving the clearing. Raif wanted eyes out in the jungle, but he also wanted eyes on the new summons. So, what better plan than to have everyone else work on construction while the two who were already scouting return to their duties. It might not have been the plan they initally wanted but sometimes they have to change at a moment's notice.
That evening, the fire crackled as the group settled in. Raif sat near the flames, sketching a rough materials list on bark. Daly leaned in.
"If we fire the kiln right, resin sets hard. I can lock blade cores with no flex."
"Mark it. We'll prioritise that batch."
Naera walked a slow arc, counting supplies. Lira passed Raif, murmuring, "Too quiet."
"Maybe we've earned one."
Naera knelt nearby, tossing bark chips onto the fire with distracted movements. "Kael thinks someone's watching. That those marks mean more."
Raif glanced toward the tree line. "I believe him. But believing doesn't change what we need."
"We're not ready for whatever's out there."
"We're not supposed to be ready," Raif said. "We're supposed to get ready. That's the difference. With the rate we are going, we should have a much better foundation than we did before. Plus, we have more people now as well."
Naera gave a slight nod, her eyes reflecting the firelight. "You sound like you've done this before."
Raif smiled faintly. "Don't kid me Naera. You know how I was when you all appeared the first time.
Maybe. But you have improved. I trust your decisions." she said.
Kael watched the trees after returning with Rix. The two of them didn't find anything outstanding this time, instead made markings around the area, preparing for tomorrows scounting mission.. Syl rested against a post, half-lidded. She was feeling better, but the pain still got to her every once in a while. Her body was weak and sleep was the only way to recover.
Fara turned a fang in her hand, lost in thought.
And Goss watched her, caught between instinct and memory.
The name wouldn't come.
Yet.
Behind them, barely visible in the low light, Tessa sat pressed against Syl's side beneath the half-shelter. Her hands moved quietly across the dirt, tracing shapes, fangs, a tree, a spiral. Syl hadn't stirred, but her hand rested protectively over Tessa's.
The girl looked toward the fire but didn't move. She just watched, wide-eyed and listening.