Aeon and the Guardians - Part 16 to part 20
By Auberon Night Night
Part 16 - Community
Many of us if not most of us will understand the feeling of not belonging. I guess in many ways that is what the changes in the world is all about. Everyone wants to feel they belong somewhere and are wanted by someone whether in a platonic friendship way or in a romantic way. The feeling of loneliness is a major reason why so many might lash out or alternately withdraw from the world.
Aeon was no stranger to this. For most of his life he has been solo in the world. From the previous world and his journey here and even his time here. The few times he interacted with others from various origins he enjoyed it but still preferred solitude. Having no responsibility to others and their feelings and being able to do what he chooses when he chooses. Enjoying the view on this planet and the places to explore along with a drive to eliminate the guardians and collect materials from all over to make new tools to be even better at his task. But in some ways he was looking for a place to belong.
The time here, now, with these people, sitting in a circle around a fire drawing energy from the flames in a way and sharing stories, he suddenly felt different. Not home really as what is home. But happy to be here. Happy to share this time with these people.
Part of him started to realise that this is what it is all about.
The place is spectacular. Whether you call it Next Island or Terra Firma or whatever name you wish this place is beautiful. Scenic nature views and stunning sunsets that will inspire the artist in you and the most sublime night sky views. The entire place will make you hear music that relaxes and makes you want to smile or bob your head.
But the people. They are the real attraction. The community. There is not many of them here but they joke and laugh and chat and live life with a smile.
Even the sad moments are shared and made a bit easier to bear that way. While he is new and not part of them he already feels himself a part of it in spite of himself. In spite of years of solitude.
This place, these people, they could very well be the home he has been looking for. Even if just for a little while.
Being very aware he could be ripped away at any moment back to the reality he is used to.
Part 17 - Gathering
The next morning while sitting outside enjoying a nice coffee and just feeling relaxed Miranda walked up to him.
“Hey, wanna go look for fruit with me? We always need more fruits and they are not that hard to find but goes faster when we work together”
Honestly she could have asked him to clean toilets and he would say yes. Her smile was so bright and the way she talks to you made you feel the centre of the universe.
So off they went to look for fruit.
“Fruit can be hard to spot as they are not visible from that far away. You can find them on the ground about a maximum of 5paces away from yourself. So we walk in straight lines about 10paces away from each other. So we can chat and fruitwalk at the same time.”
The walk itself was refreshing. The view was great and the conversation was fun and stimulating. On the way he collected some interesting stones that made Miranda so excited saying she can use the texture to make clothing look amazing. Even found some dung that had them laughing all the way back. Heavy as hell and not sure why he kept it but he figured it would have some use.
When they returned to the camp the guys were busy sweating a mob.
“What on earth are you doing?” Aeon asked
“Just like all the animals here has some crystals inside them that are useful to us they also have something we call vibrant sweat. Unlike normal human sweat this sweat is filled with energy particles, hence the term vibrant. We extract it from the animal and use it so strengthen certain materials such as the fabric over over there. The sweat makes the fibers water resistant, stronger and adds some flexibility to it.”
“Wow. I would never have guessed sweat can be useful. Can I help?”
They handed him a sweat extractor and explained the basics of point the device at the animal and activate.
So for the next few hours Aeon and the others stood around sweating some animals. With the green clouds formed as the sweat evaporates from the animal and is sucked up it felt much like sitting around a campfire. The clouds of green almost the same as the flames of the fire. Aeon felt his mind drift in thought while staring into the green “flames” and enjoying the conversation and companionship. This went on deep into the night until the need for sleep forced him to grudgingly step away.
Part 18 - Time to hunt
“We cannot live of fruit alone Miranda!” Helen was not angry but still not going to accept fruit as the only food.
Watching Miranda and Helen argue about fruit vs meat was funny as it was obvious neither would change her mind but they still in no way seemed angry at the other. This was more a joking disagreement than a real one even though each felt strongly about her standpoint.
‘What do you think Aeon?”
Suddenly he felt like an animal being shot at and knew that no matter what answer he gives he will be in trouble.
As he had his mouth half open trying to find the word to get out of this he realised there was a figure near them, just in his peripheral view, with some object that flashed green. The same as what he saw 2 days ago. He turned his head quickly but saw nothing again.
Aeon got up and moved quickly towards where he saw the figure but was unable to find anyone.
Am I losing my mind or what?
Suddenly he felt a hand on his shoulder
Turning around he saw Helen.
“Well done on getting out of that question. Lets go hunting. You like meat too don’t you?”
Not waiting for an answer she walked off and he could not help but smile as he followed her.
She handed him a laser pistol and some ammo and they grouped up for the hunt.
“I love hunting boars. Specifically mutant boars. They have the best meat and crystals”
So for the rest of the day they hunted mutant boars.
Being in a group meant that all loot was split based on the damage each did to the mob so it was a fair distribution. And having someone with him to hunt meant that the mob attacks was shared between them so he could hunt for longer without having to stop and heal up.
And of course double the damage meant the kills went faster.
It was exciting to hunt these mobs and see what they dropped. Having Helen there made a mundane dreary task a lot more fun.
Obviously being a pretty girl helped but the real difference was that they could chat and share the experience making it much more fun.
They stopped when they were too loaded with loot to go on and returned to camp laughing and joking. Nothing like a shared hunt to build the friendship.
Part 19 - Crafting clothing and coloring
The next day while sweating a mob Aeon noticed Miranda wearing new clothing. While the clothes itself was stunning and made her even more attractive to him what really caught his mind was where did the clothes come from since it looked brand new. So he asked in the group about new clothes.
“Well we have a terminal over there we can a construction terminal. You enter a pattern and add the required materials and the machine fabricates what you want”
“So wait, you don’t need to clean the hide and stretch it and work it for days before making new boots?”
“Well that is actually a refiner that does that. We place the hides inside and it makes us leather. We then use the prepared leather in the construction terminal with the pattern for boots.”
Aeon felt his mind struggle with this.
A machine that makes what you want instantly without the hassle of spending hours, days or even months to prepare the materials and assemble the item.
Having seen many technological marvels he should have been more prepared for this but the concept was way more than he had expected.
“Come let me show you”, Miranda said.
Well hell, why say no when someone you like wants to show you something you want to know more about. So with a quick step he went over to the terminal ready to learn something new.
“First you need a pattern or recipe which we call a blueprint. Some blueprints are like a data storage and can be used again and again and as you use it so the terminal records the lessons learned from making the item and makes the coding better. So increasing the quality rating of the blueprint.”
Sounds easy enough he thought
“Then we have some that are one use only. They are coded from lessons learned and cannot be improved but are already at the best quality it can be so they are easier for you to use.”
“Here. I have some extra of those for a pair of boots. Enough for 5 attempts”
So you open the terminal and it reads all the blueprints you have. Since you have only this one it will then only show this. So you select the fabrication window and there you see the materials needed and that you have them all.”
“But I don’t have any of that on me”
“The terminal can also access the items in your storage so not everything has to be on you”
Aeon felt like an uneducated child here as everyone else seemed to already know this and here he is completely unaware.
“There are so much in this world to know that no one can ever know it all. And this world is only a very small portion of the universe. So never feel stupid for not knowing something. We all started without knowing anything and we are all still newbies in most things.”
She smiled at him after saying that and it helped him feel less overwhelmed.
So he looked at the terminal and pressed the construct button and after a few ticks he saw a success pop up and there was his new boots!
Aeon decided this is his new favorite thing to do.
Part 20 - Exploration
With the new boots on and feeling great Aeon could not understand why he felt the need to explore again. But it was clear he was not the only one who wanted to go explore and so a few of them packed some backpacks and fitted some armor to go explore the area.
But to Aeon’s surprise they readied some hover bikes and loaded it with more heavy equipment.
“We need to explore and set up some fast travel portals so we can move around easier”
“So like a teleportation spell?” Aeon asked
“Well yes! So these will then be teleportation points”
So they all stocked up on some ammo, weapons and food and got on the hover bikes loaded with teleportation points and set off.
Aeon being the only one who explored the area in depth before led the way.
With the ease of traveling on the bike they reached the places of interest much faster than he imagined would be possible.
Taking them to the mountain he crashed on he showed them the cave with the massive crystals in. Exploring the cave with some companions was much more fun than when he originally started his time here and he had time to marvel at the beauty of the light inside the cave.
“We should call it Crystal peak”, Helen said.
Everyone loved the name so it was decided.
But climbing the peak to the top to show them his crashed ship looked almost impossible until they opted for using the hover bikes. Surprisingly powerful these bikes went up the side of the almost vertical mountain with ease and once they were all on top they stood there enjoying the view for a while before anyone said a word more.
They all decided that they needed a place up here. Somewhere they could all get together and enjoy the view and hang out. Like a community hall almost or a bar.
No matter the origin humans enjoy a good drink, a good meal and some good friends to share it with especially with a view like this.
But for now it would have to wait they still had much to explore.
From the top they could see a few interesting places and decided to split up the team and each of the 3 hover bikes would go to explore a different location and set up a teleporter at points of interest so they could use that to return to the base camp and continue exploration the next day.