Careful, Sky

"Maybe so, who knows what the future holds, all I know, is that I want to be near Red more often, and nobody will get in my way." He clenched his fist and pumped his arm near his chest, declaring his newfound motivation.

"I'll leave her to you." I put the last stake in the ground and searched for more, but Carl interrupted me.

"That's all for now. I need to wait for Ullr to put more logs up. I think Mandi might need help with the gate if you want to go see what she's doing." I nodded and turned away, before being waved down by another man I haven't met before.

"Mr. Leader Man! I could use your help if you're free!" I redirected myself and went off to the forest through the gate.

"I'll help you on my way back, Mandi." She nodded with a thumbs up before I left her line of sight, walking over to the new guy in the forest.

"It's so nice to finally talk to you! The name is Charlie, and I called you over here because of that!" Charlie had really short hair and blue eyes, and he began to point up into the trees.

"That right there is a squirrel! There are animals over here as well! Just… not as big as that deer you said you saw yesterday." I nodded.

"Nice to meet you Charlie, it's Sky. I guess we could make a bow and arrow to hunt those small animals." I told him. He smiled while staring up.

"I'll start constructing a bow for you, but would you be able to aim it?" I asked him. Charlie nodded.

"That kind of thing is easy for me. I killed a rabbit with a spear earlier." He pointed to an impaled rabbit sitting behind the bush.

"How did you… where did you learn to do that?" This time, he shrugged.

"Not sure, just came naturally for me." He sat with his arms crossed, looking back up at the tree.

"Could you do me another favor on top of the bow? It'll be quick… I want to know what kind of things Mandi likes." Charlie didn't break his upward gaze towards the squirrels, but I agreed to his trivial favor.

The next thing I knew, I seemed to be an errand boy for the group. I then ran to Mandi, helping her with the gate.

"Just hold that part down while I slam this part into place…" She muttered. I held a pillar to the gate right next to the log. It wouldn't overlap the log, but it worked quite well otherwise. Again, thanks to Ullr, he fashioned some wooden pillars to act as the gate's standing points, which secured our base even more than before.

"Alright! Let's test it." Mandi hopped off of the top and pulled the gate towards herself on the outside. It opened quite well, leaving barely any room between the two separate doors on the gate.

"Now, we can just put this big rock between the two doors, that way you can only pull it from the outside and push it from the inside." She said. I was amazed by how quick she was about this gate; she must've put a lot of thought into it.

"Oi! Sky, I finished with Ullr, what else do you got?" Domin asked, jogging over towards me. I could hear Mandi complain about how hungry she was while jumping down from the gate. She stockpiled a ton of berries in the sand and began to eat them after she finished.

"Well, Charlie needs a bow, so we could make that," I explained to him. Domin nodded and we went back to the forest with an axe Carl had made for the two of us.

"So, we need a stick that can bend a bit, so to get flexible wood like that, we should shred down a small log on a nearby tree. Let's do that first." Domin followed behind me as I cut into the tree, dodging the wood chips flying out of the cut marks I placed on the log itself.

I stripped the log after splitting it in half. The bare wood from the inside of the log would be the design for the bow itself, while Domin collected a ton of twine from nearby plants to tie together for a form of rope that would act as the bowstring.

It all eventually came together, and we finally forged the bow. Thanks to Domin, we were able to conserve time and make only one arrow, attaching a rope on the end so Charlie could reclaim it no matter where he shot it, so long as he was within reach of the twine on the end of the arrow.

It took us about an hour to do it, but we finally handed off the bow and Charlie thanked us for the help. "The first thing I kill with this bow will go to you guys. Thanks a ton!" Charlie began to scan the trees, going deeper into the forest with his bow, closer to the statue.

"Hey Domin, we should go check up on Lia to make sure she's okay, shouldn't we?" Domin nodded and ran off towards the gate, considering that would be our formal way of entering the base from now on. Later down the line, we would need a gate on the other side, but I shouldn't think about that stuff yet.

"I don't think you'll have to worry about that." Another unknown voice came up from behind me, but it was above, not on my same level.

I turned my body and this new person jumped from the trees, landing on both of his feet and crossing his arms after securing the landing.

"I don't believe we've met, what's your name?" I asked. I got a horrible feeling the more I stood in front of this guy. Just like Lia, staring at him made me sick to my stomach with this miserable feeling.

"Well, I guess I can tell you. It's Dante, and you are?" Dante had thin brown hair and dark skin, lighter than Xavier's, but still darker than mine.

"I'm Sky. It's nice to meet you." I crossed my arms, following his body language to try to defuse this awkward situation we were in.