“Now that he’s gone, let's experiment with this Staff of Light Bringing.” I said grabbing the staff.
“So if I remember correctly I turned on the staff and stuck it in the ground.” I thought back while turning it on. “Here it goes” And with that I brought down the staff. “And nothing…” I trailed off. “What was different before?”
I tried all sorts of stances and different places in the camp but still nothing. “Maybe it only works during the day?” I thought out loud. “Or maybe it was just refracting light when I did it?” I began to get a little frustrated. “Grr, do something!” I kinda yelled, can't be too loud when everyone is asleep, and sticking the staff in the ground. And to my surprise, yelling at it worked! Or maybe something else idk but it did its weird little circle thing of light below it.
“Success!” I said triumphantly. “Now where this light come from?” I pondered looking at the ring. I put my hand below the crystal to see if it was just light from the crystal being focused somehow but there was no correlation. So the next thing to do is obviously poke the light ring.
“...Nothing. I don't know what I expected.” I said retracting my poking finger. “Its pretty damn cool looking though. Ohh!, I need a new name for my stick now that it does something new. What to call it..” I thought while rubbing my chin to stimulate thinking. It really works I swear. “How about Arcane Staff of Light. That sounds cool and still has some of the old name in it.” And with my newly named Staff I began experimenting.
With trial, error, and a lot of time, I finally figured out how to make it do the ring thing. Apparently I just had to really focus on it. With that discovery I wondered if I could make other shapes if I willed things more specific. Or maybe even project it somewhere other than below the staff. This came with mixed results. Half the time it would default to a circle under the staff and sometimes I could get a square or triangle somewhere else. I thought once of making a pentagram but quickly put that out of my head. Last thing we need is to summon Satan. No matter what Nyjill says. I did however manage to put the bat-signal in the sky at one point. So I have that going for me.
After what felt like woot’s, or hours to normal people, I finally took a break from my Arcane Staff of Light and decided to stroll the perimeter. The outside of the perimeter that is. So with my Staff lit up and strapped to my back with para-cord and my crossbow in hand I decided to have a look.
“It’s been pretty quiet all night so I doubt I’ll see anything.” I said opening the front door which was basically just like any double door you’d see but wider, taller and made of science material. There was a handle on both sides to let you in or out and a deadbolt lock on the inside for each door that locked into the wall at the top. Just in case something other than us can use doors.
“Three spoopy five me.” I said as I started to the left. “Why am I doing this? Maybe because I’m bored. If I die I’ll be so pissed.”
I managed to go the entirety of the East, South, and part of the West wall with nothing trying to eat me. But as I was on the West wall I heard something in the woods.
“Ohh man, I hear a sneaky sneak.” I said drawing my crossbow and moving slowly while scanning the darkness. “Probably just an alien squirrel or something.”
I almost convinced myself it was, until I heard a stick break and more rustling.
“Maybe alien squirrels are bigger here?” I said starting to quicken my pace while still scanning. That is until I heard some growling. “Fuck yo squirrels!” I said as I started running back to the front door. “Nope nope nope nope!” I noped as I rounded the corner. Luckily my path was clear and I made it back to the door and ran inside. Closing and locking it as fast as possible.
“Who’s idea was it to randomly walk around at night?” I asked myself. “That could have been a Velociraptor for all I know. This could be Jurassic World the actual world.” I said while scanning the walls making sure the perimeter was still secure. “O wait, it was my idea.” I deadpanned. “GG mate.”
Before I could continue my rant I heard the giant squirrel/velociraptor growl again. Much closer this time much to my dismay.
“Well, look on the bright side.” I said trying to calm myself. “Raptors don’t growl like that so maybe it is just a giant squirrel.” I stopped and face palmed. “Ever hear a squirrel sound like that genius?” I asked myself. “So great, now I really have no idea what it is. I don't know if I can deal with something like this right now.”
My dialogue was again interrupted by another growl. Except it sounded like there were two more of them.
“Ok.” I thought out loud. “You have friends. Well so do I and they won't like being woken up but I just don't know what else to do. Maybe I’ll just wake up Nyjill, he deals with unknown a lot.” I said walking to Nyjill’s tent.
“Psst!” I pssted in his tent. “Nyjill we have guests. And they may or may not be giant raptor squirrels.”
That last remark really got his attention as he sat up quickly with fear in his eyes.
“Da fuq?” He said. “What’s happening?” He said getting out of his bed and putting on shoes.
“Well we have guests.” I summarized. “That much is true. There’s a few outside the wall and they’re growling. That's about all I know.”
Nyjill was grabbing a machete and a compound bow when he stopped to look at me.
“Then what were you saying about raptor bunny's?” He asked confusion evident on his face.
“Raptor squirrels.” I corrected. “And I don't know what you’re talking about. That's crazy talk from a crazy person. I said no such thing.”
“But you ju-” Nyjill began staring at me.
“Shh, not important.” I interrupted. “We have a welcome party to plan. Also I have no idea what to do. Maybe because I’ve been up all night but I’m at a loss.” I explained as we walked outside.
“Whoa, those are new.” Nyjill mentioned while motioning at the crystal torches around camp. “Makes me think of Mine Craft trying to keep the light levels up so nothing spawns.”
“That's what I thought too!” I laughed. “Should have put some around the outside perimeter too but I ran out of coal...err crystals.”
Our pleasant conversation was interrupted by Cody stumbling out of his tent. He stopped and rubbed the sleep from his eyes before pointing at Nyjill.
“Why he here.” He asked tiredly. “And what's with the bows and stuff?”
“Well we ha-” I started but stopped because of the growls from beyond the wall. It sounded like there were about five things now. “We have company. Don't know what they are but there’s something out there. Or like 5 somethings.” I continued.
“Can they get in?” Cody asked worried.
“No idea.” I answered helpfully. “I mean nothing has come in yet but there’s more now than there was before. Sooo...something is happening.”
“Well I’m gonna go grab a crossbow and I’ll be back.” Cody said disappearing into his tent emerging a few moments later. “Also its like 5AM so I figured it might be close to sunrise or something.”
“Kewl kewl.” I replied. “So now that there’s three of us I feel better about this whole ordeal. So who wants to look over the wall and see who our guests are?”
“...”
“Ok Nyjill, you win!” I said pointing at him. “You’re the lightest so we’ll lift you up and you peak over the wall.”
“Son of a bitch.” Was his short reply.
We boosted Nyjill up so he could look over the wall, but his description was less than helpful.
“You guys know what sticks look like right?” He asked strangely.
“Yes?” Cody and I replied.
“And y'all know what a wolf looks like, right?” He asked looking just as confused as we felt.
“Yah...what are you getting at?” I rebutted.
“Well imagine a wolf, and make it out of sticks, and add an eerie green glow about it.” He said jumping down from his lookout point. “That's what we have at our borders.”
“So we have wooden wolves…” I pondered out loud. “You know, the Raptor squirrels aren’t too far fetched now.”
We sat staring at each other for a bit. Everyone thinking and pondering.
“You know what his description reminds me of?” I asked the group.
“An acid trip you had at a concert you went to?” Nyjill quipped.
“No, stranger than that…” I replied. “They make me think of Timber-wolves.”
“Please no.” Was Cody’s short reply.
“Eh..” Was Nyjills response.
“Fuck yah! Can you even imagine?” I asked a little too loudly. “If we, were here? I mean there? It would be so cool!”
“Ok, let’s say we are here.” Nyjill started. “If these are Timber-wolves, then we aren't in a place many think is safe.”
“Can we ignore this till we get rid of these things?” Cody asked.
“Do we even have to?” I replied. “It’s been a while but they haven't made a move at getting to us. And we don't need to leave the premises for a while so maybe they’ll lose interest.”
“After you got us all excited for non MRE’s.” Nyjill complained. “Like fish and fruit and shit.”
“You know what we really didn't think about yet?” Camden asked wondering out of his tent, overhearing our conversation. No surprise, we weren't exactly being quiet.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“If time is 60 times slower here, and we were prepared to stay here for a month or two at most… How long will we be here?” He asked us.
“Fuuuuuuuuuuuuu...” Was Nyjills response.
“So our food supply is not going to last us.” Cody said. “Our equipment should be fine since we didn't know the environment we would end up in it's all pretty robust.”
“Ohh, look a sunrise” I said pointing over to the east side of the camp. “Anywhore, I’m sure we can find some edible plants and start a garden. Also stream nearby equals fish, maybe we’ll meet some locals and they will give us some food. Who knows.”
“Speaking of locals.” Cody said. “I don't hear any growling anymore.”
We all paused to listen and sure enough it was silent. Well not at all really, we heard birds chirping and stuff but no growling. Thinking about it, all other nature seemed to disappear when the stick-wolves, fuck it we’re calling them timberwolves, showed up.
“So...should we go exploring or naw.” I asked Nyjill. “I mean just cuz we knew there were zombies, that didn't keep us from going out back home. So why should timberwolves keep us in here.”
“As terrible as that logic sounds...I can't really argue with it.” Nyjill said.
“Cool.” I replied. “Go get Matthew, get ready and go explore. I’m going to sleep for a few hours.”
“What?” Nyjill protested. “We’re going out in unknown territory and you’re gonna take a nap?
“You forget, I’ve already done it.” I said. “Also I’ve been up all night so I would be more of a liability than anything.”
“Meh. You’re right.” He said walking back to his tent. “By the way, if you’re not going can I take your crossbow?”
“Sure, I know you can't aim for shit with that compound.” I teased. He was an alright shot but way better with sights and general crossbowness. “So y’all will go explore for a while, come back, do whatever until I wake up and then we’ll go out again.”
“Fine, I’ll go get Matthew up and we’ll get ready.” He said going to Mathews tent.
“Take your time, I’ll be in my tent if you really need me.” I said walking to my own tent. “But I rather just sleep uninterrupted.”
“I guess we should get to work too.” Cody said to Camden.
“I’ll start analyzing the crystals Shawn found.” Camden replied.
And with that I was in my tent getting ready for a nice refreshing nap. Until Nyjill poked his head in a few minutes later to drop off the compound bow. He didn't say anything or even really bother me but still. A few minutes later I was asleep in my hammock.