Another Month Forward

Olive woke up early today, a habit now more than a choice. She exited her tipi home and stretched underneath the sunlight. Peering into the jungle trees around, she momentarily admired the beauty of her surroundings.

When the Goblins aren't screeching and the camp is still quiet before anyone wakes up, this world truly becomes beautiful.

The jungle's lush green paints their surroundings, bright and vibrant unlike any natural shade of green found on Earth – almost like God Himself filled in this world's color with markers.

Up above, hung from the jungle trees, large clusters of orange fruits rocked to and fro' while violet berries hugged the base of the trees themselves.

The sun above was incredibly bright and robust – everything in fact, appeared larger than life, larger than any natural growths found on Earth. It's absolutely beautiful, but Olive couldn't admire her scenery forever, she had made plans today after all.

Shuffling across camp, Olive arrived in front of another tipi home. This one was painted with black and purple dyes, it had ornaments attached to the wooden stakes at it's apex and streamers covered it's entrance.

Olive poked her head through the streamers.

"Hello?" She whispered, not wanting to wake anybody.

But as her head breached the streamers protection, an arm exploded out from within the tipi and grabbed hold of Olive's wrist. Pulling Olive in, Olive erupted into the tipi and stumbled over the feet of her kidnapper.

Olive crashed onto her kidnapper and the two fell backwards, collapsing onto the makeshift mattress constructed of dried leaves and straw blankets.

Now on top and with their noses nearly touching, Olive's eyes adjusted to the dim lighting around and upon doing so she immediately made eye-contact with a pair of pale green eyes, intensity radiating from them, while heat slowly spread across Olive's chest.

"Hey," Summer whispered back, a wide and innocent grin plastered across her face, "you know I'm not free to ride, right?"

Olive leaned all of her weight onto one hand and lifted the other. Raising it towards Summer's face, Olive brushed the platinum blonde hair out of her eyes and pushed it away from her lips.

"You don't like my hair either?" Summer teased, "Sorry, not everyone can be born with cherry red hair." She giggled.

"I love your hair," Olive whispered back, "but I don't love kissing it."

Summer's eyes widened, an exaggerated shock strewn across her face, "I thought we were waiting 'till marriage! What am I gonna tell my father?" Summer closed her eyes and shook her head in a dejected manner.

But Olive's free hand grabbed her cheek. She ran the tip of her fingernail along Summer's jaw before stopping at her chin. Gently pinching Summer's chin, Olive tilted her head up and looked into Summer's green eyes.

She looked into the left eye first, then the right, and then back to the left. An uncontrollable smile crept up on Olive's lips, and as it did so, Summer's attention was drawn to them as Olive watched the blonde girl's eyes travel down.

It was then that Olive finally leaned in and pushed her lips against Summer's.

The camp has changed quite a bit in the past four weeks while at the same time hasn't really changed at all. The influx of twenty new women made camp life exponentially better. The women made soaps and deodorants, they decorated the tipi's and began painting the walls of the pyramid both inside and out – they provided the camp with a sense of normalcy and calmness that all of the members appreciated.

Unfortunately, however, group eight turned out to be a dud in terms of Awakened potential. Out of the twenty summoned only two could be considered genuine Awakened. One possessed the [Painter] Class which granted them the Ability to easily change malleable things' colors – primarily paints and paint-like substances; think dyes, pastes, cloths, pretty much non-hard and non-metal items.

She's the main reason why the camp has been filled with so much color and why many of the black walls have been replaced with vibrant and heroic murals; some depicting angels and other godly beings while others reflect the serenity found in endless grass fields or skies plump with white, fluffy clouds.

In addition to the Painter, the only other truly Awakened member of group eight possessed the [Walker] Class. An interesting Class that so far seems to do nothing other than provide the young girl with an exorbitant amount of stamina.

This girl works for days at a time and fills her schedule with endless miscellaneous tasks such as carrying fruits, logs, or messages across camp.

She sleeps once a week and for exactly eight hours – no more and no less. The woman tested it. Immediately recognizing the value behind such a minor Ability, she was quickly swept up by the leaders of the camp, soon to be village, Isaac and Adams.

And yes, those two continued to co-parent the camp, but it's oddly become quite an effective method of leading. Adams controls the war portion of the camp. He trains the summoned, leads skirmishes into the marsh, and develops strategies and synergies between the camp members.

He does everything one would expect from an Admiral – who would have thought?

On the other side of things, however, stood Isaac who found himself in control of the mundane aspects of camp: the food, clothes, craftsmen, smiths, anything and everything that existed within the walls of the camp – beside training, of course.

Isaac studied the environment's flora, collected seeds and nuts in an attempt to grow them and managed the orders given to the camp's craftsmen. In a roundabout way, Isaac became the mother of the camp while Adams became the father.

And although the two had opposite responsibilities, they spent a shocking amount of time together, Church and a few others included. Hours upon hours of discussion occurred daily. From exchanging current information such as the results of Adams most recent skirmish to new discoveries found in the jungle, there existed too many things to research hence the expansion of the camp's circle of leadership.

Specialists, if you could call them that, were invited to offer their opinions of the camp's direction and due to that five people currently stood on the main floor of the pyramid; maps, graphs, and data littered the desks and walls surrounding them.

"Group nine arrives tomorrow!" Admiral Adams' voice echoed off the pyramid's walls, "With an influx of twenty-six men, after being trained accordingly, regardless of their Awakened status, I believe we possess the means to once more venture into the depths of the jungle!"

Church scoffed, "And what? Leave the camp bitterly undefended? You can't seriously believe that all twenty-two men will even be willing to join your murder train."

"While I do appreciate your oh so wise comments, Church, even you must know that we can't sit in this pyramid forever. Although I only arrived four months ago, Isaac's been here for nine while you've been here for seven. How long must we stay here? A year? Two? Ten? In the beginning, even Isaac led teams into the jungle in the hopes of getting out. His failure merely a step in the grand scheme of our success! We are stronger than ever before! We are safer than ever before! What we lack is information! Information we can only obtain through risk! Through perseverance! We must push forward!"

"I agree with Adams." A woman raised her hand. Her eyes remained closed, stoic calmness radiating from her presence.

"Even you, Fey?" Church looked at the woman with surprise on his face.

Fey, also known as the Painter, became a leading voice in the camp and an unofficial spokesperson for the women of group eight. Due to her Painter Class, Fey remained within the camp's walls at all times, painting. In doing so, she formed an incredibly close relationship with all of the camp's consistent workers and as an Ability holder, she possessed the Awakened qualification to have her voice heard.

"While I understand your reluctance, Church, the Admiral is objectively right. We don't know anything. Even our ticket out of here stems from baseless assumption and after discovering the Land of Frost – even that belief has started to crumble." Fey replied.

"She's right, Church." Doc Tyler spoke up, "The discovery of the Land of Frost has too many unpredictable implications. If the way home involves discovering these other places and raiding them in tow, then centralizing all of our power in the jungle would actually be a step in the wrong direction."

"Are you suggesting we explore the Land of Frost?" Church narrowed his gaze.

"Not at all –" Doc shook his head, "the Land of Frost is far too cold for us to survive without immense preparation and considering our lack of technology, the most probable answer is our Abilities. We simply need Awakened who can survive the cold, either through cold immunity or an ability to produce heat; in both instances it involves waiting for the luck of the draw. So, although the Land of Frost has weakened the probability of escape through the pyramid's gates, it's still our only option moving forward. We simply need to discover it's key."

"Even without you, Church, it's a three to two vote." Admiral Adams looked towards Isaac, "Or perhaps four to one?"

Isaac exhaled a heavy sigh, "It's an unavoidable fate. And this would be the strongest force we've sent out, both the largest and most adequately trained."

"Then it's decided!" Admiral Adams interrupted, "Groups five, seven, and nine will lead the next exhibition into the jungle! We'll leave the day after the tenth's summons! It'd be motivating for the men to see all the newly summoned girls of which they must return to."

***

Gazing at the sky above, Olive laid flat on black stone. Through the red lens that covered her scenery, Olive stared at the stars and studied the moon. This world's moon was so incredibly large, taking up nearly half the sky.

It didn't normally look like this. Normally, although considerably larger than the Earth's moon, this world's moon typically appeared as one would expect – distant, but as with the rare golden moon, it appears tonight's behemoth moon is also something special.

Olive looked to her right. Summer's closed eyes fluttered underneath the gem's light. Her delicate and soft skin shimmered thanks to the moonlight. With their hands intertwined, Olive squeezed Summer's and a moment later Summer squeezed back.

Olive smiled and looked back towards the night sky.

Tomorrow marks the sixth month since Olive's been here, and hopefully, it'll also mark the beginning of the end here.

Tomorrow the tenth group arrives – another group of women and with their arrival twenty-eight others will advance into the jungle.

Of the twenty-six men summoned in group nine, sixteen of them agreed to join Adams' exhibition. Of just these sixteen, four of them possessed the qualification to be called an Awakened. Of the remaining eight who joined the inner-workings of the camp, one of them turned out to be a genuine Awakened.

And even better, the four Awakened who joined Adams' team possessed Abilities that could be utilized in combat – eventually. One man is able to summon |Ghost Hands| that can interact with the real world, a more complicated version of telekinesis if anything. Unfortunately, he lacks the strength and coordination with |Ghost Hands| to actually affect anything of value such as utilizing another weapon or blocking incoming strikes. At present, the man can merely bump into things.

Another man became a Summoner like Olive, but rather than summon demons, he summons bugs. At present, the man is able to summon a thousand bugs at most and it only takes about a minute or so. The issue with him, moreover, is the bug's effectiveness in combat. Although an exorbitant amount of critters, he's only able to summon beetle-like bugs that 1. can't fly and 2. lack any sort of venomous or paralysis effect.

Essentially, his bugs act more as a deterrent for now rather than an offensive means of combat.

The newly summoned members of the camp weren't the only people with new and interesting Abilities to explore, however, as Isaac and his cohort regularly scouted the jungle's embrace in search of either Goblins to eat or fruits to collect.

As a result, Isaac ranked up first, joining Lily as the second Neophyte to exist in camp. Like Lily, he received a passive buff for his rank up, |Knight's Valor| a Trait enhancement that makes Isaac appear more valiant.

It's a charm buff.

Isaac wasn't pleased.

After him, Church ranked up and also received a Trait: |Filter| a passive that literally filters the air he breathes. When Church told the rest of the cohort his Trait's description, the group laughed at him. Following that instance, however, Church began an hour-long lecture on the danger of carcinogens, especially in the case of Vodou, a practice that involves the burning of hundreds of ingredients – half of which are toxic.

Olive, sadly, has yet to rank up and it constantly leaves a bitter taste in her mouth. Especially since there are some people who arrived after her who have already ranked up. On the other hand, no unawakened Awakened have ranked up. That is to say, no person without a Class has ranked up.

There has been some conjecture that perhaps upon rank up, the Classless individual will be granted a Class, but given how low the odds are for finding Magic Crystals already, it simply makes more sense to strengthen the already useful rather than gamble on the potential of the useless.

Other than regularly scouting the jungle with her cohort and training, Olive also hangs out with Summer a lot. In fact, Olive and Summer are not the first couple to have sprouted underneath the jungle's tutelage. With a constant influx of new people, most of which are young adults, it's only natural for hormones to kick in every once in a while.

Squeezing Summer's hand once more, Olive turned her head and looked at her.

"Come on. You wanted to watch the summoning, right? We better go to bed."

Summer opened her eyes and yawned. Leaning up, she spread her arms out and replied.

"Your wish is my command." Summer leaned in for a kiss.