The dust in this area tends to be mostly
sand and mud, which causes havoc for unprotected mechanisms or machines. The
plains are littered with debris from an older world, with the wrecks having
been scraped clean of anything useful long ago. Not much grows in the plains
but the area provides the quickest route between the two nearest cities.
As
Ellyn groggily opened her eyes and yawned. She sat up in the hammock and saw Seth
wasn’t there, she assumed he was out laying traps or something. She looked
around and saw Seth had left his arm again, as she approached she saw that it
was holding a note, it read:
Gone to
scavenge, will be back with breakfast!
His
handwriting was smooth but uneven and was written on the paper at an angle.
Ellyn then studied the arm, it was the first time she’d ever had a good look at
it, and while she felt a little uncomfortable with it she still wanted to see
it. As she looked at it in the morning light and she saw it was a pretty
accurate match to the human skeleton (there had been what she hoped was a model
back in the manor), with two metal bars on the forearm and a single bigger one
on the upper arm. Attached within the forearm was a blade, which ran the length
of the forearm, and was pivoted at the wrist. Placed at the elbow and wrist
were small metal cages that Ellyn could see contained some sort of crystal, and
seemed to be powering the joints. Also at the elbow, connected to the box there
was what looked like a little black funnel, which protruded from the arm in line
with the forearm section. On the fingertips was rubber pads, used for gripping
things, Ellyn guessed. She could lift up the tips to reveal little tools such
as a screwdriver bit in the index finger. The whole thing was covered in little
scratches and dents, and gave the overall feel of wear, and Ellyn wondered how
long he’s had it. She heard a noise outside and hastily put down the arm,
knocking over some other things in the process. As she was placing the fallen
items Seth stepped into the cart and stood in the doorway, Ellyn froze,
“uh…hi?” she said holding something upright with her face, out of the corner of
her eye she saw his hair was wet and was plastered on his forehead. “Yeah...Hi
Ell, anyway I’ve got breakfast ready, come down when you’re done” Seth said in
a monotonous tone, he seemed more reserved today, less of the bouncy attitude
of yesterday. He bent over Ellyn and took his arm from where it was positioned,
he walked out of the cart as he slotted his arm back in. She stepped down from
the cart and saw the fire Seth had made, he had erected a spit that was
attached to a motor system and was rotating a lump of meat on the fire, also
dangling over the fire was a pot of water inside of which was some bits of a brown
root vegetable and some oh-so-familiar mushrooms. Seth was sitting on a rock
positioned near the fire; he was looking away from her across the plains. Ellyn
saw he had brushed away some of the dust that had gathered the previous day,
and cleared a section of ground for them to move around on. She could see two
sets of footprints, one Seth’s and the other Ellyn guessed belonged to Acorn,
but Acorn’s footprints seemed to disappear where Seth had brushed the dust into
a pile. Ellyn walked over to it and looked at it, and as she got within a foot
of the pile, Acorn jumped out of it, covering her in dust as he landed on her
and sat on her shoulder.
“pthbt
pthbt” Ellyn spattered “oh hey acorn” she said brushing some of the dust off,
Acorn responding by giving a little “Yip!” and poking his nose into the side of
her head. She stroked him behind the ears as she walked over to Seth. Ellyn
walked up to Seth and put a hand on his shoulder, he jumped and turned around.
“Ah,
good morning Ellyn!” Seth chirped, seeing her face made him feel warm inside,
this made him feel better. “I expect you are hungry!” He finished as he said
this, Ellyn realised she was famished, and very hungry, she nodded
energetically. Seth stood up and stopped the spit from turning, he used his
metal hand to fish out the bits of root and mushroom and place them into two
bowls. He then tipped the water onto the fire, resulting in a big hiss, a lot
of steam and the fire going out. He then distributed half the meat between the
two of them, gave Acorn a bone to chew on and placed the rest in this plastic
box that was lined with some shiny material. Seth placed the box in a bag
attached to the side of the cart. He sat back down on the rock and indicated
for Ellyn to join him. As she sat down he handed her a bowl, she was about to
dive in with her fingers, but Seth stopped her, he held out a chunky looking
fork, she took it and scooped up a bit of food onto it, and as she brough it up
to her mouth the fork flopped and the food fell back into her bowl, she looked
to Seth who was holding a button on his metal arm down and trying to hold in
his laughter and not smile. He was failing miserably.
Ellyn
was not pleased; she scowled at Seth, but decided to not acknowledge the prank.
“How did you lose your arm anyway?” The scowl left when she asked this. “It’s a
long story, I’ll tell you some other time, right now, we need to find some more
byronium!” stated Seth. Ellyn stared blankly at him. “The crystal powering
everything, don’t tell me you haven’t seen it” a sudden realisation appeared on
her face, “oh so that’s what that
stuff is!” she said pointing to the spit contraptions box. “I thought it didn’t
run out” said Ellyn, “It seemed a crystal wouldn’t run out of whatever it is doing.”
Seth answered;” Well unfortunately it does, and when it does it becomes
volatile, I usually have a stockpile, but its running low so we need to go get
some more.” Ellyn shrugged her shoulders
and just accepted it, it seemed there was still a lot about the world she
didn’t know. They climbed back in the cart after clearing up and finishing breakfast
and Seth set them off going along the road to a location he had memorised, the
cart leaving deep tracks in the dust.
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