^^ Kindle ^^

I'd like to say that my life flashed before my eyes. That I saw all my mistakes and all the people I'd ever loved and a whole bunch of other sappy shit that secretly makes me smile when I read it in books.

But no, none of that happened. My only thoughts consisted of explicatives, incoherent screaming, and more explicatives, plus some mild whimpers for flavor, as we ran from the falling ~145 tons of metal.

Luckily, even with our late start, the metal took a bit more time to fully reach the ground than we took to get the fuck out of the way, so it crashed into the shelf with the force of all 145 tons and 50 feet of acceleration from zero. Needless to say, there was something of a 'Boom'.

The shockwave was visible, throwing dirt off the ground and swamping us with it, but all things considered I was happy to take a bit of unsteady footing and a face full of dirt over being crushed by an oversized tin can.

The man to my left spat out some dirt, and grumbled in German for a moment, but sighed. "Alive and Dirty is best." He conceded the same point I had, albeit begrudgingly.

"And it didn't crush the food, so that's good." I agreed, and cracked my back. "Well... lets get to work, again." I began tying rope around the shoulders of the Wyverns creatures, so they could be dragged up to the top for us to dissect them, and stopped when he shook his head. "What?"

"The stomachs... leave them." He mimed their stomachs, and then the blood on the ground, and I slowly Understood; there were people in their stomachs, and no one needed to see that.

"Dammit... but their stomachs are our best vessels for water... I'll gut them over the lake, then, feed the fishes with all the... bits." I sighed, and dragged the creature over to the edge, sitting in front of it and pulling a box-cutter out of my back pocket. It was all I really had in the way of blades; my work didn't really require sharp edges for anything.

He nodded and hauled over the rest, one by one, and then went back up to inform everyone that we weren't dead while I worked.

The stomachs were emptied into the lake, (luckily mine was already empty, because that was Vile,) and the intestines were likewise emptied and set aside. Tendons were also saved, and the hides and wings were kept as intact as possible; They could all be used, after all. The bones and meat were of immediate use, however, and didn't require drying or tanning first, so those were given precedence.

It's anatomy was not entirely foreign to me, as I treated it like a chicken; a very large chicken, but still the same basic structure, if you added in its neck and tail, which both had gorgeous meat which would've been perfect for stewing, if we had a stew pot.

The lake was not very big, but with four rivers leading away from it and no visible intake, it was likely fed by an underground spring, and considering the amount of shallows full of roots perfect for hiding or laying eggs, as well as the small waterfalls and downhill-streams leading away, it would be prime fishing for migratory fish like Salmon, most likely. Already, there was a feeding frenzy forming, as all the fish in the lake snapped up the banquet that'd just been served to them.

As I worked, the mechanical tasks of moving and cutting and sorting the animals was a simple one that I could understand; my mind that had been swimming with Chaotic and confused thoughts was capable of calming down to the level I usually showed as an act, which is to say very calm. Acting calm was easier than you'd think, as all you had to do was not react reflexively to anything; this prevented mix-ups and mistakes that are caused by snap judgments. But still, it was nice to actually be calm, not just act like it. Sure, there were things I didn't understand, like, how we came here, why we came here, who brought us here, where is here, and so on, but as I currently didn't possess the ability to find out, those could be set aside, for now.

My specialty was planning for the needs of now, and predicting future needs; right now we needed food and shelter, and we would need weapons at some point, given that these creatures existed in such large packs. Guns were out of the question, as I didn't possess the equipment or materials necessary to build one. Hammers and an axe we had, but I'd need to make some Spears, and ones that these people could use; Spears made out of the ribs of these Wyverns would do nicely, because of their lightweight design and ease of use, which even a novice could learn in a few minutes. Even if they were only useful for fishing, that would be worth it.

And a pot, I needed a pot to make stew in... a thought struck me, looking at the rib cage of the Wyvern in front of me, and I grinned. "That'll do..." I separated it from the spine carefully, and then layered three others with it at 90 degree angles, filling the gaps and making a barrel that was open on both ends. I set that around a small fire, and left it to force-dry the bones, while another fire began smoking the meat, bit-by-bit. I had no other way of storing it than to essentially make it jerky, which would last for quite a while, even without refrigeration.

"Can I ask... why you're cooking those bones like that?" Medea sat nearby, coming down the mountain with the others and our stuff. It was pretty windy up there, it seemed, and at least this area had better protection from the wind.

"I'm making a Pot. For stew." I nodded.

"That will never hold water." She raised an eyebrow, staring at it doubtfully.

"Untrue; at high temperatures, bones fuse together, and I'm also going to cover it with leather. So boo on you for doubting my cauldron knowledge." I frowned haughtily at her, and she giggled, then curled in on herself again. "It's only been a few hours. You should get some sleep."

"And you?" She asked, looking up at me.

"I've got work to do... and I slept a bit on the train. Sort of. I'll be fine, but you can sleep here next to the fire, if you want?" I offered a warm safe-haven, and she smiled, instantly laying down against my side. "I said the fire, but I suppose one could be expected to confuse the two, given my general levels of hotness." I added blandly, and she snorted softly before curling up even tighter, almost in a fetal position. I nodded and pet her hair gently, letting her calm down and eventually sleep.

After a bit, I set her next to the woman with the baby, and went back to work, getting all the meat smoked and preserved as best as I could. The bone cauldron took several hours to get even close to done, as it was a twig-fire trying to melt bone, but I was happy with the end result, as I wrapped the hide around it and made it watertight, creating a cauldron with bones inside, which would be good to make everything that went in it taste like chicken; given that I planned on throwing in just about anything edible I could get my hands on, and I didn't have any spices, it was better to taste like bland meat than to taste like... well, other stuff.

Turning it upside down and placing it over the fire was a good way of testing its air-tightness, as well as drying the hide; if any smoke had came out of the top, it clearly wouldn't have been air-tight, but thankfully it was properly handled, and even in the looming twilight I could see a few feet from the light of the softly-glowing upside-down cauldron.

"Nice craftsmansh-EY!!!" An unknown voice sounded right behind my shoulder, and then yelped as my elbow cracked into her nose instantly.

I kept my back to the fire and shouldered my hammer, whistling sharply to wake everyone up. "Look alive, boys and goyles, we got Comp'ny!"

"You sound like a bad re-enactment of a cowboy." Medea muttered, rubbing her face tiredly.

"CowGal, thank you very much dear!" I corrected her casually, keeping my eyes on the woman I could barely see. Staring into the fire for so long had been a mistake, and one I would not repeat.

"Now there's no need for all-... did you just call yourself a Cow-Person?" The woman asked incredulously.

"It's the name of a job where you wrangle cattle." I explained blandly, then narrowed my eyes to see a little more detail of her in my slowly-adjusting vision. "Now, who exactly are you, missy?"

"Hm... a job, you say? Well, whatever. My name is Kindle, and yours?" She held out the hand that wasn't holding a brass spear that looked fit to skewer a charging war-horse.

"Theodora, and I'm not shaking your hand while you're holding a weapon in your clearly dominant left hand... we just got dumped here, so you'll forgive my lack of trust." I narrowed my eyes again, and finally saw her face, as she frowned thoughtfully. Her skin was olive-toned, with a harsh tan visible on her stomach and shoulders, both clearly visible due to her clothes which consisted of a layered leather skirt, heavy leather boots, and a likewise leather sports-bra.

"Dumped here? Well, that explains the weird clothes... but you handled a pack of Wyverns with no issues, so I suppose it can't have been all bad, yes?" She grinned casually, retracting her hand.

"There were about sixty of us less than twelve hours ago." I frowned.

She flinched, then lowered her head into a bow. "I'm sorry for your losses, I'd not intended to make light of it... but what is... that?" She pointed at the overturned portions of the train, which had landed stacked, oddly enough, against the side of the cliff.

"The cart we were transporting in... it's useless, now, as anything but a shelter." I shrugged. "Now, who are you? You said your name, but why are you here? And where are we? I don't like to interrogate someone who doesn't seem to have untoward notions, but we need answers, and if you're in a position to provide them..."

She nodded. "I understand completely, of course. I'm a hunter from the Hunter's Guild, and I heard that there was a lot of noise coming from a nest of Wyverns. I assumed it was some stupid mage biting off more than he could chew and blowing a piece of the mountain off, but now... I don't really know what to think."

I blinked slowly, then looked at the clean-cut cliff. "That wasn't like that before?" I clarified.

She snorted. "What, cut clean like a knife taking a piece of cake off the fucking mountain? No, no it was most certainly not!"

"Universal exchange... it's just the trade-off for the metal of the train..." Medea yawned sleepily, and laid her head back into her new friend's lap.

I hummed softly. "Yes, that... sorta makes sense. The amount of energy and matter in a system is set, so if we moved to a different realm, we moved to a different system, and there was a trade that took place."

"Huh... how dense is that metal?" Kindle muttered to herself, and kicked a piece of the train, then hummed appreciatively at the solid 'thunk'. "Pretty solid, nice! Is this Steel, by chance?"

"Some of it, yes. Why?" I frowned, worried now that her brass weapon meant that Steel was rare (and therefore valuable) here.

"Good metal! Pretty rare to see so much of it, though... I mean, shield and swords, sure, but... three huge Carriages? Never in my life!" She laughed, and then shook her head, walking back to the fire. "Well, I've figured out what's going on... sort of. You all were summoned, -or traded, I suppose,- and you've no clue about anything. You've got a baby, but her mother seems healthy enough to feed her, and none of you look sick, though I see a good amount of broken bones and wounds, and you do have proper food and water for now... hm."

"Pretty much sums it up, yes." I raised an eyebrow. "And?" I prompted her to continue.

"I'll be back. I've got to report the destruction of this clutch of Wyverns; they're a pretty big nuisance, so the guilds like to keep an eye on them. And I'll see about getting you some help as well; a healer, for one, and maybe some proper clothes. Wyvern hides don't make for warm clothes; not enough insulation... it'll incur a debt, I'm sure you understand, but right now you need all the help you can get." She sighed.

"We can handle the clothes, actually... as morbid as it is, there's sixty peoples's-worth of clothes and luggage here. We can manage. The Doctor, though, that is definitely worth whatever debts it causes. All of those three have broken bones or injuries of some kind, and the only ones who don't are me and the baby... and honestly I don't want to bet that the baby is okay after that collision." I nodded, flipping over the cauldron and letting the smoke out to create a single cloud of dark grey and black smoke, like a smoke signal.

She grimaced, glancing at the bloodstains on the ground and the piles of materials. "I don't envy you that job at all..."

"Mm... but if these Wyverns were such a nuisance, was there a reward for their killing? That might pay for that healer, yeah?" I had the idea as I realized she'd said something about a Guild. My nerd-brain instantly thought of an Adventurers Guild and Quests, even in the less-than-ideal situation. (Putting it mildly.)

She blinked in shock, then grinned happily. "Hey, Good idea! I'll take back some of their horns as proof, then, and see if I can get the the reward for you! It's just a bit of leg-work, because of how close we are to the capital, so don't worry, I'll be back in the morning."

"You'll forgive me if I don't wait up... no offense meant, but I don't know you." I hummed, and examines my cauldron to see if it was done.

"I get that, no worries." She shrugged, unconcerned, and then disappeared from my vision; completely vanishing from view as if she'd never existed.

"Holy shit... okay, so... everyone else saw that... right?" I asked the others hesitantly, then paused and watched as the pile of horns from the Wyverns suddenly lifted and then disappeared as well. "Are you fucking invisible?!?" I asked incredulously.

"Every respectable hunter needs a few magic tricks." She laughed, still invisible, and then the sound of her footsteps faded away, down the mountain.

"You think she's gone?" The woman with the baby asked softly.

"I don't trust someone who can turn invisible to actually just leave, so no, I imagine she's probably still around, for all the good it'll do her. We do need to be more vigilant, though; she got the drop on me like it was nothing, and I'm pretty good at hunting myself. I don't like the idea of you guys out here without me or at least John... right? Did I get your name right?" I glanced at the German man, grimacing.

"Johann. Close." He shrugged.

"Right, Johann. I'm Theodora, or Theo, I'm a scrapper/sculptor at a Metal and Stone Quarry Yard, I'm from Montana... the smartass is Medea, her dad is one of my co-workers, like Johann is, and you guys?" I looked at the others, tired of referring to them as 'you' or 'that person with the sweater vest'.

"I'm Rhea Ghile, I'm a Kindergarten Teacher in Philly, but I'm from Louisiana... I have two children at home, both toddlers." She smiled down at the baby and cleared her throat softly. "Luckily their mother went home yesterday, so they're not alone!" She faked a smile as best she could, and Medea hugged her shoulders gently.

"I'm Helen, I'm a technical electrician and Electrical Engineer at a computer company in New York... no family, no kids... I'm pretty boring." A mousy Asian woman with a broken hip grunted as she sat up to speak.

"I'm James, I guess... I work construction in Brooklyn, usually, but I took a job down in Atlanta, and I was on my way back... no wife, no kids, but I've got two dogs and a turtle, I guess..." a blonde man with a thick New Yorker accent shrugged, then winced as his shoulder twinged in its sling.

"Alright, feels like I'm back in rehab, but, uh... I'm Clark, -Mathis, not Kent,- and I work at a veterinary office in DC. No partner or children." A slight man with a bandaged forehead waved half-heartedly at us all, then went back to stitching a cut on one of the others' shoulder from the glass.

The girl next to him flinched, realizing it was her turn. "Uhm! I'm- uh... Uhm... uh... shit, I swear I'm not stupid, I just-!!!"

"Calm down, my dear, you'll be alright. We can come back to you if you like, but there's no rush." I smiled kindly, and she hugged her knees, careful of her bandaged wrist.

"Cassidy. From Queens." She muttered after a moment to collect her thoughts.

"Nice to meet you, Cassidy." I nodded.

"I guess we saved the best for last? I'm Sam, I'm a bartender and mixologist in DC! I brew my own brand of Whiskey and Moonshine, which I sell at farmers markets!" The last person, a small-ish being with cropped white hair and ambiguous gender grinned at us with a gapped smile, -they'd lost a tooth in the crash, apparently,- then hissed as Clark pulled a stitch tight, and tied it off.

"Don't hiss at me, I'm a vet." Clark quipped back at them with a lopsided grin, and we all chuckled a bit at the attempt at humor, however weak.