by Pirateaba
Since sugar was too expensive for that, Erin instead sliced up some blue fruit into the bowl. That was nearly as good.
Food, done. Erin walked out into the common room and set her bowl on the table. She pulled a chair out—and then noticed something was standing behind her. Slowly, she looked around.
Two glowing blue flames illuminated a fleshless head. A skeleton grinned at her, inches away from Erin’s face.
“Aaaaaaaaah!”
Erin screamed even as she punched. The skeleton caught a fist to the head and staggered backwards. It fell down. Erin clutched at her fist.
“Ow! Ow, ow—go over there!”
Obediently, the skeleton got up and walked over to the corner. It watched as Erin waved her hand around and cursed for a while. When she was done, Erin marched up and poked the skeleton in the ribs.
“Hey! I thought I told you to stay upstairs!”
It shook its head. Erin blinked and then got mad. She poked at the skeleton again and her finger went straight into the rib cage. Shuddering, Erin pulled her finger back.
“I distinctly remember telling you to clean the rooms upstairs.”
The skeleton nodded. Erin glared.
“Well? Why are you down here?”
It stared at her. Erin supposed it was just as well the skeleton hadn’t responded. She glared at the staircase.
“Okay wise guy. Let’s see just what happened while I was asleep.”
She stomped up the stairs, the skeleton following her close behind. Erin walked into one of the dirty rooms—
And stopped.
“Whoa.”
Something had changed. It was like one of those spot the difference games in newspapers, except that the difference here was everything. Erin blinked around at the spotless room and wondered if she was hallucinating. If she was, she preferred not to wake up.
Slowly, she stared at the walls, the floors, and the windows. All were spotless. All were clean. She could even see the original color of the floorboards. Instead of their dirty grey-brown, they’d transformed into a lustrous golden brown that was actually pleasing to look at.
“Okay. Okay, that’s um—”
Erin turned and blinked at the skeleton.
“Did you do all the rooms like this?”
It nodded. The skeleton walked over to a corner of the room and picked something up. It brought a bucket over to Erin and a scrap. She squinted at it. It looked—it looked like a piece of a dustrag. A tiny piece.
“Where’s the rest of it go, then?”
The skeleton shrugged. Erin wondered where the rest of the dirt and grime had gone. There was a sludgy substance in the bucket, but it looked like the skeleton had just tossed the grime out the window for the most part. Erin could get behind that cleaning style.
And each room was spotless. Well, there were some spots. Despite the skeleton’s best efforts, it still couldn’t clean away mildew. Some of the rotted boards still needed replacing, but Erin had [Basic Crafting] and a hammer. She was a god of minor repairs.
The entire upper floor was suddenly, miraculously, habitable. Erin wandered around each room in a daze. She returned to the first room and wondered if the floors were softer here than in the kitchen. Well, the skeleton had done a good job after all. Erin wasn’t sure what to make of that. But the rooms were clean.
Then she had a thought. Erin looked up.
“Hey! You missed the ceiling!”
The skeleton stared at her, and then up at the still dirty ceiling. Erin scowled at it.
“I said clean everything. The floor, the walls, windows…and the ceiling. I said that, right?”
The skeleton shook its head. Erin scowled at it.
“Well, I thought it. And you should have done it anyways!”
There was no way to tell if the skeleton was angry, sad or…skeletons didn’t have emotions, right? But the flames in the skeleton’s eyes dimmed for a second as Erin glared at it.
She felt bad. Not because she cared much about the skeleton’s feelings, but because Erin could at least tell when she was being a jerk. She relented.
“Okay. You did a good job.”
The skeleton seemed to brighten at that. It followed Erin downstairs. She sat down with a sigh at her breakfast and then paused. The skeleton was standing right next to her. She pointed.
“Go over there.”
It walked over to one corner. Erin eyed the skeleton and spoke again.
“Turn around.”
It did. At last, Erin was able to enjoy her meal without twin glowing eyes watching her every bite.
Breakfast came and went, fairly quickly too. Erin was hungry. But she wasn’t savoring her meal like she normally did. Instead, she was thinking. When she was done she pushed her bowl back and stared with narrowed eyes at the skeleton. Well. What was the saying about lemons and life? If life gives you lemons…burn down the lemon factory? Something like that.
Anyways, it was time to get to work. Erin cleared her throat.
“Hey, you.”
Instantly the skeleton turned around. She shook her head.
“Get the bucket and follow me, okay?”
She got up as the skeleton immediately ran upstairs and walked into the kitchen. Erin was rich enough now to have more than one bucket, and so both she and the skeleton were equipped as they left the inn and walked to the stream.
It was a quiet walk. Erin told the skeleton to follow her further back and she tried to ignore it mostly as she strolled along. Maybe she could have talked to it, but—no. The day Erin started holding conversations with skeletons was the day she finally snapped.
They got to the stream. Erin told the skeleton to thoroughly wash its bucket out first before they filled both up with water. It was just as well she had a bucket for drinking water and a bucket for washing water anyways. She’d deliberately marked both buckets with some paint to avoid drinking…whatever was still clinging to the bucket the skeleton was lifting.
“Okay, let’s go.”
Erin reached for her bucket, but the skeleton got there first. It seized first the handle of its own bucket and then hers and tried to lift both. It strained, and pulled, but it could barely move either full bucket more than an inch. Erin shook her head.
“See, that’s just sad.”
The skeleton clattered its teeth together. Erin shuddered. She grabbed her bucket and lifted it up. It was heavy, but she was stronger than the skeleton.
“Don’t do that. Take one bucket and follow me.”
Awkwardly, the skeleton hefted one of the full buckets of water and staggered after Erin. She walked quickly, trying to balance speed with avoiding losing too much water over the sides.
She was used to the trek from the stream to the inn, but her arm still vaguely ached by the time she got back. But ever since she’d acquired the [Lesser Strength] skill, the trip had become far less painful. And this time she didn’t even have to make two round trips.
“Okay! Water’s done. Now let’s get some food.”
Erin left the two buckets inside the inn, grabbed a basket, and walked off. The skeleton followed her obediently, as the two walked across the rolling grassy landscape. They walked for about six minutes before Erin threw her arm out and stopped the skeleton in its tracks. It stared at her, confused.
“Watch it. Rock Crab.”
She pointed. The skeleton looked and saw about two hundred meters away, a large boulder slowly moving across the landscape. Underneath the large shell of rock, the skeleton could see massive legs slowly propelling the boulder around.
When the skeleton realized what the Rock Crab really was, it immediately raised its fists and tried to charge the slow-moving monster. Erin had to grab the skeleton by one bony arm.
“Hold it! What are you doing?”
The skeleton fought to run at the crab. Erin ordered it to stay still.
“Don’t try to fight that thing! It’ll eat you. Or—snap you in two like a bunch of twigs.”
Relu
ctantly, the skeleton subsided. It stared hard at the Rock Crab which ignored both Erin and the skeleton as it wandered off. When it had disappeared over a hill Erin let the skeleton go.
“Don’t be stupid. Come on and follow me.”
The skeleton walked after Erin. Eventually, they came to the blue fruit orchard. Erin showed the skeleton how to gather fruits.
“See the basket? Fill the basket.”
So saying, Erin handed the skeleton her basket and sat down. Instantly, the skeleton began running around the orchard, gathering up fallen fruit and kicking trees to make the fruit fall. Erin sat under a tree and took a quick nap.
—-
Having a skeleton was quite useful. In a few minutes the skeleton had filled Erin’s basket to overflowing. It carefully walked back to Erin, trying not to spill the ripe fruits.
Erin didn’t react as the skeleton approached. She was sleeping. The skeleton hesitated, and then placed the basket at her feet. It stood and waited, but she slept on. She was truly asleep.
The skeleton hesitated. It seemed to be thinking. At last, it turned and began scanning the landscape around Erin. Was it checking for threats? Erin couldn’t tell.
One of her eyelids had been cracked open ever so slightly as the skeleton approached. Now that it was looking the other way, Erin sighed inaudibly and sat up. Well, at least the skeleton wasn’t going to try killing her in her sleep. She’d had a terrible night last night worrying the same thing. But Pisces seemed to have done an okay job on the skeleton. Still, she’d keep an eye on it.
It was useful, but she still didn’t quite trust it.
Erin clapped her hands together. The skeleton whirled around, and then relaxed when it saw only Erin.
“Okay, good job. Let’s go back to the inn.”
—-
Erin showed the skeleton where to place the basket of blue fruits and then stretched.
“Alright. Chores are mostly done. Now what?”
The skeleton stared at Erin. It certainly wasn’t going to come up with ideas on its own.
“I could go to the city.”
Erin mused, eying the skeleton. She really didn’t want to leave it alone just yet, but there was a lot more to do in Liscor than here. She was wondering if she could give the skeleton a simple task – like gathering acid flies from the traps – when she heard the door open.
She and the skeleton looked around. Erin saw Pawn and two Workers step through the doorway. She smiled and waved at them. The skeleton had a different reaction. It opened its jaw and the twin flames in its skull flared.
“——!”
The skeleton charged Pawn and the two Antinium with a wordless rattling whisper-shout. It was a sound that sounded like someone sighing, only far louder.
Pawn and the two Workers froze, uncertain. They backed into one another but they were too big to slip out the door. The skeleton leapt at them—
“Hey!”
Erin’s fist caught the skeleton in the head and knocked the skull clean off the rest of the body. Pawn and the Workers stopped. The skeleton flailed around wildly. Then it stopped.
It’s head had rolled beneath a table. The skeleton’s main body seemed to know where it was. Erin watched as it blundered over to its head, knocking over chairs and running into tables.
The skeleton picked up its head and placed it back on its neck. The lights reappeared in its eyes and it stared at Erin.
“Bad!”
Erin didn’t know why she was talking to the skeleton like it was a dog. She pointed at it.
“You do not attack them. Got it?”
The skeleton hesitated and then nodded. The light in its eyes dimmed. Erin stared at it another second and then turned to Pawn.
“Sorry about that. I’ve got uh, a skeleton problem.”
Pawn inclined his head.
“I bear no offense Erin. And I thank you for protecting us.”
The two Workers bowed their heads as well. Erin waved her hands.
“No, it’s my fault. I just got this skeleton-thing and I—sorry. Um, come on in.”
Awkwardly she stood aside to let Pawn and the other Workers file into the inn. They glanced at the skeleton who was still watching them. Erin stalked over and poked at the skeleton until it moved away.
“Right, how can I help you guys?”
“We have come to play chess if you are willing Erin Solstice. We would also purchase flies for consumption.”
“Sure. No problem!”
Erin moved towards the kitchen and stopped. She pointed at the skeleton.
“Stay. There. Don’t do anything.”
When she returned with a heaping bowl of dead flies and blue juice, the Antinium had already chosen a table and set up a game of chess. Erin sat with them and began playing Pawn. It was quick game, as he’d tried a new move which failed spectacularly. But Erin helped show him a better way to attack the enemy with the knight piece and let the other two Workers challenge her one by one.
As she played, she talked with Pawn.
“What’s happening with the Antinium? Are you guys bothered by all the humans in the city as well?”
Pawn shook his head, watching as Erin started collecting the Worker’s pieces one by one.
“We work. We live. We die. All is unchanged among the Workers, Erin Solstice. But we hear of—things. Something happens below.”
“Below? You mean where the Queen lives?”
Pawn hesitated. The two Workers looked up at him and then down at the board.
“Yes. Our Queen moves. She is doing—something. We do not know what it is, but we sense it. And there is another Prognugator.”
Erin’s hand froze over a piece. Then she moved it.
“Really? Another one? This Prog—this guy, he’s taken over Klbkch’s old job?”
“Yes. He guards the Hive and watches. But no Worker has seen him yet. He walks above.”
“Right. Um. Right.”
Distracted, Erin lost a knight before she got back on track. She quickly crushed both Workers and then sighed.
“Okay. Good game, guys. You’re getting better.”
Pawn nodded.
“We level quickly. It is rare for Workers to level. We owe you a debt, Erin Solstice.”
“Really? I didn’t do much.”
“You teach. You help. You care. We know and we learn from you how to be human.”
Erin grinned mirthlessly.
“Being human isn’t that great. But I’m glad I can help a bit.”
She suddenly had a thought. She glanced sideways at Pawn.
“And maybe you could help me? I’d like to hire you and the other Workers—if you’ve got time. I know this is your break day, but—”
Pawn shook his head.
“We would be happy to assist. What do you desire?”
“Bathroom.”
Pawn tilted its head.
“Bathroom?”
“I mean an outhouse.”
Erin tried to explain. She pointed outside.
“Right now I uh—I have to dig a hole. Which isn’t fun. I don’t know if the Antinium have to go to the bathroom, but us humans like a nice toilet seat.”
“Toilet seat?”
“…Never mind. How do Antinium uh, excrete? Do you have anything like a bathroom?”
“We have designated areas where waste is accumulated. We recycle such products within the Hive.”
“Ah. Um. Humans don’t do that. Ever. And I’d really like a bathroom. Nothing fancy.”
Pawn and the two Workers nodded.
“We are familiar with the construction of such facilities. It would be a simple task to construct one for you.”
“Oh. That’s—great. I’ve got some wood around back and nails and stuff. I can get more if you need it. Do you um, need anything special?”
“We are Antinium. Building is in our nature.”
Sometimes it was really hard to keep the conversation flowing with Pawn. Erin cleared her throat awkwardly.<
br />
“And how much will I owe you?”
Pawn hesitated.
“We would not wish to charge you for this service.”
Again, Erin wasn’t sure what to say to that. She thought for a moment.
“Tell you what—I’ll feed you and your friends for the rest of the week if you build it for me, no change.”
Since there were four days left in the week, Erin thought this was a fair offer. Pawn apparently did too, because he nodded.
“It is agreed. We will begin at once.”
As one, the three Antinium stood up. They marched over to the door. Erin got up, and then remembered. She turned her head and saw the skeleton still standing where she had left it.
“As for you—”
Erin glared at the skeleton. It didn’t quite flinch back from her.
“Do not attack my guests, got it? Not unless they’re attacking me or doing something dangerous. Otherwise I’ll have the Workers toss you in the outhouse and bury you. Got it?”
The skeleton meekly nodded. Erin turned away.
“Okay, let’s get to work. Try not to get in the way.”
—-
No matter how many times Erin saw it, she was always impressed by how efficient the Antinium were at…well…anything, really. As soon as she’d chosen a good spot for the outhouse – just a little ways away from the inn where untoward smells wouldn’t be blown towards her – they immediately began excavating dirt and laying the groundwork for the outhouse.
Fortunately, Erin still had quite a bit of spare wood left over. And Pawn knew a good place to buy quality wood, so she gave them some money and let them go at it. She might have had a [Basic Crafting] as a skill, but that didn’t mean she was good at constructing things. An outhouse was a bit beyond her capabilities.
And apparently, the Antinium didn’t need Skills, at least not for something like this. They were just good at building things, and their bodies were naturally suited for tasks like digging and machining. Four arms were better than two.
The outhouse was a simple affair, at least by modern toilet standards. A solid wood building stood upright, shielding its sole occupant from weather and prying eyes while a small pit caught whenever fell down through the toilet hole. It was functional, sturdy, and that was all Erin needed at the moment.