“So, Edgar.”
Sid crouched in front of the goblin skeleton.
“You’re some sort of craftsman?”
“A toolmaker.”
Edgar corrected him immediately.
Sid nodded.
“Convenient.”
Edgar looked around the clearing.
The kiln.
The clay vessels.
The dinosaur bones.
The crystals.
Then the collection of skeletons staring back at him.
A pause.
“So let me get this straight.”
He gestured around them.
“Everybody here is dead…”
Another sweep of his arm.
“And you lot are trying to kick-start an undead civilisation?”
Silence.
Edgar looked down at himself.
“I guess that makes sense.”
Kaya’s head snapped toward him.
“What part of this makes sense to you?”
Edgar shrugged.
“It’s some sort of woo-woo isekai shit.”
Silence.
Nobody answered.
Edgar looked between Kaya and Alan.
Then pointed vaguely between them.
“So who’s the leader?”
Silence.
Sid’s jaw began rattling.
“You are perfect!”
Edgar pointed at himself.
“Thank you?”
Then he looked down.
At his arms.
His legs.
His considerably smaller ribcage.
A pause.
“Question.”
“What is it?”
“Why is everyone else so big?”
Sid stared at him.
“Oh.”
A pause.
“Well…”
Another.
“You see…”
Alan stepped closer.
“Sometimes the afterlife is like a box of chocolates.”
Edgar looked up at him.
“Huh?”
“You never know what you’re gonna get.”
“HAH!”
Kaya burst out laughing.
HAH!
HAH!
HAH!
Edgar slowly looked around again.
Then stopped.
A neatly removed sheet of green skin lay on the ground several metres away.
Beside it rested the second goblin corpse.
His green eye lights narrowed.
“Wait…”
He pointed.
“Was that me?”
Sid shook his head.
“Ah, no.”
Edgar relaxed slightly.
“That wasn’t you.”
Sid gestured toward the skin.
“Just the skin of your vessel’s previous occupant.”
Edgar stared at him.
Then noticed the tendons wrapped around Sid’s ribs.
A pause.
He immediately looked away.
“Right.”
Sid clapped his hands together.
“Now that we possess an additional pair of hands, would you be capable of constructing a spear?”
Edgar looked back.
“A spear?”
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“For our giantess.”
“Giantess?”
“Barbara.”
Sid gestured toward the tunnel she had disappeared through.
“She’s our front line.”
Another gesture.
“And logistics officer.”
Edgar stared.
“Okay…”
Sid pulled several dried ligaments from around his ribs.
Then handed Edgar one of the green crystals.
“Here’s the pointy end.”
He dropped the ligaments onto the stone.
“And that’s your rope.”
Edgar picked up the crystal.
Turned it over.
Examined the edge.
Then looked around.
“Do you have any wood?”
Sid chuckled.
“Underground?”
He gestured broadly at the cavern.
“It would be easier to find a dinosaur bone worthy of the job than a tree in this labyrinth.”
Alan approached the stream.
“Yeah, I don’t see any—”
Edgar looked toward the surrounding vegetation.
“What about those plants?”
“Too flexible,” Sid replied.
“For now, anyway.”
Alan kicked absently through the water.
His foot caught.
“WH—”
SPLASH.
He disappeared sideways into the stream.
Water rushed through his ribs.
“Oh, for crying out—”
Alan pushed himself upright.
Then stopped.
Something pale protruded from the sediment beneath him.
He touched it.
Hard.
“Some sort of root?”
Sid’s head snapped around.
“Ah!”
He rushed into the stream and dropped beside Alan.
His fingers immediately began digging.
Mud clouded the water.
Something pale emerged.
Curved.
Weathered.
But intact.
Sid froze.
Then his jaw slowly opened.
“Oh, this is wonderful.”
Alan stared.
“Is that—”
“Bone.”
Sid dug faster.
More appeared.
A massive joint.
Then another section.
Vertebrae.
Ribs.
The remains of some enormous creature lay buried beneath the streambed.
Sid cackled.
“Just what we needed.”
Kaya stared from the bank.
“You have got to be kidding me.”
Sid wrenched one of the long bones free.
SCHLORP.
Mud poured from it.
He immediately carried it toward Edgar.
“Will this work?”
Edgar stared at the bone.
Then at Sid.
Then at the enormous skeleton slowly emerging beneath the water.
“…Probably.”
Kaya looked away.
“I’m trying to understand how everything always goes his way.”
Alan dragged himself out of the stream.
“Don’t.”
He shook water from his arms.
“You’ll hurt yourself.”
CHIP.
CHIP.
CHIP.
Bone fragments scattered around Edgar.
He sat cross-legged on the cavern floor with the massive dinosaur bone resting across his lap.
The natural curve was gradually disappearing.
Edgar worked slowly.
Measured.
Turned the bone.
Examined it.
Then chipped again.
Sid watched from less than a metre away.
Silently.
For once.
Edgar stopped.
“Could you not?”
Sid tilted his head.
“Not what?”
“Stare at me.”
“I’m observing.”
“You’re six inches from my face.”
Sid shuffled backward.
Slightly.
Edgar sighed.
He continued working.
CHIP.
A thin sliver broke free.
CHIP.
Another.
The curved bone gradually became a long, roughly straight shaft.
Edgar ran his fingers along it.
“Hm.”
Then picked up the green crystal.
He measured its base against the end of the bone.
“It needs a socket.”
Sid leaned closer again.
“A what?”
“A groove deep enough to hold the crystal.”
Edgar marked the width with scratches.
Then resumed carving.
CHIP.
CHIP.
CHIP.
“This stuff is horrible.”
Sid’s eye lights widened.
“Excellent?”
“No.”
Edgar rotated the bone.
“I’ve worked with hardwood that felt tougher than steel to shape.”
Another chip.
“This is worse.”
Sid stared.
“It’s like witnessing magic.”
Edgar glanced at him.
“You’re watching somebody make a pointy stick.”
“A sophisticated pointy stick.”
“Fair enough.”
Nearly half an hour passed.
Finally, Edgar brushed the bone dust away.
He bent down instinctively to blow into the groove.
Nothing happened.
Silence.
Edgar remained there for a moment.
Then slowly straightened.
“Oh, right.”
Kaya snorted.
Edgar brushed the dust away with his hand instead.
He took the green crystal.
Aligned it.
Then slid the base into the groove.
Click.
Almost perfect.
Edgar’s eye lights brightened.
“There.”
Sid leaned closer.
“It fits.”
“Mostly.”
Edgar tried to move the crystal.
It shifted slightly.
“We need something to bind it.”
Sid pointed at the ligaments.
Edgar nodded.
“And preferably adhesive.”
Sid froze.
A pause.
“We can make glue.”
Edgar slowly looked at him.
“Of course you can.”
Sid immediately removed his hide cloak.
Kaya stared.
“What are you doing?”
“Science.”
“That stopped being an explanation ages ago.”
Sid ignored her.
He examined the scraps of connective tissue still attached to the hide.
Then began cutting.
Cartilage.
Ligament.
Tendon.
Small scraps dropped into a ceramic bowl.
Edgar watched.
“You know how to make glue?”
“I know collagen exists.”
Sid added water.
Edgar stared.
“That wasn’t my question.”
“No.”
Sid looked at the bowl.
“But connective tissues contain collagen.”
He pointed at the kiln.
“Heat.”
Then the bowl.
“Water.”
Then himself.
“Optimism.”
Dried vegetation filled the bottom of the kiln.
Sid crouched beside it.
Pyrite in one hand.
A hard crystal in the other.
CLACK.
Sparks scattered.
Nothing.
CLACK.
Again.
A tiny orange ember appeared.
Sid froze.
Then carefully pushed more tinder around it.
The ember spread.
Smoke curled upward.
Then—
CRACKLE.
Flame.
Sid’s eye lights widened.
“Ah.”
He fed more dried vegetation through the opening.
The flames strengthened.
A lump of animal fat followed.
It softened almost immediately.
Then began to melt.
Drops fell into the burning tinder.
WHOOMPH.
Sid jerked backward.
The fire surged.
Edgar stared into the kiln.
“Well.”
Sid leaned forward again.
“Interesting.”
Above the flames sat the ceramic bowl.
Inside it—
Water.
Ligaments.
Cartilage.
Tendon.
An assortment of connective tissue that looked increasingly like soup.
For several minutes, nothing happened.
Then tiny bubbles appeared along the bottom.
Sid leaned closer.
The water trembled.
The connective tissue softened.
Clear water slowly turned cloudy.
Cloudy became murky.
The ligaments began losing their shape.
Fibres separated.
Collapsed.
Slowly broke apart.
Sid pointed.
“Ah!”
Edgar looked over.
“It’s becoming soup.”
A pause.
“That is technically correct.”
Time passed.
The mixture reduced.
Sid stirred it occasionally with a thin piece of bone.
The liquid grew thicker.
An oily sheen spread across the surface.
When Sid lifted the stirring bone, thin strands followed it upward.
Then slowly dripped back into the bowl.
Edgar crouched beside him.
“Now we’re getting somewhere.”
Another hour passed.
The mixture darkened.
Thickened.
Reduced.
Edgar dipped the tip of one finger into it.
Then lifted his hand.
A sticky amber strand stretched between his finger and the bowl.
Longer.
Longer.
Snap.
Edgar’s eye lights widened.
Sid leaned closer.
“Hehehe.”
Then stopped.
“Oh.”
Kaya immediately looked over.
“What now?”
Sid reached into the side of his skull.
His fingers dug beneath the bone fragment wedged into the old fracture.
Click.
The shard came loose.
Everyone stared.
Sid dipped the edge into the glue.
Then pushed it back into his skull.
He adjusted it.
Pressed harder.
Held it.
A pause.
Then released.
The fragment remained in place.
Sid nodded.
“Fixed.”
Silence.
“That only took two weeks.”
Nobody replied.
Sid picked up the bowl.
Then held it toward Edgar.
“Careful. It’s hot.”
Edgar tapped the ceramic with one finger.
Tap.
He looked at Sid.
“Very funny.”
Edgar laid the spear components across the ground.
The bone shaft.
The crystal point.
The ligaments.
The glue.
He worked carefully.
First, he coated the groove with the thick adhesive.
Then laid several strips of ligament across it.
He positioned the crystal.
Slowly.
Carefully.
Then pushed.
Click.
The base slid into place.
A thin bead of glue squeezed from either side.
Edgar wiped away the excess.
“Good.”
He took the ligaments.
Wrapped them around the shaft.
Once.
Twice.
Again.
Five times.
Then ten.
Each pass tightened the crystal against the bone.
Finally, Edgar pulled the last binding taut and secured it beneath the others.
He lifted the weapon.
The shaft was crude.
Uneven in places.
Bone-white beneath the cavern light.
But straight.
Balanced.
And at its end, the green crystal tapered into a vicious point.
Edgar tested the weight.
Shifted his grip.
Then extended it forward.
Silence.
“There.”
He turned toward Sid.
“What do you think?”
Sid stared.
A pause.
Another.
His jaw slowly dropped.
“Magnificent.”
He pointed dramatically at the spear.
“Now we can stab things from much farther away.”
Edgar chuckled.
“And I’m not even charging you a dime.”
Sid tilted his head.
“Or…”
Edgar lowered the spear.
A pause.
“Do we assign value to things here?”
Sid considered the question.
“Certainly.”
Edgar waited.
“So what’s the currency?”
Sid stared at him.
“We haven’t invented one yet.”
Silence.
Edgar nodded.
“Fair enough.”