Once she finished reluctantly choking down the meal down her gullet, she was ready to get started, but the Burned Man stopped her first. “I hope you’re not planning to work like that,” he said, pointing to her dishevelled clothes she’d slept in. She wasn’t even wearing any pants.
“Don’t worry, I’ve still got plenty of clothes,” she said, opening her bag in a side compartment, revealing a bevy of folded garmets not much different from yesterday’s. They were tightly packed, and showed noticeable creases when unfurled, but were otherwise wearable. He snubbed his nose at her offerings.
“Those won’t do in this environment. Give her the spare heavy-duty uniforms!”, he yelled.
The Pale Boy went to the rear of the vehicle, took some outfits out, and handed them to the Girl. They looked extremely bulky and oversized, and she doubted she’d be able to squeeze into them. But after pulling them over her undergarmets and zipping up, they fit well enough.
“Today’s the Forest of Circles, so we’ll start you off with something easy. All you have to do is ferry these Algae Balls from one end of the woods to another.” The Burned Man pointed at a pile of green watery spheres stacked in a pyramid formation. They were laced with what looked like hundreds of bulbous eyes staring blankly in all directions at once. “Don’t worry. They can’t see you.”
The Pale Boy was carrying a bunch of the balls in his blade-like hands. Following suit, the Girl reached out to take one of the balls on top herself. It instantly burst from the merest brush of the tip of her fingers, creating a stretchy mess of green gunk all over her. The Pale Boy gave a smug look that seemed to say (You need a certain delicate touch when dealing with Algae Balls).
Despite the simplistic instructions, she constantly got dirty from the breaking of Algae Balls that, no matter how carefully she carried them, continued to fall apart at the slightest jolt. She removed the glove that had spread all the gunk over her front and spread over her new suit, and tried to see if handling the Algae Balls with her bare hands would fare any better. No luck. The sticky mess continued to spread at an alarming rate, and the more she brushed away at it, the further it spread. She looked around for a water source to wash it away, and couldn’t find any. Finally, she decided to use the collective dew resting on nearby leaves. This immediately turned out to be a bad idea, since she developed a rash on her palms, and started scratching the itch like crazy.
This action caused her to accidentally elbow into the Pale Boy’s outstretched elbows, already carrying more balls after returning for more. One of the balls in his razor-sharp hands fell on the ground. It didn’t break at all. He looked annoyed as he picked it up. (Look at this! You’ve got dirt all over this ball!) and started dusting it off with one of his blades in a rapid manner. The debris flaked away without disturbing the interior spherical liquid surface, which seemed to be staring at her accusingly.
She stared in perplexity at the absurdly selective fragility of these balls nestling comfortably in the Pale Boy’s ramshackle razor-sharp appendages. “How are you not breaking them at the slightest touch?!”
(Lots of practice)
“Don’t feel too bad,” the Burned Man said. “I can’t do it either.”
“Okay, so what can I do to help, then?”
“Carry those bags over to the other side. I’ll take care of the rest.”
She looked at the pile of smelly bags at the side that were almost as large as her. She thought they were filled with Fertilizer at first, until she paid closer attention to the pictures on the side, and figured they were clearly Plant Killer.
Before getting started, she reached into her bag and took out some salve to ease the irritation on her hand, then wrapped a medical band around it before putting her gloves back on. That done, she looked around to ask if there was a platform or something she could use to help transport the potentially lethal substance, but the Burned Man was nowhere to be seen. Grunting with effort and irritation, she decided to take care of the matter herself.
It was the most she’d ever worked in a single day, and after just an hour, she was already exhausted. Most of her activity had consisted of washing up after her messes, and the lack of success was beginning to take its toll. By the second hour, she’d had enough, and decided to take a little break. She observed the Pale Boy’s actions, trying to figure out his trick, but couldn’t see how he did it. She didn’t get to watch for very long, since the Burned Man chose that very moment to show up behind her.
“Taking some time off, I see.”
“Just resting a bit!” she said, bending down to pick up another bag.
“Don’t get too comfortable, just because I’m so nice to you. This wouldn’t look good for your record.”
“Alright then, just where do you want - ” but he was gone again.
And that’s how the day progressed. She never knew just where the Burned Man went - he always seemed to vanish from view, and only come up when she was taking a minor break. He never saw her working, only resting, as if he were just waiting for the chance to jump out of the bushes and yell “Gotcha!”, accusing her of lazing around. As a result, she was constantly on guard, doing unnecessary movement just to prove she was in fact working, even if what she did wasn’t productive in any way at all.
Hours later, she’d finally managed to move all the bags over to the other side. It was a sweaty labourious affair, but it was finally done. And even the presence of the Burned Man couldn’t spoil things now that he could see the fruits of her labours.
“What did you do? You moved them all to the wrong spot! Put them back where you found them!”
“That would’ve been helpful to know hours ago! Why didn’t you tell me then?”
“This is all part of your training. You have to follow your superior’s orders, no matter how nonsensical they sound. And you’re not allowed to question their authority, And you’re not allowed to give personal suggestions AND you’re not allowed to complain! Consider yourself lucky I haven’t fired you already for your insubordination.”
“I tried to ask you, but you were never around when I needed you!”
“You should’ve used your better judgement. Don’t blame me because your judgement was flawed.”
At the end of the day, she was physically and emotionally exhausted, and looking forward to a good night’s sleep. She’d finally finished carrying all the bags back where they came from, without having their contents spilt all over, which would’ve undoubtly violated Rule #1. What really rankled her was that she would’ve had the same result if she hadn’t done anything. If that Man had just bothered to explain the simplest things, she wouldn’t have to waste so much time and useless energy.
As she changed out of her work clothes which had accumulated unmentionable filth, she remarked to the Pale Boy, “I’m amazed you still have the strength to keep going. I’m wiped out.” She was about to openly flaunt disobeying Rule #2 and was about to rest against the roots when she remembered how she woke up that morning.
“By the way, could you wake me up before I get replaced by the pod copy?”
The Pale Boy looked slightly annoyed. (How am I supposed to both do my job And look after you?)
“Just do what you did last night. It’s a good thing that you guys were around when I... wait.” She paused, collecting her thoughts. “...were you guys watching me sleep?”
The Pale Boy took out the netting he’d meant to use last night. The Girl looked at the protective covering that could’ve saved her a lot of itchy welts that’d been bothering her all day. She kept alternating her view back and forth to the Pale Boy.
“You mean you could’ve...” she started out, then looked surprised as she said, “But...” then became agitated with “He did!”
The Boy’s moment of pronounced silence was all the answer she needed.
She snatched the mesh netting away from the Pale Boy without ripping it, and started setting it up around her sleeping area. “Why do you hang around that guy?”
(He’s been around as long as I have)
“Well, you can wake me up before the pod plant makes too much of a copy of me. I’ll need something to keep my strength up.”
She certainly would need that strength, for the very next day would be the Forest of Screams. Fun times.
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