Matt Albright winced as he finished tying off another mooring line from the Dilligaf to one of the large oak-like trees she'd settled in amongst. It wasn't hard work, so to speak, but he'd spent the last half-hour running lines to anchor the boat down so that it wouldn't tip over or sway from where it had landed in the clearing.
It was probably unnecessary, the yacht had landed in such a way that it seemed like it had settled and was quite stable on the ground. But given that they were going to be working in it, and sleeping in its shadow until Matt figured out how to correct for the sloping interior so they could actually get comfortable inside once more, it was best to make sure it was stable.
But after just a half-hour of work, everything hurt. His back was hollering at him, his arms were burning with effort, his legs were stiff and complaining, and his neck had a crick in it that he would have paid all the money in the world to be rid of. After just a couple hours of work. Maybe he was getting old.
Well. Okay. A half-hour's work, a duel to the death with a giant crab, and a magic-induced fall that had left him with cracked ribs and a few pulled ligaments.
He shuddered once and bent over, feeling the panic he'd felt threaten to rise again in his gut. He took some deep breaths and tried to calm himself. Dear God, he'd never been good with heights, and that episode had been…
'Terrifying' just wasn't strong enough of a word.
It was the first time in his life that he had known, without any doubt whatsoever, on the most visceral level possible, that he was going to die.
He closed his eyes and breathed through his nose, trying to remember how Allie had calmed him down the last time this had happened. God in his heaven, how had she lived with this? She must have known these kinds of feelings all the time in the desert. How had she gotten through it? How had she functioned with these scattered thoughts and memories shooting through her head like comets?
His wife was a lot stronger than he had realized, wasn't she?
"You okay, mr. Albright?"
Dinah's voice made him open his eyes and straighten up reflexively, trying to ignore the flashes of pain from bruises and aching muscles. She was standing a little ways away, carrying another box full of clothing and blankets.
"Yeah Dinah, I'm fine. And please, you can call me Matt." he tried a smile that he hoped looked better than it felt. "Listen, thanks again for your quick thinking back there. I know I've already said it, but… You really saved my life."
The teen blushed and turned her head away. "It wasn't any big deal. I just figured… Well, y'know, if I could get you back down before you'd built up enough speed, and if the bracelet worked like it was supposed to… You know."
"I do. And I still say 'thanks'. And," He added with a soft chuckle, "I promise I won't embarrass you anymore by saying it again."
"Thanks," she said softly, offering a shy smile.
"What have you got there?" He asked, nodding at the box.
"Oh. Mrs. Albright doesn't think we should spend the night in the boat until we make sure it's structurally sound, so she has us moving stuff out to set up like a camp." She hefted the box. "This is gonna be like a changing room. We're gonna hang the blankets from a tree, if we can, and set up some privacy curtains."
"Good idea," he said, a little surprised. His mind had gone right to cataloguing the necessities–food, drinkable water, power–and had completely skipped over things like that. But considering they had a mixed group of men and women, boys and girls, setting things up for privacy was probably a good idea.
They already had quite a decent little campsite going thus far. The Dillgaf had been well-stocked for the trip to Hawaii, and they had enough food for a couple of weeks at least. More if they really started rationing.
The mattresses from the yacht's cabins were now out on the ground, arranged in the shadow of the yacht's hull around a firepit that Lucas and Olivia had dug out and lined with stones from the beach. Bel had gathered up fallen branches and driftwood from the beach and gotten the fire going with the help of a lighter also from the yacht. They had found some mosquito netting to drape over the beds as well. Hopefully it would keep out whatever this world's equivalent of the bloodsucking bugs might be.
Allie, for her part, hadn't done much of anything in terms of work. Instead, she'd kept up a patrol while the rest of them toiled. Matt supposed he should have felt it unfair that she got the easy job… But honestly, he was glad his wife and her rifle were at the ready in case more crabs showed up. Or something worse.
"Oh, and here," Dinah said, breaking into his thoughts. He turned just as she dug into a pocket and came out with a bottle of painkillers, which she tossed to him. "Bel said you'd probably need these. There's water by the campfire."
"Bless you my child," Matt said with fervor. He twisted open the childproof lid and dry-swallowed three of the pills right there. Logically he knew that it would take time for them to start working, but he felt almost immediately better.
He stopped and blinked at the painkillers. Wait. He did feel better. Like, instantly so. The aches and pains had vanished, and his headache was gone as well. Tylenol was good, but it wasn't that good.
"Hey Liv," he called out, staring at the bottle. "In those books of yours, what happens to stuff that comes over from the other side? Like medicine and stuff?"
"Depends," Olivia called back from where she was stacking more firewood. "Sometimes it functions just as usual, sometimes it conflicts with the magic of the world and becomes impotent, sometimes it's transformed by the journey and becomes magical. Why?"
"I think we might have magical aspirin now," he said, hefting the pill bottle.
"Dibs!"
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
"No dibs," this call came from Allie as she walked back up her self-assigned patrol route. "We'll check everything as we can, and sort it by how effective it is and what it does. But later."
Later indeed. Right now the last rays of the setting sun were hitting them, and with the boat's power out–he wasn't sure why it was out, but it probably had something to do with the generators being smashed to bits and the solar panel wiring coming loose or something–there wasn't going to be enough light to do much of anything besides sit around the campfire and eat something.
Dinah headed off to hang the privacy curtains while Matt went back to his moor lines, tying down the last one and testing its tautness before he dropped back to the dirt and stretched. The tylenol had really worked–and he was pretty sure it was magic now, because he felt worlds better. Still tired, though. And hungry. And every now and again he had to stop and fight off a case of the shakes. But at least his arms didn't hurt anymore.
He walked back over to where the rest of the family was gathering around the campfire. Allie came in from her patrol as well and plonked down next to him, leaning against him. He had to reach over and adjust the hang of the rifle on her back as it kept poking him in the side. She, in turn, reached over and dragged his shotgun closer to him with a very deliberate sort of look.
"Always keep it close to hand," she admonished.
"Yes dear," he said, smiling. The smile got wider when she rolled her eyes and cuffed the back of his head.
"Isabel, will you pass out dinner?" Allie said next. THeir eldest daughter got up without grumbling and handed out more sandwiches and bottles of water. It was simple food, but after the day he'd had, by god it tasted like the best thing he'd ever eaten.
A thought crossed his mind as he chewed his ham on rye, and he glanced over at Olivia, illuminated in the firelight as she chowed down on her own sandwich.
"Hey Liv?" he asked around a mouthful of food. "Could the whole transportation thing have affected the food, too?"
Olivia's face scrunched up as she thought about it, then shrugged. "I mean, maybe? THere's not exactly rules for it, Dad."
Right. Right, and she was getting her information from fiction books written on a different world. That some of the things they wrote about seemed to apply to this world didn't mean that everything did. Especially since, as he understood it, there were conflicting accounts and rulesets depending on which world you were reading about and who was doing the writing.
They ate in silence for a time, everyone seeming alone with their own thoughts. Even Olivia was quiet, though she did keep darting glances at the bracelet on her wrist, and over at the depression in the sand where Matt had landed.
"So… What do we do now?" The question came from Lucas, who was sitting with his chin on his knees staring into the fire.
No one answered for a long moment.
"In the stories," Olivia finally ventured, "the isekai protagonists get special powers from the System or from some other benefactor, and then they go on to take over the world, or fight against evil gods, or whatever. And they build a harem of beautiful women to keep them company."
Matt blinked and traded a glance with Allie. Maybe they should have monitored what their daughter had been reading more closely.
"Dad's got some weird power," Bel said, glancing at the bracelet on her wrist. "Doesn't seem like much of a blessing, though."
"Maybe we just need to practice it more," Olivia said. "Or maybe Dad just needs more experience. Maybe we all need to gain experience, so we can get powers of our own! Maybe that's why it malfunctioned, because we weren't–"
"No," Matt said in his Dad voice. "Those powers nearly killed me today. If we had more of them, that would just be more opportunities for them to go wrong and something even worse might happen."
"I agree with your father," Allie said, nodding. "Those powers… They are dangerous."
"But Mom! In the books, powers like that are always how the hero winds up beating the bad guys and becoming the savior of the land and stuff!"
"What bad guys?" Bel said with a harsh laugh. "Crabs? We don't need powers to deal with those, not with Mom and her guns."
"Okay fine, those powers are what help the heroes survive," Olivia shot back. "Is that better Queen Precise?"
"Much," Bel said, sticking her tongue out at her sister.
"But the powers are busted," Dinah said quietly from beside Olivia. "And it feels like… busted powers are like guns that haven't been cleaned in a long long time. Sure, it might shoot what you want it to shoot… Or it might explode and blow your hand off, or backfire and blind you."
"Or," Olivia said, shooting her friend a quelling look. "It could be the thing that unlocks all the potential within us and makes us crazy powerful and successful and stuff."
"It may," Allie said, "and we will experiment with them later. But not now. Not until we have a better idea of what we're facing here, and not until we can do it safely. Until then, there will be no using these powers and no seeking to acquire more. Tu comprende?"
"Yes Mom," Olivia grumbled, subsiding. But from the set of her jaw and the light in her eyes, Matt knew they hadn't heard the last of it.
"So what are we doing next?" Bel asked.
Matt glanced over at Allie. "This is your area of expertise," he said. "What do you think?"
"I think we need more information about this land and what surrounds us," she said after a moment's thought. "We need to know what's in the jungle, what resources are nearby, what threats."
"Speaking of resources," Matt said, "I need to look at the Dilligaf's systems, see if I can bring power back online. Maybe kludge together something if I have to. Something to at least get refrigeration and the de-salinator back online. Otherwise we're going to need a source for fresh water."
"Food, too," Dinah said quietly. "Sandwiches aren't going to last forever."
"We should put up a wall," Lucas chimed in. "For defense. So we can keep the wildlife out."
"What if there's fliers?" Olivia said. "Walls wouldn't do much good there."
"And that crab probably could have torn down a wall no problem," Bel added, glancing back out towards the beach. "Should we have tried to eat that? Crab's pretty good back on earth…"
"Something to consider for next time," Matt said. "For now, we'll just leave it."
"So tomorrow," Allie said after a moment, "I'll go scout the area around the yacht. The rest of you will stay here and help out tu papa with whatever he needs. Si?"
"Si mama," said the kids, and "yes Mrs. Albright" from Dinah.
Quiet descended on the little group for a time.
"I will take first watch," Allie murmured to Matt. "We will need eyes open all night, just in case there is something else out there."
"Wake me when you need me," he said back.
"You know what I already miss?" Bel said quietly, staring into the flames. "Music. My phone's gone."
"Oh for," Allie muttered an oath and squirmed around trying to reach into her pocket. "I forgot completely… Mine was returned to me after I selected the boon." Her hand came out clutching a rubber-encased marvel of plastic and glass, and with a quick tap the screen lit up. "It is not much, but…"
A few more taps, and the quiet tinny sounds of Beethoven's 'Ode To Joy' drifted out over the little campsite. It was followed by Handel's "Messiah", and then a collection of hymns from Allie's favorite artists.
The fire died low, and the music continued to play until it was time for bed.
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