This story contains in story and original dialog, the original dialoge will increase as the story progresses. In the game we never know exactly what the builder say's, we only see people's respnose so in my story the rating is as much for her mouth as Malroth's. There will also be mentions of sex but I have not yet decided if there will be actual smut. No promises one way or the other.
"Well, You're pretty fucked this time, aren't you Caroline?" The Apprentice builder thought glumly as the boat swayed sickeningly too and fro. Giving up on her idea of a nap Caroline sat up opening her violet eyes and put her matching hair back up in pigtails. It was just her luck to end up being snatched up by the children of Hargon just as she had started her apprenticeship and begun to build a new life. She often seemed to be a magnet for trouble.
This sucked. She was sore all over, the monsters had been none to gentle when they'd captured her and literally thrown her in the cell. She was starving too, though used to skipping meals she hadn't had a bite to eat in days. She and the other prisoners in the next cell were sentenced to death after all, why waste food on them? And she was bored stiff. Perhaps boredom was their method of execution? At least they hadn't taken the leather bound book on her back, but she had already gone through it multible times. From the way the ship rocked they had hit stormy waters, things couldn't get any worse.
Actually that was wrong she realized. If rest of the ship was in the same sorry state as her cell this little cruise might be a lot shorter than they bargined for. The second day at sea after she had memorized every minute detail of her cell she had found her self subconciously making plans on how to FIX it before she had realized what she was doing. She had had to laugh at her self, she had a problem.
The storm outside intensified. They could hear the wind and thunder roaring in equel measure and the boat tipped percariously side to side so that Caroline had to hold the bars to remain sitting upright and each tilt sent sheets of water rushing down the steps as the waves sloshed up over the sides. A pink haired girl about her age began to wail and the other two began to pray. Caroline began to sing softly to comfort herself but then one of the men reached though the bars and asked her to join them in prayer. Caroline wasn't particularlly religious but if it helped him she had no problem taking his hands while he pleaded with the Goddess.
She had no idea when or even how she'd fallen asleep, if she had not simply been knocked out colliding with a wall, all she knew is she awoke the next morning to the taunts of a deadnaut. He berated her for being a builder and a lowly apprentice builder at that. She could do nothing about his mean words so she tried to ignore him and very nearly missed him saying they had work for her to do. He then instructed her to meet him on deck when she'd wiped the sleep from her sockets and left, leaving her cell unlocked behind him.
Wait? They were letting her out? They were letting her build? She jumped up and scurried up the steps as fast as she could, sheilding her eyes from the dazzling sun but beaming at it's warmth. She hadn't known if she'd ever feel the sunshine on her face again. She was grinning like an idiot as she approached the deadnaut. He explained that as she was the sworn enemy of the children he shouldnt fraternize with her but the sorry state of his ship left him little choice.
He gave her a piece of kelp so she would have energy. It was not the most pleasant meal, but it was food. Luckily it needed very little chewing to slide down her throat and ease her hunger pangs. Then it was time to get to work.
It wasn't horrible. The monsters kept taunting her about her profession, her limited time on Earth, and even her small build, but she was out of that dark, dank cell. She had the sun on her face, the sea breeze in her hair, and tasks to complete.
She had been tasked with cleaning up storm debrie, given a pouch of slime oil to make torches, and even encouraged to make a rudimentary weapon so she could beat the hell out of a skeleton for the amusment of his shipmates. The best part though was when she was gifted a pair of confiscated builder gloves. Though they looked like regular work gloves they had an enchantment on them that allowed the wearer to lift enourmous burdons with relative ease. They looked huge, dwarfing her tiny hands but when she put them on they felt like a perfect fit, she supposed that was part of the enchantment.
It wasn't long at all until the whole crew was talking about the strange little human traipsing around with out a care, chatting with monsters and doing every task that was asked of her. Grinning like an idiot the whole time, and earning a bit of respect for all her weirdness. She'd even chuckled a little the last time Captain Whitebones threatened once again to remove her head then told her he was just kidding. Then he'd asked her if she wanted to be his cabin girl.
A job on the crew would mean she'd be allowed to live. And she had enjoyed her work today. But then she though about the people below deck. The men who'd held her hands and prayed through the night. The pink haired girl who was only her age. Would she be betraying them? Could she maybe convince the captain to spare them?
Then it started to storm again and Captian wite bones raced off to consult his seasoned crew. Suddenly Caroline heard a strange voice "Ah, and apprentice builder. You'll do nicely." What the fuck? She looked around for the source of the voice, finding noone near who could have spoken. "This world is yours to create, y ours to destroy. Come to me, my child."
"Oi, cloth ears, did you hear me? Get your rump down to the hold, it's to dangerous for a land lubber like you up here." She nodded to her captain and ran down the stairs. She heard the pink hair girl wailing again, but she had orders froom the captain. There was nothing she could do for them anyway.
There was a loud crash and the ship shook violently, throwing her to the floor. A slime screamed for the captain and he ran past. He almost stopped to check on her but he was needed in the hold "Hargon preserve us, this is bad. This is really bad. Builder, get your boney backside in here, I need your help!"
She struggled to her feet and ran into the hold, they had been washed up onto a reef and it had torn a hole in the hull, they were taking on water. Donning her new builder gloves she grabbed a crate and stuffed it in the hole. The captain began to thank her when they were rammed into the reef again and several more holes appeared. As quickly as she patched them more holes appeared as the waves continued to pummle the ship. Suddenly a huge seaction gave way, there was no way to fix it. She heard the captains words of farewell as the water rushed in and swept them all out to sea.
Caroline's lungs were burning, that was the first thing she noticed. Her body ached all over. She was laying on coarse sand with the sun pounding down on her. She... she was alive? Yes, she was pretty sure she was alive. She didn't move right away, she wasn't sure how long she lay on the beach, weak and disoriented. Eventually she forced her self to get up and looked around at the island she'd washed up on. She was surrounded by wreckage and grey stone cliffs.
She qickly pulled her book from her back and unwrapped it. The leather it was wrapped in had protected it from most of the water, the pages were damp, but not ruined. She breathed a sigh of relief and placed it back on her back.
She heard a man's voice. It didn't sound like this disembodied voice she'd heard on the ship, which had seemed to come from everywhere. This voice seemed to come from the otherside of the cliff, she found what could be a small tunnle packed with sand. She smacked it with her stick and the sand broke apart into cubes that could be picked up and stuffed in her pockets. Most things that could be broken broke like this. She didn't give to much thought to the physics of the world, that was wizards stuff and she was a builder.
Climbing through she discovered the source of the voice, a handsome young man with pointed ears and careless black hair pulled back in a messy ponytail was standing on a rocky outcrop staring at the sea as he questioned where he was and whether he was even alive.
She wasn't sure how he could hear her footsteps from that distance, but he did. He called to her and jumped gracefully from his rock perch She examined him closely as he jogged over to her. He was stangely dressed with orange pants an open purple jacket with no shirt and a claw necklace, but damn what a bod! Broad chest, chisled abs, and bulging biceps. She forced her eyes to his face, now wasn't the time to be checking out guys.
His face was nice to look at too. His eyes were absolutly stunning. Her own violet eyes were rare enough, but she'd never heard of ruby red eyes. Ok, there had to be a catch, people werent this good looking.
"Finally a live one" he declared excitedly. Live one? "You don't happen to know how we got here do you?"
"Well I was on a boat that sank, I just woke up on the beach over there." She explained pointing at the hole in the cliff face.
"So why didn't you cark it? What's your story?"
"Cark it? Does cark it mean die? My name is Caroline and I am an apprientice builder. I suppose I didn't 'cark it' because I was in the hold making repairs when the hull got ripped open. I must have washed up on shore real quick rather than get drug down."
.
"You're an apprentice builder? Never heard of one of those before, congradulations I guess. Anyway my name's Malroth. Hey wanna see something grusome? follow me." He didn't wait for her to answer, he jogged off a little way then turned to make sure she was following. "What's the matter? You're not squeamish are you? Come on, you wont' be disappointed.
She followed with a sense of apprehension forming in her stomach. Then she saw them, the other humans and one of the monsters from her ship. Her heart sank.
"Talk about dead in the water! Bet you've never seen anything like this before" Malroth quipped. She gave him a disapproving look but he missed it. She decided to let it go. It was a very insensitive thing to say but he didn't know these people and obviously had a very dark sense of humor.
Malroth noticed that the girl didn't laugh at his joke. He looked over and saw she was not amused, in fact, she looked sad. "Wait a minute, you just said we were shipwrecked, didn't you? Were these guys on the ship with us? It looks like me and you are the only survivors."
"I don't think you were on the boat. I was all over it doing my work, I never saw you."
"But if I wasn't on your ship how did I..."
His question was cut short by a weak, strangled cough from the pink haired girl. "Hey that girl's not dead yet. She sounds in a bad way though, we should do the right thing and put her out of her misery."
Figuring he was joking again the builder smiled and shook her head. "Nah, lets see if she'll pull through until morning, It'll be night soon, I don't want to dig a grave in the dark."
"I didn't say anything about burying her" Malroth replied as he followed Caroline to check on the girl. She sat up a bit disoriented at first, then she spotted them and screamed bloody murder, accussing them of being prirates and villians. Come to think of it Malroth did look the part. The girl, still screeching ran away to hide in a run down shack near by.
"She sure has a mouth on her. There's only one way to shut her up for good. Mind if I do the honors?" He asked with a wicked glint in his eye.
"Hmmm, tempting, but no."
"Aw, you're no fun."
They exchanged a smile. Her face turned somber as she turned her attention to the men still laying face down on the shore. When she turned the first one over she didn't even check for a pulse, his dim eyes told her he was well beyond help. She went to the other and turned him over as well. She gasped and turned away with her hand over her mouth, fighting th urge to be sick
"Now that is grusome." Malroth stated examining the remains of his face with some interest. "Looks like some scavanger got it's belly full... Hey, are you ok?"
"Y-yeah." Caroline lied. "We... we should give them a proper burial. Just give me a minute."
Malroth watched her back for a moment "These guy were on that ship with you. Were they your friends?"
"Kind of. I was a prisoner, they were in the next cell. They always invited me to pray with them."
"Have you got something I can dig with? I can bury them for you, this stuff doesn't bother me."
She stood upright again and examined the shore but before she could retrieve any building materiels the rising tide brought a wave that curled up around their knees and the bodies began to drift out to sea. She watched them go then bowed her head and said a few words of prayer for them. She wasn't sure if she believed in gods and goddesses, but they did. "Well." She nodded towards the shed, "I guess we ought to check on Pinky."
She began to gather supplies as they walked, Her builder uniform had an enchantment sewn into the pockets that allowed her to stuff an insane amount of kelp and drift wood into them. When they entered the shack the pink haired girl once again accussed them of being villians and demanded to know where they were. Malroth informed her they were all stranded on a deserted island and that she had washed up from the same ship wreck as Caroline.
She looked closly at Caroline then recognized her as the builder from the ship and claimed she was in cahoots with the monsters so their situation was all her fault and demanded to know what she was going to do about it? Malroth's eyes narrowed and he moved closer to the builder, the builder girl made him feel... strange. He felt...protective?
Caroline moved a little to place herself between Pinky and Malroth, afraid he might make good on his threat to end her. "First off, Pinky, I am not in cahoots with anyone. The monsters needed some work done and being an apprentice I was less of a threat. I was grinning because I was out of my cell and had a job to do, I nearly died of boredom! I can make the things we need to suvive while we wait for someone to find us."
Pinky calmed down a bit and so did Malroth "Well, alright. Even a rank amature like yourself should be able to use that worn out Work bench outside to make the most basic essentials. I'm Lulu by the way." Then she rattled off a list of demands.
"Hey don't tell us what to do Bossyboots, who made you leader?" Malroth demanded loudly.
"Oh pipe down you neanderthal, you don't even have the decency to wear a proper shirt. Don't think you're impressing anyone with those oh so mighty muscles" Lulu countered
Speak for your self! Caroline thought giving Malroth a good once over.
"Say that again and I'll show you just how mighty these mucsles are!"
"You'll do these little favors for me, won't you builder? Think of them as training exercises."
"Training exercises? Who does she think she is? Remember how I said we should put her out of her misery, well maybe I should put her out of our misery"
"I don't mind, I like having work to do. Hey, It's a pretty day out why don't you come keep me company while I gather supplies." She asked Malroth hoping to prevent LuLu from joining their former shipmates.
"I've got a training exercise for her, lets throw her back in the ocean and see if she can swim. I'll help you if only so I don't have to hang out with her." He griped following Caroline out the door.
"She's just scared. You see it in animals all the time. She's trying to assert her dominance because she's secretly terrified. I am a builder, you are clearly a fighter, I am going to guess she's neither. She's stranded too and unlike us she doesn't have any skills to take care of herself."
He grinned "She'd love knowing that you're comparing her to some kind of animal."
"Well the original word for a female dog was bitch."
Malroth questioned Caroline about building while she stuck blocks in the holes in the wall and helped her smash drift wood and barrels. It was astounding to her that Malroth didn't know what a builder did but he insisted he'd never heard of one. She figured out how to build a bonfire and three straw beds for them, jotting down the recipes as she did then found that scally winkles lived in ankle deep water. They were actually quite large. She figured three of the shell fish would feed the three of them.
Caroline began to sing to herself as she nestled the Scallywinkles into the hot coals of the fire to cook. Malroth tilted his head to the side and watched her with his arms crossed for a moment. "Hey, builder, what's that noise you're making?"
"Is my singing bothering you? I can stop." She replied looking up from her work.
"It's a lullabye, a song to put kids to sleep. Surely even your mom sang lullabyes." Lulu stated looking at him like he must have a mental condition, what kind of person didn't know what songs were?
"I don't know that I even had a mom."
"Well of course you do. You don't think you just materilized out of thin air, do you?"
The builder sat beside him with a gentle smile. "It's ok, I don't remember my mom either. She died having me. My grandparents raised me."
"I guess we're all orphans." lulu said, allowing her bossy, know it all demeanor to slip. "Those monsters killed my parents. I snuck on to the ship to try and avenge their deaths but the monsters caught me before I could do anything. We all know what happened next."
They sat in silence for a several moments then humming once more Caroline retrieved the scallywinkles from the fire with a dampened stick and handed them out as soon as they were cool enough to handle.
"Oh how silly of me, I just remembered I never asked your names." Lulu stated as they finished their meal
"I'm Caroline, this is Malroth." Caroline replied nodding towards her friend as she seaid his name.
"Caroline, I know you're a builder. What do you do Malroth?
"Actually I don't know. I woke up on this beach but before that my memory is completely blank."
"A builder and her amnesiac friend? What an unexpected partnership."
"If you think a guy like me would be partners with a scrawny runt like her you're dreaming." Malroth told Lulu but he grinned at the builder all the same and she pretended to pout then grinned back.
Lulu went to bed and Caroline sat outside on the beach looking at the stars. Malroth followed her outside and sat next to her "I wish I could be a builder too." he mused. "Hey, let me have a go at that work bench."
"OK, any idea wht you want to make?"
Well, you already made a bonfire and our beds? What else could we make."
"Hmmm, we still have some oil from those slimes you killed earlier and wood. A torch is simple enough for a beginner builder and would be useful for exploring dark areas or at night."
She leaned her elbows on the bench as she explained step by step how to make a tourch. It ws going well, then suddenly the nearly finished torch shattered into a hundred pieces. "Huh? That's not right."
"No, it's not. I have never seen thar before. Maybe the wood was defective? Here's more, try again."
She stood up straight now, watching closly as Malroth made a second attempt. It was looking good, he did everything right this time is emmited a puff of smoke as a the torch inexplicably shattered.
"Gah, what did I do wrong?"
"Nothing. You did it just right. That's fucking weird!"
"Ok, That's it!" Malroth growled as he pounded the remaining wood into shape. This time it emitted a large puff of smoke as it exploded forcfully in their faces.
"Dammit! Well this sucks. I thought building would be fun and games but it's actually harder than it looks. Sorry Caroline but I'll be relying on you to make things for me. Seeing as you made all those things for Lulu how about you even things up?"
She leaned back against her bench and looked up at him. "Well actually one of the beds and scallywinkles I made for you, but ok. Give me a moment."
They stared at each other in the moonlight, his ruby eyes fixed on her violet ones. She tored her eyes away and looked him up and down, what would be a suitible thing to make for Malroth? Perhaps a weapon. She eyed his wide chest a muscular arms, shit, he really was an exceptionally fit man. Not a cedar plank, not with arms like that, it would be an insult.
"Oh, I know! Give me just a few minutes." She made a quick sketch in her book then chose an appropriate piece of drift wood, shaving away just enough to shape it into a rough, spikey club.
"What would I want with a silly old stick?" he asked as she presented it to him.
"It's not a stick you ding bat. It's and oaken club to whack monsters with. Kind of like my cedar plank but I made it with a lot more heft since you have the muscles to swing it."
"That sound's right up my alley!" He replied joyfully snatching it up and giving it a few good swings "This is great, smashing slimes is going to be so much more satiffing with this! I like it. No, I love it! And to think you made it with junk we found on the beach,you're amazing Caroline"
He turned to her with pure admiration shining in those beautiful red eyes. "This is the best present anyone's ever given me, I think."
"It's nothing. Really" She mumbled. She was glad it was dark, she was sure she'd turned as red as his eyes.
His grin faded and he looked to the west. "Huh? Caroline do you feel that? Some kind of evil aura it mudt be coming from a monster, but what ever it is it's way more dangerous than those slimes we saw earlier. This could be a good chance for you to learn how to fight. Just follow my lead and you be scrapping with the best of them in no time. Come on, I want to break in my new club by breaking that sucker's skull."
"I could go for a post dinner workout, and if it is powerful it's probably best to get it now than let it sneak up on us later." She agreed with a nod. Malroth led her down the coast where they found a cave.
"In here, stay on your toes." They entered the cave and a group of monsters jumped out of the shadows. "I've got the rat, think you can handle the slimes?"
"I think so." She replied swinging her cypress stick at an advancing slime and connecting with a sadisfying squish sound. Two other slimes tried to attack from opposite sides and she jumped back so that they collided then hit them both with one blow. Thinking she got them all she dropped her guard to watch Malroth fight the rat and the last slime atacked her from behind and knocked her downshe wasn't able to catch herself intime and her her face on a rock.
"Ow, you little fucker!" She yelled turning around to take out the last slime. She turned back to Malroth just in time to see the rat bite the dust then held up her hand and high fived him.
"Woah what wqas that? When you held out your hand just now I felt a irresistable urge to slap it." Malroth told her looking slightly bewildered.
"Well duh. It's a high five silly."
"What is a High five?"
It was Caroline's turn to look bewildered. "How do you not know what a high five is?"
"I told you my memory is a complete blank. I can't remember anything before waking up on the beach."
"Well a high five is when friends smack their hands together to celebrate things, like in this case a job well done."
"Huh, I never really thought of myself as the touchy feely type, but I think I can make an exception for this high five malarkey. Anyway, how'd you like that fight? I feel fitter already! Beating that rat felt good didn't it? like an itch that's been well and truly scratched."
He paused and looked at Caroline, noticing a bruise beginning to form on her cheek from where she was knocked down. He felt that protective feeling from earlier in his guts, he wished he'd killed the slime that hurt her. "Just remember you're a builder. If you want to stick to construction I can fight the monsters for you. Still building does look like fun. I wish I could do what you do but I guess wanton destruction is more my bag. now lets get back before Lulu steals all the bedding"
She smiled and nodded then turned to walk back to the shack.
"Hey Caroline."
She turn to him, "Yeah, what is it?"
"I'm glad I met you. Let's explore the island, just you and me. But lets do it tomorrow, I am about the conk out and second now."
"I'm glad we met too, that sounds good to me." She started to hum as they walked back along the bech then noticed Malroth kept looking at her, smiling. "Is my singing bothering you? "I've been told I can be distracting."
"No. Keep doing it, it sounds nice."
She continued to sing until they got to the shack then she feel silent so as not to wake Lulu. Malroth immediatly claimed the bed furthest from Miss Bossyboots and she took the one in the middle both fell in to a deep sleep immediatly.