Once we had returned to camp, we started sorting out our guests and trying to get them to earn their keep - yes, even the kids. Survival was hard, and everyone needed to contribute, even if this just amounted to cooking food and helping make medicine stuff. Kids could use the mortar and pestle, couldn't they? Or at least help with caring for our tames, which were very, very numerous by this point.

XXXXXXX

Vincent stared at Mr. Slime.

The massive land snail stared back at him.

Carol looked like she was about to have a heart attack, while the kids all looked on in awe.

Finally, Vincent turned toward Vivian. "Why do you keep a giant snail?"

A strange sound turned everyone's attention back toward Mr. Slime. Smirking, Vivian wordlessly walked up to him and removed the organic cementing paste he had crapped out and promptly used it to finish up a stone wall we had set up around our vegetable patch.

"...Oh."

Carol groaned. "I am not touching him."

"Technically 'he' is a hermaphrodite," noted Vivian. Carol just glared at my former ROB, while everyone else just looked confused.

I took pity on them. "It means he has the unique parts for boys and girls, as do all others of his kind. He still needs another giant snail to make eggs."

Everyone besides Carol and Vivian looked slightly put off by that, but they got over their disgust soon enough.

Without warning, a giant bee flew over and started eating some flowers.

Carol looked at the bee, then glanced at us. "Do you have any bee-suits? Or a torch?"

"M'lady, working with such large insects is-"

"Unladylike? Yes, but it's what my family's done for a three generations. Plus it makes raising flowers easier."

"...You raise an excellent point."

XXXXXXXXXX

Since we now had a few other able bodies to help us, I decided to work toward ascending off the island, which meant building up a lot of firepower and tames. My first goal consisted of getting enough mounts available for using against the first of our targets - Broodmother Lysrix. That giant spider was going to have a whole army of baby spiders (which were still titanic on their own) that we needed to deal with, so getting some creatures to kill it with would certainly be useful. Plus I wanted to learn how to tame all of the wildlife on this island so that I could have some creatures to use for my forces - this was the kind of crazy I liked!

First off: taming some ground sloths.

XXXXXXX

As I presented to captive sloth a freshly slain giant ant for food, I watched in amusement as Vincent and Carol tried to hide their revulsion at the sight. Though Vincent also had a look of confusion on his face.

"So, this thing, which is as big as a cow, has diet like a bear, and can run like a horse...is related to creatures smaller than a man that live their entire lives in trees, and should be walking on the sides of its feet?"

Carol nodded. "Yeah. Nature is really fucking weird."

The little kids I had rescued also staring at the scene, although they were also trying to coax a dung beetle into eating some dinosaur feces. Kids.

XXXXXXX

Of course, even if the ground sloths could tear the spiders in half, it helped if you had something to patch them up. And just a person being medic for them was bound to fail.

Now to enjoy some full boar action.

XXXXXXXXXX

I looked at Carol.

Then I looked at the Daeodon.

Then I looked back at Carol.

"...How'd you catch the Hell Pig?"

Wordlessly, Carol pulled a Bola out of her pack.

"I see. Nice."

"Impressive," spoke Vincent. "I would not expect such skill at catching such a large creature from one of your background."

Carol raised an eyebrow. "Are you implying that I would not have been able to bring down such a beast because I am a lady?"

"No. I have met many woman who have had better experience working with beasts then men. Fe of them came from cities."

"Oh...that still hurts, you know."

"I apologize. I did not mean to offend you, my lady. I apologize for my slight."

"...If you help me break this monster, I will consider this. Now please had me the potato."

Next to me, Vivian smirked. "Don't you mean savoroot?"

"If it looks, feels, and tastes like a potato, it's a potato, regardles of its name. And don't test me. I may be your guest, but that doesn't give you the right to be a troll to me."

A confused look colored Vincent's face. "Troll?"

"I sighed. "A person who just says or does things with the intent to getting utters to act and writhe around for the troll's amusement. It's from the fishing term, not the Viking monster."

"Oh. I see."

"Um, potato please?"

Vincent blanched in embarrassment, before sheepishly handing Carol the root.

XXXXXXXXXX

Having something to buff up our team was also not a bad idea.

XXXXXXXXX

The Yutyrannus snapped angrily at us, though its rage briefly abated when Vincent offered it a morsel of meat. As it's hunger for flesh and blood was temporarily sated, I turned toward the knight. "Enjoying bonding with your feathered dragon?"

"More than expected. For such a savage beast, it is surprisingly endearing. It's presence also seems to have made its distant horned cousins somewhat more docile."

Vivian and me had tamed a few carnotaurs before Vincent had shown up, and now there were in a stable, feeding on meat and headbutting each other. All of them had gotten a bit more docile after Vivian and me had captured a Yutyrannus, but Vincent had been the one to try and bond with them, if only as a challenge to prove his valor. Catching a Yutyrannus of his own had gone a long way toward getting most to accept his dominance.

Also, we'd met another 'tribe' on the island, which was actually a group of people from the middle ages. Half were knights and assorted feudal society, the rest were vikings, with both adapting to live on the island to some degree. They'd also started hosting jousts using raptors and parasaurs in addition to horses. Said 'tribe' had managed to domesticate several chaolicotheres via large amounts of beer. Vincent had decided to indulge himself after offering them some rare metal we had found in a cave, but only asked for a small helping of beer as payment - dude said he was notorious lightweight.

I neglected to tell him that we had our own beer kegs until we returned to camp. Partly because Vivian had him them in places I hadn't found yet.

XXXXXXXXXXX

Finally, even with enough mounts, we still needed to make sure we were equipped to kill the overgrown spider.

XXXXXXXXX

I entered my little workshop to start assembling ammunition for our weapons, only to find it was already in use - one of the teens who we had rescued from the starving cat was now hard at work alongside another of their group, making...bullets, by the looks of it.

And the younger one was just a child. Suspicious.

Best to clear things out now.

"Ahem."

Instantly, the elder of the two, a boy, froze up, as did his smaller compatriot...pretty sure she was a girl. Slowly, they turned to look at me.

"Care to explain what you're doing?"

"..Making bullets?" explained the elder.

"True enough, but I must ask one question: why?"

"I get the feeling you're training all of these creatures to fight something. So I have to ask: what is it?"

I thought over how I would react for a moment, before sighing and activating my implant. A moment later, an image of the broodmother was projected in front of me.

"See this spider? According to some notes and other documents Vivian and me found in some chests all over this Island, this thing is related to the Obelisks that tower over us. I think it might be part of the key to figuring out the secrets of this island."

"...Oh."

"Yeah. You can stay out of this if you want."

"...Eh, I just want to get back home. If this overgrown house spider is part of the way to do that, I'm with you."

Hooray. "By the way, where do you come from?"

"America."

"Nice. So, what's it like, where you come from?"

"Not good, all things considered. You know all those stories about the world descending into anarchy after some disaster that affects everyone?"

Oh, I knew where this was going. "Which one did you guys in?"

"Disease. They called it the Crossout."

"I see. What happened next."

"Oh, people who survived adapted. Some were left with scars from the disease - especially big changes to their eyes. My mom told me this was like some movie she once saw."

"Mad Max?"

"Yeah. Funny how they'd predict the end of society."

"Yeah. Funny."

The teen stared at me for a moment. "Hey, um, are you from, well, another time?"

"...What?"

"Well, you dress like someone from the time before the Crossout, if my parents described fashion accurately, and we are living with a knight, so..."

..Eh, might as well be honest. "I come from a whole different universe, and got sent here as a 'favor' by all powerful aliens who might as well be gods."

"...Weird."

Yeah, weird. "Hey, you never told me your name."

"Call me Crosswire."

I quirked an eyebrow. "That your name?"

"Of course not, but I don't trust you enough to give you my real name yet."

"..Fair. As for your companion?"

The girl didn't even give the boy a chance to talk. "I'm Grease-Rag. And he's my older brother."

"I see. Anyone else in your group I should know about?"

"The girl with the darkest skin among us and the baseball cap is Gears. As for the girl with the doo-rag, bandana, and the armband? Her 'name' is Eye-Shine. I probably don't need to explain the reason for that."

That girl did have glowing eyes. "Fair enough. Anything I should know about them?"

"If you disrespect any of our group, particularly if you disrespect Eye-Shine, I will get back at you for it."

I smirked. "What, is she yours?"

"No," answered Grease-rag, "but he's working up the courage to ask her."

Crosswire merely shrugged in acknowledgement.

"Relax. I'm not interested. Say, you know what you're friends are up to?"

"Well, I think Eye-Shine was trying to teach Vincent how to use guns."

The sound of a rifle firing punctuated said statement.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Vivian's POV

I watched as the knight stared at the girl with the glowing eyes, who had just gibbed a dragonfly with a shotgun. Vincent had less than impressed about guns when he had first heard of them, viewing them as coward's weapons. Then the girl, Eye-Shine, had decided to take out some dragonflies that decided our meat stores were a good target.

Vincent went quiet for a moment, before finally deciding to speak up.

"...I do believe that these 'gunpowder weapons' are cowardly, but may I take one like yours for bird hunting?"

"I think the implant on your arm can tell you how to make one."

"Oh. Interesting."

I decided to cut the tension by asking our resident gunner a question. "Um, apologies for asking, but why do you go by Eye-Shine?"

"Personal trust issues lead to our community adopting special names for interacting with outsiders. As for Eye-Shine itself, not like I can hide my eyes."

"Fair enough."

XXXXXXXXXXX

Celempheros watched as his newest hire worked to prepare for battling the supergiant spider. Already he had amassed several mounts to do battle with the beast, and had even managed to gather some smaller spiders to assist him, for they were too far down the line of descent to care for a clone of their genetic progenitor (not that they would have cared if it was the original).

His attention soon turned toward his subordinate's subordinates, who were attempting to track his progress on The Island. They had recently petitioned him with the desire to send over the Tactical Dolls acquired during the Portal Storm, so as to provide the Commander with additional aid and to remove the gynoid's listlessness.

Celm had already been planning on granting the request, so the offer merely gave him a pretense to do so. However, the random omnipotent being had ulterior motives for waiting so long to do so - this was one of the few times he would indulge in messing with the Commander for fun.

So he wanted to wait until the arrival of the Dolls would lead to the most chaos, for both Commander and foe.

...Right after they entered the Broodmother's cave would probably be best for that.

XXXXXXXXXXX

AN: Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!