Cornelian finishes cooking, and I set up the camp. All seven tents, and the spare for myself, along with eight foldable chairs, a battery radio, a CD case, several flashlights, and more. "I have a question, some things are very primitive like..." I glance to his mace at his hip and his clothes, "and other stuff is advanced like the radio and batteries, the flashlights, and the tea heater here." 

"This world... I told you it's evil... it takes and steals from other worlds with the Sweeps. Small items are really common, and everyone has different names for them." He stirs the stew taking a bite, "The people here are not builders, nor creators, but scavengers. The most basic of ideologies exist in everyone's mind. Survive. Like a Rodi Bird, we steal the nests of others." He sighs, "Fate had me taken here, I have a purpose I must fulfill." He hands me a bowl, "Eat you must be starving." 

"Who's Fate? A goddess?" 

"Maybe," He smiles, "Fate can be a goddess, or maybe it's just a thing of nature just like the passage of time. There's a saying about Fate. 'Let fate decide our course, but choose our fate we must,'. Fate lead me to Malkuth and I feel I have to save the people here. Spiritually and physically.."  

I snuggle the bowl close to me, "I came here with my two siblings. Do you think they are here too?" 

"I don't know, I do hope fate sent them somewhere safer." 

"Me too," I let out a rough cough, "The food you make is pretty good." I finish my bowl setting it down. "Thank you." 

He beams sweetly, "It's not as good as Paula's but I am learning." 

"How long have you been here?" I ask curious.

"Only five hundred years or so." 

"Oh... that's a long time."

"Do your people not live that long?" 

"We are lucky to reach a hundred... um... you, you have... long ears." I point at my own ears, "I... I never met anyone with long ears before." 

He mimics me and smiles, "Ah, that's because I am an Elf. Originally I came from Earthea, the southern temple is my home." He has a sad look crosses his face, "I was just accepted as a Shaman when the Sweep took me." 

"I'm sorry." I pat his hand.

His ears wiggle, "Fate took me here, and I am doing her will. I met many good people here, and I am now meeting you." He smiles at me, "Oh, they've returned." He sets his bowl to the side waving, "Everyone." 

His friends storm on over, eagerly heading to the stew, however, they pause when they see me. I'm personally a little stunned at myself seeing this wild collection of people before me. 

Cornelian introduces us all, "This is Jill, she was unfortunate enough to have been swept into a Tower." 

"Is that even possible?" A deep low feminine voice asks. A woman only five feet tall and stocky enough to fill a tub moves over to me and grabs me with her meaty hands coursed with work. She has a strong smell of earth, iron, and sulfur. "You poor soul," She has a cute round face with a flat nose, flat narrow violet eyes, and a very flat forehead. Her skin seems like an unhealthy ton of opec white so thin I can see the movements of her veins as they flush through her cheeks burning them up like roses. Her long curly white hair is braided back in layers and layers of wild beading of jewels, patterned stone, and ores. Her silken white beard has fewer braids in it but is just as neat and well taken care of as her hair. "My name is Daretmetelin Volcania. Some call me Dare others Volcania. You can call me whatever you need to. I am this squad's Dwarven mage and enchanter." 

Dare doesn't look like a storybook mage who wears a long hat and robes. She has full plate armor, with thick metal boots and chain mail underneath everything. Her full plate is very shiny and pale, with her shoulder and chest burned with a symbol. 

 

"I've never heard of a real-life mage?" 

 

Dare puffs out her chest proudly, "Then I have some explaining to do." 

A woman only an inch taller steps up lightly pushing her to the side, but failing to move the stoic woman, "How about next time? Let's not overwhelm her. I'm Paula, Vs. Captain of Squad Seven, of the Dazzling Eagles." She must have been a wild child, still in her older age, because she had rainbow-colored hair, beautiful blue eyes with wild red makeup, and red lipstick slightly smeared on her left side. She shakes my hands with beautifully manicured green nailed hands. The armor she is wearing is this bright car pink, and not a match to the leather bracers she has on, even with all the metal bits also painted pink. 

Another person greets themselves, at first they seem very short, but with a quick slither forward on their seven-foot-long snake tail their torso allows them to see eye to eye with me. "You poor dear," he hisses, "You are an absolute messss. I know feeding a person is good and all, but a bath should have been first." 

I blush in embarrassment. "Sorry," 

"You have nothing to apologize about," He takes my shoulder leading me away from the others and to a separate area, "Dare be a dear and set the bath. Paula get the heater stones."

"You don't have to." 

"No, let me help." He says kindly. He's a very beautiful man with the upper body of an elven man with long red hair and bright green eyes. His snake tail is pale white and yellow like an albino boa constrictor. If Jewel was here, I'd have to stop her from sexually harassing this man. He places a hand against his chest, "I am Scha-rei, a Lizartin born in Kantly. But I much prefer to believe I am a native Papilio."

A lilac-scaled hand clamps against my shoulder, "You just let us help," This person is a lot like Scha-rei but instead of having the lower half of a snake, this person is entirely scaled and with the snout of a narrow crocodile. They have kind violet eyes facing me bright and alert. They have a long dark purple mohawk that travels from the tip of their nose to the top of their head and down their back. With almost no armor they have a leather V-neck and fur pants. Along their huge biceps are gold rings wrapping around them. "Laphra," They shake my hands, "Warrior and teacher and egg layer to young life." She rubs my head, "You seem like a very sweet woman, Jill is that right? You must have gone through an ordeal." 

An elderly man slaps her back, "Be careful not to fall for her, she's a heartbreaker." He's human, and super old with shocking grey hair and sagging brown eyes, but he has the body of a younger thirty-year-old from a gym. "Name's Terry. I'm the heart and soul of this squad." 

Laphra rolls her eyes, "More like the joke of this squad." 

Terry sticks his tongue out, "I have to be, with all you humorless lizards." 

She barks out in laughter, "I have humor, you simply are too simple-minded to understand them." She taps his forehead and the two of them continue their bickering. 

An elven man, extremely tall and old gives me a polite nod, "I am Rehnen, the captain of this squad. I must rest, wake me for the first watch." He heads into a tent vanishing. 

Cornelian whispers, "He is meditating about our situation. Was the secret tunnel difficult?" 

Dare finished filling the tub, how they fit that in the endless bag, I don't know, "It's pretty tough the gravity switched three times on us just exploring the entrance." She stuck some glowing red gems on the side adjusting them. "Bath's ready." 

Scha-rei handed me some bath bombs, shampoos, and other bathroom tools to help bath, "There's a lot of M2 Uraqur plant types in there too." 

Without asking, they all turned away from me giving me privacy. 

"Thank you," I whisper. Scrubbing myself clean. 

Dare makes a gruff sound, "I almost got caught by one of them on the way out. If I didn't have the armor i'd have been poisoned with just a touch." She scratches her neck, "I also need to enchant some cloth to put over our mouths, there was a spitter in there. Armor can't protect our lungs. And then there's Jill. We need to get her all prepared." 

Paula leans in, "It's dangerous." 

"Even more dangerous if she's not with us," Dare states, "It's safest by our side. We can teach her how to fight, hide, to stay out of the way as we fight. A temporary member." 

Laphra smiles gulping down her third bowl of food, "I'll get her in shape, teach her everything." 

I pause in my scrubbing, "I... I don't know if I can do that... You might be better off just leaving me." 

Cornelian shakes his head almost turning but remembers and looks away, "Everyone who comes here has a hard time at first, you will learn. And it's much too dangerous for you to be by yourself." 

I stare into my hands, full of blood I just spat out. "I'd dying, I have several illnesses and without my medicine, I'm going to die in a month... maybe two." 

"You're ill?" Cornelian asks, "Do I have permission?" 

"Let me finish my bath first." Dressed in very comfortable night clothes, I sit down waiting for Cornelian. He kneels behind me moving his hand across my back whispering and chanting in his language. It takes a while before he steps back. "You are very sick... however I believe I can replace your medicine." He stands up, "Daretmeatelin, I have a list of metals and ore. I'll need." He sets up the table into an apothecary, kindly directing people. "Um, I need a few fish hearts, Sc..." Before he can say their name Scha-rei vanishes from the island. Cornelian smiles, "He's the best fisher I have ever met. Brings even my grandfather to shame." 

Soon he has a whole bunch of ingredients before him, "It'll take me all night but I can make your medicine." 

"You... you can? All of it?" 

He nods, "You will have to take them for a year before your illnesses will right itself, but this is the best I can do." 

"Wait!" I grab his arm almost fainting in shock, "You... you said cure? Not treat but cure? As in if I take these for a year I will no longer need to take them?" 

"Yes," He pats my head, "I will cure you."