Miraculously, nobody fell as we crossed the canyon. A few people nearly slipped, but were quickly stabilized by the person behind them. We held onto each other tightly. Despite the heights, some people were even making conversation.
And then, right at the final stretch, someone who was a few links ahead of me in the human chain slipped and fell. It was someone I didn't know the name of, but Azarias clearly did. "Taika, no!"
The rest of us watched in shock for only a moment before scrambling to the other side. It took a long time for Taika's body to hit the floor. I peered over the edge, and what I saw surprised me. I shouted to the others, "It's hard to tell, but I think she's still moving." Everyone rushed over to look.
After a few minutes, Taika crawled to her feet and waved her hands at us. "I'm alive!" she shouted. Her voice echoed off the walls.
Azarias sighed in relief. "It looks like our bodies can survive falls of this height after all. How are we going to get her up, though?"
"We can get the spider to make a rope," I offered. But a glint had appeared in Azarias' eyes. "This is a good opportunity to strengthen our bonds…"
The main group was staring at us. They hadn't cheered upon our arrival, but they hadn't booed either. Someone shouted, "So, how'd the exploring go?" Azarias answered the question with a question and said, "I'd like to know what you guys have been doing. Have you been solely on a question-and-answer binge?"
I noticed a few people urging Athalia to speak up. She eventually said, "Weren't you guys listening to me earlier? I don't want to be your leader. All of us should have equal power to ask the 8-Ball anything."
"But Athalia, having one person as a voice makes things easier. You're just so confident..."
Azarias chimed in, "You all have encountered a problem with the 8-Ball, haven't you? No matter how much you trust its answers, it can't do every little thing for you. It's only useful when it's being used by humans, not replacing them. A leader needs to direct; proper direction gets things done."
Athalia said, "Sure, but that's not going to be me. Find someone else."
"But how are we supposed to trust him?" the crowd asked.
Azarias pointed at himself. "Little old me is untrustworthy? If you look at my actions on paper, you have no reason not to trust me. I've acted as honestly as I can. Athalia's outburst earlier wasn't entirely illogical, but the claim that I'm a liar is mere conjecture. If you want trust, I'll be bringing it by the truckload real soon. My group and I haven't finished proving ourselves yet; Once we truly depart on our expedition, we'll bring back many amazing things. By then, you'll have no way to deny our greatness. By the way, tell me what you've been doing over here. What are these lines on the ground?"
"We're planning out houses."
Azarias nodded. "So you all had that idea too."
He went over to a part of the plateau with no building markings and outlined a large perimeter with his steps. "This will be the location of our headquarters."
"Hey, we might need that space for houses. We're already unsure if there's going to be enough space, considering the body pile."
Azarias mimicked an explosion with his hands and said, "Look, a brand new artificial problem. You really think leaving their bodies in a rotting pile is more respectful to the dead than dumping them? Every additional hour that goes by makes the job more disgusting."
The one he was talking to frowned. Clearly, he was thinking the same thing.
Flox asked, "Are we going to start on construction now? I'd love to; it sounds fun. Give me a set of instructions."
Azarias frowned. "We need to consider materials first. If this building ends up how I'm envisioning, the materials the others are using might not be strong enough."
"What do you mean by that?"
"We're in an alien world, and we're going to go explore into the unknown. We'll bring back all sorts of unknown and dangerous stuff. We'll need a secure stronghold, won't we?"
"Where will you get the materials, then?"
"Sometimes the best materials are made of existing weak materials but modified somehow. I have a few ideas. I'll go try them out later, but we won't be getting to building for a while. You don't just start putting up a building like the one we're making without a plan. There's one thing I can say for sure about the design already—part of it will be underground. The ground is a natural defense mechanism and allows us to have way more square footage with the same floor plan. I don't know if we have a shovel, but I remember there was a pickaxe in that cave. Go and get it. I'll instruct you all on making the markings, and once our claim is set in stone, we'll get to work on saving Taika."
He glanced at the main group. They had started the construction of small building foundations. The building blocks were made of the red ground, and a few brave people were gathering from the white pillars, carefully walking on the first section of the spider thread bridge. We Explorers, who had just had our own experience with the bridge, looked at them with an uneasy feeling. "Let's stay on this side while we gather materials…"
I'll admit it: as everyone got to work, I was being lazy. I was counting the lines on my palm and trying to memorize their shape. It's not like it was entertaining, but it beat working. My mind kept turning to the strange condition and the offering the spider had mentioned. I had to make friends and then give it up? What did that look like in practice?
I had been participating actively in our group, and talking to Azarias, but I wouldn't exactly call us friends. Plus, he was going to be really busy now. He had a group to lead.
Then I remembered Sariel. I wasn't sure if I wanted to be his friend or not, but he had an odd personality; at the very least, I wanted to speak to him. How do you get started?Do you say, "Can I be friends with you, please?"
Sariel was hard at work making markings on the ground. I tapped his shoulder. He didn't turn around. "I don't want to talk to a lazy person. You're lazy. Go get to work."
I pouted. "But I want to talk to somebody."
He pointed at the edge of the cliff. "Go talk to her. She's also lazy."
There was a girl sitting on the edge, dangling her legs over the canyon. She had messy auburn hair, but it didn't cover her eyes as mine did. Her dark brown eyes were unreadable and intimidating. I remembered her name; it was too striking- how could I forget it? 'Athalia Darwin Bathory'.
"Exactly what do you think I would have to talk about with her?"
"That's why she's perfect. The friendship you're to build is one you're going to have to give up, right? If you don't care, that will be a lot easier."
I agreed with Sariel's assessment. The Explorers knew about the friendship task; manipulating a fellow Explorer would be impossible.
I walked over and stood near Athalia, far enough away that she wouldn't be able to attack me if she had a sudden urge to.
She was looking toward Taika, trapped at the bottom. She looked vaguely amused as she watched.
I couldn't stand for that. I took pity on Taika and shouted, "Uh, we haven't forgotten you're down there, just so you know. We're working hard on a solution."
Athalia saw and sighed. "Trying to make me feel guilty for looking? Just because I'm facing a direction with my eyes open doesn't mean I'm looking at anything. I'm looking at nothing at all."
"There's plenty here to look at; how could you have your eyes open and not look?"
"Your idea of plenty isn't enough for me."
I laughed. "That sounds like you want to come exploring. Too bad the members of our group are already chosen."
Athalia shook her head. "There's no lifetime where me and that Azarias guy get along. Now, explain why you're talking to me. Do you have ulterior motives? It's hard to tell what you're thinking; your eyes conceal a lot."
"To have something of value to hide, I'd need memories first. I can tell you with 100 percent confidence that I have no bad intentions. Enough about that, let me ask you this: what do you think will happen if we return from our expedition with many valuable items?"
Athalia thought for a moment. "Azarias will gain a lot of influence."
"Doesn't that bother you? You have the power to do something about it if you want. You still have sway over the group."
Athalia sighed. "That's so boring. Convincing people over and over is so boring, and I can't stand being bored. I refuse to be trapped by a leadership position. I'm not that smart anyway. I need to find something entertaining to do…"
"Why don't you walk across the bridge of threads? I'm sure that would give you a big adrenaline rush."
"Just because I'm bored doesn't mean I'm suicidal. You want to get me killed, don't you? How about this: if you do it, I'll do it."
"No, I'm way too interested in what's going to happen to all of us next."
"So you're entertainment-oriented too, huh?"
I thought about it. "Not entirely. I can feel the roots of a goal slowly growing in my mind, but they haven't formed anything yet. I'd definitely get bored having entertainment be my main goal forever. I need a concrete goal. I'm watching for now because it seems the safest and smartest thing to do."
Athalia shrugged. "I don't care if I have a goal or not, as long as things are fun. If having a goal makes things more fun, then so be it, but it's not strictly superior. Enjoying is winning. If your goal doesn't entertain you, it's an unfortunate situation. Maybe some external factor like 'responsibility' will snap me up in its jaws, parasitize my emotions, and restrict my enjoyment. That's my bad ending. It can lead to the illusion of extra-satisfying 'long-term rewards', but that's just a way to cope. Luckily, I haven't yet found anything worth feeling responsible over. The more I talk to these people, the more they annoy me. I hope humans are more entertaining when their heads are full of memories; that means it'll get better later."
"If more memories are better, wouldn't you and Azarias be great friends?"
"Some people are rotten through and through."
"Wow, you're harsh… Won't you feel embarrassed if he wins you over?"
"Yeah. And I know I'm being biased, but for some reason, I can't help it."
"How about talking to me? Is it entertaining so far?"
Athalia looked away and stood up. "It's a waste of my time. I'm going to get back to work; I'll be put on the spot if I don't. You'd better do the same."
I watched the back of her head as she left. This person will be difficult to make friends with. Even if I pull it off, it'll be time-consuming. We need to get the expedition started in order to appease the spider. Should I try someone else?
One conversation certainly felt like enough for now; I didn't have the social confidence to do this back-to-back. But my fear of spiders quickly returned to the forefront of my mind. I didn't have a choice, did I?
Let's see. I need someone who's a non-Explorer and is vulnerable… I was starting to feel like a bad person.