“What is it?” Issi asked once everyone else had returned to the ship after their jaunt through the forest.

  “What do you mean? It’s an abstract painting of the falls,” Alan proclaimed, gesturing to the painting propped up against the back of the couch. “Can’t you tell?”

  The little girl tilted her head as far to the side as she could, frowned, then tilted the other direction. “Nope.”

  “The blue and white represent the water, while the grey browns represent the rock. Well, except down here, this is a reflection,” Alan explained, pointing at different parts of the painting. “Get it now?”

  Issi immediately shook her head. “Still nope.”

  “I know you’re very proud of your second attempt, but perhaps it’s a little too abstract for the kids,” I said. “Show them your original painting.”

  Alan sighed, then reached over the back of the couch to grab his first painting. When he placed it next to the first, Issi’s eyes lit up. “It’s the falls!”

  “No one appreciates my art,” Alan groaned.

  “None of that,” I said, bopping him on the head. “It was only your second attempt. Just because you read about the different techniques doesn’t mean you can perfectly imitate them right away. You just need to practice.”

  “This is what you were doing all afternoon?” Jane asked as she carefully picked up the first painting, holding it up to the light.

  “Uhhh… yeah. I’ve been reading about art, and painting lately, and I decided I wanted to give it a try,” Alan admitted, after shoving me away. “Do you like it?”

  “It’s wonderful!” Eddie proclaimed, bringing a smile to Alan’s face. “What went wrong during your second attempt?”

  Alan’s face fell. “Nothing went wrong! I just tried a different style, that’s all. It’s not my fault that you can’t appreciate it!”

  “Alright you two, that’s enough,” Jane declared. “Eddie, stop trying to get a rise out of your big brother. You know he tried his best.”

  I nearly broke out laughing as Alan turned bright red. His expression is a mix of pride, and embarrassment. “Thanks… I think…”

  “We’ll find a place to hang up Alan’s masterpiece later,” I declared, trying to draw everyone’s attention away from Alan and his art long enough for the boy to recover. “How was everyone else’s day? Did you enjoy exploring the forest?”

  “You bet! I found another froggy!” Issi exclaimed, holding up a small container. I could just make out a green shape squirming within. “This is Al-eene.”

  “Al-eene?” I asked curiously.

  “Yus. I was going to name them Al, until Mx Nyx informed me that they were a girl. It felt wrong giving them a completely different name, so I just changed it slightly instead. I’m going to add her to the ter… terrar…” the tot paused, face scrunching up in concentration. “Ter-rar-e-rum with Steve.”

  “I’m sure they’ll be the best of friends,” I replied softly, patting the girl on the head. “I assume.”

  Eddie chuckled slightly, so I turned towards him next. “And what did you do?”

  He jumped slightly, and clumsily tried to slide the coil ring notebook he’d been holding behind his back. I’m sure he was trying to hide it, all he did was bring it to my attention. “Oh, you know, I wandered around looking at stuff…”

  “No you didn’t,” Issi scowled. “I tried to get you to explore with me, but all you wanted to do was sit under a tree and scribble into your notebook. I had to take Jennifer with me!”

  This time it was Eddie’s turn to blush. “I was inspired by the scenery, and wanted to get everything down while it was fresh in my head.”

  This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “Anything you want to share?” I asked curiously.

  “No! At least, not right now,” Eddie replied anxiously, furiously shaking his head. “It’s not ready yet, I still need to refine my prose! It’ll be a couple days before it’s ready to share.”

  “Fair enough,” I said gently.

  “We know how important your poetry is to you, and no one here is going to judge you harshly. We’re all family here,” Jane added, gently placing the painting she was holding back against the couch. When Eddie nodded, she smiled and turned towards me. “So what did you do all afternoon Evelyn? I expected you to come down and join us, did you really just sit there watching Alan all afternoon?”

  “Of course she did. I nearly jumped out of my skin when she asked me questions,” Alan muttered.

  “Actually… while watching you was fascinating, I did have to zone out and deal with a couple issues while I was sitting with you,” I admitted.

  “Anything important?” Jane asked. Although she sounded calm I could detect the faintest hint of concern in her voice.

  “Nothing I couldn’t handle,” I replied casually. “Alliance Thermal Power sent a couple men to investigate who we were, and what we were doing. They had a pretty good response time, and were only a few minutes behind us, so I sent a team out to talk to them.”

  “And they were understanding?”

  “Well… I did think they were going to try and force us to leave, or even attack us at first. They brought out some serious hardware, but I convinced them that we weren’t a threat to the facility, and would leave the area peacefully once we were done,” I explained.

  “They just took your word for that?” Alan asked suspiciously.

  “Not right away. I sent out a single squad out at first, to intercept them and explain the situation. They weren’t that receptive at first, even after seeing the squad full of teddy bears, and learning I was a samurai. I don’t know if it was because of company policy, or if the PMCs were just territorial, but they were very insistent that we move on. They even threatened to fire upon the stratocarrier if we didn’t.”

  Everyone froze. “They what?” Jane asked.

  “Don’t worry. I convinced them to not go through with it,” I replied cheerfully.

  “Peacefully?” Alan asked cautiously.

  “Of course. I had Nyx hack into the company’s computer systems, located someone further up the company hierarchy, and explained that we’d only be here for a couple hours and leave peacefully. Once I did, they called off their attack dogs.”

  Jennifer eyed me up suspiciously. “That’s it?”

  “What? Did you expect me to threaten them or something?” I asked indignantly.

  “You have been known to go down that route before,” Alan grumbled. “When it fits your purposes.”

  “Well, I’m sorry to disappoint you, but nothing like that happened,” I replied. “I mean, I did send another ten Kodiaks to back up the original squad when the situation started to deteriorate, but that was more of a safety measure than anything else.”

  “And I’m sure that executive totally didn’t take a random samurai calling them up and explaining they had a warship floating a couple kilometers away from their main facility, and didn’t appreciate the PMCs attention, as an indirect threat,” Alan scoffed.

  “I didn’t even have to mention the stratocarrier actually,” I declared proudly, before glancing away from everyone. “I may have mentioned that I have a literal army of warbots sitting around though. Look! I didn’t threaten them, I just said as long as they left us alone we’d be gone before evening. He was very cooperative after I mentioned that.”

  Jane sighed. “You should have just called us back. Although I enjoyed exploring, it wasn’t worth aggravating the local megacorp. We could have always found another place to stop.”

  “You were all so excited, and I didn’t want to interrupt you,” I said. “Besides, what’s the point in having a standing army, and a flying warship, if you’re not willing to use it?”

  “So, you admit you threatened them,” Eddie exclaimed.

  “I admit nothing,” I replied. “But on a completely unrelated note, I ordered Spooky to start moving the ship away as soon as you got back. I just figured we might as well not waste any more time and move towards our next destination.”

  “Yeah, right,” Eddie snorted.

  “Even if they can’t really do much to hurt us up here, it’s best to show the megacorps a little respect. I said we’d leave, so we’re leaving,” I explained. “Best to not aggravate them any more than necessary.”

  “You don’t think they’ll be angry with you, will they?” Issi asked, concerned.

  I shook my head. “Don’t worry, we just flew by and they were suspicious. All we did was talk with each other. If anything they’ll be happy we left and nothing happened.”

  The girl seemed to think about that for a moment, then tilted her head to the side and smiled. “Okie!”

  “You should go introduce Al-eene to her roommate,” I said, stepping back from the girl and addressing everyone. “You should all wash up. You’ve all spent the afternoon getting filthy, and it’s almost dinner time. I’ll find something to cook up for you all.”

  Almost everyone turned to go, but Alan didn’t. He stayed behind and approached me slowly. “So… Do you know where we’re going next? Is it somewhere interesting, or scenic?”

  “Oh, you know, we’ll go wherever the wind takes us,” I replied with a smile.

  Alan didn’t seem that impressed with my answer. “Get real,” he snorted.

  “Fine,” I grumbled. “We’re going to the badlands, happy? Plenty of interesting rocks, as far as the eye can see. Happy?”

  “Yes, thanks for confirming,” he replied happily, as he turned away. “Now I can plan ahead.”

  I just squinted at his back as he wandered back towards his room. “Wierdo.”

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