The ‘more traditional’ part of Sever’s house was a grass-roofed, daub hut near the river. Cal’s first impression was that it was small, but looked quite solid. The door and shutters were made from uneven planks, and the whole thing rested on large stones.

  Surrounding the house were several garden beds. The largest one, as Sever had promised, was growing picture-perfect cotton plants about hip height, with adorable white puffs covering the branches. Smaller ones grew a few types of vegetables and herbs.

  Closer to the hut were various things that Cal couldn’t really identify the use of. There was a rack with an animal hide stretched over it, that was easy. There were several large pots with the lids on. There was a ceramic tube with some holes in it that was probably some kind of fireplace judging by the soot. And there was a roughly hip-height log with a metal plate on top.

  In the river grew reeds that made Cal think of corndogs.

  ‘Welcome, welcome,’ Sever said, pulling open the door. ‘Don’t worry about taking your shoes off.’

  Cal smiled to herself as she walked into the cozy interior.

  Some could have called it cramped. It could be both.

  Sever had dragged the metal plates that had once been Cal’s pod from where she’d landed back to the house. She added them to a pile of metal scraps in one corner. It was one of many piles in the small space of the hut.

  There was a pile of leather and fur. There was a stack of jars. There was a pile of wooden poles in various stages of processing. There was a pile of split logs. And there was a fireplace with a few smouldering coals.

  If anything caught Cal’s attention, it was the pile of leather and fur.

  She took another look at Sever, who was standing awkwardly beside her in the doorway. While Cal supposed it was possible that Sever was an exceptional tailor, it looked like she was wearing entirely machine-made clothes: a dark blue tshirt, denim pants, a thin jacket, black leather boots with rubber soles.

  ‘What?’ Sever objected.

  ‘How long have you been out here, Sever?’ Cal asked.

  Sever shrugged and crossed her arms again. ‘I don’t know, a few months maybe?’

  Cal nodded.

  ‘What?’

  ‘You’ve got a few sets of clothes with you?’

  Sever sighed. ‘I did, yeah,’ she grumbled, crossing the room to open a large pot. ‘None of it will fit you, we’re different shapes.’

  Cal shrugged. She was taller and skinnier than Sever, and a bit more rectangular. That wasn’t what she meant, though. ‘I mean… you’ve got all this leather and stuff, you haven’t tried making clothes out of it?’

  Sever closed the pot again. ‘I tried, but like, I was bad at it.’ She shrugged a few times. ‘I know how to make thread from cotton, right? I don’t know how to make thread from like, grass or sinew. So I have to wait.’

  Cal snorted. ‘Oh, of course, you need thread to make clothes.’ She slapped herself on the forehead for emphasis. ‘I forgot about that.’

  Sever visibly relaxed. She opened the pot again. ‘I… look, they’re not in the best condition at this point… I have some spare boxers, if you want? We’re not exactly the same bra size.’

  Cal was aware that she had small breasts. She had not been aware of Sever’s breasts until right this moment. She tried not to be too aware of Sever’s breasts even now that attention had been brought to them. She decided to take Sever’s word for it and not put any consideration into the matter.

  ‘I’ll take anything you’re willing to give me,’ Cal said.

  Sever pulled out a pair of boxers that were fraying along the bottom and looked partially bleached. ‘If you’ll take anything…’ Sever stuck an arm right into the pot and pulled out another dark blue tshirt, or what had once been a dark blue tshirt. The left arm had come off and the seam down the left side was in the process of splitting.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

  Cal smiled. ‘I stand by it.’

  Sever shuffled over, averting her gaze quite a lot more than she had been up to this point, and offered the ratty clothes to Cal.

  ‘Thank you.’ Cal took them and pulled them on. The tshirt was baggy on her and she could feel the fraying around her thighs. But as much work as she’d put into not caring that she was naked, she preferred not to be naked.

  Sever snorted. ‘You look like you’ve been in a fight.’

  Cal shrugged. ‘I have, if you think about it.’

  Sever frowned. ‘I don’t think surgery counts as a fight.’

  Cal shrugged some more. ‘It’s a matter of perspective.’

  Sever shrugged back.

  They stood there and looked at each other for several lengthy seconds.

  ‘So,’ Cal said. ‘What do you do for fun around here?’

  Sever snorted. ‘Fun? I got for walks, or I sit by the river and feel bad.’

  ‘Since I don’t have any shoes, I vote for sitting by the river and feeling bad,’ Cal said. ‘What do you usually feel bad about? The state of your life, I’m guessing?’

  Sever shrugged. ‘Yeah, I guess.’ But she led the way back out of the hut and sat down on a pile of rocks by the river.

  Cal sat a little closer and dangled her feet in the water. It was pleasantly cool and sparkly in the afternoon sun. The rushing and bubbling of the water gave the bright dark a nice ambiance.

  Cal got bored quickly. Despite being dumped in the middle of nowhere, she was feeling pretty good about her life. Not to mention she’d spent the last couple of years practically glued to screens of varying description distracting herself from the horror and boredom of it all.

  Maybe this was what she needed to reset, then? Would being stranded in the wilderness without technology be good for her, now that she seemed better?

  ‘So, were you on an independent farm?’ Cal asked.

  Sever nodded. ‘Mmhmm.’

  ‘And what, someone else took over or something?’

  Sever shrugged. ‘I suppose.’

  ‘It was bad enough to run away?’

  Sever took a deep breath and looked at Cal. ‘What surgery were you getting in space?’

  That was fair. ‘A lot,’ Cal said.

  ‘And it was illegal, I suppose?’

  ‘Partly,’ Cal said. ‘Illegal enough that I had to get it done in space by the sort of people who might drop me in the wilderness in a pod full of goo.’

  ‘So this was an outcome you were prepared for?’

  Cal shrugged. ‘Not really. I didn’t give it that much thought. I didn’t want to die, and I’m not dead.’

  ‘Mood.’

  Cal nodded a few times. They didn’t need to talk about it.

  Despite her best efforts, Cal was still bored.

  This time it was Sever who broke the silence. ‘I take it you’re not from an independent farm.’

  ‘Born and raised urbanite, I’m afraid,’ Cal said.

  ‘Ah, a sheep.’ Sever nodded a few times. ‘I wouldn’t have guessed.’

  Cal nodded. ‘I take that as a compliment, that you wouldn’t have guessed.’

  Sever nodded some more. ‘It was a compliment.’

  ‘Used to believe the whole thing, civilisation, rules, all of it.’ Cal shrugged.

  ‘Until you needed surgery that you could only get from people in space who might drop you in the wilderness for fun?’

  ‘Until that, yes.’

  ‘Is that why you forgot how to walk?’ Sever grinned. ‘My mum used to say that city folk spent all their time on computers, getting fat and soft. You don’t seem that fat and soft, though.’

  ‘It’s a metabolism thing, I’m told. Was never much good at gaining weight, unfortunately. But otherwise yeah, spent all my time on computers for the last few years, getting soft.’

  ‘Don’t take this the wrong way…’ Sever paused, frowned, and shrugged. ‘Or do, I’m not your boss. But like, do you know how to do things?’

  Cal snorted. ‘I was a bit of a machinist for a while. Wasn’t my main job, but I know how to make things out of metal, generally speaking.’

  Sever frowned severely. ‘Like blacksmithing? Or just programming robots?’

  ‘Didn’t do much, but I could probably smith up a terrible knife, for example.’

  Sever stood up. ‘Alright, break time over. I’m in need of a terrible knife.’

  Over by the log with the metal plate on top was a small collection of broken, improvised metal tools. Cal could basically recognise an axe and a big fork, but she wasn’t sure what most of them were supposed to be.

  ‘I was trying to make some farming tools,’ Sever explained, looking vaguely embarrassed. ‘But… you can see what happened.’

  Cal frowned at the pile of ‘tools’. ‘I can.’

  ‘So I’ll make you a deal,’ Sever said. ‘Since you’re an urbanite, you know about deals. You can eat my food and drink my water, and I’ll even make you some clothes. But in return you have to make me some tools and weapons. What do you reckon?’

  Cal smiled. ‘Can I sleep in your bed, also?’

  Sever snorted. ‘You can have your own bed.’

  Cal spat in her hand and held it out to Sever, who blanched and didn’t take it.

  ‘Is that not a thing in Central?’ Cal grinned. ‘You have to do the same thing, or it’s not a deal.’

  Sever took a deep breath, spat in her hand, and shook. It was gross.