"Tools," Tatan said immediately. She pointed at her metal arm, where sparks were now flying. "And access to some electric stuff. I need a new arm. This one was the first one I made, and it's failing miserably now." She shook her head. "I need to fix it, or at least make a new one."
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Boar-back raised an eyebrow. "Interesting. Talk to Muddybones, he's pretty aware of what's in the camp inventory. If you can't get what you need from him, come back to me."
"Alright." Taran hesitated a moment. "Um… and thank you." She turned to scan the crowd, trying to see Muddybones through the other bandits. She spotted him and started to walk over.
Muddybones was busy bragging about his heroism during the raid to a couple of female bandits, who showed varying level of boredom and skepticism. When he noticed Taran approaching, he turned with a toss of his long brown hair. "Ah, hey there, Kali," he said in an obvious attempt to sound casual and charismatic. "I was just sayin' to these ladies how your village put up a pretty good fight. Wouldn't you agree they were a tough nut to crack?"
(I have to work all day today, so I probably won't be back until tomorrow)
(Okay, that's fine with me. Who knows how much I'll be on anyway today XD)
Taran stared flatly at him, although her lips twitched up in amusement when she saw the reactions of the females. "No, I think it was just me. My village is very incompetent. I don't understand why you decided to get some of them live, and join us. Honestly."
Muddybones's cocky attitude wilted somewhat, and he huffed irritably. "Well we can't all be super-fighters, y'know. The villagers we kept were either mostly good at usin' a weapon, or they were useful some other way, like the blacksmith. I think one of the others was a weaver or somethin', and we definitely nabbed one who can cook. Anyway, there's strength in numbers, chief says." He noticed that the other two girls were staring at him pointedly and added. "And by the way, this is Shiv and Florida. Shiv's the doc's assistant, and Florida's a fighter like you."
Florida, a sharp-faced girl with wiry muscles and several missing fingers, waved at Taran with a half-smile, while Shiv, who was shorter and seemed to be hiding behind her long black hair, gave her a shy nod. "Hey."
Taran smiled slightly at Shiv, and gave Florida a two-fingered salute. "Nice to meet you all. "What makes you hang around with him?" She asked, a smile tugging the edges of her lips. She winked at them, before turning to Muddybones. "Where is your machinery?"
Florida snorted. "Can't really avoid him, so it's best to just let him talk until he gets bored and wanders off."
"He's sorta my friend," Shiv muttered, but quietly, as if she worried she'd be teased for saying anything.
Muddybones gave Florida a baleful glare and pointedly turned his back on her. "Machinery? Uh…..well, the junk 'n tool shack is up the hill a bit. Want me to show you? I know most of what's in there, since I collected a lot of it myself."
"Sure, you can show me." Taran turned to Florida and grinned. "Does that even work? I've tried it on other people, and it's never worked. How have you managed?"
Muddybones growled and tried to walk away, but Florida just followed them. "It's simple, honestly—dude has the attention span of a lightning bug and he gets distracted pretty quick. Don'tcha, Bones? You're so busy talking about how great you are, you don't care if anyone's listening or not."
"Very funny," Muddybones sniped back. "Why don't you take your own advice and….leave?"
"Ha, that's not my advice at all, though! Weren't you even listening, moron?"
"Shut up!" Muddybones stopped at a rickety lean-to and threw the door open angrily. "What did you even need with this stuff, Kali? I thought you were a prissy fighter girl like Florida, not a scavenger."
"Of course I'm a prissy fighter girl. I don't dig through the trash. There's nothing fun about that." She motioned to her left metal arm, which now hung limp at her side. "I haven't fixed this in years. I need a new one, otherwise, I'll be less of a fighter. I can fight with one arm, just not as well."
She glanced at Florida. "Oh, speaking of which, you want to spar sometime? I'm a little rusty."
"Sure thing! Hit me up later." Florida backed off, giving Kali the finger guns. "Anyway, I gotta go get some food. Have fun hangin' with the Mudslinger!"
Muddybones called her an unpleasant name under his breath, picking his way through the miscellaneous objects on the shack floor. "So you need an arm huh? Well, we don't have any of those, but maybe you can build one outta this stuff. What exactly do you need?"
Taran grinned after her, laughing at their banter, and then turned to Muddybones. "Some really strong metal, and electric wires. I don't need any power sources, because I've managed to get that to connect to the amount of energy I have." She listed off several tools and parts, all of them easy to come by. It was hard to think that she could make an arm out of simple tools.
Muddybones proved to have a pretty good knowledge of what the shack contained, and quickly began collecting the items Taran had named. "I dunno if these wires are in good enough shape for ya….we mostly just use 'em like rope around here. But if they don't work, I know where to find more outside of camp. Everything else look good?"
"Yep." She held the stuff in the crook of her good arm. "Do you know if we will be heading out? Because I need time to make this."
"I mean….I don't think we're raiding anyone else today, and you probably won't have to help gather food since you're a fighter, so….nah you don't have to go anywhere, at least not while the sun's up. I dunno, does that answer your question?"
"It does. I can make this in a day." She looked down at the stuff he had given her. "Do I have somewhere I can put this stuff while I work?"
Muddybones shrugged. "Well, I guess we could find out where you're gonna be sleeping, and you could work there. Did anybody give you one of the shelters yet?"
"Nope," she said. "No one has really talked to me. It's been a huge loss," Taran rolled her eyes.
"Hmph. Well, I guess I can help you out. Chief didn't say you needed a special place or anything, so you can have the shelter that used to belong to Shut-eye before he fell off a cliff. C'mon." He led Taran across camp to a hut that looked like it had been slapped together out of two-and-a-half tents plus some PVC pipe. "Might be a little messy in there, but you can do whatever you want with the place now that it's yours."
"He fell off a cliff?" Taran laughed. "Why? How could anyone be dumb enough to fall off a cliff? Did he not watch where he was going or something?"
"Tch. I know, right? Stupid." Muddybones paused. "Actually, he got in a fight with Florida and she pushed him too hard. Barely even got in trouble for it, but hey….she's a big important fighter, she can do whatever she wants." He said the last part more quietly, his expression sour. "But anyway, this shelter's yours now. If you need anything else from the junk shack, lemme know."
"I will." Taran paused for a moment. "Thank you," she said. She wasn't used to thanking anyone, so this was strange for her. She wasn't sure how she felt about the day's events, but she did know that he had helped her a lot.
Muddybones shrugged. "S'nothing. Chief said to help you get settled, so that's what I'm doing. And you can sit at my fire if you want at lunch, Shiv and some others will be there." With a wave, he awkwardly wandered off, clearly not sure how to end the discussion.
After he left, Taran shook her head in confusion. Bandit had an intimidating reputation, but the ones she had met were… not like that at all. Even when she had been a fighter, she hadn't had contact with any bandits, nor had she wanted to. And now she was one herself.
Life was weird.
She set her stuff down and surveyed the… tent… she'd been given. It was messy, with lots of wholes, but nothing she couldn't fix. She moved her tools to a makeshift table in the corner and started to work with her one good arm. Before, after she had gotten hurt, she had had to learn to make one all by herself. And she had gotten good at it. Using one arm was easy for her now.