0:00

Wait a minute, I know why you’re listening. You want to know all about me, right? How this

0:05

group acquired a tinkering demolition expert and inventor supreme in the making? Okay, maybe that’s

0:10

a mild exaggeration, I get carried away pretty easily. But it doesn’t mean that any of that isn’t

0:15

going to be the truth one day. I think demolition expert inventor supreme is a title I could grow

0:19

into in the future. But for now, you can call me Cal. I’m a deer, a tinkerer, and I just love

0:25

to make things or fix them up. My parents have never really been entirely thrilled about it; they

0:30

didn’t mind so much when I was a kid because back then they just saw it as a welcome distraction and

0:34

my way of keeping myself occupied. Now they see it as an unwelcome distraction I escape

0:39

to instead of focuses on my role in the family business. Uh, but more on that later. Anyway,

0:45

I come from an old mining village up in the mountains looking over Icetrap called Lindera Lot.

0:50

I live there with my family, and in my family there’s literally a lot of us. Let me break it

0:55

down slowly. So, there’s my mom, my dad, me, then my siblings. I have four brothers and

1:02

two sisters. So already you can picture that the dinner table is getting a little crowded.

1:07

Well than you add my grandparents, my uncles, there’s two of those, my aunts, there’s four of

1:12

those, and a boatload of cousins, I’ve got no idea how many of those there are. And that’s a standard

1:17

rollcall for dinner on a weekday. We usually live separately but close together and recently moneys

1:23

been tight. So, it just saves a few pennies if we all rally together under one roof for our meals

1:28

and work as a team to prioritize and maintain the upkeep of the main house. Which was ours. We’ll

1:34

cut corners where we can, and we do our best, but it’s been getting harder. My parents don’t seem to

1:40

think I’m aware of the situation, but I’ve known for a while there’s been some interest expressed

1:45

in Lindera Lot, but not the welcome kind. The kind that doesn’t historic gem hidden in the high

1:51

woodlands. The kind that just see it as a parcel of land with a pretty view and an abandoned mine.

1:57

Were happy living here, but there’s some folk out there who seem to think they’d be

2:01

even happier if we weren’t. They want the land for themselves, for who knows what business.

2:06

These folk aren’t trustworthy, believe me. But the less you know about them for now, the better.

2:12

The point is these folk have really started to put pressure on us for staying put. Bad things happen

2:17

when they don’t get what they want/ Things get broken, sometimes people eve get hurt, or worse.

2:23

The only way to avoid that without giving them what they want, is to give them the next best

2:28

thing, money. Money, we don’t have. We had it at first but then the prices grew higher and the work

2:34

we were getting wasn’t making the cut anymore. We had to start thinking outside the box.

2:39

My grandpa even came out of retirement to work and chip in. The work we had in Icetrap was no

2:44

longer sufficient for the demands being asked of us. So, the working members of the family began

2:49

branching out, traveling to other territories to find other work. The most recent of these ventures

2:55

was Flathome. I don’t know a great deal about what my father and uncles agreed to there.

3:00

We were a family business that works ins scaffolding. That’s our main source of income.

3:05

And all I knew is that we were promised a huge payout if we made this delivery of scaffolding.

3:10

It was the biggest profit that out family business had ever seen. And its not even for us,

3:14

its for crooks. SO, before the group that’s where I was. I was with my family traveling to Flathome.

3:22

Wed been traveling for a few days. Now, I already know what you’re wondering.

3:26

It sounds like your family is really going through it financially at the moment,

3:29

so why are you traveling with a bunch of strangers that you don’t even know as a vagabond. Fair

3:33

evaluation, and you’re absolutely right. SO ill be honest it was an accident. And it was my fault,

3:39

kind of. One of the nights wed settled down in the clearing for camp and as it was getting late

3:46

the weather wasn’t particularly great and the fire needed replenishing to stop it from

3:49

completely fizzling out. My father asked me to get some more firewood so of course I went on

3:54

my way to go find some. Unfortunately, tracking isn’t my strong suit and retracing my steps in

4:00

unfamiliar places isn’t either. In fact, because I’ve never been further than home or Icetrap,

4:06

I’m awful at tracking. I ended up wandering too far and getting lost. So, I was getting scared,

4:11

I was anxious, and I was overwhelmed. And I don’t remember much of what happened next. All

4:17

I do remember is stumbling into an open dirt path, there was just enough moonlight to know that much.

4:23

But before I had any time to react at all, I was blinded by this bright light and felt something

4:28

massive collide with me and knock me down. When I came to, it must’ve been the early hours of the

4:32

morning. It was a bit lighter but still difficult to see where I was going. Especially factoring

4:38

that whatever hit me made me knock my head pretty bad. I could feel the parts where my antlers were

4:42

missing. All I could see was that path, blood on my clothes, and there was debris everywhere.

4:48

And all the wood that I had gathered was flung all over the place too, so I had to pick all that up.

4:53

But among the debris I found a toolbox. It wasn’t in particularly great condition,

4:58

but some of the tools were still functional. But they were mostly old, rusty, and some of them were

5:04

nearly broken. Then, I found a pair of goggles inside that stood out amongst them because these

5:09

babies looked brand new. I tried looking for a name or something but there were no engravings

5:14

or labels on them. They looked really cool though so I just wanted to try them on for a minute,

5:19

just to see if they’re as good as they appeared. The problem was I got the straps tangled in my

5:24

antlers when I was trying them on and the chips in my antlers from whatever happened didn’t really

5:28

help me at all. The goggles ended up getting stuck over my eyes pretty tight which just made

5:33

the whole thing a lot worse because now I couldn’t even see where I was going. I tried feeling for

5:38

some of the wood I gathered and carried what I could in one arm so I could use my other hand to

5:42

feel my way around. And as you can imagine and conclude from everything, I’ve told you so far,

5:47

that went about as well as trying to put out a dumpster fire with a thimble of water.

5:51

Terribly, it went terribly. I couldn’t find my way around; I couldn’t find my way back.

5:56

I couldn’t even hear my family and I’m a deer, you know, we have amazing hearing.

6:02

This whole situation threw me, and I had no idea where my family was. My body was aching,

6:07

I had no sense of direction or time. It literally felt like it was just me against the world.

6:13

Honestly, if it wasn’t for Sabian, I’d probably still be out there somewhere

6:17

wandering around aimlessly, or worse. I’m too scared to even think about it.

6:21

But Sabian really helped me out, he stuck with me and kept me company. He even helped me to

6:27

retrace my steps to camp with his tracking skills and his sense of smell, but my family was gone.

6:33

No note, no sign or indication on where they were going, nothing. I couldn’t believe it, and

6:40

I still can’t. They left without me. Did they even look for me? Did they leave me behind on purpose?

6:48

Did they think I ran away? Did hey think for some reason that I tried traveling the rest of

6:53

the journey to Flathome by myself? Because that would be incredibly unrealistic and show they

6:57

have no indication they know who I am. Anyway, but. Point being, none of it makes sense, but,

7:04

for the meantime, this vagabond group I stumbled into, they’re not so bad. And they’ve got my back,

7:11

Sabian’s too. I really do hope I can find my family, but this is my time to prove myself, prove

7:18

that my silly ideas can really make a difference. Prove I can survive out here in the woodland,

7:23

prove to vote that I’m more than a skittish clumsy deer with arsonist tendencies.

7:28

Keep following the adventure, and you’ll see what I can really do. Cal over and out!