Half an hour later.

Location: Some distance from the escape pod

     “Did you hear that?”

     “Hmm? Hear what?” For the past few minutes, we’d been walking aimlessly, hoping to come across another Spiral Knight or an escape pod. Sadly, the only things we had found so far were various flora and some colorful avian creatures. They seemed small at a glance, but since they were flying around, there was no way to tell how large they actually were. “Are you trying to pull something on me?” I glared at him, debating on replying seriously or commenting on his own habit of trying to “pull something” on people.

     Bweep

     “There it is again! That beeping! I think it came from... here?” It was muffled, but it was definitely coming from the pouch I was carrying.

     “Oh, you mean the beeping? I thought you were talking about someone or something following us, like in the bushes or trees. I wonder if it’s that coaster thing?”

     “I’m sorry, ‘that coaster thing’?” I asked, puzzled. I knelt down and began rummaging through the bag. “What are you talking about?”

     “Well I went through the bag before you woke up to see what was in it, and aside from some nasty tasting bars and bottles of water, there was a disk thing and some papers I didn’t care to read.” Just as he mentioned it, I found a rounded disk in the pouch, with a green light blinking on the side of it. It seems too small to be used as an actual coaster, and why would there be a coaster in our survival bag anyways? On the rim next to the light was a series of buttons, and the other side had what seemed like a hook.

     “Wait,” I paused, realizing what my brother had just said. “Why would you know what the rations taste like? Did you already eat them?!”

     “Of course not!” he protested. “I only took a bite and couldn’t stomach it, so I tossed the rest of em.” I stared at him, waiting, hoping for a Just kidding! or something to follow, but he didn’t say anything else.

     “Y’know, I shouldn’t expect anything less from you.” I let out a sigh, and emptied the rest of the bag. He was right about the bottles of water and papers, but there was also something like a large red handle. “Err, what’s this?”

     “A souvenir,” he replied nonchalantly, kneeling next to me. “I pulled on it to open the pod, and the whole door popped off! Only the handle broke off in my hands, so I decided to keep it!” He picked up the handle and mimicked what had happened.

     “So… you got rid of our only food, and replaced it with a door handle?”

     “Well when you put it like that, I guess so yeah.”

     “Are we sure you weren’t dropped on your head as a child?”

     “Aside from the couch and table incident? No, I don’t think so.” My brother met my gaze. Even though he had his grey Spiral Sallet on, covering his face, I knew he must have been smiling underneath it, enjoying himself. Which only made the current situation all that much more frustrating.

     “You are going to be the death of me before anything on this planet is, I swear.” I packed the bottles and papers back in the bag, and examined the disk once more. Yep, it definitely wasn’t a coaster. The light was still flashing, so I pressed one of the buttons next to it. An antenna suddenly popped out at the top. What the? I pressed another button, and it ejected itself, showing it was connected by an insulated wire. As I pulled on the button that popped out, I immediately recognized it. “It’s the helm mounted communicator! Dangit, I didn’t recognize it at first because you were calling it a coaster, and I’ve only seen it actually mounted on helmets.”

     “Oh please, you were just as clueless as I was. Besides, anything’s a coaster if you use it like one. Now why’s it flashing still?” My brother pointed to the light as I was attempting to fix the communicator on the right side of my helmet. After it was connected, I pressed the last button and heard a moment of static before a voice came through.

     “-lo? If anyone is reading this, please respond! This is Recon Knight Rhendon, calling for any survivors!” I turned in a circle, until I was able to hear him clearest.

     “Ah, yes! This is Blast, rank Squire. I’m here with my brother Zimthose of the same rank. What’s your status Rhendon?”

     “Blast, is it? You guys alright? I’m, let’s see… My pod crashed some ways north of your current position. We should meet up and find the nearest rally point. Or set one up if there isn’t already. Be careful, and ready your swords! There are creatures everywhere around me.”

     “Roger that, Rhendon. We’re heading your way now.” There was a bit more static, and the communicator went silent.

     “Alright Zim, we’ve got our first orders. We need to find a pod located north of our position. The knight on the other end mentioned some creatures but wasn’t specific, so be ready for anything. Got it?” My brother drew his blaster, but tilted his head inquisitively.

     “Wait, north? Which way is that?” I opened my mouth to reply with a sarcastic comment, but realized that the thought hadn’t actually occurred to me.

     “Uhm, I don’t know actually. Rhendon just said he was north, but didn’t specify which way or how far away from us exactly. I was facing that way when I caught his signal though, and if we were able to pick up each others’ signal with these communicators then he can’t be too far, right?” I readjusted the bag hanging from my shoulder, just reassuring myself it was there. “You sure you didn’t leave a compass or anything else behind?” My brother shook his head, but I still felt doubtful after he admitted to throwing out our only food.

     “Aight, I’ll take point then. Try to keep up, bro!” Zimthose shouted, taking off in the direction I had pointed.

About 20 minutes later

Location: Rhendon's Crash Site

     We continued walking in the same direction for about fifteen minutes. We stayed quiet, hoping to come across anybody else before something found us. Eventually, my communicator picked up another message; it was Rhendon, telling us to change directions. A few minutes later, his crash site came into view: it was in the middle of a rocky clearing, some ways away from the forest we had been navigating. The first thing I noticed upon approach was the vaguely familiar pattern of red and black armor.

     "Hey, it's you!" Before I could say anything, the knight was already waving and shouting his recognition of me. “Man, am I glad to see you. This place seems so… alien, but at the same time, not? Anyways, I’m glad to see a familiar face and not another hostile.”

     "Good to see you too. Gotta say, I'm very thankful for you directing us towards those pods back on the Skylark. I'm Blast, and this is my broth-"

     "The name's Zimthose. Current rank Squire, soon to be Vanguard!" My brother pushed his way past me and held out his hand towards the new knight.

     "Hah, you've got quite a few hoops to jump through before you get there, but I like that spirit. Nice to meet you, too!" Rhendon sieved a sigh of relief, and shook his hand. "You know, even if you took the two remaining pods I sent you to, I'm surprised you managed to land and find each other so soon! Do you guys both have your bags?"

     “Wait, were we supposed to bring our own bags into the escape pod?” my brother asked, with genuine concern in his voice. I couldn’t help putting my hand to my face as I sighed.

     “No, moron, each pod has one bag. And we came in one pod, so that would mean…” I let my sentence trail off, hoping my brother would pick it up. He didn’t.

     “Wait a second,” Rhendon interjected. “You both came in one pod? How did you manage that? There’s only room for one knight to sit!” I glanced at my brother, seeing if he would explain. He glanced back, and gestured for me to tell the Recon Knight.

     “Long story short, the storage cabinet behind the seat is just big enough to hide in if you take off some of your gear. As for why we were in one pod… It just happened, I suppose?” I didn’t want to start an argument with my brother over who was to blame for our mishap in escaping the Skylark. Thinking of our ship, I looked around in the sky but could only see a heavy smoke trail leading far off into the distance.

     "I see… it’s a miracle for you to have survived the crash landing then. You must have incredible luck, huh?” the Recon Knight asked, smiling. I decided not to debate my luck at ending up with a brother who tosses away rations in exchange for a souvenir from surviving a crash. “I take it you two didn’t run into anyone else on the way, huh? Too bad, numbers bring security and I’d very much like that after seeing some of the creatures around here.”

     “You mentioned that earlier, but what did you see exactly?” I asked.

     “Yeah, all we’ve seen are some birds or something flying around,” my brother added.

     “Well, they were watching me from the tree lines over there, so I didn’t get the best look at them,” Rhendon said, pointing in the opposite direction we had arrived from. “They were quadruped beasts of some kind, probably closest resembling a warm blooded mammal by our standards.”

     “Ah, yes I see,” my brother commented. “Could you, ah, explain that in simpler terms for my brother by chance?”

     “They reminded me of hunting dogs or wolves back on Isora,” Rhendon replied with a sigh. “But again, I couldn’t tell. I can only hope they’re not-” The Recon knight stopped mid sentence, tensing up. "You both passed advanced combat training, right?" I followed his gaze and saw what must have been the creatures he’d seen earlier, charging straight for us.