Being tired, the greater majority of the group kept their hands down, the only two raising their hands being Doug and Mark.
“Well, that settles it. We break here,” Philbert softly triumphantly declared. He did not fancy having to walk another mile that day even if the guides told him otherwise. “We should take turns watching two at a time. I’ll take the first watch. Who else is with me?”
Determining that this would be a good opportunity to talk some more with Philbert, Max spoke up, “I’ll join you.”
After dividing into shifts, the rest of the party was asleep, including the warriors in the front room, although they slept very lightly. Philbert and Max were left the only ones still awake, being on watch.
At this point Max decided to strike up a conversation to pass the time as well as learn some more about the Pak tribe. “If all of the tribes food comes from the hatches, what do they do with the rest of their time?” he asked.
“The villagers are free to do as they please with their time, although many of them spend much time in prayer to the House Gods giving them praise and requesting continued prosperity and food. The children are taught by their parents usually. Every three cycles the tribe usually gathers to pay respect for to the House Gods in the village center.”
“Do they have any physical activities such as sports?”
“Sometimes, though nothing organized. A common game played among the children is to have one child close their eyes and count to twenty, while the rest of the children hide. Sometimes that game will captivate them for hours,” Philbert replied. “What about you? What did you do on your ship? What did you say it was called again?” he asked.
“I can’t remember the name of my ship, I just can’t. I believe I was frozen for far too long and I’ve suffered brain damage as a result,” Max sadly replied.
“I’m sorry, perhaps deeper in this world we may find something to help reverse that,” Philbert added hopefully, feeling bad for bringing up Max’s pain again.
“On the ship I think I was the captain, and Mark, my brother, was the engineer. I was the leader. We were on our way to the home world of our people, but we have been delayed indefinitely due to this setback of crashing on this world. The ship will never travel again, so our only hope is to contact our people on other worlds or between them,” Max concluded.
“We will find a way to help you somehow. Perhaps this quest will also deliver our people to salvation as well as help you be rescued,” Philbert hopefully suggested.