Steven had built a village.

I have to apologize for that statement. I know going back on what I’ve said can have a negative effect on my story telling. For instance, if I feel compelled to go back on that statement now, how many others were grossly inaccurate, or at the very least, misrepresented? Even knowing that this may break a level of trust between us, I simply can’t let the statement ‘Steven had built a village’ stand. It is devoid of any type of basis, and is unabashedly incorrect from any angle that may claim to be the truth. I have standards for accurately portraying this story to the utmost of my ability, and I can’t with a clean conscious associating the word ‘built’ to the pile of refuse Steven had clumped together. Also, ‘village’ should not be anywhere near the sentence. I am going to try again, damn the consequences, and this time I would get as close to the truth as possible for someone in my position.

Steven had loosely organized a murderous pack of greens into shuffling debris until it appeared he had a semi-function campsite.

Yes, that felt much better to say.

“Stop trying to eat the tent!” Steven swatted at one of the greens who was chewing a pile of leaves hanging off a rock in a style that Steven decided qualified as a tent. There were a few rows of these tents, enough for all of the greens and Steven included, even after the first few had caught fire. The green wiped chewed green leaf off its face and walked away in disgrace, upset at itself for disappointing Steven.

Now that was a whole other bag of disasters. Teaching the greens how to start a fire felt like a huge mistake now that Steven thought about it. He’d been showing some of them how to cook food, mostly for himself since they didn’t seem to mind chewing on the deer they caught raw, and felt very lucky when the steel lumps they had worked a lot like flint. Steven didn’t see their eyes as they watched him start the fire, how the edges of their mouths curled up as they watched the flames.

Fifteen minutes later and the cooking pit was a crime scene, and what he was planning to turn into a tannery was well on its way.

After teaching the greens fire, they all listened to Steven as well as could be possibly expected from wild forest beings. They strained themselves to hear and understand the words he said, “You dumb green, stop starting fires!” or, “What are you doing just standing in the fire? What’s wrong with you!” but the words were still mysteries for now.