Luke and Lena woke up from their sleep. They stepped out of the room and saw Gideon and Lyra in the main living area. Luke jumped in surprise when he saw Lyra asleep in Gideon's arms.
"What's going on?"
"Nothing," Gideon replied. "She stayed up all night working on this app."
He handed his phone to Luke. Luke looked at the screen and read the title. He was shocked to see that the app on Gideon's phone was a translator. Lena smiled and nodded.
"A translator app? How did she make this?"
"It was easy. Nai and I helped her yesterday," Lena said, catching Luke and Gideon's attention.
"Nai? Who's Nai?"
"She's my friend. I just met her a few days ago. She seems interested in medical stuff," Lena said, putting her hands on her hips and raising her chin like she was proud of herself.
"Lyra needed a bilingual dataset. So Nai and I became her test subjects."
"Oh, no wonder I didn't see you all day yesterday," Luke said. Lena smiled in response.
Gideon smiled too. It made him happy and relieved to see his team working together. Slowly, their ideas were starting to take shape because they supported each other.
Lyra's translator app was probably going to be a huge help. But Lena pointed out something Gideon and Luke didn't know yet.
"Since this is the first version of the app, the vocabulary and language library are still small. I suggested Lyra input important words first," Lena explained.
"At least that way, we won't struggle too much to talk to them."
Luke clapped his hands, surprised that the woman known for her sharp tongue had actually helped Lyra.
That was a relief to him—especially since he needed to talk to lots of people to help bring electricity to the small wolfkin village.
"Can I borrow your phone?" Luke asked. But Gideon quickly pulled his phone away.
"Use your own. Just install the app."
"I'll send the app over. Turn on your Bluetooth."
Gideon sent the app to Lena and Luke. They installed and tested it—the translator worked perfectly.
"Fuck off," Luke joked.
No result. The translator didn't pick up the curse. Lyra must've filtered words like that—she hated swearing.
It was her app, after all. Luke had no room to complain.
"Lyra always finds a way to mess with me."
Gideon put his phone away and carried Lyra from the main room back to her bedroom. Then, he told Luke and Lena to go out and introduce the app to the wolfkin—so they wouldn't be too shocked.
"Copy, Captain!"
Luke returned to the waterwheel power station, while Lena visited one of the houses that had been turned into a health clinic. They lifted their phones and started speaking through them.
Surprise spread across the wolfkin's faces. Their eyes widened as they stared at the new magic tool that could translate their language.
Curious, they stepped closer, eager to examine the device. When Luke spoke, they heard his voice come out like magic.
"This is a tool to help us talk. Do you understand?" Luke asked.
The wolf folk nodded. When they spoke, Luke held out his phone to catch their words.
Communication instantly improved. Luke and Lena were able to work much more efficiently.
Gideon stepped outside. He paused, startled by the noise coming from two directions—the power station and the health clinic.
The wolf folk were calling out to each other, gathering everyone to come see what the camo-clad team had brought. They were curious. They wanted to understand.
The waterwheel and electric lights had already amazed them. Now, they were in awe again—this time because of a tool that could speak their language, even though Luke and Lena were clearly speaking English.
Bian walked up to Gideon, followed by several other wolfkin men with eager faces. They wanted to know what this tool was.
Gideon smiled. He reached into his pocket and showed them his phone. He gave a quick explanation of how it worked.
He didn't call it a phone—just a translator tool. The idea of a "phone" was too foreign for the wolfkin to grasp.
"With this tool, I can talk to you," Gideon said, playing a sample voice from his phone.
Bian and the others listened, then smiled and nodded. No doubt about it now—this camo team was using magic.
"Is it magic?"
"No, it's not magic," Gideon answered.
"Then what is it?" Bian asked.
"It's a translator. It uses two different language datasets and connects one to the other. So, whatever I say becomes your language."
Bian tilted his head. What was a dataset? What was a translator? How did it work?
'Good grief… Is this what the Dark Ages were like?' Gideon sighed.
He nodded to himself. If calling it magic made it easier for them to understand, then so be it.
After all, technology is just magic backed by science. That much was true.
"So, what do we do next?" Bian asked. He was the leader of the village's guard team.
Fifteen wolfkin stood in front of Gideon, including Bian. Gideon had already explained basic modern defense systems to them before. But language barriers had made it difficult.
"We don't know when the invaders will return. But we can still prepare!"
"Bian, divide your team into three squads."
"Understood."
Bian turned around and split the fifteen into three groups of five. It was easy for him.
He introduced Jan and Lud as the leaders of Squads 1 and 3, while he would lead Squad 2. Gideon smiled. It was easy to organize them.
Maybe they were obedient because they saw his team as alphas? Could be.
"Do you have any watchtowers?" Gideon asked.
"Some of them were damaged in the last war. We haven't had time to repair them."
"I see…"
"Well then, I know what you can work on."
Gideon took Squad 1 with him. They stepped out of the village and did a quick survey of the land—checking terrain and surface features.
He hadn't used his UAV drone yet. Lyra was still sound asleep. But usually, watchtowers were built up to 300 meters from the center of a village, tall enough to give a wide view.
After 30 minutes of walking around, Gideon found two suitable spots: one on a hilltop, and one to the east.
Luckily, the west was rocky hills—hard for enemy troops to cross. The south was the coastline—not much of a threat.
"We're going to build new watchtowers."
"Where?" Jan asked.
Gideon pointed toward the east and up to the hilltop. Human invaders had come from the north before. The rocky hills stretched from the west to the north of the village.
A tower up there would help the wolfkin spot enemies earlier.
Jan looked in both directions, then nodded. Attacks from the east were rare, but not from the north. They still feared more invaders would come.
"Alright. We understand."
Squad 1 split into two smaller teams to build watchtowers in both places. Gideon nodded, then turned his attention to Squad 3, led by Lud.
"Your village walls are strong. But we need palisades."
"Palisades?"
"They're defensive fences—wooden, with sharp ends. We'll shape them along the wall."
Gideon pointed from north to east. That was the area needing stronger defense. Without palisades, cavalry could break through.
"How do we build them?"
"Cut large logs into medium-sized wooden stakes. Don't make them too small."
"Sharpen one end, then plant the stakes in the ground, angled forward."
"They need to be taller than your village walls," Gideon added.
Lud listened closely. He got the idea, more or less—but still looked unsure.
Gideon stepped forward, inspected the ground, and told them to dig a trench one meter deep. That way, the stakes would sit higher.
"Try building one. I'll check it afterward."
"Got it," Lud said.
Then, Gideon turned to Squad 2, Bian's group. They would be the recon and surveillance team.
There weren't enough radios to go around. But Gideon had another idea.
A whistle.
"This is a whistle," he said. Bian and the others nodded.
Gideon showed them how to use it. He tried teaching them Morse code, but for now, he stuck with simple tones.
PIP!
PIIIIIP!
PIP!
Bian flinched. He'd seen humans use something like this before—but didn't expect Gideon to have one too.
Gideon blew the whistle in three patterns—an emergency code known as SOS.
The sound echoed through the village, catching the attention of wolfkin children, and even making the adults stop for a moment.
"That's a danger signal. One short, one long, then one short."
"Do you understand?" Gideon asked, handing the whistle to Bian.
Bian studied it, then brought it to his lips and gave it a try.
PIP... PIIIIIP... PIP!
The sound startled him—but he was excited. The rest of the team took turns testing it out.
Gideon smiled, hands on his hips, watching how quickly they caught on.
'Never thought I'd see a wolf blow a whistle in my life,'Gideon thought, chuckling.
He handed them two more whistles, and split Squad 2 into smaller patrol units.
"Never blow it unless the village is really in danger. Understand?" he warned.
Bian and the others nodded. They started their patrols in different directions.
Gideon felt relieved. Lyra's translator app was already proving to be a lifesaver.
Luke walked up to Gideon, wiping sweat from his face.
"Wolves with whistles. Not something you'd see on Earth, huh?"
"Nope. Only here."