After taking a "shower" in the lake, me and Zeke put on our dried tunics. Meanwhile, the girls donned a new gown for themselves. Honestly, it wasn't fair! How come they get more options of clothes to choose from?
I also managed to learn that Cassie was the one who crafted all of these. I wasn't really surprised to know this, since I already had suspicious, but it was good to know and it made sense why she made more clothes for girls. With Isabella influencing her, it just made things worse!
While I was having these thoughts, Zeke appeared behind me and patted my back.
"I get how it's like to use a powerful weapon, too."
I blinked in surprise. Looking up at the masked man, before looking back down at the grave.
'Oh, right....I have been staring it for quite some time.'
Before I could open my mouth, Zeke dramatically continued, his tone heavy.
"It's like losing a loved one. They fought alongside, listened silently to you whenever you vented and never judged you."
Zeke shook his head.
"But we must move on. For the sake of you're spear. For our future. For you're future."
I stared at him with a look that said;
'Is this dude being serious?'
Zeke saw my expression and broke into a fit of laughter. Without saying anything, he turned his back to me and walked off. I sighed and shook my head, following closely behind.
It was already noon— guessed by the postion of the sun— so, it was the perfect time to move out. However, before we could, Isabella raised a question, looking around the camp worried.
"Is it a good idea leaving the camp unattended? Maybe we were being observed all night? With perpetrators waiting until we had left the camp, to steal everything here?!"
That was a good question. Even I was interesed in the answer. Instinctively, my head turned towards Zeke. However, it was Cassie who answered.
"You're right....I should probably stay behind."
All three of us stared at her in surprise, causing her to shift from one foot to another nervously, quickly clarifying.
"It's because my blessing just overall isn't well-suited for hunting. Im more of a recon. So, I think it's best if I stayed behind, while you three went hunting."
Isabella wasn't convinced. In fact, she seemed more worried than anyone else here. Taking a step forward, she placed both her hands on Cassie's shoulders.
"If you're staying behind, im also staying behind."
I sighed, knowing where this was going. I could already smell an argument. Still, I should try to defuse this. Before Cassie could open her mouth, I spoke.
"I think you should let her stay with you, Cas. There is no harm in it."
Zeke, who was silent, suddenly shook his head.
"No, let's go. All three of us. Cassie will stay behind."
Both me and Isabella had a bewildered look, exclaiming simultaneously.
"Huh?"
Zeke sighed. I couldn't see the expression he was making behind the mask.
"Let's just go."
Without another word, he was practically dragging the both of us. I suddenly felt a bolt of anger and almost attacked Zeke, but that was before he suddenly halted and whispered to our ears.
"Don't stomp on that little girls pride. This is the first time she has made a decision herself. It's dangerous, but we have to consider how she feels too."
He held go of us both. I didn't really know what to say, I could only listen to Isabella shout out.
"Are you kidding me? She's a child! Of course she will have pride! We aren't supposed to encourage that!"
I nodded my head in agreement, but Zeke didn't seem phased.
"Let's just go. She's strong enough to handle herself, im pretty certain of it."
I glanced back towards where the camp was. I couldn't see Cassie, but I saw movement inside one of the tents. So, she is hiding inside. Good plan. Is it, though?
I shook my head of these thoughts.
"Let's not argue about this, Isabella. We need to focus on hunting. Im sure that's what Cassie wants too."
Isabella seemed hesitant, but listened to me. To be honest, im unsure why she was reacting this way. Well, I wasn't exactly sure of how long Isabella has spent with these two, but im sure it wasn't too long. If so, why is Isabella so attached to Cassie? Is it because she's a child? Because she's a girl like herself? I couldn't understand. Maybe I never will.
With that, the three of us started walking deeper into the depths of the jungle.
________________________________________
We were walking down an unfamiliar path to both me and Isabella. Both of us were walking alongside each other, with Zeke in the center, leading us. In this part of the forest, I heard the sound of water flowing just beside me. Glancing to my right, I saw a thin river, stretching through the jungle, something I have never seen before from the part of the jungle where I spawned.
The trees here wasn't as tall as back where I spawned either, but still offending them to an average tree wouldn't do them justice. They will towered above enough to block out the sunlight, filling the entire area of Shadows.
During the walk, we didn't encounter any wild animals, but we did see some corpses lying around. Which worried me, compelling me to ask;
"Are you sure it's safe going this way?"
Zeke shrugged, casually side-stepping the corpse, then jumping from a log to another.
"Of course it is. Trust me."
I followed him, jumping from the log directly to the other one. Isabella wasn't too far behind, she could of glided through the air using her wind manipulation, but for the sake of keeping her abilities secret for now, she simply jumped off like me.
I decided to trust Zeke. While this may have been a rash decision, considering I barely knew him, but in truth, it's just that trusting him was the best way to build trust between us. I want this alliance to last long. Always being paranoid isn't good for my mental health. In this battle royale I have come to realize how important reliable relationships were.
So, I decided to trust.
Eventually, after some walking, we heard some sounds. It sounded awfully similar to groans of a bear and the roars of a tiger. There was a lot of tumbling, flesh-hitting-flesh in the distance, followed by scratching noises. It wasn't difficult to tell that a massive battle was going on.
"What's happening?"
Isabella asked. Zeke didn't say anything, but placed a finger at where the mouth of the mask should be, as if asking us to be quiet. Both of us nodded and shut our months, listening.
Zeke began inching closer to where the sounds were coming from. Both of us followed closely behind, hands on our weapons ready. I didn't take out [Fool's Rapier] since that would be giving away some of my capabilities to Zeke, so I had a plain ol' spear with me. Not comparable to my loyal Retainer at all, by the way.
We finally reached the source of where the sounds were coming from.
Pushing aside some bushes, from within them, we saw a scene.
Two groups of bears and tigers were fighting each other. Each group had four members, but I could tell by the amount of corpses laying on the ground, that they had alot more. There were tons of tiger corpses lying around, majority of them being tiger corpses, while a few were bear corpses.
It seemed the bears held an advantage.
"Free meat."
I heard Isabella say. From the corner of my eyes, I saw her eyes sparkling with greed. She was practically licking her lips. I had to resist the urge to roll my eyes at her. But she wasn't wrong. We got lucky together, stumbling upon all this free real estate.
The eight remaining wild animals were circling each other. The tigers were heavily wounded. It seemed like they were contemplating a treat. Which, I honestly, didn't really care for. I wanted them to retreat. Then, the bears will do the same considering the heavy casualties and injuries they endured.
When that happens, all the corpses are ours!
"Let's wait."
I heard Zeke say. Both me and Isabella nodded, sitting back down on the ground and watching the fight from the shadows. Maybe being too passive is risky, there is no guarantee that there isn't any other human observing this either, ready to snatch up the corpses once the animals had enough of this farce.
The tigers and bears continued to circle each other. They seemed too drained of their innate spirit to even use their blessings. Were they trying to activate them, but didn't understand why they weren't activating? I theorized, based on their behavior. It was foolish and very simple-minded, but expecting so much from mere beasts is already stupid enough from me.
Eventually, the beasts seemed to have realized something and accepted the fact that their blessing abilities wouldn't work. They were contemplating whether they should attack each other, but their self-preservation and rationality won over the need to protect their pride or greedy hunger. Thus, the Tiger's began strategically retreating.
The bears watched. One of them ran after them, a younger one. The rest of the bears indifferently turned around and limped away, holding their injuries. Some of them gave in and died to them before they could even leave the arena. I was certain the rest would die as well, including most of the tigers with the gravest wounds. It's a pity that they didn't know how to bandage their own wounds.
"Let's go."
I heard Zeke, before he abruptly rushed forward. Just as he did though, three other shadows showed themselves. I was frozen for a few seconds, before rushing forward to aid Zeke. Isabella was already coming with me as well.
The three shadows revealed themselves. One, a young boy with a frail build, blond hair with bangs and pale skin. He was wearing nothing but a crude loincloth. The other one was a man with brown skin and fluffy black hair, he also was wearing only a loincloth, but this one much well-crafted compared to the young boy's one.
The last one revealed themselves to also be a man. He was well-dressed, in a white tunic resembling close to a shirt, but didn't seem to have had enough to craft himself a trouser, so he was also wearing a loincloth.
'Loincloth cohort?'
I thought, amused.
All of us stopped and stared at each other in silence for a few seconds, before ignoring each other and going for the meat instead. It was a silent understanding. A decision to prolong our fight till later.
They all began individually gathering meat from the corpses. They didn't seem to be allied, or part of the same group. This has to be one of the reasons why they didn't rashly attack, since we are together, protecting each other's weak points.
"Well....we should start collecting meat ourselves, right?"
Zeke and Isabella nodded. They were already picking up cutting meat from the corpses, without waiting any longer. I followed suit, using the spear and cutting out meat. We needed alot. This was a lucky haul.
The humans didn't make eye-contact with us, but did warily watch us for attacks. However, they were impatiently focused on the food. The same went for me, Isabella and Zeke.
Because of that we didn't notice something. When we did, it was already too late.
The ground shook beneath us. The moment it did, the brown skin and fluffy hair, along with the well-dressed man suddenly bolted. But the thre— four of us were too late. The ground shook once again, causing us to loose our footing and tumble. Eventually, it revealed a gaping hole. I don't know where it came from, or how it got there. But I didn't have time to ponder these thoughts.
As I was suddenly falling right through it, Isabella, Zeke and the blond boy. All four of us fell into the depths of the abyss.
"Ahhhhh!!"
I exclaimed while falling. All light produced from the hole at the top vanished. Until, there was only pure darkness left.