22 - DAYS IN THE WOODS II

As she looked around at the one-meter odd tall spikes all around her, she was left in awe and disbelief. Was it really her who did that? So many thoughts ran in her mind, but the ends of her mouth ever so subtly rose by themselves.

Edgar, on the other hand, was calculating things in his mind. He had to go through hell of a physical training to unlock Drive, but he didn’t want Fabby to experience such tireless practice. So he bet on her absorbing the core would be a better thing to do. As for unlocking the drive, she could slowly get closer to that. Though his Master told him that physical training wasn’t necessary to unlock one’s Drive and that it could also be achieved through severe mental training, Edgar knew where that path would lead. He just didn’t want his sister to put through the mental burden again. The trauma she had gone through all these years was already too much. If the drive didn’t unlock with that, then it only meant that such a way was just not worth risking.

After all, if simple mental trauma unlocked one’s drive, then most slaves in the world would be capable of obtaining it sooner or later. So, Edgar had come to the conclusion that a strong body and a healthy mind would make it much easier to unlock drive than an average body and a broken mind.

He came over to her and took out a gray-colored core, startling her.

“Is that…”

“Yeah, it belongs to the ram that I killed yesterday,” said Edgar, tossing the core in his palm, causing the monkeys’ heads to move up and down. “This won’t give you an ability, but it will enhance your physical strength.”

“You should take it.”

“No. You need it more. Since the earth’s core is showing reactions, your body is now able to withstand simple stones like these,” Edgar said, and the eyes of the monkeys were still on the core, and they were drooling. “With this you’ll find it easier to move around in these woods.”

“But what about you? It’s not easy to find beasts with cores, right?” she couldn’t help but ask.

“Yes, but we are in no hurry,” he assured.

“Mm,” she nodded and took the core.

“Besides, without taking more cores, you can’t catch up with me.”

“Say what?” she waved her arm as though she was about to toss the core to the monkeys.

Edgar skipped on his toes. “Nothing. I said nothing!” he touched his ears and apologized. “I’m sorry.”

Fabby grinned in return. “That’s more like the little brother I know.” Though she had said that, she was feeling very glad in her heart because he was always like that, competing with her when they were young. However, he stopped competing after he had become a cripple. Now, he seemed to be expressing himself freely, so she felt really glad for him, though it didn’t quite reflect in her words.

Soon, Edgar and Fabby were on the move again, with the seven monkeys following them from a distance. After all, afternoon was the best time to move in the woods. When they found a suitable spot for staying, they settled there for a few days.

Edgar couldn’t leave his sister alone, so he took her along for hunts. When the target was weak, like with the deers and rabbits, she also joined in. The monkeys helped in catching the prey’s attention, and then the siblings waited for the right opportunity to strike and kill the prey as quickly as possible. Having said that, Fabby never made the killing strike. Sometimes, she even let the targets escape when she felt bad from hearing their cries. Though the monkeys got mad at her, they couldn’t vent their anger on her, afraid of Edgar breaking their teeth.

Together, the nine beings faced no real threat all this while. It was thanks to Edgar, the monkeys could even taunt bigger prey like the gorillas and deer and then get to taste their rich meat after Edgar had taken care of them. After all, the stronger the beast, the more strength their meat would give the eater. So, they had their reasons to follow Edgar, even though it was actually him who initially subdued them and forced them to work for him. If not for the benefits, those monkeys would have long escaped, and knowing that, Edgar gave them a big share for many good reasons. It was his way of ‘tempting’ them to stick around.

Also, it was the monkeys that helped him avoid troublesome prey like the pythons, panthers, and tigers. As much as Edgar wanted to fight them, he just didn’t want to take risks with his sister around. So he took things slow, and though there were a few times when things got tricky, like when the wilds dogs attacked them, the difference between their strength and Edgar was too much to bridge even with their numbers, so nothing bad happened from that encounter.

Throughout these days, Edgar was honing all the skills he had learned, and he was in a much better shape than when he had come out of the valley. The only negative thing that happened during his time in the woods was that his blades got more tiny chips, which slowly but surely grew into cracks every time he covered them with Drive.

Fabby, on the other hand, was always challenging the leader of the troop. Though she lost every time, she was catching up slowly, and their fights grew longer. Whoever lost would pick the lice and other bugs hiding in the winner’s hair. So she always ended up picking dozens if not hundreds of lice from Lice’s body. Over time, they had become both friends and rivals at the same time. And yes, she named the leader, Lice, given how many times it made her pick the lice.

The monkeys were afraid of playing with Edgar because when they went too far with their monkeyness, he rapped their heads with his mighty knuckles, so they became better friends with his sister.

All in all, the days in the woods went by rather smoothly from Edgar’s end. Even though Fabby felt sour most of these days, the positive change in her life after coming out of the Shushui mountain range hugely overshadowed every troublesome thing this new journey threw at her.