Some time passes and the sound of crashing water begins to grow louder.

“We’re almost at our destination. We’ll stay there for the night”, says Leor.

“Have you been here before? You seem to know your way around,” questions Ceri.

Leor hesitates for a moment, debating whether or not to give an answer. “Yeah... I actually grew up here and came to these woods a lot when I was a kid. We’re actually going to stay at the place I always went to when I spent the night in these woods.”

“Oh! That sounds interesting!”, exclaims Alden.

They reach their destination: a hole in the side of a cliff that stands near the waterfall.

“T-this…….. is it?” asks Alden.

“Yup.”

“You stayed in a cave?”

“Yup.”

“As a kid?”

“Yeah... “

Alden grabs Leor by the shoulders with tears in his eyes. “You poor soul...”

A blood vessel emerges from Leor’s temple. “Shut up”, says Leor as he slaps Alden’s hands off.

“The sun is setting soon. We need to split up to collect firewood and gather food.”

The corner of Alden’s lip twists upward into a smirk. “I’ll collect the firewood! You two go collect food.”

“W-wait, I’m supposed to-”

Alden sprints away before Leor could finish his sentence.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

Leor lets out a deep sigh as he shakes his head.

“Again, I’m sorry for Lord Alden. He can be a big handful...” says Ceri.

“Whatever… come on. Let’s hurry and find some food before Alden gets too lost. I know an area thriving with animals.”

“We’re going to hunt animals!?”

“Yeah…. What else are we going to eat?”

“I- I’m not sure. I just don’t want to see an innocent creature get hurt!”

“Well, it’s either that or starve. Your choice.” Leor points his thumb at himself. “All I know is I’m eating meat tonight.”

A high-pitch squeal interrupts their conversation.

“Oh, it seems like we’ll be eating good tonight!” says Leor.

He runs toward the source of the squeal. Ceri chases after him. She quickly bumps into Leor who suddenly stopped out of nowhere. Wondering why he stopped so suddenly, she peers over his shoulder to see a trench below. It was about the height of an average adult human. In the trench, a baby boar is running around frantically, crying because it’s trapped.

Leor’s lips curl into a smile as he looks at his future meal. Ceri is shocked to see Leor salivate at the adorable little creature.

“Stop! You can’t eat the poor little thing!”, shouts Ceri as she jumps down to rescue it from Leor and the trench. She quickly picks up the boar and climbs out.

“Hey, wait! It’s dangerous!” yells Leor as he chases after Ceri.

The earth begins to shake with every passing second. Trees begin to fall from their right side, causing explosively loud thuds to echo throughout the forest. A large boar the size of a boulder appears from the debris, sprinting from the side.

Ceri’s eyes nearly pop out of her head. “H-huge!!!”, screams Ceri. Unable to muster any other words to describe the behemoth.

Leor whispers to himself, “Shit..! I’m not going to make it in time!”

He focuses his energy into his back leg and releases it into the dirt to accelerate forward. Tackles Ceri and the piglet barely out of the charging boar’s path. Grazing Leor’s shoulder causing them to tumble into the ground with Leor twisting his body to make contact with the dirt first.

Leor checks to see if Ceri’s okay. As he’s gazing into Ceri’s emerald green eyes, a sharp pain washes over Leor’s mind. He grabs his head and grits his teeth to hide the pain, but his face shows visible signs of it.

“A-are you okay!? You look like you're in pretty bad shape.”, cries Ceri.

He weakly replies, “Stay back.” as he slowly stands up, drops his knees, and extends his hands forward. Leor digs his feet into the dirt to brace for the incoming charge.

Ceri stares at Leor who is breathing heavily. She furrows her eyebrows with determination and stands up. She grabs the cowering piglet and stands in between Leor and the charging boar.

“What are you doing!? You’re going to get yourself killed!”

Ceri locks eyes with the rampaging boar. It shows no signs of slowing down. However, Ceri stands tall with fierce resolve. She shoots her arms forward, presenting the piglet, closes her eyes, and prays to Lord Ludwig.

The beast notices the piglet and stomps its hooves into the dirt, grinding to a halt. It cautiously approaches Ceri and the piglet, sniffing the tiny creature. The baby boar reciprocates the sniff with a tiny peck on the larger boar’s nose. Boop. Both pigs let out squeals of joy.

Ceri puts down the tiny piglet, and both boars slowly walk away side by side.

Leor drops to one knee, dumbfounded by the transaction. He chuckles to himself.

This woman is ballsy, I’ll give her that.

He looks up to see Ceri rushing to his side, yelling something, but he couldn’t make out what she was saying. His eyes meet her’s once again and the sharp, overwhelming pain rushes throughout his mind and body. His vision begins to get hazy.

“This pain…. What hell is going!?”, he grunts before passing out.