Φ As I feel the warm comfort of a bed, I realise what happened. I don’t want to get up because if I do, I have to face the fact that I failed again, even after everything I said to Orb. How many failures does this even make? Mother and father, I am sorry for letting all you’ve done for me go to waste. I genuinely am pathetic.
As my despairing thoughts continue, tears fall from my eyes, and soon after that, I hear, “Doctor, he’s crying.”
That Voice was Orbs, so I quickly opened my eyes to look around the room, and saw the doctor coming toward me with Orb not far behind.
After the doctor gives me one last look, he says I should rest for a few days. Then it’s just me and Orb left in the room as the doctor went to handle other business. Orb has a worried look and says, “Willow, I.”
“Sorry Orb, this is sort of embarrassing after everything I said to you earlier,” I say quickly, stopping Orb’s Sentence. “I guess this was a bad day. I still have next time; I won’t give up.”
“Willow.”
“Don’t worry about me Orb. I am full of energy, so that I will get straight back up from this in no time.”
“Wait, Willow.”
“And if I fail, I will keep repeatedly trying until I get it done, so don’t worry.”
“WILLOW!” Orb screams.
“Sorry, what’s wrong.”
“You’ve been crying.”
“Oh, sorry, I didn’t notice. This Is very embarrassing,” I say as I try to wipe tears from my eyes, but they keep coming. I can’t find any way to bring them to a stop. They are overflowing.
“Willow, would you please tell me your issue when hunting.”
Aggressively I say, “We are simply people who share information, so why would I tell you that.” After I say this, I look at Orbs face and realise the severity of what I said, so I try to leave.
But as I try to run away Orb grabs and throws me back on the bed saying, “Well, the reason you should tell me is simply, I consider us to be friends so if something is bothering you so much that is brings you to tears, I want to help..”
My tears start to fall faster as I say, “If you want to know, then I guess I have no choice, but there are some other things I must tell you first. Orb, do you know which adults in this village my parents are.”
After thinking, Orb says, “I am sorry if this is rude, but I think your parents aren’t currently in this village. Are they dead?”
“That is correct, but I am wondering who told you that.”
“No one, I figured it out.”
Confused, I asks, “How.”
“For two reasons: first for dining, there is a seating arrangement: husband, wife, then children by age, that’s how all families sit even beside Sequoia there is always an empty seat which I guess is for maple, but whenever I try to find you, you’re always sitting in a different location beside different people.
Second is the patterns on everyone’s clothes. Every family has a different one. An example would be the doctor. From his clothes and age, he is probably Pines husband. So due to these facts I guessed your parents where dead.”
“That’s some real deduction skill, but the important part is how they died. Both my mom and dad were two of the strongest warriors beside the chief. They were loved by everyone in the village and especially me.
One day I wanted to follow both my mom and dad to go hunting, so even though they warned me not to follow them because of the dangers, I ignored them and went anyway, so as I snuck out to watch both of them hunt for our village, I thought they were amazing.
After they had finished the hunt, I had to make sure I was home before either of them, so I ran back, but on my way, I got lost. I ran around until I found a field full of pretty flowers, I had never seen anything like this before, so I stopped to look.
As I was admiring the flowers I suddenly heard my parents screaming at me it seemed they found out I was missing and came to look for me, but I wasn’t able to hear them properly.
So, they ran over to me at full speed and threw me out of the flower field as the flowers where about to release their pollen, do to the force of the throw I fell unconscious.
Later that day, when I awoke in the village, I was giving a talk. You see, the flower releases a specific type of pollen as a protection mechanism, it forces the windpipe to tighten so you can’t breathe and die of suffocation. Both my parents had scummed to this.
I was heartbroken, my actions ended their lives, but despite that, no one in my village bore any hatred for me. They forgave me, and all had a hand in raising me.
I wanted to do something for the village that helped me, so I studied every single animal and plant our village has recorded so I could never make a mistake like that again. I worked hard to become a warrior so I could take up their position in the village.
But, whenever I am about to fight, I freeze up, I can’t move, I get overwhelmed with everything I need to keep account of, and then I become a liability that needs to be saved, and because of that, I haven’t been able to become a warrior.
“Willow, if that is your only problem, I have a fix for that.”
“Huh, really, what is it,” Willow says with a look of desperation.
“Patience is a virtue, so wait until tomorrow since you don’t have to be fully healed for this.”
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-Break-
“Orb, what is this,” is what I say as I see all the kids from the class holding spears with the bulbous ending.
“Well, your issue is that you get overwhelmed, so all we simply need to do is put you in a stressful situation with many factors.”
“Orb, do you think this will be hard.”
Looking confused for a second, Orb tells me, “Oh, so you don’t know well; I guess this will be more fun.”
Orb then faces the kids and says, “I will answer any questions you want me to for every hit you land on him, so go.”
After that, the kids rush at me as I dodge their hits effortlessly. One extremely fast comes at me, followed by more speedy ones. “Orb, what’s going on.”
“Well, you see, all these little kids inspired by you have been working as hard as possible, so you won’t be dodging them effortlessly, especially while you are still injured.”
It gets harder and harder to dodge their hits, but even when they hit me, it doesn’t hurt that much, and then I hear Orb say, “Kids, don’t forget about critical hits.”
What a critical hit, I think. As one of the kids hits me in my crotch, “WHYYYYYY!”
“Willow, I need to give you a sense of danger, so certain spaces on your body that would give you maximum pain are known as critical spots. Also, don’t forget there is no rest on the battlefield.”
Then all the kids beat me while I lay on the floor. Orb is annoying, but I have no choice, so I get up and continue to dodge. As I started getting the hang of it, a fist hit me in my side, knocking me down. It was Orb.
“You got to look out for unexpected elements, so I will attack you whenever I feel like it, so get ready.”
He is going above and beyond for me, so all I can do is rise to the challenge.
So, we continued with this unique training on top of our regular exercise for two months without rest, and then one day, when the warriors were going on their hunt, they saw both of us.
Buloke then walks up to them and says, “Willow, what are you doing here with that thing.”
Did the stomach puncher call me a thing?
“Orb and I will be following you guys on the hunt today. We will be warriors by the end of today.”
“Willow, don’t you remember what I told you, there are many things you can do instead of being a warrior.”
“I do, but I want to follow in my parent’s footsteps, so I plan on becoming a warrior with Orb, my friend.”
With a stressed expression, he says, “Ok then, but when you fail, I will come to save you like always, so don’t stress yourself out.”
Buloke then walks up to me and says, “Nice hair colour today.”
“Well, green is a nice colour.” Wait, this is a trap; then he suddenly knocks me out.
-Break-
Φ “Orb, get up,” I keep repeatedly hearing until my eyes open.
“I thought you wouldn’t be getting up for a while,” Willow tells me with a relieved look.
“So, when are we starting.”
“When they spot something, we should be able to take on alone.”
The information I was given as to how these exam works, is that the warriors in training Willow and me will take on whatever they can find for us, and if there is a problem, the rest of the warriors will jump in and help.
“Four waptors spotted”, one of the lookouts shouted.
“Are you ready, Willow.”
“Ready as I will ever be.” And so we head over.
While the rest of the warriors climb on top of the trees, Willow and I stand in the line of sight of the waptors, and then we hear Buloke shout, “Each one of you should kill two each,” his voice was so loud that it alerted the waptors of our position and they close in on us.
As they run close to us, I start to get nervous. Still, I don’t want to hold Willow back, so I run forward, but as I close in on the waptors, they seem much slower than the last times I saw them, much means I have gotten better.
I follow the instruction of Pine and dodge its bite, then dodge under its left wing, which puts me side by side with the other waptor on its right. I then cut the second raptor’s leg, making it fall. Then, as the first turns its head back, I cut it off. I then go to the waptor on the floor and stab it in the head.
I did it, as I was about to jump with excitement I look over to Willow, and he isn’t moving. He is shaking as the waptors come up to him, so without any hesitation, I run over at him and throw my spear and hit the raptor running in front, which causes the second one to trip and fall, then I run over at full speed, pull my spear from the first waptor and finish it off after that I face the second one.
When a waptor doesn’t have a running start, it jumps up and attempts to slice you with its wings, so I roll under it, and as it turns around, I cut off its head.
“Willow, what was that? There is no way those guys were harder than what I put you through.”
“I am sorry, Orb. I knew this would happen.”
This is bad. He is going to fail again. Was all the training we did unnecessarily, or maybe I got his issue wrong” but then suddenly I hear a roar
After looking over, I see a Predasaur with a large upper body, six arms, a semi-sphere head covered in white fur, sharp teeth, and two tiny stocky feet. It was an Atlas eater.
An idea suddenly hits me, so I shout to the rest of the warriors, “If Willow can defeat that predator, I think that’s enough to let him pass.”
I hear Aea shout, “No, it’s too dangerous”, but then Buloke says, “Fine, do what you want.”
So as the eater notices us, I run over to distract it and say, “Willow come on, you can do this.”
Φ “Buloke, why would you let this happen.”
“Aea, Willow needs to learn the hard way that he can’t be a warrior, and if his friend gets hurt due to his inaction, I believe that would be enough to stop his foolish desire but don’t worry, I won’t let them die.”
Φ As I get close to it, the eater uses its hands to try and crush me. In pines classes, we learn that it attacks in a pattern with its six arms, and I must dodge each perfectly because a single strike by the eater will break my bones. The difficulty is increased, because I need to think of a way to get Willow to fight.
I got to break this down. Willow isn’t being overloaded by information, and he can’t be scared of dying since he saved me from Buloke, so what is it? Then I suddenly realise what the issue is, but as I figure it out, the eater switches up its attack pattern.
Damnit, I wasn’t paying enough attention. I knew this would happen if I dodged too much, so I jumped back to get out of its range, but the eater lunged forward, trying to bite me. I use my spear to defend myself, but its head hits me and the impact knocks me back to willow.
“Orb, are you ok.”
“Willow, you idiot”, I say as I get close to him. “I know you can do this regardless of whatever anyone has said or what you believe you can do, I will put my full faith and trust in you, if you’re going to make a mistake and die. At least do it while you’re doing something you want I believe then even if you fail you can be proud.”
Willow slaps himself in his face and tells me, “I can do this.”
Then at full speed, Willow leaves me and runs toward the eater.
Φ First, I have got to dodge its arms. When it changes patterns, just react and dodge its arms. After enough time, its bottom two arms will get tired and will use them for stability. In the moment it does that, I run a full speed under and due to my height, I can get under its belly, which is its weak spot. I then stab the eater’s stomach with all my might piercing through.
The eater then turns around and lunges at me, but due to my height, I can again duck under it, and I stab in for a second time with my spear and with that, its falls.
I look at the eater’s body, shocked but then I scream, “Orb everyone, I did it”
“You did, Willow.”
Afterwards, I ran to Orb’s body as all the warriors jumped down from the trees to congratulate us. Mom and dad, I did it; I was able to become a warrior.
Buloke, who decided to stay in the trees, looked down, baffled.
Log of animals
Name: Atlas Eater
Height: 410cm
Type: Carnivore
Description: It has a large upper body with six arms, a semi-sphere head covered in white fur, sharp teeth, and two tiny stocky feet.
Fact: they can roll their entire body into a ball to sleep.