“Alright! Let’s start with the introductions.” The woman said with a bit forced smile after finally the two boys calmed down and everyone sat in the grass.
Then she pointed at herself while looking at Leo and said, “I’m Runamata. You two, play along!”
“I’m Bimpo.” The first guy said pointing at himself and then at the other one, “He’s Onatanaka.”
Since there was no reaction from the little fatty, Runamata few more times pointed at each of them and called their names.
Fortunately the kid wasn’t completely dumb and soon pointed at himself and said, “Leo.”
The eyes of the three teachers lit up realizing there was hope. The next part went as easy. Runamata picked up one fruit after another and only after Leo correctly repeated the name he got to eat it.
Bimpo actually was right – hunger was a great motivator. Leo had skipped meals for two days and gobbled down anything he got his hands on. The rules were also simple and during the time that takes an incense stick to burn he learned the names of several fruits in addition to eating his full.
Unfortunately the next part didn’t go so well. The trio tried to teach how to form sentences, but not only Leo didn’t respond or properly memorize, at times he didn’t even pay attention to them, but kept curiously glancing at the sect members who slowly began to gather near the large tubs.
Leo couldn’t understand why he should learn the language of some small jungle tribe and hoped these people would finally give in and start talking normally, like everyone at home did. In addition, the sight of a couple of tasty looking young ladies who arrived and began doing strange stretching exercises near the tubs was much more interesting.
“Ok, seems I have to prepare a bit better for tomorrow.” Runamata finally gave up and said, “You two, continue to talk to him till he goes to sleep. Even listening to the language will be helpful even if it doesn’t seem so at first.”
“Sorry, we have to work.” Onataka said pointing at the sect members preparing to take their baths.
“Just how dumb are you? Elder Ido appointed the two of you so you can take turns in teaching him and at the same time keep working. To help our fellow brothers and sisters to get as strong as possible during this month is incredibly important, so work hard. I’ll be back tomorrow morning.” Runamata said and left.
When she was far enough, the two murmured few insults at her back, but actually did as she said. Their job was to prepare medicinal baths for the fellow sect members and clean the tubs afterwards and, while they were probably at the lowest rank in the sect, the baths were quite important for the cultivation of others, especially during the following month.
Even though Runamata mentioned the ‘preparation for war’, both Bimpo and Onataka knew it was only a rumor that was started late last night. In addition to that there were several other versions why the sect master ordered everyone to step up, but unfortunately all resulted in them having more work. And then to spice things up elder Ido tasked them with teaching the little fatty – no wonder the two were not in a good mood.
For Leo the rest of the day was much more pleasant than the intense morning. With the mother gone the two sons took turns in looking after him so he had much more free time to observe the people soaking in the tubs. In a way those reminded how Leo took medicinal baths back home, but that was so long ago he didn’t clearly remember the details.
With the sunset most sect members began to leave and Leo was left alone while the two guys began to carry the tubs to the ocean to thoroughly wash them. For lowly workers they seemed to be really fit and Leo realized that they definitely were fellow cultivators who unfortunately had to work hard and didn’t have much time for cultivating themselves. And apparently their mother had the night shift and was working even harder since she didn’t come home last night.
Realizing this Leo felt sorry for the poor family and decided to help them out from the next day on. After all they did feed him.
In the morning Runamata arrived well prepared. Last night she made a detailed month long lesson plan with separate subjects and themes for every day. Elder Faluno advised her to focus on teaching the basics properly since no one had said how fluent the boy had to be, thus her goal became to teach Leo enough so he could hold a simple, casual conversation. All that was needed was for him to learn around two hundred words and in thirty days that would be barely seven words per day – even an idiot could learn that much.
Looking at Runamata Leo realized she hadn’t slept well or even at all, but still did her best to teach him. Out of pity or maybe respect he gave in and did his best to learn as well. Truth to be said it became quite interesting since she had writing utensils with her and for the first time in his life Leo learned how to write. Of course, he would’ve preferred to learn how to write in a real language, but then he decided that if the first one was a simple jungle language it would work as a nice practice for the future.
Runamata turned out to be a talented and fun teacher, but unfortunately she had many other duties and came only in the morning and after dark. The rest of the time Leo was taught by Bimpo and Onatanaka who after following Runamatas instructions actually did pretty well.
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There was a reason why elder Ido volunteered to provide teachers for Leo. Obviously because they weren’t as talented in cultivation and thus their time was not as valuable for the sect in the grand scheme of things, but also because the two were complete blabbermouths while being passably intelligent at the same time.
From an outsider’s perspective it might look as if they were lazy bums who only washed the dirty tubs, but actually they were also responsible for making proper baths and that included the knowledge of the recipes and ingredients. Because the universal alchemy language in the world was the main dialect of the Immortal Alliance, they had to be fluent in it therefore elder Ido knew they were the best candidates for the task. Of course, he missed the fact that the two had no clue how to communicate with a child, but luckily elder Faluno sent Runamata over on time.
During the next five days Leo made a decent progress. Reasonably quickly he became capable of formulating short sentences and understand most of a conversation if it was about regular everyday subjects. The boy even showed interest in cultivation thus raising hopes of his teachers about teaching him more advanced stuff.
The four spent so much time together they did actually began to look something like a family. In the morning and evening they were eating meals together while during the day Leo tried to help out by serving people at the tubs.
Of course, he only ‘served’ towels to the female ‘clients’, but they found the child to be adorable and didn’t mind. Leo was thrilled by the open mindedness of the tribes-people and could freely enjoy the proximity of the fit and well trained female bodies which looked especially pleasant to the eye after coming out the tubs.
Leo quickly developed a theory that people actually ought to live only in places with warm and pleasant weather so they could wear as little clothing as possible. He even began to think that actually this little jungle tribe was much more advanced than the people in Farrand with their fancy houses, carriages and ships. In addition, everyone here was a cultivator, even simple workers like his new family and that brought up another idea.
He had tried to cultivate as well, of course according to the Lyam’s secret technique, but the more time flowed by, the more difficult it became to find the fated fire spark. After cultivating for over half a year in the ‘chicken’s nest’ the amount of lightning bolts in his consciousness increased manyfold making the job almost impossible and Leo realized he needed either another technique or special cultivation supplements in order for him to make an actual progress.
Thus one night when the four were gathered at the bonfire right next to the ocean, Leo brought up the subject of Firewater. It took some time for the others to understand what the child had in mind, but after he explained that the amazing alchemy product was used by sailors during long voyages, Bimpo finally guessed what he was talking about and loudly laughing promised he had something even better – a special ‘Firegrass’!
Onataka and Runamata watched him in confusion until he returned from their hut with a small package of dried grass and, after finally realizing what he had in mind, laughed until tears rolled down their cheeks. It was hard to believe the boy thought of alcohol as a cultivation resource, but on the other hand it did have the effect of relaxing a person and freeing their mind in a sense making the meditation process for some people less tedious.
Of course, the stuff Bimpo brought relaxed a person on a completely another level, but the downside was the consuming technique or rather – the process. Leo had learned to enjoy the taste of Firewater or Firepaste, but inhaling the smoke of the Firegrass made him cough and left an unpleasant aftertaste. On the other hand the lack of thirst or headache in the morning was a considerable bonus.
The three teachers watched Leo in disbelief how after taking few deep inhales and almost coughing his lungs out, the fat boy sat in the lotus position to meditate. Of course, he instantly passed out, but they found the process hilarious.
While Leo soundly slept, the trio finished Bimpo’s reserves and Runamata left with words, “Tomorrow I’ll bring you boys the real stuff!”
Watching her sway away in the darkness with a mysterious smile on the lips, Bimpo and Onataka grinned widely – turns out the madam was not half bad after all.
In the morning Leo woke up all fresh and full of energy. He did remember the last nights events, but was not certain if the cultivation went well. To his surprise Runamata didn’t come, but to his question ‘where is mom?’ the two youths vaguely replied ‘she’ll be back in the evening with something good’.
It was already dark when she arrived at the bonfire on the beach and proudly presented Bimpo a tiny package.
“Three leaves each, no more than one for the fatty.” She said.
Bimpo nonchalantly shrugged and expertly made four thin tubes and passed them around.
Leo already saw the process last night, but the items Bimpo made were larger. During the process he stuffed the Firegrass in dried leaves since it was the proper cultivation supplement, but this time there was none – only leaves.
With furrowed brows Leo watched how the trio lit up their little leaf rolls and deeply sucked in the smoke from one end.
“Oh my god! This is soooo gooood!” Onataka whispered in a hoarse voice, rolling his eyes so far back only the white parts could be seen.
“Told you!” Runamata proudly said, but her eyes were already glassy and she kept gently swaying from side to side.
“Damn it! It’s so much better to work under elder Faluno!” Bimpo whispered with a sigh.
“Nah, I had to pull some strings so we can celebrate our success, boys.” Runamata said with a wide smile, “From what it looks like ten more days and our fatso will speak the main dialect almost as fluently as we do.”
Then she did another deep inhale, stretched and under stupefied eyes of the trio went down on her four.
“Watcha lookin’ at boys? Who’s going first? Don’t let the lady wait!” She said and licked her lips.
“Hahaha! I like you more and more!” Bimpo reacted first and comfortably positioned himself behind her.
Leo watched the duo start their business just like he had seen the apes hump each other countless times on the island … but this … this was their mother! There was no way he could ever do things like this to Camille! These guys … these guys were the ‘mother tuckers’ the sailors always spoke about!
“What … what are they doing!” Leo blurted out in shock.
“Celebrating!” Onataka said with a grin observing the two while for some reason weirdly scratching his crotch, “You’ll be soon ready and we’ll get rewarded. Who would’ve thought that one of the rewards will be … hahaha … I also want my share!
After saying that he walked over to the couple and knelt in front of Runamata, but Leo couldn’t watch it anymore. He threw the rolled up leaf in the fire and staggered away. There was no way he would ever try inhaling cultivation supplements ever again!