Leo was standing at the entrance of a cave and in front of him were gathered at least hundred, if not two hundred children. All were similarly naked, with many having beards and quite a few – boobies, but what made him completely creep out were the many teeny tiny doll-sized children not bigger than one, maybe one and a half foot in size whom other kids were holding in their hands. Some were crying, some sucking on the tiny boobies of the other children, but to Leo it all began to seem like a terrible nightmare.
Children seeing him suddenly appear out of nowhere were not less shocked and there were only three who kept running towards the cave while shouting, “Uma! Uma!”
In front of the trio was the one with Leo’s backpack in hands clearly indicating he was the instigator of the previous incident.
Further in the background to the right Leo could see dozens of small houses built of straw and to the left a lake that was either connected to the ocean or stood very close to it. Unfortunately he had no ability to enjoy the view and from shock he couldn’t even move a muscle to not speak about thinking.
The only thought that crossed his mind was, ‘How the hell I’m gonna spank all of them?! A crowd of a hundred children can easily trample me to death!’
Fortunately shouts of the backpack carrying child allowed Leo to regain senses on time. He turned around and darted back in the cave, jumped in the water and ignoring the stinging pain paddled pack to the island. He was certain no one would follow him if they weren’t suicidal, but the moment he climbed out on the other side he could hear in the distance tens of children shouting in one voice ‘Uma! Uma! Uma!’
Either children were sick in the head or this was the only word they knew, they continued to chant it over and over until the light in the opening where Leo initially fell through began to dim. It obviously indicated that the sun was setting and at this point the children probably had tired themselves out and their voices finally died down.
Leo could finally enjoy a moment of silence, but his stomach was furiously grumbling. He tried to think of a way out, but no matter how he looked at things – he was trapped. He had no clue what the creepy children were eating or where their parents were, but he couldn’t find the courage to try and sneak out during the night mostly because there was no telling if there was a place he could escape to on this small island.
In the end Leo decided the best course of action would be to just cultivate through the night and try to think of something in the morning.
During the rainy days after the arrival he already memorized the Nameless technique and more than the loss of the small book he was pained about loosing the convenient backpack. Of course, his pride hurt quite a bit as well, but Leo was certain he would find a way to one day pay back.
To his great surprise Leo had to admit that cultivation by the lightning tree was much more effective than anywhere in the Sacred Order. Even on those magic platforms where the mutated cat and chicken cultivated he didn’t find this convenient. The air in grotto was rich with Qi and the new technique allowed him to easily absorb it.
The only downside was the enormous amount of the lightning bolts that appeared in Leo’s consciousness as a side effect, but he quickly figured a way around it. He split the cultivation process in two parts – first he cultivated the Nameless technique and absorbed large amounts of Qi from the environment and afterwards pushed and pulled the lightning bolts in his consciousness to the Dantian, the cultivator’s trashcan. Regarding the last part he had gotten quite adept during the past months and the existence of the lighting didn’t bother that much anymore, although it was annoying.
The arrival of the next morning was signaled by the children chanting ‘Uma!’ again. At first Leo wanted to ignore them, but not only they became increasingly annoying the more time went by, he was starving as well.
‘I’ll just take a peek.’ He said to himself and paddled towards the entrance of the grotto.
There he quietly got out of the water and stealthily crawled towards the exit. With every yard the tunnel became brighter, but before Leo got out, after the second or the third turn he stopped and his eyes widened in surprise.
His treasured backpack lie there neatly at the side of the tunnel and next to it were two large leaves with something resembling palm-sized rocks piled on them.
‘A trap!’ Was Leo’s first reaction.
Clearly little bastards realized they couldn’t get to him on the island with the lightning tree and now intended to use his own backpack as a bait. He himself didn’t know much about traps, but Jack knew many stories about ancient temples having installed different traps leading to inevitable intruder’s demise and in most cases an object of desire was used to bait a person to make a careless mistake.
Leo observed the backpack, walls, ceiling and the floor of the tunnel, but couldn’t find any abnormalities. Then he turned to the backpack, but apart from the cut straps it seemed fine. Afterwards his attention went to the rocks piled in the two leaves and soon his stern expression changed into a grin.
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This was too easy! Obviously there was something wrong with the rocks because from time to time some of them were moving, albeit it was barely noticeable.
After more careful observation Leo got disappointed again and right after that – upset. Turns out he was overthinking things. There was no trap and no conspiracy. Those little bastards thought they caught him and now he was their prisoner. Why else would they feed him oysters?
Back home he once saw his dad eat these mollusks and he even claimed that Leo was the result of him eating so many. Obviously Leo immediately tried them as well, but even though he kept a straight face and said he loved them as much as Lyam did, he never touched the damn snails again.
Unfortunately now he was left with no choice. With a sigh he got up, took the backpack, and both leaves with oysters and went back to the grotto.
There, just in case the hateful kids had poisoned the food, he carefully cooked everything in the pond just like he did long ago with the birds. Afterwards, holding back the disgust, one after another he ate the small things within the shells washing everything down with the same water he cooked them in. It was not tasty, but at least he didn’t have to starve to death.
When he was done, Leo swam back to the island and sat down to cultivate again - being a prisoner he didn’t have anything to do anyway.
From then on Leo’s days became all the same.
While children continued to chant their annoying ‘Uma!’, from the sound of it there were less of them and the majority most likely went on with their regular daily lives. They continued to bring food in the form of oysters and sometimes even a fish or two, but other than that Leo had no contact with them.
Sometimes during the breaks between cultivation sessions he stealthily observed them and just like everything else about these kids most of what he saw crept him out.
First of all there was a small crowd of twenty to thirty kids guarding him at all times. For some reason they didn’t stand or sit still, but performed a strange back strengthening exercise – they knelt while continuously bowing towards the cave and shouting their regular ‘Uma!’ mantra. Several times a day they were replaced with another squad of guards who performed the same exercise.
Meanwhile the rest were having fun in the lake further to the left. Using several small boats of different sizes they paddled crisscross over the water waving the short spears and shouting their lungs out. From time to time they jumped in the water and on few occasions surfaced with an impaled fish that they proudly showed off to the others. The successful performer was congratulated with a loud collective cheer echoing throughout the island, especially if the catch was of a larger size.
Obviously such behavior was caused by the lack of reasonable upbringing, but even after a month Leo hadn’t seen any grownup. The lack of parents was quite disturbing, but at least the kids didn’t starve to death and seemed to live in a safe environment – safe for them, of course, not for visitors like Leo.
Besides having straw houses, children lived like wild beasts. They ate raw food with their hands and their pikes were basically the only tools they had. The hygiene was similarly questionable although they never peed or defecated near the entrance to the cave.
And then there was this ‘butt’ incident.
Inevitably came a day when one of the kids noticed Leo observing them and a huge commotion broke out. He, of course, hid on the island with the lightning tree again, but the children for some reason kept celebrating till late night.
The next morning when Leo came out to eat, next to the two leaves with oysters he found one of the children with boobies down on her knees proudly showing of her backside.
“Go get dressed!” Leo immediately spanked her bottom, but then realized she could get reinforcements and fled with his breakfast. While eating he carefully listened to the discussion outside, but he couldn’t understand what the kids talked about other than from their tone it seemed they were upset the prank wasn’t a success.
Unfortunately the little guys were not the smartest and their sense of humor was rather stale. The next morning instead of one kneeling, bottom showing child he found two and after quickly slapping their butts Leo rushed back.
The third day it got even worse and when three girls were waiting for him in indecent positions Leo decided that the time has come for him to take on the role of a parent and properly educate them. With a bleeding heart he spanked all three girls till their bottoms were red and eyes full of tears, but there was no way around it. He had to teach them to behave properly otherwise when they grow up they could wind up in a brother, whatever that meant.
Afterwards the other kids outside were upset as well, but from that day on everyone left Leo alone apart from the usual chants at the entrance and food in the form of oysters and fishes twice a day. Leo hated himself for punishing children that way since his father never raised a hand against him, but on the other hand he had always behaved perfectly.
Days flew by and Leo wasn’t even sure anymore how much time had passed since he arrived to the island of children. At first he tried to count the days, but sometimes when it rained it got so dark outside he couldn’t tell whether if it was afternoon or midnight and soon he stopped worrying about it.
What gave him hope was forming of three small buds on the lower branch of the lighting tree indicating it soon will bloom and afterwards give three nice and tasty fruits. After the war Leo overheard that the attack on the Voodoo sect happened because apparently they killed Sacred Order’s guardian – rank seven goldenglow tiger and stole fruits that grew of some kind of lightning tree.
What exactly happened to the tiger Leo had no idea, but he had a clue where the fruits went. Of course, he would never admit to anyone that he simply ate the fruits, loss of which could cause an annihilation of a sect, but now he knew their worth, well, more or less.
The main point was that he was certain that after the fruits were formed someone would arrive to pick them up and save him at the same time. That was the true reason behind him living so carefree and cultivating day in and day out until someone came to rescue him.
Regarding getting home Leo’s plan ‘b’ was the change of seasons. If suddenly winter started and if it was cold, of course, it was possible for the ocean to freeze over. In that case he could simply run to the big mountain with the teleportation platform and wait for the help there.
The chances were slim, but just in case Leo began to closely follow changes happening in the weather. Unfortunately the only observation he made was that, apart from the ever constant warm temperature, with an interval of exactly ten days there was a rainfall that also lasted ten days. At first he thought it was a funny coincidence, but after the sixth ten day rain period he was certain it went like this all year round.
There was another strange thing about this mortal world, or at least about the part Leo was at. Despite the whole place was surrounded by ocean, he had never witnessed any real storms. Yes, the waves during the rain seemed to be more unruly, but compared to a real storm that was a child’s play.