Xa'Gun let go of the bar, as he stood up to see Hellie striding out of the backdoor of the burrow. She stood in front of him, with her hands on her hips.

She was wearing her simple leather chest wrap, and a leather belt that draped a red loincloth that flapped in the morning breeze as she stood before him.

Hellie smiled at Xa'Gun's male attention before she cleared her throat, "You can't lift big while you're alone. You can hurt yourself, without anyone to help you." Hellie then approached Xa'Gun's left and rubbed his arm, as she looked up at him.

Xa'Gun grunted, "... I'm just used to being alone..."

"I'm here now... Ah, Uncle is here too! And there are my two sisters, I'm sure would help you if you needed." Hellie quickly added on to her speech.

Xa'Gun grunted, as he closed his eyes and bowed his head.

[Yes... I might not be free, but I'm not alone...]

He opened them again, and asked, "Can you watch me then? I want to see if I can lift this."

Hellie looked at the large bar and tilted her head counting up the weights. It took her a bit longer than Xa'Gun, but she came to the number of 210kg...

"Tin-Can... The Full-Orc weight stone is 154kg, and you almost killed yourself to pick it up, this is 210kg!"

"Yeah... I know." Xa'Gun nodded.

"...But... Why not just pick up the Full-Orc again?"

"I don't know... I wanted a quick challenge this morning."

"No, no, no... Too much; too fast. You can attempt to pick this up at a later date. When you can lift the Full-Orc and feel fine, then you can lift this much. You'll only hurt yourself... If you hurt yourself, then you have to take time to heal, and then you can get back to training. This just waists time... Always slowly lift weights... I just wanted to see if you could lift a Full-Orc. That was a baseline of sorts. Now that I know that's basically your limit, you don't have to push that limit again for a while. We work with that number."

Hellie finished, as she put her hand on her head.

Xa'Gun grunted in question.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

"Just a hangover... I shouldn't be talking and thinking so much so early in the morning after drinking so much." Hellie confessed.

"You know... Humans say that too much alcohol is bad for you." Xa'Gun commented looking down at the bar he wanted to lift.

"...Yeah, well I'm sure those pale fuckers have a lot to say about a lot of things... Leave my mead out of this, ha." Hellie gave a short laugh before she went to the side and sat down on the Half-Orc weighted stone.

"Well, I remember it was called poison." Xa'Gun continued.

"Uh-huh... Everything is poison, Gun-Gun... Mead is my poison of choice, so leave it to me." Hellie continued to be defensive.

Xa'Gun grunted and said no more.

Hellie and Xa'Gun worked most of the morning hours together. He finally got to feel his muscles strain, his skin turn red, and his veins wiggle after pushing himself on the weights. It seemed to him, that this only occurred when lifting something that was just about too much to lift or he couldn't lift at all. This reaction occurred when he talked Hellie into lifting the Full-Orc weight stone again, but not when he lifted the Half-Orc weight stone.

*******

Jukzuk walked into the backyard to check on Xa'Gun and Hellie. He woke up earlier and decided to give them time to bond and workout, while he cultivated in silence.

"Hoy. Looks like little Lili put you through the wringer. Good job, girl." Jukzuk laughed, seeing Xa'Gun laying on soil damp from his sweat. He nodded to himself, while Jukzuk knew how to get the most out of an Orc's body to train... Nothing could compare to the pulling power of an Orcess on an Orc's ego to push harder in training... The power of the female was in full effect, in this regard.

"F-father..." Xa'Gun asked while laying on the cool soft ground.

"Hmmm?" Jukzuk grunted in question.

"When can I learn Cultivation? Do I have to work out before I learn it? or do I have to not be a slave for that?" Xa'Gun questioned.

"That's something I'm working on right now, actually. In fact, you're not too tired to visit someone with your old orc, are you?" Jukzuk asked as he continued to look at his adopted son.

Xa'Gun bent at the waist, sat up, and grunted, "Can I leave like that? Thought I was still a slave..."

"Already got it cleared with the clan chief." Jukzuk nodded.

"...And what did that cost?" Hellie looked over, as she narrowed her eyes.

"Meh, nothing for now. This is all to build up Xa'Gun to winning the slave pits. We'll have to pay later." Jukzuk answered, but didn't.

"...You know how he is..." Hellie spoke, before thinking, "It's been a few days since I was home, I better show back up before he asks." Hellie stood up to leave.

"He?" Xa'Gun grunted as he watched Hellie walk past.

"Yeah... You don't know?" Hellie stopped to look at Xa'Gun.

"Wot?"

"The clan chieftain is my and my sisters adopted father." Hellie shrugged and left through the backdoor, sidestepping Jukzuk, who sat in the door frame, and into the burrow to leave.

"...wot...???" Xa'Gun asked Jukzuk, now that Hellie was gone.

"It's a long story," Jukzuk sighed, "It'll make sense later. Story short, their father, my brother, was defeated. Varbuk then became the Clan Chief, and took my brother's mate and adopted the three sisters as his own daughters." Jukzuk's eyes turned strange as he spoke... Almost like a deep-seated hatred, before returning to normal.

He slapped his knee as he stood up from his perch on the back step, "Let's go meet an old but good friend of mine."