Gorn came closer. Putting his hand on her shoulder, he said: “You can do it!”

Rebeca nodded. She felt warmth in her heart. After this discussion, most of her negative thoughts vanished. Passion for fighting and adventure was reignited with the simple words ‘You can do it!’. She had forgotten the last time someone encouraged her, and how much she needed that.

Gorn waited patiently for her to calm down, then went back. Next, he took Elisa for a private talk.

“You did a good job safely bringing the girls here.”

“Thank you,” said Elisa with a big smile. “Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to avoid conflict between us…”

Gorn’s gaze was towards the far away places. “People are complex beings, it’s not easy to be a leader. While punishing them is alright, please don’t forget to use kindness as well.”

“I understand. I will try my best in the future.”

Gorn shifted his gaze to her. It was done discretely. He was carefully analyzing her facial expression.

‘I can’t really tell what she is thinking…’

He also wanted to say that she needed to take greater care of Ella, but doing so seemed inappropriate for him.

“Great. Let’s go back now.”

The mood improved by a whole level. The twins were the only ones remaining. To be fair, he also took them for a private talk. While being way above the tree, Mara and Nora glued themselves to Gorn’s body. It was very apparent that they were very scared of heights. While they managed to improve that to some degree with the help of Ella, this altitude was completely different; with no safety measures available whatsoever. At least, nothing except Gorn’s body.

Their physiques were fully developed, so hugging him so tightly brought forward some very normal physical reactions for both parties. Nora firmly hugging him from the front, with her legs tightly wrapped around his torso, was a little too much.

In but a moment, Gorn got a massive boner. Feeling the huge change, Nora’s face turned red as a tomato, but she didn’t dare to let go. Unlike Mara, who had already been on top of the tree, she had no such experience.

Gorn’s face also turned somewhat red. “Uhm, I didn’t know you were so afraid of heights.”

“Well…we didn’t know either, until recently at least,” answered Mara.

Gorn blinked a few times and arrived at the top of the tree. “I wanted to ask if there is something you want to tell me privately. Like if something bad happened, or something that you are unhappy with.”

His voice was a little weird. While Mara got down, Nora was still glued to him, with no signs of wanting to let go.

“You must already know everything that happened. Other than the incident with Rebeca, there is nothing worth mentioning.” Mara was the only one answering.

Right about now she noticed the peculiar situation. It didn’t take long to connect all the dots. Suddenly, her face also turned deeply red, not daring to make eye-contact.

Silence.

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‘Shit!’ thought Gorn, not really sure what to do. Going back with Nora plastered on his body like that was not an option. To make things worse, Mara also saw what was happening.

After a few awkward moments, the solution came to him. It was very simple: teleport to another big tree branch. There, it would be spacious enough to even play football.

“Since this is still too high with no real room for much movement, I’ll get us at as a lower altitude,” said Gorn ultimately.

Mara slightly nodded. He did just that. A little lower was the ‘perfect’ branch. The problem was that every little movement of his amplified certain things.

“It’s ok now. You can let go.” His voice was very low.

She was still holding him tightly for some reason.

‘What now?’

Nora’s head was fixed to his chest, so Gorn’s beating heart could be heard very well. It didn’t take an expert to know that from how fast his heart was beating, he was also experiencing some strong emotions.

With each passing moment, the situation became more weird. After some time, Nora got down. “Sorry, I just…”

Her voice was almost inaudible, and her face completely red. “There is nothing to be sorry about. While I wanted to show you the great scenery, I should have at least asked you first.”

Like that, the situation was salvaged. “This point is also good enough to see the surrounding area in a decent way.”

Gorn talked a few more minutes about random plants and whatnot, then brought the twins back to the group. His monologue made it easier for them to regain their cool, making it like nothing interesting happened.

Elisa came closer, asking her question again: “What’s the plan from here?” At this moment, the girl’s attention was on him.

Gorn paused for a short moment. “Good question. For the time being, we must get comfortable living outside the city. Building a shelter, finding food and water, and lastly, protecting ourselves from enemies.”

A lot of things could be done, but most of those things were not that urgent. Gorn went to the tree trunk, and laid down. Putting his hands behind his head, he relaxed. Lately, he had been living a very tense life, it was high time he slowed down a little.

‘Unless the sky falls, I’m taking this day off,’ thought Gorn, feeling very pleased by his decision.

The girls made a weird face. His actions were unambiguously suggesting that he wanted to just laze around. They had been staying on that branch for days, craving a betterment in their routine. However, now that Gorn returned, that did not happen immediately. A fact that made them disappointed.

While the girls expected him to do most of the work, none of them dared say something out-loud. Even if they were stronger, without him, their future was way too uncertain.

Not to speak of the difference in raw power, Gorn’s special abilities were wondrous, and extremely useful in a dangerous situation.

Minute after minute, a few hours passed. Sitting there calmly, Gorn had time to ponder about a few things while being cool-headed. Remembering how he shouted at Rebeca made him cringe.

‘Why the fuck did I do that? The same effect could have been obtained with fewer words, and less drama…’

Keeping things simpler was something he thought that was the right way to go. Too many comments would just make him lose his time and patience. His power would be useless if he had to argue every time that he wanted something.

During this time the girls did nothing, only idling around, achieving nothing of great importance.

‘Why aren’t they building some sort of shelter, or weaving a few baskets to carry food in? Or anything at all? They also want to relax, maybe?’

Reaching this place from the city wasn’t very time-consuming even if they encountered monsters, so Gorn was sure that almost the entire last month they just sat here doing zero things.

'I guess I'll have to do something about that very soon,' thought Gorn, smiling evilly to himself.

At this moment, Nora came and sat down close to him. She had been quite restless these hours.

“Uhm, I was wondering… Can you use your ability and take me above the tree like before?”

That was totally unexpected. “Aren’t you very scared of heights?”

“I am, but I want to use this chance to try and get rid of this weakness… Please?” said Nora while her face became slightly red. She was acting strange.

‘Hmm...’

“I can. Do you want to go now or?” asked Gorn.

“Yes,” said Nora while grabbing his hand in a very discreet way.

Gorn immediately used his blink, and in but a moment, they were already on top of the tree. Right away, Nora came very close to him, her breasts touching his body. Her hand’s grip became stronger. Breathing in powerfully, and then exhaling, she calmed herself down a little.

“Before we go up into the air, I wanted to ask you how do you want me to hold you?” It was an important aspect, so Gorn deliberately stopped here, to let her decide that.

Nora slowly turned around with her back to him...