This night of foraging went much better than his previous attempt. While Cel was indispensable with her [natural resonance], she could only detect nearby food. Kat was able to lead Don straight to fruiting trees from a distance using his years of personal experience scouting the jungle. He already knew where the trees were and it was never more than 20 minutes to get from one to the next. Kat informed Don it would usually take a lot longer to gather food because they used to limit themselves, taking just a few nuts from each tree as a way of keeping their foraging secret from the giants. Now that they were exposed, there was no reason to continue that particular tradition.

Don didn't require makeshift ropes anymore either. His improved strength and endurance allowed him to simply muscle his way up the trees. It was still difficult and time-consuming but nothing like before. The only true challenge left was determining which branches were too thin to bear his weight. It was a hard-learned lesson but it stuck after only a few falls, after which, Don erred on the side of caution.

Before two hours had passed, Don's stomach and inventory were both full to bursting. He had gained yet another point in agility as well. In addition to the increased speed that afforded, Don thought it was a little easier to balance while climbing but he couldn't be sure. Each individual increment was counting for less of an improvement than the one before after all.

The first increase from 10 to 11 was a full 10% improvement but his most recent increase from 15 to 16 only improved on his previous abilities by 6.7%. It didn't help that he was still held back by his strength being slightly lower than his constitution. His motions were still a little off, just a bit slower than expected, but he was hoping the continued tree-climbing exercise would help narrow that gap.

He and Kat were sitting in the dark. waiting for their stamina to regenerate in silence. One of the first things the ColoColo had taught him after the brief Q&A session was that silence is paramount to a scout's success. Not only did it keep others from discovering your location, But It also allowed you to listen for approaching threats.

Don had largely ignored the sounds of the jungle before. It didn't hurt that they were largely absent during his first excursion. Any time he made significant noise, the small, unseen denizens of the forest would follow Kat's rule and fall silent, recognizing Don as some kind of threat. Now that he was stationary and silent, however, a chittering, buzzing, croaking, cacophony sounded from uncountable sources in the dark.

It put Don on edge at first but Kat informed him that the small animals worked as an early alarm system. Anytime something large or disruptive approached, the critters would fall silent, alerting Don and Kat to its approach long before they would have been able to detect it otherwise.

Don slowly became accustomed to the sounds but he still twitched at the more bizarre and loud voices in the chorus. Kat was in his element, looking like nothing more than a growth on one of the lazily waving tree branches above, Don was not, wedged between a boulder and a rising mass of roots.

He was only partially successful in hiding himself. His bulk precluded him from using most of the hiding spots Kat liked and he would stick out like a sore thumb in the branches, not to mention the time and noise climbing still entailed.

Kat stood without warning and Don moved to rise just as silently. He planted a hand on the boulder and roots in an attempt to distribute his weight more evenly, another of Kat's lessons, but the attempt backfired when the roots squeaked under the pressure. The Jungle fell silent and Don sighed. He had only been able to take a few silent steps so far and he was planning on improving on his record but he failed at remaining silent before he could even stand up.

Now that he had failed, he had no issue with following Kat at a fast clip. He had gotten to the point where he could predict which roots and stones would hold fast under pressure from a given angle, and which ones would collapse or roll out from under him, spilling him to the Jungle floor. That usually landed him in something sharp. Don was only missing a handful of HP so far and he wanted to keep it that way. He only had the one healing potion on him and wanted to save it and his other two potions for an emergency. It was annoying to dedicate 3 of his now 17 inventory slots to the potions but they were the most valuable things he owned by far and the inventory was the only truly safe place to keep them. That was another reason he hoped to increase his strength again soon.

He had no idea when that might happen but he knew for a fact that his Herbalist skill was on the verge of increasing for the second time that night and by the time he and Kat stripped the next tree of half its nuts he got the good news.

Herbalist: Initiate 3 --> 4

+8% herb potency

+4 herb stacking in inventory

Skills:

Harvest: Initiate 3 --> 4

You can now harvest plants while preserving a measurable level of potency

Max Potency: 4

Don instantly took advantage of the increase and stowed another 14 nuts in his inventory, bringing the total to 70. They were worth nearly 30 units of food, just shy of the 31 he needed to supply the ColoColo to repay his debt. He wasn't going to be able to store any more food for a while but Kat had already come up with a solution.

Their next stop was a small hole in the ground. An ancient tree leaned over a dry riverbed. The water had washed much of the earth out from underneath it but the exposed roots held strong. A massive boulder provided a solid enough anchor to keep it from losing its footing entirely and the excavated hole extended surprisingly deep. Don tried to push his way past the roots like he could with the ubiquitous jungle vines but they held firm.

Instead, he wriggled past them. Once he reached the back of the small hole, he emptied his inventory one slot at a time. He depressed each button and held it until all five nuts popped out of the far side of the screen and clattered to the ground. When he was done, a massive pile of nuts filled a surprising amount of the space. It hadn't occurred to him how much he had collected but now that they were all heaped before him Don felt a swell of pride. He might just get out of this situation after all. Don followed Kat's directions and used his hands to mound dirt on top of them and packed it down until he was convinced they wouldn't be washed away in a sudden rainstorm. He backed out of the hole and filled it with rocks to be doubly sure. Kat informed him that there were several such hidey-holes scattered through the jungle.

Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

They left the stash of nuts behind and made their way towards the next tree, waiting until Don's stamina depleted once more before congratulating themselves.

"I've never gathered so much food in a single night before! No one in the nest would believe me if I told them we collected so many nuts in so little time! This is incredible! I never expected your inventory to be able to hold so much food," Kat gushed, "But still, we should continue. While we could easily pay off what you owe to the tribe, that would only show you are not a burden. We need to prove that you are an asset. Let's see just how much we can collect in one night!"

Don realized he was grinning, his face stretched into a wide and goofy smile. Well, it felt goofy. It probably looked a little different with his sharp, misaligned teeth. Still he wiped the smile off of his face. He was making progress, and while it felt good, it was all thanks to Cel's extensive training. Training she would never see the results of. He would make sure Gaz recognized those results though. 

The pair zig-zagged across starlit hills and dark valleys all night, collecting food and depositing it in hidden caches. Each nut awarded Don less than 1% progress towards his next [harvest] skill level now but with the hundreds of nuts he harvested, he still raised his skill to level 5. After that, however, the nuts awarded next to no skill experience and he had little hope that it would increase again. It wasn't until near morning when he was on his way up yet another tree that a long-awaited prompt finally interrupted him.

STR: 17 --> 18

His strength was nearly as high as his constitution now! The increase made everything easier and faster, but not by as much as don was expecting. He supposed that climbing trees and running through a jungle at night was not easy work, even with average strength. His agility had taken another step forward during the night, as well.

AGI: 16 --> 17

After what felt like days of running back and forth across the broken terrain, Kat broke the silence once again.

"That should be more than enough, any more and I'll start to forget where they are hidden. Let's hunt for rabbits instead."

That caught Don's attention.

"Rabbits?" Just the word made him salivate. He never forgot that divine experience that got him into such trouble with the ColoColo in the first place. "Yes!" 

Don didn't mean to shout but his roar of assent caused the nearby hiding birds to explode into flight, chittering angrily at the rude awakening while their wings snapped out a sharp staccato. 

"Shh" Kat admonished, "rabbits have very good hearing, you will have to be quiet if you want to catch one. In fact, it's best if you just watch me this time. I don't want to miss and cause suspicion by coming back with less than my usual haul."

Don was confused, food couldn't hear you coming, could it? He decided to take the scout's advice. He had proven himself too many times through the night for Don to doubt him. Kat didn't lead Don far this time. He directed Don to wait behind a tree. The simple hiding spot didn't feel like much cover but Kat used hand signs indicating for Don to stay still and stay quiet. He hadn't learned many of the scouting signs but these two were repeated often enough for Don to have them well memorized.

Don stayed obediently quiet. The ColoColo's claws made only the barest scratching as he scrabbled straight up the trunk of the tree. Don watched as Kat flowed from branch to branch until he stopped nearly 30 feet away. He wondered if he would ever be able to move like that. His weight should preclude it but there was no telling what he could do with enough strength and agility. 

Don watched the ColoColo to see the special method for harvesting rabbits but he just sat motionlessly. Minutes dragged by as the sky grew brighter. The dappled light filtering through the canopy grew stronger, lending muted color to his surroundings. In the depths of night, the jungle took on a monochrome cast. With the extra light of pre-dawn, green crept into the canopy and flowers remembered their intended glory. as the stars faded away. first one, then a dozen and suddenly hundreds of birds competed to see who could be the loudest, lending their riotous voices to the growing riot of colors around him.

Don was so distracted by the chaotic beauty of the waking jungle, he nearly missed it when Kat dropped from his perch. The green feathers of the ColoColo blended in with the translucent green of the leaves above him but when he dropped low enough, he was out of place among the brown trunks. It was that incongruity that caused Don to see the pair of fangs jutting from Kat's gaping maw. A shiver snuck up Don's spine.

Kat landed on something that squeaked in panic. A moment later something took off through the underbrush. The birds fell eerily silent and kat squeaked "Follow me!" before charging off after the escaping something. 

Don only hesitated for a moment before charging after Kat. Did he spot an ape? Don couldn't believe he had stayed out so late again. But if that was the case, why wasn't the air trembling with roars? less than a minute of frenzied running later Don caught up to Kat. 

Kat had pinned a small animal to the ground with his front paws. It struggled feebly but Don could see it was weakening quickly. 

"What are you doing?" he demanded in a shocked voice

"I'll let you kill it." Kat offered magnanimously, "I can't use the experience anymore."

Don was horrified. He stepped back but his legs were numb and he slipped, landing hard on his backside.

"I, I don't want to kill anything. I thought you were going to show me how to find rabbits." he stammered

"This is a rabbit" Kat pointed out with irritation, like he thought Don was being deliberately slow "now hurry up, the poison will only last a little while longer."

This adorable creature was a rabbit? Flashes of his feeding frenzy returned to Don. The snapping bones, the oddly shaped chunks, they all fell into place in a grisly realization. Don Vomited.

Hungry: 0 --> 1

-20% Stamina regeneration

Shocked: -50% mental attributes

Don looked dumbly at the pile of half-digested nuts on the ground before him. He couldn't gather his thoughts. Kat squeaked at him a few more times before finishing the rabbit off with a nearby rock, bashing in its skull. Fortunately, Don was swaddled in a warm stupor and didn't notice the violence happening right next to him.

His mouth tasted funny, sour, that was a new taste. 

Kat gathered up the dripping corpse and added it to his pack with the nuts he had kept. He squeaked something else to Don. It was just as unintelligible as before. When Kat wrapped Don's hand around his tail, however, Don allowed himself to be led along. Everything blurred as they passed too quickly through the greenery. Don didn't feel the thorns that tore at his legs as he lacked the wits to avoid them. Eventually, the world went blissfully dark again. The confusing colors and sounds left behind. Kat left him as well and after some immeasurable length of time, Don drifted into a troubled sleep.