30-Look at my hands when I sign to you!

1/2/5/4353 M.A.C - Great Western Rainforest- Evening

"What is Arctic doing?"

Majusculus had returned to his cabin, after approximately six hours had gone by, and looked perplexed by what he came upon. Arctic was vigorously doing jumping jacks with his eyes closed as Emi cheered him on. Emi was currently using her voice to play the baseline of "Eye of the Tiger" as Arctic did his best to match the rhythm. Emi stopped her accompaniment as she noticed Majusculus.

"Keep going bud, the effect of the kumquat should end soon since it stopped five minutes ago for me. Hey again Majusculus, how was the afternoon?"

"Busy but productive. Would you care to provide an explanation as to what Arctic is doing?"

Emi chuckled as she explained what jumping jacks were. Majusculus seemed not to feel that this answered his question appropriately, so Emi went on to explain what had happened more clearly.

"Well, we decided I should take my kumquat first so that I could tell him what to expect. About ten minutes after I ate mine Arctic took his, but it was too effective for the speed at which he was able to gather. Then, I had a thought. If he was going to lose the surplus energy anyway, he might as well try to take advantage of it another way. So I taught him a simple exercise that he could do while he concentrated on gathering, and he has been doing them for nearly six hours. He was doing them a lot faster at first but he ended up slowing down as his gathering sped up."

Majusculus facepalmed as her explanation ended, an aggrieved look on his face.

"Seriously? What is the one thing I told you? Don't try to get creative and just gather for now. Luckily this isn't going to be a problem, but honestly, do you even look at my hands when I am talking?"

Emi started feeling a bit guilty as she got admonished, but she could not help from being amused by how [Comunicative Intent] had translated the last sentence.

"Oh...uh...my bad?"

Emi attempted to take a cutesy pose as she tilted her head to one side and put a hand to the side of her head, but it didn't appear to be working, judging by the unchanged expression on Majusculus's face. Emi straightened up and decided to take it more seriously.

"Yeah, no. Sorry. I thought it was safe but you're right. I've just learned how to sense my own vital energy so I should listen to you since you have a lot more experience. There could have been something I didn't know about and I could have made Arctic waste the kumquat, or worse. I'll be more careful."

Majusculus's expression softened as he put a hand on Emi's shoulder.

"As long as you understand. It might have wasted a bit of the kumquat, but nothing too drastic. In truth practicing how to gather while moving is a good exercise as eventually, you will have to learn how to gather without thinking about it. Also, and please see this, do not eat the second kumquat before at least a full day has gone by or you will dearly regret it."

Majusculus put a thumb up and closed his other hand around. He then pulled the thumb out and fluttered his hand while blowing a raspberry. Emi shuddered as [Communicative Intent] translated that gesture for her, although she would have understood what it meant without its help.

"Yup. Not gonna do that."

Arctic suddenly stopped doing jumping jacks and sprawled himself out on the floor, panting heavily.

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"Good work. I imagine the two of you must be hungry after all that effort, especially Arctic. Why don't we go have dinner with some other member of the tribe outside, the sky is clear and it's quite warm by the fire in the center of the village. Let's have a nice meal outside as a send-off."

Emi felt hesitant at the suggestion. She got along well with the younger tribe members but most of the adults still seemed to avoid her somewhat.

"Are you sure? I think I still make some of the others uneasy. I'm fine here with just the three of us really."

"Nonsense. Yes, some of the tribe members don't really know how to act around you, but that is mostly because they are ashamed. They don't have a problem with you, it's more that they feel guilty you had to step in and yell some sense into us. Even Strong Armor Spear told me he doesn't dislike you, so don't fret."

Emi looked down toward Arctic, but the young monkey didn't seem to care either way.

"I want to be with big sis, but I'm ok with eating outside."

I still feel awkward after what I did on the first day, but if Arctic is willing to brave the tribe, what excuse do I have? Plus, he won't get to see them for a long time after we leave tomorrow. Maybe this is not a bad idea.

Emi resigned herself and nodded once.

"Let's go then. Even though I was mostly sitting around, gathering made me quite hungry, so I imagine you must be close to starving after all that jumping around."

Arctic smiled and nodded back at her as Majusculus started making his way to the door. Arcti and Emi followed him out the door and, immediately, Emi could tell something was off. The village was quiet, too quiet. It was still early in the evening, and the sun had yet to completely set, but Emi could not see any movement around them other than that caused by the wind. Emi's heart rate sped up and her body produced a spike of adrenaline as she began imagining the worst. One look at Majusculus's back was enough to snap her out of her paranoid delusions. His aura was oozing giddiness, and she was able to imagine the impish grin that was hidden from her and Arctic.

Oh? A surprise party? You may be three hundred, but you are a hundred years too early to pull one over me. Just you wait and see...hehehe.

Emi tried to act as casually as she could, so as to not let on that she had figured out the surprise. She had an evil plan in mind and it required them to believe they had gotten her, but truth be told, she also didn't want to ruin the surprise for Arctic. Emi readied herself as the trio rounded the corner of the last cabin blocking the center of the village from their view. Suddenly a large number of monkeys, some small, some big, some in between, stomped down on the floor with all their weight as they stared in the trio's direction with smiles on their faces. The synchronous stomp made a tremor run through the ground, that traveled up Emi's legs, followed by a loud audible thump nearly immediately after. Arctic appeared to be startled for a brief moment of surprise before the beginning of a smile started forming on his face.

That was when Emi struck.

"AHAaaAAahhhhh!"

Emi let out a loud scream as she theatrically clutched at her chest feathers and jerked backward. She did her best to remain as rigid as she could, resolved not to visibly react to whatever small amount of pain her fall would cause, and forced her eyes to remain as wide open as they could as she let herself fall back flat on the floor. Then, for the final touch, she stuck out her tongue and let it drop limply to one side.

Huh? That was less painful than I expected. Guess that even though I'm so big, I'm still pretty light, and between my feather coat and my wings, I had a lot of cushioning. Still, I think I pulled off the Wilhelm scream magnificently if I dare say so myself.

Emi was motionless on the dirt, a vacant look in her eyes as she focused on a faraway patch of the sky, keeping her beak slightly open. She held her breath and waited. At first; complete silence. Everyone was apparently so shocked that they had frozen in place, smiles still awkwardly on their faces. Then she heard footsteps approaching, a lot of footsteps, rapidly. The sounds of the tribe panicking reached her ears as Majusculus kneeled to her side with his aura and his face both displaying terror. Emi was going to keep it going a few more seconds but then Arctic came into her view. His eyes were starting to glint and Emi could see he was on the verge of tears.

Shit! Didn't think that one through. I thought most would catch on to the joke. I mean, I'm literally clutching the chest feathers on the outside of my coat. That's like half a foot away from my actual chest.

Emi decided she had to cut her act short and blinked once before getting back on her feet nonchalantly. Slowly, the panicked faces of the tribe started changing as they realized Emi had been putting on an act. A few looked amused and smiled. Some looked tired, as if the wind had suddenly been taken out of their sails. Many just seemed relieved and ready to move on. The problem was that some did not fit in any of these three groups. Those were the ones who felt irked that their plan had backfired, and those who were angry because they had genuinely been scared. Emi decided to try and play it off cool.

"So, uh, what's for dinner? I'm so hungry I could...die?"

Emi saw a tomato arc its way through the air toward her, but it was too late for her to dodge. She tried putting a hand up to catch it before it could splatter on her face, but she was suddenly hugged from behind, her arms pinned down. The Tomato flew true and hit its mark before splattering its gooey guts all over Emi's face. Emi slowly turned her head around, an exaggerated look of shock plastered on her face. Arctic was standing there with a smile that showed how pleased he was with himself.

"Sorry big sis, you made me think you died. I was so sad that I needed to hug you when I saw you were alive."

Emi wasn't sure if he was doing something with how he was signing to indicate it, but her Ability was translating that last bit with a thick layer of sarcasm. Having enjoyed a bit of schadenfreude, the rest of the tribe seemed to return to a jovial mood as Emi did her best at scraping the tomato off her face.