The trio of men walked back slowly along the right side of the river enjoying the cool air and the shades provided by the emerald green trees. Enjoying the peaceful moments while it last, the group made it back to the area where they left Riley.
Instead of finding Riley, they saw a kingdom-toppling beauty looking and waving at them. Big doe eyes that shines brightly as if it was constantly on the verge of tears but a drop could never be seen, a small dainty nose with a cupid’s bow pink lips widened in a devastating smile all of that together formed a attractive cherubic face that caused Jacob to trip over a rock.
The resulting thud did not cause any physical damage to him, however the resulting chuckles might cause him to bury his head into the ground. The soft voice of Riley accompanied by the gruff chuckles from Brian came out at the same time.
“Jacob, you okay? Did you trip over something?” Riley asked with a voice full of concern. Amidst Brian's’ chuckle he helped Jacob reply as Jacob got up.
“He definitely tripped over someone that is for sure.”
“Someone? I don’t see a body or anything behind Jacob though.” Riley asked obliviously. Jacob swiped off the resulting dust off his own body coughing all the while while he gathers his thought. He looked up again once he successfully collected his thoughts, at the sight of the perfectly framed red hair with the black sash provided similar to the stola the ancient roman woman wore.
Jacob with his well crafted excuse got lost into the void, he quickly slapped himself. A gasp escaped from Riley at his actions, before another question from Riley came Jacob quickly shouted out.
“Y-yea, the ground was unnaturally rocky! I even tripped a few times before we saw you.” Riley mumbled a few ohs at Jacobs’ answer while Brian chuckled a few more times. Aurelius meanwhile was already moving towards the opposite direction of the still rising suns, a slight look of hunger could be seen in his eyes as it shone brightly reflecting the rays of sunlight.
Riley rushed to meet Jacob, Flowing Water in hand.
“Thanks for lending me your sword, I felt much safer washing by the river knowing it was around.” Jacob blushed as Rileys’ even mildly descriptive words brought the young men imagination into overdrive as he tried to keep his eyes focused on hers as she spoke. Try as he might however the generous figure previously hidden by her baggy clothes, was only somewhat hidden by the stola.
Riley noticing his gaze immediately asked Jacob.
“Is something on my new clothes? Did I wear it wrongly?” Unable to control where he looked, Jacob quickly accepted the proffered Flowing Water and turned around as he replied.
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“It’s nothing, I’m glad that Flowing Water managed to offer you some comfort while you s-showered.” Jacob stalked off in the direction of Aurelius. Brian stayed behind and commented with a lazy smile on his face.
“Young Riley, you were hiding rather dangerous weapons. Any young men like Jacob would naturally be wary of it.” Riley's head tilted as she thought to herself muttering to no one in particular.
“Dangerous weapons? Was it my skill? Why is Jacob wary of my skill?” Brian's’ smile faltered at how oblivious Riley was, he only shook his head and moved to join the rest.
“Alright, lets join them too lest they get too far.” Riley nodded and jogged after the two in front, this time with yet another weapon to drop even Aurelius.
“Jacob, Jacob. Brian said that I was hiding rather dangerous weapons, but I did not intentionally hid them. I just wanted to surprise you with them.” While she was mid-sentence, Brian and Jacob was caught dumbfounded. When she finished, Jacob held on to the tree beside him for life support. If he dropped one more time, he was not sure how to explain it.
Meanwhile, Brian was snickering to the side. Aurelius had a much more visible reaction this time with a slight stumble, if no one paid attention to him. Nothing would have seemed out of sorts, Aurelius continued walking through the slight stumble. Maintaining a sense of pretense that the sentence uttered by Riley did not affect him.
“So Jacob, don’t be wary okay? I’ll show them off again later and punch some kobold faces.” Jacob clung onto the tree while coughing and replied.
“Y-yep punch them all in, don’t show them any mercy Riley.” Jacob gathered himself for a few seconds all the while a concerned Riley looked at Jacob clinging on to the tree.
“All right, we have a lot of things to do but first lets hunt a deer or two maybe even a bear if we can find it. Lets split up and start hunting, to balance everything out. Riley will go with Aurelius and Brian will follow me. The current objective is one bear or two deer, but if we can bring more the better for my plan later.” Aurelius and Brian nodded to Jacobs’ plan
Jacob could not hear Riley’s mumble and he would be glad he did not. Aurelius eyebrow was raised upon her mumbles. As he moved to group up with Riley, Aurelius spoke.
“Riley right? Remember not to use your skill when we are hunting the animals later, as it could rupture any of the organs within the animal. I will show you how to take care of one animal, you can follow that example as I lead you on the hunt.” Riley nodded vigorously, happy to learn new things amidst the tutorial.
“We’ll mark our path with a small diamond and meet back here once the suns starts to set” Jacob shouted out as they split off in different direction to begin their hunt.
6 red covered floaters were surveying the split group from their magical screen displayed in front of the six of them. With their feets on the ground instead of off. Their claw-like hands moving animatically between them as they discussed the scenes, along with high pitched sounds exchanged between the six of them. If one knew their language they would hear.
“The fools finally split up, time to go for that cunniving boy with the sword.”
“The gold giant and the red she-devil are definitely the more dangerous of the group.”
“Then it is decided we shall target the two weaker ones of the group.”
“That is right, with how little experience the boy shows with his sword skills we will kill them with ease and with that sword. The gold giant and she-devil would be easy pickings”
After their conversation ended, the 6 red covered floaters levitated off the ground and floated towards the direction where Brian and Jacob was.
While Jacob and Brian were moving steathily in the their search for food, quiet whispers were exchanged between the two.
“What exactly did you tell Riley?”
“I just mentioned that she had dangerous weapons and that you was wary of them”
“Well I’m definitely wary of them now, if her words were any more oblivious I would stumbled onto a sword and impale myself on it.”
“I thought she was already that deep into her studies, she would have a lot of pursuers and not that oblivious. Who knew she can remain that innocent while being that beautiful. Truly a unicorn in the old world.”
“Regardless stop spouting nonsense for her to latch on, she’s like a new born baby where she finds everything interesting”
“No promises, young Jacob. No promises” Brian’s face held a smirk as he finished the conversation. Causing Jacob to shake his head while he stewed in his previous embarrassment.