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Weakling's Ascendency
Chapter 37: A lull in the forest

Chapter 37: A lull in the forest

As Jacob lay that weeping by the campfire, Brian and Riley cautiously walked towards him.

Riley moved towards the front of Jacob, her face full of concern as she looked at tears flowing freely while Jacob could be mistaken for a corpse if not for the sobs and sniffles.

She did not ask or say anything instead, she moved and gathered Jacob in a hug patting his head while she hugged him. Brian saw that Riley was handling Jacob, slowly stepped back and walked off with Flowing Water in hand.

The moons above moved a good bit slowly making way for the first of the sun to emerge over the horizon. Casting the forest in a new shade, where the forest was both a dull green and brilliant shimmering viridescent all at once.

A beautiful red haired women in black was holding a sobbing teenager as Brian returned with 2 multi-horned deers one on each of his shoulder, Brian sighed as Jacob did not seem to be recovering any time soon.

He got to deskinning one of the deer after he placed the other deer and Flowing Water onto a nearby tree. Brian deskinning process took quite awhile as he was no expert in hunting, there were chunks of meat still attached to the skin of the deer while he got to the end of the deer.

With the skin successfully removed, Brian chucked it into the fire to feed it. As the flames got hotter, he mounted the deer onto the spit roast that Aurelius made. He left it there and sat beside the handle on the spit roast and began the game of waiting.

While Brian was still skinning the deer, Jacob finally stopped his sobbings. He fell asleep in Riley’s embrace, not wanting to disturb his sleep Riley stayed in position with Jacob laying on her chest.

She took a look at his face, thoughts churned in her head. She wondered how did someone who faced down the kobolds with obvious glee, the stone monsters with ease and the floaters with determination suddenly turned into a sobbing mess.

Riley was not sure at all if she should ask him when he awakes, but for now she held the young boy who looked so fragile now. Brian went to wake Aurelius up before the deer hanging above the fire reached completion.

Aurelius laid on the leaves unmoving in a flat position with his back to the ground as Brian walked in, Brian moved to the side of Aurelius squatting as he did. He shook Aurelius sides gently until his eyes opened, red eyes immediately adjusting to its surrounding. Not a hint of confusion to be seen only alertness could be seen.

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“Good morning Brian, did you happen to prepare some food? The smell is saliva-inducing.” Aurelius immediately inquired as he got himself up directly facing Brian. Slightly unnerved, Brian replied with a slight tremor.

“Yes, I caught two deers for breakfast. The suns are starting to rise too also, something happened to Jacob. I’m not too sure what happened to him but me and Riley woke up to Jacob’s sobbing. His sleeping for now after a long bout of crying. There were no enemies to be seen, only young Jacob laid beside the campfire.”

“I see, well we can just wait till his awake. I am sure he will be able to get over whatever happened, if not we can go from there after today. We can also look for any signs of tampering within the vicinity, I assume Riley is taking care of Jacob at this moment?” Aurelius replied, unfazed by the news. Brian gave a nod to the question posed by Aurelius and duck walked backwards and moved out of the tent smoothly. Aurelius followed after Brian to the camp fire where the almost fully-cooked deer awaited.

Aurelius took a look at the now motherly-looking Riley stroking the hair of a sleeping Jacob who was now resting on her shoulders,sitting by the fire. Her eyes were focused on Jacob, she looked up as the fire caused the wood to crackle. She saw Aurelius and gave a small nod as he walked by before she went back to tending the teenager resting on her shoulder.

Aurelius returned the nod and went to take the washed wooden plates and started carving some deer meat, Brian was doing the same on the other side of the campfire with two plates instead of one.

Silence reigned as the group had their meal in silence after Brian passed one plate of deer meat to Riley.

Brian after he finished eating, walked to Riley and said.

“Let me carry him to one of the tents and let him rest there, if we are to follow his plan. We are gonna need another batch of oil and the skin containers Aurelius made. He can rest better lying down and it would be easier for you to move too.” Riley shook her head and replied calmly.

“Even asleep his still holding onto me tightly, I’ll carry him over and sit beside him. Will you and Aurelius be able to get enough together?”

“It should be fine, we can take the whole of today for the hunting and start staging the plan tomorrow. Its only the fifth day, we still have some time left so we can take it easy.” Riley gave a grateful nod and easily lifted the resting Jacob off the ground, His hands automatically wrapped tightly around Riley as he was carried to Rileys’ tent.

The suns began to rise as the duo of Aurelius and Brian set off to hunt more animals of this planet.

Riley waved goodbye at them, with no one to talk to and Jacob soundly asleep. Riley got up and started practicing what Brian and Aurelius taught.

It was well into the afternoon with three suns hanging overhead before Jacob awoke. He took a quick look around and noticed this was not the tent he slept on before Brian woke him up for his night shift.

A sweet scent lingered in the air too, unsure of where he was but not noticing any danger. Jacob crawled out of the tent on all fours, he was met with a beauty moving through practice forms. Jacob still on all fours, stopped at the mouth of the tent as he appreciated the view.

Time passed as he remained still, until Riley’s practice brought her facing in the direction of her tent. It took a moment before she recognised who was crawling out of her tent. She immediately jumped up and ran to Jacob as she voiced her concern.

“Jacob! You are up, what happened to you? Are you alright?” Jacob confused by her question tilted his head and replied while in thought.

“Did something happen? I feel fine though. Last I recalled...oh! I remember I finally unlocked one of my abilities” It was as if the visions he experienced through his ability did not happen at all as he moved to check what Gifted Learner(Buffed) provided.