He started walking back towards the bear. He would need to sit down with her and communicate, it seems like if they keep withholding their insecurities and vulnerabilities it’s only going to lead to misunderstandings. After his clothes are made and the food is cooked he’d talk with her.
“By chance are you good with working with pelts or fabric? I’ve never worked with it in my life, only ever skinned it.” James asked, hoping to focus on the food preparation once the bear was skinned.
“I’ve sewn a bit, mom showed me how to tailor clothes because we grew up poor. Sewing fabric together sort of became a hobby, it was de-stressing for me. Pelts will probably be different, but I can give it a shot.” A smile appeared on her face, eager to finally be helpful.
With their decisions made, they quickly set to work when they got there. Gracie felt much better with something to do and food shortly arriving. James was just ready to have some proper clothes rather than be cloaked in a blanket.
While he skinned with his new fire technique, she made the cordage to form the clothes, with the plan to supplement it with sinew from the bear’s remains. Making cordage wasn’t difficult to do since the land around here was already dried out from James’ battle. Her passion for nature was paying off. The dried daffodils make excellent cordage when they’re dried and weaved, she hummed as she enjoyed the repetitive movements of weaving the frayed stems.
After about an hour, James had a giant pile of bear meat on one of the smaller bits of the pelts he skinned off, and the pelt was in chunks for Gracie to put together. Even James’ stomach was rumbling at the sight. Gracie was practically drooling, struggling to focus.
He quickly grabbed some sticks and skewered the meat, acting quick to not risk spoiling it. He stuck the sticks into the ground surrounding the fire. There was twelve large slabs of meat, they would eat good. Gracie took some measurements of James’ shoulders, hips, and legs with some cord that she tied knots to note the measurements with. It wouldn’t be pretty clothes, but it’d be practical, she could always take it apart if it needed to be refitted.
She opted to use the sinew instead of the cordage sense James’ goal was to make it fireproof, if he got in an intense fight natural cordage would quickly deteriorate, sinew would hold up much better. She placed the cordage in her bag for later incase she needed it and walked over to the pile of sinew James placed on a small piece of the pelt. Luckily he left a large pile of it, she thought smiling to herself, bashing them with a rock to separate the fibers.
James looked over at her with furrowed brows. And she calls me a brute, he thought to himself as he watched her raise a large rock over her head and slam it down on the bear sinew, it’s connective tissue, with a wide creepy smile on her face. Shaking his head at her, he checked on the meat, wondering if he needed to cut slits into it to allow it to cook faster.
He took one of the pieces of meat and cut it open with Gracie’s knife, the surface was cooked but the inside was raw. With wild game he wasn’t going to take any risks, earth bear or not. Parasites and diseases were no joke, especially with no access to medicine. He looked around for a large flat piece of stone which didn’t take long in the scorched landscape, finding it under some exposed roots from a tree.
Taking it over to the campfire, he took all the meat and cut them up, using an extra nearby stick for leverage to not burn himself. He kebabbed the bite sized pieces on the skewer, placing pieces that were already nearly cooked towards the top of the stick so he didn’t char them. He felt silly for not cutting it up more in the first place.
Putting the skewers back in the ground around the campfire, he watched it eagerly, the scent of cooking meat causing his appetite to return with vengeance. The occasional sizzle of the fat dripping into the campfire snapping him out of his daydreams about eating it. It’s nearly done, he thought with an open, drooling mouth.
After, a few moments, it was finally done. “Gracie, come eat. You can finish the clothes later.” He told her without taking a single eye off the meat, and placed eight of the skewers on one side of the campfire, signifying they were hers. He didn’t expect her to eat all of it, but wanted her to eat as much as she possibly could. You never knew when you’d get a proper meal in this world anymore.
James quickly took his first bite, relishing the richness of the wild game. It was his favorite part about hunting, the meat was always more rich. The flavor was strong, probably the strongest he ever had tasted but he didn’t know if that was from his hunger.
Cherishing each taste, he saw Gracie come bolting across his field of vision, practically diving on the food. In a split second, food was already in her mouth.
“Mmmmm!!! This is so good!” She exclaimed through a full mouth, already reaching for her next skewer before she even finished the first.
James watched trying to hold back a laugh. Shameless, he thought covering his smile with chewing.
James enjoyed sharing the meat with her, a meal was better in the company of others. As James watched her, he realized choosing to isolate himself like he did for years was foolish. He never felt more alive, he missed out on an aspect of being human.
“Why are you staring at me?!” Gracie, once again, spoke through a full mouth. Scowling at his perceived judgment.
James smiled, “Just realized how much more special this meal is with you here. Wouldn’t have been nearly as good without you.”
Gracie’s mouth dropped, her eyebrows lifting and her eyes going wide. Breaking eye contact as she squeezed the skewer, and gulping the food she had in her mouth. Nobody had ever really made her feel important before until now, she was fighting herself not to get overly emotional.
“I’m sorry, are you okay?” James said with a concerned voice, thinking he might’ve said too much.
She nodded her head. “That was just the sweetest thing I think anyone has ever said to me.” Her voice was soft, her eyes looked at him meaningfully.
James felt uncomfortable now and just smiled in return, going back to his skewers. How was that the sweetest thing she’s ever heard? It was a simple thing to say, James scratched his head with his one ungreasy hand. What has this girl lived through?
Gracie ate much more thoughtfully, enjoying every bite just a little more. She wanted to stay out in this forest forever with James, she never felt this confident in herself. The idea of going back to the city terrified her, but she knew staying out here was unrealistic.
Finishing his skewers while Gracie continued to eat, he stood up and started walking towards where she was working.
“Where are you going?” Gracie asked, reluctantly pulling the skewer away from her face.
“To look at what you have done so far on the clothes?” James asked with a confused expression, he thought it was obvious.
“No, I want it to be a surprise, you’ll see it when it’s done.” Gracie said with pleading eyes, despite it being more of an order than a request.
James sighed, and turned around. This wasn’t really a time to be mysterious, and it was his clothes with a pelt he killed for, but he wouldn’t force his hand. She hasn’t given him a reason to doubt her ability. If he didn’t have proper clothes for another day, so be it.
James sat down and looked around feeling weird about having nothing to do. He looked up at the sun, and realized it would be getting dark soon, but there was at least a few hours of sunlight left. That was plenty of time to get things done, he’s always lived by a busy schedule in his life, there was always something to do and if you had time you used it productively. That was true even out here in this forest, but as of right now there was very little he could actually do.
James fidgeted a bit, deciding to check on the water. The bottle was still full, he decided to drink half of it and save the other half for Gracie. He’d go down to the stream to refill the bottle when it was empty.
Sitting back down, Gracie was on her last skewer. James was shocked she ate that much, even considering she hasn’t eaten well the past couple days and he was completely full off eating half of what she ate. For the sake of both of them, he wouldn’t point that out.
He decided to take a deeper look at his reservoir and become familiar with everything more than he already was. His reservoir was once again completely full. The only time running out of his elemental energy ever became a problem was when he was fighting the bear, and even then he was very wasteful in his anger. He would need to ask Gracie if it was the same for her when there was a good chance to.
In his mind’s eye the reservoir was a perfect circle, made out of the same glassy but flexible material his channels were. A clear white color that made the channels look a little bit like plastic tubing. The reserved energy he kept in his channels shone vibrantly through it, and his reservoir looked like a blazing sun of red with a hint of purple, creating a sharp crimson color.
The red makes sense to him, but James was confused why his energy had a purple hue. Was it a reflection of his personality in some way or was it something more?
No way to answer that question yet James put his attention back on his channels. They had no openings or gaps, so it was a mystery to James how energy was able to leave the channel at all.
The most mysterious aspect of it all was the one pore he has never touched. The one that led to his head. James traced the channel to try and understand what it may do.
Closely following it, it initially follows close to the spine, and then, unlike anywhere else in the body, branches off into the eyes and coils through the brain. Like all the other channels in the body, it had no return route for the energy, so whatever entered would have to be burned or stored there.
James was very tempted to open it and see what happened, but this was his brain he was talking about, he didn’t know the consequences. If he were by himself he wouldn’t hesitate to do it, albeit with as much caution as possible. He had Gracie to worry about, though. She would be out here by herself if something happened to him.
James sighed, his curiosity clawing at him. Tomorrow they would leave for the city, after he brought order to the city and could trust she would be in safe hands he would do it. This quieted the curiosity somewhat, but he couldn’t help but continue to contemplate what it may do.
Stolen novel; please report.
Would it increase my control over the elements? Maybe psychic powers! James thought eagerly, excited to find out. James sighed again, he hated an unanswered question, it was one of his greatest pet peeves.
Gracie stood up and wiped her mouth on a leaf holding her slightly extended belly.
“Man, that food was good! If only we had barbecue sauce, though. Would’ve been so much better.” Gracie stretched and started walking in the direction of her work area.
James’ face twisted into confusion and disgust, “Barbecue sauce!? On bear meat. Are you feeling okay?”
Gracie turned around in offense, and walked back over to talk to him. “Stop it. I like my barbecue sauce. You can’t tell me there’s nothing weird you don’t like.”
James sat thoughtfully for a moment and nodded his head. He really missed hot sauce now that he thought about it. When he got to the city and organized an effort to scavenge the stores for food he would snag some barbecue sauce and hot sauce for them.
“I guess you’re right, I would’ve liked hot sauce on mine. Still though, barbecue? Not steak sauce? Actually, I take that back, at least you didn’t say ketchup.”
“Ketchup wouldn’t have been bad either.” Gracie scowled at him, daring him to say something.
James narrowed his eyes and slowly shook his head in judgment. “Do you even season your food?”
“Usually pepper and lots of garlic. Sometimes ginger, that one depends.” Gracie ignored the implied insult, this time.
“We can agree there at least.” James followed the conversation while looking up at the scorched trees above him. He wanted out of this area, he didn’t know if it was just wanting something to do or if the eerie silence from the lack of any wildlife in the area.
“I would kill for some pasta though,” Gracie sat thoughtfully, her facing shifting into a frown.
“We won’t be getting those things anymore will we? Those sorts of things go bad, quickly.” Gracie asked, looking at James, hoping she was wrong.
“Probably not. Or at least it will be a rare treat. Only canned goods and other preserved foods will last for an extended period, I doubt anyone will be farming in this world any time soon. My goal is to make Dahlonega safe and functional, and reestablish society. When there’s order, maybe we could start farming again. After Dahlonega is rebuilt I can go to other towns and bring other survivors there if they chose to. I’m sure other societies will form, and the ones who don’t abuse their citizens we could trade with.” James started ranting, going over his plans he’s been developing.
“Of course, then comes the issue of what will be the currency. We can’t just use dollars as then anybody would become rich just by looting banks or collecting money from a bunch of abandoned homes. Bartering is very inefficient, but it would be the temporary way for trading until that’s figured out.” Gracie looked at James eagerly, he rarely spoke about his thoughts and she was glad she had a chance to understand what he thinks about.
“Then comes the issue of what will be done about power hungry leaders, if Dahlonega becomes prosperous I’m certain the city will be attacked. I also wonder what would be the right choice if I stumble on societies like that in my goal to find survivors and bring them to Dahlonega, would it be the right thing to… eradicate the power-hungry? I think so, but I also thought I was doing the right thing by getting revenge on the bear. I’m not so sure anymore.”
James ran his fingers along the unshaved stubble growing on his face. His eyes shifted around juggling several thoughts, his brows furrowing in frustration.
Gracie stared at him dumbfounded, he put that much thought into this? She hasn’t thought much further than getting back to the city and where her next meal was going to come from.
Gracie sat back a bit, looking at the sky, thinking about what she could add to the conversation. Her memories drifted to how upset James was at the devastation of the forest he caused.
“I saw the gang members in Dahlonega kill people over catching them hiding food for themselves in trashcans. I’ve seen them hurt children. Steal from the weak, burn down houses that people were staying in just because they could. I had to watch that happen knowing there was nothing I could really do to help. I’ll have to live with that.”
Gracie’s eyes left the darkening sky and locked on to James, her lips were firmly pressed together resisting her urge to cry.
“You have the power to stop this. You may make mistakes, but the regret of making a mistake is way worse than the regret of doing nothing. Those people won’t stop James. They’re opportunists. They do what they can because they can get away with it. If they can’t do it in Dahlonega they’ll do it somewhere else and it will be a future problem.” Her eyes narrowed, looking deeply into his eyes like she was looking for something.
“You have a big heart James, do you really think you can kill somebody?”
James smirked, “Don’t be confused Gracie, I love the good in humanity.” His smile shifted into a deep frown, anger forming into his brows.
“But I also have a deep rage towards evil. I initially enjoyed killing that bear and taking revenge. It was the unneeded devastation I caused to this forest that deeply upsetted me. I can kill. My concern is how do I do it without causing any more unneeded suffering to the good people in this world?” James sighed, laying down on his back.
“There’s no simple answer to that. Those gang members probably have good family members who love them and they will suffer when I do kill them. But, I will prevent the suffering of probably many more. Some gang members will be redeemable who are just apart of that group because they don’t have to worry about their next meal. How do I determine whose malicious in their actions and whose just trying to survive? For most I probably can’t.”
“Of course I could say I’ll form a prison and seperate all these people from the rest, but I don’t know enough about these powers people have now to say that’s even a possibility. If I was imprisoned I’d just explode the prison walls and walk right out, others can probably do something similar.” James ran his fingers through his hair, his jaw muscles flexing as he grinded his teeth.
“Hey, you’re not doing this alone. Don’t forget that, please.” Gracie stood up and walked over to him and extended a hand to help him up. James looked up at her and took her hand, confused as to why she wanted him to stand up.
“You have time to think about this. Don’t stress about it before you have too.” Gracie said struggling to lift him up, nearly losing her footing and falling over. Once he was on his feet she patted the blanket that had ash and dirt all over it dusting it off.
“You’re getting my blanket dirty, be more considerate,” she lifted her head in mock authority as she walked away to start working on James’ clothes.
James chuckled. “Whatever you say, mom.”
Gracie sat down and got back to her work just barely where James could see her, trying to keep the result a surprise for him.
James decided he would make use of his time by training his control and coming up with new ideas for attacks and defense. He sat down and crossed his legs. Taking a deep breath, he calmed himself to clear his mind as he focused on the burning star that was his reservoir, looking for inspiration for ideas to experiment with.
He considered himself to have both a pretty solid defense and offense. Some attacks could get through his aura if they were strong enough, so he decided to focus on that. His aura was overkill for most attacks and wasteful. As long as the fire was coming off of him not much could get through. He would need a concentrated defense that he could use without burning everything around him.
James remembered the earth wall the bear used. He would start there and try to create something similar that could erect from his hands or other parts of his body.
Standing up, he placed his right foot in front of his left and slightly bent his knees, taking his practiced stance from years of boxing. Putting his right hand forward he excited the energy already in his channels to get the energy ready to burst into flames. After a small flame appeared from his hand, he willed the energy to pour out in a shield shape.
The small flame instantly shot outwards it’s intensity flickering, sporadically shooting out fire to all sides of him. One of the flickers of fire caught the edge of the blanket caped around him.
“Son of a bit–” James cut himself off as he quickly patted the growing flame on his blanket. Only afterwards did he realize he could’ve willed the energy to dissipate feeling even more stupid.
Gracie’s head shot up in response to his swearing. His rushed patting of the blanket and smoke panicked her.
“Are you okay?!” She quickly stood up from her work area to run over to check on James.
“Yes,” James said with a deep irritated tone, mad at himself for making such a stupid mistake. He didn’t expect the fire to behave that way when he willed the energy to form a shield shape from his hand.
“Be more careful Jesus, should’ve just let you get it dirty instead.” She smiled at him, trying to make him feel better about it. James’ frown only grew deeper.
“It’s just a blanket James and not much damage was done, I was only kidding.”
“Doesn’t make it any-” James heard rustling in the distance and held up his hand towards Gracie to signal to be quiet.
Listening intently, he looked in the direction the sound was coming from.
James' eyes shot open, grabbed Gracie and pulled her behind a tree.
“Do not make a sound, there’s three men coming in prison jumpsuits. I don’t know if they’ve seen you, if I say run, run.” James whispered barely out of sight as the rustling of leaves drew closer.
Coming out behind the tree, he locked eyes with the three burly, unshaved men. Glaring at them, he puffed out his chest and spread out his arms, communicating he was willing and ready to fight.
They glared back with narrowed eyes, hostility painted in their clenched fists.
“What are you doing here?” James said, eyeballing the three men trying to gauge their strength and weaknesses.
“We ask you the same thing, boy. We saw smoke coming from here. You’re too close to our camp.” The tallest man in the front with blonde hair spoke, evidently the leader in this exchange.
The blonde man looked around, noticing Gracie’s bag. “We’ll be taking your things, leave. If I see you again I’ll kill you.”
“No you won’t. You leave. Turn around, go back where you came from, and hope to God I don’t see you again or hear about your camp causing trouble.”
The leaders’ eyes went wide with surprise, and turned to the other inmates who looked back at him in shock. They bursted into an uproarious laughter. James gritted his teeth. Confrontation was inevitable. He would at least have to kill or critically injure a few of them.
“Listen boy, you got guts I’ll give you that.” He smiled, but his eyes shifted to absolute rage. “But now you die.”
“Run!” James yelled to Gracie as he rushed to form a fireball in his hand.
The leader paused as he saw Gracie take off past the tree, greed filling his eyes. “Get the girl!”
Boulders raised out of the ground as the man stomped, floating three feet off the ground judging when to attack as he controlled it with his clenched fist. James debated who to attack first, the lackeys chasing after Gracie or the immediate threat to his life. He couldn’t do anything to help Gracie if he was dead.
In a spur of the moment, he opted to try and neutralize the men chasing her before he dealt with the leader.
He threw the ball, curving it around trees and exploded a few feet away from Gracie’s pursuers. He didn’t have time to see if he neutralized them as a boulder was just a few feet away from his face.
—
Gracie was running as fast as she could. She was so afraid for James, but she’d be little help. The fear of what would happen to her if those men caught up to her kept her moving faster and faster. She didn’t dare turn around.
An ear-shattering explosion rocked the forest. A bright flash appeared behind her as she was knocked off her feet by the shockwave. Her breathing is shaky and rapid, her thoughts nothing but a series of fears. Clamoring to her feet, she looked back. She saw two roasted corpses, barely recognizable as human.
She threw her hands over her mouth and fell on her back. James did that. She was in disbelief. She knew how powerful he was, but to see it used against humans was a different story. He protected her, but the relief and joy was washed away by the grizzly sight.
More explosions went off, followed by flashes of crimson light. Dense trees blocked her sight, but bursts of flame and rapidly moving rock showed James and the blonde man were locked into an intense fight. She shaked the fear off of her. She had to help him. She had to return the favor, he protected her, she’d protect him. Gracie fought tears at the thought of losing him.
She slowly moved tree to tree, inching closer and closer, trying not to get caught.
–
James launched a cone of flame at the man, trying to distract him long enough to form an attack. The man surfed on a pile of dirt out of the area of attack, and immediately fired darts James was able to dodge using his flight of fire.
The issue with fighting this man wasn’t the strength of his attacks, but how quickly he was able to attack.
A rapid series of earth darts, boulders, and earthquakes was constantly assaulting him. He was constantly kept on the defensive.
James was fed up. He had to end this, his fear for Gracie was growing by the second. With a growl he flew up into the sky rising far above the skyline, out of range of the man. Or so he thought.
The man catapulted into the air, two boulders in hand. James smiled, he had enough time to form a fireball in one hand and a dart in the other. This would be plenty to end this.
Sending the dart flying at the man, his eyes spread wide as he maneuvered the boulder to block it. The dart exploded inside of the boulder creating a cloud of dirt, but what the man didn’t realize was that it was just the diversion. As the prisoner appeared through the dust, the fireball exploded directly in front of his face. He was instantly killed.
He had no time to enjoy his victory, James’ attention immediately went to Gracie and her pursuers.
He quickly flew to the ground, landing rough in his haste, not noticing he injured his ankle.
“Gracie!” He quickly yelled as loud as he could, looking around everywhere.
“I’m over here!” Gracie's voice came from the distance, and he quickly shot off in a roar of flame towards her voice. Quickly arriving, he saw her and ran over to her.