Shelter

Feng Hao lightly grunted. His legs felt somewhat sore from the burden put on them. He twisted his body into awkward angles to keep the 3 trees tucked under his arm.

Large leaves that were tied together with strips of their own fibre rested on his back. As much as Feng Hao tried to keep the logs in his left arm, one of them ended up hitting a tree and sending a jarring force into his stomach. A little bit of wind was knocked out of Feng Hao but there was no change to his facial expression.

Feng Hao was not very expressive and most of the emotions he seems to have were an act. It had become a habit for him to act more friendly and curious than he actually was. Although Feng Hao never knew why he was taught to act that way by his master, he still kept it up.

At that moment though, he had forgotten to keep up the act so when he saw the blond girl tightly hugging his brother, he bluntly asked "what are you doing?"

His tone was tired and unimpressed, as if he had set very low expectations but even those low expectations were too high.

"Don't eat us you monster!" The blond girl yelled, she had not yet registered that it was not a monster and instead just Feng Hao.

He just sighed, putting down the trees and leaves before pinching the bridge of his nose. He took a moment before collecting himself and taking a deep breath. "I'm not a monster, don't worry" he smiled widely. The blond girl looked up at him, there were tears at the corners of her eyes, "you're not a monster?" She sniffed. Feng Hao just smiled.

"I'm trying to make a shelter so we don't get in the rain, do you want to help?" Feng Hao asked. "I will stay by my knight" the blond girl said. "Well, that disappointing, but anyway, I can't just keep calling you blond girl, would you tell me your name?"

"My name, it's Wan Ya" she said. "Well then Wan Ya, I'm going to build the shelter" Feng Hao said before going back into the forest.

He couldn't take all of the materials in a single trip so he had to go back again to collect the rest of the trees and leaves. A few raindrops landed on his face so Feng Hao knew that he didn't have much time left before it would begin to heavily rain.

Getting sick out here would be dangerous, even life threatening because there was very few places to recover and the sickness could become worse over time.

Feng Hao dug several holes in the ground, making a circle. Each hole was not very wide but the thin trees would fit nicely into them. Feng Hao glanced at the sky, checking how close the dark cloud was. He was surprised at how close it had gotten so he didn't check again and just tried to work as fast as possible.

Feng Hao chopped off the branches on the thin tree trunks, there were one or two branches on each so it went rather quickly. Next he put all the trees in the holes and grabbed a few stings of fibber from the leaves. He took two of the trees, bent them and tied them together.

He repeated that process for each of the trees and finally had a framework for a round hut. When Feng Hao stood up, he almost fell over again, his legs were shaking and he wobbled back and forth.

Feng Hao checked his stamina, although it was not really necessary. He could feel that his body was spent and could barely more anymore.

[stamina: 2/7]

Not only had his max stamina been reduced to 7, but he was only 2 points away from using vital stamina.

Unlike when he was younger, Feng Hao could now power his body through sheer will. When he was younger, it felt like his body was uncontrollable so he could barely go past his limits.

Compared to the time when he tried to stay awake in order to absorb the purple spirit energy. Feng Hao could push past his limit far easier.

He used the leaves to create a roof for the hut and used any leftover leaves to make a floor.

"Help me move Feng long" Feng Hao said. Wan Ya hummed in agreement and they both took a side of Feng Long.

Feng Hao was far too tired to lift Feng long by himself so he had to enlist the help of Wan Ya to do so. "On the count of three" Feng Hao said. "One, two, three" he grunted out the three as the both heaved him up.

Despite how thin he looked, Feng Long had an incredibly strong and dense body. It had somewhat shocked his parents when he was over 22.5 kg (50 pounds) when he was younger than 3.

The two of them brought Feng Long inside the makeshift shelter and laid him down on the slightly soft leaves.

In a corner of the room was a pile of dried leaves, if it could even be called a corner. The shelter was round so there weren't any corners but that was beside the point.

Feng Hao had gathered those leaves so it would be easy to start a small fire. There was also a pile of sticks that would help keep the fire going throughout the night.

Sadly only certain types of wood could be used to actually start a fire, it couldn't just be any random piece of wood.

Feng Hao glanced out the opening of the shelter. "Where is Ming Ai?" He thought. She had been gone for quite a while and he was wondering if something had happened.

'I can't fall asleep before starting the fire' Feng Hao thought. He glanced at his stamina to check how much it had dropped.

[stamina: 1/5]

'Damn it, if my maximum drops below 0 for even a second then I will pass out' he thought.

Feng Hao decided to wait in the shelter, he didn't want to get soaked by the rain which was starting to pour harder.

A few minutes passed before Feng Hao heard the sound of foot steps and heavy breathing.

He glanced out of the shelter and saw Ming Ai running towards him while protecting the wood from the rain with her body.

Feng Hao moved out of the way of the entrance, she pivoted and dived into the shelter. Although her clothes were completely soaked through by the rain, she was certainly not dry and could get sick from the cold.

"Damn it, why were you so slow?" Feng Hao said. He said it with slightly more ferocity than he meant to.

"I had to get across a river," Ming Ai said in her usual flat tone. She had spotted the tree across a nearby river so she had to find a way across.

A few hundred meters down stream, there was a tree that had partially tilted towards the water. If she managed to push it over, then it would form a bridge to the other side.

Water had eroded the dirt around the tree so with a few pushes, she had managed to nock the tree over. Then it was just a matter of collecting some ticks off of the tree and heading back.

The process had taken far longer than she initially anticipated so it began to rain before Ming Ai could make it back.

Feng Hao listened to her retelling him the events that transpired when she was looking for the tree. At the same time he had made a bundle of leaves and was rubbing the seventh step wood on another piece of wood.

He did that for a few seconds before a small spark formed. The start rested on the leaves but had not turned into a fire yet.

Feng Hao picked up the bundle of leaves and gently blew on the spark. The added oxygen from his breath allowed the leaves to fully catch on fire.

He added a few sticks and let things happen from there. Soon, a small fire was flickering in the shelter.

Feng Hao placed two ticks in the ground and put a few leaves on top that angled towards to entrance of the shelter. The smoke from the fire was filtered outside because of that small structure.

"Wan Ya, I need you to stay up and watch the fire, if it gets too small throw a few sticks on it. Ming Ai, you sleep close to the fire, your clothes are a little wet, I don't want you to get sick and slow the rest of us down."

The two of them nodded. Feng Hao was relieved that they understood. He lay down on the floor, it was not very comfortable but he didn't expect it to be.

His eyes were bloodshot from how tired he was. It only took a few seconds for him to fall asleep. Just before he closed his eyes, a blinking yellow system notification formed in front of him.

[stamina: 0/1]