Getting close

"Are we getting close to a human settlement?" Liam asked as soon as he got close enough to the river and knew that Biff could hear him. Just before asking he had taken the plugs out of his ears.

"Around a day in our current pace."

"Am I that slow?" he scratched his head as he tossed the skinned creature to the river.

"What are you talking about, it would take a normal human two days to cover the distance you do in one day. Even when you wore that blind. Thanks for the meal, by the way, I really like it when they don't have that annoying layer of skin. So much better..." A humming sound could be heard from the location he was at.

"You're welcome," he said and proceeded to make a fire. Sometime later when the fire was strong enough, he added a pot filled with water to it.

He was making tea again. He knew he would fall asleep from that but he still enjoyed the taste, after all, he didn't know when he could get his hands on delicacies like cocoa or coffee or whatever interesting things this world might offer.

Sure, enough sleep took him about ten minutes later.

Eating and drinking that stuff daily had made his body resistant to it. Before he couldn't tolerate it all, but now it was at ten minutes. He was steadily increasing the time he could stay awake. This was something he made sure he could resist, as it could be used against him as a potential drug.

The next day arrived with a surprise waiting for Liam.

Nio had arrived and was sleeping peacefully curled up near him.

Liam just smiled at that and started on his chores. After a minute he discovered that Pollen hadn't left him any 'gifts'. He was just about to start on the skins he got yesterday and paused. Putting the blindfold in front of his eyes again.

After finishing that task, he noticed that Haru and Biff were awake. He didn't see any of them, he somehow instinctually felt that they were awake. He turned to where Nio was before, but that one was still dead to the rest of the world. Thinking to himself, how had he managed to live this long in this world. He frowned as another thought popped up.

'A day's journey?'

Would he arrive just before the sun rose then? He didn't want that. He still wanted to observe what was the difference between him and the people around here.

So, he started to write something in the air and then pushed the words into Nio.

"I won't be hunting today, and probably won't come too close to the river today either. What do you think about meeting up about a day's journey after the human settlement? It should be far away from them, right?"

Sounds fine ... " he sounded dejected.

"I'll bring you something tasty when I return, what do you want?" he said thinking that the creature needed something to look forward to.

"I haven't tasted human food before, raw meat is the best after all ... Ahh, wait! Liver, that's the tastiest part," he said after thinking a moment.

"Okey, I'll see what I can find, by the way, I don't know how long it would take me in the settlement," Liam added a little uncertainly.

"I'll wait until you come." He said in such a matter a fact tone that left no doubt in his conviction. Liam kind of understands why he waited.

"I'll see you then," he said goodbye to Biff. Hauled up the creature he had beaten up once again as his weight training.

It wasn't as hard like yesterday when he had two but this time, he was blind. It took him a while to adjust to the weight of the creature. A live creature, that was limp was somehow much heavier than a dead one. It was one of his observations from long ago, but this seemed somehow very true this time.

He stumbled as he walked but didn't fall. About two hours later, he had adjusted things enough that he started jogging lightly. He still stumbled but stayed upright and didn't once fall.

Pollen was observing it all. He was very satisfied. He had left it up to him if he'd train or not, but to his satisfaction, the boy took up the blindfold and started his journey with a heavy load of the creature and the skins. He wasn't sure what he planned to do with the unconscious creature on his back, but he had to commend his weird habits. He had only seen a few humans like that, and those humans were the strongest beings in their society. He had even helped some of those beings grow.

He observed as Liam jogged through the forest where he couldn't rely on his eyes. He smiled as he felt the Black Menace come to his side, thus giving him a signal that they were getting too close to humans.

Liam stopped his training at that moment, placed the creature down, and removed the blindfold. It was dark and his eyes didn't need much time to adjust to the light. A moment later he picked up the sound of footsteps and kicked the creature as hard as he could, also destroying the bond around it. He jumped up when he saw the creature waking up. It was a bit dazed, but it also realized that it was free and could hear movement around. The creature acted more vigilant than it did before.

It then snapped and ran toward the sounds, determining that it was the bigger creature.

That was how the world worked here. If you were bigger, you were the stronger one. That was how the creature had always lived and it didn't know anything other than that. And once the human had taken it, it couldn't understand. It was the bigger one so how had this gone like that and now when it determined that the creature was smaller than him it attacked at once. It didn't think and the thought of eating the one who had beaten it that badly, raged in its mind.

The creature was enraged and wanted revenge.