14 >Chapter 13<

Biting into the juicy fruit and feeling the sweet and sour taste tingle-like sensation stimulating their tongues, they couldn't help but sigh in satisfaction. What they didn't expect to feel was a total revitalization of their entire body. Weird energy started flowing through every one of their cells strengthening their muscle tissues, and washing away all of their exhaustion. They literally felt as if they were reborn.

Unknowingly, they started to control this energy, which in turn enhanced their strength even further. They didn't know what this was, but they tried to remember this feeling, capitalizing on the occasion.

The energy dispersed and the boys opened their eyes, followed by a question from Patrick.

"Do you think we can control this energy and do whatever that lion did?"

"I would like to say yes, after all, I think we already used this energy already. For example, like when we ate those apples, it strengthened our bodies and we didn't even notice until after that. And the same thing happened now as well." Tim answered expressing his opinion.

"So, how do we control it?" Patrick asked again.

"Hmm, I think we just need to concentrate and recreate the feeling we felt, so I suggest we do this right now when we still remember the flow." Tim explained.

The boys then closed their eyes and tried to remember what exactly happened and the exact flow.

They stood like this for a few minutes before opening their eyes. The boys looked at their palms and found a small wisp of energy floating there before it dispersed. The boy's eyebrows were knitted and they were sweating profusely. It took all their energy just to create this small wisp.

Calming their breath, the boys relaxed their tense shoulder.

"That's hard." Tim said.

"Well, let's forget about this for now, we can focus on this later." Phillip said before continuing. "We found a room at the end of the other passage and it was pretty big, so maybe we could spend the night here."

"Right, I almost forgot about that." Tim remembered.

"Then let's go and take the fruit with us so we don't have to come back here for the fruit." Jacob proposed.

"Sure. We can even try to control that energy with the help of this pineapple, but let's do that after we get back to the room." Tim said.

The rest of the boys just nodded their heads, walking towards the first passage.

Some time later…

Bringing in giant leaves from the forest, Patrick continued walking towards the room in the cave. When he got there, he put the leaves on the cold and rocky floor.

"Phew… Finally," Patrick sighed.

"Good job. Now we have somewhere to sleep." Phillip said.

"Let's get to training then." Tim continued. "We will eat a bite and then try to control the energy that we get from the fruit."

The boys each either just stood or sat and then took a big bite out of the pineapple.

Closing their eyes and focusing, they could already feel the energy coursing through their body.

For a whole 10 minutes, the boys just tried to remember specific passages and the direction of the flow. They concentrated so hard that they didn't notice faint silhouettes appearing behind them, glowing for a brief moment before disappearing without a trace.

Done with the exercise the boys were bored. They had food, they had shelter, and they even had a source of water nearby. With that thought in mind, they agreed to go and hunt something before night comes.

If they had to guess, they would say it was around three to four hours in the afternoon. They still had a lot of time to catch some food and maybe map out the area around them. After all, they found some useful equipment, so why not use it?

After hunting for approximately an hour maybe even a little longer…

The sun was setting and the moon was becoming more and more visible. The darkness of the night was slowly swallowing up the light from east to the south.

Our group of boys was currently walking through the forest with another of those deer-like creatures they had hunted before. One of them was holding a paper in their hand. They had tried to make a map before this and… it ended horribly so they just decided to scout the surrounding forest and draw the approximate location of the crater to the lake, etc.

Their steps were getting faster by the minute because of the setting sun. They really didn't want to be out at night again, at least not in this forest.

They decided to roast the deer at the entrance of the cave so as to not be in the open and get themselves killed by asphyxiation. Throwing some dry stick to the other side of the coast wasn't really that hard with their now increased strength.

After they set up the fire, they quickly finished roasting the deer and put out the fire, so they won't get discovered. It was already very dark by now since cooking took a long time.

Getting back into their humble abode, the boys just fell on their back into their make shift beds and closed their eyes hoping to get a good night sleep. Little did they know…

After opening their eyes the boys found themselves…

…back in the forest...?