Lucky's Leap

Over the next few weeks, everyone's day-to-day life was fairly normal. There were no hiccups of any kind. Even though the village was still recovering from the wolf attack, it was basically back to the way it was.

Ian was probably one of the only people who had a fairly busy schedule throughout this time. He would work long days at Zoey's with Dave. He would hang out with Ellie, Emmett, Kevin, and Zoey on his days off. 

By this point, Zoey had fully integrated herself into the friend group.

On the days Ian had nothing to do, he would train in the forest by himself. And lastly, he would visit Lucky every day to feed and train him.

After training Lucky for so long, he finally became more obedient. He would follow Ian's commands to the best of his ability. Not only that, but Lucky had also grown in size. He was almost twice as big.

One day when Ian decided to go hunting, he decided to finally bring Lucky along. He wasn't going to hunt anything big or dangerous, but he wanted to at least get Lucky some hunting and battle experience.

Ian had located an area in the forest with some small and weak creatures to train Lucky with. Most of the creatures were null-ranked. When he found one, he was going to demonstrate what to do. Ian would not use any of his power and would only use his base strength.

As they walked around the area, Ian spotted a creature in the distance. It was a rabbit-looking creature. It was the size of a football and looked mostly like a rabbit. The only different thing was its fox-like tail. Its fur was gray with a white underside.

When Ian saw it, he stopped walking and guided Lucky closer to it while hiding from it. Once they got close to it, Ian told Lucky to pay close attention to what he was about to do.

Ian crouched down to hide better. He slowly got closer to the rabbit-like creature and waited for an opening. Once he saw his chance, Ian lunged towards the creature and pinned it to the ground.

The rabbit-like creature squirmed in Ian's grip. It let out some frantic squeaking noises similar to a guinea pig.

Ian called over Lucky. Once Lucky was next to him, Ian said, "Okay Lucky, when you're trying to kill something quickly, you want to aim for its neck." Ian pointed at the rabbit creature's neck so Lucky understood what he was talking about.

Lucky paid close attention to what Ian said. He looked at where Ian was pointing and gave Ian an understanding look.

Once Lucky seemed to understand what Ian was saying, Ian went on to twist the rabbit creature's neck, Killing it instantly. Ian picked up the dead rabbit creature and put it in his bag. He then turned to Lucky and said, "Now it's your turn." 

Lucky gave Ian an understanding look and started walking in a random direction. After a few minutes, Lucky and Ian came across another rabbit-like creature. This one was smaller than the one Ian killed.

Upon seeing the creature, Lucky did exactly as Ian demonstrated. He crouched down to stay hidden and approached the creature slowly. Once he got close enough, he waited until he saw an opening. 

After a few seconds, Lucky pounced towards the rabbit-like creature. He opened his mouth and bit the creature's neck. Lucky was still fairly young so he didn't have the strength to bite deep into the creature's neck.

The creature thrashed around and cried out. Lucky struggled to keep the creature pinned but he managed to keep it from escaping. Once he got a firm grip on the creature's neck, Lucky began to whip his head around rapidly like a dog.

The rabbit-like creature was whipped around rapidly by its neck, leading to its neck snapping. Once the creature was killed, Lucky placed it on the ground and let go of its neck.

Ian ran over to it and was surprised by the results. He expected there to be more of a struggle but Lucky managed to kill the creature quickly.

Lucky looked up at Ian happily. He wagged his tail and waited for Ian to praise him. Ian noticed this, so he reached down and petted Lucky on his head.

"Good job buddy. You got your first kill," Ian said as he continued to pet Lucky's head.

After petting Lucky, Ian picked up the creature's body and placed it in his bag.

The two of them continued to hunt for a little bit longer. Lucky did most of the hunting as practice while Ian watched from a distance. Once Lucky killed the creature, Ian would collect its body before moving on to the next target.

Lucky managed to kill four creatures in total. Only two of them did he struggle with. They were a bit bigger than him which made it harder for him. But since he was able to launch a sneak attack on them, he had the advantage.

There was only one other situation during their hunting trip. The two of them ran into a copper-ranked rabbit-like creature. This one looked like the others but it was bigger and much faster.

When Lucky tried to pounce on it, the rabbit-like creature was able to react and slapped Lucky away with its tail. Lucky was sent flying away a few feet. He tumbled around on the ground as he flew back.

When Ian saw this, he ran towards Lucky.

The copper-ranked creature moved towards Lucky and was going to attack him. However, before it got a chance to do so, Ian showed up and kicked it with all of his might. 

The rabbit-like creature was sent flying at high speeds through the forest until it hit a tree. When it hit the tree, its body made a crunching sound. The creature died on impact, leaving a large splintered dent on the tree.

After kicking the creature away, Ian quickly went up to Lucky and checked on him. Thankfully, Lucky wasn't injured. His fur only got dirty from tumbling on the ground.

After going through that situation, Ian decided to end the hunt and started to walk back to his hideout.

Back at his hideout, Ian relaxed on a foldable chair he brought. Ian had decorated the hideout a bit since he found it. There was a mini fridge filled with snacks and drinks. He had lights hanging around the edge of the roof, and he had a nice futon for him to relax on if he wanted to. However, Lucky had decided to make the futon his bed. 

He also made a makeshift fireplace to cook food. He had some of the rabbit-like creature meat cooking over the fire while he relaxed. Ian grabbed a cold drink from the mini fridge next to him and started to drink it. 

The items in the hideout that required power to work were gaining power from a solar power generator. Ian had gotten it from Liam when he went to get his gauntlets tweaked.

Since his gauntlets were still prototypes, Ian had to go visit Liam every once in a while to get them tweaked and adjusted.

On one of these visits, Ian saw the solar power generator under a pile of tools and parts. Ian asked Liam about it, and Liam said, "Oh, that old thing? It's an old generator I made in my earlier years when I first started to do my research. I don't use it anymore since it doesn't generate enough power for all the things I do."

Ian looked at it and asked, "If you're not using it, Can I have it?"

"Liam didn't even bat an eye and said, "Sure. It's no use to me so you can have it. But why do you need a generator?"

"I have a little private area where I like to escape into. I'd like to add some things to it but some require power. Similar to your workshop, it's a place where I can work on my own things," Ian explained.

"I see. You and I have similar mindsets. We both like to be alone and work on things. Well, as a man who shares similar interests, I will happily give it to you." Liam half-jokingly spoke.

After Ian brought the solar generator to the hideout, he started to bring other things that required power.

However, now he had to figure out what to do with his hideout and Lucky once he left. He couldn't just leave them behind while he left for the academy. He needed to think of something fast. He only had less than three weeks left before he had to leave.

After thinking about it, Ian decided to ask Liam about something he had heard about the academy. He planned to ask him the following day.

For now, he planned to enjoy his day off with Lucky. The meat that was cooking over the fire was nearly finished cooking. He walked up to the fireplace and checked on it. When he saw that it was cooked to his liking, he removed it from the fire and split it.

He gave Lucky half of the meat in a bowl. He placed the other half on a plate and put some sauce on it before eating. The meal was simple but he enjoyed every bite.

Once Lucky finished eating, he crawled on top of Ian's lap and took a nap. Ian allowed Lucky to take a nap on his lap. He petted Lucky's back as he slept. Soon Ian too decided to take a nap on his chair.

When he woke up, he noticed that the sun was starting to set. Ian panicked and quickly got up from his chair. Lucky was already sleeping on the futon so he didn't have to worry about him. Ian grabbed his stuff and quickly exited the hideout.

A while after Ian left, Lucky woke up. It was dark out by now but the lights in the hideout kept the place lit. 

Lucky would always be sad when Ian left but he couldn't get out of the hideout by himself. The exit was too high for him to reach. 

However, Ian had brought a lot of items to the hideout. Even though Lucky was still small and young, It could still think for itself. It looked at the items around and got an idea.

He started moving the items next to the exit. He placed a bunch of items on top of each other until it was halfway up the wall. There weren't enough items for it to stack all the way to the top so he had to jump for it.

Lucky backed himself against the opposite wall. He crouched down, readying himself to run forward. When he thought he was ready, he bolted towards the pile of items he made. He ran as fast as he could, climbing the pile. When he reached the top he jumped for the exit. His little paws touched the exit, but he was able to grab onto it. He slipped and fell to the ground.

Lucky was mad that he failed to reach the exit. He reattempted to make the jump again.

The second time had similar results. He failed to grab onto the ledge of the exit and fell to the ground. Lucky retried to make the jump a few more times. Each time he did, he missed the ledge and fell down. After falling a few times, he started to get hurt, but he didn't give up.

On his last attempt, Lucky used all of his remaining strength and ran for it. His short legs carried him as fast as they could. He climbed the pile quickly before making the final jump.

This time, when he jumped, he failed to grab the ledge but he managed to bite onto a root that was poking out of the wall. He held on tightly to the root with his teeth and used it to pull himself up. He managed to get a hold of the ledge and slowly pulled himself up and out of the exit.

Finally, he got out of the hideout. Now all he had to do was find Ian. He smelled the air and the ground, trying to pick up Ian's scent. Once he picked up Ian's scent he slowly started to follow it to the village. Since it was dark out. He had to be careful.