For some reason, I get a bad feeling, but I don't understand why.
Is it because of the height I'm currently at?
Ah, here it is, let me grab this one too, and I think I'm done with food for today.
Let's go down.
Blanc began climbing down the banana tree with one hand as he held a cluster of bananas in the other.
He managed to pick quite a variety, and he only had to go less than a mile deep in the rainforest from where the rest were.
Which meant that he had enough time to return.
As luck would have it, he did not have to fight beasts on his way here or for the fruits.
And now, with the cluster of bananas in his bag, he was ready to return slowly to the others.
He couldn't wait to enjoy a bath with Celine and Miyanna.
What gave that piece of information away?
Besides the grin he wore on his face while thinking about it, he was practically skipping as he jogged towards their campsite.
And who could blame him, really?
If one were to return to their wives, wives as pretty as Celine and Miyanna were, they would perhaps sprint.
However, Blanc would not be Blanc without overthinking other things while arguing with his own self.
Was I maybe too harsh with Kael and Lune earlier?
I don't think so. Countless bad things could have happened, and this time, I would not have been able to do anything.
That would have been bad. Did we waste too much time with the Raw Vita? No… Miyanna needed to receive a proper explanation.
Yes, but watching Celine was not required.
Can't I enjoy watching my wife now?
Nobody said that, but is watching Celine worth risking Kael and Lune's lives?
Celine could have been in danger as well. Who knows when other gorillas would have attacked?
The gorillas could have attacked Kael and Lune just as well.
Yes, but they would have been conscious to yell, to ask for help. And I cannot be in two places at the same time.
I know.
Then what am I supposed to do?
I… don't know.
Exactly. But I say I will forget this for now, and I will be more careful in the future.
Sound plan. What's next on the list?
I think the place where I buried the gorillas is a good place for a battle.
I think so too, but I say I'll check again to make sure no beast dug them up.
Can't argue with that.
I am talking with myself, of course, I can't.
Mentioning it will make it seem I am going mad.
I say that lying to oneself is a pretty standard of the times I live in. I bet even Father does it.
Oh yeah, I remember him whispering to himself once.
I recall at least four times.
I hope he's fine, though.
Oh, I must learn not to worry about all. I can't, my brain can carry so much before yet another voice joins in, and then this monologue will become… still a monologue, but will sound more and more like a dialogue.
My family is my family, and it makes sense that I worry about them and their well-being.
Nobody says I should not. All I say is that I should choose what I should worry about right now. Which is most important.
And what's most important?
Getting stronger. Without that, how can I protect Celine, Miyanna, Kael, and Lune? How can I take them to safety and offer them the chance to grow stronger themselves as safely as possible? How can I dream of ever having an attempt at saving my family?
But that just means I worry about everything.
Wrong. I must think about getting stronger. Not the reason why I need that strength.
So… focus on strength, not what I can use that strength for.
Exactly, planning on what you can do with the strength I do not have is like a beggar thinking about what he could buy with a gold coin; it's useless.
Makes sense. But all a man can do is worry.
Then, that man should learn how to focus on what he can do now, which will allow him to achieve his goals later on, no?
I hate this, and I hate that I'm right.
Jealous?
I am speaking to myself. What should I be jealous of?
Can't argue with that. Anything else on the list?
Turtles.
Ugh… my brain hurts just thinking about it. What if there are none?
I think we just buy them once we leave this Domain.
Would they not be more expensive, though?
They would…
There goes that, then.
Yep.
Anything else?
Nope.
Good talk then, just in time. I'll be back soon.
And right was Blanc, and the voice he used to argue against himself with.
He was now near the place he chose to bury the gorillas in.
About two hundred feet away from the waterfall, and a bit upriver, stood a small opening where no trees grew. It wasn't large or that uncommon, but it was just perfect and close enough for what Blanc planned.
It looked as if no beast disturbed the hole in which he placed the gorillas' bodies.
Perfect, Blanc thought.
With that checked, it was a good time for him to get back to his wives and younger sibling and enjoy a nice dinner together before… well, hehe, before enjoying a proper bath with his own wives, what else?
But he decided to walk alongside the river and go back by jumping over the waterfall.
That will surely impress Kael and Lune, Blanc concluded, as if convincing himself of the great idea he possessed.
So, walking for another fifty feet, he was on a rock bed that stretched alongside the river all the way toward the waterfall, where it suddenly stopped.
One weird thing about this river that Blanc noticed as he walked the short distance towards the waterfall was that it seemed wider here, with clearly more water flowing through it than what the waterfalls spew out.
And the debit of water that flowed outside the pool into the creek that formed was obviously lower than that of a whole river.
He stopped for a moment to look at it, trying to figure out where the water was going, but knew that would not answer his question.
The only thing that would give him that answer was, perhaps, to just go into the river and see for himself.
But no sane man would jump into such waters.
Surely, below the flow of the river, there were currents in ten different directions.
Jumping into such water and getting caught in one would be a swift and painful death sentence if one were not able to magically transform into a fish.
Something that Blanc had never heard possible.
He gave up trying to solve this enigma he faced, since the waterfall was basically a two-minute walk away, if that.
And he began walking again, alongside the river.
But a sudden squeak could be heard behind him. He took notice of it but carried on.
However, his brain was screaming at him to at least peek back at what the source of that squeak was.
And he did.
And by the Vita above, there it was, swimming against the current, with its head above the water as if taunting him.
A turtle.
A turtle so small that Blanc clearly knew it was a baby turtle.
Still, his hands moved without his command, and a moment later the arrow was nocked, drawn, and his eyes were aiming, closing in on the turtle as it kept squeaking away.
Yet he did not loose the arrow. He stood there as if frozen.
Even his shoulder was growing tired of staying in the same position.
Not because he did not want to kill it.
He was close to drooling.
But because he knew that this baby was not the prize.
The prize was below it, somewhere down in the water, was its parent.
And that meant that at least two large turtles were in this Garden.
Two large turtles that he will find and harvest.
Until then, he decided to let them enjoy their time together.
For he will do the same with his own.
He placed the arrow back in its quiver and the bow back on his shoulder before turning on his heel toward the waterfall and starting to run at a sprint.
"Kael, Lune," said Celine out loud as she and Miyanna approached the pool, "I think it's time you get out, or you might catch a cold."
"Okay said the twins in unison as they began walking to get out of the pool, but sudden steps made them look up just as something jumped from behind the waterfall, falling in between them, and right in front of Celine and Miyanna, who did not waste a moment to draw their swords towards the beast, which fell from the sky.
The beast turned out to be none other than a wild husband and brother of theirs.
"I'm back," he said to the four as they stood there, frozen.