******* Practicing ********
I find one of the drug plants mentioned in the notebook. It's the only one I recognize. I wonder if I've gone near any of the others. I managed to find some schematics, but it's totally inadequate. I don't think I'd be able to recognize them even if I had them in front of me. There're many similar ones. I sigh. Yi stares at me.
"It's time for the swap," I announce.
"Already? So soon?" Yi complains.
I kiss her goodbye. Not wasting the opportunity to caress her buttocks. She doesn't waste it either. A trickle of saliva hangs when we separate.
Her twin appears. It takes her less than a second to look at me and smile. We kiss each other as a welcome.
"Where to?" she asks. She has just arrived, and is disoriented.
"That way, but we're taking a detour. The swamps are dangerous."
She nods. She looks warily at the mud. Then, we set off. It'd really be a delightful walk if there weren't dangers around every corner. Most of them are too weak, and don't attack us. They run away instead. I'd say this area is of a lower level. Apart from the swamp.
"What's that?" Yu points out.
"No idea. Let's go see."
It's a huge tree. We couldn't all together hug its yellow trunk. Its leaves are blue, with a metallic shine. We call the rest.
"It's beautiful," Liang marvels, as she walks around it.
She carries Little Stripes with her, with a rope tied around her neck. It was hard for her to put it on, she kept taking it off. It was fun to see it.
"It has a very strong qi, but I don't know where it comes from," Yi adds.
"It's really huge," Song appreciates.
Although it's not taller than the rest of the trees, its figure is imposing among them. Its trunk is ten times wider than any other.
"It must have some secret. There's something engraved here. But I don't know what it is," Shi observes.
It's true. There're bits of words hanging out there. Or maybe, it's in an unknown language. It seems to form some kind of incomplete structure. Or maybe, I'm just imagining it.
In the end, there's nothing else we can do but admire it. So, we decide to continue on our way. Nothing has come close to us. Or to the tree.
----------
I find the staff very comfortable to use. Despite being just a thick polished branch. I need to get some techniques to use it better. For now, I don't have any. Maybe, some generic ones, like applying qi to objects.
Offensively, it's not as powerful as a spear. Though, its strikes are more effective against enemies with tough skin. Or armor. Like a meter-wide turtle that's tried to bite us. I've managed to break its shell with blows.
Defensively, it's much better than the spear. It's sturdier and thicker. Best of all, it seems made for me, it fits me perfectly. I guess that's what they call finding your weapon.
We've been attacked by a pack of nine wolves, one of them equivalent to stage seven. The others below. Although, there were more, it hasn't been too difficult. Not only are we stronger, but we're getting used to fighting. I can see it in them. And in me. Are we starting to get overconfident?
"Are you going to finish?" Song complains.
"It's like a child with a new toy," Yi laughs.
"Let him practice," Yu defends me.
"Maybe, we shouldn't have finished so quickly," Shi sighs.
They're surrounding me while I fight a wolf. It's true that I'm practicing. Getting familiar with the staff. I'm faster and stronger than the wolf. There's not much danger.
"As long as he makes up for it later," Liang suggests. And they all nod. Okay, I've gotten myself into trouble.
Meanwhile, the wolf attacks one of my hands. I move it over the weapon, as its teeth find the wood. I swing the staff over its jaws, hitting it hard in the chest with the other end. It lets go in pain. I hit it in the head. It falls to the ground, dying.
It's been useful practice. I've made quite a few mistakes. I've even been able to correct a few on the fly. Which doesn't mean I couldn't do with some basic lessons.
Relying on the spear knowledge was a bad idea. The spear is made to stab. The staff defends and strikes. It may look more like it than other weapons, but its use is still very different.
----------
I continue walking with Shi. We find a small cave that can serve as a shelter. This time, there's nothing inside. Although there are remains of there having been. They aren't recent.
"Let's go hunt one of those rabbits," she leads me by the hand.
We've seen them before. They're delicious, cooked well. We've tried the remains before. But that's just one of the reasons.
When we arrive, it's hiding in the burrow. It was eating around it. We have Ning put up a fairly large shield over it, though weak. And we wait, hidden. It doesn't take long for it to come out again.
We're a bit too far away to hunt it. But not to cut off its retreat. It could flee to another nearby entrance, but the shield prevents it from doing so. It's trapped. It would've been easier to hunt it another way. If only we wanted to hunt it. We have a predator that needs to learn. They decided that after seeing her hunt a beetle.
Little Stripes crouches as soon as she appears and sees the rabbit. We all watch from a little further away. Her prey sees her and moves away. She seems undecided about what to do next.