Chapter 17

The next morning I wake up feeling way better than I did the past night, I finally had a good nights sleep. Today is the day we're going to the capital, the river that goes by this village will lead us there and because I had told Angela that I wasn't fast or strong she suggested that we use a canoe last night. I agreed.

I then pack my things inside my armor pouch With some mana I cut out strings from the armors front and use it to string the front to the back so that my stuff in my pouch wouldn't fall out side-ways. I made holes in the back and the front through which I pulled the string after which I tied a knot to prevent it from falling out. It was a simple solution but it would prevent people from easily seeing my mana-shields which would inevitably give away my identity... somewhat because it seems they think that I'm an Ancient after seeing it. Angela and Richard didn't seem to mind it but I can't be sure if that counts for all the Tamarin. I looked around the room once more. I had tidied up the bed, checked my equipment and put the rest in my bag.

I went out the room for the last time and down the hall and stairs. I was the first one awake and the sun had only barely gone up from the horizon. Towards the east lay the river, the village was near a corner in the river allowing a far-view from the front of the Inn. From there I watched the sunrise in the blood-red skies. There were strips of clouds above it which looked beautiful. The sun also came through the leaves on the other river bank making the forest come alive. I wasn't the first one up in the village. There were already some Tamarin gathering to go hunting and fishing for the day. They went in groups. Even though the Tamarin are the lords of the forest it was still a dangerous place, one mistake could end up being your last mistake even if you were a well trained Tamarin.

I sat in front of the Inn where I had sat previously as I was recovering from the Sloan replacing that bad memory with this good memory of the rising sun. It felt like a new beginning. I had find something of a sanctuary here. An unchanging place in this ever changing world. A place where I could feel at home with people that I had started to care for. It wouldn't be so bad to settle here. But I was filled with a sad feeling because whatever the case was I had to keep moving forward. It was now not only to find my father and to bring back together the remainder of my family but also to prevent war from reaching my home country. A war that could ravage these lands and these people. I wasn't only doing this for myself anymore I was doing this for all of the Tamarin.

'I just hope it all turns out alright.' I said as I gazed up at the sky and sighed.

I closed my eyes and enjoyed the feeling of the warm sunlight and a slight breeze on my skin. I dozed off a bit but before I went back to sleep I heard some steps inside so I stood up stretched out and rubbed out the sleep from my eyes. That all made me yawn so I covered my mouth with my hand. I then turned around and went back into the Inn.

'Good-morning' said Angela who was wearing the traditional Tamarin armor similar to the overseers and Mathijs. 'Have you had breakfast yet?'

'No, not yet.' I answered.

'Well you can take the remainder of that sweet fruit that we abhor, just make sure to wash yourself afterwards; I wouldn't want to travel with you if you smelled like that.' Angela said.

Instantly a smile appeared on my face as I recalled the taste of the fruits. 'Okay.' I said as I walked to and through the kitchen to the storage area in a hurry.

I quickly ate my breakfast and left the remainder in my bag for later. When I jumped up again which I could only barely do as I had to pull myself up with my arms. Richard had already awoken. He was bidding Angela farewell and told her to be careful; then he noticed me and with a big smile gave me a hug and said 'Good luck with the council. They're quite obstinate folk and if they make it too difficult for you just tell 'm that Richard sent you.'

'Not sure what that will do for me but thanks anyways; also thanks for your hospitality and the fruits. They were delicious.' I replied.

'I seem to have grown somewhat accustomed to the smell now' Richard said, Angela was already backing away from me. 'I guess I'll go wash myself in the river. I'll see you there right?' I said to Angela. She nodded.

As I reached the river I cast a mana-shield on my clothes and my equipment and bag as to protect them from the water. I didn't feel comfortable taking them off and leaving them on the shore. Who knows if they people here will take a peek or something. So I walked into the river with the activated mana-shields to wash myself. Since the water current wasn't so strong and I didn't go in too deep the mana shields used up a negligible amount of mana. After washing up I went out of the river again and saw that Angela had already prepared the canoe. Richard didn't come to say the final goodbyes because he had to tend to the Inn. Plus Angela would be back within a couple of days so it shouldn't be that big of a deal.

I turned off the mana-shields again. Boren had made it so that I could calibrate and turn on/off the mana-shields with the bracelet I was wearing. It was a quality of life thing. As I approached Angela it seems she was rubbing the outside of the canoe.

'Ah good you're done, could you help rub in the canoe?' Angela said without looking up from her work.

'What are we rubbing it in with?' I asked.

'With the cloaking substance of course. This way we won't be bothered by the river monsters.' Angela said.

'Monsters? I thought those were eradicated before the endless war.' I asked with a surprised face.

'That is only partially true. The monsters in the rivers here in the jungle weren't eradicated which is why each tribes borders is by a river.' Angela answered.

I then focused and started extruding more of the substance with which I started rubbing in the canoe from the glands on my hands. 'Will we be alright with just some cloaking?' I asked.

'We should be alright but we'll have to take a break every 3 hours to recharge our mana.' she said.

'Recharge your mana?' I asked.

'Yeah, with some training you can keep it up for a bit longer but the longest I can keep it up is 3 hours after that I need to recharge for at least 15 minutes. So we'll have to take at least 3 but probably 4 breaks on our way to the capital. We'll arrive there late in the evening and we can stay at the Inn owned by my grandfather who lives in the capital.'

Angela then stopped rubbing it in to give me directions on what spots she had missed.

'There all finished up.' Angela said looking at the canoe. We then pushed it into the river as we jumped in. The stream then carried us downstream and as we reached the outer edge of the village Angela started focusing and activated the stealth with her mana.

'I had no idea that there was a maximum limit to using mana.' I said. 'Not many humans use mana all that often so that might be why.'

'So you don't use mana very often?' Angela said while trying to stay focused.

'I use mana all the time, I have practiced mana daily to pass time. Ever since I was a kid.' I replied.

'Well then that is why, since you've practiced it so often your capacity to use mana is bigger better and possibly infinite depending on how much you use it at a time.' Angela said.

'Now can you please stop talking to me or else I'll fail with keeping the boat invisible.' Angela said.

'I'm sorry, I'll just lay down and enjoy the ride.' I said as I laid down in the boat looking up to the sky that had now turned to a deep blue instead of the morning red of before. The slight movement of the boat due to the small waves in the river and the small breeze that blew through the leaves on the trees made it a serene ride. I was still tired from the last couple nights thus I fell sound asleep within minutes.

Next thing I know I was being woken up by Angela.

'Hey, sleepy head; its time for lunch. Did you bring any?' Angela asked.

'Yes but I'm not hungry.' I grumbled as I turned around and went back to sleep.

Angela had pulled the boat to the shore and after preparing a camp fire prepared lunch for herself. She didn't know what I'd like for lunch which is why Richard and Angela had told me to get whatever I needed from the storage in their Inn last night but I only got the fruits since everything else just smelled wrong. After finishing her lunch Angela pushed the canoe back into the water, jumped in as silently as possible and stealthed the canoe again. I had already slept through the first break and the stream was quite a bit faster due to the rain that had fallen in the mountains a couple days ago because of which we only needed a total of 3 breaks. By the time we stopped for the third break I was wide awake. It was late in the afternoon.

'So what is this council like? What can I expect to see?' I asked Angela as I took some berries to eat.

Angela sat as far away of my berries as possible; 'The council is only allowed to be attended by those who have past the trial. Anyone of the people of the forest is allowed to attend so not just the Tamarin but because it is held at the capital and the capital is primarily inhabited by the Tamarin it is always the Tamarin that hold the majority in the council.'

Then she looked up at the sky and said 'This will be my first time at the council so I am not sure what to expect myself. After completing the trial I just went straight back to my fathers Inn because it was the high-season. Whenever there's a council meeting it is often much much busier at the capital and the cities around.'

'Ah I see, so you haven't been able to go because it was always busy at the Inn. Will Richard be alright this time around?' I asked.

'Yeah, he'll be fine. It is hunting season after all so there won't be a lot of people at the council this time around.' Angela replied. She then stood up; 'I hear something.' and out of the water came a monster, it had 4 feet with 3 claws on each of its feat, in its mouth he had a huge fish the size of our canoe. The monster itself was huge but it payed no attention to us. Instead it just sat down and started eating the fish. The problem was that he was right in between us and our boat.

'Now what?' I asked. The monster hearing my voice immediately turned to the direction that the voices had come from. We had both reflexively stealthed so it couldn't see where we were.

I could still see where Angela was at though due to my stealth-detection abilities. Thus I could see that she had turned her back towards the monster and started applying the cloaking stuff to her bow and an arrow. Her back being cloaked prevented the monster from seeing a floating bow. Then when she had finished she activated her mana on the bow and turned around. She then drew the arrow to the bow and aimed at the monsters head.

The arrow was shot; 'HEAD-SHOT!' I yelled as I saw that the monster was hit and fell.

We then deactivated our stealth and approached the dead monster. Monster meat is unhealthy to eat but its skin and bones can still be used to make tools and such. Not that I would need them since all of my equipment is top of the line. The fish however seemed edible.

'How about we take the fish with us?' I asked.

'Sure we could do that.' Angela said; 'but only part of it otherwise we won't fit in the boat with it.'

Hearing that I used mana to cut the head and tail off, then I burned the skin and only the skin till it was burnt black after which the skin just blew away as ashes into the wind. Then I cut off the revealed parts of the fish leaving out the organs.

'Wow, nice mana control.' said Angela.

'I did say that I practiced a lot.' I replied 'But you're not so bad yourself as you moved while you were stealthed and you were even to stealth your bow and arrow too.'

'Well those things are prerequisites for being allowed to participate in the trial as I'm sure you know.' Angela said as she took back her arrow from the monsters head.

'Nope, didn't know that' I said as I cut the meat into pieces with more mana.

After Angela gave me a questioning look she decided to let it slide since it seemed quite odd to try and participate in the trial but not be as prepared as not even knowing the prerequisites to attending the trial.

We then moved the pieces of fish into the canoe and left the monster to rot. Angela once again stealthed the boat as we went with the streaming water to the capital city. The sun was slowly setting and I could see the jungle slowly coming to life in the dark. a lot of lightning bugs started to fly around; way more than I had seen in the storage of the Inn, it looked like a starry sky but then with sunlight still streaming through the canopy above. After a couple hours it had gotten completely dark but I could hear the sounds of a waterfall.

'We've arrive' Angela said as she guided the canoe back to the shore using some sort of mana-propulsion technique which I hadn't noticed that she had used before. We safely made it to the shore where we left the canoe. We put the fish in our bags where our meals had previously been and walked along the shore towards the waterfall. As we reached the edge we could see the jungle opening up to reveal a big wide valley in which the capital city of the Tamarin lay. But before we got there we had to climb down this cliff from which the waterfall dropped down several hundred meters.

'You know how to prevent yourself from getting wet with mana right?' Angela asked.

'Yes, I tried that out as I was washing up before we left.' I replied.

'Good now I want you to do that for your whole body and make it a bit stronger so it can take a hit.'

'You mean like a mana-shield?' I asked as the description fit the description of my own invention.

'Yea something like that. Can you do that?'

'Yea, easily.' I said as I activated 2 mana-shields.

'Good then follow me.' Angela said with a mischievous grin.

She walked towards the edge and jumped down.

I followed her with my eyes and looked over the edge where I could see her activate her mana-shield and hit the water below. After a while she resurfaced and swam to the edge of the pool below.

I never cared much about heights but this was really scary. I looked left and right trying to see if there was a less scary way to go down but there wasn't. The cliff went on for quite a long ways in both directions. It'd take hours if not days to get down through those routes. So I activated 2 more mana-shields and prepared to jump.

I couldn't; it was just too scary. My body wouldn't allow it. So I used my mind to blast myself off the edge with mana. I had to, I would not allow myself to be a laughing stock to Angela or anybody for that matter. Though I guess throwing up because of Sloan doesn't count. Is what I thought as I blew myself off the cliff. Afterwards a lot of doubts and fears started to fill my mind.

'Would the mana-shields hold from the impact with the water?

Will I crash into the bottom of the pool with this velocity?

Will I ….'

There were no more thoughts as I hit the water. Though I didn't get wet I could feel the coldness of the water through my mana-shield. The pool was much deeper than I could have ever hoped it to be. Even though I jumped from that high the bottom was nowhere in sight. I then swam up and after looking around while I caught my breath I swam to where Angela was. I wasn't that good at swimming though so it looked rather clumsy which made Angela laugh. Even though I pushed myself to jump I had once again become the laughingstock. It hurt my pride and ego and there was nothing I could do about it too.

After finally reaching the shore Angela guided me to the Inn where I met her grandfather. He looked just like Richard but he used a cane to help him walk around. It seems that he has a scar right under his right-knee which is probably the cause of the need for a cane.

'Hello Angela, good to see you. If I had known you were coming I would've come to greet you. What brings you here?' – Grandfather

'I am here for the council meeting together with Frank.' said Angela as she moved to introduce me to her grandfather; 'This is Frank; Frank this is my grandfather Beakie or otherwise known as freaky Beakie.'

'Nice to meet you.' I said as I greeted Beakie.

'Nice to meet you; you're not from around here are you? Where are you from?' Beakie asked to which Angela said; 'We've had a long trip so could you save those questions; we brought some fish for dinner.'

Angela kept talking while guiding Beakie to the kitchen. I wasn't sure if I should follow them or not. Having noticed that Beakie half turned around and called me over to follow them.

We put the fish we had on the counter top and started to wash it, season it and bake it on the biggest pan I've ever seen. It filled up half of the counter top which was as big as a queen sized bed.

'I will take the fish as payment for your rooms.' said Beakie as he prepared all of the fish we had brought in one go.

'Why prepare all of the fish? Can't we save some for later?' I asked.

'We're preparing it and then salting it so that it can be preserved for a couple more days. Since I'll be using it for the guests. I was short on supplies, not majorly but a little bit due to there being slightly more people that came for the council than I had previously expected.' Beakie answered.

The answer was satisfactory and after eating some fish we went to bed. It had been a long day for Angela but since I had slept most of the day I went to ask Beakie something.

'Do you have any fruits in the storage?'

'Nope, most guests don't like fruits so there is no need to keep them.'

Slightly down I went back to my room and recharged the mana shields again which had been used more than usual. I used up 2 mana-shields due to the stealthing and the jump down the waterfall. I should probably start thinking of upgrading the mana-shields because this way in a real survival situation I wouldn't be able to last that long. Plus charging them up takes a lot of time.

After charging the mana batteries to full capacity again it had gotten late and I went to bed.