Chapter 12: On a branch

Three years passed like a fresh breeze, and the little king had reached the young age of eight.

Most of Rion’s raven black hair reached his neck, and the longer ones were tied into a braid

He sat on the branch of a redwood tree, his legs dangling down. A wide smile took hold of his face as he gazed at the spring of youth before him.

The new blood was taking part in their ceremony of becoming a true Dhaevrak.

In the past three years, he had found out more about the tribe, which included answers to the questions that had plagued his mind before.

Questions such as;

Why were there so few of them?

Why did they only have a few with awakened bloodlines?

What did the ceremony do?

There were so few of them because the blood of the gods that ran through their veins made it very hard for them to birth a child. It was the same for awakeneds and the normal members of the tribe.

They only had a few of the awakened bloodlines because the bloodline thins with each generation of failure at awakening, and the only way to restore a bloodline is by awakening it before it gets thinned to oblivion.

When he found out these answers, he was surprised at the number of tribe members they had because the numbers were about equal to that of a large tribe back on Earth.

As for the ceremony, he found out that it wouldn’t be helpful for him because what it did was increase one’s life span and slow the ageing of the body.

He was also pleasantly surprised to find out that both his parents were actually over eighty years old, and yet they appeared to be no older than thirty.

“Even that is a gift of nature…” he mumbled.

The sound of rustling leaves and hurried steps reached his ears, causing his smile to widen.

A few moments later, a brown haired girl reached his tree and shouted, “RION! Why didn’t you tell me you’d be here?!”

He lowered his head and stared at Dora as he replied leisurely, “Why? I didn’t tell you because I wanted to see the awakened bloodline of the God of Travel in action.”

Dora’s expression turned furious as she spat back, “Then why did you hide all of your things?!”

“Heh. Why would I make it easy for you to find me by giving you my things?” He said in a slightly mocking tone.

She closed her eyes, inhaled deeply and replied a few moments later, “You are always doing stupid stuff.”

He chuckled and pointed at one of the children taking part in the ceremony, “That child just stepped in shit.”

She shook her head and expertly climbed onto the tree. She sat beside him and asked, “So… how did it go?”

He heaved a sigh and spoke in a bitter tone, “Nothing… Mama does not tell me anything about the world beyond the red and black mountains.” He turned to her, “What about you?”

She also spoke bitterly, “Same for me, neither mom nor the old man talks about it.” She turned to him and questioned, “What about your father? Did you ask him?”

He pressed her cheeks with both of his palms and questioned with a deadpan look, “What are you?”

She shook his hands away and questioned with furrowed brows, “What are you doing?”

He gripped the branch and leaned back slightly before replying, “You were just asking a stupid question. Ask Papa? He shuts me up for even mentioning the outside world…”

She frowned slightly and asked softly, “Do you dislike him for that?”

He blinked a few times, then let out an amused laugh before replying, “Dislike? Nah. Even if something multiplied my hate a hundredfold, it still wouldn’t make me dislike Papa.”

She turned silent at his words, then turned to look at the visage of Haden, who stood at the other side of the cliff.

“But it doesn’t mean that I don’t feel bad when he shuts me up,” he said with a wide, loving smile on his face.

She shifted her gaze and fell into a daze after seeing the warm smile stretching across his face.

She only came out of it after a few moments. She turned her head towards the spring and mumbled under her breath, “Your smile says the opposite…”

He perked up his ears and asked, “What did you say?”

She replied without turning her head, “Nothing.”

Right then, the sound of drums filled the cliff as the children began their marking ritual.

Bum-bum bum-bum bum…

He looked at the children before shifting his gaze towards the side of the cliff.

His eyes roamed free until they landed on a muscular man with long and wild white hair and primal yellow eyes. He wore the same attire as Haden, but he didn’t have a cape or wolf hide and fur.

Instead, a giant dire wolf sat beside him.

’Varok the Beast…’ Rion thought as he looked at the leader of all hunting groups standing beside Haria with his hands across his chest.

“Do you know anything about Varok?” He questioned while staring at him.

“A thing or two…” Dora answered as she shifted her gaze towards Varok.

“Better than nothing,” he said.

“Well, he has the awakened bloodline of the God of Fury… and I once heard my old man call him the second strongest,” she replied while moving her dangling legs.

“Oh?” He raised an eyebrow in surprise and thought, ’So he is Papa’s rival?’

His eyes began to sparkle. He looked at Varok in awe and admiration over his strength.

“But most of the time he stays within the deep mountains,” she spoke as she leaned forward on the branch to look at the children.

“Do you know when he comes back other than the ceremony day?” He questioned.

“Who might you be asking about? Child of Haden,” Came a heavy and primal voice.

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