Crunch — crack!
The sounds of dried leaves and twigs giving way resounded within the woods as two young warriors made their way through it.
Rion, who was twelve years old, walked through the deeper forest in the south of the red and black mountains while grumbling, "Why am I helping you again?"
Dora, who was fourteen years old, replied while walking behind him, "I have to find the white quali."
He turned toward her while continuing his steps in reverse and asked with a dumb look on his face, "Yeah, I get that. But why are you making me help you?"
"You know the most about the herbs among all trainees, and I can't find it because I have nothing related to it," she explained in a slightly fed-up tone.
He turned to the front and muttered with a grin, "I know."
A vein throbbed at her forehead, and she asked in an irritated tone, "Then why are you asking me?"
He climbed over a fallen whitewood log and muttered while waving his hands, "I just don't get why you need a white quali... that herb improves a person's height, aren't you already tall enough? You are the tallest girl I've ever seen... You don't want to become a giant, do you?"
She slightly lowered her head to look at him and thought, 'And you are the shortest boy I've ever seen.'
However, she didn't voice her thoughts. He hated others talking about his height, after all.
She decided to change the topic and said, "What's a giant?"
Much to her disappointment... he knew her too well.
A dark expression appeared on his face, and he cried inwardly, 'All because of this cursed immortal body!'
"Rion?"
Hearing her voice, he came out of his thoughts, turned his head towards her and exclaimed, "What?"
She shook her head and asked again, "What's a giant?"
'I don't know if they really exist though...' he remarked inwardly and explained, "Giants are like us but big... as big as the chieftain's hut."
"Oh..." A curious glint appeared in Dora's eyes, but it disappeared right after.
His expression darkened, he clenched his fists and cursed inwardly, 'Bullshit culture.'
After becoming a trainee, Rion had access to more knowledge, and he liked most of it.
He had access to books that listed the herbs found in red and black mountains, and... on that day, he also found out that he didn't have to physically see the herbs to remember them; instead, he just had to know of their existence.
He found out about aura, and to his surprise, it wasn't related to mana at all; instead, it was the materialisation of a person's will and soul energy — a mystical energy that exists in every being's soul.
But the most shocking revelation was that the hunters of the Redwood Den don't hunt normal animals or beasts; instead, they hunt something else.
He still didn't know what that something else was, but he could guess it was something from the fantasy novels he had drowned himself in his past life back on Earth.
Yet... what he hated the most was not something of fantasy or imagination, but rather a rule baked into culture.
No Dhaevrak is allowed to descend the red and black mountains.
It was a heavy blow to his dreams of wanting to travel around the world... it had such an impact on him that he still remembered the first thought that had appeared in his mind after finding that out.
'I just have to run away.'
But after that thought, he remembered the promise he had made to Lara... the promise to never run away.
From that day on, he began to convince himself that what he had was enough, that the red and black mountains were more than enough for him to explore... that all of it was better than those white walls. But he knew he wasn't convincing anyone let alone himself.
"Are you sure we are going the right way?" Dora asked with a frown.
Rion came out of his thoughts and replied, "White Qualis usually appear in dark, dry areas. After about a kilometre south of the den, there's a barren patch – that's our best chance to find one."
"I see," she mumbled, and both of them continued in their steps.
A few minutes later, his eyes fell on dead red and white wood trees.
He pointed towards them and said, "There!"
Both of them strode towards it and soon reached the small area that was filled with dead grass and trees.
He rubbed his hands together, a wide grin stretched across his face as he muttered, "It must be somewhere here, look at the darker areas."
Dora nodded, and the two of them began to look for the White quali.
They looked near the roots of trees, within the hollow logs, under the rocks and in any dark place they could find.
The golden afternoon turned into an orange evening, but they found nothing.
Tired from the fruitless labour, Dora asked, "Are you sure we will find it here? It's already getting late..."
Rion, who was moving a fallen log to look under it, replied in a doubtful tone, "It must be here... or maybe it isn't dark enough?"
She shook her head, turned to the path they had come from and said, "We should go back."
He looked at her with a stubborn glint in his eyes and muttered, "You go... I'll catch up after checking under these two logs."
She looked at him with a frown, but didn't say anything and just left after a nod.
Rion flipped over the log, and his eyes fell on a ghostly white mushroom. He exclaimed with gleaming eyes, "There it is!"
He crouched beside the white quali, picked it up, wrapped it into a strap of animal hide with some dirt and stood back up.
"Let's go."
He looked around for one final time and turned to leave. Suddenly, the bushes rustled eerily.
He sharply turned his head towards the bushes and found nothing.
"Huh? Nothing? What kind of plot is this?" He muttered humorously and failed to notice the red eyes that were watching him from behind.