"Still working hard, uncle James?" Jeered the lithe woman seeing him busy lugging the medical herbs into big Mama's house.

Wiping off the sweat with his forearm in exasperation as he places the stuff on the floor, "...why can't you just call me big brother like how you call Alex?" 

"Because he is handsome and you just look old." Tia smirks while twirling her blond fringe as she sits on a bench close to the table, supporting her chin by her hands and elbows on the table and legs swinging underneath.

Sighing out of a lame joke since time immemorial, he shakes his head at the mischievous imp who has been with the four since she got introduced by Cecilia. The dame has had her ceremony to adulthood this year as she chooses to be the village healer just like her mother Leah and aunt Thea, but still she prefers to stay with the witch doctor Mama to help out in the herbal business.

He deftly cuts the cord on the bundle and stacks a small heap of herbs on the table for Tia to grind them into paste with the mortar and pestle. He would have to admit, watching her working hard is a lot better than sulking in the shadows.

"Think that noble brat will be back?" Tia, amidst her work, popped a line James least expected, then comes a second unexpected one with "also, how long will you take to woo me? I am not taking them "seeing you as my little sister" rejection."

Coughing profusely onto his right fist while his left on his waist, "first, don't badmouth Marcus, second, I am not ready for marriage yet! Especially when I am not the one who asks first!"

Pouting, she slams the pestle harder and harder and he can already hear Mama shouting from the backyard, "TIA! DON'T BREAK MA BOWL! BREAK THAT NUMBSKULL'S HEAD INSTEAD! WE HAVE PASTE!"

""Pff!"" The mood lightens as the duo chuckles at the witch doctor's prompt response, after a good look at each other before they continue with their chores quietly.

Honestly speaking, for all those times spent with Cecilia and the gang adventuring through the woods, slaying wolves and sometimes stray goblins, those moss-colored little pests, with Alex, he always felt that the presence of Tia within the group is nice, the girl who is just two years younger seems to be more grounded than her cousin. 

Plus, out of the other kids who got dragged by Cecilia and then forgotten, most of them stopped grouping with the four because of Marcus' brash figure, Tia ended up sticking close to them throughout and ended up with James when they were both in the background while the trio discussed where to explore.

So the both of them ended up talking to one another every now and then, it all stopped for a while as Cecilia got picked by the Church of Light for her display of divinity. It was when James was around eleven or twelve years old, the memory for the time is blurry but the sight of it is something no one will ever forget.

A pillar of light appeared shining onto the healers' houses in the middle of the day, brighter than the sun yet it was warm and comforting, the light held on for a period of time before it disappeared, causing the villagers to rush to the houses to see what caused the commotion. He remembered Cecilia having a stunned look instead of her usual cheery and brave face, then three days later the church members of the Light popped into the village, insisting to take her away by persuasion.

The day she left was with a lot of fanfare as the entire village went into a celebratory mood. All except Tia, who James noticed was in a corner sulking, he did not mustered the courage to speak to her, so he ended up just sit right next to her, watching the villagers and their star cheering as she would become one of the priestess to serve Kaaris, the Goddess of Light.

"So… are you doing anything later?" Quizzed Tia after both of them are done with the chores and James gets handed some coppers for his work.

"Hmm, I am planning to get some rabbits and maybe a bigger game for my folks back home."

"I see… see you then."

"Ok bye," he shrugged at the softened response of hers, which gets him smacked on the shoulder by Mama who is right next to the duo as he steps out of the house.

"He's an idiot," the witch doctor shakes her head in annoyance at the boy's ignorance.

Tia stares at his back with a saddened pout, "yes, yes he is."

***

After waving off the two stout guards who are standing by the village gate with lax behaviour, James takes a look at the small village from the outside. Surrounding his tiny world are wooden fences to fend against small animals and maybe minor monster attacks, the wooden huts and buildings within the fences seem to fit nicely alongside the fields with growing crops, a lazy yet cheerful mood in the air.

James then does his usual checks on his sling, small knife and a pouch for the game. Missing with him is a set of bow and arrow, which he refuses to buy from the small village smith solely because it is pointless, the training of such weapon has long lost on him since young, when the hunters would begrudgingly teach the children of guards and their friends alongside of their own just to pass down the skill. Alex hated using the weapon even though he was good with it while Cecilia got banned by her mother Thea, James tried and hit his forearm with the bowstring way too many times until he dropped the bow and cried.

One of the many embarrassments in his life, seeing how it sits well with the other children till this date.

Wandering into the forest while daydreaming, he follows the old guideline used by the hunters, looking for markings, footprints or just paying attention to the surrounding, he then spots a couple of small indentations near the bushes, alongside what he assumes to be droppings.

He then silences his steps with slowed movement while popping the usual blue box.

The box has no new words much to his dismay, though coin cost on the other hand is steadily increasing as time goes by. James had tried a couple of more things to get new words, from carrying things faster, to plow fields and chop woods harder to even eating more than usual, though the last part might come from him working just as hard, which leads to the current conundrum of him having to get more meat because the dried fruits and vegetables are not keeping him full like in the past.

James could have bought the meat from the hunters, but after some thoughts, he thought that maybe if he was to do it himself, chances are new words will come out. It happened when he helped Ben, and again when he worked hard to get money, so why not if he is to hunt by himself?

 As the sun still is high in the sky and the noises in the woods are quiet with only chirps from birds, James crouches to a slow walk as he finally spots his prey, a horned rabbit munching on some grass, its defenseless back facing him who is hiding behind a tree trunk.

Quietly as possible, he loads a stone into the sling while walking to the rabbit and starts swinging. The whirring noise manages to startle the creature as it begins to hop away, that is when James decides to let the stone fly and it hits squarely onto the rabbit's body. The pain only further aggravates it to sprint off faster away from the now flustering farmer.

It is now or never for him as he does a running leap towards the rabbit, open palms and arms stretched, reaching out to grab it. He failed to catch the critter as it got further with its speed, scampering into the nearby bush as James followed swiftly behind it. 

It should come to the point where James should have recalled the trap making class taught previously and he should be patient and wait, instead he continues to chase the rabbit in fervor while weaving through low branches and shrubberies. He can feel that his legs ache as they furiously stomp the ground to push him faster and further, only to cause him to pause suddenly or risk crashing onto the floras as he tries to reduce the distance between him and the horned rodent.

Just as James is about to lose his mood on the chase, the box pops in front of him, with an unfamiliar word and the plus sign as he wished.

He narrowly dodged a tree with his vision impaired as the rabbit chase was still on, fumbling to turn the new word Rychlost to 10 before closing the box. The result is marvelous for James to say, the increase in his pace as his legs become, what he felt as, more flexible, able to stretch further and spring back. Each step becomes less of an awkward stomp that ends with him sinking and more of kicking the ground and getting pushed off. He would still graze and brush onto the plants every once in a while though, just that those chances of accidents lowered as his legs carried him to his prey.

Initially the distance between the rabbit and him is still slowly widening, then the widening stops as James gets better at moving through the forest, he then swings his sling on many occasions to get a lucky shot while closing in.

A pebble manages to hit its hind leg, causing the rabbit to stubble and face James instead of continuing running. Unlike the normal rabbit, horned rabbits are much fiercer than its counterpart, seeing how they have something to kill and maim other than with their legs. What better moment to show its viciousness when getting cornered?

Seeing the animal about to charge in with its horn does not deter James however, maybe it is the excited feeling after all that running, maybe it is the blind faith that the new word will make him more powerful, it is most probably because he is dumb, but he just decides to stand in a distance out in the open and stare down the rabbit with a knife in one hand and an open palm in another.

It did not feel long for the rabbit to charge head first onto James, who has been doing small hops on the spot as he jumps sideways as soon as the rodent is close, he then swipes with the knife at the passing rabbit. The blade did not decapitate or bisect the rabbit as imagined, instead all he gave it was a small cut at its back.

'There goes the pelt,' and he proceeded to slam the poor creature hard onto the ground. James then swiftly wraps his hand on its neck and breaks it with a soft crunch.

He then proceeds to dismantle the limp rabbit by first removing the horn and letting the blood out from the neck as he hangs it over a small ditch on the ground, a few more knife works and the hide and flesh are separated and stored in the bag. The coin cost is now at 42, the rabbit meat and fur worth quite a bit for that jump.

Happy with the catch in such a short time, James moves out to a clearing so that he can find more of the critters, only to notice billows of black smoke rising from afar. 

It is at the direction where the village is at.