The trees were the right method to escape these fools. Jerome was glad he was in a part of the forest with a high density of trees. All thirty of the Blanks had pursued him, jumping after him from tree branch to tree branch. But he had an advantage in these dense trees, and tangled vegetation was more suitable for someone his size. He was smaller than the rest of them which made him a lot more nimble than they were.

Only one person was cause for concern to Jerome but so far he was taking everything in stride — the oldest Blank among them. He hung back, following at a sedate pace. Jerome wondered what he might be planning. Whatever it was, he didn’t want to be here to find out. 

His pursuers did all they could to corner him but he only danced around them, making them frustrated as they toiled with no result to show for their actions.

“You are all wasting your time, you know. You’d still have to keep others from getting the spear if you can successfully get it from me,” he said when he saw they had stopped to catch their breath.

Jerome found he wasn’t breathing as hard as they were. He had come for Pilgrims’ Keep through such means so maybe that was why he wasn’t frazzled as they were. The older Blank he was weary of landed on a branch in front of the other Blanks with a smile on his face. He also wasn’t winded as the other Blanks.

“Senior!” someone spoke out. “Senior, if you join us, we could catch him quicker and get the spear from him without much effort. Help us, Senior.”

“Hmm, I’ll help you,” the older Blank said, never taking his eyes off Jerome. “You just have to give me all the credit for taking the spear when we get it.”

Someone wanted to argue with him but he cut them off with a glare. “Do you think you can catch him on your own?” the person looked away in shame. “Or do you think I will do the brunt of the job and we all get an equal share? You best think again.”

“But Senior,” someone else said when ‘fisheyes’ — Jerome’s new name for the older Blank — was done talking. “Are we sure Young Lord Alvric would pay us all? I mean, I heard what the royal disciple said and it makes sense that he would only pay one person.”

A strong wind blew the trees, shaking the branches. Jerome cursed in his heart. He had been planning to sneak away as they got engrossed in their discussion. Thankfully, none of them had even thought to pincer him.

Fisheyes, as Jerome had taken to calling the leader of this new gang, gave the others a hard stare. “Don’t act like fools! This is why I said you have to give me all the credit for taking the spear! This way, Young Lord Alvric would not be able to use the excuse of, ‘I was only talking about one person’. And I can get our reward and share it with everyone who puts in some work. Note what I said, ‘Those who put in some work’. If you put in nothing, you get nothing.”

Heh. That’s how they start, Jerome thought. This one must be a good actor — act the benevolent and disciplined leader, and give your followers leftovers when the reward comes. Very unoriginal if I must say.

“Unless you don’t trust me,” Fisheyes continued, his voice carrying a tone that said he was going to be emotionally uninvolved in this pursuit. “Then you can continue to chase him around without any result. Light knows your effort is entertaining.”

Everyone around him grumbled their assent. They looked to where the target of their chase should have been standing but saw only greenery.

“Damnit, spread out!”

Jerome had experienced Rihal ‘sense’ him cycling during training. He had also sensed it when people stared at him ever since he became a sacred artist, or at least he could sense some people staring at him, not all people. There was no reason to think it wasn’t the same for other Blanks, so because of this, he made sure not to stare at any of the Blanks when they found out he had skedaddled.

He had crept away from his previous position and hid in the overgrown trees just above them when they were having their not-so-clichéd conversation. Well, he had no idea if a conversation could be clichéd or not, but that didn’t matter. He waited for all of them to disperse before coming out.

Jerome chuckled when he saw they had all really left. In the movies, it used to happen that someone who was just smart enough would stay behind, hiding somewhere, and when the main character came out of hiding, they would have a conversation along the lines of, ‘I knew you hadn’t gone too far’.

Hehehe. Guess I’m lucky then, he chuckled to himself. Jerome took his time going southeast, a little ways away from the setting sun. He knew they would instinctively think he went the other way towards the setting sun. Humans were psychologically wired to seek safety when in danger. So heading toward the light would come so easily to someone in danger. 

It was a behavior driven by a combination of instinct and practicality. And it might just help him confuse all the bozos chasing him for his spear. 

~~~

Jerome lay on a branch high in a tree stuffing his face with honey he had ‘retrieved’ from a bee hive. There were two Blanks arguing about him a few feet below. And he listened intently to their discussion to find out what they might be planning.

“I don’t think I want to continue with this search, brother. It has been a whole day already and the sun has already risen.”

The other tried to rile his brother up so he wouldn’t give up. “Seriously? Don’t tell me you would give up now. Is this the extent of your backbone? Young Lord Alvric is willing to pay us with some crystal stones, you can’t just give up on that!”

“And how do you know he would pay us? Are you sure we will even get a share?”

“What do you suggest we do then, give up? I’m not giving up, not if there is a chance to get something out of it. Listen,” he pulled his brother closer as if he wasn’t near him enough. “Even if that Senior has designs to leave everyone out of the loop and run away with our reward, we can still make sure we get it. We will monitor him when we get the spear. We won’t let him out of our sight until we receive our share.”

“Others would have the same plan, you know,” his brother said.

“That is not the problem. The problem is when someone or some people get too greedy to give up other people’s share.”

Well, these ones have a good head on their shoulders. Too bad they were using it to chase him around. He was beginning to regret what he wanted to do to them. But it had to be done.

Jerome dropped from the tree, heading straight for them. They didn’t know what hit them when he did. He hand-chopped them both in the back of the head so hard, they were knocked out from the blow.

“Sorry fellas,” he said. “I have to protect myself too.”

There was no way to make sure they didn’t continue chasing him so he took their robes, leaving them naked in the forest. They didn’t have storage bags on them so their clothes were all he was able to take. He left their weapons with them so they wouldn’t be unharmed. When they woke up, the first thing they would try to do was find cover for their nakedness. All thoughts of chasing some random stranger would be nonexistent.

Jerome made his way North this time around. It was still morning and the sun was making its way towards its apex position in the sky. All was well and birds were singing in the trees. He hadn’t come across any powerful magical beast since he left the tower eleven days ago. Maybe because he was still on the outskirts of the mountain range. 

Going farther north was a bit scary right now but he still did. He wanted to see some of the magical beasts. He wanted to fight them, to test his strength against them. Though he knew it would be very dangerous, he couldn’t help but anticipate the rush of such a fight.

He had only gone a few miles north when an arrow came whooshing at him. Jerome had the presence of mind to get down on the ground. The arrow embedded itself in the tree beside him. He rolled out of the way as more arrows found purchase in his position. Jerome scrambled into the nearby bushes to obscure himself from the archer.

“You can run, rabbit. You can run but you cannot hide,” a voice reached him from up in the trees.

He heard the slight movement from tree branch to tree branch. He heard the shuffling of the leaves on the tree. The archer was closing in on him.

“All that talk about sharing, that senior was spitting would not work for me, you know. You see, I’m a hunter. And if there is one thing hunters know how to do,” he heard the archer grunt as he leaped into another tree.

Shit. he knew what was coming. He’d never be able to get away from this one.

“It’s tracking down game,” the archer said. “And you, rabbit… are game.”

Jerome crept along the forest floor while the archer was moving, making sure not to disturb the bushes around him. He calmed his beating heart as best as he could. It wouldn’t do to start fidgeting now. He needed all of his faculties as well and fear would cripple his thought process.

He picked up little rocks as he moved along the forest floor. He was going around in a circle while the archer was heading in another direction facing the bushes he ran into. He was smart. Though he was talking, that was just to give Jerome a false sense of direction. He came toward the tree his arrow was embedded in while he was talking but moved away from it after he kept quiet.

Jerome waited. The archer waited. The two stalked each other. Jerome had an approximate location for the archer as he was sure the archer did for him. It was now a matter of patience. 

This time around there was no theme song and no popping of knuckles and necks for effect. No action, either. Just silence. Uncomfortable, choking silence. Even the birds in the trees had stopped singing. The air also seemed to still and the temperature of his surroundings rose. Jerome realized the sun was already high in the sky. He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly through his mouth, straining his ears to listen for the archer. For anything. But he heard nothing.

Damn, you’re good, he thought. He had to give it to the kid. He was good. Really good.

So far, he had only met with mediocre people. And it had only taken a few brain cells to get rid of them. He figured it wasn’t every day you met someone who was a genius at their craft in a place like this. This one was taking all his concentration just to locate. And this went on until late in the night.

The silence seemed to stretch on forever. Jerome had kept his eyes and ears peeled for movement. He wasn’t sure if the archer had hunkered down at this moment. Which would make things more dangerous if the archer was still moving around. He was getting ready to find a suitable place to perch himself. And he wanted it to be up in the trees. Somewhere he could watch out for predators and venomous creatures.

The crickets began to chirp and frogs began to croak. The sounds were almost deafening. He used the noise to disguise the sound of his movements until he found himself in a tree. Just as he was settling in, an arrow pierced through the undergrowth a few yards to his right. A rat’s squeaks were heard and it suffered for the most part of twenty breaths before it died. 

Jerome regretted not seeing the direction the arrow came from. The archer also must have thought he had finally nailed him down only for the squeaks of a rat to fill the air. He definitely would move from his position. But no matter how Jerome listened and searched with his eyes, he heard and saw nothing.

Morning came and the sun rose once again. The uncomfortable silence was back again. The birds refused to sing and just went out to hunt for food. Soon enough though, the silence was disturbed by other Blanks passing through. He thought he saw movement somewhere in the trees. The leaves shook, as though the branches were being disturbed, even though there was no wind. 

This could be a trap. Anything that could cause so many leaves to shake at once without the presence of the wind must be heavy. As in heavy enough to be a man. The Blanks got into proximity and Jerome used that opportunity to leap into another tree. He made sure to make a short jump, one he could quickly recover from.

An arrow came at him but missed, from another direction nonetheless. He turned mid-air, moving from branch to branch. The archer had revealed his position by firing that arrow and he was going to make sure he caught up to him.

And catch up to him, Jerome did. The archer fired off three more arrows successively. But missed as they were up in the trees and there were too many branches hindering his arrows. Jerome used the environment to his advantage. Just as the archer was about to pull another arrow from his quiver, he launched a piece of rock at him. He had to say that he didn’t pull back on his strength. He gave it everything he had.

The rock hit the archer straight in the head, launching him off the tree. His eyes rolled into his head mid-air and he hit the ground unconscious. Jerome was about to go check on him when his other pursuers jumped into the tree, surrounding him.

Fuck!