Elena wasn’t afraid of heights, but being so high in the air with nothing to grab onto except Gorn, wasn’t exactly a good situation to be into. She was now practically at another person’s mercy.

Looking down, Elena’s brain immediately sent her countless warnings, signalling that she was just a step away from dying. “Please don’t kill me!” begged Elena, looking at him with a pleading expression.

“That’s it! More! Beg me more!” said Gorn, then threw his head backwards, and started to laugh like a madman.

Despair creeped up Elena’s face. She has seen her fair share of maniacs, making the current situation even scarier. “I was wrong! Please spare my life! I’ll do anything that you ask of me!”

Gorn abruptly stopped laughing. Lifting his hand he brought Elena’s face a few inches away from his: “Anything you say?”

“Yes, anything you want…” she didn’t dare look directly into his eyes. Saying those words made her feel very embarrassed.

“How about a back massage then?” asked Gorn while gently smiling. His response was so unexpected that Elena instinctively turned her head and looked at his face. Seeing his calm, smiling face that was devoid of any bad intentions, a great amount of her fear vanished instantly.

“I’ll do it!” Her face turned bright red, making it impossible for her to keep maintaining eye contact. At this moment, she realized that his words from earlier were exactly the words she used on him. He was just teaching her a lesson, with no intention of harming her. She felt greatly ashamed by her previous behavior. Elena was sure to remember these events for a very long period of time.

Seeing how things unfolded brought great satisfaction to Gorn. He was very pleased that he managed to change someone for the better. Teleporting a few times, Gorn brought the two of them back on top of the tree. The top part of his leather armor was half burned, so he just ripped it off completely.

He did not have bulging muscles, but wasn’t small either. His entire upper body was completely shredded, hiding within an enormous amount of power. Gorn laid down in a comfortable position, waiting for his massage.

Elena’s face was as red as a tomato. She slowly came towards him, and sat on top of him. Using her hands, she started to massage Gorn’s back.

“Ahh! That’s fucking great!”

Gorn’s reaction made her feel even more embarrassed.

“That’s some good skills you have there Elena!” Weirdly or not, she felt good being praised by Gorn.

Seconds turned to minutes, and minutes into hours. Elena had been massaging his back for two hours straight. With her super human strength, it wasn’t hard to accomplish such a task. Seeing him so happy, Elena started to feel more and more comfortable. Both of them lost track of time.

.

.

.

“So this is where you were…”

Gorn and Elena turned their heads to the side simultaneously. In their line of sight was now none other than Sara. She was floating in the air, staring at them with a blank face.

“Should I perhaps come at a later time?” asked Sara, slightly raising one of her eyebrows.

Gorn was at a loss for words for a few seconds. Looking towards Elena he said: “You did a great job! We are even now. Say ‘hi’ to your brother for me.” Both of them got up.

“What happened?” asked Gorn, making eye contact with Sara.

“I wanted to talk to you about a few things.” Her gaze turned to Elena. She was still there, apparently, having no intention of leaving. Things became even weirder.

“My hands are numb from massaging your back. I don’t want to risk falling from such a distance. Can you please help me get down?” asked Elena at the same time as she came in front of him.

Gorn was at a loss for words yet again. “I can.” Grabbing her by the hand, he teleported a few times, reaching the same place from where they started.

“Thank you for everything!”

Gorn nodded. After taking another good look at her, he disappeared. In a few moments, he was back in the company of Sara.

“My hands are numb from massaging your back, can you please help me get down?” Sara mimicked Elena’s way of speaking, and acting, exaggerating things by quite a bit.

Gorn did not expect that, and stared blankly at her for a short moment : “What did you want to talk about?” He chose to act like nothing happened.

Sara regained her bearing: “I see that you can indeed teleport… I came to warn you about Norman in case you want to go back to the city. I had absolutely no chance against him, so unless you are way stronger than me, I suggest you avoid that person as much as possible.”

“Thank you!” said Gorn with appreciation. “If I can help you with something, feel free to ask.”

Sara landed next to him: “Do you plan on leaving this place?”

Gorn nodded: “My family is waiting for me in another part of this forest.”

“How about you bring them here, and stay with the rest of us?” asked Sara with a serious face. Having another capable person by her side would make things easier. “You can be the leader of these people together with me.” After what happened at the city, she lost her confidence in being a leader; but her desire to help others was still rooted deep within her heart.

“This… It is surely a viable option, but I need to think about it…” Gorn noticed that she spoke those words with sincerity, and a great deal of expectations. It would be very insulting to answer deceitfully to such an approach. He wanted to respond in the same tone, but in order to do that he had to think carefully about it.

“Of course, think about the matter thoroughly. You can find me here most of the time, I’ll eagerly await your response.”

“Sure…” Gorn wanted to say a few more words, but his vision started to get blurry, and his eyes became unfocused. In the next instant, he fell on one knee.

Sara quickly came by his side, supporting him: “Are you alright? Gorn, what happened? Gorn…”

Her words could not reach him. A wave of intense pain surrounded Gorn’s entire body. It came from deep within his spine, and extended in all directions. The violent pain made his whole body wriggle uncontrollably for a few minutes. In the end, he stopped moving entirely.