Dawn broke, washing away the faint lapis lazori glow with a blazing, golden light that flooded the entire forest. It eventually crept into the cave, where only Danny and the gray boy remained.
The creatures had vanished just before the first hint of sunrise, leaving the two of them alone with a dying fire that was barely hanging on.
If they had waited just a little longer...the creatures would have gotten them.
The creatures had been gone for a long time, yet they both stayed put, as if waiting offered them a small sense of safety
Soli stepped outside the cave to get a breath of the cool air. He was safe—his healing ability had worked perfectly.
The shoulder that had been pierced by the injury looked as if it had never been touched, and his scorched, peeling skin had returned to normal.
His body had recovered, but he was completely exhausted after recovery and everything he'd been through.
The gray boy watched it all happen, his eyes wide with awe and disbelief as he saw Soli's body slowly, amazingly, renew itself right before him.
As Soli took a weak step forward, his foot hit something solid on the ground. He looked down...
It was a purple fruit.Its outer shell was cracked, and part of it was crushed beneath his foot.
"It's... you!"
Soli said it quietly, but with a faint, threatening undertone, his eyebrows furrowed in suppressed rage.
That fruit was the hard thing he had tripped over last night on his way back to the cave.
It was the direct cause of his injury,when the creatures had ambushed him.
He slowly raised his foot over it, intent on crushing it.
He wanted to pour all the anger and pain inside him into that one weak,already-smashed fruit.
But the gray boy suddenly lunged forward, snatching the fruit from under his bare foot before it could be pulverized.
He then started carefully cleaning off the dirt and crushed bits stuck to it.
"Hey... what are you doing? Why did you take that?"
Soli's voice was quiet, but it carried the weight of a deep, seething resentment.
The boy turned to him, clutching the fruit, and fixed him with an angry glare before he finally spoke... At last, the gray boy was talking.
He spoke, but Soli didn't understand a single word he was saying.
The boy stopped talking. Then, he peeled a section of the fruit and silently, almost pleadingly, held it out toward Danny.
But Soli didn't reach for it...he didn't take it.
Soli's eyes shifted between the purple fruit in the boy's hand and his silent face, before he finally shook his head slowly.
"I don't want it."
GRRRRRRRRROWL
The sound rumbled from his empty stomach again. The fruit's sweet scent was teasing his nostrils, making his hunger even more unbearable, but it was still so alien to him... he didn't dare touch it.
Quietly, the gray boy raised the fruit and brought it to his own mouth. Its inner surface was covered in dark purple seeds, packed tightly together like the tiny eyes of some unknown creature.
He took a large bite, his own eyes locked on Soli the entire time, as the purple juice slowly trickled down from his lips.
Soli swallowed hard, his gaze locked on the fruit, which suddenly seemed more tempting than anything else in the world.
The boy extended the fruit toward him again.
This time,Soli didn't hesitate for long.
He slowly reached out and took it from the boy's hands, his eyes scrutinizing it intensely, as if it held some deep, mysterious secret.
He mimicked the boy's actions exactly—he put the fleshy part to his mouth, his features frozen somewhere between disgust and tension.
He took a small bite, chewing slowly... and then, his expression gradually shifted from anxiety to pure satisfaction. Within moments, he was taking bigger and bigger bites, one after another.
"It's... sweet," he murmured softly, finally looking up at the boy, only to find him wearing a smug, knowing smile.
Soli gave a light smile in return, struggling to talk through a mouthful of the juicy fruit.
"Don't...get a big head."
The fruit was soft, almost mushy, as if someone had already taken a few bites from it. It didn't take him long to finish it all, leaving only the empty purple skin in his hands.
Soli wasn't full; he wanted more.
He remembered the boy had brought three of those fruits and placed them inside the cave.
If this was one, then the others must still be inside. He headed in, with the gray boy following slowly behind.
Soli found it, just as he'd hoped—a purple fruit resting on a flat rock.
As he bent down to pick it up,he noticed something beside it... a black dagger with a jagged, Obsidian -looking blade, veined with faintly glowing lapis lazuli streaks.
He hadn't paid attention to its strange shape before, but this time, its subtle shimmer drew him in.
He picked up the dagger with his left hand and the fruit with his right.
The moment the boy saw the dagger in Soli's hand, he lunged forward in a flash, trying to snatch it back.
Soli jerked back a sharp step,dodging the boy's lunge. But the boy didn't stop—he jumped again, and then again, dead set on reclaiming his dagger no matter what.
"Stop right there!"
Soli yelled,his finger pointing accusingly, his face tight with a mix of anger and panic.
The boy stopped in his tracks, and that old look returned to his eyes—a mixture of anger and smoldering resentment.
Soli pointed to the dagger in his own hand, then pointed to his own chest, his expression making it clear that he believed the weapon was his now.
In his mind: I might need this later... for hunting, or to defend myself... or to cut something.
But the boy's expression shifted instantly; his eyes widened, first in shock, and then in profound sadness.
He took another step forward and tried to snatch the dagger from Danny's grip,but Soli quickly pulled back, holding onto it firmly.
The boy tried again and again. With each failed attempt, he let out a soft, frustrated whimper, choking on his anger and despair, his face contorting more and more with grief.
Finally, he just stopped.
He stood there,panting, his shoulders shaking, his arms hanging limp at his sides. That look of raw sorrow remained etched on his face, like an open wound.
Soli watched him in silence... and saw something in his eyes he couldn't yet understand—this strange, deep attachment to the dagger.
Perhaps this weapon was more valuable than it seemed.Or perhaps...
An idea began to form in Danny's mind.
Soli looked at the boy with his tired eyes and said in a low, quiet voice:
"Hey...you little devil... how about we make a deal?"
He first raised his right hand, holding the fruit, in front of the boy. Then he raised his left, holding the dagger, and raised his eyebrows, alternating his gaze between the two objects.
"You bring me more of these..."— he pointed at the fruit — "and then maybe... maybe I'll give you this."
The boy didn't understand the words, as usual, but he understood the meaning from the raised eyebrows and the gesture of the hands.
His eyebrows furrowed sharply,and his expression shifted from sadness to anger, then to a silent, seething resentment.
He could have attacked—he could have lunged at Soli right then and overpowered him, at least at first—but he knew what this man was capable of,
this creature who could heal his body in moments as if the wounds had never existed.
And so, after a moment of heavy tension, the boy complied in silence, turning quickly toward the cave entrance.
He ran out to hold up his end of the bargain,leaving Soli behind with the fire that was on the verge of dying out.
The boy was gone for a long time this time. When he returned, he was panting heavily, holding only two of the purple fruits in his hands.
They were covered in a layer of wet dirt,and he thrust them toward Soli with ragged breaths.
Soli considered the scene for a moment, then reached out to wipe the grime off the two fruits.
The mud stuck to his hand.He held it up in front of the boy and said in an annoyed tone:
"All that time...just to bring back two? And they're filthy?"
The boy gritted his teeth in frustration, snatched the two fruits back from Soli's hand, and then hurried back out of the cave.
His absence was much shorter this time. He returned quickly, now holding the two clean fruits, their skins gleaming as if they'd been washed in the river.
He silently held them out to Danny.
The fruits were hard, so Soli gestured for him to open them.
But the boy didn't move.Instead, he pointed from the dagger to the fruit.
Soli understood his meaning instantly.
He gripped the dagger,pressed its edge against the thick purple skin, and it split open as easily as if it were soft butter.
The fruit was hard as a rock,but the Obsidian dagger with its lapis lazuli veins sliced through it without any effort.
And because of that, the dagger was now more important than ever.
The boy reached for it again, wanting it back, but Soli stopped him with a firm gesture.
He signaled for him to go and bring more fruit,more and more...
untilhe was satisfied and would hand over the dagger—or so he led him to believe, because the truth was, Soli had no intention of ever returning the weapon.
Contradictory emotions flashed across the boy's face; a mixture of suppressed rage and silent grief.
But,unfortunately, he complied once more without a fight.
He turned slowly and walked out of the cave with heavy steps,as if each one weighed more heavily on his heart than the last.