"Oli! Time to get up!"
Ania approached the still sleeping Oli. Seeing him like that reminded her of when he was as still a baby, lying in a nest of thick grass without a care in the world. She thought, "Time passes too fast. In just a blink of eye eight years have passed and my little Oli is practically grown up."
It's not that Oli wasn't close to his mother, but that he never showed her how important to him she was. Nonetheless, Ania always sought a way to guarantee herself a spot in his life because he never showed her that she already had one.
"Ania! Is that brat up yet? Tell him to hurry up already!" Rathe's voice helped her come back from her thoughts. It also helped get Oli up on his feet before she could do it herself.
"Huh? Mom, what's up?" Oli's fur was matted over like a full-body bedhead.
"You'd better hurry up and not let Rathe wait any longer. You know how he gets when he's grumpy," she tried to pat his fur down as she explained.
"Oh yeah! Gotta go!" Oli took off without any second thoughts, not letting her finish her motherly grooming.
"Wait!" She called out to receive no response. "Be careful, Oli!"
Oli weaved himself past the scattered clan members until he found Rathe near the foot of the nearby mountain like they had planned the night before.
"Yo, Oli! I understand wanting to sleep in, but at least take your new job seriously," Rathe poked fun at his nephew.
Only then did Oli notice his fur going in every which direction. He patted it down while asking, "So, where are we going today? We finished scouting to the south already, so I imagine it's either the hills to the east or the jungle to the west, right?"
"Wrong!" He turned around and pointed his whole body to the north. "The clan is setting out again today. We've got a good lead on a territory and are making our way there shortly. You'll be accompanying this amazing warrior to scout the path around the valley to the north."
"Around the valley? Why not just go through it like always?"
"Not sure. Your pops just said that we should go around it at all costs," Rathe ignored the confused look on Oli's face. "But hey, that gives you more time to spend with yours truly. What's wrong with that?"
"Nothing, nothing!" Oli appeased his uncle. "Let's get going already. You know I love to explore and scout things out."
"Alright, just let me do one thing," Rathe reassured Oli before turning again to face the clan in the distance.
ROOOAR!
Rathe's roar told the clan that the scouting party was heading out and that they should follow suit. With the clan beginning their trek, Rathe and Oli followed the path along the side of the mountain.
The path was pretty much clear. Occasionally they would run into a beast or a small pack of beasts, but no one wanted to challenge Rathe and cleared out with haste.
This was one of the jobs of a scouting party in the Iron-body Gorilla clan, not only to find danger but to clear the path of all that impeded them. And if there was a powerful beast that wished to challenge them, they would typically wait for the clan chief, who traveled with the clan, to catch up and challenge them.
But things were different when they had two divine beasts because one scouted and cleared any threats while the other guided and protected the clan.
If a divine beast was the one scouting, it was common to be alone, but Dioro and Rathe saw this as a good opportunity for Oli to see the responsibilities of the clan. Both knew that Oli was near breaking through to the first level of cultivation, even though it was happening two years sooner than they had anticipated.
They were certain he would ask for some important job sooner or later, so they offered him the scouting party position to guarantee that he was always together with one of them.
What they didn't know was that Oli had spent every possible moment alone practicing his soul training. That's why some mornings he struggled to get up, he had been soul training all night instead of sleeping. But this dedication is what rushed his readiness to begin cultivating and got him to that point two years early.
"Hey brat, I hear that you're almost at the first level of cultivation. Is that true?" Rathe struck up a conversation to pass the time.
"You heard right," Oli boasted. "My dad says that I may be able to break through really soon. I can't wait! I finally get to start my soul training!"
"Soul training? Like your old man?" Rathe was shocked to hear that.
"Oh, umm…" Oli couldn't catch himself in time.
"So that's why, huh? You've been doing the early exercises nonstop haven't you?" guessed Rathe.
"How'd you know that?" asked Oli.
"You don't think I'd know at least that much after spending so much time with Dioro?" Rathe reasoned. "Either way, what are you going to do about your cultivation? Don't tell me you don't want your generous uncle's help, right?"
"Of-of course I do!" Oli fell for Rathe's little trick.
"Good, someone's gotta toughen you up and that sister of mine would never let Dioro do that," Rathe laughed. "Hey brat, you do know what you have to do to officially become a mortal beast, don't you?"
"I've got to get a lot stronger and stay focused! That's what Dad says!"
Rathe bonked Oli on the head and said, "That's just the beginning. He didn't say anything about forming a core!?"
"He mentioned it," Oli scratched the soreness from his head.
"I guess I'll have to explain it then," Rathe shrugged. "You form a mortal core by gathering up essence from the world and condensing it until it forms a hardened core in your chest. When you cultivate, you are trying to increase your essence stored inside until it grows and you—"
CAW! CAAAWW!!
Rathe and Oli stopped in their tracks to stare at the sky. In seconds, hundreds of birds of all shapes and sizes flew overhead, all in the same direction.
"Uncle Rathe, what's going on?"
"I'm not sure brat. But something's up," suddenly the happy-go-lucky Rathe vanished, replaced with a dead serious Rathe with laser-like concentration. Rathe released some aura he had stored in his body and extended it in the direction where all the came from.
Oli didn't get a chance to ask what Rathe was doing before Rathe retracted his aura. Rathe then grabbed Oli, put his hand over the boy's mouth, and pulled them into a grove of trees. Struggling to breathe through Rathe's hand, Oli tried to pry himself free. But Rathe hushed him immediately and slowly release his hand while motioning to watch the sky above them.
Not understanding anything, Oli did as Rathe motioned and he looked at the empty sky, determined to find something. It took three seconds for that something to appear in the sky and less than a second to disappear as it sped through the sky.
"Did you see it?"
Oli didn't know how to reply to Rathe's question and slowly nodded.
"Did you see what it looked like?"
Oli shook his head in response. All he saw was a golden blur that didn't last even a second, yet it covered most of the sky as it passed overhead.
"Did you feel it's aura?"
Oli choked on his breath when he thought of the aura he felt. Though it lasted less than a second, that brief moment was filled with fear and dread to be so near whatever that thing was.
"Now I agree with Dioro about avoiding that valley," Rathe admitted his fear.
"U-Uncle Rathe, what was that?" Oli's tongue finally loosened itself.
"I'm not sure Oli," Rathe stared into the distance, "but I don't want to find out."