As Hai awkwardly climbed the poorly constructed wall, Mac watched Lapido in silence. He was having way too much trouble clambering the wall.
The old man had fallen on his back for the third time already. Mac was starting to get annoyed.
"You need help?" He said as Hai finished climbing the wall.
"I... I am sorry." Lapido said in defeat as he got on his feet. "I reckon that I am unfit for such a hazardous trial."
"What?! You can't climb the wall now?" Hai said in surprise as she looked back at him. "How did you do it last time then?"
"If by the last time, you mean when I was still a cultivator," Lapido said, trying to hide his face. "then the answer would be that I simply jumped over it."
"Hmph, Arani!" Mac called, and the mysterious thread shot from his hair once again. The line swiftly enveloped Lapido by the waist, and then Mac pulled it along with him. "So, tell us. Why are you not a cultivator anymore? Should we be worried, as in, should we even be in contact with you?" Mac stopped pulling midpoint.
Lapido aimlessly writhed in fear when Mac stopped him in the air. He was only around five meters from the ground, but he was not aware of how weak he was at that stage. Perhaps he had the resilience of your usual elderly man, which could make the fall fatal.
"NO, NO, NO!" He said in fright, with both hands tightly holding the white thread. "I understand your concern, as I am suffering from a diagnosis that even I know little about. But I can assure you and your friend that it will not affect you in any way."
Mac squinted his eyes at the old man. He could tell that Lapido was hiding something, but he started to pull the thread again anyway. "You know, it really does not make me feel better hearing you be so sure about something that you claim to not know much about." Mac stopped pulling right before Lapido reached the top.
Lapido instinctively tried to reach for the edge of the wall, to no avail. "No! I meant to say that if there is something that I understand perfectly about my problem, it is that it will only have an effect on me." Lapido looked down in shame. He did not speak further.
"Oh well, I guess we all have our own baggage after all," Mac said. There was much that Mac did not know about Lapido, but from his brief words and reactions, he could take a lot. He deduced that the old man was probably poisoned to reach this state. Mac also felt the truth behind Lapido's words, so he grabbed his hands and said. "I guess this is enough information for now."
Hai watched Mac dragging a stunted Lapido with suspicion. Mac's words about Lapido being dangerous lit a candle of worries inside her. But the way that Mac refused to inquire further was not enough to dry the candle.
Then, all three of them jumped down the wall. Mac blunderingly landed on the ground because he was carrying Lapido on his back.
"Argh, what the heck!?" Mac grunted as he noticed how much his already dirty clothes got muddier. The water from the red sea did not do a good job cleaning the old man. "Seriously, how did you get in such a condition of mudman? I know that I am not a flower to smell, as I only care for my hair, but holy Hevi, I don't think I could get as dirty as you even if I tried!"
"I am sorry." Lapido apologized once again. "I thought that, by making myself filthy, you could see how far I would go to make you my disciple." He said, embarrassed.
Hai and Mac looked at him, both speechless. That was probably the stupidest thing they had heard in their lives. While Mac was silently considering the possibility that Lapido was the one that poisoned himself, Hai was admiring how Mac and Lapido were pretty similar to one another.
"Well, eh, ok then." Mac's ability to talk gradually returned to him. He immediately tried to change the subjects. "Anyway, we are still not safe here. Hai, do you think there is somewhere for us to hide in your tribe?"
"No, we don't have to go to the tribe!" Hai hastily said as she put the still-fainted Olito in her arms. There was no way that she was going to bring those two back to her village. Luckily, she knew about a location where they could go. "I know of a good place here in the woods!" She said, leading the way. She was not going to give Mac any chance to retort. "It is a little far from the trail, but it is probably the safest place." She did not say the safest place to who.
Mac followed Hai without complaining. He did not bother to walk a little. Lapido, on the other hand, was already puffing after a few minutes. It seemed his strength was deteriorating faster and faster as the minutes passed.
After a few minutes of following the trail back to Sun Grow Tribe, Hai turned to her left and followed a new path. One that only she knew. It was easy to get lost in this part of the forest where you could barely see the moon. But Hai trailed her way confidently and proudly as if the whole forest was her yard. It was another few good minutes before she reached her destination.
Mac looked up. They had arrived at a large gray tree. It was thicker at the bottom but thinned more as it went up.
"Is this it?" He asked.
"No, no yet." There was a tinge of excitement in her voice as if she was showing her friends her secret hideout.
Hai went around the tree with Mac and Lapido right behind. There they saw a relatively large cavity on the ground. It was big enough to fit at least five people.
"So, what do you think?" She said, jumping into the hole. "It is deep enough for us to hide even if someone comes close. Also, we have this giant tree here to shield us. Also, also," She became more excited. "Part of the hole extends to under the tree. There is enough space down there for one of us!"
Mac waited for Hai to finish. Seeing her acting like that made him feel a little warmer inside.
"Yes, that should be enough." He said as he slid down the cavity. He then layed on his back and said. "Oh well, good night!"
"Wait, What!?" Both Hai and Lapido said.
"Hehe, I am kidding, I am kidding." He sat up. "I can effortlessly go a few nights awake after all."
Hai rapidly calmed down after the little shock Mac gave her. She was getting used to it. She carefully put Olito on the ground. At that moment, Hai went from a happy kid to a worried adult. With eyes full of sympathy, she asked to particularly no one. "Do you think he will be ok?"
Mac stiffened. He remembered the things that he had done to the kid. But he was able to hide the guilty deep within himself and suppress it with a dumb joke.
"If he will be ok?" He started it. "Well, I am sure he will have nightmares about this day while still awake and will still be pissing the bed during his wedding night. But besides that? No, probably not."
Hai turned furiously to Mac and screamed. "Do you think this is funny?"
"Well, it is not one of my best, but I think it does its job."
"And what job are you talking about?" The job of making light of this situation? How can you say that with a clean conscience!?"
Lapido watched the discussion in silence, contracted in a corner.
Mac closed his eyes and gritted his teeth. Hai was bringing his guilty to light, and he did not like that. "Nah, my conscience is really messy already, but I can live with that just fine." He lied.
Hai could hear Mac perfectly, but she also could see him. The expressions that he was making betrayed his words. She took a deep breath and sat on the ground peacefully.
"Back then, at the beach, you talked about how you felt about torturing Olito." She said
"I was being dramatic." Mac retorted.
"Well, I think you were being truthful." Hai pushed a smile. "But then you suddenly "got better" and..."
"Yeah, I do that..." He interrupted. "And you know what else I do? I push my personal problems aside, so then I can help you with the problem that we... that I caused. Look, I am sorry for that joke, ok? Can we now focus on the current crisis?"
"Mac, do you ever deal with your personal problems?" Hai insisted. She did not expect Mac to apologize, but she felt he was still obscuring something deep inside him.
"Are we really not gonna give attention to the more pressing matters?" He said.
"Just answer this one last question, please," She promised.
"Yes, I deal with my personal problems all the time," Mac said automatically. "When I am not dealing with the problem I caused others. Is that what you wanted to hear?"
"But are you ever not causing others trouble?" Hai thought to herself, not questioning Mac but worrying about him. Instead of voicing her concerns, she only nodded to his question.
Lapido didn't dare to intervene at all.
Seeing that Hai was not going to bother him anymore, Mac closed his eyes for a strong second. When he opened them again, it was like his annoyed and frustrated self was replaced by a happy-go-lucky kid. Mac sometimes scared himself how fast he could go from one edge to another.
"Well, now that we are in a safe and isolated place, we can finally discuss how to proceed." Mac clapped his hands. "So..."
"I know what we should do!" Hai interrupted Mac as fast as she could. She was not letting him think up of a plan alone this time. The last one had caused them too much trouble. "There is this one thing that has been on my mind since we left Crimson Coast. Do you remember that man that you were... torturing? Yeah, so, didn't he say something about a cave?"
"Yes, I think he said that his friends were going to come from a cave and catch me or something," Mac said. "But wasn't he delirious? Can we really take something from what he said?"
"Yes, we can!" Hai was determined to be heard. "Besides, I think I might know what cave he was talking about."
"You do? How?"
"I know this area really well." She said, puffing her chest. "And there is only one cave around here, at least only one noteworthy of."
Mac thought for a moment. He had to believe that Hai was familiar with this area, after all, she had bought them here in the middle of the night. He wouldn't be surprised if she indeed knew about the caves near here.
"That is a start, I guess." Mac was not entirely convinced, still. "But where would that cave be?"
"Oh, it is really far away. It is..." Hai was excited that her plan was getting steam. But then, she found a better way to explain it. She straightened herself up on the hole and made space between Mac and her. "This here is the beach," Hai drew a line on the ground with her finger.
"No, that is dirt." Mac automatically acted stupid and made a joke.
Hai frowned at the comment but continued. "And this part on my side is the sea."
"No, that is more dirt." He once again threw up another joke.
"Mac, can you please shut up!" She angrily said, which left Mac giggling. "Now... this is the path to my tribe," She drew a line vertically to the one that represented the beach. She then looked at Mac, expecting another "joke."
"Well, you cant get angrier with me for this one," He said, holding back his laughter. "The path is quite literally dirt."
Hai inched to punch Mac, but he cornered, putting his hands in the air while still chuckling. "Ok. Sorry, sorry. I will stop. It is just that I had to follow the rule of three. Please go on."
Hai slowly lowered her arm. If Mac made another joke, she would not hesitate last time. "Now this... is the path that we took to get here." She drew another line connected to the path line. She then looked at Mac again, half expecting him to make a joke so then she could punch him.
Instead, he acted like he was serious. "Go on, stop wasting time looking at my pretty face. We don't have time to-OUCH!"
She sucker-punched him in the face.
"Ok, I deserved that," Mac moaned in pain as he held his nose with his hands. "Please go on."
"Hmph, and so to finish it," She drew the last line, which went the opposite way the last one she drew went. This line was at least three times bigger than the last one. "This. This is where we will find them."