Tobias slipped on the ring and swung his fist ahead of him, catching the tree dead in it's center ad causing it to topple down onto the ground with a massive crash. branches sprung up into the air from the force of the tree falling into the ground.
It had been Maso's idea to train their contracts whilst on the road, so they both did what they were good at. Maso took care of the food, and Tobias cleared an area for them to rest along with firewood. Maso's aim had grown an extreme amount, no doubt boosted by Suzie helping him. Tobias could now topple enourmous trees with just one hit, and carry his own weight twice over.
Tobias began breaking the tree into smaller pieces, so they could be more adequately used as firewood, when he spotted something in the overgrowth not that far ahead of him.
"Hello? Who's there" It did seem to be a person, two in fact, huddled next to each other as they watched him use his contract. Didn't Bryce tell him to hide his power? If they told anyone things might not end well.
"Run! It's seen us! Run, run!" Two young boys darted out of the undergrowth, tripping over roots and bushes as they fled from what they believed was a new form of beast.
As this was happening, Maso stalked his prey as quietly as he could. He pulled back on the bow, seeing the rabbit, breathed in and released. The arrow zwipped with the air, leaving a faint trail behind it. He had leanred to lower the flames activity, so it wasn't as noticeable when he was hunting animals.
As he bent down to pick up the slightly smoldering rabbit, he heard what ssounded like two young boys screaming. It was in the direction he had come from, so he assumed they had seen Tobias in stone-form. He went off at a job, hoping to stop them from spreading the message about Tobias' ring.
"You have to run! It's coming after us! It's going to kill us!" Two young boys that looked to be the age of twelve came running towards him, screaming and windmilling their arms as they tried to flee what they thought was chasing them.
"Woah, woah! Slow down. What's happening?" Maso frantically tried to think of something that he could say to make them think that it was a monster not his best friend.
"There's a monster coming after us! It's a black pebble variant and it's super duper strong!" The other kid nodded his head enthusiasticly as his friend babbled about how terrifying the 'monster had been. 'Now all I have to do is get them away' Maso thought this would be easier said than done.
"I'll handle this. You two have to run away ok? I'll protect you." The two kids looked like he had just offered them all of the sweets in the land.
"Ok mister! Thank you so much!" The two kids resumed their running, leaving a very bewildered Maso behind. How could it have been that easy!? He had a dozen convincing arguments lined up, but they had just taken him at face value...
"Maso! there you are! Two kids saw me-"
"I know, I just saw them and resolved it..." Maso's voice trailed off as he tried to think about what had just happened. He rubbed his forehead with the back of his head, deciding to just forget it.
"If there were kids nearby, there's probably a village or town we can go to!" The two boys had been walking in the city's direction for a while now, but had not come across any settlements on their way.
"Let's just stay here for the night. We don't know ehere it is and we don't want to be left without dinner again" On their first night the boys had left catching food until the very end, and that had caused them to go hungry on their first night. SInce then, they had learnt from that mistake.
"Transform!" The two boys reverted their weapons back into their beast forms so they could stand guard for the night. The two sat down near the fire and watched everything around them, and would alert their masters if anything happened.
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The two boys woke up the next morning peacefully, with no false alarms from either Gord or Suzie. So far, they hadn't been attacked in their sleep but they could never be too careful.
"Over here!" Maso sat up like a lightning bolt, his eyes searching for the person that made the noise.
"Here?" A man's gruff voice came from a place off to Maso's left, and he turned to see a party of five armed men, along with the talkative child from yesterday.
"You?" Maso directed the question at the kid, who seem surprised to see him.
"You fought the monster? I thought you died!" The child's eyes were wide, amazed at something that seemed impossible to him. "But that thing was so strong! How did you kill it???" Maso groaned at how annoying the kid was, but luckily the leader of the party took it as pain.
"You and your friend can come with us back to our village, we shall treat your wounds for defending our village." The man offered his hand to the still sitting Maso, who grabbed his hand as well as his blanket which had fallen on the floor.
The party then gathered their belongings and carried them back towards their village probably was.
"Did you really kill that monster?" The leaders voice was curious, possibly even amazed at this, even though he hadn't seen the monster. "I trust my sons word, and he has seen many a monster, but none have scared him as such."
"It was just a large golem, so me and my friend had no problem. It was only at pebble level, as well. It was really strong and that was it." The leader blinked and accepted this, just like his son had done the last day.
"So what is your business passing through Ginea? We don't have many travellers came from the East. Are you travelling hunters perhaps? You do have cotracts so it wouldn't be that unlikely. I think, anyway." The father enjoyed talking just as much as the son, although Maso would never say that to his face.
Tobias piped up with "We're going to the city, we think we'll find my parents there."
"Parents? How did you know they were there?"
"They left my parents a note, saying that when I was ready I could go to the city in order to find them."
"I wish you luck, for you will need it in those messy streets and cruel citizens." He spat out the sentance with such anger it scared Tobias. Did he know something about the city?