Chapter 21
Jacquard observed the five rocks that were lined up opposite him with suspicion. No matter whether it was with his sight or if he sent his akram through them, he couldn't discover anything unusual about them, yet they had followed him and Paul all the way to the cave they were residing in currently.
Still not finding anything he returned to his cultivation. He absorbed the akram in the air before passing it through his jems 100 times, then depositing them into his zebenisu. His zebenisu was almost full as he had been practicing nonstop for the past few hours. Since he had exited the cave prisons, it had become easier to tell the passage of time.
Now that his zebenisu was almost filled, Jacquard began to practice a few things. He began his training session by a few akram pulses, trying to see if there was anything he could do to improve it, but finding nothing he moved on to the next one, which was controlling externalized akram.
He practiced it a few times until he had less than half his akram left, then he stopped and began trying to form an imprint. He worked that until his zebenisu was completely empty. Stopping, Jacquard couldn't help but sigh. He had tried his best to come up with a solution to the problem he was facing but he wasn't making any headway.
Yet there was nothing else he could do except to carry on. He began to cultivate once more just as Paul pulled a bunch of vegetables into the cave. Jacquard turned his attention to Paul as he entered the cave with the veggies and asked, "How was your outing today?"
He dragged the vegetables to a corner and began to eat it. His hairs wrapped around the vegetable and began to secrete the slime, breaking down the food into pieces that can be absorbed by the hair and sent into his body.
"It was okay," he replied casually, "But there are too many others out there. Most of them got to the food before I did. If I want to get something to eat tomorrow, I'll have to broaden my search area."
Jacquard nodded to himself. "So, I was thinking," Jacquard began, "Since you're not having any luck finding food, let me join you. Maybe with my help, you'll get much better luck."
Paul thought about it for a moment before he agreed. "Eh!" Jacquard exclaimed in surprise, "Are you sure?"
"Yes, why not?" Paul asked slightly confused. "I thought you wanted to come with me?"
"I did, I did," Jacquard replied more to himself than to Paul, "We'll set out tomorrow."
Paul quietly agreed and went back to his food.
Jacquard felt extremely happy with himself. His main goal wasn't to help Paul to look for food, but rather to see if he could find any inspiration for his moves. He would have gone out by himself, but he hadn't figured out how to move by himself yet so he could only depend on Paul to move him around.
Paul, on the other hand, had his own plans for Jacquard. He could still remember how he had used that energy to chase away all the other ganie that were trying to feed on the yemephu's body, and was planning on making use of the same power to chase away the other ganie from the food he was planning on taking.
With different plans in their hearts, each began to fill their time with different things–Jacquard with cultivation and Paul with his plans–as they waited for the night to pass and the next day to come. The sun began to set and Paul, with a head full of plans, quickly fell asleep, and Jacquard left with nothing else to do, cultivated.
He didn't need to sleep, just like he didn't need to eat, yet he didn't feel fatigued nor did he lack energy–save from akram when his zebenisu was empty. He guessed that it was a perk he gained from being a rock, and a perk it was indeed. He could work tirelessly for days on end without feeling a bit tired, or at least that was what he thought as he hadn't tried to do such, but it was safe to say that there was a high probability he could do it.
He spent the rest of the night cultivating, and when that got tiring, he speculated on different solution to the problems he was trying to solve, before returning right back to cultivate. As he cultivated, the sun crept into the sky, brightening up the world outside of the cave.
Paul woke up from sleep a few minutes after the sun had risen and looked at Jacquard sitting in front of the five other stones.
"Are you finally up?" Jacquard asked him and he nodded in affirmation.
"Good," Jacquard continued, "Whenever you're ready, we can head out."
And with those few words he returned to cultivating. Paul ate the vegetables that had been left over and then went over to where Jacquard was, lifting him up and placing him on his back. With Jacquard on his back, Paul made his way out of the cave, and the five stones silently trailed behind.
"You're still moving, huh?" Jacquard muttered to himself before putting it out of his mind. He might not have known why they were following him but from the information that they released, he could tell that they did not harbor any evil thoughts, at least for now.
Jacquard spent a moment taking in all the information that was available to him, combing through the hills of data to get what he wanted. In the north there was an increase in the level of salt in the air. He turned to Paul, "Before we go searching for your food, first you have to take me somewhere." Paul agreed and Jacquard gave him the directions. "Head towards those big mountains, we'll start off from there."
Paul gave a short nod and soon began his journey, running towards the distance, where a mountain range sat proudly. They moved in silence, first made their way through the forest, past the trees that towered over them and prevented the sunlight from reaching the forest floor.
It was a very enjoyable journey, at least at first. Jacquard focused on viewing the environment around him and was quite surprised at the similarities and differences between this forest and the ones back on earth. Back on Earth he used to be a biologist, and he was quite interested in seeing all the new creatures.
Although he didn't study them extensively, his curiosity was immensely satisfied. The different plants and animals he spotted were like a feast specifically prepared for him. He saw a lot of plants that sort of resembled those from earth, and a few animals that had characteristics of animals from earth, yet there were many more creatures that showcased the uniqueness of this world.
They wandered around the forest for a while; Jacquard wished to spend some time taking in the sights around him and had asked Paul to move as slowly as possible. The sun now hung in the sky, showing its wrath to the creatures on the face of the earth. Jacquard was examining his surrounding, when something caught his attention.
The information flowing in from his sight carried with it a hint of death. It wasn't the death of a few animals, like one would usually see in the wild, but rather something much more sinister. His interest was piqued and he had to check it out.
'Stop,' he ordered.
Paul stopped moving. 'What happened?' he asked. 'Is something coming?'
'No, but I noticed something peculiar. Head to your left.'
Paul turned to his left and began to advance through the forest again. Slowly the landscape began to change. The population of tall trees began to dwindle and short grasses began to become more prominent. The roots and stumps and trees that gave the forest its unique topography had all been removed, leaving behind extremely flat ground. Paul became slightly apprehensive.
'I don't think we should go any further.' Paul announced to Jacquard.
'Why?'
'Because up ahead is a farm,' Paul answered truthfully.
'Don't worry, its just a farm. I would have been more worried if it had been a village. Keep going.' Paul nodded and continued. They carried on for a while before Jacquard was finally able to see the farm in its entirety. It was a piece of land, properly tilled and ridged, just like you'll expect from the average farmer, except littering the ground were the bodies of countless ganie.
They seemed to have been there for quite a while, because most of them had already begun to decompose. Jacquard was shocked. Such a killing on a large scale was the first he had ever seen.
'What the actual…'