They both then soon reached Cynthia's room after walking for a while. On reaching her room, Cynthia took out two glasses and an extravagant bottle made up of black gold. Not only was the color and material of the bottle eye-catching but also the dozens of red stone-like jewels spread randomly over the bottle. The jewels signified the age of the drink.
"Cynthia, you sure about the drink ? Is it appropriate to drink such a lavish wine without an occasion? " Senna said looking at the bottle with a doubtful eye. The bottle of wine Cynthia had just taken out was one of the most expensive wine in Ablon, this wine was so expensive and rare that people often referred to it as Pheonix blood.
Ignoring Senna, Cynthia poured the wine into the glasses and handed one to Senna.
Once they had gulped two drinks each, Senna was the one who took the initiative and spoke-"So what's wrong ? I am already feeling tipsy,is it actually made of phoenix blood ?" Senna asked with a drunk voice.
"Ask me what is damn right in this nation" Cynthia said while filling the two empty cups again and drinking her's in one go and passing another to Senna.
Senna finished her drink too and asked with a bit tipsy voice -"What is right in this nation ?"
"NOTHING, nothing is damn right. You want to know what happened today ?" Cynthia almost shouted.
"Yea, that's why we are here" she looked at her empty cup and said- "Cynth pour me some more drink."
Cynthia poured themselves another round and after gulping it again she narrated the whole incident to Senna with a tipsy voice and said- "And you know what the funny part is? He said I am biased towards Pearl. Seriously. You know what I replied ?"
It was then the drink kicked in, and they could feel sluggish especially Senna.
"Allllll earsss my Cynthhh" Senna was now struggling to even keep her eyes open.
"I se..d 'you are nouttt ready to be a kinnn.g'." Cynthia said while trying to use the same tone she used back with Thomas.
"Hahahahahahahahhahahahahha...... Cyynthhh hahahah, I totaallly agree with youuu." Senna said while jumping up like a kid and clapping her hands and she further continued- "Iiiiii hadd kn..own thatttt since biirrth I even toldddd that to GRAnnndddd Fatherrr butttt he just smiled and nodddeddd" Senna said while nodding her head.
"Thomaass is not... ready to be the king, I don't know why Grandfather left the kingdom for him to rulee."
Cynthia with her half-closed eyes looked at Senna who had just dozed off already.
"Huhhhhh..... Ie wuss justttt g..etting started to get Dr...unk." Cynthia then held the bottle in one hand and the glass in another and went to her bed. There she drank herself to sleep.
Nile leaned his right arm as back as possible and used his skill to make a huge 3-meter ice spear with razor-sharp head.
With his right foot behind and his left foot ahead, Nile leaned his body slightly backward, he started concentrating his energy on his hand.
"There" Darren said pointing towards a direction.
As soon as he got the direction, he took a step forward with his right foot and threw that spear with every ounce of his energy in the direction Darren was pointing at.
'SWOOOOOSSSHHHHHH'
"BULL'S EYE" Darren shouted.
Ahead of them, the 3-meter spear had pierced through the skull of a rank-4 coyote monster instantly killing it.The monster was dozens of meters away from their location so neither Nile nor the monster could sense each other, it was Darren who had given Nile the direction.
After hearing Darren Nile sat down on the ground heavily panting, trying to catch his breath. He had depleted every ounce of his energy in his last throw.
'Concentrating all of your energy in a single strike is surely exhausting, but it is definitely time-saving'. Nile thought while staring in the direction he had thrown the spear.
"I will extract its windpipe, you rest here for a while." Darren said after making sure there were no monsters nearby.
By the time Darren returned Nile had consumed enough energy to get up and move.
"Darren we have cleared the area and collected enough ingredients. What's next ?" Nile asked while walking beside Darren.
It had been almost four months since they left the cave and went hunting for the three items required for making the healing pill. In these four months they have cleared an area of 300 kilometers around their hideout (cave), they had collected almost two hundred items each of the three ingredients.
It had been a year since they left the Withlock town, last month Nile turned five.
Darren thought for a while before saying- "Nile I think you should focus more on increasing your cultivation. We could later travel towards the denser part of the forest." They both have been wandering in the outskirts of the forest in this past year because Nile's cultivation level was not enough to face the monster in those parts of the forest.
"Yes, even I was thinking the same. Let's cultivate once we reach the cave." Nile thought for a while and asked with a gloomy tone- "Darren I miss home, I wonder if everyone is fine and how my younger sibling looks like? Don't you miss home ?"
Darren was taken off guard by the question. It was the first time he had heard anything like this from Nile. He stopped and answered-"I don't miss home Nile. I miss people" then he further added looking at the shinning green pendant around his neck- "Everyone's fine too."
"How do you know that by just looking at that pendant ?" Nile asked puzzled.
"This is a magical item that comes in a set of two. It could tell if the wearer of the other pendant is fine or not, I have one and the other one is with Elora, she gave it to me on your birthd-". Darren stopped mid-sentence.
"HUH" Nile said with narrowed eye and continue "Are you forgetting something ?" Nile asked raising one of his eyebrows and folding his hands.
Without saying a word Darren stood there quietly with his head lowered in shame. -"S..orry I forgot, I will surely repent for my mistake " Darren said softly.
"How will you do that?" Nile asked still in the same position as earlier.
"I will do ten-thousand push ups no twenty thous- "
"Fifty-thousand" Nile said interrupting.
"As you say," Darren said his head still lowered.
"Hand that pendant already Darren." Nile said in a stern voice while lifting his arms. Nile was annoyed, in this past year there was not even a single moment when he wasn't worried about his parents, and he was irritated to know, that Darren had a solution hanging around his neck the whole time to lift that burden.
"Anything else you might have forgotten ?" Nile questioned to which Darren shook his head and said "No" in a soft voice.
From a distance the whole situation looked amusing, it looked like a small 5-year boy was mugging a 6'9(six feet nine inches) giant with a menacing scare on his face.
They had just walked a few meters when Darren spoke again pointing towards Nile's dagger, almost forgetting what had just happened a few seconds earlier- "How much blood until it evolves ?"
'He is as thick as a rock in the head, being enraged on him will only exhaust myself'. Nile thought and took a deep breath and answered- "Almost twenty percent still left, I wonder how strong it would get when it evolves."
"Yeah me too." Darren said and continued walking.
[Note- I will speed up the story a little, so stay put.]