After that heartwarming moment, Icarth and Emmia went back to capture a rabbit each. Julian and Nova started to discuss more important matters.
"Has there been any sign of the perfect hosts yet?" Julian asked while watching the twins.
"I can't feel anything. It's like they don't exist," Nova replied slightly frustrated. The way he was tracking the perfect hosts was through his spatial manipulation. He was feeling the 'weight' that awakened beings form on the spatial layers and trying to match it to that of a perfect host. It wasn't a perfect solution, but it was the best they had at the moment. That's the reason why Nova was continuously traveling through the spatial layers trying to find the perfect hosts.
"Hmm," Julian replied a bit absentmindedly watching Mia fail another attempt to catch a rabbit. This time neither Nova nor Julian helped as they wanted Emmia to learn from her mistakes. Falling a little roughly, determination blazed in her eyes as she decided that she would catch that cute rabbit.
"I think you should resume your search," Julian turned to Nova and stated. Julian wanted Nova to resume his search and find the perfect hosts as soon as possible. He was starting to get a bad feeling that something big was about to happen. His instincts were warning him.
Nova alternated his gaze between Julian and the twins, a fierce struggle taking place within his mind.
"Fine," Nova grumbled. "You better treat Mia and Ica well."
"Don't worry," Julian chuckled. "I'm sure they will enjoy your company once you get back."
Nova just grumbled. This was tearing him apart on the inside. He would make sure that he found those perfect hosts as fast as possible before returning to his wonderful niece and nephew to become the coolest uncle in the world.
Leaping into the air, Nova rapidly transformed back to his draconic form. Back to his huge size, Nova bade farewell to the twins, "Mia, Ica, I have some work to do, I'll be back as soon as possible."
Hearing his booming voice, Emmia shouted back, "Bye uncle Nova!"
Icarth just waved his hand silently and quickly returned to stalking his prey.
Satisfied with the responses, Nova blinked away. He didn't bother to open a rift again because he knew that the twins were focused on their tasks.
Just after Nova left, Julian remembered something and tapped into his soul link, 'by the way, you were very handsome in your humanoid form. I think Mia and Ica would like it very much if you took your humanoid form more often.'
Nova didn't respond to the trap. On one hand, he didn't like the form. But on the other Mia and Ica found it cool. Well, the only reason he didn't like the form was that he resembled a younger-looking Julian! Well if Julian was a dragonoid human and was purple all over with scales as skin. But the similarity was still there. Nova didn't even have a proper reason to dislike it, he was just sick and tired of hearing Julian praise that form all the time. It was like a child starting to dislike certain clothes because their parent always used to dress them up in that specific set of clothes.
Receiving no reply, Julian just chuckled. He went back to observing Emmia and Icarth's repeated failed attempts at trying to catch the rabbit.
---
Animals, especially predators, were usually stronger than humans. Due to his partial transformation, Icarth was growing stronger by the day. While he didn't have any monstrous strength, it was enough to overpower a rabbit.
Two days later, Icarth had finally killed his first rabbit. Following his instincts, Icarth tackled the rabbit down. Instead of using his teeth, he grabbed the neck with his hands and jerked back as hard as he could. With a snap, the rabbit died.
Icarth felt slightly sick as he held the rabbit's dead body in his hands. Even though in the heat of the moment he had snapped its neck, it was still hard to bear afterward. While Icarth may not be human, he still had the emotional capacity to sympathize.
When Icarth reached Julian, he dropped the rabbit and laid down listlessly. All of his excitement was gone, drowned by the turmoil he was feeling inside.
Julian sat next to him and asked, "what's wrong Ica?"
Icarth didn't answer.
"Are you sad that you had to kill the rabbit?" Julian continued in a calm voice.
Icarth nodded.
Patting Ica's head, Julian said, "in this world, we must kill to survive. It's one of nature's laws. If you didn't kill that rabbit, then some other predator would. And likewise, some other being could try and kill you. In that case, there's no way to back down unless you want to forfeit your life."
"Of course, I'm not saying that everything must be solved with violence. There are times when the peaceful approach is better. In the end, it's up to us to decide what method we use."
"But you should know this. Never kill indiscriminately. You must always have a valid reason if you decide to kill any being. For food or self-defense or any other reason."
Icarth remained silent as he pondered Julian's words. By this point, Ica's partial transformation had worn out. Julian hugged Ica to give him some comfort.
In his little talk, Julian hadn't mentioned one thing. He had never asked them to kill the rabbits. He only mentioned 'capture'. In the end, it was the predatory instincts ingrained in Icarth that had pushed him to kill the rabbit.
The duo sat back and then watched Emmia continue her hunt.
Emmia didn't have any transformation like Icarth. She had tried all sorts of things from following Icarth's way of hunting to just chasing the rabbit. It just seemed that she had no special inborn powers or instincts like her brother.
After three days of trying, she gave up trying to copy her brother. So, she did what she knew best. She observed the rabbits just like she observed the machinery and people in the production district. She sat patiently for a whole day and observed the rabbits from their preferred feeding grounds to the smaller behavioral quirks that these rabbits had.
Because she didn't have the ability to transform, she didn't have any extra strength like Icarth. So she set out for some tools to help her capture the rabbits.
She foraged for the toughest dried grass she could find and started to make a simple rope. She fashioned two of these ropes for her use.
Waiting for nightfall, she tied one of the ropes in between two bushes that were situated close together. A little distance away she laid down a couple of rocks in accordance with her plan.
In the end, she couldn't sleep that night and was kept awake with thoughts of whether her plan would work or not.