n

n

nTHE NEXT MORNING

nAito frowned in disgust.

"Why did you ** on the walls again, Jack?

"

nJack turned around and showed him its butt before running away into the forest.

n

"You little punk! Come back here!

"

nAito sighed. Jack had that weird habit of repainting the walls with his previous night's diner. Unfortunately for Aito, the winds usually blew towards the sea, bringing the nasty scent to his nostrils when he rested within the walls' safety.

nHe did not know why the monkey kept doing that. Although he guessed Jack might be marking its territory to signal other evol monkeys, the area already had an owner. Still, the horrible stench was ravaging his sense of smell.

nApart from that, he noticed something else. Jack's physical appearance seemed to have changed after last night's event. It was now shorter. Black fur almost entirely replaced the brown fur. It looked faster and more agile. But most of all…

n

"It's the third time. The third freaking time today! That doesn't make any sense for such a small animal to produce so much poop.

" Aito complained, covering brown-green monkey feces with dirt to limit the damages to his nostrils.

n***

nJack jumped from tree to tree, cursing the stupid man-thing. It didn't know that Jack was doing a good job!

nThose wooden walls looked so plain… so simple! It needed decorations, more colors! Like the trees from which they stem. They were green and brown. But those walls were just brown and brown. Boring.

nHe had been eating tree leaves just to recolor those tall structures. However, Aito was such an ungrateful fat piece of meat.

nJack hoped it would understand after he finished repainting those walls. Normally, it should take a long time but, since this morning he's been able to produce paint three times! And he feels like he could go for another three more! At this rate, Jack was certain to succeed in a time record! Then… then the man-thing will see. Then the man-thing will know. Then his

"friend

" will understand.

n

"Friend,

" a weird word he learned last night when he had felt really dizzy. It had felt like he was floating above his own body. He could see and hear, but not touch or taste anything. Very weird. He thought it had been a dream at first, but when he—literally—dropped back in his body, it had felt too real.

nAnyway, that sound

"friend

" picked his interest. The man-thing had referred to Jack as that sound. But it wasn't his personal sound. So what was it? Was it something comparable to

"Comrade?

" So mysterious.

nJack arrived at The Broken Cage. He simply couldn't let go of this place. Divine food and leaves in hand, he sat by it to add more flavor to his meal. After all, what's more proper than eating divine food at a divine place.

nBut today, The Broken Cage felt somewhat colder. Not as warm as he remembered. Weeeeeird.

nJack stood on his two legs and scanned the area. A sort of thin mist was coming out of the cave, barely visible.

nHe closed in on the peculiar phenomenon. Standing at the bamboo wall's entrance, he peered into the darkness. His fur bristled when something's head appeared out of the cave's shadows.

nTwo empty eye sockets that seem to penetrate one's soul with a single glance. Skinny grey cheeks. Bald head with transparent grey skin under which blue veins pumped a strange liquid to somewhere unknown. Round O-shaped mouth riddled with pointy teeth, and, in it, a long tongue that resembled a sting.

nFearing for his life, Jack ran away faster than he ever did before.

n***

nAito finally finished cleaning up the monkey's mess. Hungry, he headed for the camp's entrance when Jack came out of the forest at full speed.

n

"What? Finally, feeling guil—

"

nHe stood dazed at the sight of the monkey jumping on his torso. Jack was glued to him like it was clinging to dear life. Trembling, it hid its head in Aito's clothes and armor.

n

"Hey, buddy. It's fine, I'm not that angry.

" He said before noticing the monkey's shaking body.

nAito could think of only one thing that could cause such a reaction. Something he had recently experienced in his own nightmares.

nFEAR.

nSlightly embarrassed by the unusual event, he hesitantly patted Jack's back.

n

"It's fine buddy.

"

nThen, seeing no resistance or a menacing dagger pointed at his face, he let go of his embarrassment and caution.

n

"It's okay, Jack. I'm here now.

"

n***

nIt took a while for Jack to calm down. Eventually, the monkey let go of Aito but now seemed afraid to leave the walls' safety.

nHe let it be for now since nothing good will come out of asking the monkey. Although Aito had more or less an idea about what happened, he couldn't be certain.

n'There will come a time where you will be forced to face the creature…' Belmand had said.

nAito frowned, remembering those words. He had hoped to avoid that creature until the end. Moreover, according to the god, raw power couldn't take care of that thing. Or maybe he meant Aito's current strength.

nWhat's more, Aito couldn't recall the sole clue that may be his only means to kill the thing hiding in his previous dwelling's depth.

n'No point to think about it now.' He thought, looking at the midday sun. 'I should get going with my preparations, then rest.'

nHe took a round piece of wood out of his inventory, walked to a wooden bunch settled near his camp's entrance, and sat there to test out his new idea.

nWith the fighting experience he had accumulated until this point, Aito noticed another interesting use for his shield.

nThe Viking shield he had been granted was thick, durable, and had a metallic part at the center to protect his hand from piercing damages. But with time it started to stack up, cuts and dents which covered the surface. At some point, a monkey's ax got stuck into it, depriving it of its weapon. Thus the idea of using a shield as a weapon trap of sorts.

nTo do that, he thought about using a thinner shield to enhance the likeliness of a weapon trapping itself into it. After a while, he managed to carve an ugly thin round shield.

n

"A Filona's work as per usual…

" He sighed, then stood up to settle the shield at the foot of a nearby tree.

nOnce done, he stepped back a few meters, drew a stone ax, and proceeded to his test.

nBAM!

nThe edge bit into the wood. He walked to it and tried to dislodge it, but it took a few tries.

n'Perfect,' He thought, nodding.

n***

nMyriads of stars populated the night sky. Comfortably seated by his campfire, Aito ate his dinner, wondering if what he was staring at was real, if the lights up there were artificially created by the gods. Then something else caught his attention.

n

"Jack?

" He said, gazing at a monkey who seemed to have lost its voracious appetite.

nAito knew too well what Jack was going through. Emptiness of mind, fear, the feeling of hopelessness, and more.

nBut they had no time for this. Tomorrow will be a new day, a dangerous one at that. He needed his partner in top shape as soon as possible. Therefore, he used a secret technique his dad had used on him when he was discouraged during training sessions.

nSlap!

n

"Kyaak!

"

nJack cried in surprise at the unexpected slap from Aito's rough hand, then jolted to its feet, baring his teeth.

n

"Ah, much better now.

" He said, seeing the obvious change in expression on his partner's face.

"Don't make that kind of face, it was for your own goo—

"

nSlap!

n

"Hey!

" He said, touching his red cheek.

"Ok now stop, it was just to help y—

"

nSlap!

nAito frowned. His pride just took a tremendous hit. Feeling the need to win it back, he entered a slapping contest with… a monkey.

nSlap!

nSlap!

nSlap!

nSlap!

n***

nJack woke up from last night's contest with red hamster-like cheeks. What had Aito been thinking?

nThat game they had played last night had been fun at first but soon turned into an all-out war. Because if that man-thing thought he was an easy opponent, it had yet to know Jack.

nStill, it at least took his mind off of yesterday's troubling thoughts. That ugly-thing had seemed to suck out every ounce of courage Jack had. He had felt depressed and very fearful.

nBut he would make that ugly-thing regret it. Nobody messes with Jack's pride. Nobody. Well, apart from the man-thing from time to time. However, he knew it wasn't with evil interest. On the contrary, he felt like it was positive in a way, although bothersome.

nSuddenly, his sense of smell picked up a weird scent. A new scent. A scent that has never appeared before. Someone had

"repainted

" an area close to here.

nHe walked out of his bed, daggers in hand, and rushed towards the beach. Midway, he found a big brown-greenish paint, not as fragrant nor colorful as his, though. The thing appeared tall since it had left deep footprints leading to the beach.

nMaybe it was the man-thing. Jack knew it liked to come by here just before the big brilliant light shines on the horizon.

nAnd sure enough, there, next to the Big Rock, Aito was… fighting a big monkey?

n***

nBAM!

nAito dodged aside as an ax head brushed past his arm, then shield bashed his opponent, who back-stepped to rapidly regained its balance.

n'Fuck… that thing knows how to fight.' He thought, looking at the bulky monkey in front of him.

nIt resembled a gorilla, only with longer legs and arms. Approximately two-meter-tall, the creature was even bigger than the muscled leader-types Aito had fought before. More importantly, it was smarter.

nThey had been exchanging blows for a short while now and always ended up at a standstill.

nAito circled his opponent, who immediately mimicked him. Rapidly, while cautiously eyeing his enemy, he replaced his Viking shield with the one he crafted yesterday.

nThe gorilla saw it as an opening and launched a powerful downward slash.

nBAM!

nIts ax lodged deep into the wood. It tried to pull it out, but Aito bent his wrist to control his opponent, then assembled every iota of strength he had and cut its long arm halfway.

n

"Wouaaah!

"

nIn pain and with a non-operational arm, the gorilla stumbled back, dropping his guard. But Aito pulled it towards him and slashed its arm off for good this time, then taking advantage of its opponent's confusion, went for the kill.

nBAM!

nThe creature fell to its knees, blood gouging out of its wounded neck, and dropped dead.

nPanting, Aito knelt to examine the monkey's corpse.

n

"Brown fur. Thicker than usual. More resistant to cut.

" He said, before looking at its muscles.

"Damn… that thing is thick alright. Dense muscle fibers. Could be as strong as I am, maybe a bit less. Looking at its physical appearance… doesn't that thing look like a bigfoot?

"

nHe turned his attention to the bigfoot's weapon; a two-handed ax. The power behind that weapon had easily pierced through his thin wooden shield. It looked like a Viking two-handed battle-ax. He found it pretty cool, but also very useful to deal with massive opponents.

nAito stored it and the corpse in his inventory, planning to take a closer look at them later. For now, something preoccupied his mind.

nBigfoot had appeared out of the wood, but alone. It proved to be a difficult foe to deal with, however; he was used to an increase in quantity rather than quality. Moreover, it had appeared before dawn.

n

"Something's off.

" He said, worried, before turning towards a running, no, fleeing Jack.

n

"Wouaah!

"

nAito sighed and took yet another fighting stance at the sight of another bigfoot chasing after his partner.

n***

nAfter dealing with the second bigfoot, Aito headed to his camp, a wary Jack on his toes.

nOn the way back, he found deep tracks indicating traffics. Too big a footprint to be his, Aito was certain that it wasn't his own.

nHe then followed one of them leading to the pond and bamboo forest and quickly found his answer: a bigfoot drinking from the pond.

n'Filona's tits… now I have to deal with smart, wondering bigfoots?'

n