The combined power of Jacob's two peculiarities caused a huge noise that disoriented both the wights and the dogs for a few moments. The dogs are animals very sensitive to noise, so when they heard such a strong noise near their position, they could not help but be stunned for a few moments, however, not many seconds later, maybe a minute, they were able to come back to their senses.
"Come on, don't stop, locate those kids!" – said one of the wight.
The dogs began to sniff the ground again for any trace of the peculiars; however, tehy sniffed the ground a little and then turned to the wights and barked.
"Damn! They were so close! How did they make sure the dogs couldn't track them?" - asked a wight.
"They must have hidden their body odor in some way preventing the dogs from being able to track their body odor" – said another wight next to him.
There were 4 wights who gathered after they could not find Jacob and the others.
"What should we do? Shall we chase them?" asked one of the wight.
"No, let them run away" – I say another.
"Are you crazy? The orders are clear, those peculiars are very valuable and must be captured alive. What do you think they will do to us if we don't return with them?" – said another.
"I'm not saying we're going to let them run away, but it's night and it's raining, besides, they're alone in a forest with nothing. Do you think they'll be able to escape unscathed after spending the night here? They don't even have anywhere to go now that their loop are now destroyed" - said the wight.
"But we need them alive, if they die, we will be next" – said another wight.
"They'll get out of this forest, we'll just have to watch somewhere else and wait for them to pass by" - said the wight.
"That's too random. They may die or even go somewhere else. What guarantees us that they will pass by where we are going to guard?" – said another.
"We will keep watch on the roads and key sites. There is nothing but a small village a little far from here, wherever they want to go, there we will certainly find them and with our ability to feel their presences, they will not get far" – said the other.
"I hope you're right" – said another.
"Naturally I have it, you will see, at most, in a couple of days, we will have captured them and after bringing them to the base, we will be highly rewarded. It is even possible that we will be promoted" – said the wight.
"But I don't understand why they have insisted so much on capturing that boy. What is so special about that peculiar that the boss wants him alive?" – asked another wight.
"That's none of your business, just follow orders and don't ask questions that might cost you your life" – said the wight.
The other wight swallowed hard and decided not to delve into the subject further, because he did not want to know the truth if that's meant that he would have to die for that.
"Come on, we will have to warn everyone so that they patrol the town and the roads that lead to it. It's going to be a very long night" – said the wight.
"Especially for them" – said another wight.
And then they left the forest to warn their companions and inform them of the next steps they should take.
…
With Jacob and the others.
The strategy of smearing mud on top worked very well and they stopped chasing us. We knew it because the barking of the dogs stopped and the forest was plunged into absolute silence, unlike before, where we could hear the screams of the wights and the barking of the dogs.
"It seems that they are no longer chasing us" – I said a little more calmly.
Hearing this, we all sighed calmly and kept walking slowly to get a little away from the place; just in case.
"Perfect, we have escaped, but we are still trapped in this forest. Plus it is raining and it is dark" – Enoch complained.
"What we must do first is warm up or we may catch a cold" – I said.
"And how should we light a fire in the middle of the forest if it's raining?" – Hugh asked.
"I'll make the fire" - Emma said.
"And the shelter? We can't sleep rough or we'll catch a cold or even worse" - Millard said.
"Fiona, could you make a makeshift mini house?" – I asked curiously.
"Technically I can't do anything without seeds, but... I can try" – Fiona nodded.
Then, she put both hands on the ground and, suddenly, several vines came out of the ground and began to form a small roof, a kind of cave but made of plants; big enough to hold everyone.
"Luckily there were ungerminated seeds in the soil, otherwise I couldn't have done this... let's give thanks for it" – Fiona said.
Quickly we all took refuge under the mini cave made of plants and, for some reason, it was impossible for the rain to penetrate the vines and there were no longer any problems of suffering a death from hypothermia. Thank goodness for that.
"Now you should light a fire, Emma. It would be the perfect time for it" – Horace said while rubbing his hands.
Emma nodded and gathered a couple of leaves and branches that she found near our small cave, however, there was a problem, since the branches and leaves were wet, Emma's fire could not be lit no matter how hard she tried.
"Perfect, now we don't even have a fire! Can we have more bad luck?!" – Enoch exclaimed.
"Calm down, we have to think calmly" – said Bronwyn.
"That's right, if we panic every time a setback occurs... we will go completely crazy" – Olive agreed.
"Then you can say what we should do" – said Enoch with a frown.
"Don't worry, I'll try to dry the leaves and branches, maybe it will work and we can make a fire" – Emma said.
I don't know if that works like that, but... We have to try.
[You could also try to absorb moisture with your peculiarity]
Hey? Can I really do that?
[You can form water out of nothing. Are you really asking me if you can absorb moisture?]
It's true, but... I never thought that my peculiarity can be use like that.
[You are able to control water and while it is true that your peculiarity is not at the maximum level, with the level you currently have, absorbing a little moisture from an object is something you can definitely do]
Okay, it's worth a try.
"Emma, let me try something before you try what you were going to do" – I said suddenly.
"What do you want to try?" – Emma asked curiously.
"I will try to absorb the moisture from the leaves and branches with my peculiarity, so I will dry them and we can make a fire without problems" – I said.
"Can you do that, brother?" – Claire asked surprised.
"… I don't know, but... I think it's worth trying" – I said.
"I agree, anyway, we don't lose anything by trying" – Olive nodded.
"And who knows, maybe it will work" - Bronwyn said.
All the girls supported me without a second thought and the boys also expressed their approval, so I did. I touched the wood and concentrated, closed my eyes and imagined that I had a ball of water in my hand and that I wanted to make it disappear without a trace and suddenly I started to feel as if a stream of cold water was running through my body and merging with it.
"It's... impressive, the water is entering in his body" – Horace said in amazement.
"Do you think you could absorb other flames as well, Emma?" - asked Olive curiously.
"No idea... I've never tried it" – Emma said.
It is possible that if Jacob could absorb the moisture from things, she could also absorb fire.
"Brother is amazing" – said Claire in amazement.
"Yes..." – Fiona nodded.
"I totally agree" - Bronwyn said.
The twins nodded too, they all seemed to agree that Jacob was impressive and that he never ceased to surprise them since he arrived. At first they did not have much attachment to him, but as the days went by, they enjoyed his presence more and more until they reached a point where they could no longer be without him, especially the girls, who had become his girlfriends and could no longer live without Jacob's presence, after all, Jacob was everything to them along with their family and they loved him from the bottom of their hearts and their love did not seem to decrease, but increased day by day and they loved him more and more.
The boys, on the other hand, also had a lot of fun with Jacob. His stories about the future, the kindness with which he treated them and how kind he was to everyone, Jacob was literally another member of their family and a friend whom they loved very much and who they would never abandon and even Enoch, who would never admit it, considered Jacob that way, because without knowing it, his presence became something that made him feel good. They did not need to interact, just being in his presence was comfortable in itself.
Everyone continued to see as Jacob absorbed the moisture from the branches and leaves attentively, as if they did not want to miss a single detail and at that moment some wondered: Are the peculiar who control the water also capable of doing what Jacob is doing?
While some were thinking about it, Jacob finished absorbing the moisture.
"Uff, I'm done: What do you think?" – I asked curiously.
The boys, who had already seen the whole process, nodded.
"You are amazing. All the branches and leaves are completely dry and now we can make the fire perfectly" – Emma said with a smile.
They all threw flattery at me everywhere, but as expected, the boys complained saying that we should leave the flirting for another time and, for the moment, Emma should light the fire, it was cold and they were having a hard time.