Sonny was surrounded by silence and the loud cracking sound of the fire. He gave the man a secretive glance a couple of times, but he wasn't aware that the man was aware that he was watching him.
The other man had a higher cultivation, so he was fully aware that Sonny was staring at him with his heated gaze.
Sonny played with the tiny twig in his hand that he found on the ground, and he asked, "What's your name?"
The man spoke softly, "Killian."
Then Sonny's belly growled loudly. Sonny blushed lightly on his cheeks, and he covered his stomach. The man looked at the boy with his raised brow. "Are you hungry?"
Sonny was very hungry. He hasn't had anything to eat all night since his parents died. He walked almost all night long. He nodded his head.
The man pulled out a small pouch from his robes and threw it at him, which Sonny caught in his hands.
Sonny looked at it with a hint of curiosity in his eyes.
The man smiled at the boy's innocent curiosity. "It's nothing special. It's beef jerky sticks people would bring on trips sometimes, and it's easy to carry."
Sonny nodded as he listened to the man. He opened it, then grabbed the long, thin, reddish-brownish meat into his mouth that tasted very dry and smoky, with a hint of spice.
Sonny smiled as he continued eating, and the man smiled as he closed his eyes, his hands closed together, working on healing himself from his injuries.
Deep in the night, Killian opened his eyes. He looked down at his waist and noticed he was fully healed, and he sighed with relief. He looked across to the boy, who was sleeping across the dirt floor, fully unaware.
Killian narrowed his eyes. He doesn't know where this boy came from, nor does he sense a demonic energy. How does a boy with weak cultivation survive in the forest with beasts and demonic creatures?
It only makes the boy more suspicious.
Killian walked toward the boy and raised his hand over his body; a light blue energy was sent over his body, detecting any hint of demonic energy, but there was none.
Killian pursed his lips and sat back down. Killian whispered, "Since you helped me, I will take you with me."
When Killain finished whispering his words, he heard whimpering from the boy. Killian looked down at the boy, and weak cries came from the boy's lips.
"Mother…"
"Father…"
"Don't leave me…"
The boy's words were pitiful, weak, and sad, his hands clenching down on his belly like he was clasping the last straw.
Killian felt his chest tightening, so he moved his hand to the boy's hands that tightened around his own hands, catching him by surprise.
The boy had a tight, slimy grip, but Killian wasn't grossed out by it; he just stayed still in the night, listening to the boy's soft cries that quieted down.
When the boy Sonny opened his eyes from his nightmares, he realized that he was holding the man's hand, and he let go of it with a startle.
He jumped back, and he apologized, "Uhh, sorry!"
The man stared at him. "Get up, we stayed here long enough."
Sonny nodded and rose to his feet, and all of a sudden, his belly growled. At the same time, his face turned red.
Sonny was embarrassed. He just ate last night, and the other man hasn't eaten anything, yet the man gave him the last food to eat. Sonny didn't know what to say, but he still said, "I will be fine. We can still go."
Then a big loud sound echoes across the forest that makes Sonny's heart race like a storm, and Killian's eyes turn sharp at the noise.
Killian said calmly, "Stay here."
Sonny wanted to go with him, but he was too afraid to ask, so he just nodded. When the man got the nod, he left in that direction in the noise. Sonny waited for nearly fifteen minutes.
–
Sonny kept tapping his boots, feeling anxious down in his stomach, wondering where the man had gone.
Shouldn't the man be back by now?
What if the man used this as an excuse to leave him?
All sorts of thoughts went through his mind, making him sicker and sicker.
Sonny wanted to get up and search, but he was afraid to get up and search in the dark forest and be alone. The more he waited, the more he was afraid. Sonny sighed when he couldn't wait anymore, so he got up, and he looked around the dark trees that seemed to wiggle in the dark shadows.
Sonny swallowed hard and clenched his hands, and he prayed to his father and mother in heaven, praying to them to watch over him.
He walked further down the dark bushes, and he almost jumped when he saw a bush shake, then he sighed with relief when he saw a squirrel crawling out of it.
Sonny walked past it, then realized he was lost; he didn't know where he was or where to go. He frowned, and then he saw a big man. That person saw him, then ran to him, not giving Sonny a chance to react.
Sonny recognized the man. It was a man with a long scar across the face. Sonny felt relieved to see a familiar face, but was scared to see a scary man because he looked very angry. Very angry.
The man walked toward Sonny with a heavy stomp. "Boy, where were you?!"
The man grabbed Sonny by the shoulders with his rough hands, not giving him the chance to explain, and Sonny cried out when he felt pain radiating in his shoulders. Sonny ignored the pain and replied, "I couldn't bring anything back!"
The man narrowed his big eyes. "Why?"
Sonny swallowed hard, trying to push back down his fears. "There were no animals out here for me to hunt."
The man stared at him like he was determining whether he was telling the truth or not. But then the man finally grabbed the boy's small neck, and the boy hissed through his teeth, and the big man growled, "Don't be lying to me, boy; you've got a lot of work to do. I've been looking for you all night long."
The big man dragged Sonny across the forest with his big hands with no gentleness until he reached his group, where the group was cooking and cutting the fish they caught early.
Some of them heard his footsteps and turned in his direction and waved in his direction, and cried out. "Hey, boss, we've been waiting for you! Where have you been?"
The big man, who was called the boss, pushed the small boy in front of them on the ground, and Sonny held his lips tightly to keep from expressing his pain.
"Here is the brat that I found sniffing around the forest."
Sonny lifted his sore neck and recognized some of the people from before, and recognized the servant from before at his father's sect who walked out here with him all this time.
The man was looking at him with surprised eyes and observing him like a different person, but he wasn't stepping forward to check on him to make sure he was okay or anything.
Then the man with the big scar walked toward Sonny, grabbed him across his neck, and pulled him up from the ground. "Boy, don't be playing with me. You have work to do."
The man narrowed his eyes at me, the boy, until Sonny nodded his head like an obedient chicken. "Yes. I'll listen to you. What do you want me to do?"
The man smiled. "That's a good boy."
He patted the boy's cheeks and searched around the forest, the horses, and the bowls lying on the ground.
The big man turned to his people and asked. "You just finished eating?"
The people nodded their heads at him, and one of them spoke up, "Yeah, one of us was just discussing who was cleaning dishes."
A few of them were groaning. There were lots of them, and nobody wanted to clean each other's dishes.
The big man smiled big, and he pushed Sonny toward the dirty dishes next to the trees, and he told the boy, "Clean the dishes, and you have all night long, and if you don't have them done by morning, you'll have a whooping. Understood?"
The man narrowed his eyes at the boy.
Sonny stared at the big man and the long scar on his face that looked more eerie in the forest.
Sonny nodded, "Yes."
Sonny watched the man walk away to his people, and Sonny looked at the dirty dishes, and he decided to use this opportunity to escape.
When Sonny looked back at the man sitting with the group and laughing and talking, not paying attention.
Sonny felt his nerves so high and jittery, and he took a deep breath. He tells himself that he only has this chance to get out of here, or he'll be stuck here.