Rion felt as if he was floating on a calm sea brightened by the glorious sun, and the cold water touched his body like it was caressing him.
Suddenly, he shivered when a chill hit him and the smell of damp earth entered his nose.
Bum-bum... bum-bum.
At the same time sound of heavy drums entered his ears. His eyelids trembled slightly as he opened his eyes upon the boundless, clouded sky.
"Ugh?!" A soft groan left his lips as he grabbed his spinning head and sat up.
Looking around, his eyes fell on the other children who lay beside him.
"What's going on?" He questioned, but there was no one to answer him.
'Is this related to the ceremony?' He thought and stood up. He walked towards the other children near him and shook them.
The other children also woke up and looked around with troubled faces. A few of them even began to cry. One of the children stood up and walked towards Rion.
He was a chubby child with dark green hair and black eyes. He wore a vest and kilt of various hides with a necklace of fangs hanging around his neck, and his feet were protected by leather sandals.
He stopped before Rion and spoke, "Thank you." He turned around and left.
Rion stared at his back and thought, 'What the fuck was that?'
He shook his head and looked around. They were flanked by the tall redwood trees. Short grass and wild flowers filled the ground, but he wasn't concerned about anything, simply because he could see a neon green arrow floating a few meters away.
'So they dropped us near the spring? Is this a ritual of some sort?' He thought as he stepped towards the arrow.
At the same time, the heavy drums thundered once again.
Bum-bum... bum-bum.
'They are beating the drums for us to know where the spring is,' his eyes scanned the children, all of them were looking towards the spring.
One of the children suddenly ran towards the spring, and a moment later, a scream left him, "Ahhh!"
A pained expression etched on his face as he lay on the ground while clutching his leg, and the other children walked up to him with worried looks.
Rion also walked near him with a raised eyebrow and saw a short cut on his leg. The cut wasn't too big, but it was turning blue at the ends.
"I-i can't move my leg! Wahhh!" The child cried, tears fell from his eyes and dampened the ground.
'...This cannot be dangerous. They wouldn't have taken us here if this place were dangerous,' he thought as he tried to shrug off the child's pain with his reasoning, but just as he was stepping forward, he remembered the words of his mother.
*
"Mama, why does everyone respect Papa?" Asked the 3-year-old Rion as he gripped Lara's finger and walked around the tribe settlement.
A beautiful smile appeared on her face as she answered, "It's because your papa is everyone's hero."
"Hero?" He, of course, knew what a hero was. But he wanted to know more about Haden.
However, her answer wasn't related to Haden.
"A hero is someone who helps others without a reason, they don't weigh the gain or profit. They do it because they can."
He turned silent at her words. Their silence stretched for a few moments until Lara spoke, "Most parents don't want their child to be a selfless person — a hero. But, I want you to be a hero, sometimes..." She paused, her voice softened as she continued, "But, it's okay to be selfish, too, sometimes."
Hearing her, he replied without a second thought, "I will be a hero... sometimes, hehe!"
*
Rion stopped in his tracks and looked at the wounded child as he thought, '...Fuck it.'
'Inventory,' a video game Inventory, like a blue screen, flickered before him. Three books were placed in the first three slots.
He focused on the first one, and another screen appeared beside the inventory.
————
Knowledge Book
Description: Knowledge of common to supreme herbs.
[Assimilate?]
[Yes / No]
————
'Yes,' Just as he commanded, his head stung for a moment before a soothing feeling filled his mind.
A few moments later, a new screen appeared before him.
[You have assimilated the knowledge of common to supreme herbs.]
'That was fast...' he thought before looking around, and suddenly he knew every type of grass, flower and plant that were near him.
He lingered in that surreal sense of omniscience for a few moments and shook his head.
"Focus," he mumbled and looked at the wound, 'okay, this is a numbing poison and to cure it I need...'
His legs involuntarily moved towards a bright green flower, which he crushed in his hand, and then he walked towards the wounded child. He crouched beside him and rubbed the crushed flower on his wound.
"W-what are you doing?!" The wounded child asked in panic. The other children looked at him with fearful expressions and stepped back.
"Ah—" the wounded child parted his lips to scream, but it was cut off by his own words, "Eh...?! I can move my leg!"
He looked at Rion with a wide smile and shouted, "Thank you, Rion!"
Rion gave him a slight nod and stood up. He stepped towards the neon arrow and spoke, "Everyone, follow me."
The others looked at each other, sceptical about listening to him.
Right at that moment, the chubby child from before began to follow him, and the wounded child was the next.
Slowly, everyone began to follow him.
At the cliff near the spring stood the chieftain, at his left stood Jura, and at his right stood Haden.
Jura leaned his head back, looked at Haden and asked, "I didn't know Rion knew about herbs... when did he even learn that?"
Haden replied without turning, "I didn't know either."
The chieftain blinked at his answer. He turned to look at him with a dumbfounded expression as he questioned.
"...Aren't you his father?"