During the two days before their journey aside from his usual training Linri spent all his time reading everything he could find about Rundabar and Togk civilization. Linri was bothered by what he found or rather the lack of it. He could still find bits and pieces of information about Rundabar but there were too little information about Togks.Their language had still not been cracked so the current humanity did not know anything about them. What information they had was from other civilizations that interacted with them but because during the time of their existence the civilization was the sole ruler of their continent there were not many that interacted with them let alone mention them. In other words in the whole world he was the one with the most knowledge concerning Togks and that was only because he was their creator.
That in itself was not much of a help to Linri because he never fleshed them out completely. At first he was going to focus on them but once he created Arkady he changed Linri"s direction in development. So right now he only knew the names of the two Togk deities that was gonna meet with Linri and their purpose. That at least gave him some chips in his hand but dealing with the unknown was always scary. Especially when you know that with the slightest mistake you can die. Right now he was seriously regretting his decision to focus on Werewolves and Kitsune over Togks. Why couldn"t just create simple like he could use fire from his birth and stick with it. Now he had to risk his life just to reach the starting point of his character"s story.
Two days flashed past in a blink and they finally arrived at Forest of Rundabar. It was really hard to find a guide for this particular place as many people believed that this place was home to the devils and every tribe in the surroundings avoided it. Even the one they managed to convince only brought them to the outskirts of the forest. Linri did not have much of a worry about the forest itself as Linri met the deities when he was out on a morning run. If the place was not safe who would be crazy enough to leave the safety of the group and explore it out of curiosity right?
After they travelled about a km Linri found how naive he was. There were dangerous beasts everywhere. They ranged from poisonous insects, giant snakes, tigers and panthers to flora that could swallow a man whole. At that point Linri seriously considered the sanity of the character he created. What kind of an idiot go to a morning run in this wretched place. He didn"t even know if he could safely leave the group let alone go search for the deities.
After three days of travelling inside the forest they finally reached their designated spot. Ahead of them lay a gigantic ruin of a temple covered in vines. Linri was not really interested in that death trap as it was not his destination. He was actually annoyed that they had reached it. Now he had to search the forest himself. Alone to boot. It"s not like he could Jaime to help him after what happened last time. That was not within his code of conduct. The fact that he did not ask for Jaime"s help did not really mean he did not have any plans at all though.
Now that the group had arrived at their destination they did not immediately go in. They decided to rest for a night and be in top shape in order to get ready for any danger they might encounter inside. So the group started to pitch their tents and created a makes.h.i.+ft base of operations. There were too many tools lying around and Linri did not even see half of them before. While walking you had to be careful of your steps or there was a very high chance to step on of them. Linri slowly made his way to his mother"s and Jaime"s tent.
He heard that his mother and Jaime chatting so he thought it would be alright to go inside. That didn"t mean he was just going to barge in though. He had read too many books containing a "lucky" encounter. Even if Lyra was not Linri"s real mother just the thought of seeing Lyra naked made him s.h.i.+ver in disgust. It did not have anything to do with Lyra"s looks as a smile of hers could literally destroy an empire ,in this case Arkady"s future. Rather than that it was his instinct of not wanting to see someone with a blood relation naked. He would probably have the same reaction if it was Arkady rather than Lyra.
"Mom? Is it alright to come in?" asked Linri outside the tent.
"Wait a minute!" said Lyra and Linri waited without saying anything.
"Okay come in now!" Lyra called over for Linri after sometime.
Once he came in Linri saw that Jaime was as red as a beet. Seeing her like that Linri knew that he just avoided a "lucky" encounter and made him happy with his decision. Then he thought it might really not be bad to see Jaime naked but then disposed of his thoughts. He had a girlfriend back home. Even though she was not as beautiful as Jaime Linri was a loyal man. Unless he falls in love with someone in this world he was not going to do anything to betray her. He also knew that returning might take years if not decades so he was not going to make an unrealistic claim as he was not going to date another person here. Feelings change over time, humans just can"t control that.
"So mom, as you know there are a lot of poisonous insects around here. I made sure to dress in clothes that doesn"t have any openings for bugs to slip in from but I am still worried. I came here for fun not get bitten to death. So I wanted to ask if you have any kind of bug repellent. I was gonna ask dad at first but he did not seem to be bothered by the bug bites on the way here so I doubt he has anything of the sorts" said Linri. He of course knew that Arkady would not be bothered with the poison of the little bugs here thanks to his Werewolf regeneration trait. Unless it was something that can kill an elephant with a single bite he would get itchy at most.
"Now that"s a tough question as I didn"t bring any bug repellent either. If you are really that worried though you should ask the others in camp. I can only give you my bracelet to ease your mind for now. It"s a family heirloom and it"s said that it can ward off bad luck." said Lyra and took of her bracelet to give Linri. He immediately put it on. He did not feel any different but he knew that this thing was definitely more than just a bracelet since it was something Lyra gave him.
"Thanks mom! I like it. I can already feel a lot calmer. Weird though, I am not a superst.i.tious person so why do I feel like that?" said Linri while putting on an act to convince Lyra.
"Wait? You really feel calmer with that?" asked Lyra surprised.
"Yeah? Wasn"t I supposed to?" Linri said back.
"No, no of course you were. I was just checking to make sure you were all right" said Lyra. Linri noticed that her mood get a whole lot better all of a sudden which he found weird.
It was obvious for Linri to find Lyra"s reaction weird considering he created them after Linri already had abilities. So he did not know about the worries of Lyra and Arkady about whether he can awake his bloodline or not. Of course what Lyra gave Linri was some simple protective charm which could protect him against animals. Meaning no animal could come near 10 meters of Linri be it insects or something as fierce as a panther. What made Lyra surprised and happy was that Linri felt calm after putting it on. That meant he had hope for an awakening soon. He either felt calm because of the instincts of a Werewolf or because he could feel the magic inside the bracelet like a Kitsune could. This was definitely something worth a celebration. Little did Lyra know that it was all a front.