Less than two hours after Elder Tok left for his village he returned. The villagers just finished moving the body of the Kyloxe closer to the village. When the villagers saw Elder Tok they realized he was being followed by a young man who was only fourteen or fifteen years old. He had purple hair, a thin and dirty dark red shirt, black pants and heavy boots.
On his back he carried a large kiln along with other forging equipment. He looked like an ant carrying a soda can. "Were all these people from Elder Tok"s village so strong?" They wondered.
The young man walked up to the beast and patted it. He then looked around and aimlessly asked, "Where can I set up?"
"Set up, you should greet the elders first Tik," Elder Tok said.
Tik clasped his hands together and bowed slightly while swiveling his torso around to the villagers as if he were bowing to all of them.
"Greetings elders, where may I set up at?" he asked once again.
Elder Tok slapped him on the back of the head.
"Go put your things over there and come back," he indicated a spot near the beast. Tik set down his equipment bag and rejoined Elder Tok.
Elder Tok stood near the Village Chief, River Boat, and Mist and his family.
"This kid is here to forge some weapons and things for the village. His name is Tik and he"s also my nephew," Elder Tok said.
"Strength runs in the family," River Snake said as he reached out and shook hands with the young man.
"That has nothing to do with our family, he"s been training under Elder Koos since he was six as a forging expert," Elder Tok said.
"So there are other students in your village?" Mountain Sprite asked confused.
"All the masters have disciples and apprentices such as Tik, however, there is only one shared disciple. Mist is unique in our village," answered Elder Tok.
Mountain Sprite couldn"t help but look a little proud hearing her son was so special. Tik looked at the woman and noticed she was staring down at Mist with loving eyes. Putting two and two together, he realized who he was.
"This is the shared disciple?" Tik asked.
"Yes, his name is Mist, I expect you to take care of him," Elder Tok said.
Tik nodded and looked at Mist.
Later, you want to help me make some weapons?" he asked.
Mist liked the sound of this very much. Making weapons? What kid wouldn"t find this exciting?
"Yes, thank you!" Mist replied.
"No problem, but you have to share some of your candies with me. Master Koos is so stingy with his treats and yet he gave you so many," he said.
Mist looked around but didn"t see any candy. "I don"t see any candy," he said. Just as he finished speaking, Elder Tok waved his hand and a bag the size of a mountain appeared. Looking toward Mountain Sprite, Elder Tok smiled.
"I"m afraid Elder Koos went overboard with the candy. I"ll have to trust you to give these out sparingly to the children of the village. If they eat too many of them their teeth could fall out!" he said.
"Their teeth could fall out! I won"t let them have anything," she said in horror.
"HaHa, it"s okay these candies won"t do such a thing, but others do. Still the children shouldn"t eat too many of them it will ruin their apit.i.tes. Just use these as treats and rewards," Elder Tok said.
Mist ran over to the bag and pulled out a few pieces. He then ran up to his mother.
"Look mother, I"ll teach you about these. I"ve already had some," Mist very quickly and seriously explained how to properly unwrap the candies and eat them. He warned his mother how delicious they were.
"Try one, mother, I"ll have one just to make sure," he said.
Mountain Sprite ate the candy and her eyes lit up. It was like eating honey and fruits at the same time! It was the most delicious thing she ever ate. No wonder her son was posing as a candy expert just so he could get his hands on these things.
She walked over to her son and took the remaining candies.
"One is enough for now, you already had some earlier so I"ll take the rest," with this she took the candies and had a couple of hunters drag the bag of candy to the storage silo where the village kept their grains.
Watching his mother carry off the candy, Mist looked a little dejected. Not long after a cunning look flashed through his eyes. he walked over to Tik and secretly gave him a few pieces of candy he covertly put in his pocket earlier.
"Don"t worry Tik, I know a secret way to get into the silo. I"ll get you some more candies later," he whispered.
Hearing this exchange Elder Tok stifled a laugh, "definitely a cunning candy monster," he thought to himself.
"All right, let"s get to work, I need all of the villagers to gather around the beast and I"ll give a demonstration on how to properly process a spirit beast," Elder Tok said.
The villagers gathered around the spirit beast. Even the children joined in. Older children watched younger children so their parents could pay attention. Mist was brought to the front and made to stand by Elder Tok so he could watch.
Elder Tok looked at Mist who seemed a little distracted.
"Mist, it"s very important you pay attention. You are my student now, as your teacher I need your attention, pay attention!" he said.
Mist"s father walked up to his son and scolded him as well.
"You have a great teacher and this chance brings honor to the village. You are the first child of our village to learn from a Master Hunter! You better pay attention or I"ll beat your @55!" River Snake said delivery his favorite threat to his son.
Mist looked gloomy but nodded obediently.
"Yes, father, I understand," he said. After being scolded twice, Mist focused all of his attention on what Elder Tok was doing.
Elder Tok took a strange looking knife and before inserting it into the beast he said to the crowd, "How well you start determines how well you"ll end."