Chapter 9: Chapter 8 – Hints

Emma sat on the ground as she ate the cold rabbit meat they had left over from yesterday, there wasn’t a lot left after she had devoured everything she could in an attempt to appease her starved stomach. But Aelin, the elf guy, had luckily had the wherewithal to insist she leave something for her own breakfast after they both decided to give her almost all the food they had left. Only almost, as Aelin had insisted that they needed energy too if they wanted to get more food, even in the face of Oliver’s insistence.

The food itself was, honestly, pretty good too, sure, it was cold and dry, but it had a nice chewy quality, and the taste of meat was pretty nice even when it was cold. Although, honestly, that may simply be the three days of nuts, berries, and the scraps of her lunch talking… Especially the part where she appreciated the chewiness of the meat, since she could, in some recess of her mind, recognize that she was, perhaps, simply appreciating that chewing for longer made it seem like she ate more than she actually did.

Emma once more sunk into more and more meandering subjects of thought, until, finally, she ran out of things to do other than fixing the tension between her breakfast companions. Aelin was scowling slightly as he nibbled at his meat, a mere fifth of what she had, as he once in a while raised his head to look around for something in the forest, before once again settling down to glare at his cold rabbit. Oliver was sitting down calmly, smiling hopefully and a bit apologetically at Aelin, a smile which only widened whenever he happened to make eye contact with Aelin after he looked around, before going back to his passive smile when Aelin looked away once more.

Emma had Known Oliver for far too long and seen it far too many times to not know what that particular expression meant, and it meant something along the lines of ‘sorry, but I just don’t agree with your opinion on my opinion, and I hope we can look past it and still be friends'. She couldn’t help but wonder which of the four usual subjects Aelin had tried to change, but she supposed it didn’t really matter, the speech would be the same either way.

Emma sighed at her best friend’s stubbornness, before starting the speech she had given at least fifteen times by now. “Aelin, I’m sorry, but I feel like it’s my job as the most experienced ‘friend of Olliver’s’ here to tell you something. It's not going to work. I don’t know exactly what your argument was about, but I am willing to bet that it was either about Oliver’s inability to plan for failure, his tendency for borderline suicidal plans, his mythical capacity to trust in the power of hope, or his magnificent skill in ignoring the mere concept of teamwork” Emma says, rolling her eyes at Oliver’s affronted expression, and smirking slightly at the wide-eyed surprise on Aelin’s face. “Now, let me make something very clear, it’s just not going to work, even if you gave him an ultimatum of some sort, it won’t work, trust me, friendships far longer than the one you guys share have ended because of this” Emma said, smiling apologetically at Aelin.

“Are you telling me, that no matter how many times someone he cares for asks him to change, he still refuses them?” Aelin asked.

“Based on my extensive experience, I would have to say yes, but, on the positive end of things, his belief in the power of hope is so rigid, that I’m pretty sure it will shatter at some point, and when that happens, we just need to help him put himself back together, so he doesn’t stay so inflexible,” Emma said, a strained smile on her face as she looked worriedly at Oliver.

“Well, then,” Oliver said as he leaned back with a relaxed smile “if I truly am so rigid and inflexible, then why exactly is it that you were the one starving”

“ok, you had as much to do with thriving in this forest as I had to do with us winning that biology jeopardy game in last week's class, I was there, but I was probably more of a hindrance than anything else” Emma said.

“I know that, I’m not competent,” Oliver said, laughing at even the idea as he did, before continuing with a smile “I’m just saying that I used the power of hope and my willingness to try to look for people who have even the slightest inkling of what they are doing to thrive… and maybe also a bit of incredible luck, but I am sure, that even if I hadn’t found Aelin, I would have figured out something,” Oliver said.

Emma simply shook her head with an exasperated sigh, knowing that Oliver wouldn’t see that he essentially just said, ‘hope might not actually work, but determination and positivity does’. He always did so, renouncing and defending the power of hope in the same sentence, that is, yet he never saw it, he just wouldn’t let himself.

You are reading story Brightburn – A LITRPG apocalypse at novel35.com

“As satisfying as it is to watch the madman flounder in his attempts at defending his stupid philosophy, it isn’t actually what we need to do right now” Aelin, the elf guy, said.

Emma looked at him in interest “Right, I’ve been trying to catch up with you two for a couple of days now, and you keep moving eastwards, what are trying to do?” she asked.

“We are trying to find something, anything, to actually get tools and weapons beyond rocks and sticks, but we haven’t even found the most pathetic flint splinter, nevermind a piece big enough to let us stop dressing our prey with our bare hands” Aelin scowled, frustration clear in his voice.

“he is right, we haven’t found anything yet, but I am sure that it is only a matter of persevering a little longer before we find something. Besides, it’s still better than what you have endured up until now, so really we already have been quite lucky” Oliver smiled as he got to his feet.

Aelin rose to his feet and stretched slightly before he spoke “even if there is no reason for him to think that there will be a basin at the bottom of the chasm, he is right on one front. We have no alternative, we will just have to keep looking, so we might as well start now” he said, looking out over the many entangled branches of the forest with grim determination.

Emma couldn’t help but smirk smugly as she stood up and slung an arm around each of their shoulders “well, as much fun as walking up and down endless branches in a gigantic forest after starving for a couple of days sounds, I think I have a better idea” she patted each of them on the shoulder, although she could have been tricked into thinking that Aelin’s shoulder was a boulder with how hard his muscles were tensed, before walking over to her splinter “Allow me to introduce the two of you to one of the natural wonders of the ever-fall forest, Heartwood” then she held onto the wooden splinter in one end with both her hands and held it over her head, before driving it towards the bark below as she fell to one knee and put all her strength and weight into the stab, plunging it through ten centimeters of bark and wood.

---