During dinner time, the only topic of conversation was the massive fish that Tara had brought for the family. Tara’s mother, Dana, had stayed for dinner, so the words of praise were only that much greater with them all there.
Two other people had joined them for dinner. Mili’s oldest sister, Soko, in her mid-20s, had come with her husband, Bala. She had brought along her 3-year-old son, Kele, but he was asleep in the other room and wasn’t up for dinner.
They all asked Tara for details, which he did his best not to say. His lack of an answer was a show of humility, which these people liked quite a lot.
The chirpy Mili was rather quiet during dinner time, taking a few spoonfuls of the soup without any words.
“You’re awfully quiet today,” Soko, the eldest sister, asked her. “Are you angry again that you didn’t get to marry?”
“What?” The girl quickly looked up in confusion. “Of course not.”
The chief and his wife laughed.
Soko laughed as well. “That’s what you did when I was getting married,” she said. “If that’s not it, then why are you so quiet? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong,” Mili said. “I’m just tired. That damn lesson took all day.”
“You were quite excited for it, weren’t you? Where’s that excitement now?” Mumu teased her.
Mili gave an annoyed look and focused back on her dinner.
“Don’t tease your sister. She learned a good craft today. She will be helpful to the tribe going forward,” their mother said.
“I heard you did quite well too,” the chief said to Alex. “You brought a rather large octopus.”
“It was nothing. Barely anything in comparison to your son-in-law.”
“No, that is still quite large. You must’ve gone quite far out into the sea,” the chief said. “If I could, I would have you stay in the tribe forever.”
Alex smiled. “But I must leave when the time is right. I would like to pay back what I owe before I leave.”
The chief thought for a moment. “Tomorrow morning, I will gather a few people and send them to the mountain with you. We will have one of the women go too. Uhh… Soko, can you go with him to the mountain to note down everything he says?”
“I have to take care of Kele,” Soko said. “If Mother can take care of him in the morning, then I can go.”
“That’s perfect,” the chief said. “Our friend here has extensive knowledge of herbs in the mountain, so it will be useful to learn from him what we can.”
Soko nodded. “I will write what I can.”
“You should be alright with that too, right?” the chief asked.
Alex shrugged. “That is perfect, in my opinion.”
“Great! You will have paid back what you owe and more then.”
The dinner went on for longer. Mili left first to sleep since she was the most tired. Dana, Tara, and Mumu left next since they had to return to their hut. Soko and her husband left with their son, leaving Alex with the chief and his wife.
Alex wanted to stay outside again, so the chief let him go.
Outside, Alex began trying to cultivate again to see if anything had changed. Since nothing had, he began the excruciating task of attacking the Storm God’s seal.
The seal was a diamond mountain he was chiseling away with a rock. It was going to take an eternity. However, there was the hope that as he chiseled it away, while the diamond mountain would get smaller, his own rock would also become sharper, chiseling away more than ever.
Alex was going to use the Storm God’s seal to temper his own Intent. There was no better form of training than this.
Alex struggled three entire times in total this time too.
The Storm God’s seal didn’t immediately fight back. It took a moment to do so, and the pain increased each time. It was unfortunately a mental pain that Alex couldn’t train for so easily. It would take a long time to be okay with such pain.
Each time the pain reached a level where he couldn’t handle it without screaming out of his mind, he stopped. He took a short break and tried again.
It was after the third time that he used up all of his Intent he had available to him. If he wanted to continue longer, he would have to improve his Intent, which he was doing.
Alex fell asleep after that and was woken up by the skirmishes around him.
It was morning, but the sky wasn’t bright or shimmering. It was covered in clouds. As they had said, it was going to rain today.
In the morning, everyone began digging drains so the rainwater could return to the sea without having to find a path of its own. Who knew what the heavy rain would decide to take away otherwise?
The chief had gathered the people already, so they were ready to leave. “It shouldn’t rain for at least three more hours, so come back before then.”
Everyone agreed and left.
Soko carried with her thin sheets of white leather, apparently made from the skin of a certain type of fish, layered with powdered limestone. She had many coals with her to write on it.
Alex had no issue explaining anything. He picked up each herb, explained what it was, and let Soko write it all down.
Everyone else was there to learn from him as well, to watch and remember. The more people remembered, the better it was.
There were many herbs to go through, so it took Alex a while to explain the purpose of everything, but he did.
The sky rumbled around the time they were done, so they decided to return.
They quickly arrived back at the base. Everyone was supposed to be in their huts as it was going to rain soon, but they were all gathered around the chief’s hut.
“What’s going on?” Soko asked curiously.
One of them turned and gasped. “Soko, your sister… she’s been taken by the curse.”
