Archaic Book

  Later that day…

  Fox met with the people requesting amelioration and reporting certain needs of utmost necessity. He was in a resting room reserved for this matter, and after a few hours, he was now seeing off a grandma, with the setting sun and the empty line outside indicating the end of the day. Of course, unlike those like Luis, Fox didn't have to care about geopolitics. All Terka's matters regarding that were delegated to Luis.

  “And I’m telling you, those ratas don’t know the use of my little woods. They are using it for premature bonfires. Can you believe that? Oh, dear, it makes my poor old heart bounce!” The grandma, a white, simple lady with a long yellow dress with some flowers, sat before Fox.

  Fox lifted his left eyebrow before half nodding, shrugging a bit. “If you say that’s bothering you, and you don’t want to call the police, I’ll return with you to your terrain. Does that sound alright?”

  “You are just perfect, dear.” The grandma put her hands together below her chin and shook her head before praising him with her heart, with scheming glinting in her old lady eyes. Fox gestured a little cock of his head before standing up, to which he helped the grandma, who took advantage to ask something.

  “Oh, I see you’re such a good boy. You see, there’s a cute girl living with me right now, she’s such a fine lady. Do you think-” The grandma tried, alright, and she was smooth. She must’ve been a player in her days, but 100 years later, she was but an individual passing time frolicking with Life before her date with dear Death.

  Fox interrupted her, gently shaking a hand before her line of sight, “Ma’am, I am taken.”

  “Oh, I can see that, you know? It’s not like you could keep it a secret after showing half the world what gracious little goddess you’ve found for yourself. But mine is a nice lass, cooks so good, and-” The grandma wasn’t going to give up. She might not have long, but she had that dog in her.

  “Ma’am, I assure you, my woman will eat away your granddaughter. There’s no woman who can stand beside her, you understand?” Fox shook his head dismissively with slow swings.

  But the grandma was still at it, though she had to correct him first, “Great, great granddaughter. She’s only 20 years old, I’m only 130, excuse you!”

  Fox had a slightly comical expression, putting on a touch of embarrassment for appearances’ sake. The grandma went on, “I’m sure a fine, young seed like you can have two chicks for life. Do you think I don’t see it? You are of the good ones! Never doubt a worried granny’s intuition.”

  “…” Fox lifted his right eyebrow, standing in the room helplessly. The grandma hadn’t finished yet, “Such a kind heart. I would feel at ease if my baby can have you as her beloved husband!”

  “Listen, grandma…” Fox humored the old lady with that addressing, therefore continuing with the harsh part. “There are many good people. I won’t be the only one with such a… ‘heart’ out there. Say, if I tell you a secret, which you have to keep, would you understand and let me be?”

  The grandma didn’t respond, already thoughtful with the first half of Fox’s words. She looked up at Fox, silent and startled, expectant to know such little secrets. Fox leaned closer and placed a hand beside her ear before whispering…

  “Oooh~!” Soon after, the grandma exclaimed in the room, looking at Fox like she was surpassed. After shaking her head, she bumped a weak old fist on Fox’s left arm before sighing, walking out with Fox behind her.

  “Cooking and caring, hmm,” Esmeralda peeked from the other side of the hallway, with Nala peeking just below her a second later. The profound black eyes were hyper focused, already devising multiple operations planned in her little head.

  … Fox drove the lady home for 3 hours, saving her the trouble of back pain and the surroundings getting too dark. When arriving at her large terrain, which was almost 1 square kilometer, of which farming machinery was in a recently built cottage, she indicated to stop the vehicle.

  Fox left the White Blood in the car before following the grandma to a little section where there were some trees planted in the grandma’s terrain. Further from where the vehicle parked was a large mansion, with some lights on, which they ignored.

  Fox looked at the set of trees, which were clearly from natural growth, they weren’t planted here. The grandma looked at the trees with shiny eyes, smiling before turning to Fox, “These are my little woods. Do you perceive that smell? I have only heard of better things from Preut, you know?”

  “Yes, indeed.” Fox lowered his head a bit. The smell the grandma spoke of was too well known by him, but the scent coming from those trees… wasn’t that far off. Fox frowned.

  Walking closer to the trees, Fox stopped and began asking questions while the grandma caressed a tree’s trunk with care. “What happens when it’s used as a campfire? What about when it falls off? It has no fruits or any… plant growing on it, just some small leaves… with so many tendrils. It looked like bushes when looking from above.”

  “Oh, I knew you would ask this much. I had my girls prepare me something.” The grandma grabbed something from her tiny purse before giving Fox a small paper sheet before turning back to the trees. “Here you go. Ahh~, you will be used better now, sweeties.”

  Fox gave the trees a last look before reading the paper sheet. The trees weren’t too tall, a little thicker than the regular ones, even more than the ordinary lot in Proteros’s protected natural zones. Their leaves were either of shades of crimson or orange.

  The tree bark smells good in the air, and it sometimes feels medicinal. Fox figured that depended on the amount of tree bark used, and maybe some water and soil. Additionally, the leaves were eatable after drying them, and they had some heat-resistant properties, to further ‘cook’ them.

  It was also noted that the trees weren’t this big about a decade ago, but they were already quite big for how young they were. Furthermore, the people who came to steal its bark or branches needed a machine cutter and drill of the latest generation if they didn’t want to get caught. Even then, they spent about 2-3 minutes before being able to cut bark the size of a baby’s forearm before fleeing.

  Fox looked at some trees, of which there were obvious signs of people having cut them, leaving spotless marks. The tree trunks were of a dark, almost obsidian color. They looked tough, and were like pillars stabbed into the ground. Fox walked to one of them and placed his left palm on it, pushing a bit.

  Detecting the roots from the movement after focusing his senses a bit, Fox then glanced at the grandma before turning back to the tree. “Step back a few meters.”

  The grandma frowned in confusion, but still did it anyway. She watched as Fox pulled his left arm backwards, halfway folded, and smoothly pushed his left palm towards the tree. Fox formed a knife stance with his palm, penetrating into its trunk with barely any obstruction.

  Fox’s face changed a little before pulling his arm back out. There were strange, stout maggot-like gray-purple worms wiggling around his arm after finding it not made from the insides of the tree.

  They moved around from his shoulder to his hand before falling on the ground. They seemed to smell the air after remaining still like statues, or things from the afar, before wiggling back to the tree, whose open hole squirmed with countless more of those tiny little things.

  The grandma frowned, “What are those things? Are you alright, minister? Oh boy…”

  “It’s fine. Their teeth are for the tree ‘meat’ only. They eat smallish tunnels before dropping back down, letting their fellow worms go up and eat their fill before dropping their waste with their ‘butts’ exiting from underneath.”

  Fox looked back at the grandma before further voicing, “Do any little animals come here often? Not bothering with your grass or wooden materials?”

  “Yes, we sometimes watch them in the morning or late at night. They come around my little woods and then leave, why?” The grandma became engrossed.

  Fox nodded in understanding. “They eat the worm’s waste. I guess it’s a tonic for them. The same happens in Preut, although the worms from those trees are longer and thinner. Yet, they are also harmless.”

  “Ma’am, with your permission, I’d like to have all except the oldest trees in your terrain removed and brought to a safe environment. I’ll also arrange for some builders to come build a good safety measure.” Fox directly said after giving the small explanation, his voice was a bit excited.

  “Hooh?” The grandma frowned, more confused than ever. Fox added, feeling good after waiting for this moment. He lackadaisically gestured with a finger to the trees behind him, “These are worldwide treasures, ma’am. They are protected by the GHH and any other agreement made by the nations.”

  “Oooh!” The grandma widened her eyes, almost having a heart attack, to the point her family had to come out and help her breathe. Fox left them for a bit, wanting to climb those trees, which he never did in his life when he was still in Preut.

  With the grandma sitting on a chair from the house, and her family fanning air to her body, Fox climbed atop the treetops, finding them to be rather stable as a foothold. He was just in time to see the sun set after hiding out of shyness from the dark, or chasing the dark on the other side. The sky looked a little cracked from the edge of the world and a bit dark-purple, like a star from the void. A wonder of nature.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  Just as Fox had contemplated enough, and heard the grandma’s heartbeat and lungs calm down, about to climb down, when he noticed a tiny corner of an object in the trees. It was wrapped by countless leaves, deeper than he originally thought.

  Rustle rustle~… Fox rummaged through the leaves, careful to not drop it, before opening a gap wide enough to grab it with his left hand. It felt like the leaves were trying to stab his skin. Fox didn’t know if it was just because of the way their branches sprouted, but his left arm was armored and couldn’t even be scrapped by these.

  In the end, he grabbed the corner of the item, which seemed square shaped, but bulky and bulbous. Pulling it out of the leaves and standing up, Fox noticed it looked like a thick book, with its ‘layers’ 2 fists wide, as it was coated with dirt and some dead branches, weak and humid.

  The dirt almost solidified around it, showing how damn old it was, and what it has endured so far. Not wanting to break it, Fox carefully grabbed it and casually jumped down the treetops. He met with the grandma and her family, which were all cute or good-looking.

  ‘The genes run well in the family, huh?’ Fox thought before facing the grandma, who seemed so contented she could flirt with Death here and now. “I will leave now. Tomorrow, some people will come here. I will send a person so you can feel at ease, they will be in charge of moving the trees and installing the new safety measure.”

  “Many thanks, young man. And, what about the youngsters who stole from the little woods? Will they be punished? They are just kids…” The grandma commented, feeling too joyous to let anyone in the world suffer from anything at the moment.

  Seeing through that, Fox responded with honesty, “Nobody will go after them, but they will be fined. If they ever do it again, they will be dealt with accordingly… I’ll be leaving.”

  Fox nodded at the family before walking back to the vehicle. He was feeling surprised enough with the discovery of Preut-like trees found outside Preut, and naturally so!

  The item in his hands seemed buried underground for who knew how many years, if hundreds or thousands of years. It had practically become part of the earth, with the trees born from nature expelling and bringing it into the sky, so to speak.

  Who knows how long it would have been left there if it wasn’t for these trees. As for the item, he would definitely have the treetops and underneath checked after giving the order to look for them. With Miros’s babies, as long as Colmillo hasn’t traumatized him yet, they will be a great help.

  Furthermore, what could have caused this type of trees to appear elsewhere than Preut? Or Lymoca? Which showed hints of having certain distinction to some flora nowadays. If it was Preut’s almost-a-disaster from 920s, then Lymoca should have extended their ‘tree’ uniqueness.

  Nonetheless, Fox drove back to the palace with his new item and in a good mood. The White Blood said nothing, but since Raging Blood didn’t come from the palace with that mood, then it must be something important overall.

  . . .

  A few days later.

  Terka was set in motion, with Lymoca immediately notified in the same night Fox returned from the discovery. A new type of tree had been discovered! The world wasn’t let known yet, but the President started moving his people, fully using PSD, and even coveting Miros’s babies.

  Making a fortune for the kid, Fox let the genius fall in the ‘unsaintly’ hands of Colmillo while Terka was mobilized in its entirety. The military was used, moving 30% of its numbers to the places where the same trees have been found.

  Unfortunately for both Miros and Fox, there were no other types of trees found, or any flora for that matter. As for fauna, there were some extra-large rats and other rodents, but nothing of consequence. This is significant, however, as Fox clearly remembers that night after fragging Priscilla’s abuser.

  On another note, Fox’s warning to look for items before removing the trees, which had long and powerful roots, wasn’t a pointless task. In the first day after Terka was mobilized to look for those trees, in the capital’s surroundings, quite a few things were found.

  Those found objects could be considered treasures. They varied from broken and unrepairable notebooks or paper sheets, to fabrics, ornaments, luxury items, and even firearms. The latter weren’t as old generation as one would have thought.

  After Fox examined them, he realized these were rather close to nowadays’ top weapons, be it pistols, submachine guns, or assault rifles. Only, these had some strange differences, like the ammunition compartment and the barrels, muzzles, butts, which were just a little bit different inside out.

  Without a doubt, this would cause anyone to think… these were from previous Sanctum Orders! Let alone Fox, who studied them well, including the broken notebooks, which were vastly different to the item he first found.

  The one Fox found was complete, with layers of dirt and whatnot adhered everywhere around its surface, still in Miros’s hands to delicately clean it, as Fox was too busy, although he liked giving it a go. But the other notebooks were incomplete, with parts of their structures gone, dusted, or broken apart.

  Those that weren’t, with their sides visible, couldn’t be opened, and any semi forceful attempt would further damage or directly break the notebooks. It was worth a try at first.

  Later on, as the days passed, more and more items were brought to the palace, with Fox sending them after securing their method of travel to Lymoca. Some were left in Terka, within the PSD HQ in the territory for safety reasons.

  The rest was history. The world was left in the dark for only the first 2 days, not including day 0. In the early morning of the third day, the world was flooded with news from Lymoca and Terka, where it initially originated from Terka.

  Trees! Those that have been particularly high-end and irreplaceable wood material since Lymoca was founded, had been unearthed in Terka! Moreover, Lymoca also showed signs of having those trees, much more like those in Preut than in Terka, but this opened everyone’s eyes!

  Immediately, every country in the world went to look for the same trees or some changes to their flora and fauna. More than having that kind of exquisite material, it was the notion that, ever since Preut’s Civil War, the world was indeed changing in its nature, and it was happening all over!

  But after a few days, with hoogs doing their job, nothing was found. Only Terka had such volume of new types of trees, with Endesa and Carnge saying nothing about finding anything. On the other hand, Melenon and Argopolas proudly stated they did seem to have some new types, but that they will remain confidential for the time being, which ANS didn’t seem to like quite much.

  They always had something to say. They wanted Argopolas and Melenon to announce it to the world, like Lymoca has done, with their original borders and Terka’s territory. Like nobody knew they had kept it to themselves first, for sure.

  To appease ‘the masses’, which was ANS and some of their renown aides, Melenon and Argopolas exposed their new types of trees. It was similar to Terka’s, if only a bit reddish for their trunks. They also showed a few tiny differences between them and the other types.

  Cors was as silent as Endesa and Carnge, while many doubted that they didn’t have a new type of tree. Torka and Cerka seemed to genuinely have none in their borders.

  … Today, Fox had a day off. He looked at his clocks every now and then, from his WID, phone, and the large one installed in his office. Nala was with him, sitting before him to write the new decrees for situations they’ve decided to put the first line of bricks as the foundation to guide the next Senior Minister.

  At this time, having finished reading and then signing another clipped document, Nala placed it aside while their shoes touched each other a little, playful and relaxed. She stood up to grab another of the few Fox had already finished, when the door opened to reveal Esmeralda.

  She took a quick look inside before locking the door, and walked behind Nala, who was selecting the next documents according to importance. Esmeralda lightly touched Nala’s hips before dropping on her knees behind Nala’s bent body.

  Nala blinked her eyes, lashing them open to look at Fox, while Esmeralda grabbed under her black skirt and groped a bit. Fox looked into Nala’s eyes, his attention wholly focused on the world before him. The gray, light blue showering him spoke of it all.

  Fox moved his hands and softly held Nala’s as he watched the shadow of Esmeralda sliding something down Nala’s legs. Nala gulped, very well aware of what Esmeralda was ‘capable’ of. Then, before Esmeralda caused trouble, she stuck her head against Nala’s thigh, ambiguously grasping it before smiling at Fox.

  “You know, the seduction phase puffed into smoke before I noticed… I just can’t stop thinking about doing this to our Nala when there’s space for us.” Then, Esmeralda returned to her previous position, letting Fox see shadows of her fattened and spread tongue disappearing before fleshy sounds were emitted.

  Nala’s heartbeats increased, with her eyelids drooping to almost a close, and her mouth remained a little hung but semi closed. Fox looked at those lips before pecking them. Nala lifted her left hand to gently hold his neck, but she grabbed his hip instead.

  Looking up, Nala didn’t even shiver or restrain her little nostrils’ sounds as she let Fox do his part. Little by little, her mind clouded. Yet, she wasn’t just being used. She was worshiped, and her every intimate body section pampered to prove it’s true.

  Fox’s life has truly become more interesting after Esmeralda’s addition… reintegration into his life, indeed.

  … After talking about life in his bedroom, rushing there with two fantastic women wrapped in thick layers of sheets, with only the Bloods aware, already sending their senses away from them. Fox went to see Miros. It was time.

  He arrived at Miros’s minivan, where he found the boy without his shirt, and a bit sweaty. Fox noncommittally blinked, when Miros complained, throwing his head at him with half a circle motion. “Elega! You said there would be a break! For experimentation, space is needed…”

  “Ah…” Miros looked at Fox with shocked, widened eyes. Fox blinked again before stepping into his minivan and closing the door behind him. Not bothering to, he asked, tilting his head to the side in a gesture. “How is it?”

  “Mn, it’s almost ready. I will be able to show you its front page in… a little more than an hour, boss. It’s too delicate, we’d have to wait until we return to Lymoca.” Miros showed Fox the contents of a tough box with a lock, securing the book, which was almost fully cleaned around its surface.

  “That’s nice,” Fox tilted his head again. He crossed his arms before nodding upwards at the sapphire-headed boy. “Why is your stamina still bad? Am I not training you enough? Maybe you need some more kicks and punches to help you dodge. Anyway, how is it going with her?”

  “It’s… well, she doesn’t want to ‘lose’ me to another person.” Miros frowned, feeling complicated. Fox cocked his head, still with his arms crossed, “You find it difficult to keep up with your greed? Then, you shouldn’t have gone for so much, kid.”

  “It’s not that!” Miros pouted, frowning like a boy. Then, he added, getting back at his boss, “Colmillo definitely doesn’t want that, and I also am not looking for… ‘that’ kind of relationship like yours… b- boss.”

  “…” Fox rapidly rubbed his nose, a bit rough; when he heard those words. He immediately set his gaze on Miros’s face and blinked… once before a long, eerie silence. When Miros felt like his head was about to explode from the tension, Fox relaxed his arms.

  “Have you ever noticed how feminine you look without a shirt? I thought you knew how obvious it was in your first showers with the others.” Said Fox, making Miros frown and jolt his head, feeling a bad premonition. Fox then added, “It seems you haven’t understood ‘it’ well enough.”

  “Wait- boss! No- ah! Spare meee! Not that, please, please- aaaaack! Ptui, bleeew!” Miros only had time to widen his eyes before a blurry Fox smashed him about. From the outside, the minivan bounced nonstop. Miros’s back dented inwards out here and there; about.

  Plank! Bwuoong! Po- konk! Slam! Slam! Swiiish- PAM. Slam! Slam! Slam! Pwabnk~~!…

  …