Limits

I thought about the title that I could use for my notes but no appropriate ideas arrived. I wanted something fancy as well, like Great Scriptures of Evil Medic or Slash of the Thousand Arms. Yet nothing like that came to my mind. I thought 'Simplicity is also cool when used appropriately, why not give it a simple name then?'.

I thought about it some more and then came up with the title for my own book. "I shall call this Beast Scriptures!". Maybe it wasn't the best name but I liked the sound of it. I put away the Beast Scriptures and called for Shelly. "Shelly!, let's go hunt something for our dinner". Shelly arrived immediately once it heard we were going to hunt food.

Inside the forest, I sat there roasting the wolf meat that we hunted. I asked Shelly "So, how do you like our little holiday so far?" to which Shelly showed a satisfied expression and nodded its head couple of times in order to express satisfaction. We now spent more time together but also interacted more. Besides food, Shelly cared a lot about me. It wouldn't follow me otherwise.

After the dinner we went back to the cliff where I would study the Cliff Walkers. I wanted to learn more about their behaviour and perhaps its weaknesses as well as any predators that could potentially threaten them. We stayed there for a few days resting, eating whatever we hunted and also I was studying the Cliff Walkers.

After those few days of examining their lifestyles and behaviours, I learned that these plants didn't have any predators, they could simply populate however they wanted but there was a problem. The Cliff Walkers had very difficult requirements in order to breed, even the Spiky Mouse didn't have it so bad.

In order for the Cliff Walkers to breed, they had to move next to each other but at the same time they would have to share the same place on the cliff. These plants could walk but it took a lot of energy it seemed and sharing a spot with another plant would halve the resources at that place. There was even worse condition for the Cliff Walkers to breed. The plants had to extract some kind of fluid, that was inside the fruit at the top of the Cliff Walker. Both plants had to do it. It seemed that this process also took a lot of energy. I was lucky enough to witness the breeding process and only due to that, I was able to extrapolate some things. When I first started noting their behaviour and studying them. I always wondered why the population is so small. Now I had my answer.

The Cliff Walkers had to find a cliff section which was very rich in resources, this would allow them to breed but also stay alive. I wanted to see how a new Cliff Walker sprouts and grows up but I didn't know how long it would take for that to happen. We left after those few days to continue our journey.

Traveling alongside the cliff was quite boring, I came up with an idea to play a game while we traveled. We were supposed to enjoy ourselves as well. I explained the game and rules to Shelly "The main objective of the game is for you or me to repeat the same thing that the other one does. For example. If I scratch my nose, you have to do the same. If you can't repeat the same thing then you lose and you will have to get food as punishment, if I lose the same applies. We each take a turn, so when I show you something to repeat and you do it, then you show me what to repeat. Like this until we have a winner and loser. So what do you say, are we playing?".

Shelly was thinking about it and drew something on the ground. It showed that Shelly would agree under one condition, it will start first. I agreed to that and we started our new game. Shelly first walked forward a bit then jumped a bit. When Shelly was done, it turned towards me and waited for me to repeat.

I took couple of steps forward and jumped a bit then looked at Shelly but Shelly shook its head. I was baffled 'Didn't I repeat the same thing?' I thought while Shelly drew something on the ground. After a while, I realised what it was that made Shelly shake its head. I walked on 2 legs while Shelly walked on 4. In order to repeat what Shelly did, I would have to use my arms as well.

I said "Well played Shelly, you've won this round. I will go and get us some food". Shelly was quite smug about that win but it probably realised that the same trick wouldn't work anymore. I could even use that trick to take advantage of Shelly instead. If I simply walked couple of steps on both my feet, Shelly would have to repeat that as well.

I went into the forest alone in order to hunt something for our dinner. These parts of Great Forest were less populated than the ones we lived in before. It was now more common thing to find a group of 3-7 animals, instead of 20+ animals in a pack. I soon found my target, boars. They numbered in 5 so it would be very easy to hunt them. I simply threw my daggers and killed all of them. After butchering the boars, I returned to the place where Shelly waited.

I said "Let's have some food first" to which Shelly nodded in agreement. I made fire to roast some meat on while cutting the meat into smaller sizes. This would make the roasted meat cook faster and more thoroughly. After our dinner, it was time for payback. I said to Shelly "Ok let's play again!" but Shelly shook its head and drew something on the ground again. After a while I figured out what Shelly meant.

There was no point in playing because we already ate and so it would be better to play this game only when we were about to eat something, this would make it more interesting. I kind of agreed with that but at the same time, I wanted to get back at Shelly. I said "Alright, we will play this game before we want to have some food, this way we will decide who goes to hunt". This time Shelly nodded its head but I was left thinking 'What is Shelly really up to'. Shelly became more crafty the more experience it had but at the same time behaved the same way at most times.

I brushed it off and said "Let us continue the journey, I still can't see the end of that cliff". We then moved further south, trying to find any means of going down the cliff.