Chapter 20 - Feelings and resolutions

Jack is awoken within a white tent that looks almost ethereal, the sun light causing an almost holy aura to appear within the tent. A small slither of sunlight can be seen through a small crack causing a yellow tinge to invade the white.

He is currently laying on the floor on a make-shift bed, it's soft and well-made but appears to be almost entirely grass. Jack peers around the room and can see Jessica sitting by his side, she has a bowl by her side filled with water and a cloth. She is currently resting but looking at her weary face, it appears to be the first sleep she has gotten in sometime.

Jack attempts to sit up but pain wreaks havoc within his body, pain coursing through his shoulder area and proceeding down towards his heart. Jack places his hand over his chest area and starts hissing quickly progressing into slight coughs that don't help with the pain.

Jessica can hear this noise from Jack and attempts to shift her body as though she's uncomfortable and been sitting in the same position for far too long, her body slightly shifts and while Jack is watching, she starts to topple over.

Her eyes abruptly open as if she can sense the change in gravity, she reaches down in an attempt to right her body but puts her hand straight into the bowl of water. Upon seeing this, Jack starts to chuckle softly causing Jessica to turn her attention towards him, ignoring the bowl of water and its contents spilling over the ground.

Jessica's face flashes with numerous emotions, happiness, sadness, anger and finally ending up on caring with a hint of annoyance.

"Jack, it seems that you forgot what you promised me before you left." Jessica says calming her emotions. Jack wants to reply to her but remains quiet to allow her to finish.

"You said that you would be fine and that you wouldn't get hurt, do you know how many people rely on you now? Do you know how much… I need you?" Jessica asks, looking like she needs to hold back some tears.

"I…." Jack attempts to speak up but is interrupted as Jessica continues to talk, "It's ok, Drakon told us the whole story, you got really lucky but also unlucky towards the end. You got hit by a goblin's poison arrow, luckily DeeYo was able to explain the primary ingredients to the physician." Jack listens to this and is slightly confused, 'Who is DeeYo?' he wants to ask but keeps quiet.

"Next time…. Please just remember that you many people that rely on you now, if you're not here then I don't know what any of us will do or who will be able to protect us…." Jessica finishes as she grabs a damp cloth to wipe Jack's forehead again. Jack just looks into her eyes and can feel warmth in his heart.

Jack's mind starts to race as he tries to explain himself better, he wants to explain that he didn't plan to cause an army of goblins to follow them, he didn't plan on attacking the nest of ants, he didn't plan on rushing towards the army of goblins. He wants to explain all of that but short of time travel, these things happened and he can only look to the future.

"I… I'll… plan better next time" Jack wanted to say that he's sorry and that he'll try better next time but those are just empty platitudes, he can't promise that he won't do something similar in the future but he can promise to keep all his responsibilities at the front of his mind.

Jessica smiles at Jack, she doesn't want to restrict him from doing what he needs to but Jack needed to be reminded that he has a lot of responsibilities now. She isn't sure what sort of life he had come from previously but he most likely only had to look after only himself. Jessica doesn't want to badger on too much about this as she knows Drakon has a massive and intense training regime he will need to go through as soon as he's able to.

"I'm thinking about taking a trip" Jessica just randomly says, Jack's mind starts to whir, he knows that saying this often isn't a good sign as his heart starts to beat faster thinking about Jessica leaving, he looks towards her with a pitiful expression.

Jessica can see this expression and holds his hand but he's tightly gripping her hand as though he doesn't ever want to let go of it. Jessica as if sensing his mood brings her face closer to his, she lightly brushes his hair and with an increasingly blushed face, nods her head to herself and goes in for a kiss.

This is the first kiss she has given to someone in her life, her heart is racing and feels like it'll come out her throat before too long. Their kiss lasts a moment but doesn't stop, Jessica doesn't pull away as their passions get more inflamed and ignited.

Jack starts to feel more excited, he more passionately kisses her, slowly feeling his way into her mouth with his tongue. Jessica has no idea what's going on so she doesn't respond and just lets Jack do as he wants but she can feel her body heating up.

Jack's hand starts to wander around her body, she's currently leaning over him while he is lying down on the ground. He places his hand at her hip as his hand slowly works its way up and down her back, Jack brings up his other hand to her front but just as he grabs her breast, she can feel the new sensation and abruptly pulls away from Jack.

Jessica isn't sure what was going on but she has a flushed face, Jack is hissing on the ground in pain as she used his injured shoulder as support to back away from the kiss and his naughty hand. He attempts to not move as he has several areas of pain on his body, several where he was injured and a few more from the sudden interruption.

Jessica returns to her sitting position, her face fully flushed as she licks her lips. Jack watches her tongue intently, gulping his saliva almost audibly. Jessica doesn't know what overcame her as she tries to remember the feelings as she shifts in her seated position as though it's strangely uncomfortable somewhere.

Jack isn't sure what to say so he asks her, "Where do you plan on going?".

Jessica is brought back into the moment as her face returns to a normal pigment. Her face flashes with a look of depression and melancholy, "I want to go back to my village, since if I'm going to be living here from now on, I want to see a lot of Dragon Peach groves all over the place and…." Jessica has a slightly smile on her face as she remembers the Dragon Peach trees but returns to the depressed look by the end of her sentence.

"I want to introduce you to my parents... and say goodbye." Jessica finishes her sentence. Her parents have been dead for quite some time and she left in a rush previously unable to bring any closure.

Jack's mood has now deflated rapidly, he wants to say some comforting words to Jessica but is unable to bring any out that won't sound empty, "I'd love to" he responds and attempts to grab Jessica to bring her into a hug but she swiftly dodges his grab.

"This lady, while she doesn't object to doing that sort of thing yet, she needs to keep her purity for now you dirty boy… if you need that sort of stuff, I'll allow you some concubines as your wife." Jessica says with a slight smirk on her face.

Jack looks towards her with narrowed eyes, his body starts to exude a regal aura as his voice almost booms out in majestic might, causing anyone close by to feel some pressure on their bodies as though a true king is in their presence, "This king shall make you his wife when he decides, he shall take as many wives as he wants and he shall not require your permission to take concubines".

The imposing manner quickly dissipating as he finishes his sentence and spits up slightly black blood, full of poisonous substances. Jessica wants to retort to his line but upon seeing him spitting up some blood, she sighs while using the damp cloth to wipe up the blood as she calls out to the Physician.

Three people step into the tent, one physician, one other person Jack hasn't seen before and Drakon causing the white tent to lose its aethereal qualities. Two of the men start to do their work on Jack, evidently the man that he doesn't know is the physician's helper, Drakon is just standing at the side of the tent watching everything.

Jessica gets out of the way while Jack has his bandages changed, he's hoping that they don't take off the blanket covering him as he has had a rather natural reaction to what he was doing with Jessica. Luckily, they don't and finish up rather quickly and leave the tent with a jar filled with various herbs, Jessica mixes up a drink with these herbs and proceeds to make Jack drink the glass of water.

He struggles to drink it down; it's disgusting and tastes like dirt mixed with bitter tasting leaves. Finishing the drink with a cough, he finally feels like he can relax. He asks Jessica and Drakon what has been going on within the village while he was asleep, if the goblins arrived safely.

Drakon speaks up without moving from his spot off to the side, "The goblins arrived safely, we lost 3 of them and we lost 4 wolves, 3 of our ones and just 1 of the goblin rider wolves. Not a bad result considering the shitty situation" he states his honest opinion. Jack nods his head; the result is truly not too bad.

"You need to thank Fenrir for protecting them so well, it caused a bloody massacre, he has slept for the past three days and looks like he won't be waking up anytime soon." Drakon explains adding on; "It's causing a real headache with all the wolves, they won't listen to anyone but Fenrir, they keep trying to hunt down and eat goblins"

Jack listens to this, "Are we able to cage the wolves up until they can be tamed?" he asks thinking he has a solution.

Drakon bitterly smiles, he then explains what they have tried to do; They have tried to tie up the wolves but they don't have any rope strong enough to restrain them. They have tried to cage the wolves into an area but they don't have enough logs to create a large enough area. Luckily the wolves are behaving themselves around the humans but soon they'll have more goblins as they place down the goblin village creation stone, nor can they leave the goblins to do jobs without people to guard them.

Jack asks Drakon if he has any ideas, Drakon doesn't respond because the tent opens up again and three more people walk in. It's Hilda and Bane, the civil minsters and a new person. Jack was passed out for roughly 3 days so there are 8 new villagers that have spawned, obviously the new people are some of these new spawns.

"Your majesty, about this problem we have thought up a solution." Hilda says while kneeling and lower her head towards Jack. He smiles because he feels like a ruler when people do this, it's a new feeling to him but he enjoys it immensely.

"Sire, we would like to set up trade routes with the neighboring villages and towns to increase our supplies and also look to recruiting new members for the village as we sorely lack in basic manpower. We need to start producing our own tools and raw resources." Bane explains the position Hilda and him have worked out. Jack nods his head at this as though he agrees, while he turns his eyes to the person who hasn't spoken.

"Lord, this humble servant is named Albert, I have just recently come to this village and specialize in commerce, I believe that there is massive protentional within this region to develop quickly. I would first like to sell some of our spiritual herbs and raise funds so that we can start importing a lot of required goods." The unknown person starts to speak, he is an average height somewhat stocky man, he is currently wearing some coarse clothing that looks quite bad but if he were to wear robes, he would look like a high-class merchant.

First, they need to set up a secure route to a town as a primary local trading hub before they iron out problems with teleportation to a system city, they need to figure out what kind of local goods would be well received in the market place and what they can produce. They need to trade for some normal horses as the ones they have right now stand out far too much.

Jack finishes speaking up with Albert and gives instructions to Hilda and Bane to accommodate this plan to the best of their abilities. The three of them leave the room while the only ones left now are Jessica, Drakon and Jack.

Jack takes a deep breath and looks to Drakon, "Come forward" attempting to put on regal airs again. Drakon steps forward and can feel a slight pressure on his body but it doesn't affect him in the slightest.

"I know we have a lot to discuss and I agree that we do but, you are to serve this village and empire to the best of your abilities regardless of the decisions I make, it doesn't matter if you agree with them or disagree, it doesn't matter if you want to test me. " Jack closes his eyes and continues to speak, "You need to step up to your responsibilities as a General as much as I need to step up to my responsibilities as a king."

Drakon nods his head and replies, "I'll admit that I was trying to test you and you did well but when I was trying to lead two enemies to mutually clash, it led to this result. In the future, I will prioritize your safety over the greater plan. "

"It's not really about my safety, it's about knowing my limits. I am human, I have barely trained and my flesh is still soft. Maybe you forgot that we're not all part dragon. " Jack finishes it light heartedly.

The two of them start to discuss the ants, it's a nest that is rather valuable as it produces a lot of natural resources. The carapace of the ants can be used in forging armor and possibly weaponry, there might even be something special within the hill causing the ants to stay on it. The fact they drop money too is a bonus as so far, there has been 0 income from anything they've previously killed.

They finish talking with a plan to send out squads of soldiers to train within the areas of ants while they slowly clear and transform the hill into an area where they can farm out resources. They talk a few more moments about what to do with the goblins but Jack doesn't care, he just instructs Hilda & Bane to do as they see fit with them and he will setup a goblin village and let them spawn once more once he has healed.

Drakon leaves the tent, leaving only Jack and Jessica within the tent. Jack looks at Jessica who is starting to blush from the attention, "When do you want to leave?" he asks.

"When you get better…" she responds and brings out the flute, she needs a distraction so this dirty boy wont get any funny ideas so she softly plays a melodic tune, the soft notes slowly lulling Jack into a slumber upon which Jessica stops playing and nestles into his side, resting her head on his unhurt shoulder as the day slips by them.