Chapter 12

More than a week had passed and Robin had kept himself busy with Petunia's and Rick's lessons. Beside's tormenting poor Vance, there was not much else to do so he took great pleasure in learning new things. This attitude coupled with his adult-level intellect made his two teachers quite satisfied.

Still, he did not receive special treatment regardless of their feelings. Petunia answered his questions on occasion, but her indifferent and cold attitude remained the same.

Rick, on the other hand, was much more generous in handing out praise. Unfortunately, he was very careful about what he thought Robin. The little Faunus proved a little bit too interested in dangerous bits of knowledge.

For example, the current conversation between them went like this…

"...and after that, you grind the dry liver and you're left with the final product. Once this enters the bloodstream it will paralyze small animals and weaken bigger ones." Said Rick, finishing up his lecture on how to make Yiaya's special chemical agent.

It was generally used as an anesthetic or to coat arrow tips, making hunting a lot easier. It was a pain and a half to make, requiring more than a few steps and days of labor. Of course, this was considering the fact that the tribe did not have modern means and just relied on rudimentary techniques.

For example, the second to last step required the liver of a Bee Beetle to be completely dried. Something like that would take a few hours at most while using an oven. Unfortunately, the nomadic Yiaya did not carry something so cumbersome around.

Instead, they strung up the livers and placed them in the sun, waiting for the natural heat and wind to do the job. They could not even lay them out on a rock since those things got incredibly hot in the desert and frying the organ would mess up the whole chemical process.

"So how much of it would be fatal to a human?" Robin curiously asked

"What?"

"I mean if the paralysis is potent enough the heart will stop beating. How much do you reckon you need for that to happen?" Robin continued unabated by the fact that Rick's eyebrows had shot into his hairline.

"That's...an oddly specific thing to ask." He slowly said.

"Also, could you combine it with other drugs? Say, for example, an extremely concentrated form of cactus juice? If you could paralyze and induce hallucinations in the target at the same time wouldn't that place it in an extremely vulnerable state?"

"You're like, five years old, right?

"I believe so. Why?"

"Why does a five-year-old talk like a serial killer? The last time you did this I had nightmares for days."

Regardless of what Robin thought, it was certainly scary that such a cute kid could speak terrifying things so casually. As an unfortunate consequence of that, Rick was more and more reluctant to add fuel to his student's morbid imagination.

Robin had no way of knowing this, but Rick deliberately skipped over topics and things that the little Faunus might use to harm other people.

Of course, Robin was not a psychopath. His interest in this kind of information stemmed from two things. First was the novelty of a new world and the boredom that clung closely to life in the tribe. At this point, learning and entertainment hung together in his perspective.

Besides this aspect, Robin did not forget how precarious life is at the moment. Sure, the Yiayas did a great job at maintaining the image of peace and tranquility, but only the children would be fooled by it. All the adults knew that living in the desert meant having a sword always strung above your head.

"Also, I've been meaning to ask you this, but what's up with your words?" Rick asked

"My words?"

"You don't speak like a kid at all, heck some of the things you say even I didn't know about. No offense to Petunia, but she isn't the type to take you aside and teach you new words. So?"

Robin was a bit irritated at Rick's interrogation. The first few days he came here he tried to imitate the behavior of a normal child, but that failed miserably. There was no way in hell he could live like that and, even if he tried, some slip-ups were bound to happen.

In the end, he just gave up all the pretense and acted as he wanted. People found him very strange, without a doubt, but the Yiaya couldn't really be bothered to care. So what if he acts like that? It's not detrimental to the tribe so it doesn't matter.

Robin could tell that even Rick's question came from curiosity rather than scrutiny. So he did what he always did when people took notice of his strange behavior. He shrugged and said that he's a pretty smart boy.

"Whatever. In any case, we'll put the rest of this lesson on hold for now and talk about something other than these dangerous things." Rick continued to say.

"What? Why? It was really interesting."

"Yeah, that's kinda the problem" Rick continued, blatantly ignoring the confusion on Robin's face.

Rick's lesson took an abrupt turn and for the rest of the evening, Robin had the questionable benefit of learning about what type of nest locations Vacuo's predominant bird species preferred.

Useful if you were looking for food in the desert, less so if climbing giant palm trees was not exactly your idea of a good time.

By nightfall, Rick said his goodbyes while Robin did the same with a wry smile on his face. Knowledge was good, fantastic even, but why did he have to talk about birds all of a sudden?

Robin shook his head, maybe it wasn't all bad. Hell, now he can be on the lookout for those nests. Some eggs and meat would do wonders for his frail body. He wasn't exactly malnourished, but Robin firmly believed a child shouldn't be able to see his ribs, especially since he wanted a strong and healthy body in the future.

This world was too dangerous for anything less after all.

---------------------

If you wish to support this story, read ahead and more please visit:

--->patre on.com/spicyfiction