I have no interest in rocks!

Liam once again woke before anyone else under the tree. The fluffy black pillow was there again. It was just too comfortable to snuggle right next to it. He procrastinated for a while beside the soft fluff then an hour passed before he got up and start his chores.

"You are such a cute little one," he said even as he acknowledged that this one, was nothing but small. "I wish I'd know why you come to me," he said to himself and left to look at the meat he had left on the stones.

The sky was cloudy today and he was thinking that the meat was still in the same state but as he got near enough to check, he let out a deep breath.

"I thought I told you not to pamper me," he said to the Avatar that was nearby. He knew they were there, it's just that it wasn't the one who had dried his meat. "I am thankful, but this is just ... I don't even know how to put this. Sigh." he rubbed his face for a moment before continuing. "Fine. It's already done and I won't reject it but please, let me have at least some problems, I won't get to grow otherwise, and then I might not be ready for the next stage. Just please, let me fail sometimes," he said and started to collect and put away the dried meat. There was a lot of it and he was guessing he might need some of it today.

After all, he needed to find something and he wasn't even sure where to start looking for it.

He was stubborn enough not to ask the Avatars where he could find some or if they'd bring him some. That was just ridiculous to him.

After finishing he put some of it inside his bag and went back to the sleeping fluff. He had thought that it might have slipped away, like last time. But it looked to be still here, sleeping soundly. He looked up at Nio and saw him sleeping as well. He approached the black fluffy pillow.

"Hey," he said lowering his voice, "I brought you something to eat. It probably won't fill your stomach but this is all I can give you at the moment." he put down two legs of the beast he had smoked last night. He suspected them to still be raw for him so he didn't mind giving it all to the fluffy pillow. "I'll be going on a journey today, wanna join me later?" he asked but didn't get an answer. "Since you won't answer, I'll wait for Nio to wake up and ask him if he knows where to get some," he said and sat down near its head to cuddle it.

She had been awake for some time now and was listening to the boy's words. The sound of them was magical to her. She didn't understand what he was saying but she so badly wished to know what the sounds coming from his mouth meant. She too wanted to speak to him, just like the prickly one. She just didn't know how to start.

She had smelled the meat and her stomach nearly grumbled in protest.

Then the boy did something wonderful, distracting her stomach. He had sat down near her face and started to pet her. She liked the feeling so much that yet again, she started to purr within seconds.

Last time she had been startled and didn't know what this was, but this time she wasn't afraid of the weird bubbling feeling inside her. She wanted more of that feeling and so she stayed like this with the boy, until the prickly one woke up.

She hadn't detected it last night but this time she noticed when the prickly one woke. She had stopped purring in that instant and was wondering why she hadn't noticed it last night. The prickly one had let her come near. She realized this but wondered why he had done this?

"Please don't disappear," the boy beside her said but she couldn't understand. The boy then got up and looked at the prickly one on top of that tree.

"Good day to you, what was it that you dreamt of?"

"Something weird. It's all your fault!" he said accusingly.

A frown formed on Liam's face. "How is it my fault?"

"I never had dreams like that before you appeared!" he still accused him and was grumpy as he was looking at the fluff near Liam. "So, it didn't leave," he said staring daggers at it.

She was feeling threatened and wanted to leave at that moment, but felt like someone was holding on to her. Then she noticed that the boy was still holding on to some of her furs. She could still pull herself free and leave but as she looked at the boy holding her fur gently. There was a gentle smile on his face, directed at her. After noticing that, her tension vanished. Well, not exactly vanished but decreased by a large margin. She didn't want to leave the boy's side. If she could she would stay by the boy's side forever.

As she thought of that, she felt confused again. Why was she feeling like this?

Liam could feel the tension rise between them but didn't do much. He just looked at the black fluffy thing and smiled gently, seeing the wide eyes of that creature for the first time. They looked marvelous. Emerald green, specked with golden dust. One could sink in the depth of them and wouldn't ever want to rise from it.

"It didn't, so what are you gonna do now? Don't say you want to eat it," Liam said with a look of disgust present on his face.

"No! Those things would be horrible to swallow, ugh!" the same disgust present in his voice.

"Okay, but can it stay with me? At least until I can figure out what it wants."

Nio started at the Black Menace for a minute until he said. "There is no need to figure out what it wants. I'm fine with her staying," he stated and suddenly wanted to know something, "By the way, how long are you staying?"

"I don't know yet, but ... " he mulled things over, "I think I should be done with my preparations in about a week," he stated with a confident voice.

"Hey, do you know where I could find salt?"

"What is that?"

"Umm, let me think, no... this won't work," he mumbled and then looked like he figured something out. "Have you seen creatures who usually eat plants, lick a rock somewhere?"

"What the hell, I have no interest in rocks!" he spat out as if he had swallowed something nasty, then he thought for a moment, "Down the stream, about ten kilometers. They stop to drink water, and sometimes they do lick something on the ground there. I like to hunt in that region. It's easy food!" he said and turned his head away from him, "Now let me sleep some more," he grumbled and Liam could hear faked calm breathing. He chuckled at that and took off into the forest.

A moment later he discovered that the Black Menace was beside him.

"Ohh! I'm sorry, I forgot," he petted the fluffy thing and wondered, "Do you have a name?" he asked and looked at those intelligent eyes.

It looked at him curiously. Then he did something he hadn't done in a while. He used simplified signs to indicate himself and voiced out his name. He looked at the black fluff in front of him all this time, just to catch if it could understand what he was saying.

The look in her eyes didn't change and somehow, he felt disappointed.

He had hoped that the feline could understand him. She wasn't acting purely on her instincts. He petted her some more, maybe to see if she could make some sort of noise that he could use to figure out how to talk to her. But nothing of the kind comes out.