Chapter 101: Risk
Vorin flew back to Jimmy an hour after he prevented what could’ve easily been an eleven crow massacre.
This was the most responsible, even if not influential he had ever felt within the community, and he was not a fan. He did not like how stressful it was to try and keep crows alive.
"Jimmy made it look so easy," He muttered, "I’m a moron. I stressed him out for no reason. All of us did."
It took him that long to fly back to his brother, because he had to chase after, and have a talk with White Balde, after the initial face-off with Gundor.
With lower-stakes at play, he managed to talk some sense into the white-feathered leader. It wasn’t easy, but whenever the debate got one-sided, he circled back to the fact that Gundor didn’t kill him, even though he could’ve.
White Blade did not like the fact that he was embarrassed by a stranger. His ego was hurt.
For that matter, they settled with a simple agreement.
Scouts were to stalk Gundor from a distance, just to make sure that he wasn’t doing anything that would threaten the crow community.
Vorin believed that this was unnecessary, but he had to agree to the counter-offer. This was the only solution that would prevent unnecessary deaths.
It was one burden off of his mind.
When he made it back to Jimmy’s favourite tree, he was exhausted, and he was silently hoping that his brother had saved some gems on his behalf.
"I took care of it," Was the first thing Vorin said, "White Blade won’t bother your friend."
"He called me his friend?" He asked, "That’s nice."
Much to Vorin’s advantage, it would appear that no one had touched the cores yet. Even though an hour had passed, they were all still just staring at them.
There was a great deal of risk involved in absorbing them, and this was why the chest was as full as he left it an hour ago.
"Are you going to absorb any of the cores?" Vorin asked.
"I really want to," He answered, "But this shit can be very random. These cores are over five-hundred years old. Who knows what fuckass creature they’re from? Absorbing them could really mess us up, or it could give us something cool."
Vorin was glad that his brother wanted to share the cores. He was appreciative, so he tried to honor his brother’s generosity by remaining quiet.
He tried to be quiet, at least, but something didn’t sit right with him.
"Five hundred years... that’s odd." Vorin repeated, "Wait... that big crow helped you get these cores, didn’t he, Jimmy?"
"It doesn’t matter," He said.
Vorin could not sit still, and so, he countered, "But it does matter. Look, I’m not mad that you didn’t invite me on whatever crazy trip you took. I don’t care. But, if he gave these cores to you, it also means that he can teach us something about the cores. We wouldn’t have to risk anything if we knew which cores we’re supposed to avoid."
"Didn’t you just meet with the guy yourself?" Zoey interrupted, "Do you really think it would be a good idea to bother him with this? Jimmy told me a little bit about him, and I’m sure he’d bury us alive if we gave him a good reason to."
As the two of them rattled on about Gundor, Jimmy focused on the cores. He never intended to ask anyone for help, because he went through such troubles when he asked Gundor earlier on, and so he tried to figure out more information about the cores himself.
It was why he hadn’t stopped staring at them for a solid hour, and at last, he saw a pattern.
The colorful cores consisted of four main colors. Gray, blue, red, and black.
Even though he couldn’t see the bottom of the chest, he guessed that forty of the cores consisted of those four main colours.
Ten each, which was the most promising part of the pattern. Gundor had only gathered ten cores per beast, and that had to mean something.
The rest of the ten cores amongst the bundle of fifty, were loners. They were of various other colours, and he considered them to be the most dangerous, because mathematically, they could be a lot more unpredictable, or at the very least, rare.
"Can’t touch those," He muttered.
Zoey and Vorin heard him speak to himself, and almost instantly, they knew well enough to stop arguing with one another. They stopped talking about Gundor, and actually started nurturing a bit of trust towards his competence.
"Why can’t we touch those?" Vorin asked, "Which ones do you mean?"
"It would take too long to explain, but... look at those ones." He pointed at a gray core, "They look familiar, don’t they?"
"No," Zoey said.
"They look like Razor Squirrel cores, just bigger," Vorin chimed in.
If it wasn’t for the fact that they feared the consequences, they’d bash their claw in the chest and grab a couple of cores.
The discovery that Jimmy made, got them all the more anxious. The gray cores looked familiar, but they were absolutely frustrated because they weren’t exact copies of actual Razor Squirrel cores.
"Who wants to risk it?" He asked, "I think that squirrels were bigger five hundred years ago. It makes sense that their cores were bigger as well, so, I don’t think it’s too risky to grab one of them."
"I don’t really care for squirrel cores," Zoey added, "I can protect myself just fine."
"I’ll risk it," Vorin volunteered, "I don’t like how nervous these cores are making me."
Shortly after, Vorin carefully slid his dagger in the chest, and lifted up one of the gray cores out. Touching the cores would immediately trigger the event where they’d be absorbed, and so he had to make sure not to physically touch any of the other cores in the chest, as absorbing several by mistake was obviously riskier than absorbing one of them.
"Here goes nothing," Vorin stepped on the dreaded core.