Chapter 154
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Once he found that out he was ready to sprint through the portal and explore the world. However, he didn't want to just disappear on everyone right away. Not to mention he wanted to spend some time with both Sarah and Phoebe before he leaves, he might not return for a while.
Taking in a deep breathe Lachlan grabbed hold of Anne and brought her back to her laboratory slowly. He took it rather easy; he could see Sophie and Sarah playing with each other in front of the huts. Maddie was nearby, resting in the shade as she kept an eye on the two.
When he landed Maddie jumped in fright, she began hyperventilating and looking up she relaxed slightly at the sight of Lachlan. She wasn't expecting anyone else to be nearby as she thought they all went down to the city.
"What's up Lachlan? Why aren't you with the others?" Maddie asked curiously. She could see that Lachlan was staring at Sarah, a bright, warming smile was plastered across his face.
Turning his attention to Maddie Lachlan answered her questions. "Nothing much, I was just doing a bit of experimentation with the help of Anne. As of right now, I'm thinking of spending some time with Sarah and Phoebe."
"So does that mean you are going to take Sarah down to the city?" Maddie asked, thinking Lachlan was slightly irresponsible. "You do remember that this run-down city is the headquarters of criminal organisations right? It certainly isn't a place you bring a child."
"Don't worry I know, and I'm not going to stay in the city but instead go visit the national parks and lakes to relax. I'll probably try and get Pedro or Elena to whip up a quick meal for us to eat for lunch," Lachlan explained his plan. He had looked at the maps Flynn had bought at Houston, and the national parks were surprisingly low on the ranking. It seems the dangers from the open waters deterred most land beasts away.
'Alright, have fun. I'll probably bring Sophie to the orphanage and have her socialise with the others," Maddie said as she stood up, stretching her muscles and cracking her knuckles.
Walking over to Sophie she picked her up and threw her into the air before catching Sophie and bringing her into her arms. "Alright Sophie, it's time to go and hang out with the other children. Lachlan's going to spend some quality time with Sarah."
"Okay mummy." Sophie held on tight as she snuggled her head into Maddie's arms. Maddie took off into the skies, heading towards the orphanage, slowly disappearing over the mountain range.
Sarah came running over to Lachlan and slammed in his legs. She placed her feet on Lachlan's as she wrapped her arms around Lachlan's leg. "Walk Lachlan walk."
Lachlan smiled brightly as he took very small legs, carrying Sarah forward with his legs. She began laughing loudly as they moved, she smiled brightly as her grip on Lachlan's legs tightened. "Lachlan, are you taking me down to the city with Phoebe?"
"Yes I am; then we're going to go sightseeing in the national wildlife parks. You don't have to worry, there's not much danger there and any of the dangers there can be easily beaten by your big brother now can't they?" Lachlan leaned over and picked Sarah up, placing her on his shoulders.
"No, they can't!" Sarah shouted as she held up her hands. Lachlan held onto Sarah's legs firmly to make sure she doesn't fall off. Taking off they flew straight up before flying off the island, heading towards the outskirts of the city.
Lachlan could see the group, just leaving the Explorer's Guild building. The building looked rather old like it was made in the 80s with thick stone slabs. The roof looked brand new, likely been replaced by something more solid to protect the ones working in the building.
Landing on the ground by the building Lachlan walked up to the group. They were busy talking to each other and discussing how they were going to build their branches here.
"We should have it by the Explorer's Guild, that way, whenever someone brings back a kill we could directly buy it from the guild," Flynn suggested. Everyone in the group nodded and looked around at the nearby buildings. Most of which were normal houses.
"What about there?" Zoe was pointing towards an open plot of land roughly 20 metres wide and 30 metres long, it was most likely going to used to build a house but the evolution came before anything could come into fruition. "There's enough room for both businesses."
"Now we have the location, what about the materials used for building?" Marie asked. "Although we could see steel, there aren't many steel manufacturers nor are they any close. As for food and stone, if the walls aren't thick enough the beasts could easily tear through them like it's nothing."
"What if we build it underground?" Simon suggested. "You know, similar to what the whole city of Houston is doing. Should we build a whole system underground that connects to places with the largest gatherings of people, it could be used as both shelter and a safe path straight to the food."
"That's a great idea!" Flynn said loudly. The whole group agreed as it solved both problems. If they make the underground system low enough into the ground then it's almost already impenetrable, not to mention safe.
As the group were discussing Phoebe walked over to Lachlan, she raised an eyebrow at the sight of Sarah on Lachlan's shoulders. Normally, whenever they visited a place the main group would go down and scout things out before Lachlan or Chloe would even consider bringing down the children.
Seeing her frown Lachlan walked up and explained himself. "I'm planning on making my way into the other world, I've already sorted things out with Anne who now also has control over the origin gravity stone. So, with all things considered I wanted to make the most of the time I have and spend it with my two favourite people."
"Alright, so what do you have planned?" Phoebe asked as she placed her hands on her hips. "As you can see there aren't exactly many things to do here, it's basically a ghost town."
"There are a few national wildlife parks, all low in danger ranking. How about we go there and have a picnic or something along those lines?" Lachlan asked. "None of us has done anything like that in over two years, I think it'll be fun and relaxing."
"Alright, but instead, let's do it like a camping trip. Startup a wood fire, one of us can go get some meat and we barbeque it," Phoebe suggested her own idea. "Although it may not seem like it; I was pretty big into camping trips back before the Earth evolved."
"Nah, I could surprisingly see that actually," Lachlan said as he nodded, slightly puckering his lips, lowering his eyebrows. "As for me, I've never gone camping before the world evolved, used to spend most of my time at home or mucking around with friends around the streets."
"I could see that." Phoebe nodded with a smile and likely chuckled. "Now, let's get going; since we only have roughly half the day left to do this."
Nodding Lachlan held onto Sarah firmly as both he and Phoebe took off into the air. The group didn't mind at all, they didn't need either Lachlan's or Phoebe's assistance in anything they were currently doing.
Lachlan decided against going to a majority of the wildlife parks near New Orleans, most of them were swamps that were likely filled to the brim with crocodiles. Something Chloe would probably very much enjoy.
Instead, they were flying a bit away to get to Kisatchie National Forest. Although Lachlan wasn't sure, he hoped it had the perfect setting for this picnic. He wanted a wide, open area just by the streams. Surrounded by large trees, the leaves, used for shade.
That's what he wanted, and fortunately, that's exactly what he managed to go.
When they got there they hovered above for a little while, searching for a spot to head down to. That's when Lachlan found the spot he was dreaming of; although the trees were much larger, there was still a decent amount of space by the stream to set up the fire.
Going down they landed on the ground and summoned their beasts, Phoebe let Faith stay in the stream as it wasn't able to fit on the ground. The rest of the tames relaxed with them as Phoebe was setting up the wood.
Once she was done she glared at Lachlan and raised her eyebrows. "Come on, you don't expect me to start the fire as well, especially when there's someone that can do it so easily."
Lachlan smiled and chuckled as he raised a hand. A small ball of fire gentle floated from his hand onto the wood, setting it alight. Sarah immediately ran up to the fire and held out her hands, feeling the warmth it emitted from itself.
"Lachlan, come over here and do what I'm doing, it feels so nice," Sarah said as she turned her head towards Lachlan. Her bright eyes filled with joy as her whole body was warming up by the fire.
Walking over Lachlan felt the fire. The warmth it radiated was something he hadn't felt in a while, it was almost scorching hot but it felt nice as well. Although they had the wind stones they didn't give off the same feeling, as the fire didn't blast them with hot air.
Lachlan squatted right behind Sarah and held his arms out above her head. Spreading open his hands he moved his fingers, wriggling them around. Lachlan realised how much their group was adapted to the cold weather, as sometimes, they didn't bother to set up a campfire during the days that they were sleeping on the beach.
Phoebe came over to Lachlan and squatted down, leaning over she rest her head on Lachlan's shoulders. "How about you get one of the birds to go and get something for all of us to eat? Tell them to make sure it's a large beast."
'You heard her, who's up for it?' Lachlan asked all his beasts telepathically. All of them were currently behind him, they were doing nothing but staring around at the forest and stream.
'I'll do it father' Disaster was surprisingly the first to volunteer for the job, he seemed rather excited as well. 'I'll make sure to bring back something none of us will be able to finish eating.'
Taking off Disaster nearly blew out the fire, fortunately, Lachlan made sure to take control over the fire to stop that. The fire continued to blaze onwards, as it was burning through the small sticks that Phoebe had set up.
Lachlan stood up abruptly, surprising Phoebe who was resting her head on him. He walked over to the side where one of the surrounding trees were and looked up at the branches. Bending his knees he shot up, swiftly reaching the branch without a problem.
The branch was dark brown, it was as thick as the average person's thigh. Placing his hand on it Lachlan used his control over the wind and blasted out a blade. Slicing the branch from its tree.
Falling down Lachlan fell down with it, slightly slower than it as well. It slammed into the ground, creating a loud thumping sound as it snapped in half from the impact. Lachlan used precise wind control to cut the branch into much smaller pieces, perfect size for the wood fire.
He brought a piece over and tossed it on before returning to his original position. Phoebe sighed before resting her head on Lachlan's shoulders again, she wrapped one arm around Lachlan's neck and held out the other to the fire.
They spent their time in that position before Disaster came back with his kill. It was a large boar, just ever so slightly smaller than the intelligent beast Simon had killed.
Aaron walked up to it and sliced it into individual parts, the beasts got the largest chunks as they needed it while Lachlan, Phoebe, and Sarah got pieces that weighed roughly 2 - 3 kilos.
Lachlan made a thin but strong stuck out of one of the wooden pieces, he started cutting up the meat with slow blades of wind and sticking it onto the stick. He was creating a kebab.
Phoebe and Sarah stared at Lachlan with wide eyes, or more specifically, they were staring at the kebab in his hands.
Lachlan sighed before creating a few more sticks, he swiftly cut off their pieces of meat, turning them into kebabs before placing them around the fire. They then waited and every so often Lachlan for turn the side facing the fire.
The three began to talk about life and everything going on. Sarah had decided that her future goal was to make a bunch of friends and create a group similar to Lachlan's and Phoebe's.
The two laughed as told Sarah that is was a great idea, but then Lachlan told her that she would need to spend more time with the children at the orphanage if she ever wanted a chance of that ever happening.
She gladly agreed to Lachlan's suggestion, telling them that she's managed to form closer bonds to the children she was once with at Mount Barker.
Time passed quickly, Lachlan's beasts were no longer standing but rather, they were huddled up behind the tree, forming a sort of shield around them.
Lachlan could see through the gaps in the tree branches that the sun was getting low, darkness was beginning to consume the forest. Standing up he brushed any dirt of his butt. "Alright, we should probably get going the sun's getting real low and I'd rather not spend the night sleeping in the wilderness."
Lachlan then walked over and lifted up Sarah. She was already asleep, her head tilted as though she was dead but Lachlan could clearly hear her breathing.
Carrying her like a princess Lachlan unsummoned his tames, Phoebe did the same before they returned to the island to sleep with each other. Lachlan used the wind stone to create a warm, comforting atmosphere inside the hut as he and Phoebe went to sleep.
The others returned from the city an hour later, all of them looked exhausted and stressed. They barely even talked as they swiftly returned to their huts to get some sleep; they had a long day of constructing and there were so many more problems than they expected.
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Once he found that out he was ready to sprint through the portal and explore the world. However, he didn't want to just disappear on everyone right away. Not to mention he wanted to spend some time with both Sarah and Phoebe before he leaves, he might not return for a while.
Taking in a deep breathe Lachlan grabbed hold of Anne and brought her back to her laboratory slowly. He took it rather easy; he could see Sophie and Sarah playing with each other in front of the huts. Maddie was nearby, resting in the shade as she kept an eye on the two.
When he landed Maddie jumped in fright, she began hyperventilating and looking up she relaxed slightly at the sight of Lachlan. She wasn't expecting anyone else to be nearby as she thought they all went down to the city.
"What's up Lachlan? Why aren't you with the others?" Maddie asked curiously. She could see that Lachlan was staring at Sarah, a bright, warming smile was plastered across his face.
Turning his attention to Maddie Lachlan answered her questions. "Nothing much, I was just doing a bit of experimentation with the help of Anne. As of right now, I'm thinking of spending some time with Sarah and Phoebe."
"So does that mean you are going to take Sarah down to the city?" Maddie asked, thinking Lachlan was slightly irresponsible. "You do remember that this run-down city is the headquarters of criminal organisations right? It certainly isn't a place you bring a child."
"Don't worry I know, and I'm not going to stay in the city but instead go visit the national parks and lakes to relax. I'll probably try and get Pedro or Elena to whip up a quick meal for us to eat for lunch," Lachlan explained his plan. He had looked at the maps Flynn had bought at Houston, and the national parks were surprisingly low on the ranking. It seems the dangers from the open waters deterred most land beasts away.
'Alright, have fun. I'll probably bring Sophie to the orphanage and have her socialise with the others," Maddie said as she stood up, stretching her muscles and cracking her knuckles.
Walking over to Sophie she picked her up and threw her into the air before catching Sophie and bringing her into her arms. "Alright Sophie, it's time to go and hang out with the other children. Lachlan's going to spend some quality time with Sarah."
"Okay mummy." Sophie held on tight as she snuggled her head into Maddie's arms. Maddie took off into the skies, heading towards the orphanage, slowly disappearing over the mountain range.
Sarah came running over to Lachlan and slammed in his legs. She placed her feet on Lachlan's as she wrapped her arms around Lachlan's leg. "Walk Lachlan walk."
Lachlan smiled brightly as he took very small legs, carrying Sarah forward with his legs. She began laughing loudly as they moved, she smiled brightly as her grip on Lachlan's legs tightened. "Lachlan, are you taking me down to the city with Phoebe?"
"Yes I am; then we're going to go sightseeing in the national wildlife parks. You don't have to worry, there's not much danger there and any of the dangers there can be easily beaten by your big brother now can't they?" Lachlan leaned over and picked Sarah up, placing her on his shoulders.
"No, they can't!" Sarah shouted as she held up her hands. Lachlan held onto Sarah's legs firmly to make sure she doesn't fall off. Taking off they flew straight up before flying off the island, heading towards the outskirts of the city.
Lachlan could see the group, just leaving the Explorer's Guild building. The building looked rather old like it was made in the 80s with thick stone slabs. The roof looked brand new, likely been replaced by something more solid to protect the ones working in the building.
Landing on the ground by the building Lachlan walked up to the group. They were busy talking to each other and discussing how they were going to build their branches here.
"We should have it by the Explorer's Guild, that way, whenever someone brings back a kill we could directly buy it from the guild," Flynn suggested. Everyone in the group nodded and looked around at the nearby buildings. Most of which were normal houses.
"What about there?" Zoe was pointing towards an open plot of land roughly 20 metres wide and 30 metres long, it was most likely going to used to build a house but the evolution came before anything could come into fruition. "There's enough room for both businesses."
"Now we have the location, what about the materials used for building?" Marie asked. "Although we could see steel, there aren't many steel manufacturers nor are they any close. As for food and stone, if the walls aren't thick enough the beasts could easily tear through them like it's nothing."
"What if we build it underground?" Simon suggested. "You know, similar to what the whole city of Houston is doing. Should we build a whole system underground that connects to places with the largest gatherings of people, it could be used as both shelter and a safe path straight to the food."
"That's a great idea!" Flynn said loudly. The whole group agreed as it solved both problems. If they make the underground system low enough into the ground then it's almost already impenetrable, not to mention safe.
As the group were discussing Phoebe walked over to Lachlan, she raised an eyebrow at the sight of Sarah on Lachlan's shoulders. Normally, whenever they visited a place the main group would go down and scout things out before Lachlan or Chloe would even consider bringing down the children.
Seeing her frown Lachlan walked up and explained himself. "I'm planning on making my way into the other world, I've already sorted things out with Anne who now also has control over the origin gravity stone. So, with all things considered I wanted to make the most of the time I have and spend it with my two favourite people."
"Alright, so what do you have planned?" Phoebe asked as she placed her hands on her hips. "As you can see there aren't exactly many things to do here, it's basically a ghost town."
"There are a few national wildlife parks, all low in danger ranking. How about we go there and have a picnic or something along those lines?" Lachlan asked. "None of us has done anything like that in over two years, I think it'll be fun and relaxing."
"Alright, but instead, let's do it like a camping trip. Startup a wood fire, one of us can go get some meat and we barbeque it," Phoebe suggested her own idea. "Although it may not seem like it; I was pretty big into camping trips back before the Earth evolved."
"Nah, I could surprisingly see that actually," Lachlan said as he nodded, slightly puckering his lips, lowering his eyebrows. "As for me, I've never gone camping before the world evolved, used to spend most of my time at home or mucking around with friends around the streets."
"I could see that." Phoebe nodded with a smile and likely chuckled. "Now, let's get going; since we only have roughly half the day left to do this."
Nodding Lachlan held onto Sarah firmly as both he and Phoebe took off into the air. The group didn't mind at all, they didn't need either Lachlan's or Phoebe's assistance in anything they were currently doing.
Lachlan decided against going to a majority of the wildlife parks near New Orleans, most of them were swamps that were likely filled to the brim with crocodiles. Something Chloe would probably very much enjoy.
Instead, they were flying a bit away to get to Kisatchie National Forest. Although Lachlan wasn't sure, he hoped it had the perfect setting for this picnic. He wanted a wide, open area just by the streams. Surrounded by large trees, the leaves, used for shade.
That's what he wanted, and fortunately, that's exactly what he managed to go.
When they got there they hovered above for a little while, searching for a spot to head down to. That's when Lachlan found the spot he was dreaming of; although the trees were much larger, there was still a decent amount of space by the stream to set up the fire.
Going down they landed on the ground and summoned their beasts, Phoebe let Faith stay in the stream as it wasn't able to fit on the ground. The rest of the tames relaxed with them as Phoebe was setting up the wood.
Once she was done she glared at Lachlan and raised her eyebrows. "Come on, you don't expect me to start the fire as well, especially when there's someone that can do it so easily."
Lachlan smiled and chuckled as he raised a hand. A small ball of fire gentle floated from his hand onto the wood, setting it alight. Sarah immediately ran up to the fire and held out her hands, feeling the warmth it emitted from itself.
"Lachlan, come over here and do what I'm doing, it feels so nice," Sarah said as she turned her head towards Lachlan. Her bright eyes filled with joy as her whole body was warming up by the fire.
Walking over Lachlan felt the fire. The warmth it radiated was something he hadn't felt in a while, it was almost scorching hot but it felt nice as well. Although they had the wind stones they didn't give off the same feeling, as the fire didn't blast them with hot air.
Lachlan squatted right behind Sarah and held his arms out above her head. Spreading open his hands he moved his fingers, wriggling them around. Lachlan realised how much their group was adapted to the cold weather, as sometimes, they didn't bother to set up a campfire during the days that they were sleeping on the beach.
Phoebe came over to Lachlan and squatted down, leaning over she rest her head on Lachlan's shoulders. "How about you get one of the birds to go and get something for all of us to eat? Tell them to make sure it's a large beast."
'You heard her, who's up for it?' Lachlan asked all his beasts telepathically. All of them were currently behind him, they were doing nothing but staring around at the forest and stream.
'I'll do it father' Disaster was surprisingly the first to volunteer for the job, he seemed rather excited as well. 'I'll make sure to bring back something none of us will be able to finish eating.'
Taking off Disaster nearly blew out the fire, fortunately, Lachlan made sure to take control over the fire to stop that. The fire continued to blaze onwards, as it was burning through the small sticks that Phoebe had set up.
Lachlan stood up abruptly, surprising Phoebe who was resting her head on him. He walked over to the side where one of the surrounding trees were and looked up at the branches. Bending his knees he shot up, swiftly reaching the branch without a problem.
The branch was dark brown, it was as thick as the average person's thigh. Placing his hand on it Lachlan used his control over the wind and blasted out a blade. Slicing the branch from its tree.
Falling down Lachlan fell down with it, slightly slower than it as well. It slammed into the ground, creating a loud thumping sound as it snapped in half from the impact. Lachlan used precise wind control to cut the branch into much smaller pieces, perfect size for the wood fire.
He brought a piece over and tossed it on before returning to his original position. Phoebe sighed before resting her head on Lachlan's shoulders again, she wrapped one arm around Lachlan's neck and held out the other to the fire.
They spent their time in that position before Disaster came back with his kill. It was a large boar, just ever so slightly smaller than the intelligent beast Simon had killed.
Aaron walked up to it and sliced it into individual parts, the beasts got the largest chunks as they needed it while Lachlan, Phoebe, and Sarah got pieces that weighed roughly 2 - 3 kilos.
Lachlan made a thin but strong stuck out of one of the wooden pieces, he started cutting up the meat with slow blades of wind and sticking it onto the stick. He was creating a kebab.
Phoebe and Sarah stared at Lachlan with wide eyes, or more specifically, they were staring at the kebab in his hands.
Lachlan sighed before creating a few more sticks, he swiftly cut off their pieces of meat, turning them into kebabs before placing them around the fire. They then waited and every so often Lachlan for turn the side facing the fire.
The three began to talk about life and everything going on. Sarah had decided that her future goal was to make a bunch of friends and create a group similar to Lachlan's and Phoebe's.
The two laughed as told Sarah that is was a great idea, but then Lachlan told her that she would need to spend more time with the children at the orphanage if she ever wanted a chance of that ever happening.
She gladly agreed to Lachlan's suggestion, telling them that she's managed to form closer bonds to the children she was once with at Mount Barker.
Time passed quickly, Lachlan's beasts were no longer standing but rather, they were huddled up behind the tree, forming a sort of shield around them.
Lachlan could see through the gaps in the tree branches that the sun was getting low, darkness was beginning to consume the forest. Standing up he brushed any dirt of his butt. "Alright, we should probably get going the sun's getting real low and I'd rather not spend the night sleeping in the wilderness."
Lachlan then walked over and lifted up Sarah. She was already asleep, her head tilted as though she was dead but Lachlan could clearly hear her breathing.
Carrying her like a princess Lachlan unsummoned his tames, Phoebe did the same before they returned to the island to sleep with each other. Lachlan used the wind stone to create a warm, comforting atmosphere inside the hut as he and Phoebe went to sleep.
The others returned from the city an hour later, all of them looked exhausted and stressed. They barely even talked as they swiftly returned to their huts to get some sleep; they had a long day of constructing and there were so many more problems than they expected.
Once he found that out he was ready to sprint through the portal and explore the world. However, he didn't want to just disappear on everyone right away. Not to mention he wanted to spend some time with both Sarah and Phoebe before he leaves, he might not return for a while.Taking in a deep breathe Lachlan grabbed hold of Anne and brought her back to her laboratory slowly. He took it rather easy; he could see Sophie and Sarah playing with each other in front of the huts. Maddie was nearby, resting in the shade as she kept an eye on the two.When he landed Maddie jumped in fright, she began hyperventilating and looking up she relaxed slightly at the sight of Lachlan. She wasn't expecting anyone else to be nearby as she thought they all went down to the city."What's up Lachlan? Why aren't you with the others?" Maddie asked curiously. She could see that Lachlan was staring at Sarah, a bright, warming smile was plastered across his face.Turning his attention to Maddie Lachlan answered her questions. "Nothing much, I was just doing a bit of experimentation with the help of Anne. As of right now, I'm thinking of spending some time with Sarah and Phoebe.""So does that mean you are going to take Sarah down to the city?" Maddie asked, thinking Lachlan was slightly irresponsible. "You do remember that this run-down city is the headquarters of criminal organisations right? It certainly isn't a place you bring a child.""Don't worry I know, and I'm not going to stay in the city but instead go visit the national parks and lakes to relax. I'll probably try and get Pedro or Elena to whip up a quick meal for us to eat for lunch," Lachlan explained his plan. He had looked at the maps Flynn had bought at Houston, and the national parks were surprisingly low on the ranking. It seems the dangers from the open waters deterred most land beasts away.'Alright, have fun. I'll probably bring Sophie to the orphanage and have her socialise with the others," Maddie said as she stood up, stretching her muscles and cracking her knuckles.Walking over to Sophie she picked her up and threw her into the air before catching Sophie and bringing her into her arms. "Alright Sophie, it's time to go and hang out with the other children. Lachlan's going to spend some quality time with Sarah.""Okay mummy." Sophie held on tight as she snuggled her head into Maddie's arms. Maddie took off into the skies, heading towards the orphanage, slowly disappearing over the mountain range.Sarah came running over to Lachlan and slammed in his legs. She placed her feet on Lachlan's as she wrapped her arms around Lachlan's leg. "Walk Lachlan walk."Lachlan smiled brightly as he took very small legs, carrying Sarah forward with his legs. She began laughing loudly as they moved, she smiled brightly as her grip on Lachlan's legs tightened. "Lachlan, are you taking me down to the city with Phoebe?""Yes I am; then we're going to go sightseeing in the national wildlife parks. You don't have to worry, there's not much danger there and any of the dangers there can be easily beaten by your big brother now can't they?" Lachlan leaned over and picked Sarah up, placing her on his shoulders."No, they can't!" Sarah shouted as she held up her hands. Lachlan held onto Sarah's legs firmly to make sure she doesn't fall off. Taking off they flew straight up before flying off the island, heading towards the outskirts of the city.Lachlan could see the group, just leaving the Explorer's Guild building. The building looked rather old like it was made in the 80s with thick stone slabs. The roof looked brand new, likely been replaced by something more solid to protect the ones working in the building.Landing on the ground by the building Lachlan walked up to the group. They were busy talking to each other and discussing how they were going to build their branches here."We should have it by the Explorer's Guild, that way, whenever someone brings back a kill we could directly buy it from the guild," Flynn suggested. Everyone in the group nodded and looked around at the nearby buildings. Most of which were normal houses."What about there?" Zoe was pointing towards an open plot of land roughly 20 metres wide and 30 metres long, it was most likely going to used to build a house but the evolution came before anything could come into fruition. "There's enough room for both businesses.""Now we have the location, what about the materials used for building?" Marie asked. "Although we could see steel, there aren't many steel manufacturers nor are they any close. As for food and stone, if the walls aren't thick enough the beasts could easily tear through them like it's nothing.""What if we build it underground?" Simon suggested. "You know, similar to what the whole city of Houston is doing. Should we build a whole system underground that connects to places with the largest gatherings of people, it could be used as both shelter and a safe path straight to the food.""That's a great idea!" Flynn said loudly. The whole group agreed as it solved both problems. If they make the underground system low enough into the ground then it's almost already impenetrable, not to mention safe.As the group were discussing Phoebe walked over to Lachlan, she raised an eyebrow at the sight of Sarah on Lachlan's shoulders. Normally, whenever they visited a place the main group would go down and scout things out before Lachlan or Chloe would even consider bringing down the children.Seeing her frown Lachlan walked up and explained himself. "I'm planning on making my way into the other world, I've already sorted things out with Anne who now also has control over the origin gravity stone. So, with all things considered I wanted to make the most of the time I have and spend it with my two favourite people.""Alright, so what do you have planned?" Phoebe asked as she placed her hands on her hips. "As you can see there aren't exactly many things to do here, it's basically a ghost town.""There are a few national wildlife parks, all low in danger ranking. How about we go there and have a picnic or something along those lines?" Lachlan asked. "None of us has done anything like that in over two years, I think it'll be fun and relaxing.""Alright, but instead, let's do it like a camping trip. Startup a wood fire, one of us can go get some meat and we barbeque it," Phoebe suggested her own idea. "Although it may not seem like it; I was pretty big into camping trips back before the Earth evolved.""Nah, I could surprisingly see that actually," Lachlan said as he nodded, slightly puckering his lips, lowering his eyebrows. "As for me, I've never gone camping before the world evolved, used to spend most of my time at home or mucking around with friends around the streets.""I could see that." Phoebe nodded with a smile and likely chuckled. "Now, let's get going; since we only have roughly half the day left to do this."Nodding Lachlan held onto Sarah firmly as both he and Phoebe took off into the air. The group didn't mind at all, they didn't need either Lachlan's or Phoebe's assistance in anything they were currently doing.Lachlan decided against going to a majority of the wildlife parks near New Orleans, most of them were swamps that were likely filled to the brim with crocodiles. Something Chloe would probably very much enjoy.Instead, they were flying a bit away to get to Kisatchie National Forest. Although Lachlan wasn't sure, he hoped it had the perfect setting for this picnic. He wanted a wide, open area just by the streams. Surrounded by large trees, the leaves, used for shade.That's what he wanted, and fortunately, that's exactly what he managed to go.When they got there they hovered above for a little while, searching for a spot to head down to. That's when Lachlan found the spot he was dreaming of; although the trees were much larger, there was still a decent amount of space by the stream to set up the fire.Going down they landed on the ground and summoned their beasts, Phoebe let Faith stay in the stream as it wasn't able to fit on the ground. The rest of the tames relaxed with them as Phoebe was setting up the wood.Once she was done she glared at Lachlan and raised her eyebrows. "Come on, you don't expect me to start the fire as well, especially when there's someone that can do it so easily."Lachlan smiled and chuckled as he raised a hand. A small ball of fire gentle floated from his hand onto the wood, setting it alight. Sarah immediately ran up to the fire and held out her hands, feeling the warmth it emitted from itself."Lachlan, come over here and do what I'm doing, it feels so nice," Sarah said as she turned her head towards Lachlan. Her bright eyes filled with joy as her whole body was warming up by the fire.Walking over Lachlan felt the fire. The warmth it radiated was something he hadn't felt in a while, it was almost scorching hot but it felt nice as well. Although they had the wind stones they didn't give off the same feeling, as the fire didn't blast them with hot air.Lachlan squatted right behind Sarah and held his arms out above her head. Spreading open his hands he moved his fingers, wriggling them around. Lachlan realised how much their group was adapted to the cold weather, as sometimes, they didn't bother to set up a campfire during the days that they were sleeping on the beach.Phoebe came over to Lachlan and squatted down, leaning over she rest her head on Lachlan's shoulders. "How about you get one of the birds to go and get something for all of us to eat? Tell them to make sure it's a large beast."'You heard her, who's up for it?' Lachlan asked all his beasts telepathically. All of them were currently behind him, they were doing nothing but staring around at the forest and stream.'I'll do it father' Disaster was surprisingly the first to volunteer for the job, he seemed rather excited as well. 'I'll make sure to bring back something none of us will be able to finish eating.'Taking off Disaster nearly blew out the fire, fortunately, Lachlan made sure to take control over the fire to stop that. The fire continued to blaze onwards, as it was burning through the small sticks that Phoebe had set up.Lachlan stood up abruptly, surprising Phoebe who was resting her head on him. He walked over to the side where one of the surrounding trees were and looked up at the branches. Bending his knees he shot up, swiftly reaching the branch without a problem.The branch was dark brown, it was as thick as the average person's thigh. Placing his hand on it Lachlan used his control over the wind and blasted out a blade. Slicing the branch from its tree.Falling down Lachlan fell down with it, slightly slower than it as well. It slammed into the ground, creating a loud thumping sound as it snapped in half from the impact. Lachlan used precise wind control to cut the branch into much smaller pieces, perfect size for the wood fire.He brought a piece over and tossed it on before returning to his original position. Phoebe sighed before resting her head on Lachlan's shoulders again, she wrapped one arm around Lachlan's neck and held out the other to the fire.They spent their time in that position before Disaster came back with his kill. It was a large boar, just ever so slightly smaller than the intelligent beast Simon had killed.Aaron walked up to it and sliced it into individual parts, the beasts got the largest chunks as they needed it while Lachlan, Phoebe, and Sarah got pieces that weighed roughly 2 - 3 kilos.Lachlan made a thin but strong stuck out of one of the wooden pieces, he started cutting up the meat with slow blades of wind and sticking it onto the stick. He was creating a kebab.Phoebe and Sarah stared at Lachlan with wide eyes, or more specifically, they were staring at the kebab in his hands.Lachlan sighed before creating a few more sticks, he swiftly cut off their pieces of meat, turning them into kebabs before placing them around the fire. They then waited and every so often Lachlan for turn the side facing the fire.The three began to talk about life and everything going on. Sarah had decided that her future goal was to make a bunch of friends and create a group similar to Lachlan's and Phoebe's.The two laughed as told Sarah that is was a great idea, but then Lachlan told her that she would need to spend more time with the children at the orphanage if she ever wanted a chance of that ever happening.She gladly agreed to Lachlan's suggestion, telling them that she's managed to form closer bonds to the children she was once with at Mount Barker.Time passed quickly, Lachlan's beasts were no longer standing but rather, they were huddled up behind the tree, forming a sort of shield around them.Lachlan could see through the gaps in the tree branches that the sun was getting low, darkness was beginning to consume the forest. Standing up he brushed any dirt of his butt. "Alright, we should probably get going the sun's getting real low and I'd rather not spend the night sleeping in the wilderness."Lachlan then walked over and lifted up Sarah. She was already asleep, her head tilted as though she was dead but Lachlan could clearly hear her breathing.Carrying her like a princess Lachlan unsummoned his tames, Phoebe did the same before they returned to the island to sleep with each other. Lachlan used the wind stone to create a warm, comforting atmosphere inside the hut as he and Phoebe went to sleep.The others returned from the city an hour later, all of them looked exhausted and stressed. They barely even talked as they swiftly returned to their huts to get some sleep; they had a long day of constructing and there were so many more problems than they expected.
