4 Erns (1/2)

”Err…”

After his grand proclamation, Ernst waited for some sort of reaction other than being frozen from the two in front of him.

Yet, after an awkward silence which was punctured by another yawn from his Viper, he awkwardly dropped his hands while a few guffaws sounded from the crowd.

It appeared that the people of Skystead Hamlet were used to such incidents from their Chief.

The Chief was flabbergasted, as he usually saw one of two reactions from those whom he gave this speech to.

There was either fear, or excitement.

He had grand reactions prepared for both of these cases, but encountering someone like this who just stared at him as if he were a ghost, he had no idea how to react.

Laughing sheepishly on realizing that he shouldn't have tried it on someone who had probably spent years in the jungle, the Chief walked up to Aaron, but was stopped by a growling sound from the large dog that had stayed still till now.

The crowd had already started to disperse on seeing that although this youth was interesting, he was nothing more than a poor kid who had had to live for years in the forest alone.

Talking among themselves about what sort of hardships he must have endured, they went back to whatever they were doing before, while Mrs. Ernst wondered whether she was supposed to go forward and pick up the plate that had been knocked out of her hands before.

So, there were few present to see this sight of such intelligence from the 'cute dog'.

Raising an eyebrow on noticing the protective instinct of the beast, he stopped and said, ”I mean no harm. I just want to talk to your master.”

Woof didn't understand the words of the thickset man, but it could tell that he wasn't here to harm them.

So, it stepped to the side, as it had walked in front of its friend before on realizing that the kid was in too much of a shock to defend himself.

This was the first time Woof ever saw Aaron enter such a state for such a long time, so it was pretty surprised, but it just chose to wait and protect him while he sorted his thoughts.

After it stepped aside, the Chief shot another glance at it before reaching Aaron and laying a hand on his shoulder.

This made Aaron finally snap out of the second time today where he let go of his defenses and just stood there, ready to be devoured by any passing beast.

They were just…too many mind-numbing revelations for one day.

For years, he had thought that he was the only member of his species, and right after that assumption had been shattered, he heard mention of the only clue about his identity.

On lonely nights which were spent in trees hiding from beasts which they couldn't defeat, Aaron would often mull over that sentence.

He would stare at the stars, wondering whether he was supposed to find some sort of aerial beast and literally fly to reach them.

So, when he felt that weight fall on his shoulders suddenly, he first leaped back with alarm on his face, thinking that he was still in the forest.

There, if he really had allowed something to get this close, the next moment would have involved him being eaten.

”Whoa there! I just wanted to help you to calm down. I know that it's too much to take in. If you were someone normal, I would give this speech and either tell you that everything will be Ok as the strongest humans are out there, protecting us, or I would encourage you to grow stronger so that you can join those humans. But I don't know what to say to you.”

Hearing this, Aaron furrowed his eyebrows, but he, too, didn't know what to say.