18 Ivans Sudden Departure (2/2)
After breakfast, the phone Iris kept in a small pocket of her clothes rang its jovial ringtone.
”Mr. Morr,” Iris nervously answered the phone while trying to maintain a steady breathing.
Valeria twitched her ears as she tried to hear what was being said on the phone, but could only hear Iris' voice and not the recipient's. Valeria was feeling guilty for hitting Iris just before, Ivan had told her that she can trust Iris, but her body reacted instinctively in the moment.
”Yes, Mr. Morr, all of todays appointments must me cancelled.”
”No, Sir… there are no problems.”
”I am, it won't be an issue.”
”I don't know, he simply disappeared.”
”No, he was standing directly in front of me when it happened. He just… grew transparent before completely vanishing.”
”Yes, he said he would be returning later this evening. He mentioned he needed to get some food, I'm not sure on the exact details.”
”Yes, that may be the case.”
”I understand, Sir, I'll do my best.”
Iris turned off the screen of her phone and sighed in displeasure. She had never had to jump through political hoops or follows anyone's whims before, so she was incredibly passive in this situation. She secretly wished Ivan would truly teach her how to read people sooner, even how to guide and manipulate them, because she truly hated this feeling of helplessness.
”Do you want something to eat?” Iris asked Valeria once she put her clothes on, slightly afraid she would attack her again.
”Yes… sorry,” Valeria murmured before running back to her room to get changed into fresh clothes as well.
The entire presidential suite had been filled with amenities, including a large range of various clothes in each room. Both Ivan and Mazur had come to enjoy the Vulpes clothing. While some outfits were slightly too gaudy for their taste, the overlapping fabrics were comfortable to wear and extremely easy to move in, an evolutionary development of clothing factoring in the Vulpes race's high agility.
*****
Ivan sneakily moved around the ground of a landmass. This area was a rocky outcrop, with most of the four-dimensional creatures here being of the carnivorous type. Ivan had considered moving to a different area, but he also needed to kill stronger prey for their tough hides and deadly teeth.
At this moment, he was hiding behind a rock as a massive whale covered in long tentacles flew by, its feelers stretching out in all directions, capturing and eating any beast foolish enough to be touched by them.
Ivan also noted they seemed to sense movement, as those who tried to flee or moved quickly were rapidly targeted and consumed.
A tentacle stretched past the rock Ivan was hiding behind, searching for food. To didn't dare move a muscle, standing as stiff as the stone he was leaning against as he watched the strange feeler exploring.
Electric blue veins ran all the way through the feeler, a pulsating blue glow of energy passing through it periodically. Ivan knew it was capable of even more, he had seen these feelers release a terrifying current of energy that caused the space surrounding them to have bright blue sparks of electricity to dance about like fireflies.
The feeler soon rescinded as the whale-sized creature moved on to the next area. All the hiding beasts of prey quickly came out of hiding and resumed their activity of hunting anything weaker than they were.
Ivan had become much smarter since he first started hunting. He no longer chased down his targets in the open in order to avoid attracting the attention and being targeted by dangerous predators. He instead used his small body size to hide in shadows and small crevices, waiting for his prey to pass by before catching them unaware with a surprise attack. Even if he didn't kill them in one attack, killing an already wounded beast was much easier than fighting one head on.
Today, Ivan managed to kill several beasts similar in size to the eel which his eel tooth spear was made from. He grabbed the corpses of the three predators, and tying a fresh bundle of firewood, ascended back up toward the third dimension.
He stopped by the Poseidon on the way back to where the others were waiting in order to feed the Symbions, the four tortoises were lying in their cells like corpses, so bored they simple lacked all energy.
Ivan grabbed a portion of the local vegetation, but instead of putting it in their cells, he simply opened the energy shields and let them out.
”You four are free to move about in the ship, I will arrange for you to go outside in the surrounding area later, but for now stay inside. There is a large pile of leaves in the cargo hold. I won't be able to come back too often, so until I arrange for you to go outside, find food there. Don't touch anything else stored there.”
The Symbions couldn't understand everything Ivan said, but they had been around him for a long time and were intelligent enough to roughly understand what he said.
He passed through the cargo hold on the way out and had a look at the large pile of four-dimensional pelts, scales, and bones which could be fashioned into some rudimentary clothing, armor and weapons.
”We should have at least hundred people by now, still nine hundred to go,” Ivan murmured to himself. ”For now, time to head back to the hotel.”