[PRIVATE: DGFone & Thewhistlerify]

[DGFone]

Delano waited a bit longer, but knew that Muroki was right. "Oh, well, let's go." He turned and walked out the caves with Muroki. They headed back up to the hill that they had grown to hate. Delano was glad that he was going to walk up that thing for the last time.

Upon reaching the top of the hill, Delano sat down. He looked around the surrounding savanna, just observing. "You know," he randomly said, breaking the silence, "It's kind of ironic. All the time we trained, it was the trainer who usually had to wait for us. But now, here we are, waiting for him." He laughed a little. "Guess things are really changing," he concluded.

He fell back to just watching the area around them as they waited for the trainer to come for them. He didn't know how long it would take, but he hoped that they won't have to wait too long.

[TheWhistlerify]

Muroki chuckled, "Who knows, maybe he wanted to do this the entire time." it made sense that the trainer would get impatient with the trainees. If the trainees got impatient within five minutes into the program, then the trainer who had to do the same thing again and again with different groups probably hated this way more than them. This was kind of ruining the entire idea of getting home already, but the trainer will eventually show up, at one point or another.

[DGFone]

But Delano thought differently. "Well, we did come here early," he said, "So it could simply be that he simply doesn't expect us to be back this soon. Which means, why should he be here waiting for us?" He motioned around the savanna. "Sure you can see a lot from here, but honestly, for how long will you wait here for some lions that you aren't even sure when they will arrive?" He nodded with agreement at his own thinking. "So instead, we have to wait for him should he check on this hill."

Quieting down, Delano examined the rocks they brought back. He moved his around with his paws, examining how the sunlight both bounced off the dark surface while at the same time, illuminating the insides. "I never saw these kind of rocks before," he said, "And they certainly are interesting..."

He flipped it so that a thin edge caught the light, and Delano was shocked to see how the sun went right through the rock: the ground was visible through the surface. "Amazing," Delano breathed out, "I don't know what they'll be used for, but they really are something."

[TheWhistlerify]

Muroki also examined his rock, "I don't know what can a lion possibly do with rocks of any sort... What I do know is that we were told to find these because they aren't easy to get, which was obviously the challenging part." he wondered how long it would take for the trainer to finally come and check whether anyone has arrived. The latest will be nightfall, but Muroki hoped the trainer would show up sooner. He wanted to go back and see Umeme already, almost to the point of unable to wait.

[DGFone]

Delano set his rock down. "Maybe we had to get them simply becuase they are obviosuly not from around here, and it will be easy to know who was able to get them or not." In the end, they can only speculate what the rocks were used for, and Delano didn't feel like figuring them all out. So he continued to gaze around the lands, waiting.

After what felt like an eternity, Delano saw the trainer walking up the hill. He got up excitedly and pointed with his paw for Muroki. "Look, there he is!" Soon they will be able to leave. As much as Delano was excited to finish, he saw that Muroki was able to hold on to any patience.

As the trainer got closer, Delano got up and picked up his rock. "Let the trainer see that we did it!" He told Muroki excitedly.

[TheWhistlerify]

Muroki nodded, "Yes, they won't be possible to get unless you go far enough, which is what they wanted us to do." he was soon holding back a smile when Delano pointed towards the trainer. "Oh, finally." he said, picking up his rock as well. He didn't want to approach the trainer though and stand still so that he could be able to get the best look at the trainer's face once he saw they were the first to be back, as far as Muroki was aware at least.

[DGFone]

The trainer made his way up the hill and stopped in front of Muroki and Delano. At first, he just stared at them before speaking. "Well, you two made it," he said, sounding only surprised. He then saw the rocks, and nodded in approval. "And you got the rocks. Well done."

Delano could hardly believe it. By the sound of it, they would soon be able to leave and get back to Kasi. He could hardly wait. He began to grin, feeling speechless. They had done it. It hadn't dawned on him until now. They made it.

But the trainer wasn't finished. "I knew that the two of you would do it, but not this fast..." He motioned for them to follow him. "Come with me. Need to get it finalized that you qualified." He lead the two brothers back down the hill and to the cave system. "I assume that the two of you worked together to find the stone," the trainer said as they walked, "but I would still like to hear exactly how you two got them. And where"

[TheWhistlerify]

Muroki had no idea why did the trainer was so interested about where they've found the rocks and how, but he wasn't letting that ruin the fact that they were finished with the course. "Well, Delano suggested that since you've probably given this assignment to many groups before us, and that there might not be any rocks left on the closest hill which was high enough. So we went to the second one." he said as both he and his brother followed the trainer back into the cave system.

[DGFone]

The trainer let out a small grunt of laughter. "I wouldn't know, as I've never been there myself," he admitted, "But I figured that that was bound to happen someday. Say did you see any of the others on your way back?" Delano shook his head. "Well, I guess that they'll be arriving soon," the trainer said.

He lead them to another cave. It was piled with what looked like the stones where that they used to sign up with. "Wait here," The trainer said, and walked over to the pile. He muttered to himself as he rummaged through them. Delano heard his and Muroki's names, but other than that, didn't understand what the trainer was saying.

After a while, the trainer came back with two stones. He placed them in front of Delano and Muroki. "I believe you will recognize these. They have your names on them along with your prints, and now you will etch a line under those. It signifies that you have successfully completed this training."

Delano looked down at his stone and saw the slightly faded paw print that he made a long time ago. Under it were more scratches that he assumed were his name. Didn't look like much. He gripped the black rock in his mouth and ran it along the small stone, holding it down with his paws. The process that left an annoying ringing in his ears when he was done and wasn't very pleasant to do.

The trainer took both the name stones and the black rocks after Delano and Muroki were finished. "You can learn how to read, and then you will recognize those scratches under your prints as meaningful words." He explained. "Makes remembering things really easy, as they don't have to be spoken all the time. Scratch them on once, and anyone who can read will understand what was said. Which is why we need the black stones. They are very sharp, which allows them to etch into other stones, but they also break easily, and frankly, we go through them rather quickly. It's crude and sometimes painful, but well worth the effort."

The trainer smiled. "You will learn how to read and write, the process of making these scratches, in the next part of your training." He went back to the pile and placed their rocks off at the edge.

Delano's heart sank. "But we, uh..." he didn't know how to said it. The trainer looked at them curiously. "We want to leave," Delano finally blurted out.

The trainer looked at them as he came back and sighed. "Want to leave? Any particular reason why?" He asked. Delano could tell that the trainer was disappointed.

[TheWhistlerify]

Muroki was also surprised at the trainer's disappointment. "We, uh... When we came here we just left without really letting anyone know. There's our cousin, our aunt, our uncle and other two friends who he haven't seen in a long time now..." he stopped for a few moments, "We also thought about it, and there's not really a point into looking for those who killed our parents... Not only we don't know who we're looking for, but it wont really change anything or bring them back, so we thought we'll get done here and then head back... We thought that this was the end of the training..."