The duo kept walking through the woods. The man was in front, keeping a constant lookout while he searched for something specific.
The little girl walked right behind him, her hand in his, with her head tilted downwards. Whether that was because she was deep in thought, or because she was sad, Mitch didn't know.
"Are you sure it was okay to tell her that way? Couldn't you have been a little more gentle?" Katherine had been worrying about Madeline for the last 20 minutes.
To this, Mitch could only shrug his shoulders.
'If I knew that it would turn out this way, I wouldn't have picked her of all people. We're forced into this situation too, you know?' He then gazed at his remaining Mynt.
1.5
He had 1.5 remaining.
It had cost him one Mynt to create the body, one and a half to give Madeline intelligence, and a last one to heal her injuries.
The good news was that he now had a source that generated Mynt. Unfortunately, it was one thousandth of what he needed to survive.
"Can you at least tell me what you're looking for? Maybe I can help. All I can tell from your thoughts is a place where the ground is not covered in leaves and twigs."
She started sounding frustrated, annoyed that Mitch was refusing to share his plans with her.
'You'll know when you see it… speaking of which!' He abruptly stopped walking.
Thump
Madeline hadn't noticed him pause and bumped straight into him. She tripped and fell to the ground, making quite a bit of noise in the quiet forest.
"Are you okay, child? I'm sorry for stopping without announcing it to you, I should've known you have a lot on your mind." Mitch leaned forward and helped Madeline back onto her feet.
"I'm okay, Archangel Michael. I'm just a little bit sad that I can't explore the world." Her voice fell towards the end, clearly afraid to question the purpose that the Khad she believed in had given her.
Mitch put on the nicest smile he could muster and patted her head.
"The Lord will not blame you for seeking freedom; even He wants to roam the worlds, savor the finest of things, live a life fit for someone of His prestige. Alas, even Khad Mitch is bound by obligations he cannot ignore."
"But believe me when I say this: Your sacrifices will not be ignored. He sees all, and He will reward you for the efforts you've put in for him today. Do not worry."
For the first time since he met Madeline, Mitch was being completely honest. He despised the thought of having to lie to a child for the sake of making her pray to him, but he couldn't find any other way.
"Thank you, Michael. I will try my best to make you proud!" Being made aware that she would not be cast aside after fulfilling her duty, Madeline had gained a surge of energy.
"By the way, is this where we're supposed to eat? I'm hungry!" Truly, children would forget everything they were doing the moment food was mentioned.
"Yes, it should be somewhere around here. If you find a big hill of dirt and debris, let me know."
Indeed, Mitch was looking for ants.
"You're terrible, making a child have to go through that!" Katherine, finally understanding what Mitch wanted to achieve, started screaming at him.
'Relax, she won't grow old enough for it to matter for at least another few weeks or so. By that time we should have made all the preparations necessary for her to barely even be affected by it.'
Mitch felt like he was unknowingly acting more and more inhumane, but there was nothing he could do about it.
Both his human side and his Khad one agreed that this would be the most efficient approach to their situation. He had finalized the plan long before he decided to execute it.
"I really hope you know what you're doing, Mitch. Although we are connected to each other, if this plan of yours goes even the slightest bit awry, I will be the last person that forgives you."
She didn't know if she should be begging Mitch, or support him in this plan he had decided to go with.
She couldn't even imagine that Mitch, who lived the life of a human just a few days ago, could have though of such a heartless plan.
'I told you, Katherine, I have the situation under control. We just have to be fast with finishing it before she becomes old enough.' Realizing there was no reason to continue with that discussion, Mitch turned back around to look for any opening into the ants' nest.
"Michael, are those what we're looking for?" He heard Madeline ask.
He looked towards her and saw her pointing somewhere. Following the direction she was pointing towards with his eyes, he nearly started pissing himself.
Ants, those were ants. But not just regular ants. That would have been fine; he could just stomp them to death. In fact, that was Mitch's original plan.
No.
These were ants bigger than even dogs. They were around half a meter tall and almost two meters long.
If there were just one or two of them, Mitch reckoned he could manage it one way or another.
Still, no.
There were four of them, and who knew how many more would be coming.
"Michael, are we eating those? Wow, so much food! I wonder if they taste good?" The glutton was drooling, not yet understanding how dire their situation was.
Mitch started quivering. 'This… might be an issue.'