Colin's posts

Jaden just nodded quietly.

He then followed her inside, where he took off his shoes, and made his way to the den, where he sat down on the couch, and exhaled loudly.

"Whew." he said.

"Feels good to sit down." he commented.

He then leaned back, looked at the ceiling, and seemed to be concentrating on something.

"Mmm..mmhmm... mmhmm..." he mumbled.

"So... I need to see if I can beat THAT." he told himself.

Jaden's eyes widened when Demitra asked him about the blood.

"No! No, no, no." he said.

"No, I'm... I'm good for... that." he told her.

"I meant... well, food." he went on. "Human food. Actual food. Real food. However you want to say it." he continued, before embedding the axe he had into a nearby stump.

He was then silent, before sighing quietly.

"....maybe I'm also THAT kinda hungry. A little." he admitted, his voice so low that Demitra barely heard it.

"I'll take what I get." Jaden replied.

"Any degree of safety is an improvement for me." he told her.

"Well... more recently, I suppose." he then added.

"Whatever." he mumbled, as his stomach growled.

"Oh..." he said.

"Guess I'm hungry." he said sheepishly.

"Never really noticed it until now." he admitted.

Jaden nodded, and positioned himself at another part of the tree.

"Let's go." he said.

With that, the two of them got the tree back to the house fairly quickly, and they finished all they needed to get done.

"Whew." Jaden sighed.

"That was a lot of work." he said.

"But it made the time go by." he reasoned.

"And I feel really good." he told her further.

"...nobody will have heard all that chopping and stuff, right?" he then asked her quietly, sounding a bit concerned.

Jaden just sighed, and wiped the sweat off of his forehead.

"I think I'm all right." he said.

"I'm tired." he told her.

"But it's a good kind of tired." he went on.

"I'm glad I was able to be useful here." he reasoned, before sighing quietly.

"But if you want this to be finished a little more quickly, then yeah... some help would... well... help." he added with a small smile.

Jaden looked around as she said what she did.

"All right." he said.

He then made his way to a particularly robust and sturdy-looking tree.

"Guess this one will do." he commented.

He then grasped the axe with his hands, and slammed the blade into the wood, the impact sounding sharp and solid... like Jaden had some strength behind him.

However, it was nowhere near Demitra's. He had the endurance and long-term strength to haul an entire tree, but his quick and immediate strength did not compare to the young woman's.

Jaden looked at the axe, and nodded.

"Sure." he replied, going and grabbing it.

"What do you want me to do?" he asked.

"Help you with that one? Start on another one?" he asked further.

"I'm good to do anything." he said.

"Just... give me some instructions."

"......yeah." Jaden responded.

"Yeah, I did." he told her.

"Wow..." he then muttered.

"You're... really strong." he told her.

"You're getting really close to felling that tree already." he commented, looking at the notches she'd already made.

"That's really impressive." he complimented her further.

And Demitra could tell that he wasn't being rude or condescending... or if he was, it was not on purpose. He was genuinely surprised and impressed.

Since this question's been adequately answered, I'm locking this thread.

Jaden smiled a little, as he dragged the tree closer towards the house.

"Heh." he chuckled.

'I like feeling useful.' he thought. 'And this is a great way to use up all that energy I could feel welling up in my body.' he realized further.

He then dropped the tree where there was plenty of room, and nodded to himself.

"Now to get to the smaller ones, and place them in the started pile." he said, before starting to jog back to where Demitra was.

"Well, I'll see if I can." Jaden replied.

With that, he made his way to the end of it, took a number of steps inward, and readied himself. He then crouched down, lifted the tree, and hefted it onto his shoulder.

"HUP!" he grunted, balancing himself.

"And... here we go." he said, before moving forward, dragging the tree along.

"This work?" he asked Demitra.

Jaden looked at the sectioned trees, and nodded.

"All right." he replied.

"But... would it be better to move the trees towards the house, and then section them there?" he asked.

"Just so they can be moved, and sectioned at a more... leisurely pace, I guess?" he reasoned.

"If not, that's all right. I can move the smaller ones." he told her. "Otherwise, I can move this big one closer to the house, and then work on the smaller ones."

Jaden watched her make her way to the branchy end, before quickly getting closer.

"Hello!" he called to her.

"Racquel sent me out here to help." he told her.

He then looked at the tree that she had felled, and thought for a moment.

"Want someone to lug the trees back to the house?" he asked.

"Because I saw a pile of them near there as I was coming here." he said.

Jaden nodded in response.

"All right." he replied.

"I'll go help now." he told her, before making his way outside.

He then listened to the area around him, before easily zoning in on the sounds of someone chopping down a tree with an axe. He nodded to himself, before quickly making his way in the direction of the sounds.

"I hope I can help." he mumbled.