Elven Legacy

Chapter 34: Sneaky Little Sister

As I was getting dragged along by Elaine through several hallways, I noticed we had been practically running in circles with my divine sense; however, I didn't say anything to Elaine as I was curious how long it would take Elaine to realize.

"Brother, I think we're lost." Said Elaine sadly, after having run in circles for several minutes.

"Haha, it's fine, I'll lead the way this time, but I need to know where we're going first." Replied Elif with a chuckle as he started walking ahead, followed by Elaine.

"Let's go to the Palace garden; I wanted to play hide&seek!"

Turning around as we were going the wrong way, Elaine and I walked through several different hallways taking mostly right turns before eventually leaving the castle and arriving in the palace garden, which is really just a small forest, in my opinion, with all the trees, flowers, other vegetation and small animals living here.

(Note: The Palace Garden is the size of the Amazon Forest, just for reference's sake.)

"So, who's hiding first?" Asked Elif as they continued walking into the jungle.

"I'm hiding first, so no peeking and no using powers!" Stated Elaine before quickly running deeper into the jungle away from Elif.

'I haven't even started counting yet, little cheater.' Thought Elif as he stood still, closed his eyes, and started counting.

"Ninety-nine, one-hundred! Times up Elaine, I'm coming!" Shouted Elif as he used Qi to allow his voice to be heard from anywhere in the jungle.

'Now, since I can't use my divine sense, where should I start my search? I bet she ran off before I started counting so I could see where she went, thinking I would follow right after her; however, let's go in the opposite direction.' Thought Elif as he turned around and started walking to his right through the thick vegetation of bushes and trees.

While walking through the jungle searching for Elaine, I would hear various noises such as bushes moving, branches breaking, and leaves getting rustled; however, I never bothered investigating as even though I'm not using any Qi or divine sense, my perception is still that of a peak Saint Lord, so it's pretty easy to differentiate between my little sister, small animals, or just the wind blowing.

After a couple more minutes of searching for Elaine or any clues regarding her hiding location, I came across some tracks left behind in the mud; when I closely inspected them, I inferred that they must've belonged to Elaine as it was a shoe print, which means they were wearing something underneath their feet and the pattern in which the tracks are in created is that of a bipedal creature or a two-legged being; lastly, no animals that live in this jungle have feet or paws that large.

'Hehe, you're mine now!' Thought Elif as he stealthily followed behind the trail Elaine left as he wanted to avoid getting accidentally caught.

While following the trails, they abruptly come to an end right before a tree; obviously, Elaine must've climbed her way up the tree, but I don't hear any breathing or heartbeat belonging to Elaine, so that means she's not there. Looking up, I cheek all the branches in the vicinity and don't find any clue of her; I had even thought she might've jumped from branch to branch, but the trees are really tall for her, so I don't believe she would do that.

'Hmm, I might've actually gotten fooled by her; this can't be; I'm the elder brother, it's my job to fool her, but it's still impressive that she managed to fool me, a cultivator. However, where would she have gone? Did she cheat and have mother or father help her out? Probably not, but it's possible; maybe they gave her some artifact that helps hide one's presence?' Pondered Elif as he walked back down the trail of footsteps.