Aiven held the exquisitely crafted wooden box and returned to his residence. Gary showed little interest in the contents of the box and had already sensibly returned to his own room.
Months of honing had been enough for a once reckless and naive country boy to repress his true nature and understand the ways of the world. This might be the cost of maturity for a person. So it was for Gary, and so it was for Aiven.
Opening the wooden box, as expected.
An apple-sized, partially crystallized heart, lay quietly on the silk cushion inside the box, faintly emanating a pale red spiritual light, exuding a touch of the mystical.
"Is it the Blue Flag Demon Shark?"
He picked up the label placed inside the box, which clearly recorded the source and capture location of this piece of extraordinary material, a Blue Flag Demon Shark captured from the Windward Route.
The capture time was quite recent, just over half a month ago.
