Chapter 106: Cub Gone Missing!
Ayra didn’t return the previous night. Her soothing session had lasted longer. And so while she was away, Rai and his peers were there all night taking care of the little cub.
They were happy to be there and take care of Ally. Sitting around Ally while playing different games with her and adoring their little sister.
It was all fun for them. When the little one was looking bored and almost crying, Rai had suggested cheering her up.
And so he proceeded to make funny faces while dancing around. Ayra had taught him that a while back to comfort the cub.
And it worked. As he made the funny faces and danced around, little Ally immediately began laughing again.
"It worked!" Kan said, impressed.
Rai smiled happily as he said, "Of course it was going to work. I’m sure of what I’m doing," he said proudly.
They stayed happily with the cub till late night. Ayra still wasn’t back so they figured they’d keep the cub company till morning.
"We’ll have to stay awake all night," Rai said while the cub had fallen asleep.
"Yes. For the cub! Let’s stay awake and watch over her all night. That will be better."
They all agreed and so they decided to stay awake. Sitting around and staring at the cub sleeping peacefully. They didn’t disturb her and just stared. Adoring her sleeping peacefully until sleep came to them.
It was extremely early in the morning and they couldn’t hold back any longer. They struggled and fought sleep. Drinking water and pouring it down their faces to make sure they’d keep awake.
But they couldn’t stop nature at all. Because no matter how much they fought it, they soon grew increasingly sleepy.
And soon they had given in without even knowing. Soon, they all fell down on the floor there, all asleep while the cub slept peacefully on the cradle.
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But that shouldn’t be an issue, right? At least that was what the youths thought when they woke up.
The cub still couldn’t walk. So it’d be okay when they woke up. They’d see the cub still laying there peacefully, maybe awake now.
And so when they all woke up almost at the same time, shocked over how they all slept up, they stood up almost immediately to see how the cub was doing and if she was awake.
But as soon as they looked into the cradle, they were all speechless because the cradle was literally empty!
"..."
They were speechless for a while without words. They stared into the cradle for a while, some staring deeper inside and some staring at the sides to make sure they weren’t seeing things.
Rai rubbed his hands against his eyes and stared again. "I’m not the only one seeing an empty space, right...?"
"Me too..." Kan said as they stared again.
"Where did the cub go..?" One asked, speechless as they stared inside again. "She was just here last night..."
Rai panicked as he ran a hand through his wolf ears that were already standing in panic. "How.. where.. what’s happening... where did the cub go?!"
On realization that they weren’t just seeing things and that the cub had somehow escaped, they panicked even more.
"Where is the cub?!" They said almost immediately in panic while they spread out and began searching the room.
Some searched on the bed, some under the bed, some at the sides of the room while one searched through the tiny holes.
"He’s not here!" One said after peeping through a hole.
"It’s a she..." Rai corrected.
"Oh, she’s not here!"
Kan stared at him. "And why would she be in that tiny hole?"
"..."
They searched the whole room in detail and didn’t see anything and immediately began panicking.
"What do we do now? We can’t find her anywhere!"
"How did this even happen? She was just here last night.. so how did she disappear?"
Rai ran a hand through his hair, worried. "But... She can’t walk or anything.. so how did she leave at all? She couldn’t have possibly ran away?"
Kan shook his head. "Impossible. She couldn’t have suddenly learned how to walk overnight, could she..?"
They thought for a while and then shook their heads.
"Let’s go out and ask the guards," one recommended as they rushed out to meet the wolf guards who were standing tall outside the house.
"Did you see the cub?" Rai asked as he tapped the wolf.
The guards stared down at them. "What do you mean by that? Wasn’t she inside there with you all? Why are you asking about the cub?"
"..." Rai blinked as his panic intensified. He knew at that moment that there was trouble.
"No.. She’s no longer in there.. we slept and woke up and she’s not there... Which is odd because the cub couldn’t have possibly ran off... She can’t walk yet," Kan explained.
The guards panicked immediately as they stared at each other. And then stared back at the teens.
"How’s that possible? How could she be missing? We didn’t see anyone go in here and take the cub. Neither did we see anyone come out here with the cub.. so how’s that possible?" One of the guards inquired.
Everyone was even more shocked and confused now. They racked their brains for a possible answer to this mystery but couldn’t come up with anything at all.
And when nothing could be thought of, they proceeded to making a conclusion.
"We have to tell the tribe leaders," Rai said immediately. "Since we don’t know where the cub is, she might be in danger. She might be scared at where she is.. so we have to start looking for her immediately.. let’s start with telling the tribe leader."
It was the only right thing to do. So while the other guards set off to begin looking for the cub around with some teens, Rai, Kan and a guard set off to tell the tribe leaders about the current situation at hand.
The situation of the tribe’s precious cub that had strangely gone missing!