Chapter 57: Breakout
They had done as Ayra had suggested and proceeded with the search. Commander Lynn and his men had searched all the water bodies available around the tribe which were in use.
The men scanned through the water for anything suspicious all through the night but strangely couldn’t actively detect anything. But it was already a given since they weren’t meant to find it. It was blended in well enough to fool them.
But they also couldn’t question Ayra and her words because before daybreak, the illness had started showing up more in the beastmen around.
More male beasts began falling heavily ill. Their bodies getting red and uncomfortable in many spots. Some began having trouble breathing while some were experiencing extreme pain in their chest and other parts of their bodies.
By the next day, it had become a breakout of illness as a good number of the male beasts across the tribe had fallen seriously ill.
The three tribe lords, in the company of Commander Lynn, strolled the scene, observing the current situation at hand which wasn’t looking funny at all. They watched as the men carried sick and dying men around. Watched their tribe members sit and lay around in immense pain and discomfort.
"This is terrible indeed..." Vale said, a hand behind his back as they strolled through the tribe that morning. They watched some of their men cry in pain while struggling to move.
"I guess she is right.. those animals actually did go ahead with the poisoning. Do they want us dead or do they want to threaten us at this point??"
"It’s clear they wish to scare us under their control the more," Vale scoffed. "That’s what they’ve always been up to."
Ash shook his head. "It clearly won’t work..."
Zark stood there with both hands firmly behind him as he watched the scene, watching as his people suffered. Some had already passed out from the pain, and at that moment it was clear that death was their next step.
Because as the minutes went by it was clear that more than half of the tribe had been poisoned. And this led Zark to make his clear call.
"Go and bring the female," Zark said in a calm tone. "Bring her here..."
Ash smiled immediately as he stared at him. "I guess you’ve ended up falling back to the female at the end of the day."
"Shut up," Zark snapped.
---
Ayra had just woken up that morning. She had gone to bed immediately after she returned the previous night. She guessed a pregnant woman was prone to falling asleep immediately and always, because she immediately felt sleepy after returning.
She didn’t even bother taking her bath. She was scared after the illness she learned about that she didn’t even get close to any water or anything.
Skincare would have to wait for the meantime.
Ayra had slowly gotten up from bed that morning only to see Commander Lynn standing by her bedside. Shocked, she looked up to see his other colleagues behind him. He was signalling them to shut up as it seemed they were already losing their patience and wanted to wake her up.
"Let her sleep," Commander Lynn snapped at his impatient colleague. It was clear he didn’t want to disturb her beauty sleep. But as he turned, he saw her awake and sitting. "..."
"What?" She raised an eyebrow.
Commander Lynn hesitated and then cleared his throat. "The tribe lords summon you."
And at that moment, Ayra knew that her prediction had come true.
---
As Ayra made her way to the scene, she was surprised that the system hadn’t presented her with any tasks relating to the situation at hand. Wasn’t it stuff like that that this system would make into tasks?
She arrived at the scene where the tribe leaders were standing and stood beside them. Ayra stared ahead at the scene before her and couldn’t help but take pity on the scene.
Men in immense pain, crying and groaning with some of their body turning red and swollen. Some were even bleeding around. And this wasn’t happening to only able men. Young teens and elders were also seen in pain.
Ayra gasped, speechless. She couldn’t believe that those bastards had the nerve to poison them for their own benefit.
"I guess your words were prophetic," the silver snake scoffed, folding his arms. "Interesting."
Ayra stared through the scene, watching as the antelope was already at the scene doing his job. The medical antelope was checking on people one by one while doing the best he could with his subordinates. He was the head physician so he was in charge while others worked under him.
But even after long hours of running around and working to check on people, he still didn’t find anything helpful. The antelope was already getting frustrated and angry because nothing was working.
"And what did you find out? Any solutions to treat them?" Zark questioned.
But the antelope paused, staring in fear. "Well.. nothing yet.. but I’m working on it!" He assured when he hadn’t even tracked down what the issue was.
Ash intentionally asked, "And do you perhaps know what the root issue is?"
The antelope hesitated, blinking while looking around. "Eh,.. i think it has something to do with.. bad meat...and food.." He turned to the female. "I remember they said the female got some food for people a while back. So I’m convinced that she has gotten the bad food for everyone! It’s certainly her doing!" He said pointing proudly at Ayra.
His subordinates agreed immediately. "Yes yes! She’s clearly the one who did this! All we’ve discovered is pointing to her!"
"We’re sure she was the one who did this to them all!" They said.
The antelope wanted to take the opportunity and eliminate Ayra while accusing her of what was happening. This way, everyone would disregard her and cast her off.. and then he wouldn’t have any competition in his designated work which brought him a lot of profits!
But Zark didn’t seem happy with that.