Chapter 134: Snatched.
He pushed Luka aside and walked up to the captured little boar. He instructed his men, and they grabbed it for themselves.
After they had done so, the tribe leader turned to Luka, who was standing there looking down, and said to him, "Worthless monster. What makes you think you deserve anything? Remember who you are!" He snapped as he walked off with his men.
Luka stood there quietly without saying anything. He had both hands clenched while his body mildly quavered. He was angry but scared at the same time. He didn’t dare say anything at all.
---
The horn was blown from within, summoning everyone back to the tribe and before the boar tribe leader’s hut.
As everyone gathered, the tribe leader announced, "And the winner of this round goes to the bear tribe! They successfully captured and brought the little boar back alive. So automatically, they’ve won a round!"
As he announced, everyone cheered and clapped for them endlessly. While they clapped and celebrated, Sunnie and the rest stared at each other, confused.
They didn’t believe whatever was happening. They found it suspicious at most and couldn’t help but wonder how the bear tribe leader had even managed to get this. It didn’t make sense.
They called upon the tribe leader of the bear tribe to say a few words about how he had brilliantly found the little boar.
He took the glory and explained how he and some of his men had decided to go outside and found some traces.
"... And that’s how I brilliantly brought it here all by myself," he said with a proud smile. Everyone cheered for him.
But Sunnie and the rest had cold expressions on their faces. They knew he was lying and knew something else had happened. They turned to stare at Luka, but Luka wasn’t even looking up. He wasn’t even looking in their direction. He was looking down, guilt running through his face.
Sunnie could tell, and she felt as though she had an idea of what had happened.
After the bear tribe was congratulated, the tribe leader of the boar tribe dismissed them and asked them to go and rest for the day.
"The next round will be tomorrow!" he announced as they all dispersed.
As they left, they stared toward Sunnie and the rest, smiling and laughing, mocking them.
"They thought they’d win something? What a joke. They definitely can’t beat the bear tribe."
"Exactly. They should give up already and go home if they don’t want to be humiliated further." They laughed as they all left.
Sunnie and the rest said nothing as they headed back to their wooden house. On their way, they noticed that Luka was quiet. He looked down without saying anything and didn’t even bother to speak.
The once bright and sunny Luka, who always had something to say, didn’t bother to speak at all. They all found it strange and concerning.
"Are you okay?" Eris asked as everyone turned to stare at him. Luka was quiet without saying anything.
Karl asked, "That little boar... you found it first, right?" To some extent, Luka was an open book. But he didn’t say anything.
He was quiet for a while before he said, "I’m sorry, everyone." He turned and walked off, walking past their wooden house and into the distance.
Sunnie and the rest simply stood there watching him leave.
Maren blinked, watching him leave as she pulled Azure to say, "Papa, Uncle Bear is sad..."
Azure slowly nodded. "Yes, he is."
---
It was night, and Luka still wasn’t back. They waited for him but didn’t see him. They got worried and wanted to go look for him, but Sunnie and Zayn assured them that he was okay and they should leave him alone.
"He clearly wants to be alone now, so let’s leave him," she explained.
And they did.
That evening, the tribe brought them some meals to eat.
They had given them a pot full of food. As Sunnie and the rest opened it, the awful smell from the pot hit their nostrils.
"What terrible smell is this?!" Eris snapped, almost fainting.
Maren closed her nose. "That smells bad!" She snapped, hiding her face against Azure’s body.
Sunnie closed her nose, staring into the pot. It was some meat, some soup, and some vegetables. But it was clear that the meal was already rotten or something. It smelled terrible. "How do they expect someone to even eat this?"
"They really are treating us like monsters," Little Black snapped. "We should protest. Let’s go there and fight or something!" He insisted.
"You always want to fight," Zukka said, pulling him by the ears. "Don’t you know you’re little?"
"Who cares! We should show them that they can’t walk all over us!" Little Black snapped.
But Sunnie sighed as she said, "Let’s not do that."
Karl folded his arms, staring at her. "So how the hell are we supposed to survive and eat this nonsense? If we don’t speak, they’ll probably give us worse tomorrow or even give us nothing."
Eris nodded. "Makes sense. We can’t die like this."
Maren pulled on Azure. "I’m hungry..."
Sunnie sighed as she stared at the kid. "Don’t worry, we’ll find something to eat."
"And what are we possibly going to eat?" Karl asked.
Sunnie stared at the pot before them and said, "This."
"Huh? How the hell are we supposed to eat that?" Eris demanded. "That would be like asking for our death."
But Sunnie smiled as she said, "Don’t worry. The only issue with the meal is that it wasn’t properly preserved and it has some bad ingredients already going bad in it." She explained, looking through it.
"So what do you want to do?" Little Black inquired.
Sunnie smiled as she said, "We’ll have to revive the meal so it can be edible, at least even if it’s not perfect. Since we can’t gather ingredients and start preparing a new meal now, we’ll have to restore this one at least," she explained.