Chapter 259: Where Is Little Black?
Evening arrived, and they were making preparations to head back. They had harvested all they could for the day and would be continuing another day.
While they packed up to leave, Sunnie was looking around to see if Little Black had perhaps returned. But there was still no sign of him anywhere.
"Seen him?" Maren approached her mother, sitting close to her. "Has Uncle Little Black returned?"
Sunnie shook her head as she stared into the distance. "No... I haven’t seen a sign of him anywhere... Since he left, he hasn’t returned yet, so I don’t know..." She was worried.
She hadn’t been able to work properly while she sat there waiting for Little Black to return from where he had gone.
Maren sighed with a frown. "That might be an issue then... where could he have been?"
They stared around in silence as the rest soon came to join them. The twins were already asleep as Eris carried Lune in his arms and Karl held Luna in his arms.
"What’s wrong? Is he back yet?" Azure came to sit close to her, also staring into the distance. "He’s not back yet?"
Sunnie sighed as she shook her head. "Nothing... I don’t know where he is. He went out and still hasn’t returned, so... I’m worried."
Zayn folded his arms. "Are you sure he’s okay? Did something happen to him?"
Sunnie sighed. "I hope not... Maybe I shouldn’t have let him go when he asked to go. I should have told him to stay..." She said, feeling guilty.
Maren patted her gently on the back. "Don’t worry... He’ll be back. I’m sure."
"Maybe he went home..." Luka said. "Maybe we should try and head back home. Who knows? Maybe he’s already at home." He suggested.
Azure nodded as well. "Yeah. That little bunny is fond of pulling something unpredictable. So maybe he rushed home or something and forgot to remind you. So let’s go home and check if he’s there."
They assured her that that would likely be the case. Sunnie slowly nodded, praying that that would be the case.
"Okay, then," she said, forcing a smile as she looked around. "Since we’re already done, I think we should begin heading back now."
Zayn nodded as he turned. "I’ll go and get the other stuff."
"And I’ll go and get that boy..." Luka sighed as he turned around and watched Ronan running around in the farm with his kite.
Luka shook his head as he walked up to him. "Hey, come here." He pulled Ronan by the ears. "Always playing around... you barely even did any work today. Let’s go." He said, pulling him hard by the ears and dragging him along.
"Ah... ah... ah... my ears... let go..." Ronan struggled but to no avail. His father was pulling him straight out of the farmland while they made preparations to leave.
The others simply watched with smiles, shaking their heads. Maren was pretty much satisfied with the punishment being given to him.
Soon, they had gotten all they needed as they made their way back home.
---
As soon as they arrived, the women who were back home welcomed them.
Sunnie proceeded to ask them while looking around. "Did you see Little Black by any chance? Did he return here or...?"
She stared at the women, who had their eyes on each other. They seemed pretty confused for a while as they shook their heads.
"Little Black?" one of the women asked.
"No, we haven’t seen him at all."
"I don’t think he has returned at all."
"No... he hasn’t returned."
They shook their heads as Sunnie gasped. At that moment, she didn’t know how to feel, knowing that Little Black might actually be lost.
There was no sign of him anywhere, and he hadn’t returned home as well. That basically meant he was lost, and she didn’t even know where to start looking.
"Calm down..." Maren held onto Sunnie, who was already staggering backward. Ronan held her from the other side.
Sunnie shook her head. "I shouldn’t have let him go alone... I shouldn’t have."
"Don’t blame yourself," Luka said. "Let’s stay calm and think of where he could have gone."
Azure nodded. "Yes... let’s think of something and find a way out or something. He should be around somewhere... he should."
They tried calming her down, trying to tell her everything would be fine and that Little Black might actually be somewhere around.
"Don’t worry, we’ll bring him back. We’ll find a way to bring him back," Karl assured.
Ronan and Maren helped Sunnie sit down on a rock while she calmed down, still worried. "Where could he possibly be? What if he encountered some wild beastmen or something? What if he’s in some danger? What then? Little Black isn’t that strong to fight against them... What could he do?"
She was worried while regretting her casual decision of letting him off when he requested to go and do it alone. Now she hated that decision.
"Don’t blame yourself. We’ll find a way out of this," Maren assured.
"We’ll set out immediately to look for him. We’ll make sure we find him before today runs out. We won’t stop until we do," Karl explained.
Eris nodded. "Yes. So don’t stress too much. We’ll find him."
The women had also gathered, surprised by the news. They stood around wondering where he could have gone and what could have happened to him. They were all worried about their precious Little Black at that moment.
Then, Ronan looked around too and asked, "Huh? Where is Papa Tiger?"
Immediately, everyone paused and looked around. There was no sign of Zayn around. Zayn, who was returning with them, was suddenly nowhere to be seen, and immediately, they got worried.
"He was here just now..." Karl said. "Where did he run off to?"
Sunnie gasped at the moment again, closing her eyes from the shock she was feeling. Just when she was looking for Little Black, one of her husbands was also missing?
"Don’t worry... it’ll be fine," Maren sighed. "It’ll be fine."
"There he is!" Ronan pointed to a direction as they also turned to see Zayn approaching.
They let out a sigh of relief—at least he wasn’t missing. They simply watched as Zayn approached them with a broad wooden piece in his hand.
"Where have you been? You made Mama worried," Ronan said.
Zayn approached Sunnie as he handed her the wooden surface. "I found this on our way back."
Sunnie took it and stared at it. Something was written on it, but she couldn’t read it. "What... what does it say?"
Zayn folded his arms as he said, "Calm down... but..." He hesitated before revealing the message while Sunnie got ready to accept whatever he was about to say.
"...Little Black was kidnapped."
As soon as he announced that, everyone gasped. Silence filled the atmosphere as Sunnie stared at him in intense shock. "What?" She asked, unable to believe her ears.
Zayn paused. Everyone was staring at him, curious to get more information from him.
"The tiger tribe and eagle tribe kidnapped him." As soon as he said that, Karl stared at him in shock.
The shock echoed through the silence as they stared at Zayn. No one said anything; they didn’t know what to say. They only stared in disbelief as Zayn had his eyes fixed on Sunnie.
Sunnie didn’t have words. She simply gasped as she shook her head. "What... what do you mean?"
At that moment, Karl spoke up as well. "Kidnapped? The eagle and tiger tribe?" He asked, unsure if he was hearing things right.
Zayn stared at him with a nod. "Yes. You heard that right. The tiger and eagle tribe kidnapped him together and are keeping him hostage."
Sunnie was speechless. "But what..." She wanted to get up to her feet and speak, but her legs were already weak. She fell back down on her seat, and Maren held her firmly. "Careful," she said.
Sunnie stared up at Zayn as she asked, "How is that possible? Why would they want to kidnap him? He... he didn’t do anything... he didn’t... why?" She didn’t even know what to say at that point.
Zayn had his arms folded, trying to stay calm as he said, "Yes. He didn’t do anything. But according to the message they left behind, it’s clear what they want."
"They kidnapped him so they could lure us and get what they want," Zayn explained.
"What do they want?"
Zayn hesitated, staring at Karl and then back at Sunnie. "They want all our harvest. It’s clear they must have already heard about the bountiful harvest produced here. And I’m pretty sure they might have been thinking of a means to strike."
"Physical attacks might not have been ideal for them because of the wild beastmen we have as support. So they resorted to this—kidnapping someone here and making their demands of us handing everything we harvested to them. All our products... every single thing."
He explained as Sunnie gasped, speechless.