Chapter 260: Operation: Save Little Black
"Are they nuts?!" Luka demanded, speechless. "How can they demand what they don’t even work for?"
"So annoying..." Maren gasped. "They want our food which we worked hard for when their lazy asses couldn’t produce anything? And they even kidnapped one of us to threaten us to give it up?"
There was silence as they all digested the information presented to them. No one had any solutions at hand on how to handle this, so they found themselves sitting and thinking of a quick way out.
"So annoying. I think we should go and attack them! Let’s take them down and get Uncle Little Black back!" Ronan suggested, furious.
"That won’t be easy at all..." Karl said.
He was standing there with both arms folded, thinking through what Zayn had announced.
At that moment, everyone turned and stared at Karl.
It was his tribe. The tiger and eagle tribes mentioned were tribes where he and Zayn were from. So everyone could tell at that moment that it was his people.
But given their expressions, Sunnie could tell that these two didn’t like the resurfacing of their tribes in this situation. After all the trauma they must have gone through in the hands of their people, it was clear that they would never wish to face them again.
But with the situation at hand, Sunnie guessed they’d be forced to face their past and their people soon enough.
"...They are stronger than we might think. The two tribes—tiger and eagle—are powerful collective beast tribes," Karl said.
"They’re one of the most powerful tribes in the beast world already, so coming together as they always do, they’re even more powerful. They’ve been working together for as long as I can remember, making them formidable," Zayn explained.
Karl sighed. "So fighting them directly is a stupid task at hand. It’s already shocking that they decided to resort to such petty means instead of coming directly."
Azure folded his arms as he stared at them. "So it means they’re up to something?"
Zayn stared at the written notice. "That’s basically what they want—the food and everything we’ve produced. They have a record of taking what they want by force. So this shouldn’t be any different."
Ronan frowned. "We shouldn’t give it to them at all. It’s not fair. We can’t work hard and let them have it all," he insisted.
Sunnie sighed as she stared into the distance. "Little Black is with them. He’s probably at risk now and is probably scared. They won’t be kind to him at all. So I think if we’re going to act, we should be quick about it."
Zayn and Karl were quiet as they stared at each other. As though they were speaking with their eyes, they slowly nodded as they stared at Sunnie.
"Don’t worry, we’ll make sure we bring him back safely. We’ll make sure they don’t lay a finger on him," Zayn said, staring at Sunnie.
Everyone stared at them as Sunnie asked, "What do you mean by that?"
Zayn smiled as she said, "You all should stay here safely and don’t let anyone out so no one goes missing again. I and Karl will head over to the tribe and rescue him."
Sunnie raised an eyebrow as she asked, "How are you two going to even do that? I mean... it’s dangerous already."
"The tribe probably hates the two of you. They abandoned you and cursed you, remember? They’ll probably kill you if you go back. You two can’t probably take down the whole tribe to save Little Black. It’s dangerous for the two of you," she explained.
Karl said, "But Little Black is in danger... so we have to save him."
"But that doesn’t mean you two should risk it like that. We don’t need anyone else getting into unnecessary trouble..." Sunnie said as she looked around. "We have to think before acting... at least let’s come up with something to work."
They were silent as they stared at each other, thinking amongst themselves of what to do and how to go about the situation at hand to save Little Black.
---
The evening went by quietly. They went through their normal routines that night—cooking, eating, and all. But they couldn’t bring themselves to casually sit down and discuss under the moonlight when Little Black was still missing.
And so they slowly began retiring to their houses that night after dinner. Silence engulfed the atmosphere while they were all worried about Little Black.
Little Black, who was always so helpful to everyone, had gone missing. So everyone was worried and simply hoped that he’d come back safely.
After that night when they had all gone to bed, the next morning, Zayn and Karl set off as early as possible.
Before everyone could properly wake up to even know what was happening, the two of them were already gone. They had set off for their journey.
Sunnie sat down at the compound that morning, sitting on a rock and staring into the distance as though she was waiting for their return.
Azure, Luka, and Eris walked up to Sunnie, standing there at her side and staring into the distance where she was staring.
"They’re already gone?" Azure asked as Sunnie nodded.
Eris stared down at Sunnie, resting a hand on her shoulder to calm her down as he said, "Don’t worry, everything will work out. They’ll be fine... and so will Little Black... so don’t worry."
He assured as Sunnie slowly nodded. "Hopefully..."
Luka folded his arms, staring into the distance as he asked, "Are you sure we shouldn’t go? Is it really okay if we stay here and let them go alone?"
Sunnie sighed with a nod as she said, "Yes. It’s better they go. That way it should work better." She explained with a nod.
And so they stood there without questions. Her beast husbands stood there while staring into the distance. It was as though they were waiting for some answers that weren’t coming anytime soon, waiting with hope on the decision they had already taken.
---
Karl and Zayn had set off back to their tribe.
They walked down the evil forest and made their way through the woods. It was a day’s journey, and before long, the two of them had finally arrived at their destination.
The great tribe of the tiger beastmen.
This was their headquarters—the tribe where most of the operations happened, the place where most of the beastmen stayed. And they were mainly the tiger beastmen.
The eagle beastmen also had their tribe which was close by. Their tribe was located on the mountain close by. And most times, the eagle beastmen always made their way down to the tiger tribe.
Over the years, the two powerful tribes had come together to maximize their power and influence, dominating other tribes with their rule and power.
Karl and Zayn stood there at the entrance, staring at the trees leading into the tribe. They stood there for a while, staring at the entrance while they stared at themselves.
It was as though they were walking into an end zone or something—somewhere where they needed some second thoughts before making further movements.
As the two of them stood there staring into the distance, memories came flashing back. They could recall most of what happened—all which had happened to them in past years.
They could recall all they went through in the hands of this tribe. And the thought didn’t leave them with any fond memories of this place at all. All they could think about was malice for this land in the most toxic ways possible.
The two kept their calm and composure as they nodded at each other. They had told themselves it was for Sunnie and Little Black. So even though they had sworn to themselves never to come back here at all, they had gone against their promise to come and save a family.
"Let’s go," Karl said as the two of them nodded. And so they walked straight into the tribe without looking back.
---
As they pulled closer inside the tribe where houses were erected, they began seeing people.
Tiger beastmen and women were roaming the areas, going about their daily lives when they caught sight of strange people stepping into their territory.
They found them strange because unlike most tiger tribe beastmen, Zayn had a different appearance. He didn’t conventionally look like most tiger beastmen. And his different appearance was one of the outstanding reasons why he was made the scapegoat.
They stood there, hands on their mouths, gossips flying through the atmosphere as they stared in their direction. They watched the two of them casually step into the tribe as if nothing was happening.
And at that moment, they had come to the realization who these people were.
"Isn’t that....?"
"The cursed beastmen exiled from our tribes ages ago?"
"Yes!! They’re the ones! What are these shameless beings doing back here again?" They demanded, speechless.