Chapter 274: REUNION
Little Black stood there staring and blinking, his eyes wide in shock. He didn’t know how to feel; he didn’t know how to react. He simply stood there staring at Zukka, who was standing before him.
Like strangers reuniting after years, the two stood there staring at each other. Their eyes said it all, expressing the surprise and joy that ran through their faces while they looked at one another.
Little Black was shocked. He couldn’t believe his eyes. He couldn’t believe to see Zukka here. He didn’t expect that he’d come. But here he was—he had come to his rescue, and he didn’t know how to react.
"You..." Little Black casually muttered, staggering backward, speechless.
But Zukka stood there with a smile lingering on his face as he slowly approached him. "Nice to meet you... again," he said with a gentle smile.
Little Black was struggling to hold in the tears that were building up in his eyes. But he couldn’t hold them back. The tears had given in and were gently making their way down from his eyes. "You..."
Without a word, Zukka approached him and pulled him in for a hug.
Sunnie and the rest stood with smiles on their faces. They watched the two of them hug firmly after a long time apart. They felt the warmth in the hug and the happiness that came with it as well.
Eris came to stand close beside Sunnie as he smiled. "I guess our bickering duo gets to meet again," Eris chuckled.
Sunnie smiled. "I guess."
The two stayed like that for a long while, Zukka pulling him in for a hug. After a while, they separated and stared up at each other.
Zukka checked all around him. "How do you feel? Are you hurt? Did they do anything to you at all? Is your arm hurt?" He was worried as he checked all over him.
But Little Black shook his head as he said with a smile, "Don’t worry at all... I’m fine." He expressed, "But why the hell are you even here? Shouldn’t you be at your tribe or something?" He questioned.
Zukka stared at him, patting him on his rabbit ears. "How can I comfortably stay back at my tribe when you’re in danger?" He asked.
"Immediately he heard that the little rabbit has been kidnapped by some evil beastmen, he instantly left everything to his sister to take care of and rushed back here," Luka explained with a smile.
Little Black blinked. "Sister Zuna is handling everything?" He was impressed at the development of things.
Zukka nodded with a smile. "Yes. She’s capable enough, so why not? Besides, I think everyone will come around soon after seeing how capable she is." He smiled as he added, staring at Sunnie, "All thanks to the female’s influence."
Sunnie smiled back at him as he stared down at Little Black. "Are you okay?"
He nodded. "Don’t worry... I’m fine." He said, "You didn’t have to come all the way here... it’s not like I’m dying or..."
"No. It’s something I had to do." Little Black stated firmly. "I had to save you... and that’s the most important thing for me."
The two of them stood there staring at each other in the feel of the moment. Sunnie smiled at the scene with everyone around.
Luka teased, "I guess our little icy rabbit has finally defrosted. For once he’s not so cold and bickering with our lion prince."
Sunnie smiled, folding her arms. "He finally has a heart, all thanks to our lion prince," she added as they laughed.
But Little Black frowned immediately as he said, "I don’t know what you’re talking about." He insisted, looking away. "Humph."
"Oh well," Eris smiled as he added, "I guess our ice prince has gone back to his ice state. Mr. Lion has to work harder to get him back then," he laughed.
Zukka smiled as he stared at Little Black. "Since you’re already safe now... I think that’s all that matters. Now let’s work towards getting out of here safely... then everything will be fine."
Little Black slowly nodded. He was happy to see Zukka again. He was overjoyed to have him back after a while. But the little rabbit couldn’t simply admit it.
He couldn’t admit that he had missed him all this while and was happy to have him back. So he simply smiled with a nod as they turned to the rest.
"So what do we do now?" Zukka asked with Little Black standing beside him, whom he was protecting.
Sunnie folded her arms as she stared at the beastmen who were on the floor, unconscious. "By now they should be fighting, so I think it’s time to take the next grand step." She stared at them. "We should pay them an open visit," she expressed.
They stared at each other while nodding. They were getting to the last part of their plan, one where they would have to face them all once and for all.
But Zayn had something else to add. "Before we leave..." He said firmly as he turned and stared at the beastmen who had fallen to the ground.
"Anything?" Sunnie inquired.
"Throwing them into unconsciousness won’t be enough," he said firmly as Sunnie stared at him.
"And what do you suggest we do?" she inquired.
Zayn didn’t say anything. He turned to Karl as they stared at each other quietly for a while. After a while, they nodded.
They decided to hang these beastmen upside down from a tree there while they were still unconscious.
The others simply stood there watching them, speechless, while they did their own part of the revenge. After they were done, the two of them clasped their hands together as though cleansing off dirt.
Zayn said with a firm expression, "And that’s what you get for trying to harm the female."
"You don’t dare harm our mate and go free for it," Karl expressed.
"...." Sunnie blinked, speechless while she stared at them. She didn’t know what to say for a while. "Are you sure that’s a safe thing to do?"
Zayn smiled at her. "It’s not supposed to be a safe thing to do." He winked at her. "It’s a punishment."
Sunnie went speechless for a while as she asked again, "What if he dies?"
"Then he should have thought about that while aiming to kill us off," Karl expressed as they turned to leave. "So let’s head off."
Sunnie wanted to be a moral police while waiting for her system to snap at her for her husbands doing something crazy again.
And so she was waiting for that system notification. But it never came. The system didn’t snap.
And so Sunnie stood there staring. "I guess not...?"
"Let’s go," Zayn and Karl had already walked past her as they turned to her again. "We have to go and see what they’re up to, to know when to step in."
Sunnie turned to them. "Oh, okay," she said as she headed off with them.
And so all of them made their way through the thick forest with no one around. They headed down to the tribe where the fight was happening.
---
For a while now, the fight between the two beast species was still ongoing. The two kept fighting amongst themselves endlessly while destroying everything around them.
The fight was hot and intense that night, and some people were already dying from it.
The tribe leaders were safely standing at their distances under the protection of their men. But soon, they were closed in on. Some people began attacking them.
The eagle beastmen had successfully invaded the protection of the tiger lord and proceeded to attack him, forcing the tiger beast lord to fight back.
He pulled out his weapon and struck against them.
On the other hand, the eagle beast lord was also involved in the fight. He was forced to pull out his weapon to fight too.
The fight went on for long before their numbers slowly died off and they grew weak and tired at the same time.
At that moment, their men were all going down in number, and the tribe lords knew they needed reinforcements.
But before they could even think of how to get one, a smoke substance invaded the land.
Someone had released heavy smoke into the atmosphere, and it had occupied everywhere. It was hard to see and almost impossible to even breathe properly.
The fight stopped as everyone looked around, shocked and alert to know what was happening while getting ready to face anything in this dangerous-looking smoke.
Even some had urgently begun groping through the air to find their way out of this thick smoke that kept growing. But to no avail.
Everyone coughed and inhaled through the smoke while struggling to escape. But soon enough, before they could even find their way out, the smoke began clearing off slowly.
Their vision slowly cleared off as the smoke disappeared as if it was never there to start with. In this sudden state of confusion, these beastmen looked around urgently to understand what the hell had just happened.