Chapter 142: A Little Help.
One of the bears scoffed as he said, "Stalking?! Why would we be following such useless monsters? How dumb!"
"Yeah, this isn’t your space, so why can’t we search through it, huh? We can go anywhere we want!" another defended.
Zayn folded his arms with a cold expression as he stared at them. "Is that so?"
"And who are you to even come here to question us?!" the tribe leader demanded. "You shameless monsters moving around as if you’re part of us? The audacity! You all deserve to be locked up in the evil forest forever. So why are you here acting all mighty?!"
Zayn stared at him, arms folded, eyes cold and lifeless. "Shameless?" he repeated as he stepped forward, approaching them.
As he approached, they all stepped backwards in fear. They still had that fright of someone like Zayn, who didn’t seem like one to mess with. The cold tiger looked like one who was going to tear you apart at any moment, and the bears wouldn’t want to trigger him.
Zayn approached while they stepped backwards in clear fear.
"What? What are you doing?!"
"Back down now, you monster... don’t get any closer!"
"Leave now unless we make you pay!"
But Zayn scoffed as he said, "Who are the shameless ones? Shouldn’t it be the ones following us since they don’t have any way of finding it for themselves?"
"....."
"What rubbish are you talking about?" the leader questioned, but Zayn turned and walked off.
"Well, good luck on the quest." He stopped again as he turned to stare at them. "And remember, don’t even think of playing any tricks. I bite, and I mean it." He smirked as he turned and walked off.
With him gone, the bear beastmen stared at each other and then at the direction he had left from. Immediately, they turned and tried to catch a glimpse of where Sunnie and the rest were.
But they weren’t there. While they were busy with Zayn, Sunnie and the rest had left out of sight.
"That beast!" one of them snapped. "He distracted us!"
They were all pissed off as they looked around to see if they could spot Sunnie or any of them. But there were no signs of them anywhere. They couldn’t even see Zayn anymore.
Pissed, the bear beastmen turned and decided to find their own way.
---
Sunnie and the rest were now moving by a streamside. "We’ve finally lost those annoying creeps," Eris folded his arms with a sigh of relief.
"I guess the tiger did a great job," Little Black suggested as they made their way ahead, still looking for the herb in different spots.
Soon, Zayn joined them. It was as if he had come out of nowhere and was soon walking with them as if he had never left.
"How are you back so easily?" Eris asked. "How did you even find us?"
Zayn said nothing. He had both arms folded as he moved along with them. He simply shrugged.
"Always acting like a ghost," Little Black pointed out, shaking his head.
"So how did it go? Did you distract them or beat them up?" Eris inquired.
Zayn smiled as he casually said, "I guess we’ll find out later."
Little Black blinked. "Don’t tell me you killed them?" Everyone turned and stared at Zayn.
Zayn blinked. "I’m not that bored."
Eris nodded. "Does it really matter, though? As long as they’re not following us anymore."
---
They continued their search around there before moving to the next area. They were already running out of ideas of where to look because no one had any clue where this herb could possibly be.
Even Sunnie was struggling to come up with something. She had considered asking her system for some assistance, but all her system kept saying was:
[System error]
"Useless. Never there when you need it," she snapped as she continued searching through the woods for the herb.
While they were passing by the streamside to begin their search in another spot, Maren suddenly jumped out of Sunnie’s arms.
Sunnie turned in shock, watching the little kid run toward the stream. "Hey... Maren!" she called, running after her.
Maren had stopped by the streamside, running her hands through the water and sand, messing them up.
"Maren, it’s not time for playing right now," Sunnie explained, trying to pick her up. But Maren was persistent, playing with the sand and water.
Sunnie didn’t know how to get her up. She bent down beside her. "Hey, Maren. What now? Do you really want to play with the mud? We just changed you yesterday, though."
She inquired, but Maren said nothing. She was still running her hands through the messy water and sand mixture.
The rest stood behind, watching Sunnie try to convince the kid to stop playing and move with them. But she wouldn’t.
"We should just snatch her and leave," Karl suggested.
They stared at him and raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure you can handle kids?" Eris asked.
Karl scoffed. "What’s hard about that? You all are the ones making it hard for everyone. It’s not that big of a deal," he expressed.
They watched as Sunnie tried convincing the kid, even attempting to carry her. But Maren refused, her hands running deep into the sand now as if she was looking for something.
Soon, she dug something out. It was a leaf—the leaf they were all looking for.
"What’s that?" Eris took a close look. "Why does that look familiar?"
Sunnie stared closer as Maren happily said, "Shiny leaf!"
Immediately, Luka let out a smile of relief. "That’s the herb we’re supposed to find." Everyone was simply shocked at the impressive discovery by the little kid.
Sunnie let out a gasp. "How did she... how did you..." She stared at Maren, who was still digging out more of the herbs from the wet sand beneath the water.
Little Black blinked with a smile. "I guess the little kid actually knows what she’s doing after all. She’s helping out too."