NOVEL NEXT 24 – After The Battle
"Damn..." when he heard the voice from the distance he remembered that he still needed to help Urchin.
So with effort, he pulled himself up as he went towards the tree Urchin was leaning on. Besides him, the wounded wolf was lying down with one eye closed.
Despite Stone's aversion, he appreciated this wolf who despite its weakness still fought bravely.
"Urchin, do you know what poison they use ?"
Asked Stone who already got closer to Urchin and looked at his wounded side.
"Yeah... It's usually the blackthorn. But now I think they used something different. I know probably why..." Urchin who was relieved that the fight ended said with a pale face.
Stone frowned as he started to examine Urchin's wound to recognize the poison and waited for him to continue.
"I have learned a little of their tribe language in boredom once. Those two before me said something about the moose and our bodies...
Those motherfuckers wanted to eat us together with the moose!"
"Hah?" Stone who heard this shivered as he realized why they looked at him with such a gaze. It seemed it wasn't just bloodlust.
"Seeing your reaction, I guess this isn't their regular behavior? No that's not important now. So you think that the poison is something easily curable as otherwise they wouldn't use poison on 'their food' ?" When Stone saw Urchin agreeing he nodded to himself as his hypothesis seemed to be right. He was a little confused as to why would the enemies use the poison which can be cured by herb which is literally everywhere but now it makes sense.
The poison they used was one called Green Dream as it usually slowly paralyzes the body until you lose consciousness. It wasn't absolutely fatal but still, more than half people who didn't take the antidote never woke up.
So he went to look around and in just half a minute he found the herb. He collected it and gave it Urchin to chew on. Then he stopped the bleeding of the wound properly and bandaged it with a clean cloth.
"Heh, I really envy that regeneration of yours! Now I will need to be weeks in bed! My training will be delayed and my body strength, stamina, and all will regress! I hate it!" Urchin was gloomy as he was complaining about the unfairness of the world.
But Stone completely ignored him as he treated him. Maybe he was a little rougher as to make Urchin quiet with a pale face as he suffered the pain.
Once done Stone stood and wiped his hands he told Urchin to get on the sled. Then he turned towards Hunter who still lied down. He came to it and crouched again and checked its wounds.
Those wounds were long but most of them were shallow with only one deeper. What looked ugly though was the slash across the eye. Stone forcefully opened its eye but fortunately, it seemed that the eyeball wasn't damaged thus not affecting the eyesight of the eye. Of course, there will be a big scar that won't disappear even with Kaoran's help but something like that doesn't matter to the wolf.
The problem was when it came to the herb he needed to feed it. The wolf despite its intelligence simply refused to eat the herb so Stone needed to feed it to it with force.
So he opened its jaws against its will but when he wanted to throw the herb in he stiffened. The smell of the wolf's mouth made his nausea worsen as he stumbled a little.
He gritted his teeth and mustered his willpower to put one of his hands into its jaws deep enough so the Hunter could not cough it out.
"Wait here, I need to check around."
"All right, thanks mate for Hunter's sake." Urchin smiled as he patted the grumbling wolf who came to him to complain about the unfair treatment.
"Sure." after that Stone went around to gather the weapons they left behind. He looked around if the corpses didn't have anything useful on them and checked the entire area.
When he got to the place they were ambushed he found one corpse and two heavily injured enemies. The killed one had an arrow in the lung but the real cause of the death was the head turned into a bad angle. By the position of the body, it was obvious that after he got hit he fell to his death from the tree.
The other injured was also hit by Urchin's arrow as he lay down further away on one of the tree branches tending to his wounds. He had the arrow right in the stomach narrowly surviving.
Unfortunately, before he could escape or go to help his comrades everything already ended. Stone who found him with the traces of the blood took out his bow and aimed at him.
He was thinking about whether to just incapacitate and interrogate him but dismissed the thought. While it didn't seem so dangerous to him since he has the quick regeneration it didn't mean he was completely safe. Furthermore, he would need to take him back towards Urchin as he didn't understand their language. Unfortunately, even Urchin wasn't fluent so the details would be lost in translation.
So he drew the bow with an arrow, steadied his breath, and released the arrow. The enemy didn't even know how he died before he got another arrow right in the chest killing him instantly.
Then he returned to the last one who seemed uncoscious. It was the one who Stone slammed out of the sled. He lay down on the ground with blood stains a few meters long behind him. He seemed to try to crawl away when he was still conscious but with his current state, it was impossible. After crashing into Stone his bones cracked and when he fell off the sled at that speed his bones completely shattered and part of his chest caved. It was a miracle that he still lived and Stone wouldn't believe it if he didn't see his chest regularly rising.
But not anymore as Stone mercilessly lifted the handle of the axe and decapitated the man.
When the man's head rolled the mask slid off revealing yet another youthful face.
'Hmm most of them are in their early twenties. But while young they were still much more experienced than us but seemed quite weak. So what made them attack us in this way ?'
While attacking other tribes was usual the desperate behavior of those guys was abnormal.
When he looked closer towards their bodies he realized they were malnourished. It really seemed that they didn't have a full stomach for quite a while.
'So they really wanted to eat us huh... This also explains why they seemed weaker than us in the fight. Is it a problem of the entire tribe or just this particular hunting team ?'
Bakur tribe as mentioned before let the children usually form teams of two to five and let them hunt and contribute a certain quota of meat to the tribe every month. Those teams are usually formed a few years after baptism after rigorous training and learning how to hunt.
As Kaoran mentioned before, this tribe doesn't raise you for free and every child needs to contribute. For a quota's worth of meat, children get to have enough food, clothes, weapons, rest, education, and training. Once they don't meet the quota there are restrictions until they do so. Of course, the opposite is the same. Once you give more you get more.
Stone heard that the Bakur tribe wasn't the only tribe who did this and many others were the same or even more ruthless. So Stone wondered if this was one of those ruthless tribes. But of course, since Urchin was so surprised then it meant this was an abnormal situation.
'Is there so strife in their tribe? Or did the migration of animals influenced them so much? After all in the north meat is the most important source of food since corn and grains won't grow here let alone some vegetables and fruit trees. But those tribes should be rearing their livestock for meat so there should not be such shortage of meat inside of their tribe unless something happened.'
He shook his head and stopped to think about it. He will discuss it with Kaoran and Degres once they get back. Stone felt that they should get to the clan as soon as possible and not waste time here.
Once he made sure that there was nobody else he chose to go back in a hurry. While Urchin had already an antidote and his battle prowess returned it didn't mean that he could fight next round. Leaving them alone was his trust in them and the need to get rid of all variables.
When he got back to the sled he was relieved that nothing happened but soon frowned when smelled some pungent smell. Urchin was just tying the sled back to Hunter who seemed to recover some of his strength after a little rest. Little farther from him was snow tainted with vomit. Looks like that once Urchin got out of the dangerous situation he couldn't avoid the nausea of killing for the first time.
"Do we still keep the Moose? Those bastards completely perforated it with those poisonous arrows. But on the other hand, I don't want to give up on it. We just risked our lives for it..." Urchin who heard Stone's steps turned to him and asked him a question.
When Urchin said this his face showed a reluctant expression. Stone understood his frustrations as the moose they got was big enough to fill the quota even for other month and lately it is harder and harder to hunt some worthwhile game as a lot of animals migrates to the south because of the worsening winter...
"The Uhera Tribe is farther in the north than our clan right ?"
"Hmm? Yes, they should be. Why you ask ?"
"Did they migrate in the past when the winter came?
"Hmm... I don't think so... Most of the tribes in the north do not migrate. Since they settled there they were aware of harsh winter there and adapted." Urchin said with a thoughtful expression.
Stone furrowed his brows. They needed to hurry.
"We take the moose. Can't afford to lose it. Grand Shaman will detoxify it. Now, we need to go."
Urchin who saw his behavior nodded, turned around, and gestured for Hunter to pull them toward the home...
Unfortunately, they were already at the bottom of the hill so the only thing they could do was to push too. It was hard after all that fighting but they had a much stronger will than normal children of their age so they managed somehow.
This time though they were trying to be as inconspicuous as they could be with five-meter-tall moose. They didn't know if there were any other ambushers around and didn't want to find out.
"Stone, why are you in such a hurry? Did you think of anything ?" Urchin who was pushing the sled with exertion turned his face at Stone who was concentrating on the pushing. He also felt there was something wrong but he didn't feel such a hurry as Stone.
"Lately animals were migrating from the north to south in very high numbers which caused uproar in the tribe. Furthermore, because of that, many animals from this region also started migrating as if on instinct. And now even tribe from the north that normally didn't do so turned up here hunting us. So something must have happened in the north. "
Urchin took a deep breath as he realized the problem.
Once all animals disappear they will lose the main source of food. Once the tribes further in the north migrate here they will fight the Bakur Tribe for food. Or hunting them as food. Both were possible as they just happened to them and there was a chance that happened to other tribesmen who were outside of camp. Furthermore who said that the problem happening in the north didn't concern them too?
Usually, in the Frozen Valas Tundra, bad winters lasted for a few years, and then the weather would get better for another few years. This was the normal cycle of this place. And now when the warm weather will soon end the Bakur Tribe would usually start their journey through the Frozen Valas Tundra as the valley always gets frozen. But in this situation, it may get complicated.
After saying all this Stone fell into silence and Urchin was also quiet. Stone didn't know if this was the real reason but all the hints directed to this conclusion.
In the end, he needed to ask Kaoran to make a real conclusion. But Stoned feared that the times before them would be grim if this was the truth.
Both of them got farther from the place of the ambush and were sliding through the snow with heavy hearts. Stone's injury already healed completely showing his unfair ability to regenerate. On the other hand, Urchin's side stopped bleeding but was still nasty.
By overexerting himself during the way his wound opened so they needed to stop so Stone could stop the bleeding.
Because of this tempo slowed down and their already late return was delayed even more.
When they got already close to the valley it was already deep in the night. All in all, it took them 5 hours to get home after hunting the moose. Now close to home they finally relaxed.
But they noticed the clamor that wasn't usual at this time in the camp. Seeing that light was lit all around the camp the duo seemed to be a little nervous as they hurried...