Chapter 55: Chapter 55: The Cause of the Coma

"Be careful, be a little careful."

Sane stretched out his arms to hover protectively behind Kaelen’s back. Whichever way Kaelen walked, he would follow, just afraid that he would accidentally trip and fall. Collins watched the young couple interact, covered his mouth to smile, and said:

"Alright Kaelen, aren’t you dizzy pacing back and forth all this time? Look, Sane is so worried that his eyebrows are twisting together."

Kaelen’s footsteps suddenly stopped, and he sheepishly scratched his nose. He was just too anxious and didn’t know what to do, so he paced back and forth to ease the tension, completely forgetting that he was pregnant.

[Why aren’t they here yet?]

Quinlan said the distance wasn’t far. With the speed of beastmen, they should have arrived a long time ago. It’s already dark now, why hasn’t anyone been seen yet?

Sane was just about to answer when he saw torchlight flickering in the distance. He patted Kaelen’s shoulder:

"Look, haven’t they arrived?"

Kaelen turned his head to look, seeing the flickering torches in the distance gradually growing larger, reflecting many silhouettes.

Walter, walking at the front of the group, saw Kaelen among the people coming out to welcome them. He happily pulled up his leg to kick Anthony in the stomach, his hands excitedly grabbing the fur on the back of his neck, and shouted loudly:

"Kaelen! We are here!"

Anthony, having the fur on the back of his neck grabbed, immediately howled: "My little ancestor, if you grab it like that all my fur will fall out, and I haven’t even found a mate yet!"

Walter pouted: "As if you could find a mate when your fur isn’t falling out. You leftover tiger~"

Anthony was furious, wanting to throw this brat off. But without waiting for him to do it, Walter actively jumped down and ran at full speed towards Kaelen. Ronin sat on the back of a Curved-Horn Goat clan beastman, sighing for the umpteenth time that day. The Curved-Horn Goat beastman burst out laughing and consoled: "It’s fine, having the energy to run is good, don’t mind the rest."

A bird clan Sub-Beast walking parallel to them also spoke up: "That’s right, our bird clan should be flying and jumping around. Why are you so strict with the boy?"

Ronin was sullen and unhappy again: "Your Sub-Beasts don’t go around shooting people’s heads at the drop of a hat, so whatever you say sounds right. That brat Walter even bosses beastmen around like his pets. He’s already not very pretty; how is he supposed to get married like this?"

The bird clan Sub-Beast stifled a laugh. Actually, Walter wasn’t bad; it was just that his facial features were too sharp, making him look more like a beastman than a Sub-Beast at first glance. However, if their tribe still had the large bird clans, Walter would be the most sought-after mate prospect.

Walter ran to a few steps away from Kaelen and braked in time to avoid bumping into his friend. The little brat behind him didn’t think so. Just as Walter braked, a black shadow swooped past him, pounced towards Kaelen, and then was grabbed by the scruff of the neck by Sane, dangling in mid-air.

"Ah ah ah! Stinky Brother Sane, let me go right now! Why do you grab my scruff every time?!"

Wilder bared his fangs and brandished his claws, growling at Sane. Sane said sternly: "You cannot jump onto Kaelen, he can’t withstand your weight."

Wilder’s tiger ears drooped dejectedly. At this moment, a group of little cubs from the Obsidian tribe all ran over with thudding steps; some hugged his legs, some hugged his thighs, and the smaller ones even climbed onto his body. For a moment, deafening cries echoed straight into the brains of the Crimson tribesmen behind them.

"Oh my, why are there so many kids? Oh, my ears!"

"Wow, I didn’t expect Kaelen to be so popular with children. I remember the little brats in our tribe also really liked clinging to him, right?"

"That’s true, children have pure minds. If they like someone, they show it, without as many calculating thoughts as adults."

"What clan is the kid climbing on his head? Why is it so small?"

"That’s the Small Cat clan. This Obsidian tribe really has every clan, huh?"

While the Crimson crowd happily chatted, the Obsidian group also arrived. Jaxon emotionally punched Sane’s shoulder, then affectionately rubbed Kaelen’s head, before squeezing past the two of them and taking the initiative to bow to Collins.

"Greetings, you must be Priest Collins of the Crimson tribe, right? On behalf of my tribesmen, I thank you for your great kindness. Thank you for not minding the trouble and taking in homeless people like us."

Collins and the people of the Crimson tribe all bowed in return. He said: "We are all beastmen; lending a helping hand is the right thing to do. It’s already dark, and we have finished setting up the tents. However, the number is limited, so I must trouble Chief Jaxon to arrange them yourselves. Once that’s done, tell everyone to come to the center of the tribe. Tonight we are lighting a bonfire; until the fire dies out, no one leaves!"

The Obsidian people all felt their noses tingle. There were even soft sniffling sounds from the group; despite trying to suppress them, they still fell into the sharp ears of the Crimson people. Everyone laughed heartily, stepped forward, and enthusiastically welcomed them:

"Oh hey, what are you crying for? Today is a happy day, don’t be so sorrowful. Come, come here, we will lead everyone into the tribe."

"Old sir, give me your basket to carry. Oh my, what are you all carrying that’s so heavy?"

"Sir, walk carefully, the road here is very slippery."

"Oh, you little brats, don’t keep clinging to Kaelen. Come here, come here, I will take you to the Crimson kids. They have been waiting for you since the afternoon!" 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Everyone had something to say, warmly welcoming the Obsidian people into the tribe. No, from today onwards, they were no longer Obsidian people; they were people of the Crimson tribe!

On the other side, within the Obsidian tribe, a small Sub-Beast hugged his stomach, poked at the white tubers in the fire, and turned to say to his Papa and Daddy:

"I’m so hungry, why don’t we eat yellow tuber starch strands anymore."

His Daddy was fixing a wooden chair, but no matter what, he couldn’t fix it, and had to give up. He said sullenly:

"The strands that were drying were all destroyed by everyone. The Chief’s group also took quite a lot away, and the rest were sealed in the storehouse by the elders. They said it’s the food of Evil Spirits, and if we eat too much, we’ll be assimilated into demons."

The small Sub-Beast pouted: "The white tubers we eat were also found by Kaelen, and we’ve been eating them for years without any problems. I think the elders just want to hoard it for their own clans..."

Before the Sub-Beast could finish his sentence, his mouth was covered by his Papa, who scolded softly: "Don’t speak nonsense, they are not as benevolent as Jaxon!"

The Sub-Beast immediately didn’t dare to say anything more, but remained unconvinced in his heart. In the past, when Chief Jaxon was still in the tribe, he had never gone hungry. Even when the tribe went through a famine season, their Sub-Beast group didn’t have to worry about food. Now, they had to endure hunger every day, and on top of that, they were forced to go reclaim land or something. His hands were now so rough that even he himself didn’t want to touch them.

He really missed the Chief.

There were many others who had similar thoughts to this Sub-Beast, but no one dared to voice them out loud, afraid of being considered possessed by Evil Spirits, burned to death, or chased away.

Moharm sat in the middle of the council table, tapping his fingers on the tabletop. The Second Elder sitting to his right said: "Did the Chief say when he would come over here? With only a few hundred people from Obsidian, it’s impossible to make that much fired pottery."

The Third Elder leisurely took a sip of water and replied: "The other side just went through a blizzard. The Chief is still busy gathering up scattered clans; perhaps the one coming over here will be the Young Chief."

The Seventh Elder just sat silently, saying nothing. The Chief and Young Chief they were talking about here were obviously not Jaxon, but Nathan, the Lion beastman of the Cipher tribe. The Seventh Elder also didn’t care who the Chief was; to him, as long as it helped his Small Cat clan give birth to warrior beastmen, it was fine.

From ancient times to the present, the status of the Small Cat clans in the tribes had never been valued, because their beast forms were tiny, their combat power was not even a tenth of the Large Cat clans, and they had no warrior beastmen. Furthermore, the population of the Small Cat clans was extremely small; they could only do odd jobs or work as hired help for beastmen of other clans to earn a bite to eat. Many times, their existence was practically invisible.

When the Obsidian tribe split up, the Jungle Cat clan, the Andean Mountain Cat clan, and the Lynx clan had followed Jaxon. In the current tribe, only the Manul Cat clan, the Golden Cat clan, and the Fire Leopard clan remained. All three cat clans combined weren’t even as numerous as a single branch of the Fox clan.

Chief Jaxon was gone, but their Small Cat clans still did what they had always done; nothing had changed. Therefore, the Seventh Elder felt that whether the tribe was named Obsidian or Cipher, it didn’t matter at all.

While the old elders of the Obsidian tribe were discussing ways to curry favor with the upcoming Young Chief, the old Chief of Obsidian—Jaxon—was in Collins’s tent, waiting for him to examine Nyx’s trio.

Collins examined them for a while but couldn’t find the cause. On the contrary, his disciple Asher thought of a possibility and told the assistant Sub-Beasts to help turn the three of them over, carefully checking their necks and behind their ears. Asher indeed found a small, pinhole-like puncture behind the ears of the three Sub-Beasts, and said:

"In the past, when our White Rabbit clan was still in the Tania mountain range, we would occasionally encounter this situation. As long as we accidentally got Wide-Mouth pollen on our bodies, it would immediately attract Buzzing beasts. These Buzzing beasts look very similar to Sharp-Needle beasts, but their body size is only one-tenth as large. When stung by a Buzzing beast, a person will fall into a deep sleep; if no one discovers them, they will die of hunger and thirst."

Jaxon asked anxiously: "Then is there any cure?"

Asher smiled and said: "The cure is very simple. Catch a Buzzing beast, pull out the needle on its tail to get its intestines, then mix it with Wide-Mouth flower petals, boil it, and give it to them to drink. Each person only needs the intestines of three Buzzing beasts and one Wide-Mouth flower. It just so happens that I have all those things ready here."

Collins took the medicine Asher handed over, feeling only a very fragrant floral scent. He clicked his tongue in praise:

"To think there are such strange creatures in the world. It is still your rabbit clan that has talent in this area."

Asher scratched his cheek sheepishly. Draven also curiously leaned closer to ask Asher questions, and the two Rabbit clan Sub-Beasts quickly became friends.