"I was trapped in an ancient temple!" cried Flieday "There I learnt something which will bring Chinenkind closer to divinity!"
Dawn stared at her with her abyss-like eyes before smiling pleasantly, "Now let us camp here and share some water before talking."
Flieday nodded, the huge group started camping as they both entered a small cramped camp. "So Flieday, I am still confused. How did you manage to distract Inky?"
Flieday frowned as she shook her head, "You are mistaken; I am yet to find something which could hide from it."
Dawn sighed before nodding, "Flieday, a kidnapping occurred as soon as you left."
"I see, I hope we fi-"
"We found golden hair around the torn tent; the tent was torn with pure physical might."
"So?" Flieday gave her an amused reaction.
I did not do such a thing. Why would anyone do that? A treasury? No, a tribe? No… I got it!
"Dawn, how much do you know about the Moon tribe?"
Dawn raised her eyebrows, coming to a vague understanding. "The only xenophobe super tribe… I see."
Interestingly, I had been so fixated on Friday that I did not think of such a possibility. A supertribe could sense us and may even try to sabotage us due to their hatred. But that is all it is, just a possibility. I cannot trust a demon.
"So where were you, really? Why did you abandon us?"
If I tell the truth, I would be considered a Requim beast and exterminated.
Flieday sighed
"I was trapped in a temple with some old fucks trying to sacrifice me."
Dawn's eyes widened before she quickly came to her senses. "Do you know which tribe it was?"
Flieday stood up "Before that, I have an announcement to make; you will have to wait for a moment."
Why would she hide which tribe it was? It could be that she is lying and is buying time to expand upon it, or she feels that talking about it may be harmful to our group. Dawn thought
Dawn nodded as they both went to the middle of the group. "From now on, I will represent this group." Flieday announced.
Is she trying to divide the group? She obviously knows that her disappearing and abruptly coming back can be seen as abandonment; moreover, the group was already in my control.
However, If I stop Flieday now it will lead to the group's unity weakening and a possible civil war.
Damn it, she got me! Dawn thought as she quietly waited to see how Flieday would handle the situation.
"The Hum Tribe's descendants had caught me! However, they could not win against the indomitable spirit of Chinenkind!" Flieday roared as people gathered around her started gossiping.
The Hum Tribe's descendants have been doing Chinen experiments to grant Chinen mystical powers of graded beasts. Makes for a good cover story. Dawn thought.
[What are you talking about?] The voice questioned.
Flieday ignored the voice and continued, "I had to sacrifice my beloved Gloen to tame a stronger beast, so I may not speak much. I apologize for it."
Flieday calmly stepped down, giving Dawn a quick glance.
Flieday sighed in relief; finally, she was starting to go towards her goal.
Soon Flieday held a makeshift meeting calling all the tamers and made up a story of the remnant of the Hum tribe notorious for Chinen sacrifices that had captured her and how she escaped. Even if someone was unconvinced, Flieday having a grade three beast would give her the authority of a tribe leader, anyway.
She divided the work and calculated that their journey would only last for one more Dawnlay.
Grade one beast or what she was right now are usually prey and feed on small animals. Grade two to three are the predators, thus grade one beasts are usually not an enormous problem. But that was for the unintelligent ones.
Intelligent grade one beasts were a menace, capable of destroying small tribes due to their use of power or light.
…
"Boss, should we kill the new leader?"
An ordinary man covered in ordinary animal skin and leaves said in an ordinary tone to himself. Before further adieu a voice whispered in his ear.
"Well, let us play with this new fish first. We can easily destroy this group but we must wait and make it seem like an accident."
…
"The Chinen body is quite strong. It takes far more effort to fully kill one."
Re moon said with a calm but melancholic voice. He was pouring black, sticky oil on a sleeping child as he continued,
"Pay close attention. The boy will wake up at any second. Do not think of him as a fellow living being; think of him for what he is. A traitor.
He could have led to our entire tribe getting destroyed." Re moon lied.
Smiling, he noticed the boy twitch slightly. "Now repeat, what is our goal?"
"To make him suffer?"
"Grant him pain before relief!"
"Make him regret!"
These voices were full of hesitation, and regret — after all, they belonged to a group of kids.
The group of boys looked around themselves, trying to find an escape before lowering their heads as Re moon nodded. Re moon let out a hidden yawn; it was getting boring and repetitive now.
But it was important. It was not something he wanted to do, it was something he had to do. Now it felt like a boring chore he had to do every year, a repetitive one.
The sleeping boy churned as he woke up, Mom? He thought.
He felt something cold on his leg, spreading to envelope his whole body — that was only for a fraction of a second though. The weird chilly feeling turned into heat. He felt as if was burning. He coughed as he tried to stand up but was kicked back to the ground.
The boy let out a soul piercing scream as he felt his skin burning and falling off. He tried to roll on the ground but was kicked again. He faintly heard a group rejoicing as the pain subsided. The boy felt as if someone had stopped the fire, but could still see himself burning.
If he were not under sensory overload, he might have seen the faces of scared kids with someone shouting orders and motivational quotes at them.
Until he couldn't — his eyes stung one last time before his vision blanked out, He could not scream now for he was coughing in the surrounding smoke.
He could not feel anything as he tried to stand up again, but was once again kicked to the ground. Then he was kicked once more. He could not feel anything as a fragment of memory flashed in his consciousness.
It was of a little kid — around his age, whom he gave some water to.
It was the last thing he ever thought of.