Walter was surprised to see Kaelen eating the plant stem:
"You can actually chew this stiff stem? Kaelen, your teeth are really sharp!" Walter also curiously snapped off a piece and brought it to his mouth to try: "It tastes very strange, like flower nectar. So the red seed plant can also have its stem eaten!"
Then he stomped his feet heavily full of regret: "To think I missed out on this all these years, what a pity."
Kaelen patted Walter's short head comfortingly. If he knew this thing wasn't just grass seeds for snacking, his heart would probably bleed. Honestly, if he hadn't absorbed modern knowledge, who would have thought that a plant used as bird snacks was once a staple food that saved people from starvation.
Then he thought, if there's sorghum, could there be other things too?
And so Kaelen and Walter went a bit further. They were engrossed in exploring new things and didn't know that in the dark, several pairs of eyes gleaming with green light were staring intently at them.
[Walter, it's getting quite late, we should head back.] Kaelen felt his heart beating very fast, the sense of unease in his heart growing stronger by the moment. Walter plucked a bunch of red grapes from a branch, put them in his basket, and said regretfully:
"What a pity, this is the first time I've eaten these sweet and sour fruits. If I knew they were edible, I would have picked them earlier."
Though he said that, he still turned around and followed Kaelen back, saying as they walked:
"Don't be so nervous. I've gone even further than this, and nothing happened."
This place was still very close to the tribe's protection zone; the beastman scent was still very strong, so wild beasts wouldn't dare to venture near. However, no matter what Walter said, the anxious feeling in Kaelen's heart didn't diminish; on the contrary, it grew more and more intense. He quickly grabbed Walter's arm, pulling him to walk faster.
At the brick-making area, Sane was carrying a ceramic basin out of the kiln when his heart suddenly gave a sharp jolt. The basin slipped from his hands, falling to the ground with a *thud*. Oleck immediately yelled out:
"Sane, oh Beast God, what are you doing?!"
He hurriedly ran over, picking up the basin to examine it. Luckily, the ground here was soft soil; dropping from that height, the basin wasn't chipped or cracked. Oleck breathed a sigh of relief, placed it in the drying tent, and then turned to scold Sane a few times. Sane ignored what he was saying, only placing a hand over his heart, his complexion not looking very good.
Oleck also noticed something was wrong and asked: "Sane, are you unwell? Your complexion looks terrible."
Sane rubbed his chest and said: "I don't know, for some reason I feel very uneasy. It seems like something serious is about to happen."
The beastmen all stopped working and ran towards him. The intuition of high-level beastmen was always very accurate, especially Snake tribe beastmen, who were born with a sharp sense of danger.
Jaxon, having received a report from Nordhal, immediately stopped his work, walked over, and said to Sane:
"Sane, return to the tribe immediately, assemble all warrior beastmen and combat beastmen, and raise your guard. Nordhal, go back and tell your Papa to remind the tribesmen to be on high alert, and if there is any movement, run to the shelter immediately. Everyone here stop working, divide yourselves up to strictly guard the firing area, absolutely no mistakes can be made."
The whole group immediately transformed into their beast forms, each attending to their duties.
As the tense atmosphere around the tribe escalated, from deep in the forest came waves of wolf howls and tiger roars. Birds flew about frantically; sub-beasts held their cubs, gripping stone spears, staring intently at the entrances of their caves in silent vigilance.
Sane was a bit worried about Kaelen, but right now the situation in the tribe was urgent; he couldn't run over to Kaelen to comfort him, nor could he ask Cael or Elian to go notify him, as they also had to keep themselves safe.
"Where is Walter? Where is my son? Has anyone seen him?"
At this time, inside the Avian tribe's shelter cave, a frail, pale-faced sub-beast stood up and looked around, anxiously asking the tribespeople. Everyone looked around but didn't see a trace of Walter. An older sub-beast said: "Ronin, don't worry too much, perhaps the child is just playing around here, maybe he's already at the tribe's shelter. Hurry and sit down, your health isn't good, don't let yourself fall."
Ronin listened to the advice and sat down, clutching his worries. The surrounding sub-beasts also softly comforted him, but the feeling of unease in his heart didn't subside. His mate had passed away when Walter was still a fetus; due to the lack of pheromones from a Daddy, the child was born prematurely. When born, he was just an egg the size of a child's fist, the shell thin and ashen grey. Hatching it alone and raising him to this age truly wasn't easy.
Walter, please don't let anything happen to you. If anything happens to you, Papa won't be able to live anymore.
Kaelen and Walter, who everyone assumed were still in the tribe, were currently standing precariously on a cliff. In front of them was a pack of encircling wolves, behind them was a bottomless abyss, and in the distance, a demonic tiger with its entire body emitting black aura was staring intently. In the hands of the two sub-beasts were branches casually picked up; the two stood back-to-back, their hands trembling uncontrollably.
"Kaelen, what do we do, are we going to die here?"
Kaelen couldn't speak, naturally couldn't make a sound, nor did he have a free hand to comfort Walter. He himself was scared limp, only able to lean closer against Walter to comfort himself.
The wolf pack in front had waited until they lost patience; two newly matured wolves immediately lunged forward, snapping their jaws towards Walter's arm.
"Smack!"
The sticks in Kaelen's and Walter's hands swung down simultaneously, hitting the wolves' heads. However, hitting one didn't mean they could hit the second. A chunk of flesh was immediately bitten out of Walter's arm.
The smell of fresh blood stimulated the bloodthirsty wolves; even the demonic tiger standing a short distance away observing the battle couldn't help but lick its lips. It let out a low growl, and the wolves, as if receiving a command, immediately formed a formation and charged forward. Very quickly, wounds of varying sizes appeared on Kaelen's body as well.
At this moment, the lazily standing demonic tiger suddenly stood upright, its eyes staring at Kaelen full of greed. Magic source, it smelled a thick magic source scent mixed within this sub-beast's blood.
Originally intending to use these two prey as a reward for its underlings, the demonic tiger immediately changed its mind and let out a roar. The wolf pack abruptly stopped their hunting movements, automatically parting to both sides, making way for their boss.
When he clearly saw the demonic tiger's appearance, Kaelen's pupils contracted. A magic beast! Why was there a magic beast in the vicinity of the tribe?!
Could it be that these magic beasts had begun to expand their territory near the tribe?
While Kaelen was terrified, Walter, having a large chunk of flesh bitten from his arm, began to stagger due to losing too much blood. Also born prematurely, Walter's health was much worse than Kaelen's; otherwise, he wouldn't be so stunted.
While Kaelen was tensely gripping the stick, facing the deadly gaze of the demonic tiger, Walter's body staggered near the edge of the cliff; with a misstep, he immediately fell down.
"Ah!!!"
Hearing Walter's tragic scream, Kaelen immediately turned his head, reaching out reflexively to grab him. At this moment, the demonic tiger also lunged forward, but because Kaelen's body was pulled down by Walter's weight, its claws only managed to hook onto his belt.
Riiiip!
The belt and the mosquito-repellent grass pouch remained, while the two prey completely vanished. The demonic tiger let out an angry roar, furiously tearing at the thing snagged on its claws.
A wolf lay flat on the edge of the cliff looking down, turned back, and let out an "awoo" sound. The demonic tiger roared, leading the wolf pack away from this place.
The prey had reached its mouth but then slipped away, coupled with the faint pungent smell in its mouth stimulating its demonic nature, that night, the demonic tiger led its underlings to slaughter the entire forest. The sounds of howling wolves, roaring tigers, and screaming animals echoed into the tribe, plunging the entire tribe into fear.
By dawn, the noises gradually subsided. The entire tribe still didn't dare to relax; the beastmen heightened their vigilance, and the whole tribe was busy preparing for battle.
No one had the time or mind to worry about anything else; thus, it wasn't until three days later that they discovered Kaelen and Walter were missing.