The Rise Of A Tribal Deadbeat - Chapter 61

Zus had his judging eyes on Zok’s face, eagerly waiting for his answer. Meanwhile, Zok was still not confident enough to tell Zus the story about what happened inside the cave where he got his powers. If there were supposedly more of such caves out there in the Wilderness, then it was better for him to have his lips sealed tight.

Thankfully, the time was with him. How? Well, it had been a long time since Zus had been in contact with any Occunian. Thus, he had no way to determine if what Zok was telling him was correct or not. In other words, Zus had no choice but to believe whatever Tulak’s shit spouted out of Zok’s mouth.

‘It’s better to twist the tale for now. The man might be trustable now, but there is no guarantee he would remain like that in future.’ Zok thought to himself while staring back into Zus’ eyes, ‘If he proves that I can trust him, then I might even get him introduced to Sofina and get him some powers as well. Till then, however, it was better to keep him in dark. Or in a little light.’

“I am… someone like you. Betrayed and broken by the ones he trusted.” Zok said with a sad smile on his face, “A lot of things have happened since my father took over the tribe after you-”

“You are the son of that bastard?” All of a sudden the smile on Zus’ face disappeared as realisation hit him.

“I am, I thought I already told you that. But that man has never been a father to me. If he had then he would have never wanted to kill me.”

Zok hastily made his standing clear. He might be that man’s son but he had no intention of ever forgiving him for what he did to him. However, as much as he hated Skah, he might not kill him because of his mother. But that won’t stop him from putting that good for nothing bastard in his place.

However, it didn’t seem like what he said was enough to convey his emotions properly as Zus had gone silent. As if he couldn’t accept this news. But that feeling went away in a flash. At least Zok thought so because after that Zus went weirdly calm.

He had thought there would be a bit more reaction from his side, but there wasn’t. But Zok decided not to pry about it a lot.

“You could have told that to me earlier.” Zus mumbled while scratching the back of his head, “I think the fruit doesn’t always fall close to the tree… you are nothing like him.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment,” Zok smiled and finished up making the paste out of the herbs.

Soon the paste was all used up to seal the wounds on Zus’ body. But their questions hadn’t ended. Zok still needed to know more about the cold lands and the place where he could potentially find the beast who would help him get back home.

“Is there any other beast infested cave or a mysterious creature that you might know about?” Zok asked Zus as the latter winced in pain, “It could help us get out of their place sooner.”

“Let me think for a while… I have been here far too long so my memory is all over the place. But I have heard weird sounds coming from a couple of caves around the area where you found me before. Maybe one of those caves has something you are looking for?”

[The being speaks the truth.]

Zok activated the truth seeker, just in case the man was lying like he was. Thankfully, he wasn’t. Thus Zok decided to move immediately and at least track those caves down. The sooner he found the beast, the sooner he would be able to leave this place and back to Kaira and Shira.

Time was of the essence. And he had already wasted a ton of time trying to know about the location of the creature in question.

“You should rest up. I’ll go and take a look around.” Zok said and rushed out of the cave while Cero lazily followed behind.

***

It wasn’t hard for Zok to retrace his steps back to the place where they had clashed with Prinoras sometime ago. However, there was something off about the place. It still had the bloodstains left behind by the dead Prinoras, but the two corpses that he had left behind were nowhere to be seen.

It wouldn’t have been weird if some creature devoured them, but according to what Zus told him, most of the creatures there hunted down their own prey and there weren’t any scavenging species as far as he was aware of.

But the disappearance of the corpse could only mean one thing, someone ate them. But that too led to yet another problem. Was it even possible for anything to eat such giant creatures just like that without even leaving a trace?

The snow around them acted as the perfect thing to track any creature’s footprints, but there were no footprints aside from the footprints of him, Cero, Zus and the Prinoras. It almost felt as if the snowy fields themselves might have swallowed the fallen creatures. That was the only explanation Zok could think of, even if it was one of the most absurd things he had ever thought of.

“Cero, be alert. Whoever did this might be close.”

Cero let out a low grunt to confirm that he understood Zok’s command. His senses were already on high alert. Picking up on the slightest of movement around him. It was the same for Zok as they continued their search for the caves they were looking for.

Completely unaware of the fact that they weren’t the only ones keeping a lookout. The creature they were looking for was right there, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike them down.. A creature that had awakened from its slumber because a fool wanted to challenge it, the ruler of the beasts in the cold lands.