Edited by Ilesyt
The wanderers in the cabin and the warriors of the Flaming Horns tribe who came in after hearing the noise had different views about what they saw. Suddenly, they all heard cracks from the two that fell down on the ground.
The sound was not loud, but everyone in the cabin heard it because of the absolute silence.
The crowd looked over at the same time and saw their bodies changing gradually. They had looked weak and thin due to injuries, diseases, and a hard life. Now their bodies stretched and swelled. Although they did not look very strong, they looked much better than before.
The warriors of the Flaming Horns tribe noticed the danger when seeing the two.
The wanderers in the cabin were shocked, for they were also aware of their obvious change.
It was impossible for wanderers to have such a change!
“Ah-Xuan, who are they?” A warrior of the Flaming Horns tribe asked.
“They may have come from another tribe.” Shao Xuan didn’t say more. He just reminded those in the cabin to take the medicine. Then he brought the fainted two and left the ship.
After Shao Xuan left, the wanderers in the cabin felt relieved. They had realized that he had attacked because he had found something wrong. They didn’t expect that some totem warriors of another tribe had hidden among them. They now became vigilant and just stayed with those they were familiar with and stayed away from those they didn’t know.
Shao Xuan brought the two to another ship, where Ao and the two team leaders stayed.
“Are they...?” Ao looked at the fainted two and asked.
They were asked to come here by Shao Xuan, who had told them some people of another tribe hid among them. On hearing this, they had rushed here without any delay.
“Yes. Perhaps they targeted us when we were in the Drumming tribe.” Shao Xuan said.
“Who are they?” Ta asked.
“I guess they are from ‘Thieves’. Before we left, the Drumming tribe lost something, probably something important. It was kept by the shaman of the Drumming tribe, but it was stolen.” Shao Xuan told them his guess.
That evening, Shao Xuan had notixed something off and everyone knew this. But they hadn’t known the shaman of the Drumming tribe lost something.
The thief was so crafty that he could steal something from a shaman of a tribe.
Ao and the others became serious instantly.
“Did they steal it?” Ao pointed at the fainted two.
“No, the thief wasn’t caught that night. He escaped. The two are also from ‘Thieves’, maybe. But they are not as crafty as him.” Shao Xuan said.
Ao and the two team leaders thought that they might have planned to steal the fire crystals they brought with them. Their eyes looked vicious for a moment.
“Kill them!” The three said almost at the same time.
“I know we should kill them. But I want to get more information about the Thief that hid in the Drumming tribe from them. Perhaps that thief has targeted us and he hasn’t been found yet.”
He had used needles coated in poison to throw at the two. That was the poison of a plant he had brought from the other side of the river. It was effective for a short period of time so that a totem warrior would fall unconscious. But the poison didn’t work long.
After about an hour, the two woke up
Questioned by Ao and the others, they didn’t speak. When Shao Xuan said he had met the Thief that night, the two finally made a response.
“Who is he?” Shao Xuan asked.
“I have no idea.” The woman said. Her breasts rose as she breathed. Her animal skin coat was torn when she was brought here, so they could see her breasts vaguely because of the dark light.
She looked at Ao and the other two several steps away from her. Her eyes told her plea and begged, “Spare me! Please. I came here out of curiosity and I didn’t steal anything.”
Their hands and feet were tied and the poison still worked in their bodies. That was why they could only move slightly.
That woman spoke while twisting her body and her animal skin coat was pulled down. Seeing this, Shao Xuan raised his eyebrows and looked at Ao and the other two behind him.
This woman was playing a trick. Perhaps she had had a lot of similar experiences, but this time she faced with the men of the Flaming Horns tribe.
They were like a bunch of rocks, whoever was considered as an enemy, regardless of male or female, young or old, they would not spare them.
That man kept silent and just lowered his head as if he was thinking about something. When the whole room was quiet, he burst into laughter.
“We are so stupid” Obviously, he spoke to the woman next to him.
“We are guinea pigs. Guinea pigs!” The man was laughing when his nose bled and the blood flowed into his mouth. His teeth were dyed red. His eyes looked crazy, and if possible he might bitten the person closest to him to vent his anger.
In the forest, if you sensed potential danger, you could throw out a stone to find out whether there was something threatening. If there was danger, well, it was just a stone.
And now the crazy man was clear that they were in such a situation. The man who ranked higher than them had been in the Drumming tribe so he must have targeted the Flaming Horns tribe. However, he had never appeared, for he had sensed danger. He hadn’t told them, but let them come here. He was ambitious, but just observed them behind the scene.
“One of the wanderers of the Flaming Horns tribe who have boarded the ship said three were lost on the way, a father, his son and his daughter. They could not be found. Did you kill them? ” Shao Xuan.
He stopped his crazy laughing.
“You wanted to disguise yourselves as a brother and his sister, but you were recognized by their father. Then you killed him, too. But you found that even if you disguised yourselves, you would still be recognized easily. So finally you decided to hide among the foreign wanderers.” Shao Xuan said.
Shao Xuan glanced at the two who had been silent and hesitated to defend themselves. He then whispered to Ao and left the room.
The two seemed to have no idea about who had stolen the thing from the shaman of the Drumming tribe. Judging from their response, they had killed the wanderers, so Ao would not spare them.
After a while, two corpses were carried out of the cabin and thrown into the river. Many carnivorous fish with sharp teeth lived in the water.
The fleet kept moving forward and the members of the tribe paid no attention to the missing two. Many of them didn’t notice that the two were missing. None of the wanderers mentioned the two and avoided depressing others.
It seemed that nothing had happened. However, if careful enough, one could find that on each ship more warriors were guarding and paid more attention to them.
The fleet followed the planned routed and moved towards to the old land. However, they couldn’t reach the old land along this way. They would still have to travel by land.
They would no longer use the ships, but they couldn’t just abandon them.
Sell them? That was unnecessary.
Taking the advice of Shao Xuan, they changed them into carriage. The ships were made of the quality wood from the hunting grounds, so they should be reused.
They removed the wooden boards from the ships and changed them into carriages.They didn’t need perfect ones, but just safe ones. Besides, to make a perfect one would take them a lot of time and they couldn’t stay here for too long.
After Shao Xuan finished the blueprint of the carriage, he asked those who had built the ships to come here to make the carriages.
They had worked together to build ships, so they could cooperate better with their skills.
They wouldn't move forward until they finished making carriages.
They stayed in a place selected by Shao Xuan, which was surrounded by mountains where few tribes existed.
If a small group of wanderers or a small traveling team stayed here, they would be very scared in such a isolated place. However, for those of the Flaming Horns tribe, this was a piece of cake. They were used to trying to get something in the surrounding woods, especially the strong and fat beasts.
The ferocious beasts were set free to look for their food so the beasts on the mountains were scared and ran away. That was why the warriors had to go further to hunt.
"The Flaming Horns tribe is…so amazing." He Er said in the place where the wanderers stayed. He saw the mountain bear as tall as two men combined. It was running up the mountain as if it was very scared and avoided its arch enemy. But it was pushed down by the wolf soon and breathed its last. The wolf dragged it back and the people of the tribe ate it.
The Flaming Horns tribe gave the wanderers confidence. The more powerful this tribe was, the safer the wanderers relying on it would be. At least, they would be less likely to be eaten due to the tribe's starvation.
‘These warriors could hunt across the mountains so they shouldn't lack of food’, the wanderers believed.
In the beginning of making the carriages, the craftsmen wasted a lot of wood because they were not good at making carriages. Thanks to the proper guidance, they soon became skillful.
These would not be as big as the ships and the number was limited.
To change the ships into carriages, they had to remove the wooden boards one by one. In the beginning they were not so willing to do so, but when they saw the carriages they became more active and positive.
After five days, seven carriages were made which could protect them from wind and rain. They were as long as ten to twenty meters, and looked like buses.