A myriad of emotions was going through Lindo's brain the moment he saw Felix's silhouette.
He didn't know what to feel at this moment, but he was certainly happier than he was before.
It was obvious from the big shit-eating grin on his face as he ran towards Felix, ready to give him a big hug.
Felix was puzzled at Lindo's actions, he had only left for around 20 days and now he acted like this? It wasn't like he died and came back from the dead.
However, he didn't dodge Lindo's affection. He knew that something was wrong with him as he could read it in his eyes.
He wasn't as cheerful as he used to be, but Felix could also feel that the moment he laid his eyes on him, his vibe changed a bit.
It was visible from ten miles away that Lindo had no confidence, but the moment he laid his eyes on Felix his confidence returned tenfold!
Felix didn't know that he had such a big impact upon Lindo, and he wondered why?
Why was Lindo so happy to see him?
Why was he so sad that he left for a while?
Even though the circumstances of his leaving were less than savory they should know that he had more than one life, so that explosion couldn't have done him in for good no matter how much time he was missing, they should have known that he was still alive.
It was rather strange in Felix's opinion, but he reciprocated the hug as Lindo ran to him scooping him up and giving him a tight hug making sure he was the real deal, no other reason.
After they hugged for a few seconds Landers ran outside the village along with Manitola, both had wide eyes as they looked at Lindo hugging the little Felix they were both really happy that he had come back safely, as they went ahead for a group hug.
Felix made his way out as it got a little too stuffy for him as he asked:
"What did I miss? Why are you all so down and depressed?"
Landers coughed hiding a small embarrassment blush as he said:
"We were just really worried about you. You had disappeared and didn't even leave a thing behind showing us that you might have been alive we have thought of the worst, thinking that the explosion killed you multiple times."
"Heh, such a small thing won't kill me more than once."
Felix declared proudly while putting his paw over his chest while also puffing it up.
"Yeah, we see."
Lindo backed away the moment Felix made his way out of the hug as he looked down, he still felt responsible for the fact that Felix died in the explosion along with 70,000 of his brethren, even though Felix did come back in the end the same couldn't be said about those 70,000 souls.
Landers sighed as he saw Lindo still being depressed, it was his call that created the situation, but how could they know that the hedgehog shaman was still alive after the spike barrage was launched?
It was pretty much impossible and a tragedy to boot for the lion tribe but this was war and Lindo should move on, there was no general with a flawless record as there is no human without mistakes.
And even if there was such a general in the vast universe, he didn't currently exist on their plane.
Landers tried to explain to him these concepts, but Lindo still felt guilty regardless of what Landers told him.
"Come on Lindo stop mopping around."
Felix jumped onto Lindo's shoulder as he said that and continued:
"No matter what you do you can't stop deaths, some die earlier some die later, but all people die, well with my exception and the others god's chosen."
"Anyways what I want to say is that there is no reason to mop around for those 70,000 people, they have died because of you, but they were resigned to death the moment they joined the lion army, your mistake was something that any higher-up could do in that situation so from now on all you must do is seek to improve yourself so that wouldn't ever happen again!"
Felix's speech came from his experiences on the battlefield and his multiple deaths, dying once didn't change anything in Felix besides giving him a gigantic fright. However, as time passed he learned some things about life through death.
He wasn't even that scared of dying anymore but he knew logically that losing a life was rather wasteful so he didn't want to die willy nilly unless it was necessary or unavoidable, especially since Aaltarox said it will be harder to revive him the stronger he would get.
Lindo looked at Felix, and he almost couldn't recognize him anymore but as he thought about his words he found out that Felix was direct with him 100% of the time, never would he beat around the bush, and he would always say his mind even though he was not a talkative person, this part of Felix was what he remembered the best when they were still on the Tarot continent and they were talking about their dreams, this part of Felix struck him as the truest show of his personality to him.
At first, he was reluctant thinking that this Felix was a fake one planted by the enemies to make them let their guard down so they could attack and retake the village his guilt was very high, clouding his judgment and making him think that Felix was still dead even though he was in front of him.
However, things changed the moment Felix opened his mouth and poured those words on Lindo, he knew he was the real Felix as his eyes lit up and the clouds above his mind dispersed, making him see clearly.
Even though he was still rather guilty for those 70,000 soldiers that he doomed he knew that to make up for this one fault he would have to win, win, and win to make it up for the souls that returned to the ancestor's side, they wouldn't want him to mop around for them, they were warriors, and they had decent deaths on the battlefield.
Lindo looked towards the sky as he put his hand towards his chest, and promised the dead soldiers that he would win battles for them!
Felix smiled as he felt that Lindo was slowly starting to return to his usual self before slapping himself on the head as he said:
"I almost forgot because of Lindo, Landers I have some very important intel about the headquarters of the leaders of the resistance and the location of the mole tribe!"
Landers's eyes widened for a few seconds before he laughed and said:
"It seems you haven't been missing for almost a month without doing anything, very good, very good. But first, let's return to our first base as people are already on their way here to govern the hedgehogs and more troops are being sent from the Tarot continent via the human's transportation device, I'm pretty sure Siracha will be happy to hear we have found the headquarters of those sneaky foxes first."
Manitola stood behind Lindo as her fox ears flopped down, she didn't like how her race was being talked about but what could she do? In the grand scheme of things, she would miss out on both sides and Lindo already tied her to the Lions.
She sighed as she looked at Lindo, who became thoughtful after hearing Felix's report.
Manitola gave him a nudge as she whispered to him:
"Dear I want to talk something with you."
Lindo woke up from his daydreaming as he looked at Manitola nodded at her before indicating that she could talk.
"Not here it's something rather personal only meant for the ears of the two of us, let them talk about the plans of the invasion."
Lindo wanted to talk with Landers and Felix about the plans as well, but he wasn't so insensitive to leave Manitola behind when she wanted to impart something important to him.
The duo left Felix and Landers behind as they went inside the nearby forest until the only visible thing was the wall of spikes which spanned around 10 meters into the sky.
"So what do you want to talk about?"
Manitola put her fingers together as she twiddled them around each other not knowing how to start before taking in a deep breath and opening her mouth:
"I want you to stop the lions from attacking the headquarters of the foxes."
Lindo couldn't believe what he was hearing, was he hearing right?
"You want me to do what?"
"I want you to..."
He stopped her from talking as he made a silencing motion with his hand:
"I understood from the first time, however, I cannot do this, Felix had gone through a lot of trouble to gather this intel, I know that you love your family members and race just like I do but at this point, we have to agree to disagree but I will make sure your relatives won't be killed."
Manitola wanted to say something else but stopped herself, she knew that she already bargained for quite a bit, however, she also had her own love of her race just like Lindo had his for the lions, every being had to love its compatriots and this applied to almost all of the living tribes in the universe.
Manitola sighed as she decided to accept what Lindo proposed, it was the best option for the current her and the fox race, it couldn't be helped as they were the losers in the intercontinental battle, only if they were stronger back then nothing like this would have happened, but now there were no ifs...