After waking up from a nap, Sabal found Viosus talking to Neo on a bed nearby, he lifted his snakehead and had caught their attention."You"re awake!" Neo spoke up to Sabal first, Vio still not looking his way. "Eat something first to regain your strength, then have your medicine, it will help you heal faster."
A whole deer was placed on Sabal"s bed by a tall Boar with barely any hair on its head, its tusk protruding from its mouth intimidatingly but its eyes were the scariest thing. Its piercing blue eyes were more fierce than any beast, the pure pressured of being looked down by the Boar was enough to keep Sabal contained. He swallowed the deer whole with making any trouble for anyone.
"Brother, you didn"t have to come here by yourself." Neo quickly got to his side.
Thanked to the help of Porsogon and the Boar"s clan warriors, the herd from the Goat"s city was dealt with in merely a few hours. Most of its force was disbanded and ran away, some became food like the deer Sabal was eating and some became captives. Neo knew that coming here was the right choice and the result made him couldn"t be any prouder of his brother.
"I"m here to see the cowards for myself, maybe listen to their excuses." Porsogon stood tall, his voice was cold and emotionless, he mocked them but it also sounded like scolding.
Vio hung his head low, he knew it was his fault, his weakness that couldn"t save Yilas. Such a loser like him had no excuses.
Sabal, on the other hand, protested with his eyes, he glared the beasts and almost choked on his food so he had to fasten the process a little.
"WHO ARE YOU CALLING COWARDS?" Sabal grunted. Porsogon looked him dead in the eyes with faint disgust, the snake knew better than anyone who was the recipient of the message.
"If I hadn"t taken the fox out of there, both of us would have ended up dead! And what would have that achieve? All of us would have been dead." Sabal yelled, his action was selfish but survival was something that must be prioritized in life. If they lived another day, they could still make the table turned.
"Do you even have any pride beast-man? If you die, you die protecting the thing you love, not live like worms, hiding under the ground!" Porsogon agitatedly grunted these cowardice beasts dare to speak such nonsense.
"Pride? Is that something that kept you alive? You hypocrites can talk all you want, but if Yilas saw that fox is alive she will thank me a million times."
The room became quiet as soon as Sabal mentioned her name, Viosus held his head even lower. Porsogon showed anger on his face, a rare annoyance appeared on his expression. He was angered because the female would agree, she would have rather them live than anything else.
Watching everyone"s reaction, Sabal knew he had them right where he wanted them to be, they of course couldn"t deny his reasons.
"I don"t care what you beasts think of me, all I care is what Yilas might think of me." Sabal continued.
"Even if she thinks of you as a coward?"
"She wouldn"t, and I am sure of it." What Sabal believed wasn"t entirely baseless. Though Viosus would have protected her even if it went against Yilas"s wishes.
Sensing the intense atmosphere, Neo jumped in to calm everyone down, they were all here because they wanted the same thing so why should they fight within each other.
"Okay, okay, let"s all calm down and move one from the issue, we can"t change what we did so the only choice is to move forward." Neo patted his brother back, disturbing the staring contest between him and Sabal. "Now let"s discuss a plan to rescue Yilas!"
"I suggest we attack at night and sneak into the castle, that way they will never see us coming." Sabal quickly b.u.t.ted in. Since they were preditors, their advantages were hunting instincts and experiences so the night would be the perfect time to act.
"Their numbers are an issue, only a few cannot handle that many beasts, that"s why you got in trouble with being chased by the herd before." Porsogon crossed his arms on his chest, the idea wasn"t bad but repeating the same mistake would be something they should avoid. He continued. "What we need is an army, enough to suppress their soldiers if we needed to."
"Hey, hey, since when was there a "we"? Did we ever invite you to join the batch?" Sabal got off the bed and questioned Porsogon in hostile, he wouldn"t accept this stranger beast to just come in and give them orders.
"You"re staying in my land, resting in my beds so the matter is my hands now."
"AHHH! You must be the half-brother of that b.a.s.t.a.r.d!" Sabal pointed at Neo and then at Porsogon. They looked nothing alike and were completely different species so he didn"t recognize right away but he faintly remembered something that bird had mentioned about his siblings here in the clan.
"Watch that mouth you filthy snake!" Porsogon"s eyes were sparkled with fire, the snake had better not pressed his luck.
Viosus was still laid lifelessly in the bed, he ignored all the bickering from the beasts and got lost from his thoughts and depression, the guilt was eating him away inside.
"STOP IT!" Neo screamed to stop the arguing, he was trying to keep it down but it didn"t seem to work "We are here for one thing, and one thing only. If you two gonna keep arguing, the fox and I will leave right now and come get Yilas ourselves!"
Sabal pouted and returned to sit on the bed while Porsogon pretended like he didn"t see the snake anymore, the discussion was finally able to resume.
"So I planned to ask for reinforcement from the Boar"s clan, my brother has a point, we are greatly outnumbered by the herbivores, there is no way we could escape in one piece if come alone." Even Neo wasn"t the smartest in the room, he could still see the disadvantage they were in.
"The only problem with that, brother, is time, how long will it take to persuade father into giving us the number we need?" Porsogon pinned his chin with his thin, long, white fingers, he looked up to the ceiling questioning its possibility.
"How long?" Vio finally opened his mouth, though what came out was as light as a breath of air "How long do you need?"
Porsogon looked at the miserable beast in utter defeat, even he felt that it was a waste to see the fox had gotten to this stage.
"How long do we have?" Porsogon asked.
"The beast mentioned the ritual, it can only be performed 4 times a year when the moon is at its ripest and turned red to signal the season change. We had already pa.s.sed the spring moon many days ago so if we are lucky, we might have just barely 60 days until the ritual can be performed." Viosus carefully calculated he couldn"t afford to make a mistake with something like this.
"Ahh... I see, I vaguely remember a legend like that, but that is we a.s.sumed that they have the same version of it." Porsogon blandly stated his doubts, it had always been the problem with folktales, every clan had their own understanding of it. And after being pa.s.sed down through many generations only by word of mouth, the original became heterogeneous.
"But that"s the best a.s.sumption we got!" Neo spoke up, he didn"t know much about these kinds of stuff but he believed Vio, after all, out of anyone here, the fox would be the most eager to rescue Yilas.
Porsogon looked at his brother, Neo hadn"t change one bit in his eyes, still the same naive, pure-hearted beast. His body might be big but his mind was lack of experience and doubts in others, no wonder no one ever heightened their guards around him.
"Alright! We will discuss this matter with Father tonight. Neo! You get some rest too, come with me to Father at sundown."
"Y-Yes, brother!"
With that said Porsogon turned around and was about to exit the room. When his back was just at the edge of the door, Sabal grunted lowly through his teeth.
"Why? Why would you help us? What is your intention?"
Porsogon stopped his steps, without turning around he sighed and looked at the blue sky. He didn"t know the answer himself, he didn"t understand why he chose to direct the herd away, he didn"t understand why he took in two wounded beasts when he could have just saved his brother alone, he didn"t understand why his stomach became uneasy as soon as he heard the little female was kidnapped. And especially he didn"t understand why his cold, emotionless heart learn how to ache when Yilas was in great danger and was about to become a sacrifice.
"I am only doing what my conscience telling me is right."
Porsogon walked away, his thoughts were a mess maybe he needed to find the answer for himself first.