The Ugly Duckling Of The Tiger Tribe-Chapter 275: I guess that could work

"What’s your name?" I asked and his fingers twitched in mine.

"E-Elian," he answered and the guys behind watched his hand.

Even if he was injured, it was still a fact that I was holding another male’s hand.

But that aside, he was so light, and it felt like a strong breeze could just blow him away. Even my basket of cubs weighed more than him.

Was that normal?

He looked at Noah, then at Fenric, and finally at Damar, who was still holding the basket of cubs.

"Elian, tell us. Where did they take your friends?"

"They... they took them to the Great Bend," Elian whispered, leaning his weight on me.

Great bend? Why do these names keep sounding funny by the day?

"The village is called Oakhaven," Elian said. "The hyenas came at dawn, out of nowhere, like they had been waiting for the right time to strike. They didn’t even use their claws—they just used those rough wooden clubs to herd everyone like... like we were nothing but meat."

That sounded awful.

He looked at his own woolly arms and shivered.

"I thought the sheep tribe was protected by the mer folks, though," I said. "Aren’t they scared of what the mer folks will do to them?"

"I don’t know what happened but we haven’t heard a word from the mer folks in a while now," he fidgeted, anxiously. "The hyenas said the Mer-folk wouldn’t come for us this time. That the river was closed to ’prey’ and only open to ’power.’"

Noah’s face didn’t just go hard; it went cold. The guy who usually teased me was gone.

"The Mer-folk don’t close the river for anyone," Noah said, his voice low and dangerous. "If Garrow told them that, he’s definitely lying. This is no different from pushing them to their early grave."

Noah was angry. Angry that his people were so foolish and easily deceived by a senile old beastman. They were doing something so rash, not knowing their fate was death.

"I don’t care what he told them what," I said, feeling that protective fire in my chest. I looked at Elian, who was still shaking. "We’re going to Oakhaven to save your folks."

"Arinya, that’s a little dangerous," Fenric said, and I turned to him. "We don’t know how many of them are gathered, so if you go there with the cubs, you might get into trouble."

"So you’re telling me to just stay back?"

No way. How could they go ahead and watch the fun?

"Fenric is right," Noah said, as he looked at the horizon, squinting against the sun. "It’s a long trek if we move fast. But we’ve got the cubs, and this guy..." He looked at Elian. "He can barely stand, let alone run."

I looked at Elian’s knee. The herb Damar gave me was working fast—the bleeding had stopped—but the guy was traumatized. We couldn’t leave him here, and he definitely couldn’t keep up on foot.

"I’ll hold on to the basket," Damar suddenly said. He seemed the least likely to agree to this plan, but he did. He clutched onto the basket and turned to Fenric. "You carry the cloud and the pup over there will carry, Ari. If we’re together, no one will get hurt. I’ll make sure of it."

I watched the resolve in his emerald eyes.

I don’t know if this was just him being reckless or his strong will to protect me because he knew I’d be too stubborn to stay back.

I might’ve ended up sneaking after them and that would put me in more danger.

Damar seems to know me inside out to the point I’m a bit embarrassed.

"I guess that could work," Noah said, rubbing his chin as he thought deeply about it. "If I keep the little tiger safe by my side at all times, we won’t have to worry about anyone getting hurt."

"Right?" I snapped my fingers. "And besides, we’re going there to save the sheep tribe and not start a full-blown war. Damar can just whip them off their feet with his tail and it’ll be over."

That was easier said than done, I thought. It seemed simple, but I’m at war, there was no telling what could happen.

I just had to be extra vigilant.

One might ask why we don’t just go into the kingdom and use Noah’s authority to set things right, before saving the sheep, but he’s been gone for months, and there was no telling who had changed sides.

He didn’t know who to trust, so it was better to fix things from the outside than go in and get ambushed.

Fenric grunted, looking like he wanted to argue about being a pack mule, but he didn’t. He scooped Elian up like he weighed nothing—he essentially weighed nothing.

The poor sheep let out a tiny yelp, his face disappearing into the crook of Fenric’s neck. He looked like a small white puffball against Fenric’s tanned, scarred skin.

He was a grown male with curly horns on both sides of his head, but he was no different from a teenager when his size was compared to Fenric’s.

"Wait," the sheep muffled into Fenric’s shoulder. "Do I... Have to go like this?" He was flushed, never having been carried like this in his life.

"Well, Elian," I said, straightening my tunic. "You’re going to be too slow. So unless you want to wait here for the entire thing to be over, hang on tight."

Noah picked me up into his arms, much to the envy of Fenric and Damar. Though Damar had made the suggestion, it wasn’t like he was happy about it. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

He just trusted himself with the cubs more than any of them.

And unlike the cubs that were the most vulnerable, I had my two legs to run in case of an emergency.

"Alright, let’s go!"

The pace was brutal. Noah led the way, cutting through the tall, yellow grass like a streak with me clutching on to his neck from behind. This was a better position than having him hold me like a bride.

.

"Noah!" I called out, my voice muffling in the wind.

"Yeah?"

"When we get there... And we see this Harrow guy, leave him to me. I’ve got some things I want to say about his ’resource’ management."

Noah didn’t look back, but I saw his ears twitch. "Whatever you want, little tiger."