The trek to the Forest City was a slow one with the tigers carrying the three females setting the pace. They moved carefully in their giant beast forms, each not wanting to make the female on his back uncomfortable.
anwhile, the other beastn ford a tight barrier around the three females. Two wolf beastn were sent ahead to scout the route while the hawk beastman was acting as aerial surveillance.
For the most part, it was a well organized traveling unit. The only issue was the pace, Serena expecting them to move faster. Still, she did take this chance to observe the forest around her.
The trees around them were massive with trunks thicker than two tiger beastn put together. Around the trees grew so smaller ones along with shrubs, bushes and other types of plants.
Most plants were so shade of green, but in between Serena spotted a different color, mostly white, yellow or red. Even a few blue flowers growing from so vines wrapping around so trees.
There weren’t really any animals around considering the predators roaming around, but Serena was still pleased with the sights around her. Forests were rare back ho and well guarded for obvious reasons.
But now she had the chance to enjoy sothing only the elite in her ho could enjoy.
Suddenly, Serena felt her ears flickering, catching the sound of so rustling nearby. She glanced over to the general direction of the noise spotting a silver wolf.
One of the scouts.
She watched as he hurried over to Richard, who was leading the caravan, and said sothing to him. He spoke in a low tone, so despite her enhanced earring, Serena couldn’t quite catch what he was saying.
But she had a good idea about what it was. There was trouble on their route, either natural or rootless beastn. Hopefully not the latter because they were always trouble, itching to kidnap beastwon.
Why they kidnapped beastwon depended on the rootless beastman, but most did it for revenge. Rootless beastn were males abandoned by their mate with their connection being cut.
If the pain of losing a piece of their soul didn’t outright kill them, then they were chased out of their ho before they caused trouble. Because now they had nothing to lose.
Of course, there was another way to be a rootless beastman and that was by having a rootless beastman for a father. For those males, they were unable to find a beastwoman since society refused to accept them.
So, they resorted to kidnapping and force.
From what Serena rembered in the story they always lived deep within jungles or forests between cities, far away from civilization because of the kill on sight law this world had.
Of course, that ant whenever traveling, there was a risk of running into them. And being attacked depending on the type of resources one had. Mostly kidnapping females, but during the cold season food was also on the table.
"We’re heading south, going around the normal pathway." Richard suddenly declared in beast tongue. "Rootless beastn were spotted. Team One will engage while the rest detour."
His orders were t with roars of agreent before three beastn headed off with the wolf beastman. anwhile, the rest of the group changed direction, going south from the pathway.
Everyone moved at a faster pace and Serena landed up gripping the tiger beastman’s fur a little tighter to keep balance. Kiro, who was sitting in front of her, glanced up at her, looking a little worried.
"Do you think they’ll find us?" Kiro mumbled in an anxious tone.
"Hopefully not." Serena answered truthfully.
She didn’t want to sugarcoat the situation. They both would be in a dangerous position if a group of rootless beastn actually did attack the caravan. She was too weak to protect herself now, let alone Kiro.
Perhaps I should’ve gotten stronger first before daring to travel... Serena mused to herself.
No, her decision was the right one and sothing she wasn’t going to regret. Even if she didn’t pull that stunt yesterday, the tribe would’ve sold her and she would be forced to still co on this journey whether she wanted to or not.
At least now she had done this on her own terms, making sure her forr tribe did not benefit from it. Plus she made sure Kiro and her weren’t split up like in the original story.
That was the important part.
Shaking her head to clear the thoughts filling her mind, Serena turned her attention back to her surroundings. Everyone was on edge for obvious reasons, a few of the beastn edging closer to form a protective ring.
Even the other two female leopard beastwon were not looking too great. The younger one looked like she was on the verge of tears just from the fear alone.
anwhile, the slightly older one was clearly preparing herself for the worse. Serena felt sowhat sorry for the other two, knowing it must’ve been hard for them.
Unlike her, they didn’t have a choice to be here. They were sold by their tribe for salt and forced to make the journey to the Forest City, leaving behind everything they knew.
Serena could imagine what was going through their head. But she didn’t dwell on it for long because her priority was Kiro and her safety. She didn’t have the power to look after anyone else. This was truly a dog-eat-dog world.
With a silent sigh to herself, Serena turned her attention away from the other beastwon and back to observing where they were going.
She tried to make notes of where they were going despite the scenery looking the sa everywhere. This went on for two hours before the group that left finally returned with one tiger carrying an unconscious male on his back.
The threat now eliminated, they moved back to the usual route. However, everyone was still on edge about the whole thing. It was only after the sun set that they finally ca to stop.
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