"Basla, you said nothing would go wrong! You guaranteed it!" Poia said. The eting had ended not long ago, but she had already headed over to the Lowat tribe to confront Basla.
Basla looked at her with crossed arms. He didn’t have anything to fear even if Poia was angry. They were in his territory, surrounded by his loyal warriors, after all.
"Well, sothing did go wrong. What do you want to do about it?" He asked shalessly.
"...!" Poia was stunned at how little Basla cared.
"An apology for starters. Then I want your n to never set foot in my tunnels again."
"An apology? Sure. I’m sorry your daughter lost her arm," Basla said without a hint of sincerity.
"But you want my n to vacate your tunnels? Have you forgotten what you agreed to?"
"I agreed to help your n get away undetected before you told about kidnapping Tair. And I only agreed because you guaranteed no one would figure it out." Poia glared at Basla with her arms crossed.
Basla shrugged with his palms facing upward.
"Well, there’s nothing we can do about that now, is there? Neither of us can travel to the best and fix our mistakes. So...we’ll just have to live with them, don’t we, Poia?" Basla smiled, sending chills down her spine.
It wasn’t just her daughter’s injuries she had to live with. Poia had to live with the deal she had struck with the Lowat tribe. The mont they were exposed to the rest of the tribes, it wasn’t just the Lowat tribe that would suffer.
"You owe my daughter and I so proper compensation for this failure, Basla." She turned around with a huff.
"Yeah, yeah," He answered lazily. "You’ll get sothing worthwhile real soon," He said in a low voice after she left.
He gestured for his warriors to step outside and leave him alone.
"Qiro, are you here?" He asked the empty room.
"After an incident like this, I’ve been waiting for you to say my na," The Asa tribe man with orange and black striped fur dropped down from the ceiling soundlessly behind Basla before walking in front of him.
"I wasn’t expecting anyone to figure out where my n took Tair. I underestimated them. That’s my bad, Qiro," Basla apologized with a humble and respectful attitude he didn’t even consider showing Chief Matranda or Monkey.
"No, no, there’s no need to apologize for sothing like this. What happened today only worked in your favor, didn’t it?"
Basla frowned slightly. He wasn’t sure he agreed with that. They had been caught. And although most tribes were still only suspicious, the Aer and Gezercher tribes were convinced that the Lowat tribe was involved in Tair’s kidnapping. Now, they even knew how they had done it.
"Didn’t you want to humiliate her? Make her tremble in fear?" Qiro asked, leaning in and whispering in Basla’s ear as he circled the Lowat man.
At first, Basla didn’t realize who he was talking about, but then he realized.
"Sosora?"
"Yes. Haven’t you heard? Despite getting imdiate treatnt from the Orovir and Seg tribes, she still can’t see. Her eyes are ruined."
Basla gave a slow nod.
"That’s...good."
Qiro chuckled.
"A blind bird...Today is a great success, Basla. As for Tair...Is he still alive?" Qiro asked.
Basla was a little unnerved. He wouldn’t call today a great success. He had lost a warrior despite the injuries Sosora suffered. But he ignored that feeling–a big mistake–and answered Qiro’s question.
"How should I know?"
"Ha! Indeed." Qiro laughed and put a hand on Basla’s shoulder.
"Proceed like this, Basla," He said, disappearing before Basla had a chance to respond.
Basla sighed. Being in the sa room as Qiro always made it harder to breathe, and he was sure it was intentional. Qiro didn’t want him to forget that he had the advantage. Basla was just doing what Qiro wanted him to do, and there was nothing he could do about it.
Basla wanted to be in charge, but for now, he didn’t mind following Qiro’s directives. Their interests aligned, after all.
Basla got up and left his house. He had things to prepare. He had seen and recognized that gaze in Chief Matranda’s eyes when the old man left the eting. He had seen it several tis before in the eyes of his father before he beca an old fool.
Chief Matranda was out for blood, and there was no question about whose.
It was a little ahead of schedule, but things were going as planned. If it was blood Matranda wanted, it was blood he was going to get.
The Lowat tribe had trained tirelessly and spared no effort to improve after Nasam’s death. Basla was confident that a tribe on the decline, like the Aer tribe, was no big deal. Tair hadn’t even put up a decent fight, after all. The rest of their warriors were the sa.
One of their warriors had lost in a fight against Sosora, Tilo, Issa, and Malak, though. Three of the four weren’t a big threat, even if they had ganged up on him. Sosora was the only real danger and viable explanation for his loss. But she was a threat no longer.
Basla didn’t have to worry about them or the rising star of the Aer tribe. He still didn’t like that one of his warriors lost to a bunch of kids, but that wouldn’t happen again.
The fighting from now on would be handled by adults.
Basla grinned as he glanced at the storage to the side.
The Aer tribe wouldn’t know what hit them. For too long had they been allowed to fearlessly dominate the skies.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t quite ti to bring out the big guns. It would take a little while for it to develop to that scale.
According to Qiro, the Aer tribe would only be harassing them without being discovered by the other tribes. There would only be minimal skirmishes and guerrilla battles. Basla was satisfied with that as well. It was what his tribe excelled at.
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