The Ugly Duckling Of The Tiger Tribe-Chapter 277: They liked our spirit

"So tell me, is it true you haven’t heard a word from the mer folks for a while now? Is that why those guys were bold enough to try to capture you?"

Robin sighed, his woolly shoulders slumped.

"We have heard nothing so far. We simply thought... well, we thought they had finally grown tired of us." His vertical pupils looked down in anxiety, bruising his palms together. "We are a small tribe, and we have nothing to offer them but our company. They have no obligation to stay in the first place."

"And that’s why you believed the hyenas when they said that the mer folks would come for you?" I asked and he nodded, ashamed.

It’s not a crime to be weak. They were born weak to begin with, but if they can’t lift their heads and believe in what they’ve believed in this whole time, then what can they do?

"How long has this relationship lasted?" I asked. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

"Over a hundred years."

Wow, that’s a long time.

"Hm, so do you like trading wool to the mer folks?" I asked. There’s gotta be something that’s been keeping their relationship up for over a hundred years, right? Not like I can tell what mermaids would need wool for.

But to my shock, Robin explained that the mer folks don’t benefit from them.

They don’t have a trade relationship, and there’s not even a long-time tale of a sheep saving a mermaid, and that’s where this relationship spawned from.

It all started because the mer folks found the sheep adorable, soft to look at, and incredibly innocent. That was what formed this friendship and vow of protection.

It doesn’t make a hundred percent sense to me, but hey, I’m not a mermaid, I can’t tell what those fishy creatures think.

"It’s been long enough," Robin said, still looking down with that guilty expression, like his time was up.

I’d like to think there was something he was hiding, but that expression spread to the rest of the sheep tribe.

It wasn’t a guilty expression, it was a defeated one. They’ve lost hope.

"It’s finally time to fend for ourselves, it seems."

"That’s quite the load of crap," I said, making them flinch. "You said yourself they’ve protected you for generations. Beast—or fish-people—don’t just ghost their friends for no reason after a hundred years. They don’t get anything from you. No toll, no trade or exchange, nothing. So I doubt you’ve been bribing them this whole time either to keep the relationship going."

Robin shook his head. And Dica spoke.

"They liked our spirit. They called us ’soft creatures of the Earth.’ It was definitely a bond of the heart,"

Then isn’t this whole MIA just suspicious?

I looked at Noah. "Something happened," I said. "A bribe wouldn’t work, and they wouldn’t just leave the sheep tribe to be slaughtered and exploited for fun when they have them such a grand name like ’soft creatures of the Earth.’ Garrow definitely did something, and it’s probably bad too."

Noah frowned, rubbing his chin. "How can you be so sure? The mer-folk are powerful. Even a council of elders wouldn’t find it easy to move them."

"Call it instinct," I said, thinking back to every movie and book I’d ever read.

In war, there’s no such thing as a coincidence.

If the protectors disappear right when the villains show up, the villains are the ones who pulled the plug. And I’m hell sure it wasn’t through a one-on-one conversation. A scheme happened and probably happened in the waters.

"Garrow probably put them in a corner," I said, and then rubbed my neck. This was exhausting. "And even if he didn’t, I’m blaming him anyway. This whole mess starts and ends with that old badger."

"Then, what do we do now?" Fenric asked and I twisted my lips in thought.

We couldn’t just sit here and wait for the next wave of hyenas and mixed beasts to come at us.

Once Garrow stopped getting word from them, he’d immediately start moving, knowing we were once again involved in ruining his plan.

We needed a plan, and we needed it fast.

"Okay, here’s how we do this," I said, taking charge once again. I was the queen, after all. "Noah, you have to go back to the West Way. You’re the King. You need to walk into that council room and flip the table before Garrow convinces everyone that enslaving sheep is a grand idea. Fenric, you’re going with him."

Fenric poked his head up, interested. "Am I acting the muscle?"

"Exactly. You two work well together when you fight, so if Garrow tries to have Noah ’disappear’ again, you’ll be there to break some ribs. That sounds fun, right?"

Fenric smiled. I don’t know if it was because he was a beast warrior, but every time he got his hands stained with blood during our adventure, he was so hyped up.

As if crushing lesser beasts was what gave him joy.

Hm, so maybe he wasn’t completely sane, but he was still my handsome and loving husband who cherishes me to bits so even if he was insane to everyone else, he was still sweet to me.

I giggled.

"And what about you?" Noah asked, his voice getting that protective edge and I turned to him.

"Damar and I are going to the sea," I said. "We need to find out why the river and mer folks have gone silent. If we can get the mer-folk back on the board to do what they do best, Garrow will lose his biggest advantage. And the rest..." I clapped my hands together. "Is history."

"No," Noah said immediately and my forehead furrowed. What did he mean by ’no’? "It’s too dangerous. I’m not leaving you and the cubs to wander into mer-folk territory."

Well, someone has to do it.

I rolled my eyes and stepped closer to him.

"Noah, look at the options. Your kingdom is a hornet’s nest right now. That’s dangerous. Going to the water to talk to some missing fish? That’s a scouting mission. Besides, who’s going to watch over the sheep if we all leave to scout the sea? If we split up, we can cover more ground. It’s the only way right now." I said, my voice firm, like nothing could shake my resolve. "Remember? We’re at war, this isn’t a game. So everyone has to play their part."