Chapter 248 - Underground threa (1/2)

Edited by Ilesyt

When Shao Xuan left for the grasslands with the others to where the Feng tribe was, Old He went to the border of the Feng tribe to await for those coming from the other side of the grassland every day.

According to their appointment, they would set out from the border. But one, two… five days had gone by, but Old He didn’t see them.

On the tenth day, Old He asked his wife and grandson not to stay there to wait with him. He would tell them the news as soon as he saw them. Not as healthy as him, his wife was old and wasn’t a member of the Flaming Horns tribe. Ah-Nai, his ten-year-old grandson, was asked to help the others herd the sheeps so that he could get some food as reward. After all, no one knew how long they had to wait before they could leave here.

Old He understood the grassland was large and it would take them some time to get here. In the beginning, he had waited calmly. On the fifteenth day, he became worried. He worried that he was forgotten or they didn’t want to pick them up for fear that they would bring trouble to them.

Old He couldn’t help but worry.

The wanderers on the grassland were divided into several groups and not all groups followed the same route. The man that Old He got in touch with had decided to take that route, but he hadn’t been here over the past fifteen days. Did he avoid them deliberately or did he get into trouble?

If this man avoided them deliberately, Old He would leave with just his family. He knew that they may get into trouble on this journey, but he was willing to take the risk. He still believed the man just got into trouble rather than avoiding them...It was said that a war broke out on the mountains. If the wanderers were involved in it, they may get into trouble. Thinking of this, he became even more anxious. As long as the wanderers got involved in the war, they would be killed. He did hope that they didn’t face the war.

He had been calm all these years, but suddely became very impatient. Old He still went there with food every morning and waited there until sunset.

While Old He was waiting on the mountain, his ten-year-old grandson helped Gua Er herd his sheeps. Besides him, another five herded the sheeps, it used to be that three were enough before. Before, just one family could keep an eye on the livestock, but recently some sheep, cows or horses went missing. Most of the missing livestock were still young.

The warriors of the patrol team kept patroling day and night. But sometimes livestock raised by this famiy or that one went missing. This lasted for over ten days.

Recently, Gua Er had been upset, for his calf was missing. He had planned that when his calf grew up, it could have a fight with those of his friends living next to him. Unexpectedly, when he had got up on the morning of the day before yesterday, he had found it was missing when he reached the cow pen. He didn’t want to stay with his friends these past two days because of the missing calf. The calf he had nurtured and fed the best grass to had just up and disappeared

“Ah-Nai, when do you think the wolf stole the calf?” Gua Er felt bored and asked.

“No idea.” He paused and said, “I don’t think it was grabbed by a wolf.”

Gua Er had promised Shao Xuan to take care of Old He and his family, so over the past two years he had been friendly to Ah-Nai. Although he didn’t let him join his friend group, he never embarrassed him. Sometimes when Ah-Nai was bullied, he even gave him a hand. Therefore, they talked more with each other.

“I think so. It may have been grabbed by a fox or an eagle. Many animals on the grassland tend to grab...” Gua Er looked bloodthirsty while speaking. He took out a bone knife and said, “If I find out which has stolen it, I will kill it.”

Saying something threatening, Gua Er found no one made a response. He turned his head and found Ah-Nai didn’t listen to him. Instead, he was looking around.

“Hey, did you hear me?” Gua Er said angrily.

Ah-Nai didn’t reply, and asked,“Did you hear any noise?”

“Any noise?” Gua Er thought he was making an excuse.

“Yes...” Ah-Nai thought about it, but he failed to describe the noise. Ignoring Gua Er’s complaint, he rose and looked at the sheeps eating the grass not far from him.

Although Ah-Nai ignored him, Gua Er kept talking.

“It is said that you are gonna leave. When? Where will you go? Will you meet Shao Xuan? If you will, please ask him to make a wood carving of the alpha wolf for me. I will exchange some sheeps or cows for it. My old wood craving was taken away by my father and he doesn’t let me touch it.” Gua Er said, he didn’t care whether he made a response.

“Gua Er!” Ah-Nai suddenly shouted.

“What’s up?”

“A sheep is missing!” Ah-Nai said with anxiety.

Hearing this, Gua Er stood up immediately and looked at the herd while standing next to the wooden stool. He counted the lambs. Their family didn’t have many sheeps, and most of the sheeps they lost were lambs.

“All are here. You made a mistake. None is missing.” Gua Er said after being reassured.

Gua Er was about to laugh at Ah-Nai, but Ah-Nai said,“Not a lamb. A big sheep! I have counted it many times. One is missing!”

“Impossibe!” Gua Er didn’t believe it and counted it again. Although he was naughty, he was clear about the number of the livestock raised by his family. He even knew how many were taken away and how many were newly born.

After counting the number, he found one was really missing.

Four other people in several other places kept an eye on the herd. Although they didn’t fix their eyes on the herd and looked around, they had to make sure none of the sheeps was stolen. Gua Er hurriedly asked the four, but none of them saw a sheep being stolen from the herd.