Chapter 37: Stone Tribe Part 3

“Who are you?” The red-haired man asked with vigilance. “What do you want from our tribe?”

“We do not have any ill intent to your tribe,” Vir said while stepping forward. “We just want to talk to your Chieftain.”

“What do you want to talk about?”

“This topic is too important to just talk out in an open.”

“Do you think I will let you enter our tribe because you say so?” The red-haired man asked with contempt, he didn’t trust these strangers. Therefore, he gave an order to the hunters. “Go capture them!”

Vir was annoyed because the man didn’t even try to listen to his explanation. When he saw the hunters surrounding them were about to move, he readied himself to fight back. However, Dara suddenly walked in the front and stopped him.

“Rag! Please stop!” Dara shouted while walking forward. “Please if you cannot trust them then trust me, we just want to talk to the Chieftain. This is for the safety of your tribe and mine.”

“Dara… is that you?” Rag was surprised by the sudden appearance of a familiar face. He calmed down when he saw Dara. “I thought you are already dead? What do you mean by your tribe? The Plant Tribe is already destroyed.”

They both knew each other because their tribe frequently traded things. He thought that she died when her Tribe was destroyed by the Blood Tribe. In their younger days, both of them even had a relationship, but it didn’t work out because they were from different tribes.

“Yes… my tribe is already been razed by the Blood tribe,” Dara confirmed. She was depressed when she remembered her late tribe. “That is not important right now, can you please let us meet the Chieftain?”

Rag contemplated if he should let them meet the Chieftain or not. After a few seconds, he finally made a decision. He ordered one of the hunters to go back to the tribe and inform the Chieftain about the request.

“I am giving you a chance to meet the Chieftain because I trust you.” Rag calmly said. He was glad Dara is alive.

In a span of a few minutes, the hunter returned bearing the Chieftain’s words.

“The Chieftain agreed to the request,” said the hunter. “However, only two are allowed to enter, the rest will stay here.”

Vir wanted to bring Armani with him, but he suggested that he should bring Dara with him instead. Dara seemed to know the people of this tribe, so bringing her would make them more trustworthy. After discussing for a while, Vir and Dara finally followed Rag into the tribe. While Armani and the other Arrows stayed behind guarded by multiple hunters.

The Stone Tribe was surrounded by a giant wooden wall, they even had a big door at the entrance of the tribe. Dara and Vir were already amazed by this, but when the big wooden door slowly opened, what they saw was truly unbelievable.

When Vir and Dara walked inside, they were stunned by the sight. The housing inside the Stone Tribe was very different, instead of a tent made from monster skin, all of the shelters they saw were made from woods, they had never seen a shelter like this before.

Even the Guardian Tree of the Stone Tribe was amazing, it was surrounded by multiple large rocks as if the rocks were protecting it.

“I see both of you are amazed by our creation.” Rag proudly said. “That is understandable, after all our tribe specialized in making things.”

Dara already knew that the Stone Tribe specialized in creating things. However, she didn’t realize that they were already this advanced. Vir was amazed at first because this was the first time he saw these things, but he composed himself pretty quickly.

He didn’t care about these kinds of things, the only thing he cared about was the safety of his tribe. When they finally reached a shelter bigger than the other wooden house, Rag knocked on the door.

“Chief the guest is here!” Rag shouted to inform the Chieftain inside.

The wooden door opened and inside was the Chieftain with other 2 people sitting on the wooden chair. In the middle of the 3 people was a rectangular wooden table, there was a different kind of food and drink inside of a wooden bowl, plate, and cup on top of the table.

It looked like the Stone Tribe was doing a lot better when it came to food than the Phantom Tribe.

“Come sit with us,” the old man in the middle said. He signaled to the guest to sit down on the empty chair. “Let us eat while we talked.”

Vir and Dara comply and sat down on the empty chair. After sitting down the people inside just stare at them not doing anything. The 2 were confused by the actions of these people, they didn’t know why they were staring at them.

“The Elders are waiting for you 2 to taste the food.” Rag whispered to Dara. “if you want us to trust you, you also need to trust us that the food is not poison.”

The old man in the middle who seemed like the Chieftain glared at Rag when he saw him whispered to Dara. Rag immediately halted his action after he saw the Chieftain glaring at him. The Chieftain knew their past relationship, that was why he knew that Rag would help her.

Dara explained to Vir what Rag said to her. After Vir understood why the Elders were staring at them, he didn’t even hesitate and eat the food on the wooden plate. All the people including Dara were surprised by Vir’s action. They didn’t know if Vir was fearless or plain stupid.

Vir was desperate, he would do anything to achieve their goal even if risking his life. He wanted to go back to the tribe as soon as possible. Therefore, he didn’t hesitate to eat the food even if there was poison in it.

“Now, can you trust us?” Vir said while there was still some food in his mouth. “Can you hear us out now?”

“HAHAHA!” The Chieftain laughed. “We are going to hear you out in the first place, we just wanted to know if what your going to say is important. Now that you even risk your life, how can we not listen to you?”

“Then we are going to explain”

“Not yet,” The Chieftain raised his hand to stop Vir. “Let us eat first then we talked.”

Vir was about to say something but Dara stopped him. She shook her head signaling him to not say anything and just eat. Vir hesitate for a bit but decided to listen to Dara.

After they are done eating, Vir was about to say something but before he could, The Chieftain spoke.

“What is it that you want to speak about?”

“We want to talk about the Blood Tribe,” Vir said. “They are a danger to all of us.”

“Uhm… The Blood Tribe is indeed a danger to all of us.” The Chieftain became interested. “So, what are you implying by talking about the Blood Tribe?”

“We want to form an alliance.” Said Vir while staring at Chieftain with a determined face. “If we just left the Blood Tribe alone, they were going to destroy more tribes. Therefore, we want to contact different tribes to form an alliance and fight the Blood Tribe once and for all.”

“I understand… that might be a good idea.” The Chieftain said while nodding his head. “But do you know that your goal is very hard to achieve? You want to form an alliance with people you have never seen before. You need trust if you want to ally with someone, forming an alliance without it is like building a shelter with a rotten foundation, it can be easily destroyed.”

“We understand how hard it is,” Dara interject. “However, we are not hoping for a long-term alliance. What we want is just short-term cooperation, just until the Blood Tribe is destroyed. I think having the same goal is enough to form an alliance like that.”

The Chieftain didn’t immediately answer instead he talk to the 2 people beside him, they seemed like discussing what to do. After a while, the 3 Elders finish their discussion.

“Before we accept this alliance, we want to know what you want us to do?” Said Chieftain.

“Nothing complicated,” Vir reassured. “We just want you to join the fight when the time comes.”

“When is this right time?”

“We still not sure, we still need to observe the situation and gain more allies before we make a move. After that, we will inform you.”

“Uhm…” The Chieftain pondered. “Then we will accept your alliance, even though your plan is not clear, it is still better than having no plan.”