Tribe
“A tribe?”
Bai Lou didn’t ask. Although it had just taken human form and hadn’t even had a chance to see what it looked like before inexplicably arriving here, it wasn’t an illiterate, country bumpkin cat.
It had previously lived with an owner, a learned old man whose family had all perished in that unspeakable era. Only one cat could keep him company while he read books and listened to his stories.
Back then, Bai Lou was already a little cat demon. It knew its goal was to one day take human form, so it had been silently observing and learning from humans.
Later, the old man passed away, and Bai Lou found a place to live at a university. There were many young people there, and whether for sociability, face, or genuine kindness, they were generally kinder to stray animals.
It was beautiful and adorable, and everyone liked it. It could even audit classes without being chased away, thus becoming a “studious” internet celebrity cat.
The term “tribe” was too archaic. Bai Lou didn’t know whether to feel sad or happy. In a primitive society, the customs must have been more simple and honest… right?
Nervously licking its nose, Bai Lou gritted its teeth and walked to the wolf’s paw. The paw was too big and it couldn’t hold onto it at all.
The wolf looked down at the small cat on the back of the paw and whispered, “Hold onto my fur with your paws, or you’ll be thrown off when I move.”
Bai Lou looked up at the giant wolf, obediently extending its paw and tentatively scratching at the wolf’s fur. It found the fur to be extremely strong and its paw without any spiritual energy couldn’t penetrate it, only digging in a little.
The wolf seemed unconcerned about the slight pain. It landed on the ground with Bai Lou, opened its massive jaws, picked up the half-eaten stag from the ground, then wrapped its tail around the enormous dinosaur and dragged it quickly out of the forest.
The dinosaur was slightly larger than the wolf, and dragging it inevitably made noise, attracting the attention of other wild animals along the way.
Bai Lou clung tightly to Lang Zhan’s massive paws, the fear in his cat eyes subsiding slightly. Perhaps due to Lang Zhan’s strength and speed, most of the wild beasts they encountered along the way hadn’t pursued them. Only a few had ambushed them, attempting to steal their prey, but giving up after failing.
However, they had just encountered a different kind of dinosaur, which chased them for nearly five minutes, only escaping after Lang Zhan had run through the air for a while.
It was dusk when they returned to the tribe. When Lang Zhan dragged the dinosaur to the tribe’s gate, a loud cheer erupted from within.
It was a small valley, neither very high nor very large.
A group of tall men with animal skins around their waists surrounded them. Looking at the wounds and bloodstains on Lang Zhan’s body, one of them called out worriedly, “Tribe leader…”
Lang Zhan, still carrying prey in his mouth, couldn’t speak, only letting out a low “woof” from his throat.
“I’m alright.”
The beastmen said nothing more, and a group of them escorted Lang Zhan into the tribe.
After leaving the dinosaur and the stag on the open ground of the tribe, Lang Zhan finally breathed a sigh of relief. The Forest of Ten Thousand Beasts was extremely dangerous and he wouldn’t have gone in if it weren’t for hunting the dinosaur.
Having fought a fierce battle, been injured, and dragged his prey for over an hour, Lang Zhan was utterly exhausted.
Setting down the prey, the white wolf’s enormous body began to shrink, stopping only when it was about three meters long.
The tribespeople brought out several large earthenware jars and placed them on the dinosaur’s wounds. Several beastmen transformed back into their wolf forms and used their sharp claws to tear open the wounds, releasing the dinosaur’s blood into the jars.
Bai Lou watched this scene curiously. These wolves looked about the same size as the shrunken Lang Zhan, their fur a mix of gray-brown and yellowish-brown, but lacking Lang Zhan’s pure white.
It glanced around. A crowd had gathered, most pointing and discussing the dinosaur. Besides these tall men wrapped in animal skins, there were also many men with animal ears on their heads and tails behind them.
Half-demon?
Bai Lou wondered.
He could sense that these people with beast ears and tails were much weaker than these tall men, even appearing thinner.
Of course, only relatively speaking.
In fact, most of the beast-eared men would be considered well-built on Blue Star, with well-defined eight-pack abs and considerable height. It was just that these wolf demons were exceptionally tall, looking to be 1.9 to 2 meters, making the beast-eared men seem rather small.
“The tribe leader is amazing! He actually brought back a Wind dinosaur! This is the perfect dinosaur for the tribe’s cubs to use for medicinal baths!” a young man with gray wolf ears exclaimed excitedly.
The voice was slightly louder, and Bai Lou’s cat ears twitched. He secretly listened intently, trying to glean some information from the gossip.
“Yes, but the tribe leader is injured. I hope the injury isn’t too serious.” The voice was gentle and pleasant, filled with deep concern.
Bai Lou, clutching a wolf paw, turned his head, revealing a cat-like eye, and glanced in that direction, spotting a very handsome beast-eared human.
He had shoulder-length, light brown hair, and matching wolf ears on top of his head. His appearance, like his voice, exuded a gentle warmth.
He appeared to be taller than the other beast-eared humans around him. Unlike the others, whose gazes were mostly fixed on the dinosaur, his eyes remained fixed on Lang Zhan, clearly showing great concern.
A beast-eared man holding a wolf cub nudged him gently, teasing, “Quan, your eyes are practically glued to the Tribe leader.”
“Hmph!” A heavy snort rang out as the beast-eared boy in front complained, “The Tribe leader is so powerful, he’ll be fine. He’s just worrying unnecessarily.”
“Lang Yu, you’re just jealous of Brother Quan.”
Bai Lou, unable to bear it any longer, approached Lang Zhan. An older beast-eared man glanced at the wound on his side and said worriedly, “Kai will take charge here for now. Go check on your injury, I’ll bandage it for you.”
Lang Zhan nodded, not transforming into human form, and simply followed the old man forward.
His movement made the surrounding crowd realize something was amiss. They had been focused solely on Lang Zhan’s injury and the enormous dinosaur.
Since Lang Zhan was so enormous before, the White Cat with its snow-white fur just like Lang Zhan was a tiny ball of fur clinging to Lang Zhan’s paw, almost blending into that massive paw.
It wasn’t until Lang Zhan shrunk to its normal size and started walking that they noticed something—a…fur ball?
Lang Zhan also looked down. He only realized this after walking and noticing the weight and touch on his paw.
Bai Lou, perched on Lang Zhan’s paw, clinging tightly to his leg, seemed to sense his gaze and looked up to meet his eyes, its icy blue cat eyes full of innocence.
“It’s not the cat’s fault,” Bai Lou thought. “You didn’t tell me to get down. Besides, you’re both so big, and I’m so small. What if I accidentally got stepped on?”