章節 66: Menacing

On the summit of a massive mountain, where the wisemonkies tribute was situated, there was a silence all over the tribute, however it was not a peaceful silence, no, it was the kind of silence that came from fright.

It has been several months since members of their tribute he's started to disappear, when there was the first case of disappearance they weren't worried, It may have just been that the missing wisemonkey weed fooling around in the forest down there, but since they were a united race, they still sent someone to go investigate and bring back the missing wisemonkey.

However, to their surprise, the one sent to fetch the other wisemonkey didn't come back, so they sent another and when this didn't come back again they sent another, then another.

When the count of disappearing wisemonkies reached ten, they started being alarmed, so they started increasing the number of descending wisemonkies from two to three, then five when those three didn't come back, then another five when the last five warriors didn't come back.

Before they knew it, they started sending small squadrons of 20, but even then, no one came back, and while the number of disappearances kept growing, the number of warriors they had begun to thin out, it came to a point that they had to send those that were supposed to go hunt for food, but still no one came.

At this point, the situation got from bad to worse and the last straw that broke the camel's back was when normal tribesman that never trained were grouped up as a small army led by their most prodigious youth and sent down, but never came back.

Following that, the wisemonkies started living in a constant fear, they feared that their family members or even themselves would be picked and sent down there, or worse, that the thing causing the disappearance of their kin would move up toward their tribe and kill them all.

Despite all of that, their king, who was supposed to protect them, never even showed up. He just kept isolating himself in the royal tent and didn't bother to address his people to reassure them. They had always thought that he was selfish, but it seemed that they still underestimated him. In fact, he didn't care about them, never had, and never will.

This realization made them feel disgusted to even address this wisemonkey as king, when they thought about this king's father and previous king, they became even madder, the previous king was a compassionate wisemonkey and always thought about the wellbeing of the others wisemonkies before even his own, which was actually how he died, to protect them.

Meanwhile, all his good-for-nothing of son cared about was himself and hauled up all the tribute treasure for himself and when they were in an existential crisis, he didn't even bother to come out, they resented him and wanted someone else to be their king instead, someone that will actually care and protect them.

However, all of that was wishful thinking, how would they change him as a king when they were unable to go against his orders.

If only there was another royal wisemonkey, the mixture that bound normal wisemonkies to the king don't work on royal wisemonkies, and the reason was simple: a royal wisemonkey was someone that shattered the bound of their race trait, they were those that refused to bend their backs against a stronger foe, how could someone that escaped their race trait become bound by a mixture?

Alas, the only royal wisemonkies that there was was actually the king, he was not a royal wisemonkey because he had shattered their race trait, but was a royal wisemonkey only by benefit of being the descendant of one, he didn't merit it, his ancestor became a royal wisemonkey to protect the others, but here was his descendant mocking their efforts, doing nothing while their tribute was on the verge of annihilation.

Today, they had probably sent their last hope, an army led by the most powerful youth beside the king and his guards, if this last army they sent was to suffer the same fate as the last one, then it was probably over for the wisemonkies.

***

Hours later, after they sent the last army, the wisemonkies started to hear a rumbling sound coming from the foot of the mountain and coming toward the tribute.

'Are our prayers answered? Are they returning?' That was what was in every wise monkey's head as they made their way to the tall gate made of wood that protected their tribute.

Dozens upon dozens of wisemonkies exited their village and looked with hopeful gazes toward the rising cloud of dust that approached the village. Their hearts beat and resonated as one with each passing second as they collectively prayed that it was indeed their sons, husbands, and brothers they had sent, who were now returning to them.

After a few minutes, some silhouettes began to appear on the horizon, as they looked on, hundreds upon hundreds of figures approached the village and when they concentrated on those figures their eyes started to well up as the ones approaching were the wisemonkies they had sent!

However, they weren't at the end of their surprise as they remarked that the ones coming towards them weren't only those that they had sent today, but there were even those that had disappeared months ago!

For the normal tribesmen, those that had gone missing several months ago were already dead, so seeing them returning was a great shock that was quickly replaced by cries of joy.

The wisemonkies released shouts of happiness as they hugged each other and even started dancing, finally their days of suffering were coming to an end.

Some so happy that they started running toward the approaching army.

However, they quickly came to a stop, there was something strange with the coming wisemonkies, their faces didn't carry the same happiness that was on the faces of the normal tribesmen.

In fact, why were their faces looking so menacing ?