Meanwhile, in the Tub'ig Village council hall, the clan leaders' meeting was still ongoing. All the five clans' representative together with a few of their apprentices were already present, however, the talk was still not finished because of the issue with the group going to the Dag'at Port.
"We will be the ones leading the travel now so we brought more of our products for trade! What is wrong with having six boats for travel?!" Amo, chief of the Daya Clan, stood up and slapped the table in front of him.
"We always alot four boats per clan to only have forty boats sailing in the river. Do you think the river can hold more?" retorted the shaman of Iba Clan.
"What is the difference of adding two more?"
Hearing this argument, the chief of Mal'pit Clan also joined in. "Then isn't that unfair? We can also call for two boats from our nearby village to have six too!"
"How about us? Calling for more will take us two weeks! We can't have some to have more boats while we only have four!" Another chief, this time from Mal'yo Clan, stood up to further argue his point.
Shaman Matnaad of the Mal'it Clan was silently watching the dispute. This always happens since most of the clans only join the trading once a year. In their previous meetings, one clan brought four boats but the size was comparable to two boats. That clan was not invited again by these existing group.
To stop the current argument, Shaman Matnaad decided to speak about their previous arrangements. However, before he could speak, a man burst inside the room carrying a small child. He looked at all the seated elders until his eyes stopped at the silent shaman.
"Shaman Matnaad, I'm sorry for disturbing the meeting but I need your help. M-my son..."
The old men was surprised since the child being carried looked lifeless. His complexion was too pale and they could not see the boy's 'mist' surrounding him.
Shaman Matnaad was also disturbed. He stood up and talked to Bobo while checking the condition of Ling.
"What happened?"
The man started sobbing now, unable to articulate a proper response, "S-sir, *hiccup* i-t was l-like t-th-this..."
___
A few hours before, during the father and son's chase of the market thieves, they reached a house in the outskirts of the village with a strong 'haze' surrounding it.
Ling as the one leading, stopped first, unsure of what they would encounter inside. He had never seen a strong sense of death and suffering like this before so his feet did not move him forward.
Suddenly, he felt a strong hand behind him followed by the gentle voice of his father. "Ling, hide yourself in that nearby house and wait for me. I will enter this house alone."
The boy looked up at his father who was frowning at the house. "I want to go inside too, father. I can shield myself and remain behind you."
Hearing this, Bobo returned his gaze to his son. He saw that the small face was showing a determined look. A stubborn personality on a too small body made him sigh, "Ok, Are you properly shielded? Then, let's go."
Inside the house, a middle-aged woman was busy taking care of the chores. When she heard the dood open, she breathed a sigh of relief that her husband had also come home.
"Ama, that took you long-" She stopped what she was saying when she saw that the person who entered was a stranger. "Who are you, sir?"
Not far away from the door, another voice was heard, "Oh, sh*t!" Then, another man stood up to look for a place to hide.
Seeing this reactions, the woman frowned at them, "What is it, Magna, Wakan? And who told you to curse inside the house?!"
Uncaring of the unmoving stranger still at the door, the woman walked over, however slowly, to hit the other man on the head.
"Auntie, wait! Don't hurt me!"
The noises woke up Bobo from his reverie and just noticed that the thieves were also inside the house. However, what he first saw when they entered the house was the blankets on the floor with more than five children laying on it. One could see the suffering of the sick children because of the 'haze' they were emitting.
Seeing that the one-sided fight did not look to have a chance to stop, Bobo spoke to be noticed. "Good day, madam. I am here to catch these thieves."
It looked like the woman noticed him this timr, however, before he could talk to explain the scenario, she turned to the men again. "What is this good man was saying?"
Dreading another beating, the two bent down to protect their faces and bodies. "No, we-"
These guilty actions incensed the woman again. "I told you not to steal!"
Whack~
"Do you think we can get medicine from something you stole?!"
Thwack~
"Give those back and ask for this kind man's forgiveness! No give the items to the people you stold from yourselves!"
Smack~
After a few more whacks which surprisingly didn't instigate reactions from the neighbors or the other people in the house, the woman turned to Bobo and bowed her head while bending the head of the other two men to bow down too. "Sir, we are sorry for the inconvenience these two did. I hope you won't punish them too much since they were just trying to help me, their uncle and their cousins and siblings."
Listening to these, the two who were feeling like they could not move anymore were thinking, 'What punishment?! Isn't what you did enough?!'
"You can stand up now, madam. I can see that you need help. Once the stolen items were returned, let me ask our elder to send help here."
These people were what most referred to as 'homeless'. They do not have a proper home village or clan because of either the fights between clans leaving their previous village ransacked or their clan were ravaged by a calamity, making them unable to continue living there. Now, they were trying to live in the outskirts of other villages to avoid the strong 'haze' outside while receiving some help from the prosperous clans.
Most of these people were already weak. They encountered the harmful 'haze' while travelling and did not have a healer to help.
Hearing the kind offer, the woman bowed again for thanks, unable to speak because of her tears. She tried to stand up to offer some refreshment to the man as thanks.
"Ling, let's go back." When he turned to look at the child behind him, he was surprised that nobody was there.
"Aiya! Who is this other child? And the 'haze' around the children were less now. Was that herb you found really effective, Magna?"
___
Due to the frequent sobbing of the big man, the elders were striving to hear the whole story. They were surprised with what happened to the boy. It looked like that, upon hearing the status of the children, he healed them when everybody had ignored him. But, supposedly, not knowing his own capacity, he took too much of the harmful 'mist' to save the others.
Although, seeing that the child's color was slowly returning, the healing did not affect him too much. Just how strong was this child?!
"Apologies to the other clan leaders. As you can see, I have another urgent task to look into. To finish this discussion fast, I suggest that those with extra boats can leave some here in Tub'ig Village for trading."
Seeing that nobody wanted to continue the discussion anymore, with all of them now frowning at him, the chief of Daya Clan nodded and turned to his subordinates, "Ali, Pin, let's go back to prepare!"
Only the chief and shaman of Mal'it Clan were left in the council hall. "E-elder, *sniff* what will ha-happen to Ling? My wife will kill me this time..."
"Don't worry. He's just sleeping to replenish his energy. Once we set sail, he should have woken up. Let's go back to the dock to prepare too. Ling will surely be hungry once he woke up despite his inability to eat before while travelling in the water."