The scrunchy sound of dried tree branches being crushed was getting closer and closer to Yilas. She had backed herself against a big tree, she was planning to make a run for her life back to the house but her legs gave out. They were just trembling, barely able to support her standing up.
Why now you stupid legs? Yilas cursed her own legs for being cowards.
"Yilas!" this time it was definitely a familiar voice, not a rustling sound anymore.
Yilas was more than relief. Her legs finally gave in and let Yilas fall on the ground.
"Who is there? Show yourself!" Yilas screamed toward the voice.
But it didn't answer. More scrunchy noise was made and then a shadow poked itself out of the tree ahead of Yilas.
It was Porsogon!
"Porsogon! You scared me to death." Yilas exclaimed.
Porsogon moved toward Yilas and lifted her up by holding her arm.
"What are you doing here this late?" Porsogon frowned, judging Yilas's insanity for doing something so dangerous.
"Haha.. " Yilas laughed nervously "I was just looking for you guys, I just want to know if you are settled and comfortable or not."
Yilas stood up and brushed away the dirt stuck on her dress. Next to the 185cm tall Porsogon, Yilas could only see his chest if she didn't lift her head up.
"Were you?" Porsogon doubted Yilas intention, no females would go to that length to take care of a stranger, he didn't think Yilas would either.
Yilas could sense his interrogation gaze on her, she thought he was definitely scary to be around. She could feel the cold sweat on her back when she lied to him.
"Okay, okay, you got me." Yilas waved her hand like she was surrendering. "I was only here to see you."
'Technically I didn't lie.' Yilas made up an excuse to satisfy herself, 'I was here to see if I could talk to Neo but I guess Porsogon would have to make do.'
Caught off guard by Yilas's sudden change in reasoning, Porsogon couldn't believe Yilas was this awfully honest. However, he would be lying if he said his heart didn't beat a little faster just now.
"Is the spot you guys are camping okay? Do you need anything?" Yilas looked at Porsogon with her big adorable eyes, acting innocent.
Porsogon couldn't look away from Yilas's eyes, he felt like he was being sucked in. It somehow looked devilishly mesmerizing under the moonlight, especially the red one.
"It is very comfortable, we have no problem." Yilas noticed that besides telling stories, Porsogon didn't like to chit-chat, it was really hard to continue the conversation with him naturally since he just answered what was asked.
"Didn't you guys camp by the stream? I am actually very thirsty, can we walk there?" At least Yilas was good at asking questions and making excuses. Those nonsense books of talking to people Yilas read in her previous life didn't go to waste after all.
Porsogon led the way ahead and Yilas followed behind. Even with her power walking speed, Yilas couldn't catch up with Porsogon long legs but luckily he slowed down once every few steps to make sure Yilas was still behind him.
He kept looking at Yilas's feet and her miserable speed, wanting to offer to carry her but they ended up reaching the place before he could ask.
During the way, Yilas was summoning her *old lady next door* spirit. In the hospital, she used to have an old lady as her neighbor, and every time that lady talks to her mom, it would take them hours. She was trying to remember the old lady gossiping technique but nothing came to her mind.
Once seeing the water, Yilas could see the rest of the Boar clan men curl up under a tree, sleeping soundly next to each other.
Yilas crouched down next to the edge of the water and used her hand to fetch some to drink out of.
Porsogon was standing behind her, following her every step with his eyes. The more he looked, the more he thought she was way too thin. Every female in his clan would never be this thin because they were always well-fed.
Her silver-white hair was so long it touched the ground when she sat down, some even dipping in the water. All the females in The Boar's clan had their hair short for easy movement but he didn't dislike Yilas's hair at all. If anything he thought it was the most beautiful, graceful thing ever.
After drinking, Yilas turned around to look for Porsogon. Since he was staring at her back, their eyes met instantly.
"Come sit with me Porsogon." Yilas dipped her feet onto the stream, letting it rinse and relax even though it was quite cold in the beginning. But the cold kind of helped numb her soreness.
"You mustn't let your feet wet for too long or else the wound will worsen." Porsogon crouched down to a squatting position next to Yilas.
"I'm just rinsing it a little" Yilas retracted her legs up to the shore.
"Say Porsogon, what are you doing up this late?"
Porsogon didn't look at Yilas, he faced up at the moon instead.
"I couldn't sleep, so I went to scout the area."
"Wait here!" Porsogon commanded Yilas and then walked towards his men.
When he came back, he had a little square folded leaf in his hand. But he gave the square lead to Yilas and sat down next to her again.
"Use that for your feet." Porsogon pointed at the square.
Looking at it a little closely, Yilas recognized that the leaf was actually folded to hold something inside. She gently peeled the leaf open.
It was a cream-like ointment, similar to the one she used for her eyes but just slightly different colors. Yilas definitely recognized the smell of this cream.
"I will put it on later. If I put it on now and walk back later it would be wasteful." Yilas smiled at Porsogon, he actually followed through with his promise at dinner. Maybe he was not a bad person.
"Put it on." Porsogon just repeated his command like he didn't hear what Yilas just told him.
Seeing that Yilas wasn't trying to do what he said, he snatched the little cream pouch back and pulled her legs towards him.
"Aahhhh..!!" Surprised by Porsogon's act, Yilas let out a little scream and immediately got frowned down by Porsogon.
He looked really scary so Yilas quickly shut up.
Yilas couldn't let him do it, she tried to yank back her legs but the effort was cut short as Porsogon held tight onto her ankles.
"Sit still." There Porsogon went again with his order.
Even though his action was quite brute, Porsogon was very gentle putting on the ointment.
Once it was done, he left Yilas's legs down, carefully not letting the cream spot got dirtied.
"Thanks, you didn't have to do all that." Yilas face was bright red from the embarrassment, even under the dimly lit moonlight one can see that she was blushing.
Looking at her adorable face, and the foxy charming eyes, Porsogon was also quite embarrassed for his action. He turned his face to look at the moon instead, trying to calm his heart.
After a while of not talking and just starring at the sky, Yilas felt like she needs to start the conversation to get some details out of him.
"So what is your role in your clan Porsogon?"
Porsogon once again was caught off guard with Yilas's direct question. He thought maybe she was trying to test him to see if his position was worthy of her. After all, females would only choose the strongest, most capable beast-man to be her spouse.
Porsogon would like to make what his job sounds nice but in the end he didn't know how to.
"I am in charge of this hunting team, we went far outside our territory to hunt for food. But sometime we would bring back females to our clan."
"So your main job is to hunt for food, not females?" Yilas was wondering why they said they are here to finish the job earlier today.
Porsogon nodded, agreeing with Yilas's assumption.
"How do you get the females to follow you?"
"We don't usually come across females. But when we do, mostly due to her own free will. As long as the females see that our clan men are strong, she would naturally want the protection and would follow us back. And there, the females would be allowed to take in any beast-men as her spouse, providing her a full belly and strong offsprings."
Yilas thought for a minute. So the females could migrate wherever she wanted but the males would prefer to stay in one place because they were territorial. So did that mean the females of this world had all the right to choose, meaning they were in the "high hierarchy"?
Compared to what Yilas was used to back in her 21st-century life, it was quite a drastic change in human rights.
"Wow! Your clan must be really powerful." Yilas complimented Porsogon without thinking too much of it.
Porsogon noticed that Yilas looking away when saying it. He thought she was intimidated by his clan, and he, of course, couldn't forget that the scar on her face was caused by one of his clan men. He never felt this ashamed by his clan's action like this before.
"Come back with us!" Porsogon had never had to persuade a female to join their clan so needless to say he wouldn't know how to put it politely.
"What...?" Yilas was shocked by his question. But she thought he must be joking.
"I am just stating the facts since your clan is bigger and stronger, it means nothing more." Yilas was panicking in her speech.
"Our Boar clan men are strong and our territory is big, you would mostly live happily there. So come back with us!" Porsogon was genuine in his intention of guaranteeing Yilas's happiness, but he couldn't say directly that he wanted her to come back to the clan with him.
He had simply thought that once she made it back with them, he would ask her to be his spouse.
"No… No, my life here is perfectly fine, I don't need to move." Yilas laughed awkwardly, waving her hands in denial.
Porsogon was displeased with her refusal. He immediately frowned and stared her down with his cold, scary blue eyes.
"How can you say it's perfect? Your body is skin and bone, moreover, look at the wound you have, it is because the beast-men here are not capable of protecting you!"
Yilas was trying to let him down gently but since Porsogon insulted her friends, she had to stand up for them.
"It had nothing to do with them, okay? They were away when we got attacked." Yilas didn't intentionally raise her voice but the fire in her was making her volume go up.
"Besides, aren't you Boar people was the one who attacked us? How can you ask me to come there knowing it would cause more harm than good? I might actually lose my life if I go."
Every word was like little fireballs shooting at Porsogon, he felt guilty for his ignorant suggestion knowing she hated his clan-men. But he didn't intend for anything to hurt her if she goes with him.
"Not a single beast-men would be able to touch you, and I will make sure to find the one that did the evil act to you. Our clan men are fair." Porsogon tone unknowing was also raised.
"I don't know you, how am I supposed to trust anything you said? Besides, how would I know if a hunter like you had any rights in your clan to protect me?" Yilas was quick with the comeback this time.
But Porsogon knew what Yilas said was right. They hadn't known each other for long, and he left out the fact that he was the second son of the head clan and with his achievement, his words will definitely be respected by many beats.
However, none of that mattered right now because only a female's spouse or her pursuer would be allowed to act in her name, so strangers without titles like Porsogon to Yilas wouldn't have any authority to do anything.
Additionally, Porsogon was too prideful right now to ask to be Yilas's pursuer or spouse since there was a high chance that she would refuse him.
"Nonsense! Of course I have the right to protect you, I am simply doing what is right. Every beast-men in the Boar clan will have to respect my action no matter what!"
What kind of logic was that? Yilas thought to herself. She had to put some senses back into this bratty of a man right here.
Next to the stream, their bickering voices had woken up Neo. He barely opened his eyes to check on the noise but he somewhat saw the shadow of Porsogon arguing with somebody.
Knowing his brother's temper, he was not surprised so he just followed his urges to go back to sleep. If it was Porsogon then it will be fine, he thought.
Even while arguing with Yilas, Porsogon still noticed the noise made by Neo turning his body. So he stopped talking immediately.
With the sudden stop, Yilas couldn't keep on talking loudly herself. She just crossed arms around her chest and sighed out aggressively, showing her discontent.
Without asking permission, Porsogon came close to Yilas and swept Yilas off her feet, caring her like a princess in his arms.
"Woah…!" Surprised with the attack, Yilas let out a scream and started kicking and punching Porsogon's chest.
"What do you think you're doing? Even if you are mad, use your words, not violence! Let me go!"
"You are the one hitting me right now." Porsogon wasn't fazed by Yilas's little fists.
She stopped hitting him when she realized her hits were weak like mosquito bites to him.
"Let me down! Let me down now Porsogon!" Yilas wouldn't stop wiggling in Porsogon's arms, pushing him away with all her might.
"You said you don't want to be wasteful so I am carrying you back to the house."
After Yilas stopped fighting, she noticed Porsogon had already been walking toward the house.
Yilas knew it was pointless to struggle any further so she just accepted her faith and got carried home.
Yilas and Porsogon didn't exchange one word on the whole way back. Porsogon thought Yilas might still be stubborn so he didn't want to argue any further. He would just have to show her that he can be trusted and he was capable of doing everything he said.
Once they reached the back wall of the house, Yilas gripped Porsogon's arm, telling him to stop right there.
"Here is fine, I don't want to wake others." Porsogon agreed with Yilas and let her down on her feet.
Yilas was about to walk in the house when she felt like she needed to let something off her chest.
"If you are still angry with me, we can argue about it later. Don't let it out on my clan men."
Then Yilas's shadow disappeared into the house.
Porsogon stood there with a smirk on his face. Of course he wouldn't share this information with her clan men, he was definitely not that petty. But since Yilas reminded him that, he thought it was something that she wanted to keep secret from her clan men. Maybe he could use it against her next time.
Thinking that now they had a secret between them, Porsogon couldn't help but smile a little. He watched Yilas safely get back into the house before heading back to the stream.
Porsogon had a feeling he could finally have some good sleep tonight.