Sneakily hiding high up in a tree, Neo and Sabal were watching Serene and a group of a few females, walking and chatting lively.
"You know there's a rumor going around about those two brothers." A chubby looking female raised her high-pitched voice, slyly smirking since she had the desirable piece of information for the other females around. As soon as she spoke of 'The two brothers' it was to implied Neo and Porsogon. Almost immediately all of the girls' eyes were lit up like a moth seeing a flame. Once all eyes were on her, the chubby female continued in a snarky attitude "I heard when they were away, they found a female and the both of them fell in love and now they are fighting..."
The girl gasped, the news was shocking to them since Neo and Porsogon had been the most desirable bachelor of the clan these recent years. Many females old and young were always had their ears up for anything that could get them closer to the two beast-men. And since the two brothers had never actually expressed any interest in a spouse, the rumor of them both falling in love with the same female was hard to believe.
"Liar! My Porsogon, or should I say King Porsogon now, would never like anyone so quickly. He is so cool but everyone knows he is such a heartless beast-man. He had never even looked at any female for more than a second time." Another jealous female raised her sour voice, she was pouting her mouth and crossing her arms, not believing a single word the chubby one just said.
"It is true, my spouse said it himself, he is close to Porsogon's right hand!" The first one reassured.
The chubby female was offended, she struck a stiff pose and showed anger on her face. All she did was doing these lonely females a favor and they called her a liar.
"I still remember the last time you lied about that, your spouse was only a flimsy guard soldier for Porsogon's right hand, his job is mostly bringing them tea!" Another female didn't hesitate to expose the poor chubby girl. She got so angrier that her face turned from red to purple, she spat on the ground and started swearing, trying to fight the one that just called her out.
After a while of bickering, the two girls were pulled to different sides, Serene in the middle had no care for the situation, she was biting her own thumb's nails nervously. Her expression was a mix of worry and confusion.
"Alright, stop fighting, it's embarrassing! Canary only said it was a rumor so there's no need to take it seriously. Besides, there's no harm in being precautious. If what she said is true, we shouldn't take the risk of not believing her."
The one female that was taller than the other stood between the two feisty friends. It seemed that her words were quite respected by everyone around because they all shut their mouth and nodded in agreement.
Neo who was watching them closely could somewhat hear their conversation entirely, he was panicking as if someone had exposed him face-to-face. He glanced at Sabal only to see the beast-man had fallen half asleep, his lower body turned into that of a snake tail, coiling around the largest tree branch, securing himself in a decently comfortable position.
Climbing trees was no stranger to Sabal who had mastered the art of concealing his presence in the surrounding. Countless time and countless terrains like underwater or high off the ground, the circumstances the young beast-man had gone through honed him into the man that he was today.
"Pst... Wake up!" Neo whispered annoyingly. He was pissed that the Snake can be so laid-back. Unlike him, Neo was like sitting on a fire-ant nest, he could feel his heart beating uncontrollably and the sweat running down his forehead.
"Calm down." Without even looking, Sabal knew exactly how panicking Neo was. His slyly open slightly to look at the groups of females bickering, his pupils contracted sharply as if he couldn't hide the excitement about the things he was planning. "It might be a good thing that they know."
Sabal continued as Neo looked at him baffled, he must be thinking 'how could it be any good?'.
"Once there is even the smallest thread of doubt in their hearts, there is no way they can stay as a group, it will work to your advantage to see them less in number."
"But how does this have to deal with that Sparrow?" Neo, even though had many achievements underneath his belt, his mind still truly belonged to that of a young, immature man. It was nothing compared to the hardened Sabal's mind who had to survive all by himself all his life. The experience they had encountered was also extremely different.
"Dumb bird!" Sabal mumbled as he always thought of Neo as this naive brat that was too simple-minded and protected. The lack of depth in his thoughts, again, proved itself correctly to Sabal. "Keep your friends close, but your enemy closer..."
Sabal had a deep smirk on his face, his long sexy eyes curled up nicely, even for a moment Neo had to admit that the snake had a charm to his looks that he couldn't explain. Neo sighed out in frustration, he couldn't understand what the snake was implying, all the metaphors were too much for his simple mind.