Vaien and Kalla were apparently powerful, even among other superhumans. These traits, Zhang Han considered, were probably from their parents, meaning that their father would be similar in strength to the pair of siblings. Moreover, their father apparently was the one who built up the tribe Red Mane with his own hands.
For what reasons would his fellow clansmen betray him after everything he'd done...
"It wasn't outright murder," Kalla knit her thin brow, "our Dad got weird with age. He'd lived into the hundreds, but at some point, he started making less and less sense. He'd forget things that he should remember. It got really bad, to the point that Vaien and I had to confine him inside. He hadn't been able to help hunt or do anything much in years and barely recognized either of us."
Then an air of darkness overtook her features as she recalled the rest of the story.
Even though their father had declined in health, they were still going to take care of him. That was the plan, but life in a tribe isn't always without pressure. When there is plenty to eat and everything is going well, then everybody's happy. But when there's a food shortage or other threats, people turn tense and restless...and more ruthless.
There was one year where that was the case.
Food was scarce, and somebody must have been dissatisfied that Kalla and Vaien's father, Khavin, was being fed without having to do any work in return. Same as how Vaien had a bottomless stomach, the people here have to eat a lot to get by. Putting it bluntly, Khavin was a resource drain. Vaien and Kalla returned from a hunt during the summer months and found that the lock on the outside of his door had been removed.
Khavin disappeared on a cloudless day.
Search parties were unable to locate him, and those asked said they didn't see where he went. Because of Khavin's odd behavior, he'd been living in a relatively secluded part of the village, so it was to say that, and hard to prove that anyone was involved.
Simply put, it was likely that someone had guided Khavin out into the wilderness. They either let him die from wandering out there or finished him off themselves. It could even be that whoever did it only opened the lock on the door, and Khavin, addled by memory loss, brought himself to his own doom.
Kalla gripped her hair at this point in the story, looking somewhat riled up.
"Ughhh! Vaien was so furious. He tore down three houses that day, several people almost died. And well! I was mad too, so I let him do it."
Zhang Han gave a weary sigh. "I suppose you never found the culprit."
"Nope. If someone confessed then Vaien would have killed whoever it was and been done with it. So...I knew he was mad, and I knew that it was wrong what happened to our Dad, but I didn't expect Vaien to up and leave the tribe within the next few days. He just took a few belongings and left, pretty much like he was saying 'fuck you guys' to everyone. But he was even in line to become the next leader, and just let it go..."
She sighed, drawing a circle in the dirt with a foot.
"I didn't blame him at first. It's not like us pair of siblings asked for much. All we wanted was for our Dad to live comfortably, no matter how insane he became. He wasn't hurting anyone. But I guess that was impossible."
"Hm," Zhang Han paused, "but the thing is, that's probably the fault of one, or maybe a small group of people at most. It's unlikely that everyone would be involved with his death."
"Exactly!" shouted Kalla with more force than she intended.
Zhang Han cocked an eyebrow and she had a slightly apologetic look.
"I mean," she continued, "I've been trying to tell him that, and I'm sure he knows it too. I thought he was being hot-headed and would come back in a bit. Instead, he's been gone for several years. He even went without his harem! Everyone that visited him couldn't convince him to return..."
Zhang Han deadpanned even more than usual. Ah yes, of course, the harem was so hard to let go of…he said, "Well, it seems like Vaien is starting to soften his thinking about it. All I can say is that he probably isn't faulting the entire tribe for it, but unwilling to return as though nothing happened and let the culprit get away with their actions."
If something like that ever happened to Zhang Han's own mother, he'd also be vengeful. Vaien refusing to return was the same as trying to get whoever killed his Dad to regret their actions.
Especially now that the tribe was in peril.
The culprit might think 'gee, I wish I didn't piss off the strongest hunter in the tribe, or else we might not be in this situation right now'.
So Vaien's stubbornness about returning was also understandable to some degree. However, this kind of retaliation also meant that he'd have to abandon everyone else, even the innocent. If there was one person Vaien seemed most reluctant to do this to, Zhang Han thought it was actually Kalla.
When she mentioned that she'd go down with the tribe if things came to such, he wavered. He did not like the idea of his younger sister falling into the hands of Boris tribe. And of course he didn't! Even Zhang Han could feel shreds of sympathy if he imagined the tribe being brought under control by Boris, only for the women to be forced to accompany partners. It made his skin crawl.
Still, this kind of strong conquering the weak was how the world worked, and Zhang Han was no saint. His main motivation was to get more information about things that could benefit him, like the power-granting flowers...if they really existed.
Kalla spoke with threads of pleading, "Do you think you can get Vaien to come back?"
"Yeah," replied Zhang Han. He didn't think it'd be impossible to convince Vaien. Lately the man has been willing to listen to his opinions quite well… "At least for a short while, until things at Red Mane stabilize. I just need to talk it over with him."
Kalla pumped her fist and gave a growling cheer of excitement. "I'm counting on you!"
Just at this moment, Vaien sprinted back through the vegetation of the forest, a fuzzy creature with long ears gripped in his hand. So fuzzy that Zhang Han could barely see its pink nose and eyes within the long brown fur. The ears were floppy and oval-shaped.
"Kalla, what were you yelling about?!" snapped Vaien. He approached her with scolding and hints of menace. "You better not be bothering Zhang Han."
"Ahahaha…" she laughed and scratched her cheek. "Nah! I would never do that. I already almost killed him once, and then you almost killed me in revenge. Not like I'd try it again."
Vaien tsked. "That's not funny."
He didn't know why his chest flared up with anger when he pictured Kalla and Zhang Han having a good time back at the camp while he was out. She was his sister, and it wasn't like he was worried about her gaining Zhang Han's affections or anything.
Maybe it was the laughter.
For a second he thought that Zhang Han might be laughing, too, which was rare. He'd barely seen him smile, let alone laugh! So why would he dare laugh with Kalla when he wasn't around?!
But it had all been in Vaien's lovestruck head.
Zhang Han and Kalla had only been scheming about him behind his back.