Felix awake groggily and looked around, the lion-man looked down at him as he placed him on the ground and said:
"We are here, don't make a fool of yourself, also my name is Landers, don't forget it, when you will need something in the tribe you will have to use my name to get it."
Landers walked forward as he exited the tent they were currently in, Felix checked his body and felt that all of his exhaustion disappeared, there was no one else around in the tent beside him and Landers already left.
Felix walked out of the tent and found himself seeing a lot of people, they were from the lion tribe, bear tribe, emu tribe, and other mish-mashes ranging from the hyena to the dog tribe.
It could be said that the lion tribe accepted anyone as long as they were skilled enough.
Landers patted Felix's head and told him:
"The others know about your rank already, I informed the higher-ups and all you have to do is meet with the protectors and march with them, anyways let's get you an outfit that would say you are from the lion tribe."
Landers took Felix to their armory, the guards stationed there saluted respectfully and let him in, Felix had to wait outside for his outfit, Landers didn't take much time to come out, he came approximately 2 minutes later with an outfit for Felix's feline body, it consisted of a light leather vest that covered his whole body that was colored a deep yellow color with the crest of the lion tribe inscribed on the back. Felix was an assassin so he needed light armor so he wouldn't waste stamina and lose speed.
There wasn't anything else in his hands, Felix couldn't use weapons and most of the cat tribe used their claws as their weapons, they were retractable and grew stronger along with their owner, they were the perfect assassination weapons as they were one with their wielder.
Landres helped Felix to don the vest and took him to the guards building, Felix looked around and saw how boisterous the capital was, the buildings were made of a wood that he didn't recognize but they were shining a deep red, there were quite a few buildings in their capital as the capital's size spanned almost 900 kilometers in a circle, they were now in the middle of the capital and everything around them was lively.
Felix and Landres quickly got to the guards building and Felix looked around inspecting the guards, Landres nodded seeing what he was doing, a scout needed good vision for people.
Felix was disappointed with the quality of the guards, they were all youths that were even younger than him, Landres seeing his disappointed gaze told him directly:
"They are youths who will go outside to gain experience, they aren't that strong but who would dare to attack them as they are backed by the lion tribe? our only enemy won't even be able to reach your village without going through us, they are safer going out than staying here."
Felix understood what he meant, but he was still disappointed a bit, after all, what if the people that would attack would ignore their backing and just massacre everyone? He felt remorse about what he did and he didn't want the villagers to die as well.
Felix sighed as Landers patted his head and whispered to him:
"You don't have to worry, they also will have one elder who will protect them from the shadows, after all, we from the lion tribe protect our youth, unless it's an extremely deadly situation he won't show himself so they can temper themselves, we won't be stingy with the protection of your settlement, after all, you are the only one who remained alive."
Then Landers's eyes narrowed as his hand transformed into a claw that grasped Felix's skull tightly, he continued whispering to him while the recruits looked at them with wide eyes:
"How could you have survived? While you were exhausted pretty badly your body was clean and there were no injuries, extremely strange if you ask me, it could be explained if you were a coward who ran away all of the time but I can smell the decay of death coming from you, meaning you had quite a few kills."
Felix didn't know what to say without explaining his ability so he bluffed:
"I killed those around the entrance and camped nearby, I was extremely lucky that I did that..."
Lander's eyes remained narrowed as he wasn't sure if Felix lied or not, Felix was currently using a simplified breathing technique that was meant to hide his heart fluctuations, this was in case you were captured and needed to lie your way through or make it though for those who interrogated you to see if you were lying or not.
Landers decided to trust him, then he stopped clenching his skull and told him:
"I remember seeing you entering the maze with a little beauty, I'm sorry for your loss.."
While the lion tribe threw out their old and sickly, they still went out to burry their bones if they ever found them while traveling, death was sacred to them and they thought that everyone should get a burial, however, this only applied to their tribe.
Felix's eyes glazed over when he heard of Sahee, he still felt guilt, not as much as before but he felt bad, however, his instincts kicked in and slashed his emotions to pieces as they told him:
"Why would you die for nothing? She made a mistake and that cost her life, do you want to feel that sensation again? DO YOU?"
Remembering the sensation of falling in the void and the cold hand that grasped his neck before he could fall into the light made him shudder, Landers thought that he hit a sore spot when he made him remember the passed woman so he left him alone and told the youths:
"You will accompany him through the Emu, Hyena, and Eastern cat tribe, you will remain at the eastern cat tribe to train and guard the tribe until you will get a hawk tribesmen to relieve you of your duty, do you understand, soldiers?"
All 20 of them saluted as they put on their iron helmets over their heads and banged their shields with their spear while shouting, Landers gave out a smile as he saluted as well then told Felix:
"You are ready to go, you are outfitted and they will carry the food and water as well, your body has already been charged by the Hex stone so you won't need the food or water for a while, anyways as a grade 1 scout you will report to me in the future and you can find me in this guard building, if I'm not here you can report to the lieutenant, just ask for Simortha and he should be around, he doesn't leave the place usually as he takes care of the logistics."
He pushed Felix out of the building along with the 20 guards and told them:
"You guys have your orders, cat tribesmen, it's embarrassing but I forgot to ask for your name, might you tell me so I can finish your paper registration?"
Felix nodded and said:
"My name is Felix."
Landres then continued:
"Yes, Felix, you will return after you march with them to your village, I will have a new mission for you, it won't be hard as it will be your first and you are only a scout even if you are a top scout, anyways, go on!"
Felix nodded and saluted by putting his paw on his head as he saw the others, he looked quite cute when he did that.
The 20 guards wanted to snicker seeing Felix's pose but a glare from Landres stopped them.
After a short while of meeting with each other and casually chatting, they set out for their destinations.
The hyena tribe was the nearest and they were welcomed with open arms, the hyena women even tried to hit on the guards but the guards looked down on them, even though hybrids existed in the world they were either looked down upon or exalted into the skies based on their talents, however, there was a 95% chance of the hybrid being talentless so most of the common folk looked down on interbreeding.
Nothing happened as they left the hyena tribe, Felix had to talk with the matriarch of the tribe for a bit only for him to be dismissed quickly after, she only asked for his name.
The Emu tribe was a little bit different considering that they were almost thrown out of the tribe before they could enter properly, Felix and the guards then had to go through their rite of passage which wasn't that hard but annoying, they had to stick their heads in the sand!
The proud lion tribe wouldn't ever do that but the Emu tribe guards were old and experienced thus easily making them put their hands in the sand even if they didn't want to.
Felix had to do it as well, even though the sand irritated his fur he quickly got rid of it and then they were able to enter the tribe, the leader of the tribe talked a little bit more with Felix but in the end, they were led out, most of the lion guards were angry at the way they were treated by the Emu's, however, the Emu tribe was more like an ally rather than a subordinate, an Emu elite could stale and almost defeat a lion tribesman in one on one, unfortunately, Emu's couldn't fight well in groups and the lions could, thus the lion tribe had a huge advantage on them.
The young lion guards only lost to the Emu elites because they were too young and also inexperienced, if they even got a little bit of experience under their belts, the ones who would have their heads stuck into the sand would have been the Emus.
Felix sighed as they got closer and closer to the cat tribe, he could even imagine Lucian coming out of his study wanting to hug Sahee and prise her for what she had done...
It was just as he thought, Lucian quickly came out of his study when he heard that Felix returned with some lion guards!
He looked around with an excited expression on his face that only turned sour very quickly, he looked at Felix in the eyes and Felix told the guards that they could do what they were ordered now as they reached the location.
Lucian invited Felix back into his study, he had a hardened gaze as he asked Felix:
"Felix, where is Sahee?"
Felix shook his head, Lucian knew what that gesture meant but he just couldn't believe, the young Sahee who used to jump around yell at everyone that she was going to become strong to protect her tribesmen? The young Sahee who got a special talent and that was ready to become an important person in the lion tribe?
Lucian just couldn't believe it, he fell to his knees as he grasped Felix's paws and asked:
"How? How did she die??"
The pain on his face couldn't be faked, he cared deeply about Sahee just like she was his little sister, he even vividly remembered how he helped her with chores when he was a youth and she was just a little bubbling kid.
Felix's guilt and remorse intensified as he saw his pain-filled eyes and he averted his gaze from his and said slowly:
"She hesitated when it came to killing someone of the hyena tribe, this made her slip up and she got injured, she started to slow us down, she became so exhausted that she couldn't move, you know that I can't morph into a humanoid form so I couldn't carry her without becoming extremely exhausted myself, so I had to let her go...."
Lucian's eyes widened for a few seconds before his fingers grasped so hard at Felix's paws that it made Felix hurt as he visibly recoiled back from his grasp, Lucian started pounding the floor of his study as small cracks appeared on it, his aura turned malevolent as he slowly whispered to Felix:
"You have more lives? Why didn't you sacrifice some to save her?"
Felix gritted his teeth as he said:
"I have limited lives, I cannot resurrect forever, I would have wasted them and she would have died anyway..."
Lucian grasped his hair as he glared at Felix:
"No you are wrong, you didn't even try, how could you know what would have happened?"
Lucian knew that he was grasping at straws at this point, he could feel that Felix was telling the truth but his strong emotions were clouding his reasoning to the point that he wanted to jump at Felix's neck and snap it!
Felix didn't move as he sat there, Lucian knew that killing him would mean nothing as he could resurrect, his village would also be punished severely to the point that it might even be exterminated if it was found out that he was killed, and 20 lion guards were working around the settlement now!
He waved his hand as his voice turned as cold as it could become as he said:
"Just leave, leave and don't come back, I know I'm at fault as well for not training her more, at this point I know that I'm even more at fault than you, I should have made her get more experience in such matters but I thought about protecting her from the real world of our people, I failed her, however, looking at you makes all the words you said reverberate into my soul, it makes me remember her and it also makes me rage to the point that I almost can't control myself, only the cold hard reasoning that killing you would lead to me and all of the villagers dying stops me from jumping at you, I know that what I'm feeling is wrong and biased, but I truly cared about her..."
Hot tears started falling from his cheeks as he fell to the ground into a fetal position and he muttered:
"Sahee, Sahee, your big brother will help you carry those grain sacks, let me do it!"
Felix felt like he was in a boat in the middle of the ocean during a storm, emotionally speaking, he left Lucian's study behind and started to go towards the forest direction.
He reached the same place where he first met Sahee and just sat there for a while thinking, he asked himself again:
"Would I abandon her to escape if I could go back in time?"
His face scrunched up as three voices started to battle inside of him, his emotions, his cold reasoning along with his instincts, images popped in his head with Sahee and then the cold void, the hand, the light, in the end, it was two versus one and combined with the continuous images that popped up in his mind when he thought about death lead to the answer which was one word:
"Yes."