Felix ran ahead of the group as he tried to find some food that could help the Tigers in their rather long journey until they would be able to find food without having to look too much time for it. Felix's group of 5 still had some resources left so they could endure during the journey without having to stray from the path they have discussed before.
However, by doing that they would doom quite a lot of tigers and Felix felt bad about them, looking at their hungry faces and the rumbling of their stomach made Felix think about the fact that he would have died of hunger if there was no food to hunt and Tsuru didn't get him food at the right times.
This triggered some empathy in Felix, a feeling that he never truly felt properly before, he did feel it with Sahee, but his newly developed empathy was destroyed by his constant fear of death and the images that were running in his head at the time.
Felix sighed as he looked around the empty plains around, they just left the mountainous region and they haven't even reached the region where Felix killed that cheetah in his first official mission.
Felix frowned as he looked around, he couldn't see anything edible, not even plant roots or something similar, even the grass was too small to be eaten and Tigers as meat-eating predators would never go so far as to eat grass, it wouldn't help them much either even if they ate it raw, it would need to be cooked and seasonings added and this wasn't something that they currently had.
The Tigers were already poor and had no resources, where they could get seasonings from? They only had the bare necessities that they already exhausted on the road.
Felix frowned, he would feel bad going back with an empty paw so he decided to break away from the route they talked about previously, he decided to move on territory that he hadn't been to before.
Lindo frowned as he looked around, he couldn't feel Felix properly anymore, that meant he moved too far from the group!
He felt worried about him but he considered that Felix was a rather strong person so he didn't have to think much about his safety, if he knew he was a person blessed by God he wouldn't have worried at all.
Felix reached a forest with dead trees everywhere, as he looked around he could feel that the mountainous climate wasn't too good for these trees to live in, he wondered how did they even grow in such bad conditions.
As he walked around the forest he finally found a cave that he didn't know if he should explore or not, he wasn't sure what could be down there, he could see that the cave was illuminated and that meant it should be habited, but by who?
Felix decided to use his stealth technique to see if he could find any food inside, he slowly walked into the cave and went further inside, as he went further he saw that the cave was built like a city, the buildings were made from stone clay and hay at least those that could be seen around, and as he reached the middle of the city he finally found the people who lived in the cave.
They were all black bears! Their unique features couldn't be hidden even though most of them were in their humanoid form, Felix frowned, he didn't have a good impression on black bears, he actually hated black bears quite a bit but he couldn't hate a whole race because of the actions of two people of the race.
Felix shook his head but he didn't reveal himself, as he had a bad impression of the race he first wanted to investigate a bit before doing any introductions.
Felix looked around and saw that most of the bears were still active but they were mostly drowsy, it was around autumn and that meant as winter came they were preparing for hibernation, but that didn't everyone would hibernate, the strongest warriors of the tribe would keep themselves woke during the hibernation period so they could protect the sleeping citizens. While warriors could do without hibernation as they were strong the normal citizens couldn't.
Felix wanted to find some food so he tried to search some buildings, he found a few fishes here and there but they weren't enough to feed the whole remainder of the tiger tribe.
Felix frowned as he stuffed some fish into his bag, he knew he was stealing from the bears but he was doing it for a good cause, and if they found some fish they could find more right?
There was also the chance that these were their last rations but Felix didn't bother to think about that, he wanted to help the tigers but he didn't care much about the wellbeing of the bear tribe, he still had grudges, even though he didn't hate them he couldn't act in goodwill towards them.
Felix found a bit of fish here and there but he realized that if he wanted to get enough fish he would have to raid their storage rooms which were guarded, Felix could also feel that the surrounding Hex energy around the storage room was weird, it seemed the black bear tribe was quite advanced as they had ways to detect stealth!
Felix realized from the waves that moved around the storage rooms that if he approached them his stealth could be both broken and seen through, broken because the Hex energy around the rooms was somewhat strange and seen through because of the way the Hex energy was undulating, technically speaking this appliance should only help them to see through his stealth, but considering Felix was using the surrounding Hex energy to use his stealth technique for him this thing had a double effect.
Felix felt bad about the tigers but he wouldn't want to put his life in peril for them, he already got a bit of fish and if they portioned it properly they could fix their hunger for a while.
Felix decided to leave the big cave, but suddenly angry howls could be heard:
"SOMEONE STOLE MY FISH, MY ONLY FISH THAT I WILL HAVE BEFORE HIBERNATION, WHO DID IT?"
"My fish was stolen as well, which bastard did it?"
"I will break the spine of the person who stole my damn fish!"
"Fish thief, fish thief!"
The warriors of the tribe immediately intervened when they heard the riot happening, they already had distributed the quota of fish for autumn before hibernation, the rest of the fish in the storage rooms were meant for the warriors who didn't hibernate, if they had to stay awake they needed energy and they could gather this energy through fish, Felix didn't analyze the fish properly but they were infused with Hex energy just like the horned rabbit that he first ate when he came to this world.
Most fishes were also starting to gain intelligence and in the far future they would evolve accordingly just like the other animals, but for now, they would continue to be food, semi-intelligent food.
The toughest looking bear started to smell the air as he looked around and said:
"The fish thief isn't one of our people, I haven't seen anyone enter the cave nor felt any Hex energy going around, there are also no foreign smells, that means it must be one of those pesky cat tribesmen who came to steal!"
Felix frowned, how could a cat tribesman get this far to the north for a few fishes? Felix didn't know that there was a northern cat tribe who was clashing with the black bear tribe and stealing their food, that was the sole reason the bear tribe learned the techniques they applied around their storage rooms. Coincidentally this was the same tribe Catro hailed from, they were also the toughest cats on the continent while the tribe Felix came from was considered the weakest.
Felix knew that there would be big problems if he was found here, he didn't know what the black bears would do to him if he was found, he still remembered that image of Sahee in his head, how broken her expression seemed, would they do the same thing to him as well?
Felix didn't want to hang around to find out as he ran quickly towards the entrance of the cave.
The biggest black bear warrior suddenly shouted:
"CLOSE THE CAVE!"
A big boulder immediately dropped upon the entrance of the cave as it closed itself, it was a Hex mechanism used during winter so they would block the mountain cold better, but now it was used to stop Felix from running away!
"SEARCH THE WHOLE CAVE! Make sure you use the disturbing technique to locate the cat, we shall show it no mercy!"
Felix cursed under his breath as he narrowly avoided the bears who were now doing hand seals as the Hex energy in the air started to move weirdly just like the sensation he got when he got near the storage rooms.
Felix knew that if he entered one of those areas that had the strange disruptions he would be done for. But he wasn't sure what to do in this situation to escape.
What could he do? The cave entrance was blocked and he couldn't break through the gigantic boulder, he wasn't that strong nor that small, there were some gaps between the boulder and the entrance but they were too narrow for him to get through, this was the first time he hated his big belly!
Even though his body strengthened and changed from the inside he still looked and weighed more than before, however fat wasn't really a problem for his new body, he was fat and he wouldn't be able to squeeze through the narrow gaps, and even if he could he knew that his internal organs might come out of his mouth or ass that way, his body might respawn outside the cave but he didn't want to die such a grisly and strange way!
Actually, he didn't want to die at all!
And if he died he would lose his new bag and clothes along with the fish that he got for the tigers, while his body would restore to its original peak situation that didn't mean his gear would come with him, his body would remain there with gear and all if it was too damaged. But if it was still ok his soul would enter back into the body and revive itself, this was only in situations where his breathing would be cut and he would die of asphyxiation or when his heart stopped.
Felix frowned as the search tightened, fortunately, the disruption moved along with the people and now that they were all searching for him he could avoid them using his superior speed and enter the storage room! Felix could be considered fast even among peak youngins in the northern cat tribe, after all, he was halfway towards the lieutenant level body wise.
The bears while strong they weren't that fast and they were going around blind not knowing where Felix was, he blitzed around the cave as he sometimes would use his sharp claws to attach himself to the walls of the cave and escalade them, this made his claws hurt a bit as they weren't meant to dig through rock and they even started bleeding a bit, but Felix endured.
All he had to do in this situation was hide and hope they would remove the rock sooner or later, it would also help if he could go inside the storage room and steal enough fish to feed the tigers properly for the whole duration of the remaining journey.
Felix looked down at the black bears who were now talking:
"This damn cat is rather crafty, I wonder where could he be?"
"Doesn't matter if we continue to keep the entrance blocked we will flush him out soon."
"We should look inside the storage rooms as well, maybe he is hiding there?"
"Yeah let's do it, let's go!"
Felix looked as they entered a few storage rooms but came out disappointed as they couldn't find him.
This was a good time to enter the storage rooms, while they thought that he wasn't there!