Zok wasn't the only one who saw another cave appear in the wilderness. The ray of light cast by the cave could be seen from anywhere across the wilderness. Thus the Zukira's were aware of the cave's appearance as well. However, once the shamans determined that the cave had appeared in the beastly glade, the Zukiras were no longer interested in investigating the cave.
They would rather have the beasts from that cave cause a stampede and then handle them, than venturing into the Beast glades. No one was even ready to go and scout the area. That was the kind of terror the glades had over the tribesmen.
Even the Shamanka knew there was no point in trying to pressure the men to help out with clearing the cave. On top of that, the beastly Glades was quite far away from the tribe so even if the cave was left unattended, there shouldn't have been a problem for them.
Furthermore, she also had to think about a plan to find and take care of Zok. She was so desperate that she would rather have all the resources allocated to finding him rather than killing some monsters. In her mind, they could take care of some monsters whenever they liked, but taking care of someone like Zok as soon as possible was much more important. As more time passed, the stronger Zok would become and him taking down her disciple was the proof of that fact. She could not let anyone else but her rule the Wilderness. No one.
Skah was also thinking the same thing and had already taken a step in that direction that night... by declaring Zok a traitor to the tribe. The statement alone caused an uproar within the tribe. For the first time since coming to the wilderness, none of them believed their chieftain.
Not because they trust Zok to not do something like that, but because they refused to believe a deadbeat like him was even capable of becoming a traitor in the first place. Even if he had a commander wolf by his side, it was way too farfetched to sound even slightly believable.
However, the Shamanka had already expected such a reaction and had come up with an equally good tale to persuade the dull-witted population of the tribe. She nodded and Skah retold the story she came up with word by word to the tribe just like she had told him to.
"Even I acknowledge he couldn't have done it all by himself. However, that traitorous child of mine wasn't alone in this conspiracy against us." Skah had the most painful expression on his face that anyone had ever seen, "It looks like our enemies had bewitched my poor, dimwitted offspring into doing their bidding. We still don't know how they were able to get inside Wilderness, but the Shamanka is positive that some people had invaded our pure land and marked it with our brethren's blood."
He continued, "I am ashamed to admit that my son's mind was so weak he was seduced with power and did not even consider the consequence his selfish actions would have on us. I also suspect that he only was able to tame a great beast like the Commander wolf because of those evil sorcerers. But by doing that, not only did he betray the tribe, but he also betrayed the great Okun! That is a sin, not even I, as his father, can ever forgive."
The shamanka remained silent while observing the gradual change in the mood of the crowd. These dimwits trusted her too much and couldn't even point out the obvious lies Skah was spouting non-stop. In fact, the shamanka was sure they would believe her as long as she added witchcraft in the story. Can't explain something logically? Just blame it on witchcraft and you're good to go. No one would ever question you after that.
"I would have considered not branding him as a traitor if he was to come and apologise for his crime as soon as he was out of their mind control. But he didn't. Instead, he decided to band along with our enemies and destroy the checkpoint we have so proudly made by our hands..."
Skah broke down crying Khrocodile tears. But the tribe blindly trusted him and thought Zok had actually caused grief to their proud chieftain. Even Sera, Ahuli and Mirelia were stunned by the news. They were suffering from mixed emotions. On one hand, they were delighted to know that Zok was alive as for weeks they had thought he was dead. But on the other hand, they were confused and grieved by his actions against the tribe. (Author's note: Khrocodile is not a typo. It's a crocodile resembling beast on Occuna. Don't flame me now. ;p)
"I cannot describe how brutally they murdered our brethren who willingly left the safety of our tribe to protect us." Skah continued after wiping the tears off his face, "They were dismembered so badly, we couldn't even figure out which limb belonged to which corpse. Now you tell me, my loyal tribesmen. Should we forgive my son for his crimes?"
"NO!" Everyone roared in unison, except Ahuli, Sera, Suhi and Mirelia.
"Should we leave him alone?"
"NO!"
"What should we do to them?"
"KILL THEM ALL!!!"
"I couldn't hear you. WHAT SHOULD WE DO!?"
"KILL THEM!!!"
"ARE YOU WITH ME!?"
"YES!!!"
"I SAID, ARE YOU WITH ME!?"
"YES!!!"
"THEN ON THIS DAY, I DECLARE ZOK AS A TRAITOR TO OUR TRIBE. WE WILL HUNT HIM DOWN AND PUNISH HIM FOR HIS CRIMES! IN THE RIGHTEOUS NAME OF OKUN."
"IN THE RIGHTEOUS NAME OF OKUN!"
The huge uproar of the Zukirans sent waves throughout the wilderness. And just like that, Zok had been turned into an enemy... one they would hunt down like a bunch of direwolves and show no mercy.