Discovered

"What's wrong with you?! Put me down!" She says while trying to put me in a chokehold.

"Take a bath, you're going to contaminate the goods," I said calmly, tightening my hold around her legs.

"What are you talking about!?" She said, her voice muffled by being upside down.

"You kept on mentioning feathers for pillows. And now that we managed to get them, you're going to contaminate the goods?" I deadpanned.

She suddenly stopped struggling, tone a lot less angry, "Feathers? You got feathers?" She squeaked.

"Yeah, so stop struggling and wash up, you're covered in soot. Even I now look like I went out of a chimney." I say as I look down at my newly spotted white shirt.

"At least put me down, my blood is about to pool in my head. I can walk by myself." She says urgently from behind.

I improve her position by pulling her all the way to the front, to her surprise, she wraps her arms around my neck, and then I tell her, "You realize you're barefoot, right?."

As she's straddling me, I see her trying to look at her bare feet before asking to switch to a piggy-back instead.

"And what, grant you a perfect chokehold position?" I say sarcastically.

"What, you think I can't do that from here?!" She leans back, looking at me, brows furrowed.

"Go ahead and try," I call her bluff.

She probably realized that she'll just effectively hug me by doing that, so she slumps her head on my shoulder, treating it like a school desk.

The waterfalls didn't feel very far even with a sack hanging on me. After all, she's too light. Did she not eat enough growing up? I thought to myself.

I look around, sounding out possible dangers. The water remained clear, and the vicinity didn't seem to have large predator tracks. So I decided to let her down.

She angrily stalks closer to the area covered by a giant stone, while I proceed to undress and store my blood-stained clothes back into my space.

It's almost nighttime, the faster we finish here, the better.

She's still probably throwing a tantrum behind that giant rock.

If she had just waited instead of doing it herself, then she wouldn't have been dragged all the way here. I thought as I slumped my back against some rocks, relaxing in the water.

I was just about done, and it hadn't been that long when I suddenly felt consistent vibrations closing in on our location. footsteps.

The uneasy feeling of having Tyr walk around without being detected almost drove me crazy. From then on, I had been vigilant about sensing footsteps, even after learning that Tyr just happened to be floating.

I moved over to the pipsqueak just as I heard the sounds of rustling getting closer. I make sure to cover her mouth in case she decides to "scream first, ask later".

Her eyes were wide, after all, she was relaxing against the giant rock, but her expression changed the moment she heard the rustling.

The sound of water falling so close normally masks sounds like these so she probably didn't notice right away.

Then she raised two of her fingers, she probably used her abilities, these two must be touching plants while moving in this direction.

She then grabs me towards her, which surprises me. She points to the shadow left by the giant boulder, and even I can see that the shadow on the water was showing my silhouette.

The rock we were using as cover was taller than me. But wasn't wide enough to accommodate the two of us standing next to each other.

So I decided to make a depression on the stone, hiding there with her in my grasp so that our shadows would fit in.

It was then that we heard the voices of two unfamiliar men.

I can see it in her face, she was about to complain about how absurd this position is. She's naked. We're both naked. Who wants to be in this situation? But then the voices started to become understandable from this distance.

"What are we even doing here? You dragged me all the way here!" Complained one of them in a breathy voice, presumably tired from the trek.

"I really saw them here! There! By that giant rock!" If we could see them, this nasal man must be pointing towards the rock we're hiding in, this is the biggest rock here after all.

"What did you even see?" The guy said, seemingly annoyed.

"Two women, one with long brown hair and one with short black hair. I want them."

"You saw two women there? Are you sure you weren't seeing things? We're the closest tribe here, maybe it's from our Tribe?" He sounds like he's trying to convince the other guy to go back.

From the time these men mentioned hair colors, the pipsqueak has been frozen in place. If not for her clenching her fists hard, you could probably mistake her for a statue, a soft one.

"Definitely not." The man argued, then continued. "It's impossible for them to be from our Tribe. Fara wouldn't allow someone that would make her look ugly to live." He said thoughtfully.

"They're that beautiful?" The breathy man asked disbelievingly.

"I didn't see the face of the long-haired girl clearly. But the short-haired one…I've never seen someone that beautiful."

"Her skin looked very smooth, she was sparkling. With red lips and bright eyes, she looked extremely delicate. She was in the water, but even with her shoulders alone, I could already tell…" We heard him clapping his hands together.

Now the pipsqueak isn't the only one very still. If this guy doesn't shut up, I might just go out and gut him. My jaw has been clenching tighter and anymore and I'll probably break some molars.

Then suddenly two small hands reached up, covering my ears, and I looked down at her, surprised.

She shook her head, flustered at overhearing the conversations of those two.

She may be covering my ears but we both know that it's doing nothing to block their conversation. But I unclench my jaw, she's essentially holding my head with the way she's cupping my ears.

I was momentarily distracted but managed to focus back to listening to the two.

"So you're planning on bringing her back? How will you handle Fara?" Still sounding unconvinced.

"If you saw what I saw, even you won't care if Fara goes crazy. I'm the son of the chief, she's only my sister. I'll take that woman. Even if father doesn't agree, I can make her my slave."

Now the pipsqueak found this incredulous. She's leaning her head back and forth, her brows furrowed. If she looked flustered earlier, now she looks angry.

It's amusing because most would be scared to hear something like this. But now I feel like if I weren't restraining wait, she'd pounce on the guys despite being buck-naked.

"If it's like that, then you won't hold out on me right?" now sounding amused at the other's plan.

Sounding like he has won already he says, "I don't know when I'll get tired of a body like that, but I can lend her to you once I'm done."

My vision suddenly turns red, their words echoing even in my covered ears. I feel Eliana nearly shoot up in anger and I brace her tighter, holding her down before she creates too much noise.

An eyeball wouldn't be enough. I repeat to myself, breathing deeply to regain my vision.

To them this may be the norm, but not for us.

She's resisting, barely controlling her desire to flail. So I silently lift her off, bringing her ears close to my mouth as I whisper, "You can go wild later once you're dressed."

She then stops, suddenly flushing. She probably just realized that she'd been pressing on me with her naked body as she kept on struggling.

Earlier, she was just covering my ears, now she's squeezing hard, if I had been made any weaker, my head would have probably exploded already.

"If they didn't keep on asking for back-up I would've already captured her. I could've also gotten her friend." He laughed before adding, "You can have her, she looks like she could take it too."

I feel my blood boiling again, now even my cousin couldn't escape their dirty mouths.

If the pipsqueak was a Fire Elemental, the water would've all evaporated by now. She's fuming like she's going to combust anytime.

"Well, we can't wait here for too long, the hunt is almost over and we didn't say anything about staying out longer. We'll just have to return." The breathy man reminded him.

The arrogant idiot snorts, "Just don't tell anyone else, she's mine, I don't want anyone getting any funny ideas."

We heard rustling and I felt their movements through the Earth.

I've been holding down my anger. I'm pretty sure I've erected too many stone pillars somewhere behind that ridge. If I didn't do so, my energy would've already exploded.

She probably thinks I'm too calm considering how they disrespected my cousin. But the number of raging stone pillars would disagree.

I've been raging from the moment he mentioned her short-black hair.

Yours, my ass.

I don't recall giving her away. I grind my teeth.

She hits my chest before separating once we've confirmed they've left.

"Why did you stop me?! I would've killed them already!" She angrily confronts me.

"Were you planning on fighting like that?" I point at her.

"If that's not a concern for you, then did you think about how their tribesmen will come looking for them here knowing that they hunted around here?" I tell her. She's gnashing her teeth at me but she knows I'm right so she's just shaking in anger.

"Prepare our things. We'll hunt them ourselves. Then, you can go all out." I tell her as I motion to leave the rock depression. Then I turned back to add, "But if you want to be his, tell me now, so I can let him live." I cock my head at her.

Her face sours and even I can see her physically reject the idea. "Ew! He couldn't even get Rina's hair color right!" She shivered behind me, stalking like a giant, making splashing noises as she moved.

I had already wanted to leave, but she insisted on washing the clothes we wore first. Saying that if those bastards plan on returning daily, we need to accomplish all water-related tasks as fast as possible.

We returned to the cave in no time, and she rushed to explain the situation. Paraphrasing all the harassment and leaving out how we hid in the rock.

Rina was angry, water particles even started condensing around her. She probably realized that Eliana left out the truly despicable words.

"When do we go?" Idris asked. His measured manner may seem to the rest as a polite concern. But if Idris is left to his own devices, he'd easily wipe out that Tribe to appease himself.

"Once those are ready." I point towards the items we've been preparing.

"You two are not allowed to go to the waterfalls by yourself. From now on, we're storing as much water here and only going at odd hours." I look at all of them, especially the two girls.

They both reluctantly nod. It's not a question of whether they could win in a fight, it's a matter of being unable to move this instant because of the many things we're trying to do.

Tension was palpable in the air, and so was anger. Everyone went around working, with a renewed vigor.

I have to remember to cut off his tongue or gouge his eyeballs. Maybe that would make me feel better.