Surviving Zombies Was Easier Than Raising Beast Cubs

Chapter 148: Chapter 148: Old Friend

"YOU WANT MY MAMA TOO?!"

Silence.

Complete.

Painful.

Silence.

For several breaths, nobody even understood what had happened.

Then one head turned.

Another.

Then another.

Every beastman on the wall slowly looked toward Veyra.

The Veskari did the same.

Even several of the Ground-Hoof warriors turned their upper bodies toward her.

Veyra stood perfectly still.

Her pale-blue hair moved softly behind her.

Her fist was still clenched.

Her face had gone rigid.

Swanly looked at Miko.

Then Veyra.

Then Miko again.

Oh my fucking God.

Not this.

Again.

Why did her children keep announcing other people’s feelings to entire settlements?

She was not their walking pair of eyes!

Could they please discover silence?

Just once?

Veyra’s fingers slowly uncurled.

"I do not want your mother."

Miko narrowed his eyes.

"Then why look bad?"

Veyra froze.

Azren’s head turned.

Slowly.

His pale-violet eyes settled on Veyra.

He stared at her for a long moment.

Then his face twisted with immediate disgust.

"You."

Veyra’s jaw tightened.

Azren sighed heavily.

"You are why they will not allow us inside."

"What?"

Swanly blinked.

Raku looked at Soren.

Soren looked back at him.

They had not been planning to let these people inside anyway.

Azren apparently did not care about facts.

He pointed his chained hands accusingly toward Veyra.

"You frightened them."

"I did nothing!"

"You glared at the beautiful female."

"I did not glare."

Miko immediately shouted:

"YOU DID!"

Veyra’s face darkened.

Azren nodded.

"Even the tiny one saw it."

"He accuses everyone!"

"That does not make him wrong."

"He accused me of wanting his mother!"

Azren considered that.

Then shrugged.

"Understandable."

Veyra looked ready to rip off one of his antennae.

Swanly moved before Miko could contribute another sentence.

Her palm covered his mouth.

"Mmph!"

"No."

Miko immediately grabbed her wrist.

"Mmmm!"

"No more."

He pulled her hand down.

"But Mama, I protect!"

The anger disappeared from Swanly’s face for half a heartbeat.

Damn him.

His little brows were pulled together.

His ears stood high.

He was genuinely serious.

"I protect Mama from jealous female."

Veyra’s eye twitched.

Swanly crouched slightly and looked directly at Miko.

"I appreciate the thought."

Miko brightened.

"But if you open your mouth one more time..."

His smile vanished.

"...no meat tonight."

Miko went completely still.

Kairo gasped.

Nilo slowly looked at Swanly.

Even Kael glanced down.

That was brutal.

Miko stared at his mother in horror.

"No meat?"

"No meat."

His hands flew over his mouth.

Instant silence.

Swanly straightened.

Finally.

A weapon that worked.

Behind him, Kairo whispered:

"Mama scary."

Miko nodded violently.

Swanly looked over her shoulder.

Both cubs became statues.

"Inside."

They ran.

This time Miko did not argue.

Meat had accomplished what danger, threats, forbidden forests and angry adults could not.

Tilla nearly collapsed with relief when she saw them returning.

"Get in here!"

Miko hurried through the opening.

Then stuck his head back out.

Swanly raised one finger.

He disappeared immediately.

Good.

Now perhaps the adults could finish one conversation.

Soren stepped forward.

His silver gaze returned to the outsiders.

Whatever faint amusement had existed during the cub disaster was gone.

"You will tell me what you seek."

The enormous winged male who had spoken earlier, Korran, folded his arms.

His dark wings shifted behind him.

"If we tell you, will you allow us inside?"

Soren looked at him.

"No."

Korran’s expression went blank.

Swanly nearly laughed.

The silence lasted several seconds.

"You demand an answer," Korran said slowly, "while already deciding to refuse us?"

"Yes."

"You are deliberately difficult."

Soren’s eyes did not change.

"You arrived on my land."

Korran’s jaw flexed.

"So your answer remains no?"

"Yes."

The winged female who had first approached the gate finally stepped forward again.

Her name, Swanly learned when one of the others quietly addressed her, was Lyssara.

Unlike Veyra, there was no obvious anger in her face.

Lyssara looked controlled.

Almost too controlled.

Her translucent wings folded neatly behind her.

"Perhaps we are approaching this incorrectly."

Raku muttered:

"That would be one way to describe it."

Lyssara ignored him.

Her glowing blue eyes moved slowly across Ironwood.

The walls.

The warriors.

The caves.

Druun.

Her gaze lingered on the giant.

Druun immediately growled.

The sound rolled across the ground.

Lyssara did not smile this time.

"You refuse us entry."

Soren said nothing.

"Yet you keep one of our old friends among you."

Every head turned.

Toward Druun.

Druun’s growl became violent.

His massive fingers dug into the earth.

Swanly’s heart jumped.

Friend?

Nothing about Druun’s expression suggested friendship.

His teeth showed.

His shoulders rose.

Azren’s playful expression disappeared for the first time.

Even he watched Druun carefully.

Swanly stepped slightly closer to Kael.

"Druun?"

The giant shook his head hard.

"No."

Lyssara watched him.

Then said:

"Not him."

Everyone froze.

Swanly’s stomach dropped.

Not Druun?

Then who?

Lyssara’s gaze moved past him.

Into Ironwood.

Toward the empty earth behind the wall.

And suddenly Swanly knew.

No.

Lyssara’s antennae tilted forward.

Her eyes brightened.

"Root-Eyed Mother."

Nobody moved.

The words seemed to change the air itself.

Soren’s head turned slightly.

Raku’s grip tightened on his weapon.

Kael’s ears flattened.

Nerin went pale.

Swanly stared at Lyssara.

Thalara had specifically told her:

Do not tell them I am here.

And now these creatures had named her.

Lyssara stepped closer to the boundary.

Not across it.

Never across it.

But close.

"We can feel you."

Silence.

No roots moved.

No voice answered.

Lyssara tilted her head.

"Old friend."

Druun roared.

BOOM!

His fist struck the ground.

Several Veskari instantly raised their weapons.

Soren’s tail slammed across the earth.

"Do not."

One word.

Cold enough to stop everyone.

Lyssara looked toward him.

Soren’s eyes had become thin silver slits.

"You will not touch anyone inside my boundary."

"We are merely calling her."

"She does not wish to answer."

Lyssara smiled faintly.

"That has never stopped her kind from hearing us."

Swanly’s skin crawled.

Her kind?

What the hell did that mean?

Then one of the Ground-Hoof males stepped forward.

Not Korran.

A massive dark-bodied warrior with black plating running down his humanoid chest and across his horse flanks.

His name was Tharek.

One enormous hoof struck the earth.

THOOM.

Swanly felt it beneath her feet.

Not just a stomp.

A pulse.

It traveled through the ground.

The stones beneath Ironwood trembled.

Nerin gasped and grabbed his broken antler.

"What..."

A second pulse struck.

THOOM.

The earth shuddered harder.

Druun suddenly went wild.

"NO!"

His roar ripped through the basin.

He lunged toward the gate.

Raku shouted.

Warriors moved.

Soren’s tail whipped outward.

And beneath Swanly’s feet...

Something screamed.

Not above ground.

Below.

Swanly’s blood went cold.

"THALARA!"

Roots burst from the soil.

Black.

Violent.

Thrashing.

The ground split open.

Thalara erupted from beneath it.

She hit the earth on both knees.

Her white hair spilled over her face.

Her branch-like horns trembled.

One clawed hand slammed against the dirt.

Then she coughed.

Dark blood splattered across the stone.

Swanly stopped breathing.

Thalara slowly lifted her head.

Her central purple eye opened.

And every Veskari outside the gate went silent.

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