20 Journey to the East

The sun shined on a ruined dirt path, cutting in two the luscious savage forest that was all around it. A group composed of a dozen of old wooden carriages traveled on the road, moving slowly towards the east.

The carriages were old, they moved trembling and creaking under the weight of the many people and especially good that they had to bear. Pulling them, there were a couple of moon oxen: of big horned beasts with short white fur and six robust legs. They resembled cows with dolphin heads and four pairs of recurve horns.

The Forest Will Tribe, the owner of the little convoy, used them as the method for transporting good between the central tribe and the outpost that controlled the more remote regions under their rule.

This convoy, in particular, was heading for the east border of the Forest Will Territory, the poisonous Yellow Lake Region. There, the tribe controlled a portion of the Yellow Lake, place where it was possible to grow and hunt many venomous resources that were required by the Cultivator Clans of the Extreme Wilderness.

Although it wasn't the most profitable possession of the tribe, it was still of one their major source of income. The sole problem was the great distance between the central region, controlled directly by the tribe, and the Yellow Lake region.

The journey between the Tribe and the Outpost was of three months if traveling full speed and without encountering any kind of problem on the road. Which, in a place like the Extreme Wilderness, it was almost impossible: wild beast attacked the convoy multiple times and the random storms forced them to stop for days.

Inside one of the carriages, between the bags of supplies and the crates of weapons, a group of young people was chatting happily.

Four young men and two young women, sharing the same space of travel. Most of them were dressed in pelts and fur clothes had bronzed skin, black straight hair, and dark eyes.

The only outlier was one of the two women: she had a very pale complexion and short green curly hair. She was the only one that wasn't dressed in pelts, instead, she was enveloped by a white robe that was so tightly wrapped around her slender body that nothing of it was left to the imagination of the present.

The male youths tried over and over again to strike a conversation with her, receiving only a slight smile and sometimes a casual nod. This didn't make them feel frustrated at all, it only kept fomenting more their need to be noticed by the white-clothed maiden.

The other woman, far from being jealous of the green haired beauty, kept looking lazily outside from the opened back of the carriage. She ignored the tentatives of striking a conversation coming from the other passengers, even those from the only other female present.

This seemed to annoy the green-haired lady. After some time the latter smiled ironically, pointing her eyes at the woman that continuously ignored her.

"Sister Winter Leaf, is that the wedding ring that uncle Jinto gave you?" she innocently asked, looking at a simple iron circle that decored one of the other woman's fingers.

A vicious look appeared on the other woman for a single moment, only to immediately disappear. Her hand clutched at the pelt sleeve, hiding under the pelt. Maintaining a cold and emotionless expression, she completely ignored the question, turning toward a corner of the carriage and positioning herself to sleep.

"Oh, for someone who personally requested to be sent as a concubine to uncle Jinto you are surely full of pride..." continued the green-haired beauty with a strange smile.

"What? she personally requested it? I can't believe it!" exclaimed one of the other passengers. The rest was also incredibly surprised by the revelation. They all knew Winter Leaf, the genius hunter-trainee that managed to escape from the project of her clan to send her to Sun Leaf, the good for nothing fat son of the family head, as a concubine.

Now they were told that she personally requested to be sent as the concubine of someone's else? No, not only of some random another man, Jinto Leaf? The infamous brother of the Leaf family's head? If it was someone else telling the story they wouldn't even bother with them, but the one revealing all this was a Leaf family member, Star Leaf. It had to be true, especially seen how Winter Leaf didn't say the contrary.

The black haired woman ignored the cries of surprise of the people around her. Her mind continuously kept thinking about how much of a bother would that travel be. They had just started the journey that very morning and she was already losing her patience.

If it wasn't for the orders that she received, she would have already beaten all the morons around her half to death. Especially that stupid whore of Star Leaf. However, the evil devil that controlled her ordered her to keep a low profile until they reached the Yellow Lake Region.

'Damn you to hell, Devilscale' she thought looking at the hidden hand, and feeling the metal swathe with her fingers.

The ring that she was feeling on her left hand, was indeed the Blue Cave Spatial Mansion where Darkscale was currently engrossed in a cultivation session.

She had met him last night, as planned, and took the ring with her with his blessings. He really wanted to go with her to the Yellow Lake Region, meaning that the list of items that he showed her inside the Cave was something he really cared about.

This made Winter Leaf both relaxed and in tension.

She knew that he needed her, but once he managed to get there what would stop him from getting other servants and getting rid of her? However, she didn't have any choice on the matter.

From the moment she fell into his trap, her life had become his plaything. Winter Leaf hated that despicable little devil. Yet, she could only obey him.

Because of his insistence and menaces, she abandoned her dreams to become a Hunter, and had to lower her head and accept to become the concubine of Jinto Leaf. That was the only way she found to be reassigned to the border.

Another way would have been wait until the Ritual of the Hunt was finished so she could choose her place of deployment, but the damned devil found it too much to wait. He was like a child, requiring everything he wanted to be given to him as sooner as possible.

Even if that meant humiliating her in an unspeakable way.

"Three months..." she thought, looking back at the other tribe members in the carriage. She hated those people too, kicking her at the moment where she was most vulnerable. A Tribe should help each other told her always her mother, while growing up. However, growing she realized that the reality was way different: everyone tried to undercut and abuse the other.

She closed her eyes, trying to ignore the laughs from the others and sleep.

The carriage continued in her path, slowly moving towards the east border. Weeks passed, and soon it was the second month of travel.

The little caravan was still moving at the same speed, even if now the carriages were dirtied by the long distance traversed. It was night, a large full moon bathed with feeble light the sleeping forest.

All around the moving caravan, tall trees emerged from the darkness made visible only by the lunar rays. A group of men, armed with long green bows sit on the vehicles roofs, looking around suspiciously.

They were Forest Will Tribe Hunters, the warriors sent to escort the carriage towards the Yellow Lake Region's Outpost. Normally they spent their time inside the moving wagons, but this territory that they were crossing was particularly dangerous: it was known as the infamous Blood Wood.

It was still in the land of their Forest Will Tribe, but it bordered with that of their enemy the Fire Earth Tribe. Fire Earth was different from Forest Will, it wasn't based on few important families but on countless little organizations in a constant struggle between each other.

Some of these organization were straight on criminal raiding groups that attacked and killed people of the other groups. Sometimes the more audacious of them even went to neighboring territories, killing and stealing without any limit.

To protect their caravans, Forest Will had to envoy a contingent of warriors with the supplies. However, sometimes even the presence of the Will Forest Hunters wasn't enough to intimidate the bloodthirsty Fire Earth marauders.

In those rare occasions, the entire forest would be soaked with the blood of the attackers and the defenders. From, that the name "Blood Wood".

Everyone in the caravan was hoping that this night would be a peaceful one, and that no crazy band of brigands would suddenly attack and force them to fight for survival. They prayed the Mother's Will, the Will of the Forest, the only divinity that was venerated in Forest Will Tribe.

However, that night the Will of the Forest didn't answer their beggings.