Reunion

Everyone cried loudly as Daan fell to the ground, all the beastpeople jumped towards him.

The first one to reach him was none other than Akash Tagar, he grabbed the arm of Daan Godlyn and then placed his index and middle fingers on the inner wrist of Daan's arm to check his pulse.

It was irregular, Daan had lost too much blood. Akash pressed on Daan's acupuncture points to stop the bleeding and carried him to a house.

He was not a master of alchemy, but he had an admirable amount of medical knowledge. It was one of the gifts he got from staying in charge of the House of Knowledge.

Akash went out in a flash and after a few moments he came back without slowing down. He had seen some useful herbs on the way while he was moving between Beast Valley and Orc Village.

With no beastpeople slowing him down, he could use his full speed without any worries.

Akash started the treatment of Daan Godlyn as he stitched the open wounds of Daan and splinted his broken arm.

A few elders were standing behind Akash, looking at the operation with awed eyes. After finishing the treatment, Akash turned and look at them.

"Take care of him and inform me when he wakes up."

Akash came out of the house and met Runa and Sohrab who were waiting at the door.

"Don't disturb him, he needs rest."

Runa fell on her knees and Sohrab did the same.

"I am so sorry, My King. I treated you so rudely before without knowing your intentions and powers. Please, forgive me! I will do anything you ask!"

"Alright, I'll take you up on your offer."

Runa looked at him with a bright smile and laid on the ground as she slowly separated her legs and closed her eyes. Sohrab copied her yet again.

All the elders smiled and walked away, ignoring Runa's actions.

Akash looked at her with wide eyes and then observed everyone's reaction. He immediately understood the situation.

He kicked Runa's leg lightly

"What are you doing, stand up!"

Akash lowered his eyebrows in annoyance and looked at Sohrab.

"And you... you are not even a girl. Stand"

It was Runa's turn to be shocked.

"My King, don't you want the birds and the bees?"

Akash replied earnestly.

"No, I don't want either of them."

All the elders and other folk were confused, including the orcs.

The first reason was, whenever orcs attacked the beastpeople, they always killed their males and took their females. The beastfolk was a race in which there were multiple tribes: cat tribe, minotaur tribe, centaur tribe, lion tribe and more. They joined together and made the Lion Tribe's head as their King for generations. With the variety of beastwomen, the orcs took fancy to them. Thus, they thought Akash would be no exception.

The second reason was because of their bestial nature, all of the beastmen fought for beastwomen and only the strong ones would get a mate. Following which, the beastwoman would gladly procreate with him to give birth to strong offsprings. That's why everyone smiled as they were satisfied with Akash's strength and appearance, thus, no one would fight with him over Runa.

"I want you to gather everyone here, both orcs and beastpeople."

Runa was embarrassed as she was very proud of her body and good looks. Regardless, she fought through her emerging tears, bit her lip and replied.

"As you wish, My King."

After a few moments, everyone had gathered, and Akash started.

"There are five things I will tell you for now:

First, from now on, Daan Godlyn is your king, and everyone will abide by his orders. Both orcs and beastpeople are equal will be equal and live-in harmony. If anyone violates this rule, I will personally deal with them!"

Akash used his cosmic powers in the last sentence and his voice echoed throughout the sky causing everyone to tremble.

"Second, there will be no more fighting over females, they will choose their own partner without any unnecessary fights or deaths. There are other ways to show strength besides simple fights.

Third, from this point onwards, you will all start to wear clothes instead of running around naked."

Everyone was befuddled, Sohrab scratched his horn and ask.

"My King, what are these clothes you speak of?"

None of them knew the concept of clothes, it was an alien word to them. Even when Akash came, he was naked. Because he was busy exploring and dissolving his dwelling, he hadn't paid much attention to it since everyone was naked as well.

He equipped the spare dress he had in his inventory. As soon as it appeared on his body, everyone cried out in shock.

"What is that?"

"Oh my goodness, I cannot see his body!"

"He looks even more handsome!"

"I want this too!"

Akash paid them no mind and continued.

"These are clothes: they will warm you up in cold weather, cover your body and make you look better. I will teach you how to make them later.

Fourth, I will teach you how to control powers similar to mine as well many other necessary things you have yet to learn yourself."

Everyone present was shocked. After they recovered, they immediately started whispering to each other.

"He will tell us the secrets of his power!"

The beastpeople's respect for him rose to new heights, even the orcs started to admire him.

"Fifth, this is an important piece of news to all beastpeople. Some of your people who had died at the hands of the orcs are still alive, around one thousand of them are imprisoned in a cave."

The beastfolk were startled once again. Some cried, some couldn't believe Akash, while others looked at the orcs with hatred.

"Did you already forget my first rule?"

Akash looked at them sternly causing all hostility to vanish.

"Are… are my parents alive?"

Runa asked in a puzzled voice.

"I don't know exactly about your parents, but there is a chance they could be."

Akash sensed them when he had arrived at the Orc Village, but he didn't tell them to avoid an uproar. He wanted to resolve the more pressing issues, first.

Akash looked at Runa and told her to follow him.

Runa didn't hesitate and ran after him, every beastperson followed suit including some of the orcs.

A few miles away from the village was a huge cave guarded by some orcs. One of the guards saw the crowd coming and called everyone from the inside.

Around 50 guards gathered at the cave's entrance with wooden spears and stone hammers. A black giant orc came forward.

"Who are you? How did you get here?"

Akash narrowed his eyes.

"Move."

Angered, the orc straightened his spear to attack Akash until he heard a familiar voice

"Move, Zanda!"

The voice came from behind the crowd, an orc's voice. Everyone was startled when they saw him.

"How are you still alive?"

Sohrab asked in surprise.

He was the spitting image of Duglu Langmachi, from his tusks to his toes, he looked identical the Orc King who had recently died at the hands of Daan Godlyn.

He stepped forward.

"I'm not Duglu, I am his younger brother, Botal Langmachi."

Botal looked at the giant guard named Zanda.

"There was a fair duel between Duglu and the beastfolk's King Daan. Our king lost his life, I was present at the scene. Now everything has changed. I will give you the details later but for now, let them through."

Zanda hesitated but eventually moved out of the way, letting them into the cave. The inside was enormous and so dark, you could barely see.

They went deeper into it and saw some glittering lights, from the gold veins inside, which is where they found the imprisoned beastfolk.

When both groups of beastpeople saw each other, they burst into tears. Some saw their friends, siblings while others recognized their own children.

Runa was looking here and there to find her parents, but she couldn't find them. She asked an old, imprisoned faun who was similarly looking around.

"Excuse me, mister, my name is Runa. Would you happen to know if my parents are here? My dad is a Tigerman and my mom is a Catwoman."

The faun looked at her in awe and replied.

"Runa! Daughter of Russ and Lina. I'm sorry to say but your dad died in battle… He fought bravely."

Runa felt all her strength dissipate as she fell to the the ground.

"No... no... this can't be!"

Tears began rolling down her cheeks uncontrollably as her fleeting hope was dashed. Her mournful cries resounded throughout the cave, reaching everyone's ear and penetrating deeper into their souls.

Others who in the same situation couldn't hold it in any longer as well and started to cry as well. Some louder while others tried to keep their sorrow as small and quiet as possible.

As Botal witnessed the pain caused by his and other orcs' actions, he felt regretful for what they'd all done, for the very first time.

"Runa..."

Sohrab wanted to comfort Runa, but he couldn't gather the courage to speak with her.

The faun picked her up.

"Calm yourself, child. I… know your pain all too well… I, too, have lost family."

Tears started to rain from his eyes as if old wounds had started to bleed again, ones which had never healed to begin with.

"I lost my 2 sons in front of my eyes… And my wife was nowhere to be found either. She... has probably... already left this world, waiting for me… I couldn't even bury her!"

The old faun broke out crying, unable to hold back his grief. Runa hugged him and cried as well, both releasing and sharing their sorrow and misfortune in the only way they could right now.

After a while, Faun calmed down and wiped his tears.

"But, at least *sniff* you have your mother."

Runa looked at him with wide eyes.

"My mother… She's alive?"

"Yes, and she is in the deepest part of the cave."

Runa immediately stood up and ran, desperate to kindle this dimming fire of hope, afraid of letting it burn out again.

Panting, sobbing and praying, she ran and ran. Eventually, her exhausted legs forced her to stop, she saw five people, 2 beastwomen and 3 beastmen.

They heard Runa's footsteps and looked at her, surprised.

She calmed herself, her legs still shaking.

"Is... is Lina here?"

She asked while wiping her tears.

An old, grey-haired female came forward, hands and feet covered with calluses. Her skin wrinkly, she spoke in a dim voice.

"I am Lina, who are you? I have never seen you here before. Did the orcs catch you as well?"

"No... they didn't catch me."

She blubbered more as she answered, it felt as if her eyes were carrying an ocean and she was emptying it.

"Then, why are you here?"

After Runa awakened her bestial instincts, her had appearance changed from a normal catwoman's.

Lina looked at closely and asked again.

"Are you a Catwoman? Have you seen a girl named Runa? She is my daughter. She is very beautiful just like you. Do you, perhaps, know her?"

As she asked this, her eyes glittered with helplessness as a small glimmer of hope was rekindled.

Lina waited until, eventually, she couldn't bear the silence of Runa anymore. Tears started to roll down her cheeks, a fleeting hope extinguished as if to ridicule her for even imagining such a thing.

"Please... tell me, is she ok? How is she? Does my Runa… miss... me?"

Runa held Lina's callused hands and kissed them.

"Yes, mom, I missed you."

Lina's eyes widened, she forgot to take a breath.

"Ru... Runa!"