Hey Dad...

Before Elder LaRae could shout back, Elder Kano loudly replied, "It is true. You have such a right… For one day."

"Yes. So the execution will not be today." LaRee's confident eyes and tone were jarring to witness. Though, that didn't matter to LaRee. LaRee only had his own wishes and stance on the matter. And he planned to make it known.

Elder Kano briefly bowed his head to the chief heir. "So be it. But you will face consequences if Sky God delivers her wrath."

"I have nothing else to say," LaRee claimed with the village as his witness. "I did my part. I warned you. You didn't listen. So I'm acting to save the village. You cannot harm the intruder. Not until tomorrow midday, or until Chief awakens."

Some elders accepted that outcome, seeing it as only a temporary delay.

Two elders, however, were openly against such a thing. And their expressions were enough for the villagers to recognize it.

"You are no nephew of mine!" Elder LaRae blurted before taking in a long hit of his pipe.

The elder with sabertooth earrings nodded in agreement. Before leaving the scene, he remarked, "I pray to Sky God. May we all live to see tomorrow's execution…"

But while the elders scattered, Elder LaRae had one last thing to say. "LaRee! You are forbidden from approaching the intruder! Stop tarnishing your father's name!"

LaRee didn't bother replying. He already suspected that such a thing would happen.

At least now, LaRee understood why the veteran hunters avoided eye contact. Because they promptly came forward to alleviate LaRee of guard duty.

"... I'm sorry."

"Don't be. I caused this," Ayse replied through his watch. "I'll keep my promise. For as long as your people keep to our agreed terms."

LaRee started to walk away. But he hesitated after hearing that. So, LaRee turned to face the wary veterans chosen for guard duty. "... You both know. Only Chief can fight him. Don't push too hard. Delay breaking the deal. We don't want to blood in the village."

Neither hunter replied. They merely kept silent and sat down by the inner edges of the cage.

As LaRee exited the cage, Ayse was forced back into silent captivity with no one to talk with. And Ayse's mind was left with a single intention being pushed to the forefront. *He's the one. The first to join my posse!*

For the rest of the day, a strange air stagnated throughout the village.

The elders kept to themselves until nightfall. They didn't mingle with the villagers outside of their duties. And when the rest of the tribe winded down for the celebration of a mammoth kill, the elders only appeared to get their share of the food and vanish.

In contrast, it was the common villagers avoiding LaRee and his piercing, frustrated eyes. At most, the tribe folk thanked him for the mammoth meat before stepping away to feast elsewhere.

LaRee spent the rest of that day by the wolf pen. Most hunters kept their distance too, up till the celebration began.

"To LaRee!" one young hunter bellowed. "To his kill! Even bigger than Chief's!"

"Here, here!"

The youthful band of warriors clanked hollow horns as cups before chugging their wine.

Still, LaRee wasn't in the mood. He swirled his horn cup. His wine nearly spilled out, though LaRee didn't seem to mind either way. "I told you. That's the intruder's kill. I can't eat this. Not while the intruder is caged."

"Mammoth is mammoth!" another hunter said. "Intruder pays for crime. So we eat his meat!"

LaRee lightly chuckled at that comment, prompting the others to hold another toast and chug.

But LaRee continued to swirl his cup without a single sip. His mind was elsewhere, stuck between multiple paths of thought with no way to traverse them all at once.

Eventually, once LaRee found himself staring at the starry sky with hallow eyes, he decided on what mental path to take first.

So LaRee wandered away from his fellow young hunters.

LaRee's inner curiosity was hard to contain as his eyes drifted toward the cage at the center of the village. However, LaRee's feet carried him elsewhere. He ended up in front of a hut on the other end of the village, knocking on the entrance post.

Seconds later, a grey-haired woman poked her head out of the hanging curtain. Her dull, bouncing eyes looked all over though she didn't move her head. "LaRee, is that you?"

"Yes, Grandma. May I come in?" LaRee replied with a humble, lowly posture.

"Of course! Come, come!" She held the curtain aside for her grandson, happy to have a visitor. "Are you here for me? Or for your father?"

Speaking shyly, LaRee replied, "Sorry… I want to see Father first. Is he awake yet?"

"He's still resting. And there's a chair by the bed. Take as long as you want, Little LaRee," the grandma chuckled and pointed at one of her two rooms, the one with a hanging, isolating curtain.

Without another word, LaRee leaned over in front of his blind grandma. And she happily kissed LaRee's forehead without missing a beat. After all, this was part of their routine relationship.

"Don't mind me, I'm fine," the grandma stated. "Just visit your father. He'll be back up soon. I'm sure of it. So use the time while you can."

Nodding hesitantly, LaRee opened his mouth but failed to say anything else. He just walked to the room's curtain in silence. His feet paused before taking another step. His hand reached for the curtain but stopped, unable to push it aside.

"Go already!"

Thwack!

A hand slapped LaRee's bare back without mercy. Yet the stinging handprint barely registered in LaRee's mind. Because he was more nervous than ever before.

The room was small. It reeked of mixed herbs, with a hint of alcohol. That smell came from the mortar and pestle in one corner of the room, as well as the many baskets filled with all sorts of herbs. Across from the herb wall, a compact bed of fur pelts was laid out. And atop that bed, the motionless, barely breathing chief rested.

A heavy lump of saliva and unspoken emotions instantaneously amassed in LaRee's throat.

… Three minutes passed. In silence.

Till LaRee forced the first words out of his mouth. "... Hey Dad! I just wanted to… see you."