Thief, turtle tribe, chameleons

A few minutes ago before Thomas heard someone shouting, somewhere outside the camp. A few animals wearing hoods were chatting with each other.

"The intel we got is real! Those leopards are staying here, which means that they truly visited gorilla's tribe."

"Everyone knows that they are growing intelligence fruits in secret. Leopards have at least a few of them for sure. What else would they need?"

"Listen, Li Jing. You need to get at least a few of these fruits out of their camp. They are the most useful to our tribe. With them, our camouflage techniques will get even better, and we will be able to dominate territories around ours without a problem."

Hearing how serious her task was, Li Jing nodded her head and took off her hood. She was a chameleon. The thing she was most proficient at was a camouflage. She was born and raised in her tribe without leaving it until today. Everyone treated her as a genius and elders said that she was the first person to achieve such a high level of camouflage in the history of her tribe.

"I will surely succeed!"

"That's why we chose you for this mission. We believe that you won't disappoint us."

"Alright, now you need to sneak in."

Li Jing slowly approached the enemy camp with five needles in her hands. She was able to hide only this much at her current level. She was Qi gathering stage step 1 higher phase at the age of almost nine.

She passed through the first guard, and when she reached the second one, Li Jing held her breath, walked closer to this guard, stuck the poisoned head of needle into his head. She then quickly grabbed him and laid him down on the ground.

'He should be like this for five minutes. That's what elders said.'

After making sure that needles are working she came back for the guard that she passed before. Since the one at the back won't be able to see this one falling asleep, she can do the same thing here.

Li Jing quietly entered the camp and started searching for the place where they were keeping their riches.

When she found it, two guards were defending it staying beside each other.

'Come on, Li Jing you can do it.'

Li Jing came closer to both of them, and while holding her breath and standing between them, she stuck each a needle at the same time. Before they fell, she caught them both and was barely able to put them slowly on the ground.

When she was inside, she searched for a fruit that elders described to her. It was round, as big as a clenched fist, and either red or green.

After carefully looking around and making sure that she won't make any noise, Li Jing finally found what she was searching for, three round red fruits. She took them out, and she was getting less careful since she had around a minute and thirty seconds left.

When she walked out with the fruits, and she saw that the guards were still asleep, she let out a sigh of relief because she was almost at her limit.

She was just about to walk out of here when she saw someone's silhouette sneaking out too. It was too dark for her to see who it was, but she was sure it wasn't a leopard.

'Is he here for these fruits as well? What will I do if it's true? I need to wait until he leaves or guards will wake up.'

She was watching as this stranger was moving further and further while she was counting time in her head.

'What is taking him so long? doesn't he see the needles in those guard's heads? Time is almost up! I need to make my move too.'

Li Jing decided to take the risk and start following this stranger. She used a second needle on guard that was closest to her. Now, she was increasing her speed to make it before the other one wakes up.

If someone passed through this place right now, he would see three fruits following a silhouette which was walking out of this camp.

If not for this stranger, Li Jing would have already left this place.

'I heard stories about turtle tribe leaving near the sea. They are supposed to be slow and have a strong defence. Is this person one of them? But why would he travel so far to get this fruit? Isn't it supposed to be the best for our tribe?'

Li Jing was truly confused why was he so slow.

'Maybe he suffered some weird injury, and can't walk properly? Should I help him? No! I need to focus on my mission. My whole tribe is counting on me. But what can I do in this kind of situation?'

Li Jing started thinking about what could she do better, and then an idea struck her.

'Oh no, if I only used my last needle on this person, I could carry or drag him out of here at the same time not risking anything. Now, I have thirty second's left, and this silhouette will take most of this time to walk out of here by himself.'

Li Jing started calculating whether she will make it out of here if she waits until this person leaves first and no matter how good her plan was, she will never be able to achieve it without taking some risks.

She decided.

'There are twenty-five seconds left. My only option is to try walking between other guards and this stranger. I need to take action or I won't get out of here.'

Li Jing showed a resolute expression and started searching for an ideal place to move unnoticed.

Seventeen seconds passed, she was almost out of here. In five seconds, she will be out of the sight of these guards. Most of the tribes wouldn't be able to get her from so far away, but this one was different.

Leopards aren't the fastest animals in the jungle, but this doesn't mean they are slow. Even the fastest gorillas are almost two times slower than them.

Three seconds left, Li Jing couldn't keep her camouflage anymore. She overestimated herself.

Maybe three fruits aren't visible from such a distance at night, but a person was a whole different matter.

Li Jing thought that she is already safe and let out a sigh of relief, but her expression quickly changed when she heard someone shouting behind her back.

"Where do you think you are going, thief?!"