A few days later, Carus was betrayed by Rena, and Rena was double-crossed by Radus, who ended up killing her and throwing her off the cliff as well. For her, it was a certain death.
After returning to the village Radus put on his best performance and told everyone that when he went to find carus, as he told everyone he would as soon as the current chief started coughing blood he went to find carus. But instead, he was met with the scene of Carus smashing Rena's head against the floor multiple times before tossing her down the waterfall, which, of course, was confirmed when Rena’s body was found.
He also said he had fought Carus and ultimately had to push him off the cliff. He made it extra emotional while shedding a tear or two, even though his voice was shaky, adding words like “he was like the brother I never had” and “him and the chief were my only family” here and there. Everyone knew Radus didn't have anyone growing up, which made them sympathize with him. Emotions are weird as to how they block one's sense of perceiving logic, but they worked nonetheless. After the chief was said to be in a comatose state, Radus was crowned as the next chief of the village two days later.
After which, he made sure to send a search party to find Carus's body, but unfortunately, they came back empty-handed and had nothing to show. It was like Radus had a heart attack when he heard their report. “There were signs of something bloody being dragged; even when we tried following the blood, it stopped after a bit. The trail was no more, and any clues were gone too. We searched all the nearby areas, but except for a very angry bear residing in its cave, we found nothing. At best, I think the traitor has been eaten by the bear.”
Radus took a sigh of relief; that was possibly the best option for him. Even if Carus somehow ended up surviving, there was no way he would try coming back to the village, and even if he did, no one was going to believe him. Radus consoled himself that everything was going to be fine as he ordered to cease all activity beyond the village grounds and doubled the number of guards in the name of security, and no one could really object to it. The ideas of expansion were something that belonged to a traitor, so conservative methods were seen as better by everyone.
During the last 8 days, all this has been going on inside the giant village, while on the other side, inside the forest. Inside a certain cave, a man was taking breaths, trying to stay alive. When he woke up at the waterfall basin, he saw Rena's corpse right next to him, and remembering who was the last person he saw coming toward them, he understood what happened. Radus was someone Carus almost thought of as his older brother. There were moments when he felt something was off, but he dusted it off as paranoia. He felt fucking stupid about how wrong he was.
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He had dressed his wounds and washed them using pieces of his shirt, and when he was finally able to walk again, he started to try to go back to the village, but the hunters had come looking for him and Rena. Upon finding Rena's' body, they quickly started looking for him, realizing that the village was probably being manipulated by that bitch Rudas; he knew he couldn't go back.
Not until he was back in good shape. If there was one emotion going through his mind right now, it was anger and frustration. To escape the hunters, he had to take shelter in this cave, but from the looks of it, it seemed to be the home of some beast, and he was in no condition to fight right now. At worst, he gets eaten, but he won't go down without a fight.
Just then he heard something approaching the cave; from the sound of whatever creature it was, it was running fast. The rhythm of its footsteps seemed uneven, almost as if it were in a rush. Carus, having no other choice, drew out the iron dagger that was hidden in his pocket. With his back against the wall and many of his wounds bleeding, he looked towards the entrance. By every definition, he should have been dead by now, but he had hung onto it. He had hung onto life; what's driving him right now wasn't justice or his will to live. It was anger and frustration. anger over being stupid and frustration over the betrayal. He was hungry; he was greedy for revenge; he wanted to bash Radu's skull into the ground as hard as he could until it broke, and that's what kept him alive; that's what kept him going.
Finally, the bear appeared at the entrance of the cave as Carus gritted his teeth. “Come at me, bastard,” he said, his heartbeat rising up. But just then he noticed the bear was panting; multiple parts of its body were bloody, and so many small cuts were all over its body, as if it had been fighting for a while. It seemed like it almost came back running. It wasn't hunting; it was running away from something or someone.
Suddenly, from the corner of his eye, Carus noticed a little creature jump above the bear's head and punch it so hard that its head was broken off the rest of its body and crashed into the ground while a fountain of blood emerged from its neck, covering the little man. As Carus stared at him, the man stared back, both their eyes maintaining eye contact. Carus wasn't scared of the bear, but this man made him feel uneasy. Suddenly, the man turned to him and spoke in a confused tone. “What the fuck happened to you?”