Sera looked at her father, she did not know why he wanted to talk to Lian alone, but with the knowledge she had of her father, she was not worried that he would do something wrong or say something bad.
She nodded and stood up, and returned to her family.
Averian sat next to Lian, unlike many leaders, he did not create a formal distance and picked up a cup of drink and said calmly: "The celebration has become lively, what do you think? Are you having fun?"
"I haven’t attended a real celebration in a long time, but everyone is really not calm." Lian answered, he was not lying either.
This was the first real celebration that truly felt like a celebration that he had attended after a long time.
His sister’s birthday celebration was more like a political conflict and only for showing off, strengthening positions, and unveiling his sister.
All the people who were there were nothing but a bunch of wolf-like people, each with their own malicious and evil thoughts and intentions.
But here? This celebration was pure, a happy celebration where you could see everyone’s true intentions from their faces, everyone was happy about the return of the tribe leader’s children.
Although the worry that they were trying to hide in the depths of their being for tonight did not diminish anything.
The tribe leader looked at him for a moment and then gave a faint smile.
"You see correctly." He fixed his gaze on the square.
"The Lacerians are one of the three Lizardman tribes in the Forest of Giants."
He pointed toward the distance.
"The Varkesh live near the rivers and rocky lands. They are more warlike, stricter, and usually solve problems with power."
"The Mireclaws live in the swamps and deep roots. They know poison, plants, and healing better than any other tribe."
"Sometimes we are allies and sometimes enemies, borders, hunting, water... there is always something to disagree about, the reason for the people’s worry is also partly related to this matter."
"So a conflict, huh? I understand, but I became curious, do residential areas like this exist in the other forests?" Lian raised his gaze to the giant roots.
"Yes, but we have no connection with them." Averian said.
"The Forest of Giants is only one of the three forests."
"Very few creatures can travel between the forests. The paths are either destroyed, or so dangerous that no one returns alive, it has been a long time since we had direct contact with the other two forests, and that is why we are not sure what is happening there."
In the other two forests, there was also civilization like their forest, in fact, from his own view, because they live in a calmer and less dangerous structure, they might even have more advanced civilizations.
But it could not be said with certainty.
"The Forgotten Tree, in the legends, is the center of all three forests, it used to help a lot for inter-forest travel, but problems have arisen and no one from our generation has seen it." He then added with a quieter voice: "Our tribe has not seen easy days for a long time."
His gaze remained on his children. "But tonight I don’t want our problems to ruin the joy of my children’s return."
Lian remembered the sentence, although his curiosity about the state of this world increased even more, and more importantly, about the Forgotten Tree, which was probably the only way for him and the others to leave this world.
It was not that he currently had a plan to leave this Special Area, his intuition told him that there were many opportunities in this world and that he would not leave until he had passed his first evolution.
But for this purpose, he might need to search all three forests and find the opportunities, and for this, he needed a way to travel between the three forests.
One could be a great help, but he was not sure if he could cross between the forests with its help or not.
’Maybe the best decision is to find a flying monster’ he thought to himself, a flying monster should not have a problem with traveling between the forests.
And a flying mount would be a great help to him.
But for this, he needed to find one and defeat it first, which currently did not seem like an easy task.
It was in times like these that he understood what a great blessing it was to have a companion and teammate as powerful as himself who could help... but unfortunately, he did not have such a companion.
And he only knew one person who could be such a good companion, and that girl was not here right now.
After the celebration ended, a small house was given to Lian, the house was built inside a low part of the root.
There was a bed of dry moss and monster skin inside it, a small mana lamp was lighting the wall.
There was a bowl of water and a narrow window facing the forest, One remained outside the house and near the tribe’s wall.
Before sleeping, Lian activated Hive Link and checked One’s condition.
Calm, alert.
But in the distance, the sound of guard drums could be heard, a few groups of warriors were moving in the darkness.
The tribe was sleeping, but it was not completely calm.
The next morning, the sound of intense movement woke Lian up, when he came out of the house, there was no trace of the light atmosphere of the previous night left.
The warriors were putting on armor, spears, bows, and shields were being distributed among the groups, a few Lacerians were riding armored six-legged beasts.
They were not riding monsters, but a type of ordinary beast of this world, like horses, that could be tamed.
Water skins, ropes, and large water containers were prepared on the platforms.
Armed groups were leaving the gate, the tribe elders were talking with serious faces.
Lian stood for a few moments and examined the scene, the tribe was preparing for a conflict and he thought about the tribe leader’s words from last night.
Could it be a conflict with one of the other two tribes?
"My father wants to see you." Ravian came toward him with light armor and a new spear, paused briefly and then added: "It seems the information you asked for is ready."
The two moved along the main path. Lian looked at a group of armed warriors. "What happened?"
"I don’t know completely, but we had a few conflicts with the Varkesh." Ravian shrugged.
"You look very relaxed." Lian kept his gaze on his face.
"This is not our first conflict, the three tribes always argue over hunting, borders, or water." Ravian said.
But his tone showed that he himself did not know the real severity of the situation.
They reached the tribe’s council building, inside, Averian and a few tribe elders were standing around a large table.
A map of the water routes was opened on the table, a few colored stones were placed on various points.
The atmosphere was so serious that Ravian frowned at that moment, maybe he was young but he knew this atmosphere was not normal, the seriousness was so heavy that he also felt it.
And he realized that maybe everything was not a simple conflict.
Averian raised his head. "Wait a few minutes, when I’m done with my work, I’ll call you."
"What happened?" Ravian stepped forward.
His father did not answer and he continued: "I also need to know."
Averian wanted to say something, but one of the elders intervened. "He is the future heir of the tribe." The old man kept his gaze fixed on Ravian. "If he is going to take your place one day, he needs to know."
"Were you aware of the drought and water shortage?" The tribe leader sighed and then asked his son.
"Yes, and that’s why we had to go farther for hunting and finding resources and got caught by that bird."
"Which was a very foolish decision." Averian said with a serious look.
His son said nothing, and the tribe leader moved his finger over a few blue lines on the map.
"The situation has gotten worse since you left, the waterways that originated from the upper roots have dried up one after another." He stopped on a thicker branch.
"One of the tribe’s two main water branches also completely dried up three days ago."
The silence became heavier, Averian placed his hand on a point in the west of the map. "Only the Silvervein Basin remains, a source that is shared between us and the Varkesh."
"Those Varkesh claim they need all the water for their tribe’s survival." one of the elders said.
"In the past few days, we have had three conflicts." another elder added, his face hardening. "In the last one, four of our people were killed."
"How did all the waterways dry up so quickly?" Ravian asked in shock, he did not have a complete source of this information but he knew such a thing was not normal.
Such an event was unprecedented and had never been reported before and does not exist in the historical archives.
What was happening to the Forgotten Tree that such a drought was occurring?
"We don’t know, whatever it is, it is related to the Forgotten Tree, maybe something has happened to it." The tribe leader’s gaze remained fixed on the map.
"It seems something is swallowing the water flow before it reaches this area."
Lian looked at the map, the drying up of several routes in a short time did not seem natural.
"Today we will send another group to protect the water route and see if we can negotiate with the Varkesh or not." Averian continued.
"Do I need to come too?" Ravian asked.
"For now, the conflicts have been small." Averian then turned to the elders. "But I am also going today." A few people immediately objected.
"If it’s an ambush, the risk is high."
"The tribe cannot lose its leader."
"Exactly for that reason I have to go, if the Varkesh leader is there, maybe we can stop this conflict before it turns into war." The tribe leader added calmly.
It was clear that his mind could not be changed!