Chapter 262: Snivelling Ancient Cockroach

Sixty-one beasts arrived at the bottom of the plateau all at once, and not one of them had any idea what had just happened.

The front half of the group went down ungracefully. Legs that had been mid-step found no ground where ground was supposed to be, and a solid dozen Jackdaw hit the dirt face-first in a heap. The ones behind them walked into the ones in front. The ones behind those walked into them.

For several seconds the only sounds were thumping, swearing, and one high continuous noise from somewhere in the middle.

Then they got up and looked around.

Their whole environment had completely changed, and the enormous rock face that had been in front of them for the last three days of walking was now looming directly over their heads instead.

There was a long, horrified silence before the shouts started.

"WHERE IS IT?!"

"Where is what—"

"THE CLAN. THE CLAN WAS THERE. IT WAS RIGHT THERE."

"Why is the hill above us?!"

"We were going UP! We were going UP, and now we are DOWN!"

"Did we fall?"

"We did not fall, we were walking—"

"My face says we fell!"

A young male had dropped flat onto his stomach and pressed both palms against the grass.

"The ground is wrong," he announced.

"What does that mean—"

"IT IS THE WRONG GROUND."

Somebody started screaming.

Within three seconds, four more had joined in, and two of those weren’t even screaming about anything specific. They were simply screaming because screaming had become available.

One of them stopped and slapped the other screaming beast.

"STOP SCREAMING!"

The male stopped screaming, and he stared at the other, stunned.

"You were also screaming!"

He hit him again. The other shoved in return. Then they both fell to the ground and started fighting like cats.

Three beasts dived in to pull them apart. One of them got an elbow in the mouth and immediately joined the fight on his own behalf.

"STOP IT—"

"HE PUSHED ME—"

"HE HIT ME FIRST—"

"I CARE!"

A vein in Naiya’s head twitched. She had been about to yell at the fighting members to get themselves together, but she was still slightly disoriented from what had just happened.

Where were they, and how did they even get back here?

Her foolish, shiftless cousin had literally been standing in front of them, and then they had just appeared here.

The portal opened in front of the tribe, and Naiya jumped back, alarmed by the strange thing. The fighting stopped, and every single member looked at the sudden object in the air.

Naiya was frozen in place as the beasts in the front row scrambled backwards, and several of them fell over the ones behind as they tried to run away.

Naiya’s mates rushed to her side, with Tervo already pulling her arm.

"Leader, don’t stay here! Let us run!"

Tera stepped out of the strange film and looked around at the heap of bodies half tangled on the ground.

"Okay," she said. "Which one of you is Ermin’s uncle?"

Nobody answered her. They were speechless from her sudden appearance.

This was not how any of it was supposed to go.

When Tervo had told them about Tera, they had been very curious and excited to see the nonsensical clan that she "led".

They believed she was living with some tiny clan and that some soft-hearted beasts had taken pity on her and let her stay. She had probably convinced herself that she was something important there, because that was exactly the sort of thing she would do.

The clan members must have let her continue in her delusions of being their leader because they pitied her.

They had been looking forward to seeing it all.

That was until the ground had disappeared.

Now Tera was here again, and their brains struggled to comprehend how she had just appeared out of thin air. And she was asking about somebody’s uncle.

Tervo was standing near the middle of the group, and he had not said a single thing.

Unlike some of the others who were panicking again, he was confused as to why the shiftless beast in front of them was looking well fed.

’Why are they looking as if they can’t even speak?’

Tera had expected insults being thrown her way, but their faces right now were not so bad.

"Ermin’s uncle." She said it more slowly this time. "Is he here? Point him out."

Naiya frowned. "Ermin? Why are you asking about his uncle?"

The tribe leader had swiftly moved past the fact that Tera had appeared out of thin air, and was focused on the shiftless beast in front of her, confused by something else entirely.

She had been eager to berate Tera, and she had noticed a familiar face behind her but hadn’t registered it properly till now. Why was Ermin still with this female? And also, what happened to the scrawny

The Tera in front of her looked like she could smack her around?

Naiya laughed and shook her head. Impossible. She shouldn’t allow herself to entertain such silly things. She instead blamed the clan for letting her steal their food to the extent that she was starting to look healthy.

But her thoughts returned to Ermin again.

Out of everything that had happened in the last few minutes, that seemed to be the part she could not get past.

There were other pink panthers. Maybe Naiya hadn’t been able to see clearly, but the fact that Tera had mentioned his name slightly annoyed her.

Tera waved her hand in front of Naiya’s face. "Hello? Anybody home?"

Naiya snapped out of her thoughts, her confusion draining into anger.

There were more important things to focus on than this reject and the former male who had bedded her.

Even if Ermin was in the clan with her, so what?!

Naiya pointed at Tera.

"YOU!"

"Me?" Tera pointed at herself.

"What did you do?! What did you do to us?! We were at the top, and now we are here!"

Tera smiled, enjoying Naiya’s frustrated look.

Maybe she should transport these beasts a few miles away so they could crawl back here.

Seeing Tera’s smile, Naiya heated up even more.

"You snivelling ancient cockroach!"

That knocked the smile off Tera’s face.

Naiya continued her rant. "Why are you even ALIVE? You were thrown out with nothing. A shiftless thing like you should have died within the first week! Why are you—"

Tera was not listening to any of that.

’THIS PLACE HAS COCKROACHES?!’