The Tribes of K'haren - Completed

Chapter 36.2

During the first days, it was terribly hard. Then, it was difficult. Soon, Nume got used to her family being around. After a blue moon, she even started talking normally to her brother again. When it came to her sister, she was a little more reserved and regarding her parents, Nume couldn't find the guts to make any advances. At the same time, however, she denied any of theirs. It was easier for Kran but then again it wasn't his family that was there. Nume couldn't help but envy him for that. Though she definitely wouldn't have wanted his family around either, not after what they had done.

Sometimes, she wondered whether she'd ever be able to fully forgive them. In the end, Nume decided to put it aside and treat them like everybody else in the camp. But if they'd ever hurt Kran or anybody else again, she would be sure to kick them out of there single-handedly.

Her fear of being put back into the same situation didn't come true at all. She was too busy leading the camp together with Kran and the others. Now she spent more and more evenings reflecting on how much she had changed and she liked who she'd become. That was a first for Nume, growing up, she'd always doubter herself because she'd been so different from the typical girl. But with all the people supporting her now, it was easy for her to focus on the positive effects she had on others rather than the negative ones.

Though there was still her problem with Gaplae. She didn't know what to do about it so she hadn't yet found the words to talk to him about it again. He, on the other hand, pretended very successfully nothing had ever happened. At some point, Nume wondered whether it had maybe changed and was no longer of importance. But then she caught him looking at her from the corner of his eye sometimes and every time she smiled at him, he turned his face away. Not knowing what to say or do, Nume decided to leave it be until he said anything again.

Kran didn't approve of Nume's family being around. His memory about the day he'd been beaten up had nearly fully returned so he knew they had indeed not hurt him and he couldn't really blame them from not helping him. However, he did see how hard their presence was for Nume and he couldn't bear that. Therefore, he took it upon himself to organise everything that needed to be done for them.

He helped build a small camp in a corner of the city for Nume's family and the rest of their tribe. Most of the others met them with distrust at first but many soon warmed up and became more welcoming. When their camp was finished, they offered to help with daily business, gathering food, building the rest of the city and so on. From that point on, there was hardly anybody left in the city who didn't accept them as a part of the latter.

At first, Tarlequin struggled to integrate the phraio into the city. He knew it was important for Nume that they helped as well and got busy but there was reservation on both sides. Everybody had heard about the tribe's supposed involvement in Kran's injuries and the tribe had bad cultural shock from meeting so many creatures they'd believed to be fairy tales at once. Talking to Zar'gno was what really but them off, though. At first, they were terrified and the dragon mainly ignored them. He only started talking to them because Tarlequin had begged him to. But once they'd found a topic both sides were interested in, everybody warmed up. Said topic was the taste of gseirut meat.

Tarlequin was glad Luthi didn't understand what they were talking about though he was anyway too busy spending time with the other gseirut. On the evening of the tribe's arrival, there had been a fight between Luthi and the leading male. Luthi didn't really stand a chance but at some point, Bay got bothered and hissed at the two. When neither of the male gseirut minded her, she went on to bother Zar'gno until he roared at her, causing every gseirut except for Luthi to fly out of the valley and land of the clifftop, watching the dragon in fear. Luthi, however, saw his chance to look brave so he went on to run after Bay and Zar'gno for a few days. Not much later, a small number of female gseiruts broke off their herd and followed Luthi instead.

Raf spent nearly all of his time with Mersha now. He was so glad to have his old friend and mentor back. Over the years, he'd really started thinking the man might have died on his way into the future. They had a lot to talk about and Raf generally enjoyed being back with the living. He'd missed Nume and Kran and even Tarlequin a little. A part of him still hated the faun for being so cheerful sometimes but now that Raf was much happier himself, that slowly died away.

It was only when Feyn visited them to inform them about the news the harpys were spreading in K'haren that he realised not everything was alright. There were still many escapees coming from everywhere though there now were less than there had been when the armies roamed the land. Raf could see in Nume's eyes that she couldn't quite imagine all those people having lived in K'haren unnoticed by her and her tribe. He couldn't have imagined it either had he not met people on his journeys all the time.

At the moment, K'haren was calm. There were no reports of attacks nor anything but Zar'gno decided to fly to the mountains and look out for the dragons nonetheless. He said they were probably busy finding another king now that theirs had just disappeared but he feared that if the wrong one was chosen, they might cause trouble again.

One evening, Nume, Kran, Tarlequin, Raf and Mersha snuck away from the city to talk on their own. They still had to figure out a way to change people in K'haren so they'd accept those who were a little different instead of chasing them away.

// There you go, this chapter will be a three parter again, don't forget to vote and leave a comment below, thanks so much :D