I have Nine Lives

Chapter 33: Poor Tigers

The tigers home mountains were around 3 times the amount of distance compared to Felix's last travel which was around 1500 kilometers, thus the location was around 4500 kilometers away from the lion tribe capital, they were already a bit away from the capital so they still had to run for around 4000 kilometers or so, but considering the improvement in speed and technique that Felix had gone through he could easily keep up with the stronger lions.

He also had Lindo who he could use as a bus, he could just stay on his shoulder and he wouldn't have to exhaust his stamina at all. Thus if anything happened while they were traveling Felix would be the one who would be the first to act up.

Lindo sighed as they ran towards the tiger's mountain, from what he heard from the mission debriefer the only tigers left were the sick, old and young, there were also the ones who couldn't withstand the power of Hex energy, they were considered slaves even in their own tribe and were the ones who had to take care of the sick, old and young.

While they were called slaves they were actually just normal citizens but they had forced jobs that they had to do, however, if they finished their jobs earlier they could do something else for the remainder of the day.

Lindo didn't like these types of clean-up missions, he was a rather prideful lion tribesman and he didn't like picking on the weak, however, this was a mission given directly by the shaman of the tribe and he couldn't really reject it if he still wanted to live normally in the tribe, one word from the shaman and life could transform into hell for him.

So he swallowed his pride didn't say anything and decided to accept the mission, it helped he would be going on it with someone familiar like Felix, after all, they were supposed to be friends, even though they didn't know each other properly they have spared before and they had some small knowledge about each other, unlike the other teammates, Lindo didn't even want to talk with them much considering their potential, they only escaped from being enrolled in the army and killed was because they had some relationships with the generals, not every soldier in the army was conscripted into the war, some of them escaped like the three people that were now with Lindo and Felix, Lindo could also be counted in those that escaped, but at least he was talented.

Felix would look back at the other three from time to time, he didn't find anything interesting at them, they were quite average looking considering the lion tribes aesthetics, also they didn't seem strong, they gave out kind of weak vibes compared to Lindo, he didn't understand why they were paired with them.

From time to time they would have to take a rest and eat from their rations or if they were lucky and found a clean water source they would drink from there, food was also quite scarce in the wilderness and Felix could see why the tiger tribe wanted to relocate by taking over Lion's tribe territory, as they got closer to the mountains the amount of food both meat and vegetables of any kind started to thin out, not many kinds of beings could live on the cold mountains, Felix wasn't even sure why the tigers lived on the mountains, he knew that there were some tiger villages around like the one where he assassinated that lion elder.

As they got closer to the mountains the air thinned and the temperature decreased, Felix had to huddle inside Lindo's clothes after some time passed as the cold became too much for him to bear, unlike the others he couldn't heat himself using Hex energy, and the hex energy around him was infested with the cold attribute so it couldn't be used properly as well, even though there wasn't any snow, harsh winds would start blowing from time to time.

The winds were so fast and sharp that Lindo could feel them cut his cheeks and if he didn't reinforce his body properly with Hex energy they would be able to cut his skin open and make him bleed, he realized why most Tigers usually had scars around their bodies and why their bodies were so hard, living in such an environment would temper both their bodies and thinking.

Felix could clearly see a village with buildings made out of rocks ahead of them, Lindo quickly entered the village with the other three, Felix being in his clothes made the villagers think there were only 4 invaders.

The tiger slaves immediately appeared and encircled them, even though they didn't have Hex energy to bolster themselves, as they were doing hard work combined with the environment that surrounded them, they had relatively though bodies as the weak ones have already perished.

There were around 25 tiger slaves and all of them had burly frames and strong scared muscles, the leader got up to talk with Lindo but before he could say anything Lindo appeared in front of him and held him by his throat, the difference between those who could use Hex energy and those who couldn't be easily seen here. Hex energy could enchant one's body, reflexes, strength, and unlock special abilities, Felix could only handle the others because his body had been bathed in Hex energy.

While he ate those bodies and gained their hex energy, his body could now conduct Hex energy even though it couldn't hold it, so his body was equally strong as someone who could use Hex energy and could also improve continuously due to that not being restricted by his race.

Lindo didn't want to kill the tiger slave so he shook his head and dropped him to the ground as he said:

"You are under new masters, you shall take all of the living beings in this village and you will be escorted by us towards your new living location."

The tiger slaved looked relieved but also concerned at the same time, he got the news that their army and shaman lost and they didn't like living on this mountain as well, but the shaman also said that when they will relocate they needed to take their sacred totem with them. The slave was the leader of the tigers now and he needed to give the totem to the most talented youth in the village, which he already did, however, he didn't know what to do if they would ask for the totem.

From what he could see they could massacre everyone and get what they wanted in most 10 minutes.

All he could do was hope that they didn't know about the totem. Seeing how he didn't make any fuss Lindo looked the man up and down and said:

"Gather everyone here in one hour so we can go to your new home!"

The slave immediately nodded several times and thanked Lindo, the other three just kept watch as Lindo did everything without saying anything, it seemed they were here just as observers.

Lindo looked into the coat he put up so he could resist the cold better and saw Felix snuggling inside, he told him:

"Things were quite easy and we didn't even need your help with this."

Felix gave him a nod and then continued to stay inside to heat himself.

It took them less amount of time than Lindo gave them to gather everyone in the square of the village, the old sick, and young were all there, and a few females that couldn't join the war due to either being pregnant or having a disabling injury, however, the males with disabling injuries were still conscripted so by now they should be energy in the tummy of the lion ancestors.

The tiger leader bowed to Lindo, as Lindo looked around he realized that almost 30% of the ones who were here would die on the way due to the harsh conditions of the journey, but his job was to move them closer to the lion tribe and not ensure all of their survival, he felt kind of bad but considering their current living conditions they would die either way sooner or later, this way they would have a chance to survive.

Lindo took the head and the whole crowd of people that consisted of around 50,000 people in total started to follow him along with the other three who kept order at the back of the giant crowd.

They slowly made their way down the mountain and from time to time the harsh mountain wind would claim the feeble life of an elder, or injure a child, the mothers tried their best to protect their big bellies while the disabled women would help the children and the mothers with all they could do, the elders would try their best to protect the younglings.

And the younglings would do their best to endure the harsh conditions so they could live to see a better day, Felix would look at them from time to time and he got quite inspired by their tenacity, he felt like he learned something from these people today, something important, such as never give up if there was a chance of survival... this made him remember Sahee but as he thought about it, she never had any chance of survival with her injuries and coupled with his lack of strength back then, he still thought that he made the right decision.

As they slowly inched closer to the foot of the mountain their surroundings started to get hotter and the injuries of the tigers lessened by time, however the moment they reached the foot of the mountain around 5,000 tigers died, it was a smaller number than estimated as it was only 10% of the total, it seemed Lindo underestimated the tiger's innate tenacity.

However, the Tigers started to get hungry and Lindo Felix and the others didn't have enough supplies to last everyone, while they got out of the mountains their surroundings were still quite bare in terms of food, the village was already running out of food and all of their remaining food was supposed to be given to the children and the pregnant women, the adult's stomachs started to rumble mightly.

But they endured again, they hoped they could find a little bit of food so that they didn't starve while giving the remaining one to the children and pregnant women, they always thought about the future of the tribe!

Felix watched on, he didn't know what to say, these people were quite selfless, they made him realize how selfish he was, but he didn't think he could become like them, while he admired their endurance he looked down upon their kindness instinctually, it couldn't be helped, cats were rather selfish animals by nature and they would only show affection to their closest companions, most of the time they would even mortally injure one another due to territorial conflicts, at least the feral ones did, and Felix was a feral street cat, he was only rather tame around Tsuru.

As he remembered Tsuru for a brief second, his eyes glazed over, then he looked back at the tigers who were now hungry, he remembered how Tsuru used to get him food and would only not drop by because of the weather.

Felix looked around and seeing that it wasn't cold anymore he jumped out of Lindo's clothes and decided to try and find some food for the tigers by going ahead, he knew he didn't have to, but remembering about his grandma's care made him a bit emotional, and he couldn't properly control his emotions.

Seeing Felix run ahead Made Lindo puzzled but after he heard his reason, Lindo smiled inside, Felix seemed to be quite a good guy in his eyes, and he liked that about him, he waved to Felix and told him to return quickly and with good news.