Chapter 76: Traces
Sosora, Malak, Issa, and Tilo continued looking through the forest for traces of Tair. As time passed and word spread, more people from the nearby tribes joined them.
Tair’s wife, Rilere, hadn’t been planning on making it such a big deal at first. Maybe Tair just needed a break from everything for a day and was simply taking a walk around the forest. But as more people joined in, it started becoming clear that Tair was missing. Otherwise, someone would have seen him.
When she saw the serious faces on the four youngsters leading the search, she realized that it was for real. So, while the four searched, she spread the word before joining the search herself.
However, they turned stones, dug up plants, and split grass without finding so much as a hair of Tair.
They hadn’t looked in the center of the forest yet. Before going there, they wanted to rule out all other possibilities. After all, if they recklessly entered the center of the forest, they risked joining Tair in disappearing mysteriously.
They would much rather comb through the rest of the forest and make sure they had left no stone unturned before entering the center.
But the more they looked, the more it started to seem like Tair had been unlucky enough to run into a monster king in the center of the forest.
It was when they were right about to cross the border into the center that Issa noticed something amiss.
After everyone had rummaged through the forest, it was difficult to tell what traces came from who at a glance. However, a couple of broken branches and a piece of fabric hanging from one of those broken branches high up in a tree?