Chapter 59: Magnaries of the past.
"Into Gremereto Helpotot utero!"
(Please... help us!)
Gre So Ner frowned.
"We heard you, but I was asking something else. Where did you come from?"
"Into Gremereto Helpotot utero!"
(Please... help us!)
The exact same answer.
Gre So Ner stared at her for several seconds in annoyance before trying again, this time gesturing toward the forest behind them.
"What happened? Did something attack you?"
"Into Gremereto Helpotot utero!"
(Please... help us!)
His clicked his tounge.
The Magnari woman wasn't even attempting to answer him.
She simply kept repeating the same sentence, regardless of what he asked, as though those few words were the only ones she could remember.
"Please, help us."
Gre So Ner slowly lowered his dagger by an inch and glanced toward his companions, but the others were just as confused as he was. They had encountered strange predators, wounded Magnari, and even unfamiliar groups wandering through their expanding territory, but they had never encountered an entire group of Magnari who appeared from nowhere, spoke in an ancient form of their language, and couldn't seem to answer even the simplest question.
"What are we supposed to do with them?" one of the hunters muttered.
Nobody immediately answered.
The newcomers didn't appear hostile, but that alone wasn't enough to make the hunting party lower their guard. They had no idea where these Magnari came from or what had driven them into the forest, and the fact that they were so frightened only made the situation more difficult to understand. If something powerful enough to terrify an entire group had driven them from their home, there was always the possibility that whatever had caused it was still following them.
Gre So Ner was still staring at the female Magnari when she opened her mouth again.
"Into Gremereto—"
"Enough."
The voice came from behind them.
Gre So Ner turned his head and found Gre To Na staring at the newcomers.
The oldest Magnari among them had remained unusually quiet since the strangers emerged from the bushes. While the others had immediately become cautious and started trying to figure out what they were dealing with, Gre To Na hadn't done much besides observe them.
Now, however, there was something different in his expression.
"Come here."
The hunting party gathered around him, moving a short distance away from the exhausted Magnari so that they could speak without being overheard.
Gre So Ner glanced at Gre To Na.
"What is it?"
Gre To Na didn't immediately answer. His eyes remained fixed on the strangers as his mind seemed to dig through memories that had been buried beneath years of changes within their tribe.
"Could it..." he finally muttered, his voice carrying an uncertainty that immediately caught Gre So Ner off guard, "be that these are the Magnari who fled with that strange creatures years ago?"
Gre So Ner frowned.
For a moment, the suggestion didn't make sense.
What did he mean by fled with the strange creature? Until he remembered a story he had heard from the elders several times.
"You mean..."
He looked back at the group.
"The Magnari who abandoned our First Tribal Chief when he single-handedly took care of that High-Tier Predator?"
Gre To Na slowly nodded.
"That's what I'm thinking."
Over time that incident was itched into the Magnari's developing history.
It had happened before Gre Ka Go had truly established himself as their Tribal Chief, back when the Magnari were still divided into scattered groups that knew little about one another and even less about the world beyond their immediate surroundings.
Gre Ka Go had been the strange exception even then.
He had possessed strength far beyond what a Magnari of his age should have possessed, but strength wasn't the only thing that had made him unusual. He had already begun doing things none of them understood, gradually teaching them new ways of hunting, crafting weapons, communicating, and surviving in a world where the slightest mistake could mean death.
Yet when the High-Tier Predator had appeared, not every Magnari had trusted him.
Some had followed.
Others had fled.
Gre Ka Go had stayed behind.
Gre So Ner remembered hearing about it from the older Magnari, and the incident had become one of those old events that everyone knew without necessarily understanding all of its details. Their First Tribal Chief had confronted the predator alone and survived, while another group of Magnari had disappeared in the chaos, choosing to flee alongside the strange creatures rather than remain with the Magnari who had risked himself to deal with the threat.
At the time, nobody had expected those Magnari to return.
Why would they?
They had abandoned their own kind and disappeared into a wilderness so vast that even their current hunting parties had never managed to explore all of it.
Yet now...
Gre So Ner looked toward the strangers again.
Their primitive language.
Their unfamiliar appearance.
Their emaciated bodies.
The direction from which they had emerged.
And most importantly, the strange familiarity that had settled over him the moment he heard them speak.
The pieces were beginning to fit together.
"Could they really be them?"
Gre To Na's expression remained grim.
"I don't know."
For once, the old Magnari sounded genuinely uncertain.
"But think about it. How many groups of Magnari do you know that still speak like that?Hell...are there even Magnaries beside us?"
Gre So Ner fell silent.
There was no answer.
The language alone was enough to make the possibility difficult to dismiss.
Gre To Na continued staring at the newcomers.
"If they aren't the old Magnaries and their descendants, then we have to ask another question. Where did they learn a language that our own tribe stopped using so long ago?"
That question struck considerably harder.
Gre So Ner looked back toward the female Magnari.
She was still trying to remain upright while several others supported her from behind. None of them appeared capable of understanding the conversation taking place only a short distance away.
Then her eyes met his.
There was no hostility in them.
Only fear.
And beneath that fear was a desperation so profound that it made Gre So Ner's previous caution feel almost cruel.
"Into Gremereto Helpotot utero!"
(Please... help us!)
Gre So Ner didn't answer immediately.
He simply stared at her.
If Gre To Na was right, then these Magnari weren't strangers at all.
They were part of their own history.
A forgotten branch of their people that had disappeared years ago, one that had apparently survived somewhere beyond the boundaries of their tribe and had now returned in a state so pitiful that they could barely remain standing.
But if that was true, then another question immediately followed.
What had happened to them?
And perhaps more importantly...
Why had they come back now?
Gre So Ner slowly sheathed his dagger.
"Gre To Na."
"Hm?"
"If they're really the ones who left back then..."
His eyes remained on the exhausted Magnari.
"...then something must have happened."
Gre To Na's expression darkened.
He had already reached the same conclusion.
There was no reason for an entire group to abandon wherever they had been living, wander into an unfamiliar forest, and appear before another Magnari tribe looking like they had spent their entire journey running from death itself.
Whatever had happened to them, it had been serious enough to drive them here.
And judging by the way they kept looking toward the forest behind them...
Gre So Ner wasn't convinced that whatever had happened was over.
"Let's not waste time."
Gre To Na finally turned toward the others.
"We'll take them back to the settlement."
A few of the younger hunters immediately looked uncertain.
"Back to the settlement?"
"Where else would we take them?" Gre To Na replied. "They're exhausted, they don't know our territory, and half of them can barely stand. Leaving them here would be no different from sending them back into the forest to die."
Gre So Ner glanced toward the northern trees in a thoughtful manner.
"Fine."
He stepped toward the exhausted group and lowered his weapon completely.
"We'll help you."
The female Magnari stared at him.
For a moment, she seemed unable to understand what he had said.
Then her trembling expression loosened, and whatever strength she had been forcing herself to maintain finally seemed to leave her body.
Her knees buckled.
"Hey!"
Several Magnari immediately rushed forward and caught her before she could hit the ground.
The others began panicking, some calling out to her while others looked toward the hunting party with renewed fear.
Gre So Ner stared at the unconscious female in surprise.
"She fainted?"
Gre To Na sighed.
"She's probably been forcing herself to remain awake."
Gre So Ner didn't respond.
His gaze drifted beyond the group and toward the forest they had emerged from.
"Right! Let's head back and report to the elders".