So he would go alone. To the base of the cliff, while calling himself an idiot Tunu would go down there alone.
It was hard enough, as ever, to push back those who wanted to follow along.
Down another plateau he met the chief with a couple warriors. They hailed him then returned to their talks and it was him who approached the group.
"Anything important?"
"Not much." The chief reassured. "Another party being late, like always."
Attacks were not rare, if only from wild animals. Worse was when captives tried to escape but most of the time it was just kobels taking a detour to forage or to rest. Being late meant little.
Had they not been so close to a raid, shadowing the tribe they targeted, the chief would not even have bothered to show up.
"What about you? Going back into the woods?"
"No. Tell no one but I'll go and enjoy the hot source."
"Ah ah, good call. Just watch for water carriers, it's practically continuous."
"We can hold them back if you want." A warrior offered.
"I won't stay long anyway."
And he was off.
Down and crossing another group that was making its way up, that got humbled by his presence. Past abandoned constructions, the piled stone on a deserted plateau to finally reach the base.
By now a path had turned to almost a road, so frequent was the passage toward the pond.
There he caught two kobels playing in the water. They were adults, they were alone. Their canteens waited for them on the shore while they ran and plunged in the shallow depth.
At the champion's sight both froze, stood there and seeing he was not after them they came back to pick water and scramble out.
He waited near the water until all rumors of his kin faded in his horns.
Then, with a sigh the kobel entered the pond in turn. He walked in, first felt the mud then a floor of pebbles as if the cliff had stretched out and eroded.
The cliff towered high above, with the shape of the tower at the top barely discernable.
And there were the jets of hot water bursting from heavy blocks of rock then raining down like a waterfall. It hissed, it roared, deafening up close.
At this spot the pond was deep enough that kobels lost foot, but he could still touch it and keep his head above the surface. Then, once close enough to the cliff he found submerged rocks on which to stand and his torso emerged again.
By now his scales were drenched.
It was true, that hot water was calming him, soothing his tense muscles. But above all it washed over those heavy scales, sharpening every edge. The body of a proud beast taking from some of the most powerful monsters.
He put himself just under the biggest jet, right were the falling water would nearly drown his breath. He sat there on a rock and closed his eyes.
A kind of meditation.
What he was trying to hear through that crashing noise was the beat inside him, this foreign beat keeping him alive. And here alone, with no one to hear he spoke aloud.
"Who are you?" Tunu wondered. "Are you the wyvern? What is it you want?"
But the heartbeat didn't change. No matter how much he excited his imagination, it would not answer but only mimic his calm or concern. In all things equal to any heart to the point of making him doubt his own mind.
He was a kobel doubting his own heart.
He kept talking, every word drowned by the waterfall: "I am grateful. For that power, for those scales. For everything. I want to believe you are an ally. I want to believe... that I will be worthy."
"But you are not harming Elua."
"Until I know I can trust you fully, I won't feed you anymore. So show me! Show me the way of the wyvern! I will become one, and the whole tribe... they all will..."
His heart had faltered.
At those words his heart had sunk. And to him it felt like finally, that foreign beast was answering. But of course, it was only his own doubts. No matter his denial, no matter his delusion, it was him questioning his own words.
The kobels around him, for all he could tell, were as weak as the first day.
Only him. It was only him.
He stood alone under the stream of hot water, a perfect kobel with an impossible physique. A tall giant among his own, sharpened in every way. Not an ounce of him wasn't a marvel.
And his horns could pick up sounds the ears couldn't. He felt a presence, thought it was just another party coming for water. There in this spot he was mostly hidden anyway. No, it was closer, someone hidden among the cliff's rocks.
The moment he turned to look many things happened all at once.
He spotted the intruder and that intruder stepped back.
That intruder was a kobel, a female he immediately knew was not from the tribe. Stones by the hundreds, smoothened, covered her skin. Not gems, just red rocks engraved, forming patterns on her head, along her neck, her shoulders, her arms. Her torso, her hips, her legs.
Sulfurous was the word.
Tunu had understood even before she turned to flee that she was a warrior. He himself had already moved to pursue her.
She had thrown herself in the water, fought to reach the shore but he was on her long before and tackled her down. He had moved so swiftly that the kobel had not even realized how close her pursuer had come.
Her head plunged, came out gasping and once again Tunu's eyes lost themselves in that flurry of red stones adorning her skin, mimicking the scales of a serpent.
He pressed on her and she started to struggle.
"Let go! It hurts!"
It only made him tighten his grip on her arm, then press his own against her neck and her muzzle plunged again. For long seconds she fought for air, unable to beat such strength.
When she emerged again there was murder in her eyes. Pain only made her push back all the harder and her resistance, in turn, only made him more violent.
When he seized her head between his claws and brought his open maw to her neck she froze.
The kobel froze in fear.
Her short breaths had turned from anger to terror. For another moment she fought back but just the threat of those fangs against her skin had made it impotent.
Tunu only let go once she stopped.
He picked her copper knife and threw it away.
"Who are you?! Where is your tribe?"
"You brute!" She was shaking. "We share the same blood!"
"Brothers don't spy on each other! Now tell me, where are they, how far?!"
Her courage was coming back, she tried to push herself up but the moment he touched her shoulder it evaporated. She felt tears coming to her.
"We're in the north, a few hours. I can take you there!"
What she was experiencing was a broken will. Even the most courageous warrior could meet that moment when they found themselves estranged, their pride gone. She who had been ready to face monsters discovered herself docile.
To call that cowardice was just ignorance. There was just a limit as to what a body could take.
He saw that, looked away a second then back at her.
"Get up. Get up!"
She obeyed and he saw her, knee-deep in water, trying not to tremble in his presence. She truly was not from their tribe. And those purple eyes of hers had something resembling the constellations.
That broken warrior was avoiding his gaze.
"Now start walking! As of now you're my captive."
Back to the hill to warn the tribe.