Chapter 51: Chief and His Son

The Amorache Tribe's camp was huge and packed with animals. Misty took everything in: cheetahs, bears, wolves, lions and lots more. The dens were all made up of sticks, brambles and all of them were huge, and Misty knew that the dens must have housed lots of animals in each of them. "Wow," Bracken examined the camp. Misty looked to see his mouth was open as he looked around at the place. "This is so awesome!"
"Like it?" said Adonael, who had her three cubs clinging to her back. "This camp is home to many animals."
"Who's this?" demanded a voice. Misty turned from the mother bear to see a black bear - looking not to be full grown or a young cub - coming towards them, an angry expression on her face.
"Ebony, these are some animals who were on our territory," Adonael responded. She turned to the group. "This is Ebony, my oldest daughter."
"Hey," Misty and Bracken were the only ones to greet her; the rest just examined the bear.
"You guys look like you're dying," Ebony commented.
"We've looked better," grumbled Sidew.
"Why'd you bring them in here, anyway? You know loners cause trouble," Ebony said to Adonael.
"Ebony, be nice," scolded Adonael. Ebony muttered to herself under her breath, something Misty couldn't quite catch. "Anyways, I should probably take you all to the Chief. He'll want to know if we're housing loners in our Tribe." Adonael turned to the cubs on her back. "Go to the nursery, cubs. I got to speak to Chief." The cubs scrambled off her back and bounded away.
"Is the Chief nice?" Bracken asked as they padded along with Adonael, Ebony joining them.
"Sometimes," replied Adonael.
"Yeah. On his good days, he usually only just bites your head off," Ebony smirked, obviously sensing Bracken's anxiety about visiting the Chief.
A fearful look overcame Bracken's face. "Ebony!" snapped Adonael.
"I'm only stating the truth," Ebony insisted.
"Don't worry, dear," Adonael turned to Bracken. "Ebony tends to exaggerate the truth. Chief won't hurt you."
Bracken seemed to relax a little.
At the end of the path they walked on that had cut through camp, there was a den much bigger than the others. A lion and a lioness sat at the front of the entrance. "State your business," said the lion. His voice was very deep, and it kind of intimidated Misty.
"These loners want to stay here," Adonael said.
"Enter," the lion nodded.
"I think you're supposed to bow," sniffed Tiggerpaka's voice.
"Shut up!" hissed Lilypaka's voice. Judging by the direction of the meerkat's voices they were both behind Misty. "If you act stupid they'll kick us out."
"They shall not. For I am a great warrior! No one can deny me entrance to--OW!" Misty turned to see Tiggerpaka rubbing his face. "How dare you slap me!"
"Cut it out, you two!" snapped Lephos.
They entered the den. At the top of a dirt hill sat an old-looking wolf, his pelt scarred. "Adonael. What is it you need?" He murmured. His voice seemed tired and scratchy, and he looked as though he hadn't gotten any sleep. Misty wondered why he appeared this way.
"Chief," Adonael dipped her head respectfully, "I found these animals on our territory and they're weak. We need to keep them here."
"Of course, it wouldn't hurt to kick them out," grumbled Ebony.
"Hush," scolded Adonael.
Chief then slowly looked down to the right side of his hill. "Nahuel?"
Something shifted in the shadows, and Misty realized it was a leopard, and this leopard looked to be older than Chief, if possible. The leopard drew to his paws, sitting up, and then yawned. "Yes, Chief," he murmured. His voice was raspy with age.
Nahuel spun his paws in front of him and said something that Misty knew had to be in another language, as she didn't quite understand it. She then gasped as a blue spirit appeared out of thin air in front of Nahuel. It was an eagle, pure blue, transparent with light blue eyes. Nahuel continued to speak in the other language, and the eagle screeched in response every once in a while. They were having a conversation.
Finally, the eagle spirit disappeared and Nahuel turned to Chief. "They can stay."
"Alright," Chief then turned to look at Adonael. "Adonael, take them to the visitors' den."
"Yes, Chief," Adonael dipped her head again and turned around. "Come along now, dears."
"Stupid eagle spirit," hissed Ebony, following her mother. The rest of the group trotted after.
"What was that?" asked Lilypaka, running up to Adonael to walk alongside the mother bear.
"Whenever Chief wants to make a decision, he gets Nahuel to talk to the Eagle. Nahuel is the only one who can talk to Eagle, or if he trains an animal in the art of communicating with Eagle," Adonael explained.
Misty turned from Adonael and jumped back as she realized a brown wolf was in front of her. He had brown eyes and black-and-white feathers dangling from his left ear. He studied Misty. "Thought you were in a tree," he remarked.
"A tree--wait," Misty froze as she recalled what had happened when she had woken up. "What do you know about it?"
"I put you there," replied the brown wolf. He wore an expressionless look, his face looking rather bored.
"Why?" Misty demanded.
"Wait, what happened?" Campbell came up to Misty's side.
The brown wolf's ear twitched and he looked to his right. "I must go now. I will be seeing you all around." He then ran out of the camp. Misty and Campbell watched him run off.
"Who's that?" Campbell asked.
"Tsovo. He's the only son of Chief. The others died," explained Adonael. "He doesn't hang around here much though. He prefers to go off more on his own. That's why Chief and everyone is concerned - if he becomes the new Chief, we don't know if he'd be willing to stay in camp long enough to help out the Tribe."
"Did anyone try to do anything about it?" asked Misty.
"Chief himself and a few concerned Tribe animals attempted to tell him about how he needs to take on responsibilities, but Tsovo doesn't listen to them. Poor dear probably has a lot of weight on his shoulders," Adonael remarked.
"He doesn't really talk a lot," commented Ebony. "And why he talked to you, I don't know."
"Well, we're here," said Adonael. Misty looked at the den. It was rather small, and uninhabited. "Make yourselves at home, dears. I'll be in the nursery if you all need me."

Author's Note:
Tsovo will grow more important to the plot as the story goes on.
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QOTD: Who is your favorite character in the Tribe so far?