The Ugly Duckling Of The Tiger Tribe-Chapter 120: The look in his eyes said so

We looked for Kaelor all over the tribe but he was nowhere to be found.

It was as if he were suddenly on a mission, ’Finding Kaelor’

But no matter who we asked, they didn’t know where he was or where he could’ve gone.

I assumed he’d have gone out to hunt but that was my assumption. For all I know, he went to a specific place to get something.

We even met Fenric on the way, carrying a bunch of fruits.

I told him what I wanted to do, how I wanted to confront him and ask about my mother.

He said it wasn’t a big deal, as long as we were by his side. If Kaelor tried anything funny, they’d knock him out.

Though, I hoped it wouldn’t come to that point.

After searching for a while longer, I finally got word that he had gone hunting and wouldn’t return until nightfall. So he did go hunting.

Knowing this, my uneasy heart began to trouble me more.

Though I was anxious, Damar and Fenric made it so their unease would fade, replaced with soothing comfort.

They didn’t ask questions or push me to explain what I was feeling. Fenric distracted me with idle chatter, telling me about the fruits he’d picked and how one of them had nearly fallen on his head, while Damar stayed close, his presence steady as he gently stroked my hair to ease me.

It helped—enough that the knot in my chest loosened, if only a little, curled in their arms and listening to their heartbeat until I involuntarily fell into a light slumber out of fatigue of the mind and heart.

And then night came.

Kaelor came rushing to our cave, panting and sweating, his breath uneven as if he had run the whole way without stopping. His hair was damp with his own sweat, his chest rising and falling rapidly, and his eyes—His eyes were wide, bright with excitement and relief.

"Arinya," he called while panting heavily. "I... I’m here,"

I stepped out with Damar and Fenric, and his eyes lit up.

His breathlessness had nothing on him, compared to the happiness he felt once he saw me up close.

He had heard that I had been frantically searching for him all over, so maybe he misunderstood something.

The look in his eyes said so.

"Arinya," he called, taking a step forward before stopping short, as if afraid I might disappear if he blinked. "You... you were looking for me?"

For a moment, I just stared at him.

That hope in his expression—raw, unguarded—made my chest ache unexpectedly. He really thought... that I had been searching for him because I wanted reconciliation, huh?

After avoiding me out of guilt, just the single knowledge of me looking for him was enough for him to drop his guilt and run to me, expecting forgiveness.

I straightened my back.

"Yes," I said. "I was." My tone was smooth, and a bit cold, as I didn’t want to give him any more funny ideas.

I don’t hate him, but I don’t want him to think I like him either. I was already over that.

If anything, he was just a brother to me. A close yet extremely distant brother.

His lips parted, a breathy laugh escaping him as his shoulders sagged, tension bleeding out of his body. The coldness in my tone tore him sharply, and he began to question himself if he had made a mistake.

"I thought— I mean, I didn’t think you’d want to see me after everything. I was hunting and then when I got back, someone said you were asking for me. I—"

"Kaelor," I interrupted.

The way his name left my mouth made him pause.

The smile on his face faltered as he finally noticed my serious expression.

"We need to talk."

The air between us went still.

His excitement drained away little by little, like water seeping through cracked stone. Kaelor went quiet, staring at me as if trying to read something written too faintly on my face.

For a few seconds, he said nothing.

Then he gulped.

"About... About what?"

Damar stepped closer to my side, close enough that his arm brushed mine, a silent reassurance. Fenric leaned against the cave wall, his usual grin nowhere to be found, eyes sharp and watchful.

He had already made a mistake once, he wouldn’t let it happen a second time, just because he trusted his friend.

I held Kaelor’s gaze as I said,

"About mother."

The moment the word left my lips, the atmosphere didn’t just turn cold—it turned heavy, as if the oxygen had suddenly been sucked out of the cave.

Kaelor didn’t flinch. He didn’t gasp.

Instead, he seemed to turn into a statue, his body freezing in that half-step forward he had taken. The light in his eyes completely died, replaced with something horrid and... Confusion.

It looked like he was confused, and worried at the same time.

"Mother?" he whispered, his voice staggering too much for me to ignore. The word sounded like it was made of glass, ready to shatter if he breathed too hard.

He looked away, his gaze falling to the dirt. His fingers trembled ever so slightly. The silence stretched, thick and suffocating. And I stayed silent, giving him time to think of rather... Time to adjust whatever excuse he was going to give if there were any.

And while he did that, my quick analysis kicked in, his silence was too suspicious to ignore.

"Why bring her up now, Arinya?" he finally asked, his voice low and raspy. "You haven’t asked about her in years. You... you stopped asking a long time ago, so why—?"

"Because Father mentioned her," I said, my voice steady, my eyes never leaving him. "He said she wanted to see me, but that I couldn’t. He looked... broken," I briefly darted my eyes away and then brought them back to him. "Kaelor, I need to know why. What is going on?"