October's Fallen Leaves, The Tribe Reconsiders

October came treading on flames that joined the sky, descending from a smoke-choked heaven onto the Sierra Madre Oriental in the northlands. It was the season when grasses and trees withered; leaves fell in the mountains, and pine needles carpeted the forest floor. Once a terrifying mountain fire was kindled, it spread swiftly along the ridges, bearing a momentum that seemed ready to devour everything!

The blaze burned along the mountain forests, and no one could stop it in the slightest. Ozoma and Masat did not stop for a moment, leading more than two thousand warriors as they fled from Red Monkey Camp to Flamingo Camp, then swept up the Flamingo tribe with them and escaped to the long-built Red Dog Main Camp.

Before Red Dog chieftain Chichica could even reprimand them, tongues of flame over ten meters high came bearing straight down. Thousands upon thousands of Dog-kin had no choice but to abandon the steep and fully prepared main camp, leave behind the supplies piled in disorder, and continue fleeing east in panic. Then the ferocious mountain fire devoured Red Salamander Camp as well, burning a twenty-li stretch of white wasteland before it finally stopped before a turning range of mountains, then gradually died down.

Here, the mountain path that extended east suddenly turned north, merging into the main spine of the Sierra Madre Oriental. The mountains of the main range were even steeper and more perilous, with great swaths of bare brown rock exposed, and the forests also became extremely sparse. Another fifty li north lay the old nest where tens of thousands of Dog-kin gathered—Pamus Valley.

The terrifying fire had finally halted! The five great tribes, and several thousand Dog-kin warriors, all let out a breath of relief together. Everyone was covered in soot and dust, the