D: Like in any war, the assholes at the top on both sides make 'sacrifices' of those beneath them.

;-; Truly a tragedy

oh shit

World shattering revelation for Ryn.

When consequences finally hit, sometimes they hit hard.

Well shit...

Cue TF2 Heavy's voice "Not good!"

Accurate

and back to theorising, this story keeps me guessing.

Edit:- I realised I made a few mistakes and some nonsense so I’ll correct that. If something is grammatically incorrect I ran it through word, minor dyslexia

Edit 2:- if I’m right in any of this I’ll edit in a spoiler warning.

edit 3:- hid my original comment because i couldn't figure out how to edit it.

hmmm, the "not valuable enough to let you live" route, believable but I remain sceptical. her reaction suggests she was close to the chief. "How could he do this?!?" sort of face, and if he did just refuse, why keep her alive and feed her. unless the chiefess had plans for her, Slave-wife for chiefess' son?

I'm still of the idea that there's more going on here than Kyo is letting on, if she was 'of no value' then why did Kyo look panicked when he was caught bedding her. at the end of chapter 1 Kyo had a face that was of someone who had just been caught ruining someone else's plans.

if she had no value to Kyo's tribe, why was the guard annoyed, no value means their unsure what to do with her if execution or banishment isn’t on the table. if Kyo slept with her she's Kyo's problem now, sorted. instead he looked pissed like Kyo had just ruined something.

also a good quote here. "The best Lies are in the Truths we don't tell"

"your chief just refused"

short and can be used to hide things.

"your chief just refused... my Chieftess was going to make you a slave"
"your chief just refused... he said we could do what we want to you."
"your chief just refused... he made a counter off to allow us to keep you as a peace settlement."
"your chief just refused... saying he can always make another daughter."
"your chief just refused... etc. etc. etc."

so if he was privy to the knowledge of the outcome of the envoy. what information is he NOT giving her with that LOADED statement.

remember, her "gruel" in a tribe prison, she had been feed what looks like bread or meat (I think it is that, round disk thing. Red on the inside could mean meat) for 3 days, the first 2 fine but on the 3rd, envoy’s back, message received. He refused, she now has no value… why maintain the health of a prisoner if you only intend to execute her... it's not a modern society, for a tribe food is day by day, preservation isn’t something that can easily be done without cold storage. Which requires masonry (the art of building structures). why feed a mouth that has no value.

and if HE was feeding her out of pity from his rations, why allow him to do so unless he has some higher rank or status...

(now I made a mistake back there thinking it was MEAT chain instead of metal chains. (somewhat dyslexic) however going over chapter 1 makes this next hypothesis make more sense.

side hypothesis, heavily theorised until proven:-

he is in some way related to the chiefess, possibly even her son.

Reasons

he knows too much for a food boy or guard.

Ok so first thing to cover my mistake of meat chain for metal chains (minor dyslexia) uncovered something. Why does he know so much about how the tribe acquires metal chains (cuffs).
Delving in to tribe mentality here, tribes are built into rolls systems, basically men hunt and protect women cook and take care of home. However within that are known as rolls. Crop gathers, those who make clothing, those who look after kids, usually based off age.

For men, there is even less rolls, Hunt, Fight, Breed. That’s it, unless you’re the chief’s son, or a high ranking fighter/hunter like a war master or in modern society captain or have some special role like Envoy.

Tribes run off a need to know bases. Does the guard need to know how the tribe procured metal chains? (cuffs) no. he only needs to know how they work, what a key is, what there used for.

They may find out later in life, but Kyo is too young to be concerned about the background of metal chains when he should be focusing on improving his craft.

So how does this ‘guard’ who’s bringing her food know the tribes history involving this one item.

Also on need to know basis is the outcome of diplomatic envoys. Who needs to know what the chief of a rival tribe said to the envoy. The chief or chiefess, the wiseman, the envoy, the warmaster, any honour guard in the room and servants serving the chiefess.

And before someone points out that a male servant is possible it’s usually a great dishonour for a man to be in a servant role again why does he know about metal chains and why would he be let near the prisoner to feed her… WITH the key?

So now we’ve knocked that role out as a possibility, would the information have dripped down the grape vines, in short yes but so slowly the guards would know before the servants or in his case someone who has not passed his rite of passage yet (assumption, he looks too young)

So how does he know the envoy’s massage on day 3, assuming it takes a day ‘or so’ there and a day ‘or so’ back the information would be very need to know as the leader would not have decided what to do… yet.

So how does he know, well there’s one group of individuals who would be in that room with the instructions of “be silent, pay attention and learn” why, the next in line for all the big rolls, the war master’s son, the son of the wiseman, the son of the chiefess.

3 individuals who would have been told to not speak any of this to anyone. They would also have been lead down lives that require them to know more than there pears, groomed to replace there parents at one point.

Why do I think Kyo is one of them, look at his face as he’s telling her chief’s response, that is not the face of someone who heard that second hand, that is a face of someone who was in the room (tent) when the envoy delivered his message. Someone who saw the chieftess reaction and did not like where this was going. In a sentence his ‘expression betrays his position’.

That is a face that screams “I was there, I saw the whole conversation!”

It is my belief that Kyo is one of these and now I’m going to point out key factors in the comic that narrow down his actual position in the tribe.

has a key to her cuffs, was allowed in to see her – warmaster’s son, chief’s son

has knowledge of how metal chains (cuffs) are procured – wise man’s son, chief’s son

basically the warmaster does not need to teach his boy about how metal chains are acquired so it can’t be him because Kyo knows to much. But the son of the wiseman wouldn’t have been allowed in to see her, let alone with a key.

If two of the 3 rolls aren’t possible then whatever’s left however unlikely is possible.

So is there anything else in the comics that can support this hypothesis? Actually yes. How do tribes delegate station and rank within and to others. By that I mean how do tribes show how good someone is at there station well pulling from films as an example.

Who remembers Kocoum from the 1995 film Pocahontas there is a ceremony in that used by the film to establish the character which is apt, he is adorned with the symbol of two bear paws to establish that he is strong and of a higher rank to other members of the tribe, without saying a word people who might not recognise his face within the tribe immediately know if this person is of important and what rights they have.

Pulling back to the comic, look at Kyo’s arm and face. The facial markings are similar to the male guards in the last panel of comic 1. But I couldn’t find any reference to that arm tattoo on any panel with another male of his tribe. Granted there was only 2 panels but among any tribe it is incredibly sacrilegious to paint or tattoos ones body without earning or receiving the rite to do so.

If you look at page 8, (where his arm markings disappear) you can’t see them on the guard in the background. So if that was an error on Kyo, then if the guards don’t have those markings then they are unique to him but if the guard who walked in is an example of a fully grown male then Kyo is still considered young so he would not have hunted or fought.

That can only mean the arm tattoo is a mark of position through inheritance.

So my other clue as to why he’s not letting on as much as he knows is he let HER tell their story at the start of page 7…

Now to cover this let’s say there are 3 people,

A liar
Someone gullible
Someone who can spot lies based on facial expressions. (the skeptic)

The liar sees 18 white sheep in a field then meets the gullible one. He says, “I just saw a field full of sheep I counted seventeen white and one black.” The gullible one believes him. The two then meet the sceptical one who can spot a lie from facial expressions who asks “hay where have you two been.” And the gullible one responds “I just came from home, he’s been counting sheep, he just came from a field with seventeen white and one black.”

Ask yourself will the skeptic be able to spot the lie?

Based off the gullible one alone, no because mister gullible believes what he’s telling is the truth. And since the sceptic goes of facial expressions if he only looks at the gullible one then the sceptic won’t spot the lie.

However if the sceptic is watching both of them he might fact check if he spots the liar being uneasy.

I think he put the cup in his mouth so she would be forced to answer for them.

So his "ow shit" at the end of chapter one could be because he was going to get in to trouble with his mother (A.K.A. the tribe leader)... he's more afraid what her tribe will do to HIM when they get there.

sorry for the long theory, stories with interesting plots and twists steeped in culture get me theorising on possible outcomes. i can seek Kyo is an enigma to be unravelled and it's getting me to puzzle the plot behind him.

Oh my, I seriously appreciate all the time you've taken to put thought into this story and everything behind it! It's incredible. You've got a very keen eye, for sure!
I would like to make note, though that you are correct in the thing about page 8 simply being an error, so thank you for pointing that out to me! I'll get those pages updated. He is supposed to have his arm markings in those panels. As for the rest of the theory, we'll just have to wait and see how it goes as the rest of the chapter gets posted! ^^

i just looked at page 8, nice. also if I'm correct those marking are unique to him. (zoomed in on guard throwing spears.) very interesting... my intrigue into this story deepens...