*Whoosh!*
The small stone, carrying a powerful force, pierced through the leaves and struck an Oriole perched on a tree a hundred meters high. The bird's body tumbled a few times before hitting the ground with a *thud*. Walter happily ran over to pick it up, holding it high and waving it at Kaelen:
"Look, I hit it again."
Kaelen stood with his arms crossed, leaning against the tree trunk, a bright smile on his face, giving a thumbs-up in encouragement. Being looked at with an admiring gaze by that beautiful sub-beast, Walter's cheeks suddenly felt hot.
This is bad. How can there be a sub-beast in the world so beautiful that even another sub-beast feels moved? No wonder Elder Randy said Kaelen's Daddy had to defeat many beastmen back then to bring his Papa home. He also understood why Kaelen had to smear his face so yellow.
He is so beautiful that even the most brilliantly colored golden pheasant standing next to him wouldn't overshadow that beauty. Rylan, the most beautiful sub-beast in the tribe, if standing next to Kaelen, would only be a clown.
From that distance, Kaelen naturally didn't see the suspicious blush on Walter's face, only marveling at this sub-beast's marksmanship.
Last night, Kaelen hypothesized that Walter had awakened an ability, and this ability was likely related to his eyes. Today, after confirming once more that Walter's vision had become vastly superior to before, he crafted a simple slingshot from a Y-shaped branch and a slightly elastic vine.
In terms of hunting, Walter truly had an astonishing innate talent. After being taught once and missing six times, every subsequent shot was a hit.
Walter returned to where Kaelen was standing, dropped the bird, and then looked sorrowfully at the pile of prey on the ground:
"There's too much. We don't have salt, so this pile of prey will just go to waste."
Kaelen obviously understood this as well. He thought for a moment and then gestured:
[Let's smoke the meat. It's gotten cold anyway, so the meat won't spoil easily.]
"Mm."
The two processed the prey, then started a fire to smoke the meat right outside on the grass in front of the cave. Leaving Walter to tend to it himself, Kaelen walked around to explore this valley a bit.
Every so often, he would climb onto a rocky outcrop to observe the distance. This valley didn't have too many trees; the tallest tree was only about 200 meters high, the rest being low vegetation. Unlike the small stream flowing across the cave entrance where the two of them were staying, traversing the valley was a rather wide river; the further downstream, the wider the riverbed became, and the water flowed along a gentle slope.
However, the color of the water was very strange. Kaelen rolled a leaf into a funnel to scoop up some water to inspect. The water wasn't clear like normal river water but had a dull color, almost like heavily brewed black tea. Not knowing if it was poisonous, it was best not to drink it.
Kaelen continued walking upstream to see if he could find an exit there. Walking quite a distance, he discovered the source of the river was a very high waterfall; water crashed down from above, white foam flying and wetting a large patch of land.
The splashed water had layers of yellowish-brown foam floating on top, looking like beer foam. Perhaps due to the heavy influx of water, a depression formed on the other side of the river, a rather large area. Kaelen raised his arms trying to estimate; it probably spanned several hectares.
Looking over from this side, he discovered many low-growing shrubs with red berries trailing along the ground. Looking around, the water flowed too rapidly; if he wanted to cross to the other bank, he would have to go down to where he was earlier, where there were some rock outcroppings in the riverbed, and carefully climb over to take a look.
However, it was still quite dangerous. Kaelen truly didn't dare to crawl over.
The upstream section of the river wasn't very wide. He snapped off a branch, used his ability to lengthen it, then used a piece of vine to weave a stiff basket tied to the end, extended the branch to the other side, and tried to pick a few red berries.
Taking a sniff, it wasn't poisonous. Observing the bird-egg-sized berry in his hand, the more he looked, the more familiar it seemed. He popped it into his mouth to take a bite, but right after biting, he had to hastily spit it out, his entire face scrunching up.
Mother of God, it's so sour. Both sour and astringent; although upon spitting it out there was a slight sweet aftertaste, it still made his teeth ache. Kaelen smacked his lips to taste the lingering flavor in his mouth. Although much sourer, the taste was very familiar. If he wasn't mistaken, this is... a cranberry?
In his previous life, he had never eaten fresh cranberries, mainly because the climate of his country wasn't suited for this plant, and the Magic City didn't allow the cultivation of mortal plants. However, even dried fruits retained some flavor; amplifying it a bit, wasn't this the taste of the fresh fruit?
The orphanage director was someone who extremely loved collecting books related to culture and geography; before being taken up to the Magic City, Kaelen had already read those books to tatters.
Colored river water, a depression, cranberries... all these things pointed to one massive term – Peat!
Wasn't he just having a headache before falling off the cliff about the brick and pottery yield being too low? Wasn't he having a headache because the heat generated from burning firewood wasn't enough to fire porcelain? Now the solution had arrived!
But thinking of something, Kaelen's round ears drooped, his whole body deflating. The two of them had been missing for so long, would the tribesmen think they were already dead? The probability of returning via the cliff path in front was too low, and it was unknown how deep this abyss was; one misstep and both would become piles of mangled flesh; hanging precariously midway up the mountain, they could freeze to death from the wind; or starve to death.
He didn't know if using a smoke signal would attract everyone's attention. Kaelen told himself he should probably give it a try; who knows, maybe Uncle Jaxon hasn't given up on them?
Recalling the scene in his dream—the large green snake constantly climbing up the cliff face—Kaelen's heart suddenly clenched.
Who knows... who knows, maybe Sane really cares about him and is still looking for him?
Kaelen took a deep breath, calming the anxious emotions in his chest, used the branch to pick a few more cranberries, wrapped them in leaves, and brought them back. Right now, both he and Walter were living in a situation without salt; a little animal blood wasn't enough. Having cranberries, they wouldn't have to worry about a lack of resistance.
Walter, while smoking the meat, anxiously craned his neck looking into the distance. Seeing Kaelen strolling back, he breathed a sigh of relief. He was terrified of Kaelen encountering danger. No way, next time he has to go with him; if they die, they die together!
---
"Sane, eat a little something. If you still want to find Kaelen, then you must get your strength up."
Sane's eyes remained dull, completely ignoring the Priest's advice, as if he himself had given up. Nyx reluctantly put the spoon down, sighing helplessly.
The vitality of a warrior beastman was very strong; such severe injuries couldn't take Sane's life. But if he continued to refuse food, the day he returned to the Beast God wouldn't be far off.
"Has he eaten anything?" Jaxon lifted the animal-skin curtain and walked in, took a look at Sane lying on the bed, and turned his head to ask Nyx. Nyx shook his head. Jaxon didn't say anything more, waved a hand to signal Nyx, and the two left the cave one after the other. Nyx asked: "Is there something you want to say?"
Jaxon reached out his hand; in his palm was a stone tied with an ash-grey bird feather. Nyx's pupils contracted, snatching the stone, a glimmer of hope flashing in his eyes. However, Jaxon extinguished that hope:
"The bloodstain at the base of the feather has changed color; it was plucked at least five days ago. The Avian tribe beastmen flew around the valley, collecting all the bird feathers exactly like this one. However, only this one is the newest. It's been five days without any new feathers being dropped, I'm afraid..."
Ominous signs outweigh the good.
Jaxon didn't finish his sentence, but Nyx understood. He tightly gripped the ash-grey feather, tears falling profusely. This child Walter had been constantly calling them for help, but they had missed it once again. Furthermore, the items dropped only contained Walter's wing feathers, without any of Kaelen's personal marks; did this prove that Walter was the only one down there?
Jaxon gritted his teeth and said: "Use this." He held out his hand, retrieving a piece of animal-skin clothing with Kaelen's scent, which he had taken from the child's cave. This piece of animal skin was also tied to a stone, the tying method the same as the stone with the bird feather: "Tell Sane we found them at the bottom of the abyss."
Nyx was stunned, then choked up and said: "But what about after? He'll still figure out we're lying to him."
Jaxon pursed his lips: "We'll figure out what comes after later. First, let him have the hope to live, then... we can slowly counsel him."
He didn't sound very confident with his latter sentence. If it were that easy to counsel, it wouldn't be Sane. However, right now this was the only way to save someone who wanted to die. Nyx gripped the animal-skin piece and bird feather in his hand, took a deep breath, and decided:
"Alright, I'll listen to you!"