Chapter 45 – Creatures outside the cave (1/2)

Translated by Sunyancai

Mai had also noticed that, and he was wondering about it as well.

He was certain that neither of the two Thorn Black Winds were the one whose tail he slashed last time. No totemic warrior would mess with a Thorn Black Wind on purpose, but for all those years in his hunting career, he had fought with Thorn Black Winds before, and he had an understanding of its recovering abilities. Having made that wound himself, he knew it would take more than fifty or sixty days for a Thorn Black Wind to completely recover.

Also, after such a long confrontation, Mai felt increasingly doubtful about these two Thorn Black Winds’ motivation. It felt like they were not prepared to battle against the warriors to the death. Some people were hurt, while there were many new wounds on those animals’ bodies. Luckily, these two were not as crazy as the last one they encountered. However, where was the last Thorn Black Wind, the one that got lacerated on the tail? Did it get driven away by these two beasts now?

“It seems like they only want to stop us from going up.” Said Qiao.

“They can actually howl…” Another mid-level totemic warrior said curiously. He was the same age as Mai, and quite as experienced as Mai. In the past, he had encountered Thorn Black Winds a few times, and heard stories about Thorn Black Winds from the elders, so as for the habits of this ferocious beast, he knew better than Mai and the others.

“The Thorn Black Wind not only very territorial, being the killer lurking in the dark, it rarely howled. The typical sound it makes is the sound of shaking its thorns, instead of howling.” The warrior added in a hurry.

A little while before, Lang Ga and the others just heard the howling of Thorn Black Winds, and they decided to come down and help.

Connecting so many odd dots, people couldn’t help but wonder, what on earth were these two Thorn Black Winds planning to do?

In the twilight, the quick-moving figures were blurry, and the sound of shaking thorns could be identified from the forest constantly.

When a Thorn Black Wind became exited, the thorns on its body would begin to shake, and create a dense shaking sound. It was not loud, but because of the density, it was not hard to be heard.

At night, the sound was like Yama’s call, which scared all the other animals away.

Hearing that sound, people’s hearts grew heavy, and their backs were soaked in cold sweat.

“No more stalling, we have to drive these two beasts away!” Mai said firmly. Now it was not completely dark, and the surroundings could still be seen. When it grew completely dark, the situation would become much more worse for them.

“Go on!”

They did not have any interest in the giant-antlered deer that they killed, and after a short break, Mai commanded to fight with these two beasts with joint efforts of every warrior.

…

Shao Xuan had that dream again.

It’s been a long time, however, he fell into that kind of dream again.

Now, there were no night swallows or snowflakes in his dream. It was completely dark, but obviously he felt a pungent feeling of icy coldness, as if something was lurking in the darkness. In the meantime, there were some dense clacking sounds, as if something was shaking.

Shao Xuan suddenly sat up and opened his eyes. He touched his forehead with his hand, only to find a handful of cold sweat.

Feeling that there was still lingering feeling of icy coldness on his back, Shao Xuan shook a few times and got closer to the fire.

Judging from the situation of the bonfire and the firewood inside, it must have been quite a while since Lang Ga and the others left. So it should be nearly dusk outside.

Why hadn’t they returned?

What had they encountered?

Was anybody hurt?

Shao Xuan took a deep breath as he recalled his dream, and he tried hard to ease his nerves. The icy feeling was much stronger than when he dreamt about the night swallows last year. His heart was still pounding like hell after he woke up. He was not sure if that was because of the fear or any other reasons.

Looking aside, Shao Xuan found Mao leaning against the cave wall, sleeping soundly. In fact, Shao Xuan had made quite some noise when he woke up. Normally totemic warriors during hunting missions were quite alert, and they would be wide awake at the slightest sound. Mao apparently was very soundly asleep, for he did not wake up at all. It should be because of the meat they ate. It was for the best, since he was not walking around like an ant on a hot pan.