A rain turned the whole of the Star Lake Steppe into a swamp, the lakes that had been as dense as stars linked together to form a large and extensive swamp, and even the most experienced orc guides had no way of telling the way home, as the path was in the water. After the rain, many of the dry riverbeds came to life and the rivers will flow clean in the coming days, but until then there are at least a few hundred of these small rivers meandering through the Star Lake grassland in response to the season, all of which will converge into the Star River at the eastern end of the grassland, the whole of which runs along the mountains of the Pai plateau wanting to run a hundred and fifty kilometres in a south-easterly direction before joining the River Penma.
This sudden rain also forced the caravan to push back the date of its journey. Seeing that Payles was most recently a little anxious, his cultivation could no longer restrain the fire in his heart and someone would always be scolded. The atmosphere in the caravan became tense, and the deputies responsible for herding the thunder rhinoceroses did not dare to slack off; those who slept in the grass would be whipped. Even Fred had become cautious and refused to wander over to the dance troupe when there was nothing else to do.
In the morning, I was summoned to make an herbal soup called Artemisia, the main remedy, because he was worried that the caravan might be suffering from diseases caused by unclean water. Sister Gogo and Tia were also summoned to gather by the captain of the Wind Chaser Adventurers, and it looked like the adventuring group would be changing their schedule due to the caravan, as well as adjusting the tasks and plans within the group.
Finally free of the fire poison, I suddenly found that the burning sensation in my body was less and my whole body was so relaxed that it felt like it was about to fly. Wet wood is hard to light, and even when it does burn, it emits a thick cloud of smoke. But there was no dry wood in the whole camp, and there would be no more dried cow dung to fuel us for days to come; the meadow was wet. The soup slowly turned a disgusting green as whole plants of artemisia were thrown into the huge iron pot, which was constantly steaming. Old Kulu instructed me that when the rye cakes were given out in the morning, everyone had to drink it, even the dance troupe.
The troupe's camp was made up of thirteen special magical caravans, each one like a small moving house, and the cast iron caravans, inscribed with "Wind Sickness", were so tall that the troupe's dancers were lucky to escape the storm in them, their caravans being far more waterproof than the caravan tents, so they wouldn't get sick from the cold and damp. Most of the tents in the caravans were made of rough rawhide, which kept out the wind, cold, rain and snow, but not the damp. Almost every tent had a leather mattress soaked in water. Many of the men took the bedding that could be wrung out and put it out to dry in the camp during the day when there was enough sunlight. They smelled like rotting insects.
There was a long queue for food, and our iron pot was the only place to make a fire, even for the dance group, so we couldn't cook breakfast. For breakfast we had to eat large cakes with salt, which had been prepared for the journey into the mountains, but now had to be brought out in advance. Each person had to receive a bowl of soup and medicine, which was the only thing that was hot in the morning.
Even if you stand in the water for a long time with your boots on, you will still feel cold. It was good to have a sip of something hot, even if it was a tonic, to warm you up a bit. The damp chill was far more unbearable than the dry cold of winter when snow and ice cover the area, and when I saw Uncle Fred in the meal claim line, I surreptitiously slipped him a packet of chestnuts buried and warmed in the fire and took the opportunity to stagger over to him. Uncle Fred winked his thanks at me and I grimaced as I handed out pies to the people behind me. That was my only slightest convenience, and everyone had theirs, just like Uncle Fred always had access to a bit of precious leather trimmings, which was no mean feat for a tanner, and he could sometimes mix up a wheat cake because he had a date over at the dance. The convenience of the old kuru, on the other hand, was to stay by his side when he did, so please don't worry about getting sick. By the time I was able to work in the caravan, from helping out a little at first, I was now Old Kulu's assistant and pupil, and I was respected by the men in the caravan, as well as having my own conveniences.
In the morning Gogo told me that this grassland swamp was her home until it dried out. I never understood what that meant. There was no longer a place to land in the old kuru's tent, the whole cowhide tent was stuffed with bags of various herbs, and the two of us, Kuz, and I stepped on the wood at the top of the tent where it was less wet. I was carrying a bowl of herbal soup that stank like bean juice, my feet on the very edge of the wooden rafters, looking like a raven in the branches of a tree, and I was crouched shoulder to shoulder with Kurtz, squeezing my nose in misery as I poured the soup into my stomach.
The old kuru sat on a stone cairn outside the tent with these two scones on a clay oven in front of him. Kurtz sat beside me and complained to me, "Ja, you've been studying with those guys from the adventure group for the past few days, have they been good to you?"
"Not too bad, Aziz, Sister Koko helped me find a shield warrior to be my teacher, he's great!" I took the last sip of the soup, the warmth finally warmed my whole body and a few drops of sweat even oozed from the tip of my nose.
Kurtz gave a heated, silly smile, fished two slices of jerky out of his pocket and handed me one. It was cooked, seasoned and cured, and tasted far better than the jerky that was simply cooked and left to dry in the caravanserai. There is never a shortage of snacks in our little world, and since arriving on the grasslands, Kurtz's hunter's skills have been on display. He put the jerky under his big, fleshy nose and sniffed it with a disgusted look of intoxication. The corners of his mouth quirked up to reveal two canine teeth, a small gesture that suggested he was happy as he kept his eyes on the group of adventurers from the Wind Chaser Adventurers not far away and said, "There were times when I wanted to go over to you and I got a bit flustered at the sight of that guy and didn't dare."
Putting the empty bowl aside, he put a hand on his shoulder and said, "That Jumbach is a demon, he's been messing me up for the last few days."
I recounted the miserable fate of the last few days to Kurtz, causing him to laugh. Old Kulu sitting down interjected at this point in orcish, "I see your walk has been corrected a lot in the last few days, Ja, those tricks they taught you are much better for you, they are real things to save your life, you need to learn them carefully."
"But I'm just being posed like a scarecrow every day, I don't think any of this is going to do me any good." I retorted, the jerky was a little salty from Kurtz's marinade and the orcs preferred something a little saltier.
Kurtz to said to me seriously, "You seem to have changed a bit, eh, a bit like ... a bit like a rabbit."
Anyone else would have called me a rabbit and I would have definitely said straight back to him that he was a big . Grandpa. But when Kuzi said it in orcish, I understood the meaning somewhat, he was saying that I stay alert like a rabbit, and whenever I meet danger I will quickly adjust my body to make defense at the first time, unknowingly those defensive moves turned out to have been used by me unknowingly. I showed the small round shield to Kurtz and he said admiringly, "Beautifully made and sturdy."
"Then in a few days we'll make you another one just like it." I said.
Kurtz shook his head outright and fitted the shield into his hand, slapping his other hand on it. And whispered to me, "I just need daggers and spears and bows and arrows, this isn't for me."
Old Kuru had been pushing me lately to memorise those books on herbalism, and had taken several more herbalism questions in quick succession, only barely passing them when I didn't get the answers wrong but incoherent, and it looked like he still thought I should have been a little faster. The parchment book Old Kulu had recently given me to read was a work on herbalism written in the ancient orcish language, with so many unusual phrases that it was hard to understand the meaning of the descriptions, and there was a lot of worship and veneration of ancestors and prayers to orcs mixed in. It was like I was back in junior high school when my class teacher smashed me over the head with an English dictionary and poked me in the forehead with her smoky forefinger, saying, "If you can't memorise this dictionary, why do you want to get into university? Do your daydream, what if you can get full marks in mathematics and chemistry, junior high school bias means you will be eliminated prematurely, a million people walk the one-way bridge, why can you walk across, you have to suffer more than others, get up earlier than a chicken, sleep later than a cat ..." Those words seem to have happened just like yesterday.
Tia rode up slowly on her gubbo horse, her hoofs treading in the puddles on the camp, splashing mud and water everywhere. Tia had come to tell me that their adventuring group was once again going to the Star Lake grasslands to hunt for magical beasts, and that the heavy rains would force some of them to migrate to the higher slopes of the earth, where they could find some rare ones if they were lucky. Old Kulu was quite agreeable, but didn't agree that Kuzi and I should go along, the hardship was not for two children to bear.
Sister Gogo didn't come to say goodbye, but just rode on her horse and waved at me from afar, as it seemed she had a premonition in the morning, and told me to stay well in camp.
"Teacher!"
I pulled the old kuru into the tent piled high with herbs, and Kuz followed, but there wasn't enough room in the tent and he could only stick his head in and look at me curiously. As they both watched, the yellowish light at the tip of my finger once again condensed into a tiny point and I drew the second successful magic formation of my life. It dissipated with a crunching sound.
Kurtz's eyes were as wide as a bell, although he had no way of sensing magic and could not see the magic formation I had drawn with my fingers in the air, but when the yellow circle of light appeared under my feet, the effect of the magic could be seen by ordinary people, and Kurtz was familiar with such magic, as long as an orc wizard would know it, it was as simple as an anti-magic!
"Ja, when did you ..."
Before the words could come out, he was kicked straight up by the old kuru and fell into the muddy water, scaring Kuzzy into freezing on the ground, not daring to make a sound.
"These are the secrets of the orcs, tell them and your friends will die!" Old Kulu then whispered this in a low voice by Kuz's ear, and Kuz's head was like a pounding garlic, nodding and then shaking his head over and over. Couldn't help but look at me with that same hellish expression.