It took the caravan two days to travel east along the solid hard earth at the edge of the grassland to reach the first entrance to the mountains at the northern foot of the Pai Plateau, known to the cider-loving dwarves and the nomadic orcs of the Pai Plateau as the Salt and Iron Road. It is also from here that one climbs the cliff-filled Road of Death to reach the Pai Plateau, which is rich in magic antelope and various primary herbs. Every year, the orcs traded large numbers of antelope for large quantities of fine iron from the dwarves, hence the name of the area, which was changed over time to the Salt Railway.
Originally the biggest obstacle for the traders was the near-perilous mountain road, with an abyss on one side and a cliff on the other, with only a four or five metre wide road winding through the northern foothills between the two. If this were all, it would not be much, but here it is a few hundred miles further north to reach the icy tundra, and as soon as the north wind picks up, the biting cold winds of the icy tundra will blow south along the Star Lake grassland all the way to the foot of the Pai Plateau, blocked by the mountains of the entire Pai Plateau, and only on this salt and iron road will the cold winds from the north travel up the mountain path against the wind, at which point if once they meet the blowing from the If the warm southeasterly winds from the endless sea blow from the Pai plateau, strong convection weather will form, and the rain, snow and hail will turn the whole salt railway into a giant ice sculpture stretching for thousands of miles, and the caravans trapped on the salt railway will not be able to turn around and retreat, and there is hardly any way for the giant land beasts and huge magical carriers to turn around on such a narrow mountain road. This is gradually becoming a road of death.
However, the situation changed a decade or so ago when a band of bandits emerged on the Salt and Iron Road, from the territory of the Seven Dwarf Kings, the Black Iron Kings. They are known as Grey Dwarves, born robbers, who have settled in a vein on the Salt and Iron Road, and who make their living by looting. This is the infamous band of Grey Dwarf bandits.
They lived in the gap between the powerful Dwarf kingdom and the orc tribes, the Dwarves never set foot on the Pai plateau according to the pact they made with the orc emperor, while the orc tribes were more like a scattering of sand at this time, the friction between the tribes made them all tired of dealing with each other, and it was more of a headache for these dwarves who were good at digging holes. The orc armies have attacked them several times, but to no avail.
Many small merchant groups are afraid of the grey dwarf bandits in the mountains of the northern foothills of the Pai Plateau, and fewer and fewer caravans are using this salt and iron road. The Road of Death.
Leipas had made a lot of preparations, almost every Thunder Rhino had a powerful crossbow, and the Thunder Rhinos themselves were fierce land warriors, and would be unbeatable when charging into battle. The caravan was very powerful.
After entering the Salt and Iron Road, the caravan followed a winding mountain road made of countless pieces of rubble.
At dawn, the caravan began to prepare its meals and was due to depart at the first sign of sunlight. The early frosts were so dazzlingly white on the mountains that I dared not look at them for fear of hurting my eyes. On the wall stood the wild goat that could walk on the tops of the mountains like it was on the ground, and it seemed to be watching us with pity again.
Kurtz was crouched next to me with a smoked rabbit's head in his hand and another one for me, but I didn't want to eat it. Perhaps Kurtz was the only one in the caravan who had a more cheerful time, as he always managed to get his hands on a bit of special game, like these two otters that Kurtz had brought back last night and hadn't had time to cook.
We had to be on guard all day for any rocks falling from the cliffs, and I could see the bottomless stream on the other side by casually sticking my head out, and the incessant rushing of water at the bottom was a distraction. My heart was like a taut string that I only let go at night when I rested, so I treasured my time off.
It was because I had no time to take care of the two rabbits that I came up with the laziest solution, and if I could get yellow clay there was of course an even lazier one, except that there was no way to find yellow clay on the gravel-paved road that was only a few metres wide between the walls, huddled with the thundering rhinoceroses for rest. The two rabbits were then placed in a large bowl filled with oil, a copper plate was set up on top of it and the pine wood was thrown on top of it, so that if the wicks of the oil lamp were lit in the bowl, it wouldn't take long for the oil lamp to bake the wood in the copper plate and raise the smoke with the smell of pine oil. When you wake up in the morning you will be able to eat the smoked rabbit with its rich flavour.
The morning sun had not yet broken over the hills and we were all waiting for the bugle to sound. I simply chose another head and a leg of bacon and asked Kurtz to deliver the rest of the bacon to old Kulu and Uncle Fred. Kurtz put the ones left for me on a wooden tray at my side and went to old Kulu and Fred as if to offer them a treasure.
Uncle Fred, who by this time needed to sort out the supplies carried by the Thunder Rhino, was extremely busy morning and night, and had been absent from Singh for several days, staying right here at the caravan camp, which I reckoned would go on for a long time. It will probably continue until the safe crossing of the northern foothills. Old Kulu is approached by Leipas every morning to survey the terrain ahead, and as a seasoned veteran orc, every suggestion Old Kulu makes could potentially save someone's life.
I drink a bowl of hot corn mush and am about to get up and try the smoked rabbit's head from last night, but when my eyes sweep to my plate, I realise that the rabbit's leg has disappeared from it. The cold mountain breeze in the morning made me much more awake, and I curled up dejectedly and nimbly into my cotton trousers, which were light and warm, and Kurtz said I was looking more and more human.
"Yuck!" The rabbit's head had a bit of a smoky outer skin, and it did take a bit too long to smoke it overnight, so it looked like I'd have to control the oil and cut back properly. But the taste was sufficient, I tore off two shreds of meat and threw them into my mouth. I jumped off the spine of the thunder rhinoceros and turned around along the narrow mountain path, and found no suspicious people, I said to myself that it was strange, this rabbit leg sort of grew wings and flew by itself?
I had no problem eating my food, but I was trying to be a clear-eyed ghost.
I forced myself to be quiet as an unexpectedly soft chewing sound came into my ears, interspersed with the crisp sound of biting bones, creaking like a rat on a beam chewing on a rafter in the night. The sound was so subtle that it would not have been easy to detect the smallest of clues if not for my recently enhanced magical senses, which had made my five senses much sharper than normal.
I turned to follow the sound and saw a thin figure hiding in the shadows between Thunder Rhino's two sturdy hind legs under his stomach, her slender back resting against the inside of the calf bone of Thunder Rhino's warm hind leg, absentmindedly scratching Thunder Rhino's itch while nibbling quickly on a rabbit leg, her large, quirky eyes peeking out. She was wearing an off-white wool skirt and an off-white jacket, her long dark hair tied back in a ponytail, her body leaning forward slightly as she turned her head and swayed nimbly, her eyes seemingly searching for something.
Curious, I stood behind her and followed her gaze, but all I could see were pots and pans scattered across the empty field that had not yet been packed. At that moment, she seemed to perceive someone behind her and jerked back to see me, her thin little face turned white with fear as if she had seen a ghost, and pointing at me she said with a bit of a stammer, "How did you ... you find me?"
Very cute, that was my first impression of her, and the way she was scared and panicked like a deer was amusing. The girl was about fifteen or sixteen years old, more than half a meter taller than me, only her body seemed a little lighter, flat chested, flat ass. But the second thing that struck me was again very demonic, with a smudge of black pot-black on her white, flawless face, and eyes as bright as autumn water that looked like they could talk, and without her even needing to speak, I knew she must be saying right now, How did you find out about me, auntie? I can't believe she turned behind me to scare me, and I can't believe I haven't noticed ...
In fact, I wanted to cover her mouth, but my hands couldn't reach her mouth and she kept hiding backwards from me. I think this little girl must have sneaked over from the dance troupe, there are no women in the troupe, and seeing that she is so skinny and has come here to steal things on her own I thought it could be that she had not had enough to eat in the dance troupe and was forced to come here to steal something to fill her stomach. A lowly slave, perhaps.
I quickly waved my hand to signal her to keep quiet for a while, then grabbed her by the hand and pulled her into the shadows on the back legs of the Thundering Rhino to hide, she just reacted to struggle a bit, the clothes in her eyes as if she was about to question me. At that moment, Uncle Fred hurried by with a bundle of thick hemp rope in his arms, and she was alert enough to hold her breath at the critical moment, and we managed to escape.
She was about to nag me again when I hastily slipped the uneaten rabbit's head into her hand and said gently to her, "There's no time to lose, the caravan will be leaving soon, so get back while you can if you don't want to be discovered."
She looked at me with big bright eyes incredulously, I thought she was stunned by the sudden change and as I was leaving I said to her, scratching my head helplessly, "Hey, I say!"
She had already walked out, and when she heard me shout at her she turned back to look over.
"If you really can't get enough, come early at tomorrow's then!" I whispered to her.
The horn of departure was already in the distance and she ran backwards against the edge of the wall on the inside of the trail without further hesitation, her lithe figure like a deer in the woods. The off-white woollen dress added a layer of protection, and as my thunder rhinoceros was the third from the bottom of the caravan, she was so close to the caravan that she disappeared in a flash, rounding a large bend in the path ahead.
At this point, Uncle Fred called from the back of the Thunder Rhino and I rushed out to say yes! When he saw me crouching under the thunder rhino's belly, he hurriedly came down and lifted me out from under the thunder rhino's belly. Don't you want to get under the rhino's belly, don't you want to be trampled to death?"
I didn't argue, I just smiled at Uncle Fred, who could only carry me up to the thunder rhinoceros and said to me, "Stop running around, you've blown the starting horn twice!"
"Nah!" I agreed.
I was thinking that wherever those at the bottom of the pile would be the most oppressed group of people, just like the original me, who was told to do this and that, pick up cow dung, scrub hides and run errands and deliver mail before I was even taller than those men's waists. But old Kulu only spilled the beans a little to Leipas: Oh, look, here's my new young apprentice! He's learning to decoct medicine. Not even a word from old Master Leipas, just before no one ever put me to work, except of course Uncle Fred. I suppose the little girl who had just been underfed and had sneaked out to find food might have been like me.
Subconsciously branding her with the same fate in my mind, and then speculating on her poor fate, perhaps being sold at a very young age! In the end it was surprisingly natural to think that we were the same person, hehe! I should have taken care of her! I thought so.
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