The camp was set up in full rows of tents on the terrain at the mouth of the valley, and the threat of a band of Grey Dwarf bandits hung over the heads of the men without dissipation. It was only out of the narrow valley known as the Trail of Death that everyone was finally relieved and their hearts relaxed. This evening, the caravan's thunder rhinoceros and the dance troupe's caravan were parked in confusion in this large open field at the mouth of the valley, two incompatible groups that had surprisingly become much more amicable to each other after having shared this path of death. The men walked as far as they could, looking for any wild food they could eat, having been drinking melted ice water scraped from the crevices of the rocks and eating dry dried meat and pancakes for days, when even the sight of wild food would have been a rare treat.
In the valley, it was dark earlier. We were about 300 metres away from the camp and the campfire was behind a large rock, so from one side of the camp we could see our campfire clearly, but from the opposite direction we could not see a single ray of light, it was all blocked by the boulders. The men of the camp had gone out hunting with the adventuring group and many of them had opted for the more valuable antelope skins and silver coins as payment, while Kurtz and I had each been given a horn of antelope as payment. Later, Kurtz asked for a batch of fresh meat from the warrior Breguet, the leader of the group, which was made into some bacon and preserved.
At a time when food is scarce, it is rare in a caravan to have a strip of waxy meat to eat. I thought that perhaps even Master Leipas might be gnawing on a dry pie with the men of the caravan tonight, and as Kurtz hummed a little smugly the unknown song of the Orcs, I rested my head on Sister Gogo's firm lap, looked up at the stars and said to Sister Gogo, "Sister, tell me about Anne!"
"Annie?" Sister Gogo put one hand over my forehead, her thumb and middle finger pressing down on my forehead and gently kneading it comfortably. Annie was Sister Gogo's younger sister, and was now in her second year at the Sword Technique Academy in the Beale War College of Higher Learning. Sister Gogo was lost in memory for a long time before she said, "She was always a very stubborn girl ..."
There was a quiet girl beside us, sitting silently at my feet a little away from the fire. "It's been a long time since you've had a roast. And sneaking so far away and not remembering to call me."
Sister Gogo, obviously taken aback, looked at the little faggot girl who had suddenly appeared and asked me, "Is this your friend?"
Kuz muttered off to the side, "This greedy little girl has known us for almost a month, from the dance troupe."
I laughed dryly and said to Shiba Nui, "It's so confusing over there in the camp, and besides I never knew which caravan you were living in! How could I possibly find you."
"Oh? Did I never tell you I was staying with Singh?" The little faggot girl rubbed her head, her long black hair spilling down like a waterfall, like she had just washed her hair, fresh and smooth.
I turned to Kurtz and asked, "She said that?"
"Definitely not!" Kurtz made a rather dismissive reply.
Thinking of Singer, the beautiful, gentle, generous and decent woman of Uncle Fred's, I remembered that she had invited Cuz and I to play in her caravan at Star Lake Meadow, but unfortunately I had never had the opportunity to go over and visit her on the narrow mountain roads of this valley, so I sat up and asked her, "So you work for Sister Singer?"
We hadn't spoken much before, and the only communication we had had was about food. I didn't expect her to be living in the same caravan as Singh, and remembering that Singh seemed to be able to talk in that caravan, I wondered if I should pay a visit to that gentle woman one day and ask her to take proper care of the little Chai girl.
"Count ... sort of." Little Shiba Nui rolled her eyes in dissatisfaction, seemingly not too willing to talk about these things. But that slightly angry look on her face actually did give me the impression of a charming and flirtatious look, and I actually had the feeling that this somewhat mysterious little slave was very durable, and every time I saw her I felt that she was a little more beautiful.
I didn't think much of it, so I said to her, "Sister Singh has some friends with us, and the last time we brothers went to help her cook a big meal, I hadn't seen you then, but I wanted to talk to her about letting you do some easy work during the week, maybe she could help."
The little faggot girl didn't answer, she just took the cloth pocket off her waist and threw it to me.
I opened it and saw some half-green, half-red plums. Although I had read in old Kulu's book of herbalism that this fruit existed in this world, it grew in the southern part of the Green Empire, and the north was not at all suitable for this small shrub.
"No need, I'm getting by just fine!" The little faggot girl, who liked to keep her body close to her slender, trim legs, said a little stubbornly.
"Plum, where did this come from?" I had a slightly bad feeling.
The little faggot girl craned her head unconcernedly to look at the leg of lamb in Kurtz's hand and said to herself, "I picked it, don't you care, just eat yours."
I remembered that the last time we had grilled a fatty lamb chop, Kurtz preferred the fattier meat, but it was a bit greasy afterwards, and even though we each had a piece of baked cake, it still didn't overpower the stink of the lamb chop, and I remember saying, "I wish I had some plums or peaches."
Kurtz asked me what plums were and I said they were fruit and that it would be nice to have something slightly tart if you felt greasy after eating meat. Kuzi even giggled and told me that he could eat as much meat as he wanted without feeling greasy. Sister Gogo took a half green, half red plum from my hand and also said in surprise, "This is a plum, isn't it? I saw this once at a school exchange ball, it's a fruit from the south, even if you want to eat it in our city of Beale, it's flown in by magic dirigible, you can't buy a few of them for a silver coin."
In this world, one silver coin can be exchanged for thirty pounds of wheat flour or a leg of lamb, of course here the leg of lamb is not so valuable, and likewise thirty pounds of wheat flour can never be bought for one silver coin, this is not a prosperous city after all, but from this it can be seen that these plums are still very expensive.
When Kuzi heard this, he didn't hesitate to grab one from my hand and throw it into his mouth, clicking it down with a bite: "Ouch! So sour."
Then, as I watched dumbfounded, he barfed and swallowed it, and I asked, a little curiously, "Where's the core?"
"Ate it! Ah, that thing can't be eaten?" Kurtz was a little dumbfounded.
I said breathlessly, "Do you eat the bones from the leg of lamb?"
"Sometimes when I'm hungry, I eat them too!"
"Well, that's okay, you can eat it." Again I was speechless.
In fact, when you look closely, Little Chai Nui is much more delicate than Sister Guo Guo, but she lacks a mature flavour. She also looked good when she ate, she would use her teeth to tear the meat off a little bit very sagely, chew it carefully in her mouth and slowly savour it before swallowing it into her stomach, she was the kind of person who could eat very well. Sister Gogo, on the other hand, would tear the meat by hand and eat it in her mouth, preferring the sour date sauce that Kuzi had brought.
The time passed quickly as we chatted and ate the roasted golden leg of lamb. Before I knew it there were two silver moons hanging close together in the sky and it was already late. I swept around uneasily, not noticing anything wrong at first, but just as I turned back again, I actually saw a flickering fire in the shadows behind me, stinging my eyes just slightly, and I hastily turned my head as if nothing had happened, picked up an unburned branch and wrote in front of Sister Koko: There's someone behind me!
The silence, the kind of silence that surrounded me made it feel like my breath was frozen in this night.
Sensing my unusual reaction, Kuzi also turned his head to look at me and I winked at him, the most usual look we usually use when hunting, the silent communication we make only when our prey is about to appear. I didn't know how many people were around yet, but I thought of what had been rumoured in the caravan: a band of grey dwarf bandits.
Sister Gogo also pulled her ebony staff out of her pocket without moving at this point, and she gave me a look that I knew meant for me to defend myself. As I concentrated on listening intently, Kuz's two big furry ears also swirled like radar, and both our hands kept changing numbers, eleven, twelve, thirteen. There were more than a dozen Dwarf warriors coming to surround us, and in my haste, Kurtz and I could only count them, and we could only approximate the number by hearing them.
I could hear the slight scrape of iron armour against the gravel on the ground, and I knew that Kurtz must have heard it too, and more than one. The little faggot girl noticed the unnaturalness between us too, and I opened my mouth without making a sound, just using my mouth shape to tell her to find a safe place to hide later.
I guessed that they must be trying to take us out without a sound and then completely surround the whole camp before the people outside who were in charge of the guard feared for their lives. We shot each other a look and with the swiftest of movements Kurtz pulled his leather jacket over the faint glow of the fire and suddenly it was dark all around and we were all rolling and crawling behind the boulders the next moment.
We had come out unprepared, not expecting to meet these Dwarf bandits just after we had climbed out of the trail, and Cuz's hunting bow and harpoon were still in the camp.
Kurtz let out a long whistle like a wolf, fished a short blade out of his pocket and dashed off, I was too quick to touch Kurtz, who was as fast as the wind.
He didn't listen to me, and orc warriors are notorious for their brave fighting style. I had no time to even put on his "Water Shield", and no support spells like "Wind Walk" were applied at all before Kurtz had already dashed into the darkness. Teammate, holy shit!"
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