There was a shortage of water in the caravan, but not so much in the dance troupe. Although water was restricted on the dance troupe side, the rules were not too harsh, so at least each person could wash their faces and drink water without restriction. I asked Katrina how often the caravan was stored, and Katrina scratched her red hair with her hand, and finally told me with uncertainty that she had never seen the caravan store water.
"And where does the water usually come from?" I asked, a little curiously.
Katrina pouted and said, "What kind of strange things do you have in your head, I never thought about where the water we drink comes from.
In the early spring chill, Katrina was wearing only a light halter top and tight shorts in the caravan, showing off her devilishly shapely figure and squinting her pale red eyes at me to hide her embarrassment at being asked a question by a five year old. Katrina was much more youthful than Singh, much better in terms of face and figure alone, and with her particularly attractive pale red eyes, she stood out even more. At 175cm tall, she is a little behind Singh, but Singh's body is a little stiff and lacks some softness. But Singh had been the chief maid of honour of the Seven Maidens for a long time and had enough aura to intimidate the girls in the caravan, a trait unique to Singh.
After checking on the dancers' morning lessons, Singh pushed in and saw Katrina and me eating breakfast around the bedside table. "
"Oi oi, Sister Singh, it hurts so much!" Katrina said as Singh took her by the ear, Singh and Katrina were as close as sisters, Katrina was six years younger than Singh and was much more lively and soft, far less astute and capable than Singh, Singh always tried to help Katrina build up her authority in the troupe before she left, but Katrina always liked to hide under Singh's wing and slacked off, just as Singh caught her in the act.
I hastily digressed to ask Singh where the water in the caravan had come from.
I could still see the water flowing out of the funnel hanging from the top of the tank, and the whole thing was topped with a magical scroll with arcane patterns of water and runes etched on it, and a fingernail-sized magic crystal inlaid in the leather at the very centre. I could even clearly feel the flow of magic power in the magical patterns on the scroll, which ran along a specific trajectory, forming a unique water gathering spell. I was in awe of this exquisite magic spell formation. The simple magic patterns and bright lines outlined the spell formation filled with moist water vapour all around, forming a rain cloud in the space of one metre above the funnel, with drops of water constantly falling into the funnel, forming a clear stream of water that flowed down to the water tank below.
My mind was enlightened by the fact that such a subtle pair of magic scrolls was able to supply the entire caravan with water.
I should have thought of this a long time ago. Isn't the caravan a huge steel scroll engraved with a magic pattern? This magic scroll with water gathering function is not even the most elementary scroll. Isn't that simple magic pattern the same pattern I saw on the parchment scroll Old Kulu gave me a few days ago? The pattern looked very simple, and the paper used for the scroll was the same magical parchment I was familiar with, made from the leather of a magical antelope, not really a valuable item, perhaps the only thing that was valuable was the magic crystal in the centre of the scroll.
Singh pointed to the entire set of equipment inside and said, "See! We usually rely on this for our water."
And then he scratched my little nose and said, "Now you're satisfied."
That magic scroll hanging in the air was like a door opening for me, and I thought to myself that inscribers could do this too. I found myself more and more intrigued by the wonderful field of inscription.
... beautiful dividing line ...
The caravan found a small stream in this valley, the clear, cold water pouring down the steep mountain wall on one side of this ravine, forming several waterfalls with a drop of dozens of meters, smashing the rocky ground at the foot of the mountain hard into a pool half an acre in size, splashing up water mist to fill the area around the pool between the valleys, decorating this acre of blue water like a fairyland. A rainbow of seven colours is reflected in the light that spans the stream and the pond, which flows southwards down the valley into the interior of the Pai plateau, eventually disappearing into the wilderness. During the rainy season, the water from this stream can even flow into Lake Tonle Sap, the largest freshwater lake on the Pai plateau.
It was vital for the dozens of thunder rhinos in the caravan to come across such a good source of water, although they could go for months without food or drink, it would have depleted their energy. The hoarse, muffled roar of the thunder rhinoceros and the rumble of its huge forelegs slapping the ground in agitation sounded like battle drums on a battlefield.
As I look out from the caravan, Master Leipas stands on the back of the foremost thunder rhinoceros, which has entered the mist of the waterfall's rapids, and its form looms large. Over a kilometre long, the thunder rhinos were finally unable to maintain their original neat formation and ran in a fan-shaped array towards the smouldering water source.
As the magical caravans came to a halt a hundred metres closer to the waterfall, they formed an unmistakable rectangular formation, forming an offensive and defensive camp. It was the first time in the last ten days that the caravan had chosen to set up camp at midday to rest. Katrina, seeing the clear pool of water in the distance and the green grass on the shore, hugged me and said happily, "Now we can finally go for a nice swim. Ja, can you swim?"
"Yes, I can!" I replied as I looked out of the window.
The thunder rhinos were eventually driven five hundred metres downstream to the meadow where the water was plentiful, making the valley green and lush.
Katrina nudged Khong Jin, who was lying on the top bunk catching up on his sleep. The quiet, well-behaved girl's usual favourite thing was to sleep like a bear in her den, making her look even more adorable with the baby fat that had grown on her already round, cute little face. Katrina said to the dazed Khong Jin, "Jin, let's go and wash our clothes together, the caravan has found a water source and the water is crystal clear!"
"Ohhh! All right." The silly girl never knew how to say no, as long as she could do something, as long as she was asked.
The other dancers in the caravan, with Singh's permission, came out of the caravan one by one, carrying their wooden pots, and gathered in twos and threes around the pool, where a silvery whisper and a frolic came out faintly beneath the roar of the rumbling waterfall, adding a little life to the valley. Katrina, Khonjin and I stepped out of the caravan with the crowd, the three of us walking together. My shyness and reserve gained me a lot of popularity, and the other dancers in the caravan knew that Katarina had been caring for a badly injured child every day, a child who did not have any of the bad habits possessed by a fop, who did not tease, who was polite, who was not too obnoxious, and who was most importantly liked by the Seven Maidens. After spending these days together, the girls in the caravan became familiar with each other even if they could not be named, and they would smile and say hello or nod when they met.
The other caravans also had dancers coming out one by one, carrying pots and pans of clothes to the watering hole.
The caravan's camp was set up by the stream a few hundred metres from the dance troupe and I wanted to run out and catch fish with Kurtz, but Katarina tugged at my little hand, refusing to let me go far away and begging me to wait until she had finished washing her clothes so she could accompany me, and she smiled when I reluctantly agreed to watch her big, pale red eyes sparkle.
When Tia appeared in front of me with his horse, I thought my eyes were hallucinating. All these days I had thought he had been killed in battle, that day at the mouth of the gorge when Tia had gone ahead as a forward scout and we had not been alerted, I had assumed that Tia had been ambushed and killed by Dwarven bandits, otherwise how could we not have found those hundreds of Dwarven bandits in this narrow valley?
I raised my face to look at him on his gubbly horse, his forehead still wrapped in snow-white gauze, and asked him with a snort, "Brother Tia, didn't those dwarves invite you back to their underground castle for a seat?"
Tia laughed awkwardly and simply said, "Ran out, just short of brother's death."
Gogo, who was following behind, had already jumped off her horse lightly, threw the reins to Tia and said to him, "Go over there and help me with the horses."
After Tia had taken the two horses, she said, "Don't be so sarcastic when you see him, how did he learn to be so sharp-tongued at such a young age?" "He's a ranger with wilderness survival skills, not really good at night scouting.
Seeing Sister Gogo slowly walking over, Katrina at the side hurriedly carried her skirt body slightly crouched down and gave a shallow salute. This is a commoner's salute to a nobleman, only used on formal occasions, and it can also be used to show respect to someone you respect. Gogo sauntered up to me, looked attentively at Katrina and nodded to her. Then she looked at me with flirtatious eyebrows and said, "Ja, you look like you've had a good time lately?"
I rushed up and took her hand, which cleared her face a little. She fiddled with her long chestnut hair and crouched down to take a good look at me and asked, "Still having nightmares these days?"
"Very few anymore, Sis, I think I'm almost better, you can see I'm running and jumping around with no problem." I broke away from her grip on my hand and did a flip in place on the grass, showing off to Sister Koko with one arm around my waist, a line of rhetoric I had also said to Kiggy two days ago and had been upfront about my idea to move back to live on the back of the Thunder Rhino, which Kiggy hadn't agreed to.
Katrina behind me heard me say that again and got up from the pond, wiped her hands on her apron and continued, "Ja, how can you say you're well when you're soaking your pyjamas with the cold sweat that comes out every night after a deep sleep?"
The silly redhead obviously didn't quite know how attractive she was and what it was really like for me to be crammed into the same bedpan as her every night. I've been thinking a lot lately that if I continue to live like this, wouldn't it be awful if my body habitually overflows with desire and my body doesn't respond?
Sister Gogo patted my face lovingly and said with a smile, "Okay, okay, I know what's on your mind, don't worry about staying here with Kiger for a few more days, how can you be so unsettled with such a beautiful sister by your side?"
I said, "How do you know what's on my mind? She touched my broken arm, which had grown well, and in ten days' time the bones had even healed completely, and I could even lift some heavy things. What was even more exaggerated were those scratches on my body, even the scars had disappeared by this time, to the amazement of Singh and Katrina.
"Aigoo, that's not a bad recovery." Sister Gogo casually picked me up, sniffed my forehead affectionately and said in a soothing mood, "I haven't been able to get those loot of yours to you either, I'll fetch them for you later!"
"I still have loot?"
This was something to look forward to for a penniless me. Kuz and I had been longing for some family money, he wanted a good quality ironwood bow, and I just needed some pocket money, and every time I saw my clothes pockets cleaner than my face, I felt or how much of a failure I had been for more than two years.
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