As the seven of us sat around the simple table, the saucy red sticky broth of the crystal elbow still lingering on our plates, Katrina held the plate in one hand and the silver dinner knife in the other, dividing the cut braised hooves onto our plates, I frowned and asked Kurtz, who sat opposite me, "Az, why is it all meat, isn't there any fresh wild food around here? "
Obviously a little confused by my question, Kuz said hesitantly, "Is it bad to eat meat?"
Yes, orcs like meat, I shook my head a little helplessly and looked up to Katrina who had just finished sharing the braised hoof, "Hey, can I have some more noodles please?"
As the western beams swallowed up the last glimmer of the slanting sun and the dim shadows swept across the valley with a cold breeze, that's when our dinner ended. The first to leave were Sister Koko and Jambach, and I felt that once a woman had fallen in love, I became less important as a little dragger. She wiped her mouth with her handkerchief, got up neatly and walked around the table, kissed my forehead lightly and whispered in my ear, "Stay well here in Kig, after all, it's much more comfortable in the caravan than on the back of the Thunder Rhino, and that redheaded chick seems quite nice and quite good at looking after people."
I think her relationship with Jumbach is progressing fast, especially since we got out of the valley of death, the two of them have become a lot more understanding, somehow it's as if Jumbach's head has suddenly opened up and I always see a blush on Kiger's snowy white cheeks. I stared at her with a pout, thinking: "Don't put your happiness on your face like that, it makes people cynical and hateful.
Strongbach naturally walked over to me and waited in the wings. Thought for a moment before saying to me, "Do you want to resume practice tomorrow morning?"
I was about to gladly say yes when I saw Sister Gogo's pink fist drop directly onto Strongbach's shoulder and say, "What practice, he's only been recovering from his injury for a few days and he's still tossing him around."
"Thanks for the sumptuous dinner, I loved the chicken and vermicelli stew dish, the orc cuisine is really unique and enjoyable, thanks again!" Strongbach was ever so courteous and polite, and finished before leaving with Sister Gogo on his arm. Sister Gogo tamely took Strongbach's arm in hers and the two of them headed straight for the adventuring group's camp. Was it really spring?
When I saw that someone else had left, Singh glanced cautiously at Kiger, who was sitting beside me, cutting a small piece of pork chop with a silver knife, and seeing that Kiger had not even raised his head in concentration, he took a deep breath and dragged Uncle Fred, who was sitting on a chair and was almost speechless, away in a hurry. Don't these grown men and women know how to cover up?
The entire caravan had been saving water along the way, and there was a shortage of water for a while. The thunder rhinoceros was far more resistant to hunger and thirst than the camels, so it hardly needed much water along the way. But without a water wizard, this long, water-starved journey would have been a real drain on Master Leipas.
My mind wandered too far and I hurriedly turned my thoughts back to the fact that, despite being assured of drinking water, most of the men were in no condition to have had a bath in the previous month and a half, and many of the men in the caravan were soaking in the cold stream like hippos after lunch, so perhaps Singh had left in such a hurry to take Uncle Fred to find a secluded place to bathe. Every time I thought I might be called Auntie Singh, I felt an indescribable twinge in my heart. That's when I sincerely admire how lucky the middle-aged uncle is.
Seeing that half the crowd was gone in an instant, Kurtz sat down opposite me and said to me a little unnaturally, "Master hasn't eaten yet, I have to bring him some. I'll leave the pot and stove here for now and I'll take it back when it's completely cold. The pork shank stew is very good today."
I think Kurtz was so scared to face Katrina that he didn't even dare to look at her, and I wondered if it meant that spring had come for the innocent little orc too? Kurtz also ran off in a panic with the rest of the pot of stew. By this time Katrina was still sitting in the chair to my left, winding down on the cold pork chops, when Kiger finally put down the knife in his hand, dumped the rest of the pork chops onto Katrina's plate and stared at her as if nothing had happened, "Are you not going to explain to me if I don't ask?"
The flat voice hit Katrina's chest like a hammer, causing her hand to shake with the knife, which struck the edge of the cream-coloured porcelain plate with a crunching sound. Her face went pale and she sat silent, unable to speak, like a child who had made a mistake and sat in her chair silently refusing to speak or bow her head.
If I looked closely, I could clearly see that there was something inside the grape-sized ruby that flowed slowly like smoke, and in the contrast between the flame of the ruby and the snowy whiteness of my neck, I felt that something was attracting me, making me my heart pounding.
Everyone's path in life is not destined to be smooth, every moment is faced with choices, these multiple choice questions are the crossroads in life, you can choose to go left or right, once you have chosen, don't try to erase the answer with an eraser, even if you choose again, the old answer will still be there, only you can draw a cross on it with just a pen.
Kig and I sat face to face on the carpet in the rehearsal room on the first floor of the magic caravan, Kig's brow furrowed slightly and my attempts to lighten the mood were ignored. Katrina served us two cups of hot tea, made from the dried petals of the nymphaea, which, when steeped in boiling hot water, looked like blossoming flowers at the bottom of the white porcelain teacups, with a faint floral aroma and a slightly sweet to bitter flavour, which had the effect of relieving fatigue and calming the mind.
Katrina put down the tea tray in her hand, sat down on her knees and began to tell her story.
It was a little over a year ago when the caravan had just left King Stan's Black Iron City and the caravan followed the Thundering Rhinos across King Stan's territory and into the rolling New Siacis Mountains. It was already early winter, and as many in the troupe had not expected the troupe to make such a sudden decision to come down for the journey, the girls in the troupe were not very well prepared, and the most pressing shortage was actually of warm furs and cotton clothing, and the New The western part of the Siachis Mountains is so cold that it is almost ice-cold. It doesn't feel that cold outside in the caravan, but if you stand outside for a short while, the cold will make your hands and feet numb.
Katrina does not have much to do every day, she collects food from the logistics van every day and a certain amount of daily necessities every Saturday, a job that used to be Singh's responsibility, but after Singh had some problems a while ago, Katrina took over from Singh and occasionally got some small benefits, which kept her awake for a few nights with excitement.
She was lucky to have been born into a Dalit family, but she was lucky to be a part of the troupe for a while, as there were many beautiful girls in the troupe, and basically all the Dalits in the big cities wanted to get their beautiful daughters into the troupe, which was at least more decent than the ***. There are precedents where a nobleman might take a fancy to a girl and she might become a phoenix and leave the untouchables.
But there was one problem that plagued Katrina every time she collected her supplies: the cold. Usually, she didn't feel anything special when she was in the caravan, but when she started to collect supplies, she went a little late and got in the back of the queue once, and returned to the caravan wearing a bundle of towels and sheets in a courtly winter dress. It was only after Singh rubbed her legs repeatedly with snow that the frozen blood vessels were opened and the swelling went down.
It was a frightening experience for Katarina. It would have been nice to have a pair of leather trousers to protect her from the cold, as the girl sometimes thought.
It was more than three months after the caravan had left King Stan's Black Iron City, and the noble sons of the adventuring group had been suffering for more than three months on the journey without a chance to get their hands on a woman. At first someone hid behind the snowy mound outside the caravan as a smitten man, and almost every time they met a dancer who was receiving a meal, they would have a set of beautiful words to say, and just when they were dizzy, they would offer some nice little gifts.
Well! The angel responsible for Katrina's rescue was young Daj, a handsome young man who on his first occasion presented Katrina with an exquisite bell, a round bell of pure gold hollowed out to contain a primary fire essence stone, the warmth of which could be felt as it hung from his waist, which was arguably the most appealing item to Katrina at the moment.
He stood beneath a red pine, almost buried as a snowman by the mist hanging from the pine needles, his head, eyebrows and beard covered in frost and snow. Katrina, freezing and shivering with her arms clutching her shoulders, jogged all the way past the pine and without paying too much attention she ran straight into Daj, and suddenly the snow flew and Katrina was about to fall backwards when Daj reached out his ape arms and wrapped them around Katrina's slender waist and brought her into his arms.