I thought that when I entered the wilderness, it would be like entering my own backyard, with all kinds of magical herbs everywhere, just waiting for us gatherers to enter the wilderness, dig them out of the fertile soil with our shovels, dry them according to their medicinal properties, or soak them in medicinal water, or collect them in small bottles, and all I needed to do was to carefully distinguish what this magical herb was and what that magical herb was. But when I was actually in the middle of the wilderness, I realised that there was only a vast expanse of wild grass in front of me, and I couldn't even see any of the magical grasses I had imagined.
All afternoon, Kig and I spent our time searching the wasteland for magical grasses, not even a single blood stopper. Kurtz told us that we would have to walk deeper into the moor for at least three or five days to see the most rudimentary magical herbs, and that there were very few edible wild plants around the town. They've been dug up. When I was very young, there were two years when there was very little rain and the tribe was starving, and my grandmother took the women of the tribe and us children out into the pasture to dig up the roots of the wild vegetables to eat, and they were good for feeding the hungry, as soon as the snow and ice melted, and they didn't even need to sprout."
"Kiger, don't bother looking, how can there be magical herbs left here when the orcs are digging up the roots to feed the hungry? It's all because of the war and the famine. Hey! We'll have to go deeper." A little dejectedly, I climbed up onto the beast, and with a gentle leap upwards on Katrina's hand, I jumped onto its spine.
The sun was already slanting to the west and we were heading south-west, there was no such thing as a road in the wilderness, we could walk on the flat grassy ground as we pleased, but the only trouble was that even if we strayed from our original route we wouldn't know it, only on a clear night could Kurtz use the star chart to determine our approximate position. I stood on the spine of the beast and stretched, stretching my muscles, when I was shaken by something blinding, which made my heart sink.
At the same time, Kurtz stood up from the neck of the beast and looked back thoughtfully at the road he was on, a vast expanse of barren grass and mounds, with no one in sight. But his expression was still serious and he told me straight away, "Ja, they're coming after us!"
I just didn't expect them to react so quickly, catching up with us after only half a day. I thought that this was in a vast wilderness, even if the route we took was only one degree off, and we would be out of sight of each other after a few dozen miles, but the killing machine hidden in the wild grass behind us was pointed at us from afar. Kurtz has a hunter's sense of smell and danger, and no lurking beast in the wilderness can hide its own murderous aura, which is what Kurtz can sense.
I, on the other hand, because my magical senses have been gradually enhanced, I have enhanced my five senses a lot as well, making my eyesight and hearing and everything, and I was just sure that it was a silver button reflecting the sunlight that alerted me. I don't think any orc hunters or beasts on the moors would have silver buttons, I'm afraid!
"He's hiding very well, probably doesn't want us to find him, which means he could be alone!" I said speculatively.
Kurtz herded the subjugated beast up a gentle slope and stood on the highest point looking down in all directions, still without any luck. The man lurking in the shadows seemed alert, just hanging far behind us, refusing to take more than a step closer; we could only sense his presence, but not his location. Kurtz fondled the alloy bow on his back with some annoyance and said to me impatiently, "He's following us, he must be waiting for those companions of his, why don't I go out and shoot him with an arrow!"
I hastily pulled him back and said, "Aziz, don't be impulsive, I may have a way to deal with him now."
... beautiful dividing line ...
Finally it was before nightfall that our group claimed a large rocky outcrop that would shelter us from the wind.
Here we unhurriedly made our supper, each of us eating as much as possible, for there might be a long time to come when there was no way to eat. For we decided to set off again just after nightfall. To shake off the tail that was following us. We pretended to be unaware of it, and we continued to walk along the way, looking for the primary magical herbs in the wilderness. Only the two people who often jumped off the subjugator were no longer me, but Katrina, while I hid on the subjugator and made traps.
As a hunter, Kurtz had traps on his person, but because Kurtz had a limited bag and could not carry heavy luggage, he did not bring traps for large beasts on this trip, but some small traps for hunting small beasts and birds of prey, such traps were very simple, which he had exchanged for guinea pig meat with the merchant's blacksmith uncle during the caravan. I had said that I would make him a fried sparrow, but I hadn't been able to get enough for a plate of sparrows, so Kurtz asked the merchant blacksmith to make dozens of palm-sized traps, which were a bit hard to use even when hunting hares, and if you were lucky you might catch a foreleg, but if you were unlucky the hare would escape because they were too small.
What exactly is the use of such a trap? There was nothing wrong with making traps, for we had prepared enough spell scrolls for the trip, and these were not just fire gathering spells, but I had also gone to the trouble of drawing thirteen frost spells. I tied the frost scrolls carefully to the trap and placed them carefully on the leeward side of the rock where they would be most easily stepped on, sprinkling the trap with earth.
The trap was so poorly made that in daylight it would have been obvious at first glance, as the rolled-up scrolls were covered by the floating earth and looked like small mounds, with very obvious signs of artificiality. But at night, even on a full moon night, it would be difficult to spot it because it was so small. Kig and I tested the power of the frost scroll. If an ordinary person unrolled the scroll, the cold aura emanating from it would freeze the person, but only for an instant, after which it would slowly recover. They were each wearing at least light armour made of magical antelope skin, and even the most rudimentary of such leather armour is resistant to cold and fire, so they should be less likely to be hurt by traps, but their gubbins might not necessarily have such leather boots on their horses' legs.
But if all night this lurking follower dared not approach our camp and react accordingly, then I hoped that the whole night's journey would throw him off.
At nightfall, we carefully extinguished the campfire and once again began this part of our journey on the moor, beginning our continued escape.
With the cold wind blowing under the navy blue starry sky, I made both Katrina and Kiger put on blankets, unlike Kurtz and I, they had leather jackets made by old Kulu himself, which looked old-fashioned but I found very practical when I actually entered the wilderness. Once again the look in old Kulu's eyes came to my mind, he must have had something to say to us that he had not said.
Three hours later, we were at least thirty kilometres out in our subjugated beast when a magnificent firework burst into the air in the direction of our night camp. Our hearts sank again! It was unthinkable that these noble gentry would have magical fireworks in their hands, such a divine weapon that could signal for companions in the night was too deadly for us.
We could only make all possible haste towards our intended location!
... beautiful dividing line ...
In this vast wilderness, even an old hunter who has lived for decades cannot remember every place clearly, as long as one remembers certain specific places in the wilderness, then one is considered to have the whole wilderness. The little trap the day before had bought us at least three days of travel time, but we could sense that danger was once again approaching us.
Along the way, we could already see traces of haematopoeia everywhere in the soft green hues of the grass, but these did not look old enough to be eaten by anyone, and their bitter, pungent taste was so bad that even the yellow sheep did not like it. Several times along the way we saw the usual bison herds in quick succession, and just last night I finally got to see what a wild wolf pack is in the wilderness.
It was a very dangerous scene when a large herd of one-horned bison ran wildly across the wilderness less than 10 metres away from our beasts of prey. Even if I were covered in full-body steel armour, I would have been trampled to pieces by this mad herd in seconds. I even saw a pair of dark, dark green eyes looking at us at that moment. Kurtz was standing on top of the beast's head, holding an alloy bow like a curved moon, watching the wolves intently. It was the hundreds of wolves that followed, but a few dozen grey wolves came out and surrounded us, their eyes turning like turquoise glowing fire in the darkness, making me tremble with nervousness, wanting to clutch the silver plated shotgun in my hand with all my strength.
I stood on the back of the beast, my calves pressed against the leather saddle to keep my balance, and I could feel the beast trembling beneath me, the fear he felt in his heart at the sight of such a large pack of wolves had prevented him from taking another step forward. The wolves are often a meal in their bellies.
In the hazy night, dozens of wolves that had broken away from the pack rushed towards us with desperation, and all I could see was that they were like illusory shadows in the darkness, rushing towards us with great speed. The leader of the magical beast level wind wolf that was leading the wolves to chase the bison also noticed the abnormal situation of the wolves in the back of the pack, only to let out a long wolf howl, but it had no effect on the dozens of wild wolves that had broken away from the team.
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