Elvys hastily pulled down a moon wolf cub trying to climb a tree and drove two wolf cubs who wanted to jump into the lake back to the shore. He muttered: "I wish I could also do serious things, rather than taking care of you terrible cubs who can run and jump and completely don't understand human language."
Ina, who had walked a long way, caught this sentence with her keen hearing. Her voice came to Elvys with the wind: "This is your serious business, my Duke."
Elvys automatically interpreted the last sentence as coquetry. He was content to look after the children. He processed the only small fish he caught, cut it into thin strips, and gave it to Coal, who was always lying on his shoulder, and then took advantage of Coal's unpreparedness to push Coal's heavy butt lightly - Coal immediately fell into the grass. The wolf cubs, who were about to get out of control from playing around, immediately ran over and snuggled up to the bewildered Coal.
"In exchange for my fishing, you have to help me." Elvys's long and white fingers sifted through a wolf cub's messy hair, speaking as a matter of course.
Ina, who dragged an entire tree with one hand, came back. The little wolf cubs saw Savi and obediently squatted in a line at his feet.
"What happened to Coal?" Ina discarded the trunk of the wild cherry tree, looking at the messy Coal, she asked doubtfully.
Elvys's expression showed no abnormalities, and he calmly replied, "What happened? Nothing happened?"
Then why does Coal have a dull look like a fake cat without a soul? Seeing Ina appear, Coal immediately forgave her wrongdoing of washing her claws, and burrowed hard into Ina's arms, burying her head hard.
To be honest, Savi was indeed a little surprised when he saw Ina dragging the whole tree by herself, but thinking of her daring to open a restaurant alone in the deep forest, she must be very capable.
But he was silent for a moment when he saw Ina chopping firewood like cutting melons and vegetables.
"We shouldn't need so much, should we?" Elvys looked at the large stack of firewood stacked next to him, slightly puzzled.
"We might use it next time we come to the lake for a picnic. The scenery here is very good. When I told Dusì about it, she suggested that we could all come here for a picnic and send off Vilanthe on the way, she's going to Flemington, you didn't know that, did you?" Ina said as she turned the grill. "Will you have time? Probably in the next few days."
Not only did Elvys not know that Vilanthe was leaving, but he also didn't know that they had secretly organized a picnic. Hearing Ina ask him if he had time, Elvys' mind flashed the haggard figure of Asland helping with the paperwork, but he said: "I'll have time."
Savi originally planned to leave after pointing out the cherry tree to Ina, but Ina's chopping action was too smooth, full of the wild beauty of power. Unconsciously, he watched Ina chop a whole tree and heard Ina complain: "We can light the fire, but we don't seem to control the heat of the firewood."
Elvys quietly said behind Ina: "Actually, I'm really good at grilling."
Ina also lowered her voice: "No, you're not."
As expected, Savi took the bait. He looked at the wolf cubs who clearly didn't want to leave. Although they didn't grow many teeth, they were very interested in the duck on the grill, calling "Wow wow" while jumping up to reach it.
If he helps control the heat, maybe Ina will give these wolf cubs a few pieces of meat.
"I can help."
The aroma of roast duck spread along the lakeside. The dry cherry wood crackled as it burned, and the leaping flames licked at the roasting rack with the duck on it.
The duck had been marinated before, and its skin was brushed with Ina's carefully prepared sauce. Now it was brushed with a thin layer of sugar syrup, which not only enhanced the flavor but also gave the duck skin a shiny dark red color when roasted, which was tempting just by looking at it.
When she felt that it was almost roasted, Ina took a chopstick and poked it. The chopstick went straight through the crispy skin of the roast duck and into the tender meat. After confirming that the roast duck was thoroughly cooked, Ina set out three sets of utensils and started to cut the duck meat.
The knife was very sharp, and as soon as it touched the roast duck, the crispy skin cracked open with a barely audible "crack" sound, revealing the juicy and succulent duck meat inside.
Ina sliced some meat, then stopped. She turned the belly of the duck upwards, and with a light cut of the knife, that there was another world inside the duck's belly!
The duck's stomach was filled with a glutinous rice meal rich in ingredients. The glutinous rice had mushrooms, diced sausage, corn kernels, and a little bit of peas. The glutinous rice soaked up the juice of the roast duck, and after being roasted, it now presented a translucent light brown color. Savi had never seen this way of eating, his eyes were wide open, and the tempting smell told him: this method might actually be delicious.
On the side of the plate, there were stacks of red and shiny duck meat, and on the other side was the colorful glutinous rice. Savi held the plate, and the words of refusal couldn't come out. Originally, he just wanted to get something to eat for the wolf cubs, but he didn't expect to scrounge a meal himself.
He'll bring some fruit to the wooden house where the restaurant is tonight! Thinking like this, Savi extended his fork toward the roast duck.
When eating roast duck, you must eat the skin. The crispy skin and the tender inside are the perfect combination. The duck meat roasted with cherry wood has a faint fruity aroma, which is a wonderful taste Savi has never experienced before.
He couldn't comment, it was just too delicious! After eating the duck meat, he tasted the glutinous rice on the side. The glutinous rice was baked through the duck meat, naturally soaked with the aroma of meat juice and sauce. Savi chewed slowly, feeling the rich ingredients inside, the crispness of mushroom dice, the salty flavor of sausage, the sweetness of corn, and the stickiness of glutinous rice.
On the other side, the wolf cubs were given a duck rack with meat still attached, and they gnawed attentively, wagging their tails fast.
Coal also got a piece of meat. It shook off its depressed appearance just now and started tearing and biting the duck meat with high spirits.
Before leaving with the little wolf cubs, Savi thought that opening a restaurant in the Silver Leaf Forest might not be a wise decision for Ina, but for the elves, it was definitely a good thing. Their monotonous diet was finally about to welcome some wonderful innovations. He really hoped that Ina could persist for a longer time, and not close too quickly because of losses.
———
The forest is not quiet, there are pleasant bird songs, the subtle sounds of insects gnawing on leaves, and the sound of the wind passing through the collision of leaves among the trees. However, deep within the Silver Leaf Forest, there is an absolutely quiet place.
The trees here are silent. There is no wind, no birds, and no people. The massive tree trunks, almost cloud-like, silently stand upright, densely that almost no sunlight penetrates.
But there is a child here, a girl, who walks to a sunlit meadow, looking up at the corner of the sky that has emerged. Beside her is a withered old tree. Its branches are still stretching out, but its leaves have fallen off, so a ray of sunlight is cast down, and from a distance, it looks like a green curtain has been burned out with a golden round hole.
The girl didn't stay here for long. She tiptoed over the soft green grassland, trying to walk out of this silent forest. But it was too quiet here, even the faint footsteps were clear. When she walked to the edge, a vine stopped the little girl's waist, preventing her from taking another step.
Suddenly, a nearby tree split from the middle, and a tall figure walked out from inside the tree trunk. His face against the light seemed to be veiled, but still couldn't hide his beauty. His hair was a color of pale and cold green, or rather, instead of green, it was more like a snow color mixed with green. His skin was fair, and his eyes were blue like the clear sky after a storm.
But when the little girl saw him, her eyes immediately showed a look of disappointment.
"Atelika, you cannot leave the Secret Forest."
The little girl named Atelika was held by the vines. She simply sat on the ground: "You can't do this, Alfred, it's too cruel to treat a little girl who has never seen the outside world like this!"
A touch of confusion appeared on Alfred's expressionless face. Even when the Secret Forest did not restrict outings, he was not keen on going to the outside world. It was too noisy there. Emotions would roll him up like a tide and toss him into the air. Even if they were happy, positive emotions, they still made him fearful.
But at that time, there was a little girl who liked this feeling. She liked dealing with people outside, letting the tidal waves of emotions wash over her empty soul. And then—
Thinking about this, Alfred slightly narrowed his eyes. Afterward, there was one more dead tree here. "You're not a girl, Atelika," he frowned, seemingly unable to understand why this youngest elf tree master had such an unrealistic self-perception, "You are a tree, and trees should stay in the forest."
"It's too quiet here," Atelika dropped her head, "I just want to talk to someone."
"We all can talk to you."
"Is that so?" Atelika didn't open her mouth, but the message she wanted to express appeared directly in Alfred's mind.
The elf tree masters can sense the emotions of other creatures, but among the tree masters, this range of perception is even more extensive. They were born from the same land, their roots intertwined under the soil, born for a common purpose. They are individual trees, yet also a forest. They share the same spiritual network, and they can understand each other without even communicating. Every individual is transparent.
"Yes," Alfred replied to her in the spiritual network.
"Tch." Atelika hummed boredly. She hadn't been expelled from the spiritual network, so of course she knew they could communicate this way. But the other tree masters were even more silent than Alfred. Many times, they didn't think or say anything, just like a real tree.
"Let me go, I won't go out anymore." Atelika tugged at the vine entwined around her.
Alfred glanced at her, retracted the vine without a word, and then turned back into the tree trunk.
Atelika hummed a discordant song. The Secret Forest had no bird songs, this melody was actually something she found in an ancient memory of a tree master. Some humans had walked into the Secret Forest. Because it was too quiet here, so eerily quiet that it scared them, they sang some off-tune songs at the top of their lungs. They looked really different. When Atelika thought about this, her eyes sparkled.
But later everyone refused to recall that memory, so Atelika could no longer see it. She still sat on the grass, blew a breath at the grass beside her, and the grass bloomed with soft white flowers in an instant. Atelika looked at this miraculous scene with indifferent eyes, her expression suddenly overlapping with that on Alfred's face.
She would eventually become a silent tree too.