After making sure YunYun was alright, Nick turned back to King Kong, came closer and slightly bowed.
"I'm sorry for injuring you, I lost myself just a moment ago because I didn't realize you were just playing. Maybe you can understand it from my perspective as well." Nick apologized, "Let me make it up to you, I'll gather a stack of fruits for you tomorrow and show you a really tasty recipe. And let me take a look at your finger, it's bleeding quite badly."
"Rawr!" King Kong roared angrily at Nick and slammed both his fists to the ground.
"I said I'm sorry, I simply couldn't control myself! There is no reason to hold a grudge." Nick stood in front of the huge ape and spread his hands while explaining, "I'll fix your wound and in few days you won't even remember it was there! You definitely have heard that humans have the special knowledge on how to use herbs. It's called alchemy. Look here, this is the best quality healing paste. If I apply it to your wound, it will get better really soon."
Nick took out a small pot with a light green paste in it.
Even though King Kong was angry, he understood what happened. He would have been angry as well if someone hurt his mate. It even would've been much more funny if he flickered the male in the water, but unfortunately he only thought of this hilarious idea when bumping fists with the female.
Thus the ape looked at the paste in Nick's hand with furrowed brows. Of course, he had heard about the special healing techniques of the humans, but he didn't need those. As a rank six beast, his regenerative abilities exceeded any medicine in the world and if he needed an additional boost, he could just eat some of the healing herbs growing around this meadow.
But for some reason his wound still hurt a lot and continuously bled as well. It was too strange – how did this small and weak human injure him? And what was the deal with the instinctive fear he felt from him for the short moment?
Snow also looked at these events with a complicated gaze. He understood how strong this big lump was and even for him it was difficult to simply scratch a bleeding wound in the ape's thick skin just like that. When he saw the King Kong's questioning gaze, Snow lightly nodded. He thought that this was a great opportunity to see how the human 'medicine' works. The female was fine and they wouldn't fight anyway.
"Alright, stop being such a baby! Let me see it." Nick didn't bother with the King Kong's angry appearance, came closer and tried to inspect the wound, but the ape put the finger in his mouth and sucked on it to stop the bleeding.
"Don't do it. Come here, let me wash the wound with clean water. My weapon is special and the bleeding won't stop just like that."
King Kong was still upset, but intrigued as well. Nick grabbed his other hand and pulled him towards the lake. It did look a bit funny, but no one laughed since the atmosphere was still tense.
After getting closer to the water, Nick grabbed the hand with the injured finger, lowered it close to the water and carefully washed the wound. Then he took out the paste once again and smeared it on the wound and around it.
At this moment Snow came over as well and full of curiosity sniffed the medicine. Similar to King Kong he recognized many herbs in it, but couldn't understand why it was made like that. Wasn't it easier to simply eat the herbs and they will heal from the inside?
"You see, when you mix several herbs together, they have synergistic effect and increase the recovery speed. And even if you ate them all together, it wouldn't work that way, because this paste is created in a special fashion while infusing Qi in the process." Nick explained.
Snow caught the King Kong's surprised look and nodded. Indeed, this human could read their minds and finally the big lump noticed it as well. King Kong furrowed his brows again and wanted to lick the would as he would usually do, but Nick stopped him.
"Wait, don't do that. Let me bandage it." He took out a large piece of cloth, tore it in long strips and then, under the curious eyes of the beasts, carefully bandaged the wound. "Let it on at least until tomorrow morning. I believe with your innate abilities you should be fine in two days."
King Kong stared at his weird looking finger, then sniffed it and waved around. This bandage felt strange, but he didn't plan to go anywhere tonight so decided to let it be. It was an interesting experience after all.
Meanwhile YunYun changed over to dry clothes and came over. Her cheeks were a bit bruised and she took the paste from Nick and smeared it on her face as well.
"I only have light bruises, therefore I need only just a little bit of it." She said, but then had an idea, "Do you guys want to see how such paste is made? Nick is a very good alchemist."
Both beasts looked at each other with excitement in their eyes, but quickly hid it and King Kong solemnly nodded with another 'u u'.
"Are you sure? It will take a while, but it's already getting late and we should get going." Nick politely asked.
Snow just impatiently growled and pointed his nose at the side of the meadow.
"Oh, you allow us to stay there? Alright, thank you. Then we have time." Nick smiled.
For the next half an hour they leisurely walked around the meadow while he explained what herb had which properties and in which combination with other herbs it had the best effect. At the end he gathered a larger bunch and took out his alchemy equipment.
With round eyes both beasts watched how Nick ground the herbs and then heated the substance while stirring it while infusing Qi. After another hour it was ready and everyone could smell the pleasant medicinal aroma filling the valley.
"Now it has to cool down and it can be used right after. This isn't as high quality as the one you have on your finger, King Kong, but it's still quite good." Nick smiled.
King Kong looked at his finger, still deep in thought, then in a lightning speed grabbed Nick with his left hand and directly tossed him in the middle of the lake. This time there were no injuries and as soon as Nick popped his head out of the water, he laughed along with the other three.
After chatting for an hour longer, Nick and YunYun politely said good night and went to the spot they were allowed to stay at. Tonight there was no reason for one of them to stay up and keep watch since there was no living thing that would try to attack them with the both rulers present. They were quite exhausted as well and, even if this day was fun and interesting, it tired them out even more. Thus they both soon fell asleep under the complex gazes of Snow and King King.
The two beasts watched the human couple for a while and from time to time growled at each other as if conversing about something and, when the moon rose, they went to sleep as well. The moonlight illuminated the picturesque valley with the two breathing mounds sleeping near the lake and two small humans further to the side.
With the first rays of sun the whole valley was woken up by King Kong's excited 'u u u' shouts. He had torn off the bandage and was looking at his finger in delight. He bent and straightened it over and over again, from time to time licking it.
Snow glanced at him in annoyance, but then almost jumped up in surprise.
"I told you it will heal really quickly!" The two beasts heard Nick's shout over the meadow. But humans were even more shocked than their neighbors when they saw the Snow approaching King King and inspecting his finger so close he could even lick it. The both beasts growled to each other few times about something, then both nodded and darted towards the barely awakened human pair.
"U u u!" King Kong was excited and pointed towards the still dark woods and Snow also was urging them to run somewhere.
"What's going on?" YunYun was confused at the strange behavior of the two.
"They want to show us something! And from the looks of it, it might be urgent. Let's go!" Nick answered and quickly packed the few things they had.
'He really can read our minds!' This time both beasts were absolutely certain about it. They could understand each other because they have known each other for decades, but these two younglings had definitely some special skill.
For the next two hours they darted through the woods. Beasts had to slow down from time to time until they learned the proper pace of the two humans, while Nick and YunYun ran as fast as they could. Still, it was an amazing sight to behold how the two grand and majestic beasts ran at high speed almost silently without knocking over any trees and even not breaking any branches they stepped on. It was like seeing two huge ghosts flying through the forest.
When Nick noticed their style of movement, he whispered "Training!" and YunYun instantly understood his meaning. This was a unique opportunity to observe the rank six beasts and learn from them.
They were running towards north west, but already after the first hour Nick was certain he wouldn't be able to find his way back to the valley. Even though he was saddened about it, the experience was thrilling. When they escaped together with Angel, the eagle was mostly carrying him and the contact with Scarlet was only brief, therefore Nick decided to fully enjoy this marathon.
The last part of the journey was mostly uphill and when they almost reached the top of a mountain, both beasts suddenly stopped and carefully started to check their surroundings. Nick and YunYun watched as they 'secured the perimeter' and, after a quiet 'u!', Snow nodded to King Kong in confirmation and invited Nick to follow him. Couple hundred meters ahead there were few rocks and bushes and, when Nick came closer, he saw an opening of a small cave. Well, small it was considering the sizes of the two kings and Snow carefully crawled in, but barely managed to fit through.
"Wait here." Nick whispered and followed the tiger. YunYun, of course, also wanted to take a look, but understood that if the two got in trouble inside, it might be possible to be of more a help from out here.
The tunnel was longer than Nick expected and he was really surprised Snow braved through here. What if he got stuck in the middle? After crawling for three to four meters, Nick entered a larger area. It was still not that big and he barely could straighten up while Snow was still in uncomfortable crawling position. The whole room was barely big enough for the tiger to turn around so he could crawl back out.
While trying to understand the reasons for Snow to bring him here, Nick felt a disgusting stench of a rotten flesh in the air and heard a soft whimper behind the tiger. After squeezing over, he saw another animal lying on the ground and it felt as if it was barely breathing.
"Snow, try to get to the side, I'll light up a torch so I can see." Nick whispered.
In the weak torchlight a terrible sight opened in front of him. A large deer, no, doe lie on the ground with multiple bolts or arrows stuck in its belly and side. Around the wounds flesh already was starting to rot and terribly stunk.
"It's poison!" He exclaimed and Snow nodded with a sad growl.
"I can't treat her here. But you can't help either. Let's get out for a moment, I have to think of something." Nick whispered and squatted down to take a better look while Snow did his best to not touch the doe on his way out.
"Sigh, I'll do my best to help you, hang in there, do you hear me?" Nick caressed doe's cheek gently. She looked back with a sad eye, but was too weak to move.