The ruins, immersed in the darkness, showed a special greenish-gray color under the light of the gemstone, which was the unique color of basalt. Among the many ethnic groups in Wohnde, only the Miirnas liked to build majestic buildings with this special igneous rock. The ruins stood quietly in the woodland, and the guard Knight passed through the forest of basalt pillars and dragged the body of a huge pine bear with a rope through its ribs to the center of the camp in the middle of the ruins.
A pile of corpses was piled up like a hill.
The team had encountered these uninvited guests half an hour ago. Pine bears belonged to a category of devilbeasts, which the Cruz people called ferocious beasts. They were creatures between monsters and animals, unlike monsters whose magic dissipated after death, leaving only crystals, so they became the best food reserve for Brando and his party.
Their luck was pretty good. After entering the Evernight Forest, there were basically no living animals, except for the occasional lost small animal. There were no large carnivorous beasts in the Anserra Forest, and this group of pine bears should have come from the north of Lantonilan. They strayed into the forest, eroded by the dark magic, and attacked Brando and his party in a frenzy.
Brando knew that pine bears were actually very gentle carnivorous beasts, and they usually only hunted large herbivores. For example, the deer herds on the north shore of Crystal Lake, or an artiodactyl herbivore the size of a hippopotamus. But they rarely attacked humans.
The peeled pine bear fur was rolled up and thrown aside, and Peya took the initiative to take on the task, which was a familiar task for the huntress. Peya used a skinning knife to make an incision from the spine and then turned it over. The hunter's skinning knife was passed down from generation to generation, and the blade was slightly curved, with a long and narrow edge, like a silver ruler. She made the incision to the tailbone, then spread it out on both sides, and in less than ten minutes she peeled off a complete piece of bear skin.
Brando looked back after a while, holding a transparent crystal like bright yellow amber in his hand, which was the magic crystal left behind by the Dusk Hound. It was larger than the black wolf and contained more magic, but Brando's face was not at all satisfied. He stared at the messy lair of a few sharp white rocks not far in front of him.
This should be the Dusk Hound's lair, but now, only ruins were left.
Someone beat him to it, but he didn't know if it was Arreck or Cruz's men. In the distance, Maynild and Freya were walking over the broken stones. The female Knight shook her head and said, "I didn't find any valuable clues. They didn't camp here. After destroying the nest, they left to the north. There are traces of battle nearby, but the scale isn't large … Perhaps there's another possibility. The Dusk Hounds weren't able to react in time before they were wiped out by the other side. "
"Dusk Hounds are very vigilant."
"… However, it seems like they came from another direction?"
Maynild thought for a moment and said, "It's very likely. There's no way I wouldn't have noticed any clues before. These people shouldn't have taken the same path as us."
"I trust your judgment. But do you think it's Arreck or Cruz's men? "
Brando's "I trust your judgment" made Maynild raise her head slightly and look at him with some surprise. "It's very likely to be Arreck. Cruz's men entered the forest from Fort Vallenden and shouldn't have deviated from this direction. But we can't rule out other possibilities. Count, will there be adventurers in this forest? "
"Occasionally, there will be some."
Maynild looked up at the direction of the forest thoughtfully. Freya whispered, "Brando, should we continue?"
"No need. Arreck is only a week ahead of us in the Anserra Forest. He won't be more familiar with the forest than we are. If they didn't take the same route as us, then we've been chasing them for almost a day. " Brando actually didn't want to meet Arreck too early, because Arreck shouldn't know that they were behind him yet, and it would be good to let the other party run into him.
Besides, Maynild's previous words reminded him that if there were no signs of a large-scale battle in the forest, he suspected that the leader of the Dusk Hounds might still be wandering in the forest.
"Let's set up camp," he said. "The vastness of the Black Forest is difficult for ordinary people to understand. Let everyone have a good rest. This time, I'm afraid it won't be a matter of a day or two. "
Freya looked at him and nodded obediently.
Dinner was a sumptuous pine bear feast, and the cooks were The Shire and Peya. According to Charles himself, he had been a gourmet when he was alive and had traveled to many regions just to learn and record the local food culture. Peya, on the other hand, had all the qualities that a child from a poor family should have. She was hardworking, tenacious, clever, and could handle her prey with ease.
Bear soup, roasted bear meat, and a warm bonfire brought a trace of warmth to the silent and cold night. Brando asked Hipamira to set up a sound and smell barrier to prevent attracting more monsters in the forest.
The Shire called it the 'Dinner in the Forest'. It was said that Mglynn, the Fairy King of the Ellentachinoth Peninsula, often entertained guests in the forest. It was the Night Fairies who would light up all kinds of magic lamps in the forest, like an open-air palace. That was how the Dinner in the Forest got its name. The young wizard's analogy was agreed by everyone. Although they couldn't drink to their hearts' content, everyone still praised the 'sumptuous' food.
The Dinner in the Forest came to an end after about eight or nine o 'clock, and the ruins quickly fell silent. The Knight from the Royal Knight Order was Erouine's most outstanding soldier, and naturally, it was impossible for them to be as undisciplined as the average noble's private army. Only the red flames, dancing shadows, and the Knight on night duty were left in the camp.
Brando especially liked the bonfire in the dark.
The bright light of the fire seemed to dispel the darkness and coldness in people's hearts. Whenever he sat by the bonfire and looked at the outline of the ground outlined by the dancing flames, he couldn't help but think of his days in the game. Compared with the general dullness of adventurers, the players always had no taboos. His senior sister would sometimes propose to hold some small activities, and these episodes were always accompanied by laughter. Whenever Brando recalled a few interesting experiences, he couldn't help but smile knowingly on his face.
Metisha put her hand on the title page of a red-covered book and quietly looked at her Lord. Sometimes she could often see a look of reminiscence on Brando's face. But she never asked much, and could only secretly think that it must be quite a warm memory.
Metisha also had some warm memories. Since her soul returned to this world, she often remembered everything in the past. But memory was a painful process for the undead. She remembered her sister, mother, father, and her soul seemed to be stripped away. The dark magic always tempted her to think about the question she had been unwilling to face.
There seemed to be a voice whispering in her ear in the darkness: Why was it you who was sacrificed? You should have had better memories. Do you remember everything that happened after the War of the Holy Saints? No, you can't remember, because you never had the memory after that.
You were born in war and died in war. You have never experienced peaceful days in your life, so how can you understand the happiness of mortals?
But the little Silver Elf Princess just buried these negative emotions in her heart, then raised her head and faced her future with a smile. She looked at Brando, her eyes shining with both yearning and admiration. It was as if she could find her own ordinariness in this Lord.
Brando seemed to have finally noticed the gaze of the little Elven Princess, and he was slightly startled. Then he saw the book in Metisha's hand, which was a folklore and geography of the Cruz and Jingwan areas. Since reintegrating into human society, Metisha had been showing interest in today's human society, but Brando knew that she was actually learning how to integrate with others.
She always prioritized thinking from the perspective of others.
"Is there anything you don't understand?" Brando asked softly. A thousand years ago and even now, the way the Silver Elves thought was very different from that of humans. Sometimes Metisha couldn't understand some human words and had to ask him for help.
"Hmm —"
Metisha suddenly felt that her Lord was a little cute, and she made a soft sound with a nasal voice. "I don't quite understand why the people in Jingwan would send lilies to their sweetheart on the day of the Midsummer Festival. What's the symbolic meaning of this? "
Brando froze for a moment, not expecting this question. Although Metisha was a princess and an important general of the Silver Elves, she still had a young girl's side. He thought for a moment and replied, "Because in the legends of the mountain people, midsummer represents blazing and unrestrained, just like the blooming of love. Since the long Dark Ages, people have thought that the Midsummer Festival is a festival that belongs to the trade winds. The sailors think that the trade winds represent the transmission of longing, and I think there may be a certain connection. "
"The Elves are different." Metisha replied softly, "The Elves think that this is a kind of mutual protection, and even if time stretches on, it can't penetrate. It's like a distant song in the dark forest, lingering in the heart. "
"That's because human life is so short, and they can't understand the meaning of the word time. For mortals, using a short period of time to burst out a blazing light, even if it's a fleeting flash, is enough to attract respect. The Elves understand the meaning of waiting because of their long lives, but mortals are also clumsily going back and forth in the cycle of history. Time is parallel in two ways, and it seems that summer insects can't talk about ice, but how can a long time understand the beauty of the short? "
"Is that so?"
Metisha closed the book and tilted her head. "My lord, can I lean on you for a moment?"
Brando hesitated for a moment. He saw that Metisha was a little quiet, and finally nodded. The Silver Elf princess's tone was like a feather, so soft that it was impossible to refuse. Moreover, she never asked for much, and left people with the best impression.
Then, he felt a soft body press against him. Metisha showed a knowing smile, as if she remembered the time when she was next to her mother.
"At that time, my mother would tell me the stories of the heroes, and my biggest wish was to be like them."
"Hmm?"
"But now I just want to be a normal person. Thank you, my lord. "
Metisha said in an inaudible voice.
… …
(PS: Today's ~ It's been two days, please bear with it.) (To be continued.) If you like this work, you are welcome to come to qidian.com to vote for me. Your support is my biggest motivation.)
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
