53. Weapons of fire (above)

The windows were opened by a small slit and the evening breeze crept along the side walls of the caravan, making the air less muddy and the smell of perfume faint, giving the corridor a fresh scent. The two chairs under the spiral staircase are empty, and there are two teacups on the small round table; I don't know who finished their tea here and forgot to take it when they left. There was also an unfinished plate of small shortbread biscuits on the table, the dance girls' usual favourite snack, that tasted like little animal biscuits without sugar when they were little and would be crispy when they were first made.

At this point Katrina suddenly and unnaturally paused, her bright white, neat teeth gently biting her lip as she gave me a shy look, her red eyes blinking at me as she said, "Shall we sit here for a while?"

"Sure!" I got out of her arms and climbed into the high swivel chair reaching up to grab a small piece of pie on the plate and tossing it into my mouth, crunching it like a mouse as she hung the court dress in her hand on the stair rail aside and sat in the other chair with her hands pursing her hip petticoats, her hands propped up on her chin watching me intently.

"I don't think I've said thank you yet!" She smiled with a soft look in her eyes and pursed her lips.

I was a little creeped out by her smile, so I asked her, "What are you laughing at?"

"You look like a mouse when you eat a biscuit, so cute!" She laughed even more.

I glared at her and said to her solemnly, "Please stop using the word cute to describe me, it makes me look childish! Also, I don't accept your verbal thanks, at least ..."

As if she had suddenly found something funny, Katrina hurriedly pursued me, "So what else do you want?"

I frowned and thought for half a day before saying, "Well, I'll tell you when I've thought about it."

I suddenly remembered that she still had a silver coin belonging to me inside her clothes, so I asked her, "You have to return that silver coin to me when you take it out later. It's one of the few family assets I have, and I'm going to buy the Neti bow."

After fumbling with herself for a while, she said to me with a smile, "I don't know where it's gone, but I'll give you back a new one later."

Time slipped through my fingers like a cool breeze in the corridor as Katrina made two cups of hot tea and we sat in silence on the swivel chairs holding the hot cups. It was so nice to sit and talk with a beautiful woman on such a quiet evening. In this valley, which is only a hundred metres wide, the moonlight pours in through the clear glass windows as the first bend of the moon creeps up the slope.

At that moment, the door to Katrina's chamber was quietly opened, and under the dull white magic lamp, the figure of Uncle Fred appeared to us both, humming an oddly flavoured ditty to himself as he buttoned his leather jacket, and tidily gathered his neatly cut hair, while a pair of smooth white arms reached out from the door, straightened his collar and urged him. "Come on, maybe Ka and Katrina will be back by now, I'll see where your old face will be if they bump into you."

"He is the smartest boy I have ever met, sometimes he speaks like an adult, he matures early, probably because he has been with the orcs for too long. My heart aches now when I think of the pitiful way he used to look ..."

"Hey, you've said these things a number of times, now Jia is the one chosen by the Seventh Mother, and you're still worried that he'll suffer in our place? Katrina has only been around him all day, I don't know how well she has served him, stop nagging and get going!" Singh's voice came through the doorway, those white, slender arms already retracted.

Uncle Fred's awkward body turned around and headed straight for the door. We both sat breathlessly at the bottom of the spiral staircase, surprisingly Uncle Fred didn't even see us, which was just as well, at least it saved us the embarrassment of running into each other. Katrina turned a little red under my gaze and I still couldn't resist asking her, "You had to hear that?"

She finally did blush and nodded a little uneasily, like a child who had done something wrong. Then looking at me, she said, "Don't you tell Sister Singh, it's a secret between the two of us, too."

I nodded vigorously, jumped off the chair, took her hand and said, "Come on, now you can go back!"

Finally, I knew exactly where Uncle Fred had gone whenever he had disappeared off before. It turned out that they had all spent the night in Singh's dorm room, and I thought about his slightly bulging beer belly and black bear-like body and worried a little about Singh's bunk bed. I thought the two of them would do this in a secluded grove or further out on the grass, but I didn't expect Singh to bring Uncle Fred back to the dormitory.

When Katrina and I returned to the bedchamber, Singh was making up the messy bed in just this sheer nightgown, while Khonjin, who lived in the top bunk, was looking at a roll of parchment by the magic lamp on the roof of the shed, and Leah looked asleep. Those young noble dudes went too far."

I walked over to the bed and sat down and said, "It's fine, I'm recovering well and the marks are gone."

Katrina knelt down and helped me take off my boots and brought a basin of hot water to wash my feet. I sat her on the bed and untied her petticoat before I saw a foot-shaped red mark on her white, flat belly, slightly swollen; I hadn't realised she'd been hurt so badly that it was bruised. Seeing my worried look, she pinched my face and said to me, "It doesn't hurt too much anymore, the swelling will go down in a few days, don't worry about it."

I lay down on the bed, somewhat powerless, and it was only at this moment that I felt the growing need to become stronger, or at least to be able to protect myself, as it would be very difficult for the weak to survive in this world. I was still thinking about what I could do when the caravan entered the wilderness of the northern foothills of the Pai plateau in a few days' time and Kurtz and I had to leave the caravan to go hunting alone. How on earth was I going to kill a wind wolf alive with a magic antelope? I had no fighting ability yet, so did I have to wait for the wolf to pounce on me, fight with my dagger or just stand there and die?

My teacher's original intention of sending me into the wilderness of the northern foothills of the Pai Plateau with Kurtz was to show me what the wild magical herbs in the book looked like in reality.

Katrina lay down beside me, unlike Singh she liked to sleep in a cool camisole, and I hunkered down in the corner of the double bed for fear of hurting her by touching her abdominal wound if I didn't sleep properly. As she lay down, I could clearly see the red marks on her flat, white stomach, but she smiled and reached out to hug me, and at that moment I saw a red cord hanging from her white neck, with a silver dime tied to the end of it, stuck to her cottony breasts.

She also had a gold coin in her hand, spread my hand out into mine and said, "How about a yellow one for you, too?"

"Do I look like a little white boy to you?"

"What?"

"I said I'm not a white boy, so please give me back a regular silver dime, or forget it." I rested my head on her icy white arm and closed my eyes.

... beautiful dividing line ...

The next morning we continued on our way, the men much more refreshed after the caravan had been resupplied with water during yesterday, and I leaned over the safety rail of the outer door of the caravan and peered into the distance at the line of thunder rhinos, Uncle Fred sitting glowingly on the back of a thunder rhinoceros, surprisingly well-mannered to steer a dozen-metre long thunder rhinoceros, following the rear of the caravan. When Kurtz saw me, he stood up and kept waving at me.

I put my hand out breathlessly, and before I could make the wave, Kurtz suddenly disappeared in a flash. With the fragrant breeze passing around me and Katrina bracing her hands on the crossbar of the doorway parapet, letting the southerly breeze outside blow her red hair long, I asked, a little incomprehensibly, "Why is Kuz always so unnatural when you show up, look at him running faster than a rabbit."

"Haha!" Katrina laughed pleasantly, as if I had told a very funny joke.

I kicked him gently with my foot before she stopped laughing and followed my example, dishevelled and pressed her body against the crossbar. To me, she said, "I think he must have been torn up inside when he saw me."

"Tangled up about what?" I asked curiously.

"He'd be thinking: this rabbit walking out, to catch or not to catch? Ha ha!"

The joke's a bit cold! This red-eyed beauty was in a good mood today.

But then I heard from Kurtz that it wasn't actually a joke, but really the reason for Kurtz's internal struggle. The redhead, who is one-eighth orc rabbit blood from the eastern continent, is very attracted to Kurtz and every time he sees Katrina, Kurtz is tempted to bite her throat and taste the taste of the blood in her body. There seems to be a so-called natural enemy between orcs of different races.

Kig appeared from behind us both at this point, and she looked at the fading waterfall before saying to me, "I heard you were going out hunting, and I decided to join your squad."

"You mean you're going hunting with us?" I was a little dazed for a moment.

Kiger had walked to the door by this time and sidled up to the body and said, "Me and Katrina both."

I was instantly petrified.

Kig had taken the time out of dance practice to walk over and tell me on purpose, and it was non-negotiable.

After Kiger left, I grumbled to Katrina, "I mean, even if you two want to go on a tour, you have to find a better tour group!"

The magic caravan continued to roll slowly forward, me looking at the hidden blue sky in boredom, Katrina looking at me in boredom.

------------