Chapter 45 – Creatures outside the cave  

Mai had also noticed that, and he was wondering about it as well.

He was certain that neither of the two Thorn Black Winds were the one whose tail he slashed last time. No totemic warrior would mess with a Thorn Black Wind on purpose, but for all those years in his hunting career, he had fought with Thorn Black Winds before, and he had an understanding of its recovering abilities. Having made that wound himself, he knew it would take more than fifty or sixty days for a Thorn Black Wind to completely recover.

Also, after such a long confrontation, Mai felt increasingly doubtful about these two Thorn Black Winds’ motivation. It felt like they were not prepared to battle against the warriors to the death. Some people were hurt, while there were many new wounds on those animals’ bodies. Luckily, these two were not as crazy as the last one they encountered. However, where was the last Thorn Black Wind, the one that got lacerated on the tail? Did it get driven away by these two beasts now?

“It seems like they only want to stop us from going up.” Said Qiao.

“They can actually howl…” Another mid-level totemic warrior said curiously. He was the same age as Mai, and quite as experienced as Mai. In the past, he had encountered Thorn Black Winds a few times, and heard stories about Thorn Black Winds from the elders, so as for the habits of this ferocious beast, he knew better than Mai and the others.

“The Thorn Black Wind not only very territorial, being the killer lurking in the dark, it rarely howled. The typical sound it makes is the sound of shaking its thorns, instead of howling.” The warrior added in a hurry.

A little while before, Lang Ga and the others just heard the howling of Thorn Black Winds, and they decided to come down and help.

Connecting so many odd dots, people couldn’t help but wonder, what on earth were these two Thorn Black Winds planning to do?

In the twilight, the quick-moving figures were blurry, and the sound of shaking thorns could be identified from the forest constantly.

When a Thorn Black Wind became exited, the thorns on its body would begin to shake, and create a dense shaking sound. It was not loud, but because of the density, it was not hard to be heard.

At night, the sound was like Yama’s call, which scared all the other animals away.

Hearing that sound, people’s hearts grew heavy, and their backs were soaked in cold sweat.

“No more stalling, we have to drive these two beasts away!” Mai said firmly. Now it was not completely dark, and the surroundings could still be seen. When it grew completely dark, the situation would become much more worse for them.

If they ran up to the mountainside directly without driving those Thorn Black Winds away, these two beasts would be coming along after them. However, Mai and the other warriors could never let them get to the cave where there were two kids inside, resting. Although Thorn Black Winds were no fans of the environment up in the mountain, it didn’t mean that they wouldn’t come up.

“Go on!”

They did not have any interest in the giant-antlered deer that they killed, and after a short break, Mai commanded to fight with these two beasts with joint efforts of every warrior.

…

Shao Xuan had that dream again.

It’s been a long time, however, he fell into that kind of dream again.

Now, there were no night swallows or snowflakes in his dream. It was completely dark, but obviously he felt a pungent feeling of icy coldness, as if something was lurking in the darkness. In the meantime, there were some dense clacking sounds, as if something was shaking.

Shao Xuan suddenly sat up and opened his eyes. He touched his forehead with his hand, only to find a handful of cold sweat.

Feeling that there was still lingering feeling of icy coldness on his back, Shao Xuan shook a few times and got closer to the fire.

Judging from the situation of the bonfire and the firewood inside, it must have been quite a while since Lang Ga and the others left. So it should be nearly dusk outside.

Why hadn’t they returned?

What had they encountered?

Was anybody hurt?

Shao Xuan took a deep breath as he recalled his dream, and he tried hard to ease his nerves. The icy feeling was much stronger than when he dreamt about the night swallows last year. His heart was still pounding like hell after he woke up. He was not sure if that was because of the fear or any other reasons.

Looking aside, Shao Xuan found Mao leaning against the cave wall, sleeping soundly. In fact, Shao Xuan had made quite some noise when he woke up. Normally totemic warriors during hunting missions were quite alert, and they would be wide awake at the slightest sound. Mao apparently was very soundly asleep, for he did not wake up at all. It should be because of the meat they ate. It was for the best, since he was not walking around like an ant on a hot pan.

After feeling a little more warmer and relaxing his nerves, Shao Xuan walked towards the entrance of the cave after adding more firewood to the bonfire.

With previous experiences, he knew that the dream did not came for no reason, he just didn’t know what exactly was on the outside.

The giant stone blocked the entrance of the cave completely, and Shao Xuan would not be able to move it with his own strength. Also, Shao Xuan had no intention of doing so, for there were apparently numerous dangers outside. It was safer to have a giant stone blocking them.

The entrance of the cave was about fifty meters away from where Shao Xuan was sleeping at. As he approached the entrance step by step, Shao Xuan’s heart began to pound madly again.

The nearer he got to the entrance, the more intense the danger he felt. All of Shao Xuan’s hair stood up straight, and he felt like he was in a giant iceberg.

Shao Xuan slowed down his paces, and even his breath grew lighter, for he tried every possible way to hide himself from being sensed.

When he was about ten meters away from the entrance of the cave, Shao Xuan heard small dense clacking sounds. It seemed like an illusion, but also if it was just passing by his ear.

With the newly-added firewood, the fire grew bigger. As the flame danced, Shao Xuan’s shadow danced accordingly, and sometimes there were crackles of burning firewood.

However, Shao Xuan felt no warmth. Instead, he felt constant coldness.

With his mouth wide open, Shao Xuan took a deep silent breath to calm himself down. With taut nerves, Shao Xuan began to go back, quickly, yet with no sound.

When he arrived at Mao’s side, he pushed Mao hard.

Although Mao was soundly asleep, he was still vigilant with his subconscious. With only one push, Mao promptly opened his eyes and posed a posture for self-defense. However, when he came back to his senses and realized it was only Shao Xuan, he did not look good immediately. Before he tried to say anything, Shao Xuan quickly covered up his mouth, and glanced at the entrance of the cave at the same time.

Mao was not the kind of person who did not understand the situation, or else he wouldn’t be allowed to join the hunting mission. Seeing Shao Xuan’s behaviors, he knew there must be something abnormal by the entrance.

Opening his mouth, Mao asked silently, “What happened?”

Shao Xuan had no time to explain. He looked up at the top, for he remembered there were hidden vents up at the cave. He jumped high, and with the help of the wall, Shao Xuan went up to the top and began to search.

The wall was not smooth, and those dents and bumps helped him climb.

There were three vents in all, among which two of them were too small. The only big one was blocked by a stone.

Shao Xuan tried hard to move that stone, and indicated Mao to take it over in silence.

Mao was somehow anxious, for he did not know what was outside the cave, Mai and the others hadn’t returned, yet Shao Xuan did not explain at all what was happening. Normally, he would have shouted out already, however, now…

After picking up that stone, Mao laid that down on the ground carefully to avoid making any sound. Almost at the same time he dropped that stone, he heard an abnormal sound created by the giant stone blocking the entrance. It sounded like something sharp was scratching on the stone.

Mao’s face froze. That scratching was clearly not made by a human…

The giant stone was moving.

Night wind blew in from that newly-made gap.

The flames of the bonfire danced bolder, and Mao saw his own long shadow dancing distortedly on the wall.

For all his life, Mao had never encountered such circumstances. No matter how many hunting stories he had heard before, or how many hunting stories he had told the others, he only knew what danger tasted like when he truly faced with one.

Aside from these two newly-awakened kids, there was nobody else around. No one could help them, while the approaching beast could probably easily tear them apart.

When his grandfather, the Chief, told him hunting stories, he asked Mao once, “Mao, have you ever tasted the feeling of despair?”

Mao had no memories of what he answered back then. All he remembered was that he did not take it seriously, for he did not quite understand it.

But now, he had a taste of that feeling already.