Chapter 6
Sai laid down nearby and rubbed his face, not caring about his swollen face or the bleeding nostrils. He glared at Shao Xuan picking things out, but looking from that angle, he could not see clearly what Shao Xuan had eventually collected. He was certain that he must have picked out some fine stones that could be traded for at least a few days’ food.
Shao Xuan could perceive the gaze from Sai and Zhan, however, he was already accustomed to that. After picking up several items, he noticed that it was already quite late and was time for him to go back. There were still plenty of nice stones left from his perspective, but he knew that he had gained enough for a day. Collecting too much might not be a good thing for him, especially when he was still young and vulnerable. He might lose them all if he had too much.
His current strength wasn’t enough. He needed to have the patience to wait for that so called totemic power to be awakened…
After calling Caesar back to make sure Ye was safe after being dragged away by Caesar, Shao Xuan left with his stones packed in animal skin.
By the time Ye staggered back, he saw Sai lying on the ground with blood on his face and gritted teeth. Zhan was next to him, still trembling with fear.
Sai recovered a little and got his breath back. Immediately he commanded Ye and Zhan to see if they could find any fine stones that could be traded. He murmured something quite offensive and swore to get his revenge by beating up Shao Xuan and rob away all his possessions the next time they encountered each other.
What they didn’t know, was that not far away, some warriors witnessed the whole incident. But they had also left one after another after Shao Xuan had gone.
"Who was that lad?" a young warrior asked his companion curiously.
"You mean the one with that wolf? I believe he is called Xuan and lives in the cave near the mountain foot district. As for the wolf, you’d better keep your hands off of it, for that belongs to a Shaman!" The older warrior warned. He did not know if there was some hidden meaning in the Shaman’s act, nor did he care. He just needed to know that the wolf belonged to a Shaman and could not be hunted down. And in his perspective, that kid was merely keeping the wolf for the Shaman.
The younger warrior grasped his messy hair covered in stone chips, "I won’t be thinking about a Shaman’s things. Ha-ha, I was just thinking about that the kid there. Based on how he acted just now, I think he would be a good warrior after he awakens his totemic power. Perhaps we could recruit him into our hunting team."
"It’s still too early, and that can wait for at least two to three years. I believe those several kids from your mountainside district are not bad, but for children from the cave…" The older warrior shook his head and did not finish his words, yet anyone could sense the meaning hidden behind his sentence.
The tribe was roughly divided in three main districts, and the stronger a warrior, the higher the district he would be living in. The mountaintop district was the central spot of their tribe. It had been said that the tribe’s fire pit was located there, and it was also the coldest area.
In the eyes of many warriors, children from the cave possessed poorer qualifications than children living around the mountain foot district, and they could not awaken their totemic power as early as others. Even if they have grown old enough to awaken totemic power, they would not be easily accepted by most hunting teams. Teamwork is considered to be the most essential part when it comes to hunting, and any weak link could bring unexpected tragic consequences.
Shao Xuan did not know about the warriors’ talk, nor their opinions about him. But he already knew that someone must have been around, observing. Because he had heard of things and he had the ability to speculate.
Although warriors would not care about the surroundings while they trained, they were quite sensitive when they were resting. The noise here must have drawn the attention of a few warriors, and they were probably standing nearby when Ye shouted out for help. It’s just that warriors would not intervene easily.
And Shao Xuan was certain, that they would keep on observing from the side as long as
Shao Xuan returned fully loaded. The patrolling warriors and guards who werer guarding at the edge of the residential areas were only asking a thing or two, seeing Shao Xuan’s bulging animal skin bag. They would not try to rob his harvest, for they did not necessarily see Shao Xuan’s things valuable enough.
Back on the gravel yard where he exercised that morning, Shao Xuan picked out two pieces of stone for sale, and buried the rest. He did not have the time to handle those stones, and he would be an idiot to bring them back to the cave. Inside the cave there were a bunch of "starving wolf cubs", who would try to fight for every bit of meat or thing. So Shao Xuan never hides food or anything that could be used for trading in the cave.
He sat on the ground to rest after he hid away his items. Both the climbing and fighting were really tiring.
Shao Xuan looked at the distant mountains, and then looked back at the residential areas of the tribe. He stared at the houses near the mountain foot district, and then looked down at his fists with dry blood. It was only half a year, and he had become a savage person like a caveman. The pressure to stay alive surely added to accelerate the a.s.similation into a savage.
What had it been like in civilized times? Shao Xuan had a few dreams at night, but the scenes got more and more blurry as time went by. But it had only been less than a year.
Even though life here was a little bit better compared to the primitive barbarians who used to eat human beings, as s.h.i.+ Lin once described, it was not that much better.
Once upon a time, Shao Xuan would try to mediate when he saw parents disciplining their kids, and sometimes he would even get into a fight when he saw parents beating up their children. He would have never hurt children, but what about now?
Sure, the environment was different, and the children in the tribe were not the same as the children from his past life. Even if they were at the same age, their characters had much in difference. Take kids from the orphan cave for instance, even if you beat them down this time, next time they would still come up and fight when there’s food, with even fiercer att.i.tude and harder fists. When they are controlled by their emotions, no one would ever hold back like Shao Xuan. Wood or stone, they would use whatever by their hand as a weapon when they fight. One shall only lose if he has even the slightest mercy in his heart. For example, Zhan was trembling and he was afraid earlier, but next time, he would still swing his weapon at Shao Xuan and try to rob his things together with Sai.
For G.o.d’s sake, the first day when Shao Xuan woke up from coma, it was the time when people were distributing food in the cave. Shao Xuan thought that perhaps he had fallen into a wolf’s cave when other kids were staring at each other with hatred. They were all kids aged from six to thirteen, and only a few of them were thirteen years old.
Savageness is contagious.
After he had enough rest, Shao Xuan used two fine stones to trade with a stoneware crafter and got four meat jerkies back; two with bones and the other two without bones. He gave Caesar those boned jerkies, and ate one without bone himself. For the last one meat jerky, he used that to trade for a cheap animal skin in medium size. Winter was coming and he had to prepare early.
By the time he returned to the orphan cave, it was just when food was about to be distributed. The man in charge had already prepared the food and stored them within a giant stone crock. Only those with totemic power could have the strength to lift the stone crock that large.
The tribe would take food to the orphan cave until children there awakened their totemic power and left to build their own house.
Sometimes there was meat on their menu, but it was not enough, and could only maintain the basic living needs of children, for meat was hard to obtain. Besides meat, usually their food would be plants, for example the red-haired fruit that Shao Xuan was looking at.
That was a tuber from some trees in the color of red-brown, with plenty of thin root tubers on the outside, like fine hair. The big ones had the size of pumpkins in Shao Xuan’s past life, and the small ones were in the size of adult’s fist. It tasted like potatoes, and one would easily feel full. The only problem is that the red-haired fruit had some side effect.
Speaking of the effects, red-haired fruits are good for regulating gastrointestinal functions. In plain words, it would create lots of gas. And, the effect would be more obvious, if one’s only food was the red-haired fruit without meat. So the direct side effect was fart. But that would not be so if one also ate some meat.
Since most children in orphan cave only sleep and eat every day, and the main source of food is coming from the tribe, so very few would try to go out for extra food. That also led to the fact that every time they ate red-haired fruit, the air quality in orphan cave would be extremely unique and quite ‘special’.
Shao Xuan’s face turned green.*
"Hey, Ah-Xuan!"
Ku was in charge of distributing food and he ran towards Shao Xuan as he saw him, with a piece of boiled red-haired fruit in his hand. That was a big piece, at least obviously larger than what the other kids were having.
Ku was one of the oldest kids in their cave. He was thirteen years old. There were another two thirteen-years-olds but they were not as strong as Ku, so Ku was in charge of managing the cave and he helped distributing food every day. There were obvious advantages in taking that job, which was that he could have more food to eat himself. So Ku grew much stronger than the other orphans and he even looked like someone with parents.
It’s just that normally Ku would not talk much with others, and he usually spends all day out and only comes back to the cave when food should be served. He had not spoken much with Shao Xuan as well, but why was he approaching him with a big piece of fruit in his hand?
Shao Xuan looked at Ku and took over the red-haired fruit.
Ku was in a good mood, and he was somehow exited.
"Ah-Xuan, I will go to the hillside tomorrow, and spend the whole winter there. You shall take over the cave." Ku said.
Shao Xuan almost threw his red-haired fruit at Ku’s words. Even if Ku leaves, the cave should be taken over by other older kids. There were two thirteen-years-old children and quite a few eleven and twelve-years-olds. Why would the job fall onto him, while he was under ten?
The appointment should not have been made by Ku, so Shao Xuan asked, "Who said that?"
Ku pointed to that person who was in charge of bringing food every day, as that one leaned against the stone crock, casually picking his teeth while shaking his toes.
Looking at those children fighting for food fiercely in the orphan cave, Shao Xuan wanted badly to grab the collar of the man in charge and shout out, "Are you f**king kidding me, delivery guy?!"