It was extremely cold.
Especially on this night when the ice and snow are first melting.
Especially my cotton-padded clothes are already soaked.
The biting wind howled in the mountain forest, like the sharpest knife, which had cut my skin and penetrated my brain.
"I...I can't walk...Hern." At that moment, I was so cold that I wanted to cry. My stiff legs were shaking and I couldn't move forward.
"Hold on, good girl... Huh..." He put me on his shoulders forcefully, and kept leading me to run away in the dark night, "Huh... We have got rid of them... Huh... ahead There is a secret place where we can take a rest." As he said these words, his teeth kept chattering and his steps staggered, as if he would fall down at any time, but even then, he kept of encouragement to me.
"Yes, take a step! Good girl, we are closer to there!"
"There's charcoal and hot water! You'll be warm in no time!"
"I'll catch some rabbits for you to eat. You like rabbits, don't you?"
"Hey! Open your eyes! Little Flame, don't sleep! Little Flame, Little Flame..."
His voice is getting farther and farther away from me.
*
I seemed to have lost consciousness for a while, and nightmares continued in my sleep.
I dreamed that Dalien was disemboweled by jungle trolls and stewed into a pot of green soup.
*
When I could see again, I found that I seemed to be in a cave, with a soft bed of hay under me.
The scorching charcoal fire kept making noises at my feet, making the surrounding area glow red.
There was a roasted and oily rabbit on the charcoal fire, and the aroma was fragrant.
I still clearly remember everything that happened when I first met Dean, and it would have been very bleak if I didn't ask myself.
So, I stared at the rabbit for a while and then abruptly looked away.
I rubbed my eyes and looked around. I saw a figure by the wall.
He was clumsily wrapping a bandage on himself, while he kept taking out his hand and touching the huge black wolf in front of him, which was turning its belly and acting coquettishly.
"Have you taken care of all the footprints? Good girl?"
The giant wolf whimpered and rubbed his chin with its head, but the next second, it suddenly turned over and lay on the ground, staring at me fiercely with its glowing green eyes.
I have to say, I really felt the malice coming from a wolf.
"Roar..." It bared its teeth at me.
The man also realized something and immediately turned his head, "Little Flame?" At that moment, he smiled happily, "Oh, thanks to the Holy Light, you finally woke up."
finally? woke up?
I was stunned and subconsciously looked at the entrance of the cave blocked by clumps of withered grass. It was blocked tightly and no light came in. "I have been asleep for a long time?!"
"It's been a long day, and now, the sun is setting."
All day long... That word suddenly gave me a frightening feeling. I jumped up and said, "Hearn..." But the dizziness that followed made me almost lose consciousness again, "Oh..."
"Shh," he staggered to my side and sat down, "I know what you want to say. I listened to your sleep all night. But, listen to me and wait here."
I pressed my forehead and looked at him with great difficulty, "...What are you waiting for?"
"Waiting for someone who might know something."
"Who is he? How long do we have to wait?!"
"We can only wait." He leaned over to help me pick up the thick cotton coat and put it on my shoulders. "This mountain forest is too big. Looking for something here is like looking for a name in the endless sea." Bubble grouper. Believe me," he said, patting my shoulder lightly and said seriously, "You saved my life, and I just want to repay you."
The temperature in his palm was so hot that it penetrated through the cotton-padded clothes and touched my skin.
I couldn't help but glance down at myself quickly, and the thin petticoat on my body made me sigh quietly.
"I'm a gentleman, Little Flame." He said with a half-smile.
"A gentleman..." I curled my lips and looked at the bloody and messy bandages on his body. "So, a gentleman, do you need my help?"
That sentence made his eyes light up, "...Oh, it couldn't be better." He immediately turned around and lifted up his long brown hair, "When I went hunting during the day, I broke it. It’s open, you may need to sew it up for me.”
*
It was obvious that the bloody cut across his shoulder and back was what Ralph had left him. If it had been a little deeper, I think his spine would have been broken.
In addition to this wound, his back was also covered with large and small old wounds. The dark red flesh was like long worms, criss-crossing horizontally and vertically, which was particularly irritating to the eyeballs.
Perhaps because he saw that I hadn't made any move for a long time, he laughed and said, "Did it scare you?"
Oh, does this guy think of me as one of those cute young ladies? !
"Of course not!" I straightened my back and took out the fishbone needle that I had never used before from my luggage. "But, I'm not good at threading needles, so you'd better bear with me."
"Come on, Little Flame." He turned back and gave me a "comforting" smile, "I am a soldier who served on the Gallows and fought against pirates."
"Oh, really?" I looked around and could only bear the pain, pulled out a long red hair and inserted it into the needle hole.
"Besides, I didn't suffer any pain in the water prison of Dirisberg... Ouch!"
*
It must be said that Lydia is a shadow wolf who is very sincere to her master...
While I was getting stitches, it sat upright next to me. Whenever its owner made a groan or moan, it breathed fiercely at me, with that attitude that it wanted to be in front of me. A bite on the arm.
I could only listen to Hearn's ramble with a slight panic, while more carefully inserting the bone needle through his skin instead of flesh and blood.
But I was still a bad showgirl, sewing up Hearn's wounds until they were wrinkled, and making him almost jump several times.
The smell of blood spread in the cave and slowly became stronger.
Well, this is all thanks to me.
"...I ambushed him on the road." He must have been in severe pain, desperately trying to divert his attention by talking, "I = stripped = off his clothes and threw him into the ice water Inside. The extremely low temperature quickly froze his body and caused him to sink to the bottom of the water. I watched from the shore, watching him struggle helplessly, spitting out air in horror, and finally drowned. I was What he did was just like how he drowned Albers..." At the end of his sentence, he fell silent.
I have to say, his story made me very angry.
Angry at the shamelessness of Ashvane, angry at the despicable cruelty of the surveillance soldiers, angry at the misfortune of his sister Albers, and even more angry at the helplessness and helplessness of the young man in front of me.
I cut off my hair, wiped the blood from the fish bone needle on the pendant, and put it away.
"You are too kind to him." I casually wrapped his wound with a bandage and said.
"...Mercy?" He turned around in surprise, "Little Flame, I was just saying that I killed a person cruelly."
"I think my father understands the word cruelty better." Looking around, I jumped off the bed and walked towards the gray iron pot in the corner. "When I was in the White House, it was my manor. The son of the previous butler ruined it. The tenant girl in the apple orchard was whipped by my father."
"...What?!" He almost spat out, "With a whip?"
"Yes, let me take a sip and remember it..." I was really thirsty, and I didn't continue to answer him until I drank all the water in the pot, "My father, Sir Joffrey, Use a whip to beat him... Well, do you understand? Until the bloody thing is whipped off, I saw with my own eyes that Ricky was so scared that he peed his pants next to him." At the end of the sentence, the bloody thing was everywhere The scene burst into my mind uncontrollably, making me shiver.
Hearn also twitched his eyebrows unconsciously, and subconsciously tightened his legs.
But at that moment, when he was about to say something, he suddenly closed his mouth and looked at the cave entrance warily.
Almost at the same moment, Delia also jumped up and lay down next to the cave entrance as if facing a formidable enemy.
*
I held my breath and listened to the approaching footsteps outside.
Pa = Pa = Pa ---
The footsteps stopped at the entrance of the cave. Then, someone shook the door made of thick hay. He only opened it a little and then suddenly stopped. It sounded like he turned around and ran away!
"Ho--" Delia rushed out quickly. Suddenly, a large cloud of cold air rushed in from outside the open door. I subconsciously wrapped my cotton clothes tightly.
"Oh!" I heard the man shout loudly, and then there was another burst of howling. Soon, Delia returned to the cave triumphantly, tugging the trophy in her mouth.
He was a thin man with dull black eyes. The cheeks are so thin that the bones can be seen.
"Benny!" Hearn greeted with a smile on his face.
"It's you again!" Seeing Hearn, Benny shouted as if he had seen a ghost, and shrank to the corner in horror, "How did you find this place?!"
Hearn smiled, patted Delia's head, stood up and walked towards him, "You must be smart. My Delia has been looking for you for two whole days. How did you hide the smell of fish on your body?" Tasty?"
As the distance got closer, Benny pressed his back against the wall tightly, his face almost distorted, "I have told the truth a long time ago! I have no idea how that young master Gregor fell down!"
"It's another thing!" I arrived in front of him faster than Hearn, "Tell me, have you seen a flying troll?! Have you seen a boy captured by him? !Where are they now?!"
The skinny monkey was stunned for a moment, then squinted his eyes and stared hard at my chest, "Ha! Big beauty," he smiled with yellowed teeth, "Take off your clothes, maybe I can remember."
"Asshole!" I was already furious and waved away the skinny hand he stretched out, and slapped him hard to the ground.
"Ouch!" He covered his ferocious face and yelled at me, "You bitch cousin, don't even think of learning a word from me!"
"What about me?" Hearn blocked me behind. Suddenly, he grabbed Benny's lapel and slammed him against the wooden table.
"Oh! God!" The moment was unclear, and Benny was thrown to the point where he screamed miserably. "You asked! You asked!"
"Where are those jungle trolls hiding?" Hearn asked in a deep voice.
"Trolls? I never knew trolls..."
Before he could finish his words, Hearn grabbed him again and slammed him against the hard wall.
boom--
The unfortunate guy was hit hard on the back of his head, almost turning his eyes white, "Ouch!"
"I happen to know that this is something belonging to the trolls," Hern pinched out a tattered willow stick from his lapel. From my angle, I could see the rough wolf head carved on it, "You live in Those who were close to them also protected them... Oh, I know, you betrayed me and betrayed humanity!" As he spoke, he reached out and took away the hot bamboo sticks roasted on the charcoal pot, and folded them hard. , and suddenly, the sizzling rabbit flew into the air.
I immediately staggered a few steps and took it in my hand. The hot temperature made me take it back and forth with my left and right hands several times.
Hearn took the piece and pointed it at Benny's eye, and stabbed it in without hesitation!
oh! I think I'm going to see my eyeballs explode!
"Ouch!" Benny let out an earth-shattering roar, "I saw them!"
The bamboo stick stopped almost close to his pupils, "Say." Hearn's tone was as cold as ice.
"They migrated to the east!" Benny replied quickly, carefully opening the sharp stick with his index finger, "I saw their traces in Yushugou!"
"Why do they migrate?"
"……I have no idea."
Hearne's eyes narrowed slightly, and the next second, the bamboo stick rose again.
"I just heard a few words!" Benny shouted again quickly, his voice sounded like he was about to cry, "They want to... sacrifice! You know, those retarded people sacrifice countless times every year! I really That’s all I know!”
"But I think you're lying to me." Hearn stared into Benny's eyes from top to bottom, "Maybe I should tell you the consequences of lying to me!" This time, Hearn didn't show any mercy at all. The bamboo stick penetrated Benny's left ear!
"Ouch---!" The severe pain made the guy who was full of lies hold his head and cry loudly.
It looked like he wanted to roll around, but Hearn pulled him back, "Now, let's go to Elm Valley," he blew hot air into Benny's bloody ear, "If there's nothing there... …I wouldn’t mind a grave there.”
