He dragged his wife by her hair across a sandy plain. She didn't complain, but she didn't want to talk to him because they kept arguing. As he walked, he kept finding fruits, coins, and various things. He wanted to pick them up, but his hands were full of her hair, so he couldn't. Under the scorching sun, Androx returned to sober reality. He was really tired—it felt like he was breaking free from the iron claws of La Force's corpse-eaters. He stretched and yawned loudly.
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Okles looked around and saw that the little penguins were all awake and waiting for him expectantly, so he decided it was time to feed the little penguins again. Turns out, it takes a lot of work; no wonder everyone buys slaves for it. Seeing this, Athanasius would have laughed at Androcles if he were still alive. Probably started calling him babysitter and asking if he could see Androx's tits.
"What do you think?" A
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okles asked.
"Very good," said the white one.
"My stomach feels weird," the black one said.
"Does it hurt?"
"No...I don't think so."
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Okles frowned. "How does your mouth feel?" he asked.
"Okay..." he said, not quite convincingly.
Andrew knelt down. "Open the door and let me see," he said, placing his thumb on the boy's chin.
The goldfish obediently opened his jaw as wide as possible; his mouth looked fine. But his teeth are sharper than a human's. Sharper. No wonder his leg was bleeding for so long. Once the gear is restored, he'll probably still beat the white one.
The white-skinned man also bent down to look, not knowing what he was looking at. "Sometimes when people don't eat for a long time, their mouths turn red and their teeth start falling out," Androcks explained. "But he's fine."
"But his mouth is red," he replied.
"It's a normal red color, not blood red. He's fine," Androcks said.
"Can you look at mine?" the Caucasian asked, sounding nervous and opening his mouth as wide as possible.
"I think it's pretty good," said Anchorex, a little amused. "If your insides start hurting, please tell me. It's okay to eat a little because your stomach may have forgotten how to process food, it has to remember. But if it's a lot, please tell me. Got it?" They all nodded.
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Okles stood up to get another glass of young wine with honey, adding: "If you need to go to the bush, please let me know. Even if it's just to make water." The two nodded again. He thought it might take another day or more, but no one could tell.
While he was feeding them, the white one wanted to try holding the cup himself, and Anklex asked him to try, to see if he could do it. However, seconds after he brought the cup to his lips, his arms began to shake and Androx had to hold on to the cup to prevent it from spilling. The white one would recover quickly, but after what happened with the ax last night and this morning, Androx was surprised that he could still sit up.
"Better take it easy, kid. All that energy you spend on exercise isn't going back to exercising your body. So take it easy," he said, trying to sound stern.
Kit nodded and lay down with a thump, "Ah!" the black man grinned. A
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okles giggled.
"Stay where you are, lay there and don't get hurt. I'm going to check on the shopping cart," he said, standing up. The children glanced to make sure they could see the carriage, then nodded in agreement.
The bandits had stolen a standard merchant's cart, which could be pulled by an ox or one or several men, and had been well taken care of by its original owner. Beneath the oiled tarpaulin were neatly stacked piles of goods, except where Theodoric had rummaged about.
He started looking at the back, then forward, and found four long strings of linen under the bench; two dyed bold yellow for softness, two dyed bright red for warmth. The yellow ones will make beautiful robes for the three of them, and the red ones will make beautiful cloaks. Behind the cloth was a pillow, and he wished he had known earlier.
Neatly stacked cans took up most of the carriage's space. Apart from a beautifully decorated water clock, most of the jars are plain, unmarked and still sealed with cloth and wax, making their contents a mystery. There was an open large sack beside him, and he grinned greedily when he saw the large number of biscuits in the sack. He immediately grabbed two, stuffed one into his mouth as far as he could, leaving half exposed, as if it was rude, and put the other aside. It turns out that running all night and fighting all morning can make you hungry. He didn't want to drink from the small toolbox, and he was too busy to eat anything else.
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Okles shook the little jars and found grains in one, nuts in another, and so on until he found what he was looking for: fermented wine. He opened the seal and drank a quarter of the jug of water in one gulp. It's a cloudy red wine that's just starting to sour, but it's wet, which is wine. He sighed loudly with satisfaction and wiped the water droplets from his beard.
He looked back at the two cubs, both squirming and looking at him on their arms. They might get bored just staring at the blue sky. Maybe they were just watching him eat, he thought, grinning faintly. He shouted: "You want to know what's in this?"
"Yes, can that be done?" they replied.
There was a bench at the back of the carriage, so he decided to let them sit on it. He walked over to them and said, "Grab my neck," then picked them up and carried them to the car, their arms draped over his shoulders and their tails wagging back and forth in front of him.
He carefully placed them on the bench, then grabbed all the pillows and laid them on their sides, propping them up so they could see without rolling off the car.
Then he went back to taking inventory, pausing occasionally to explain what he had found. They recognize cabbage and onions, but not garlic and raisins; they recognize all legumes and grains except chickpeas. When he was sorting through the food, he found everything from vinegar and honey to olive oil and lard. Most unbelievably, a jar of real ground black pepper was carefully hidden beneath the barley bag. It's easily the most valuable thing on the car. Once he had a complete inventory, he realized he and the kids could eat it for several weeks, not including the money he had left over from selling it.
In addition to cloth, A
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Okles also found many other useful things, such as needles, thread, twine, and some wooden boxes, tools he would never need. Bronze knives for cutting cloth and flesh, awls, hammers, axes and pickaxe heads, and a bag with a pair of scissors tied to it and a needle and thread inside. Almost all of them can be sold without regrets.
Satisfied that he had seen all that the dead bandit had to offer, he leaned against the side of the wagon and looked at the thin, fragile little toolbox he had picked up. Their faces are still a little pale, but their eyes are lively. The black one breathed much easier than in the morning. He had to admire their incredible luck, assuming they were still alive. They probably won't. But such a cart was an incredible gift, more than he could have bargained for even if he found favor with the gods, which he didn't. But he has to accept the fact that things can happen to the gadgets themselves, in which case he has to treat them very carefully.
Actually, no, that doesn't make sense. If these cubs were favored by God, they would not be hungry, lonely, or cold in the middle of the night. Any god who might be involved probably wants the bandits to kill both him and Kit.
He realized that the only thing missing from the carriage was silverware. Either it was still hidden in the sack or jar and he somehow lost it, or it was lost before the bandits killed the merchant and stole the carriage. God willing it's the former.
Before he could continue his search, a ray of sunlight shone into his eyes from a low angle, and he realized he had lost track of time. The sun was only two fists wide from the western horizon, which meant that night would fall in two hours at the latest.
He put his hands on his hips and asked, "How are you feeling, kids? Does your stomach hurt?"
The black cat said, "I don't feel bad, but can we have some more?" I think it's been a while. ” His voice sounded more energetic, but still raspy and weak.
"I guess so, don't you?" I guess I'd better feed you and check the bandage. "He put the small utensils back by the fire, this time with some pillows, and fed them some sweet wine. After the kid was fed, he ate some olives, biscuits, and a few pieces of fruit from the car. A fig, and then half a can of real wine, enough to warm him up despite the cold air.
After that, he sat there for a while, watching the sun set through the leaves, painting the sky with color as it began to sink toward the base of the mountains, and he wondered where Della was at that moment. His longing for her was like a bad knot in his stomach that never really went away. Was it because he missed her? No matter what he did for her, she never really fell in love with him like she should have. After a few years, he stopped even trying to win her heart, feeling that it would be better if she gave him a child. The wives of his friends were proud of their husbands, and Anchorex was always jealous of their kindness and warmth. In fact, the only real kindness he received was from his friends and comrades, all of whom had a bad habit of dying.
As night fell and the crisp air turned cold, he decided it was time to sleep. He prepared the fire for the night, piling the wood wide and flat so that the fire would burn slower and stay hot longer. He took off the travel blanket Pansy had hung and spread it on to sleep. He considered sleeping between the kits to keep warm, but decided against it when he worried he might roll over and crush them. He doubted that the black cat, in particular, had enough power to strangle him awake before he was suffocated to death.
Instead, he placed his blanket next to theirs, close enough that if something happened, the white blanket could slap him awake. The night was quiet and the little goats fell asleep quickly. However, despite his exhaustion, he found himself unable to sleep. Instead, he lay there brooding, listening to the steady breathing of the eaglet, and idly wishing that a friendly giant would take care of him. Every once in a while, wolves howl somewhere in the mountains. It was never close enough to worry him, there was no fire, but it was unsettling. Looking up at the sky, he was troubled by the hazy haze that seemed to grow thicker, blurring the brightness and clarity of the stars. The night sky is worshiped in glory by the wise and pious, but it doesn't feel like the same sky.
Androcles finally realizes that he is being foolish and that the sky seems strange because it is strange; he is far from home. He should be used to it by now. Thinking of this, he finally fell asleep.
He didn't sleep well that night. He drifted in and out, dreaming of restless, angry things wandering the woods. The howling of wolves in the distance woke him up from time to time, but not for long. Just enough to see the fire still burning.
As morning approached, in his hazy state, he seemed to see the huge god Sewell deep underground. But he was far away, not as close as last time. Anchorage was walking on an unfamiliar dirt road, but the road was as uneven as the contours of a woman's body. With every step he took, she rolled around in anger. Then she reached out to pat him, and he could feel the weight of her hand on his chest…
Then he woke up. Morning comes. No matter what time it was, it was too early. The man in white leaned down, shook him awake, and placed a hand on Androx's chest. "Tell Lord Turos the Sun to move dawn a few hours earlier. I'm still tired," Androx growled.
The little boy said in a voice that was both a whisper and a scream of fear: "Wolf!"
