On the other side of the field, Androcles discovered the horse and his sons, which had gone towards a hut and began to eat a pile of hay, next to a fenced-in pen, which was open to the barbarians. For example, this fence can be regarded as a barn. It looked like his children were still strapped to its back, meaning neither of them fell out into the snow and were left out, thanks to Orphan. Now all he had to do was sneak up, grab the reins, and his sons would be his again.
"I saw them. Be quiet." The little devil nodded and held his hand tighter. They quickly walked towards the horse, which ignored them and focused on its dinner. His kits had their backs to him, but their tails were twitching, so they were probably awake. Fortunately, both of them still had their shoes.
After considering his options, he decided not to steal the horse because without it, he seemed less likely to be hunted. He tiptoed to where the children could see him, untied their mouths, covered their lips with his fingers, and silenced them. Pepper was so relieved that tears welled up in his eyes, and Flower had to hold back a scream of joy, but they stopped anyway. He dismounted them gently and left the hut with one under his arm, Sev following close behind. He ducked behind a fire, hoping he wouldn't be seen by anyone coming by and put them down.
"How are you?" he asked calmly, and cut their chains with an iron knife.
"Dad, you saved Sev!" "Thank you," Flower said, because he could talk now.
"What I did. Answer me now. Are you hurt?" Androx said impatiently.
"The rope hurts, Dad. I think my hand is going to fall off," Flower said, rubbing her wrist. "But I think I'll be fine."
"Me too, and my shoulder, because my arm was at an angle," Pepper said. "But I'm going to be okay. My knees hurt though. But I'm going to be okay."
A
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okles helped the boys regain sanity in their arms and legs. Seph helped, or more accurately, he tried to help, but failed. His hands weren't strong enough to do anything good, but the kids didn't mind, so he just let it go. The warmth of the fire brought some life back to their faces, and although they all looked tired, they could still walk.
“Are you ready to move?”
The three boys nodded.
"Follow me and be silent. If you see someone, tap me to get my attention and point it out."
"Dad, I didn't see anyone. Can't we sleep here? Hua asked.
"I just said don't make a sound. Now shut up!" whispered Androx with a stern glare. Hua lowered her head and nodded, a little embarrassed. The red light of the flames reflected on the white fur of the kit, making Ankerex nervous, thinking he was bleeding somewhere but didn't notice.
They lowered their bodies and crept toward the edge of the clearing. When they were almost in the dark woods, Seph screamed and slapped Angelus' thigh several times. He pointed to an apparently large bush at the edge of a clearing about forty paces from them.
Androx stopped to see what was going on, and soon he noticed dark shadows moving beneath the bushes. After a while, a black shadow came out and stopped next to a flat rock. It had a tail, and when Androcles saw the horns, fear seized him, and he knew it was a demon. Not a big one, but not a kid either. Maybe a young man, maybe a woman. He pushed the children to the ground, then bent down himself, spear ready.
If it came towards them, he would kill it immediately, or die trying. Save for the injured finger, little Sev proved harmless, but Ankerex had no plans to let his guard down. He had so much experience with them.
Ankrex murmured prayers and curses, trying to control the fear roaring inside him. Facing the devil alone in the dark? Insanity. God bless it didn't see them.
They watched as the devil pulled with all his might, trying to lift or overturn the altar. However, no matter how hard the demon tried, it lacked the power necessary to complete its task. It turned in all directions, trying every corner and angle, but the altar wouldn't budge.
"She wanted a kid out. Dewey was a kid and she wanted to save him!" Sev said excitedly. A
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okles looked down and found that the little devil was full of compassion and rocking back and forth.
"What?"A
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okles asked.
"Dad," said Flower, with pity in his eyes.
"Shh, you. Sev, what are you talking about?" Androx asked.
"There's a kid like me under the rock, and she wants him to come out!" Most likely his mother. Oh! he cried in grief, covering his mouth with his hands.
Hua was convinced and begged: "Dad, you have to help her! Please, Dad, please!"
"Dad, those people said they were going to put Seve back under the rocks. I think there are little kids under all those rocks. Dad, you have to do this!" Pepper added, touching Anjax's arm.
Androx looked at the three boys, thoughtful. They stared back at him with big, lovely, pleading eyes. All three of them have ears that look like puppies eager for leftovers, even if Sev's ears are at the wrong angle.
He asked the imp: "Deanna said she found you under a rock. She wasn't kidding, was she? One of them?"
Seff nodded.
"Dad," Flower said, clenching his hands into fists in the dirt.
"Why should I let another demon go?" he said to himself.
"Dad!" said Pepper. His two sons suddenly went from pleading to indignant and angry. He suspected that if he didn't give in, they would hold this against him for years. Looking inside, he Finding most of his fears gone. This seemed...okay. God, they were going to watch him get torn to pieces.
"Oh, stop it. I'm leaving. If you see the slavers coming, slip into the woods. When I've dealt with them, I'll come find you."
"Thank you, Dad," his children said in unison. Then they leaned down sweetly and kissed him on the cheek. Seph imitated them, and Andros agreed.
He sighed, once again defeated by the restless children. Between them and Argen, he was worse than an ox with a spear. He walked towards the demon and before she noticed him, he was close to her. She hissed ferociously and staggered into a hand-to-hand combat stance, teeth and claws bared.
She wore a dark, thick wool and leather garment, roughly cut and raw, and appeared to be painted black. Her black hair was pulled back, revealing the shiny black horns protruding from her head. Her strangely reflective eyes almost sparkled in the flickering firelight. In this light, her skin doesn't show its typical bluish-black color; instead, she looks almost like a toothy shadow. Long, sharp, angry teeth. He held out his palm to her, trying to show he meant no harm. "Can you speak?" he asked.
"I'm not alone! Leave me!" she growled at him.
He had never been so close to an adult who wasn't surrounded by the blood mist of his comrades. Although his heart was pounding with fear, coiling in his chest and making it difficult to breathe, he didn't flinch. He felt like a new soldier again, afraid of fighting. He mustered up his courage, took a deep breath, and said, "I'm different from them. Do you need help moving the rocks?"
She looked confused and her posture had lost much of its enthusiasm. Bracing himself for any sign of violence from her, he pretended to drop his spear and walked slowly to a corner of the rock.
The rock is approximately 4 feet wide, 3 inches wide and 8 inches thick. In the dim light, it looked uncut, which made him wonder where they'd found so many flat boulders. It also looks very heavy. But ever since Deanna raised one to steal Sev, he had to give it a try. He dug out a place for his fingers, then crouched down, braced himself, and lifted with all his strength.
He raised his body and stood up, his face flushed, his muscles bulging, and he lifted a stone. The demon woman darted under the rock and emerged again, holding a child smaller than Sev in her arms. As soon as she was free, he dropped the stone, which cracked into four pieces.
The enchantress knelt before him, took his hand, and laid his knuckles on her forehead. "Thank you," she said, and ran away as fast as she could. Androx straightened up and spoke loudly. It will hurt more than usual tomorrow. He wished he could still move. If not, he thought with a smile, that would be a fitting ending for him - freezing to death for helping a demon. In fact, aiding a demon without dying would be an injustice to all Dikaia, so he now deserves it.
Androx took a moment to look out across the fields again to make sure if anyone had seen them. He still couldn't see a soul, just dozens of fires and large rocks. How many stones were there? Twenty? More? He couldn't tell—they were scattered among the fires, not in a line like soldiers. Do they each have a demonic child?
When he realized this, he couldn't help but feel something horrible or unfair. Hatred of demons is one thing - an admirable thing - but starving their children under a rock? It makes no sense. This seems too cruel. A good farmer kills wolves, but he does not kill them slowly for fun. This seems disgraceful.
No, there can't be a child under every rock. Where did they get so many? It must have been just room for one or two people. But if so, why go to all this trouble? Those rocks are heavy.
While he was thinking, he tiptoed back to where his sons were. The children lay just as he had left them, looking at everything with wide eyes and a golden light in their eyes.
"Dad, is your back hurt?" Hua asked with a sympathetic tone.
"Maybe. I'll be fine," he replied. "Keep your distance. Let's find a place to sleep. Hopefully we can all get into this bearskin."
Pepper had to put down the flower's white tail because it kept waving it, but they left the field without being chased. As they left the campfire, Androx took one last good look at the scene. At the far end, he saw a group of people coming from the east, about twenty people, most of them wearing gray clothes, carrying wood on stretchers. Thankfully, he managed to escape them.
Looking around, his mind was filled with rocks. He couldn't help but wonder if they both had a child. He simply couldn't imagine what it would be like to be trapped in a tight, dark, dirty cave with God knows what. He thought for a while and felt a lump in his throat. Later he realized that exhaustion made him emotional, so he suppressed his emotions.
Think about it carefully, are the devil's children born like humans and animals, or do they grow in the soil like crops? The witch once grabbed the child from under the rock, so maybe she could smell the stone being cooked. He would have to ask Agna about this later. Maybe she would know, maybe the god Patos would tell her.
Actually, it doesn't make sense. If so, it was the devil who was lighting the fire, which he now believes was to keep the ground warm, not the slave owners. Well, they must have been stealing children rather than winning them in battle or collecting them as payment for a debt. After all, if they win the battle, no one will try to steal them back.
But it was none of his business, until they stole his child. Who cares if the devil's children were stolen? What would he do with a bunch of devil children? How would he feed them? Where would he put them?
No, he's crazy. He didn't want to involve himself or his family further in this matter. He put Seif back on his shoulders and thanked Deodon Pas - he said his back only hurt when he bent over. His sons followed him silently into the darkness, following the path he had carved in the snow. He has one goal and one goal only: to find Della, get his money back, and leave his family intact. In this bleak, icy wilderness, he had no other choice.
As for Della, he occasionally saw people with wavy, red hair like hers, so her family was out there somewhere. Since winter, two people had dealt with Skywalker pretending to be a businessman. They were walking the same road, so he knew he was going in the right direction. None of them knew where the "meadow" was, but it was only a matter of time. Aguun said that the gods would not let Ankerix wander aimlessly until death, and he could only trust this and move on. When the children of Partos are done with them, they will find Della and his money, and all will return to Decaya to live out their lives in modest luxury.
In those golden fields back home, with its white houses and brightly colored temples and sanctuaries, it had certainly never been colder. Brass gates, paved roads. Markets and forums. Good bathroom. The weather ranges from cold to warm, but rarely hot or cold. music. food……
He was satisfied they had gone far enough. He found a hole under a broad evergreen tree, with no trace of snow in the needle bed beneath it. As he climbed in, his back stiffened involuntarily every time he moved inappropriately. He sat down slowly, getting a lot of concerned looks from the boys. Flower sat on one leg, Pepper on the other, and Sev curled up in their laps. The bearskin was wide enough to nearly cover them, and even though Androx's bottom might be freezing by morning, at least no one would succumb to the cold.
"Dad, do you think there's a child under every rock?" Flower asked as he snuggled up on one arm.
"I don't think so. Where did they get so many? Why hide them under rocks?" he replied.
No one answered, and no one spoke for a while. Then Pepper said: "I think I know why. I think they put them under the rock to make them mean."
"What do you mean?" Androx asked.
"Well...that's because...after my first mom was killed, and before I met Flower, I started going crazy from being so lonely." It was so hard to even just stay alive, and it messed with my brain collapsed. I really can't explain it. But I think if I were stuck in a little hole like this, I would go crazy and become evil. "
"Yeah...that happened to me too. Even after I met Pepper," Flower added calmly. "I'm so sad, it makes my chest hurt all the time. We have no food, no clothes, nothing."
Andrew thought for a moment. Late last summer, the cubs tried to stop him in a last-ditch effort. Flower was starving after being abandoned, and she tried to steal his money to buy some bread, but they were too weak to succeed. Little Pepper was starving to death, he couldn't even stand up, and Hua was starving to death too. Even if this boy bites off the A
d
The idea of a chunk of meat from Okles leg finally won them some money and there was no way they were going back to town. He half-jokingly said: "I think you'd have to be crazy to think biting me was a good idea."
"Well, it worked, right, Dad? It worked," Flower said. "Just not in the way we thought. "
A
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Okles snorted with laughter.
"Did you bite him?" Sev asked. It sounded like he was horrified by the idea.
Pepper replied: "Flower wanted to rob him, so he bit him and tried to take his money. That's how Dad met us. Dad saw that we were starving and saved us. That's why we are now his son."
Flowers said: "Dad just looked scary. He was great with the kids. Mum said:"
"Stop spreading rumors!" Andro interrupted.
- Mom said he looked like a roasted nut. He’s just tough on the outside and soft and warm on the inside,” Flower continued.
"Flowers, everyone's heart is soft and warm."
Pepper giggled, but Flower said, "That's not what she meant. She meant—"
I know what she means. It's time for you to go to bed. Me too. said Androchus. The conversation was over, and the sudden silence seemed strange. He could see that his sons still wanted to talk to him, perhaps just to reassure themselves; but he was really, really tired, that's all.
Sev seemed to be the first to fall asleep, followed by Flower, and then Pepper, who dragged his black tail into a more comfortable position for a while. As Androcles drifted slowly toward the world of dreams, one thought kept tugging at his toes and pulling him back - that thought was the imp trapped beneath the stone. It was not until he made up his mind to tell Agna about it, and Agna knew what to do, that his heart let him fall asleep.
