Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains

Just as the three men returned to Ka Luo’s house, Aze arrived as well. From the distance, they saw that he was carrying an adult male wildebeest on his shoulder and had an impala tied to his back with a rope. He walked steadily but when he saw the three men standing at the door, he noticeably increased his pace.

Chen Qi rushed up to meet him. Instinctively, he wanted to help unload the prey from Aze, but upon considering the size of the wildebeest, and looking at his completely muscleless arms, he recognized that it would be more than he could handle.

Aze dropped the wildebeest on the ground, causing a burst of dust. Chen Qi looked at Aze’s travel-worn appearance and he did not know how fast he must have travelled. “You’re back. Did you encounter any danger on the way?”

“The journey was smooth.” Aze smiled at Chen Qi and then handed Ake the impala on his back. “This is for you. I met Uncle Azhang on the way back. He was with a few others, patrolling nearby. I heard that traces of messenger eagles were found? Are you all alright?”

Ake picked up the impala and replied, “It’s probably a messenger eagle that lost its way around here. There’s no problem for the time being.”

“That’s good.”

“Brother, there were messenger eagles passing by around here. It’s too dangerous for you and Chen Qi to live outside the tribe. It’s better to move back to the tribe. The house can also be built in the tribe.” Ka Luo suggested, worried.

Aze hesitated a little and turned to look at Chen Qi. He didn’t have any good memories of this place, but if it would endanger Chen Qi… He was unsure if moving back would be better.

Seeing Aze look over, Chen Qi did not speak. He went straight into the house and picked up his backpack. Then he said to Aze, “Let’s go home.”

Aze was startled for a moment, and then he smiled, “Okay.”

Chen Qi said to Ka Luo, “Don’t worry, we can also live well outside the tribe. Your brother has lived out there for so many years and you don’t see anything wrong with him.”

Ka Luo sighed. With how stubborn his brother was, he naturally knew that it was impossible for him to agree to move back to the tribe. He thought he might’ve changed his mind when considering Chen Qi’s well being, but he didn’t expect that Chen Qi himself didn’t want to stay in the tribe. “Then, be careful when you go back. We’ll come over tomorrow to help you build your house.”

“En, okay.” The two men replied. Then Aze lifted the wildebeest off the ground and back over his shoulder and left with Chen Qi.

“If you want to live with Aze, we can move next to them.” Ake looked at Ka Luo, who looked somewhat disappointed, and said.

Ka Luo’s eyes brightened, then he shook his head and reached out to touch Ake’s firm and flat abdomen. “Let’s discuss this after the child is born. Winter is coming, and it’s too dangerous to move outside the tribe now.”

Ake held on to Ka Luo’s hand and said nothing.

Aze gave Ali the wildebeest. This was for the cloths from before, as well as for his time coming over to help and accompany Chen Qi. Of course, one wildebeest was far from enough. If there was enough time, he’d want to hunt more food for Ali. There were still several tasks that Chen Qi wanted to do, which easily took up most of their time, so he could only plan to go into the Loya Forest to hunt some hydrochoerus dragons* after early winter.

*豚龙 tún lóng = dolphin/pig + dragon. After lengthy discussion, this is currently imagined to resemble a capybara, hence the genus name picked to sound more … dragony than pig dragon, or capybara dragon.

Crossing  to Live in the Wilderness Plains (CLWP)  is translated by Betwixted Translations. The site you’re reading this chapter on stole our translation.

The bowls and teacups they’d moulded yesterday had been burned into finished pottery. Although some of them broke when fired up, the rest turned out well. Even though the reddish brown coloring was not very attractive appearance-wise, Chen Qi’s main current requirement was that they could be used.

Then Ali took out two more pottery bowls from another bundle of animal skin. These two were actually not reddish brown, but blue, a very deep indigo blue. Ali handed Chen Qi the two blue pottery bowls. “Yesterday I found two more blue dye-fruits at home, so I made some colored ones.”

Chen Qi was surprised to see these two blue pottery bowls. He’d thought that the pottery making technology here would be more primitive. Unexpectedly, they already knew how to use dyes to make colored pottery. Chen Qi remembered the white pottery pieces he’d noticed at Azhang’s place. At the time, he’d just thought that those pieces of pottery were just naturally discolored after use and age.

As it was already evening and the sun was soon about to set, they didn’t dawdle with conversation. Chen Qi picked out five pottery bowls and two pottery teacups, stuffed them into his backpack, and left the tribe with Aze.

Evening in the wilderness. There were no voices, no cars, no traces of the civilization Chen Qi was familiar with. There was only the endless view of withered, yellowed weeds and scattered, towering trees. Aze’s pace was not hurried, and a pleasant breeze blew past them as they travelled. Chen Qi was being carried on Aze’s back and he felt so comfortable. A thought came to mind, he hoped the road would never end.

“Aze, are there dye-fruits that are black colored?”

“Yes.”

Chen Qi raised his head slightly, just enough to see the side profile of Aze’s chiseled face. “Then, next time you see some, pick some for me.”

“Okay.”

Before they reached home, they smelled a faint foul scent in the air, coming from the distance. Chen Qi sniffed, “Aze, do you smell something?”

Aze nodded. “En, it smells like a skunk.” Aze was surprised because when he’d brought back the locust dragon’s eyes earlier, there was no such smell.

“Skunk? Why would there be a skunk here?” Chen Qi was puzzled. Suddenly he remembered the large number of traps he’d arranged before leaving yesterday then asked a little uncertainly, “Could it have been caught in the traps?”

“I don’t know, let’s go take a look.”

“En.”

The stench became more obvious and stronger the closer they got to home. Chen Qi had to let Aze put him down, then took off his outer garment and used it to cover his nose and mouth tightly. Only then did he feel he could breathe. He also handed Aze a piece of cloth from the cloths in his backpack that were going to be used to make clothes and asked him to cover his nose and mouth too.

Crossing  to Live in the Wilderness Plains (CLWP)  is translated by Betwixted Translations. The site you’re reading this chapter on stole our translation.

Aze looked at Chen Qi, who looked like he no longer wanted to go further. “Wait here for a while. I’ll go take care of it first.” After that, he headed to the place where the stench was strongest.

Chen Qi didn’t have the chance to stop him. Just as he was about to speak, the odor rushed into his mouth and almost made him throw up on the spot. He quickly shut his mouth and held the cloth tighter. The skunks here were too powerful. Was this actually a hundred of them releasing their stench at the same time?

Aze was very fast. When a skunk encounters a threat or enemy attack, it would spray out a poisonous liquid. Aze shook out the piece of cloth in his hand. As soon as he saw the grayish white figure struggling in the grass, he immediately covered it with the cloth, wrapping it tightly. Then he transformed his fingernails into elongated beast nails and slit its throat with a single finger. The originally off-white cloth was instantly dyed red.

Aze cut the rope from the trap that nicely caught the skunk, then ran a distance away from the house, carrying the wrapped up skunk and dug a pit to bury it. Of course, he unwrapped and recovered the piece of cloth, but Aze frowned when he realized that it was almost as smelly as the skunk. He thought for a moment then laid out the cloth on the grass next to him, deciding to let the odor disperse before reclaiming it.

When Aze returned, Chen Qi had already noticed that the foul stench in the surrounding air had faded some. However when Aze approached, he could not help taking a few steps back since Aze also had the awful odor on him.

Seeing Chen Qi’s actions, Aze stopped. He raised his arm for a sniff, then his face darkened quickly. Damn it, I forgot that the skunk’s stink would be stuck on me.

Chen Qi waved his hand sheepishly and suggested, “Why don’t you get some figs and wash up first?”

“En.” Aze replied sullenly and, still wearing a dark expression, he went to the house to get some water for washing. It was nearly evening now, so Aze couldn’t leave Chen Qi alone to go wash up at Chishui River. Fortunately, there was still a large pottery jar of water left. Aze directly took the pottery jar outside, picked a handful of figs and went into the tall grass.

Chen Qi also didn’t want to just hang around this stunk up place. He remembered that there were still dozens of traps around so he planned to retrieve them. The result startled him. Almost one-third of the 40 or 50 traps had been triggered, and several of the traps had their ropes bitten off. It’s only been two days. Just how many animals were moving around here?

After he’d made a lap of the traps, Chen Qi fortunately didn’t find any skunks. Instead he harvested three rabbits and two fennec foxes. After tying up the preys, Chen Qi thought for a moment, then continued to arrange the traps around the house, while avoiding the more common traffic areas. Even if these were not to catch prey, they could serve as an additional layer of security.

Crossing  to Live in the Wilderness Plains (CLWP)  is translated by Betwixted Translations. The site you’re reading this chapter on stole our translation.

After he was done with the traps, the sun had set. Chen Qi went back to the house and used a wooden stick to hold open the door curtain. After not being home for two days, the house was full of the smell of cured meat. He lit a fire in the middle of the room, and then proceeded to move the rack of cured meat back into the corner. Aze wasn’t back yet. It was unknown whether the smell would be able to be washed off.

The last pottery jar of water had been taken away by Aze, so Chen Qi could only pull out two laiche fruits for use. He cut a hole in them with his knife, poured the juice into a pottery dish, added in several cut up pieces of cured meat and a handful of dried golden lilies into it then slowly set them to boil. Since there was no water available to use for cleaning, Chen Qi handled a rabbit outside the door. After skinning it and removing the viscera, he directly skewered it with a wooden stick and put it on the fire to roast. Anyway, the fire would burn off most of the dirty things. Chen Qi didn’t have any serious hangups about cleanliness and could only do this much this time. The other preys were tied with tough ropes and placed in a corner.

When Aze came back, he stood by the doorway hesitantly and did not dare to approach Chen Qi. His bare arms were rubbed red. He bowed his head and said in a perplexed tone, “The smell cannot be washed off.”

Chen Qi’s face was full of black lines and he beckoned the big man at the door. Aze hesitated slightly before finally walking over. Without him being too close, Chen Qi could already smell the stench from the skunk. He silently sighed in his mind. Fortunately, after washing up, the bad odor was much lighter, now just within his range of tolerance. At least it was no longer so horrible that even with covering the mouth and nose, he’d still feel like he might die from the foulness. 

Seeing Aze continued to look gloomy, Chen Qi took a large bamboo tube and filled it with the meat and laiche fruit broth for him and coaxed, “Don’t worry, the smell will probably be gone tomorrow. Just endure it for one night. After eating, you could go to bed early. You won’t be able to smell it when you’re asleep.”