34 – Betwixted Translations

Today was a Moonless Day. Azhang needed to prepare to depart for the Lion-Wolf Tribe tomorrow, so he didn’t come over. In any case, the house was already at the stage where they had to wait for the gum fruit-silt mixtures to be completely dry. So, Chen Qi told them that they could go back to their own affairs for the time being. The roof of the house could wait for their return from the Lion-Wolf Tribe.

Early in the morning, Aze gathered all the skins in the sundries room. This was the yield from his hunting this year. Aze stuffed the skins into his backpack. When Chen Qi entered the sundries room to get some firewood, he saw Aze sitting on the ground, frowning at the backpack that had been stuffed to the brim, looking worried.

“Are these the animal skins you’ll be trading for other things? How many salt stones can you exchange for such a big bag full?” The animal skins were so bulky that such a backpack could only be stuffed with five or six pieces at most.

“About ten pieces.” Common animal skins would only be worth one piece of salt stone. Even the best and warmest hides that Aze chose would only garner him two pieces at most. However, if the ordinary animal skins were processed into hide clothes like what Ali could make, they could be traded for about two or three pieces of salt stones. Aze did not know how to make hide clothes. In the past, he’d tie dozens of animal skins together to carry to the Lion-Wolf Tribe’s annual gathering. This year, since he was bringing Chen Qi with him, he naturally would not be able to carry the animal skins that way.

“Only ten pieces?” Chen Qi frowned. Such a large bag of animal skins was only worth so few pieces of salt stones. That wouldn’t be enough to last a year. “Is there no other way to get more?”

“If they were made into fur clothes like Uncle Ali’s, they would be worth twice as much.”

Chen Qi’s eyes twinkled with an idea. “What if they were made into backpacks?”

Aze bowed his head and thought for a moment. The backpack may not be very useful to the females that go hunting, but it was a convenient prop for other beastmen who go harvesting or gathering, “They may be worth more than the fur clothes.”

Chen Qi slapped the palm of his hand. “Then I’ll make some backpacks and trade them at the gathering.”

Chen Qi went off to do what he stated. He found a dozen pieces of tough and thin animal skins and went back to the main room to work on them. Since he was making these backpacks specifically to be traded for other goods, Chen Qi adjusted the design with that in mind. Although the style was still very simple, there were two more side pockets sewn onto the sides for more odds and ends.

Looking at the busy Chen Qi, Aze hesitated for a moment and asked, “Chen Qi, do you know if there’s a way to carry more things when also carrying a person?” Only bringing one backpack of trade goods was too little.

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

“To carry more things when also carrying a person?” Chen Qi looked up and saw Aze looking at him seriously. Chen Qi thought for a moment before he realized what he meant. If he was to go with them to the Lion-Wolf Tribe, Aze would have to carry him for the journey. However, if Aze was carrying him, he would not be able to bring along too many more trade goods. This was not to say that Aze was too weak, but rather that the beastmen did not know how to carry more things while carrying a person. This was also why Aze had needed to discard the hides he’d collected before he could take Chen Qi back to the tribe.

“Right now, this will trade for too few salt stones, not even enough to last until next year.” Aze explained. When he used to cook food directly with salt stones, because the taste was not very good he’d only use a little bit at a time and one salt stone could be used for several months. Now, curing a warthog would use up half a piece of salt stone, so there will definitely not be enough salt.

Chen Qi thought for a moment, then he picked out a wooden stick of moderate length, along with the rope that had been used when transporting the stegosaurus bones, and went to the sundries room. There, he asked a bewildered Aze following him, “Which animal skins were you planning to trade away?”

Aze pointed to the huge, taller than a person, pile of hides in the corner.

Chen Qi went over and tightly rolled up the animal skins, one by one. Each of them were tied with a root string. After about 30 to 40 furs were rolled up, he tied them together with a rope, forming a bundle. Then he made another bundle in the same way. After the second bundle was done, he passed the two bundles of tied up skins through with the wooden stick and beckoned Aze over. “Try and see if you can pick them up.”

Aze walked over, bent down, picked up the two bundles of skins with ease, and took a few steps forward. “If I carry them on my shoulder like this, I’ll be able to carry you on my back.”

Chen Qi silently spurned himself for a few seconds for being a burden.

So the next day when everyone assembled, Azhang saw Aze carrying a stick over his shoulder that had two half-person tall bundles of animal skins and a swollen backpack full of skins mounted in front of him, while carrying Chen Qi on his back, who was also carrying a bulging backpack full of animal skins. It was like Aze’s whole body was drowning in animal skins. Azhang looked at this with a face full of black lines.

Azhang was followed by three females. Two of them looked older than Azhang, with more wrinkles on their faces and some white hair falling across their temples. The other younger looking one was the female Chen Qi had met before, named Ale.

Although they did not have as much as Aze did, they were each carrying bulging backpacks full of hides on their front and back. The backpack on the back also had an extra bundle of furs tied on top of it. Everyone wanted to take advantage of the annual gathering to bring as many things as possible to trade.

Azhang looked at the obvious black rims around Chen Qi’s eyes. “What did you do last night? Why do you look like you didn’t sleep a wink all night?”

Chen Qi raised a hand and patted the backpack behind him. “I made some backpacks overnight to trade them for more salt stones at the gathering.”

Azhang was stunned. Ali had also worked through the whole night to make a pile of hide backpacks. The bags he was carrying were a large bag full of hide backpacks and a large bag full of hide clothes.

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 Lion-Wolf Tribe was located towards the inlands of the Dora Plains. It was established near one of the tributaries of the Dosa River. To go inland, they naturally had to cross the Chishui River.

At a slightly narrower bend of the river, there was a tree trunk of about 20 meters long lying across the river. The tree trunk looked very new, with no signs of decay. It looked like it had just been moved over recently.

They crossed the trunk bridge and ran in the direction of the Lion-Wolf Tribe.

Although Aze was carrying a bunch of things, he was no slower than the other females. Although he was running the whole time, he didn’t even appear winded.

Chen Qi noticed that aside from the occasional few words to Azhang, Aze was basically silent to other females. Also, when travelling, Aze would intentionally fall further behind the others and would not be like Azhang, walking side by side with the others. The others also seemed accustomed to this. They didn’t take the initiative to go closer to talk to Aze, but they also did not express any avoidance or disgust. When they come across him, they would just give a friendly nod and that was all.

In the evening, they found a tall acacia tree to rest at for the night. Aze and Ale went hunting nearby. Of course, they went separately. While the other two were busy looking for water and firewood, Chen Qi, being the lone person who hadn’t exerted any strength, took the initiative to undertake the task of starting the fire. He also dug out a pottery bowl and bamboo tube from his backpack. He uncovered the hide tied to the bamboo tube, poured the water contained in the bamboo tube into the pottery bowl and set it on the fire to heat it. Then he took out some dandelions and added them to the water to make a bowl of scented tea.

Soon Aze returned carrying a cleaned and processed warthog over his shoulder and holding several laiche fruits in his hands. Aze handed Chen Qi two of the laiche fruits and gave the rest to Azhang. Then he skewered the warthog with a wooden stick and set it to slowly roast over the fire Chen Qi had set up.

Ale returned a little later and he brought back a processed goral*. Ale casually set himself down by the fire. Chen Qi noticed that Aze’s body obviously stiffened before he unobtrusively moved further away from the fire.

*小斑羚 Xiǎo bān líng. A goral is an animal with goat-like or antelope-like appearance.

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

Is this…? Does he have bad blood with the tribespeople? Or is he simply not used to getting along with them? But he usually gets along quite naturally with Ali, Azhang and the others. Chen Qi was a little worried. So, under the guise of distributing the boiled scented tea to the others, he quietly went to Azhang to find out what was going on.

Azhang took the offered bamboo tube, looked at Aze sitting in the corner and sighed, “This has something to do with his father and Ka Luo’s dad*. Don’t ask more about this. If you want to know more, you’ll have to get Aze to tell you.”

*different terms used that both mean father/dad. Hence forth, father = non-birth parent, the male (the smaller one), dad = birth parent, the female, the manlier one… Yes, take your time digesting this ^_^

Seeing that Azhang didn’t want to say much, Chen Qi went back to Aze and handed him the boiled scented tea. “You must be tired after travelling such a long distance. Drink some tea to ease your fatigue.”

Aze accepted the pottery bowl. In fact, he was not tired at all. He wanted to help barbecue, but Chen Qi did not let him interfere. Chen Qi cut open one of the laiche fruits and poured the juice into a pottery dish full of water. Then he sliced some meat off the warthog and added it to the dish to make a laiche meat broth.

As Chen Qi was a male, he was naturally assigned to the tallest and largest branch on the acacia tree to rest on that night, and Aze naturally stayed with Chen Qi.

The rest of the journey was also peaceful. At that moment, Chen Qi discovered just how large the migrating army on the Dora Plains was. It was not hundreds of thousands of animals, but tens of thousands of hundreds of thousands of animals moving in the same direction. A large path was formed from being completely trodden on, and the animals catching up from behind would follow that path to their final destination.

The beastmen did not avoid the paths of the migrating animals. Perhaps they had long learned their migration patterns after having attended the gathering for so many years that they did not encounter any animals obstructing their journey. Instead, they were able to rely on the migration army for food and would not lack any for their travels.

Three days later, Chen Qi saw three tall rock mountains far off in the distance. The rock mountains here were much taller than the miniature rock mountains that were the namesake of the Rock-Mountain Tribe, and they were also much steeper. The large rock mountains formed a semicircle and the Lion-Wolf Tribe was established within this huge semicircle.

The Lion-Wolf Tribe, like the Rock-Mountain Tribe, had guards crouching atop tall acacia trees just outside the tribe. When they saw people coming their way, they’d jump down from the tree and ask which tribe they were coming from. In this age, the beastmen tribes had no concept of guest registrations or anything like that.

Chen Qi thought that a big tribe like the Lion-Wolf Tribe would’ve been better structured than the Rock-Mountain Tribe. It was not until he entered the tribe that he realized how cruel the reality was. There were several decaying tree trunks outside the tribe as barriers. He concluded that these barriers wouldn’t even be able to keep out ordinary coyotes. Like the Rock-Mountain Tribe, the houses were built all over the place. Each building was narrow and small, and there were no complete roads, so they had to twist and turn through small alleys.