Chapter 48

The wind whipped up fine sand, hitting their bodies, and at times, it was so strong that they couldn’t open their eyes. The wasteland was different from the forest. The wind wasn’t extreme in the forest, even in winter, as the tall trees blocked it. The wind would only make a soft whimpering sound. When it got cold, it would start to snow, covering the entire forest layer by layer, cold and damp, silent and desolate. But here, it was different. The temperature was already very low, and the ground was covered with frost but no snow. The wind howled, scraping the land mercilessly. Most importantly, it was both cold and dry here. Walking around the plain, their faces would crack from the wind. Every time Song Xu went out and came back, she found her lips cracked, and licking them would make them bleed.

Song Xu ran farther each day, hoping to find a better place for Wu Mu to hibernate. She rarely saw any living creatures, but one day, shortly after leaving, she saw a shadow circling in the sky. It was too far to see what kind of bird it was, but it was flapping its wings hard against the wind, seemingly trying to fight it. Though its wings were still somewhat immature, they made it wobble in the strong wind.

Song Xu watched for a while and thought it looked like an eagle.

Was it hunting? Remembering her experiences of being mistaken for prey by eagles several times, Song Xu picked up some stones just in case. If it dared to come down, she would throw them; there were plenty of stones on the ground.

The eagle circled above her and suddenly swooped down, clearly targeting her. Song Xu raised a stone, but the eagle landed unsteadily in the distance, embarrassingly rolling on the ground before getting up. As it stood up, its wings folded, and Song Xu finally saw that it was a beastman.

Generally, most beastmen wouldn’t eat other beastmen, so Song Xu put down the stone. However, many loved to fight, so she gripped the beast’s tooth knife at her waist instead.

“Ugh, ugh, ugh!” The female eagle beastman, covered in dirt, had medium-length hair that was a mix of black and gray, matching the feathers on her back, a black and white speckled young eagle. Wearing a feathered cloak with two feathers on her head like owl ears, the beastman waved at Song Xu from afar, her face beaming with a warm smile, her golden eyes shining like the sun.

“Hi! Hi! I knew you were a beastman. Haha, I thought you were a fox or a rabbit from up there, but as I flew closer, I saw you were a beastman. I haven’t seen you around here. Did you just move here? I’m a beastman from the cliff tribe over there. My name is Huhu. You look so fluffy. What kind of beastman are you? I’ve never seen one like you!”

“My name is Song Xu, and I’m a squirrel beastman.”

“Squirrel? That’s great, so fluffy,” Huhu said, her eyes revealing her love for fluffiness.

Song Xu thought: this eagle sister is definitely a fluff enthusiast!

The tall and fit Huhu familiarly put her arm around Song Xu’s shoulder: “Why are you alone here? The wind gets strong around this time. Be careful not to get blown away.”

Song Xu hadn’t met a beastman more talkative and familiar than herself in a long time.

“I’m not alone. I have a companion waiting for me,” Song Xu said, not avoiding her hand but curiously looking at her. “You said you’re from the cliff tribe. Are there cliffs nearby? I haven’t seen any.”

“Well, I can fly, so it’s not far for me. But for you running on the ground, it must be far!” Huhu said, interested in the fluffiness, and invited, “Are you curious? Why not come to my tribe? I just got a new nest, and the cave is spacious! I can take you flying. How about it? Want to try flying?”

It was clear that this enthusiastic sister wanted to show off her new home and flying skills, so much so that she eagerly recommended it to a stranger.

“That won’t work. I have a companion. How about you give me directions, and we’ll go there ourselves?” The mention of a spacious cave tempted Song Xu.

“What’s the problem? Is your companion also a cute little squirrel like you? I can carry ten of you to the sky easily. Don’t be fooled by my young age; my flying skills are already quite good in the tribe. Many beastmen my age wouldn’t dare fly here in this weather!” Huhu looked at Song Xu with longing, thinking how soft and warm it would be if all the little squirrels were in her cave.

Song Xu sighed regretfully, “That probably won’t work. My companion is a snake beastman, and he’s quite large.” She estimated that even ten Huhus wouldn’t be able to lift him.

Huhu was skeptical, “A snake beastman? How big can he be?”

Song Xu replied, “Why don’t you come back with me and see?”

Huhu readily agreed. Song Xu felt that many of the beastmen she encountered on the road, even those with a bad attitude, were generally straightforward and simple-minded. Perhaps it was because their living environment was too simple, spending their entire lives in the tribe with few people and little intrigue. An eagle beastman who invited a stranger to her home on the first meeting and followed a stranger to their home without any sense of danger. But when she poked her head into the hole and saw the big snake inside, Huhu’s feathers fluffed up, and she jumped back several meters, exclaiming, “What a big snake!”

Wu Mu was watching the furry baby mice crawling around the hole when he suddenly saw a stranger’s head peeking in and heard Song Xu’s laughter. He knew she had probably brought a new friend to see him again. This had happened often before; she seemed to enjoy introducing him to beastmen she met on the road.

Song Xu stood at the entrance, laughing, “See, I told you you couldn’t move him.”

Huhu’s fluffed-up feathers settled down, “I… I really can’t move him.”

“Then I’ll fly above and guide you!” she suggested.

Song Xu thought for a moment, “Not today. We should wait until the wind isn’t so strong, preferably when it’s sunny and a bit warmer.”

After that day, Huhu flew over every day to ask Song Xu, “Are you going today?”

“Maybe in a couple of days. The wind is still too strong today,” Song Xu replied. Huhu didn’t insist and stayed to play with her. She even brought Song Xu a gift, a branch with a bunch of fruits.

Song Xu, who hadn’t eaten fresh fruit in a long time, was touched and surprised by the orange-red fruits. “You still have fruits growing at this temperature?”

Huhu explained, “They grow at the bottom of the cliff, where it’s not too cold. If you like them, I’ll bring more tomorrow.”

Song Xu only heard the part about the bottom of the cliff being not too cold, which made her even more excited. She thought that Wu Mu’s hibernation problem could be solved. She happily hugged Huhu, “Thank you, friend!”

Huhu flew over every day to play, repeating the process of flying a few circles in the sky and then landing. She actually flew quite well, but her landings were problematic. Song Xu, who couldn’t fly, gave her advice from the side, “When landing, your claws should touch the ground first, not your head.”

Sometimes, Song Xu would transform into her squirrel form to resist the cold wind. Huhu couldn’t resist seeing her fluffy form and suddenly swooped down to grab her and take her into the sky.

Song Xu panicked for a moment but quickly realized Huhu meant no harm and was just playing. She soon found her balance and tried to open her eyes at the high altitude.

The bird and the squirrel swayed in the strong wind, with Huhu excitedly shouting, “I can fly even higher!”

Song Xu clung tightly to Huhu’s bird claws and shouted, “Higher!”

At a certain height, Song Xu saw a line in the distance, unlike the horizon but more like a crack in the ground. However, the wind was too strong for her to see clearly, and Huhu couldn’t hold on for long, soon bringing her back down to the ground.

Song Xu clutched her chest, calming her heart, which was about to jump out, and quickly asked, “I think I saw a crack in the ground in the distance?”

Huhu replied, “That’s not a crack; it’s the cliff where our tribe lives.”

Song Xu was stunned, “Isn’t a cliff supposed to be on a mountain?”

Huhu said, “It is on a mountain.”

Song Xu asked, “But it’s all flat land over there. Where’s the mountain?”

Huhu explained, “This is the mountain.”

Huhu didn’t know how to explain further, so she urged her, “You should go and see for yourself!”

Finally, on a day when the wind wasn’t too strong and the sun was out, Song Xu set off with the snake, who still refused to hibernate. Before leaving, she told the nest of baby mice in the hole, “You’ve grown up. Find your own food from now on, okay?”

The ordinary baby mice just squeaked, watching them leave and tentatively poking their heads out of the hole.

It took them two days to reach the cliff Huhu mentioned. Song Xu ran ahead and was stunned by the scene before her. She had imagined what the cliff might look like, but she never expected this. The flat wasteland they had walked on for so long abruptly ended as if an axe had cut the plain in half and moved the other half away, creating two separate worlds.
Standing at the edge of the cliff, which looked like a knife had carved it, she looked down but couldn’t see the bottom. The cliff was so high and steep, with only clouds and mist swirling below. Beneath the swirling mist, she could see the green expanse of a forest stretching endlessly below. If someone looked up from below, they would see that they were now standing on top of a towering mountain.

Huhu, who was used to the sight, pointed down the cliff, “Our tribe is down there.”

Song Xu’s eyes lit up, “Wow, that’s amazing.”

A shadow fell from above, and Song Xu looked up to see a group of winged pterosaurs flying overhead, gliding through the layers of clouds and mist and landing in the green forest below.

Huhu explained, “Those are primitive beasts. They migrate to other places every year and come back after a while. But they’re dangerous, and the elders in the tribe don’t allow us to go near them.”

Song Xu: This is so amazing, I have to bookmark it.