Chapter 9

The few animal skins placed on the table were all gone, and some of the sharpest bone knives and animal teeth hanging on the wall were missing. The wooden box in the corner of the room was opened, but nothing was taken since the items inside had no practical value. The bundles of dried herbs and a small bag of seeds hanging under the skylight were also missing.

“…”

Standing at the treehouse door with a fish, Hamoyin looked towards the bed. Naturally, no one was lying there anymore, only a bird feather blanket half-hanging off the edge. There was no blood, so there hadn’t been a fierce struggle.

Hamoyin didn’t believe the half-disabled Nagu had run off with these things. He was sure it was the same people who stole his prey this morning. After all, only a few people in the tribe needed animal skins this season, and even fewer lived near his hunting area. These people had taken Nagu, who couldn’t resist, along with the items.

Hamoyin threw the fish and the fruits he had picked onto the ground, then turned to take his bow from the wall. He could tolerate people taking his prey in his hunting area, but entering his home was crossing the line. If he chased them now, they might not have returned to the tribe yet. He could kill them before dark, retrieve Nagu and the animal skins, and make it look like wild animals did it.

With this in mind, Hamoyin grabbed his weapons and set off immediately. But as he slid halfway down the vines outside the house, a voice from above stopped him.

“Hamoyin…! Help, help me!”

“…”

Hamoyin looked up incredulously at the dense canopy above. The voice came from outside the small window next to Nagu’s bed.

The voice was Nagu’s, no doubt. Squinting, Hamoyin saw something waving in the dark green foliage—it was Nagu’s arm.

“Help me, I can’t get down…”

Nagu was hiding behind a pile of branches and vines, stretching her arm out as far as she could to make sure Hamoyin saw her.

What was going on? She hadn’t been taken away?

Hamoyin grabbed the vine with one hand and stepped on the stone spikes embedded in the tree trunk, starting to climb up. He was puzzled as to why Nagu was in the canopy, but he decided to bring her back to the house first.

A few minutes later, Hamoyin reached the canopy and found Nagu nestled in a web of branches… along with a bundle of animal skins behind her. The ointment on the girl’s ankle had been rubbed off, and the wound it covered was slowly seeping blood. She was covered in dirt from the branches.

“What are you doing??” The animal skins and weapons in his house hadn’t been taken by people from the tribe? It was Nagu? Hamoyin’s brows furrowed deeply. “If you wanted to leave, you could have just told me. There’s no need for this.”

If I wanted to leave, would I come here!? Besides, I don’t want to leave, I don’t want to leave!

At this moment, Nagu didn’t care if she was being misunderstood. She reached out and tightly grasped Hamoyin’s wrist, her voice trembling: “Take me down first, and I’ll explain everything, okay?”

She had been stuck up here for almost half an hour. Although the branches held her securely, looking down through the gaps was no joke. Even though staying in the treehouse was also high up, it always felt safer inside!

“…Alright.” Hamoyin could only turn around and let Nagu climb onto his back. As for the bundle of animal skins, he planned to come back for it later.

As Nagu lay on her benefactor’s back, her anxious heart instantly calmed down, feeling as if she were lying flat on solid ground.

“Ugh,” Nagu’s face couldn’t avoid being scratched by the rough texture of Hamoyin’s hair, which was tied back. The peacock-green thin pieces woven into his hair also kept poking her, so Nagu reached out to push Hamoyin’s hair aside. But halfway through, she froze in shock.

Hamoyin’s neck, usually covered by his hair and clothes, was covered with a layer of peacock-green diamond-shaped scales. They were densely packed, extending from the back of his neck downward, likely covering more of his back under his clothes. These weren’t stuck on; they were growing directly from Hamoyin’s body.

Nagu recalled the two people who had tried to take the animal skins earlier. They had indeed referred to Hamoyin as a “monster.”

Well, no matter how undeveloped a human is, their pupils shouldn’t be vertical!

At this moment, Nagu didn’t know how to describe her feelings. She had been afraid of encountering a monster, given how those women had feared and loathed the monster’s actions. But now it seemed that monsters could be communicated with, and Hamoyin was much easier to talk to than others.

For now, she decided to pretend she hadn’t seen anything. Nagu carefully let Hamoyin’s hair cover his neck again. Since Hamoyin had kept this hidden and hadn’t mentioned it to her, it was probably something private.

“What are you doing?” Hamoyin was climbing down with Nagu on his back, so he hadn’t noticed her fumbling around until he felt her messing with his hair, which was quite annoying.

“I’m just adjusting my position, don’t worry about me,” Nagu said, feeling guilty.

“Don’t move.”

“Okay, okay…”

Nagu obediently stayed still on Hamoyin’s back, but she couldn’t help wondering where and when she was. In her previous world, no ancient people had scales growing on their bodies. By the time Hamoyin carried her back to the treehouse, Nagu had already been pondering whether the scales on Hamoyin’s back were more like those of a snake or a lizard.

“Lie down, I’ll treat your wound,” Hamoyin said as he laid Nagu back on the bed. “You can explain what happened just now.”

“Alright.”

…

Hamoyin carefully washed her wound with water and applied a new ointment. By now, he understood why Nagu had appeared in the canopy with the animal skins.

Earlier, Nagu had noticed someone trying to steal the animal skins. In a panic, she ignored her leg injury, rolled up the skins, tied them with grass ropes, and pushed them out of the window by her bed. She then climbed out of the window herself.

Nagu had slowly climbed up the tangled branches with the skins, heading wherever there were more leaves and vines. Fortunately, the thick and numerous branches of the large tree, intertwined with those of nearby trees, created countless natural footholds. Otherwise, Nagu wouldn’t have been able to climb so high with her injured leg.

“You shouldn’t have taken those things with you. If you hadn’t, your wound wouldn’t have reopened so badly,” Hamoyin said as he applied soft, clean leaves over the ointment on Nagu’s ankle.

“Ugh,” Nagu was sweating profusely, enduring the sharp pain of the cold ointment seeping into her wound, unable to respond to Hamoyin.

Hamoyin looked at Nagu, who was biting her teeth in pain, then continued cleaning the dirt off her body. Once she had somewhat recovered from the pain, he asked, “Did you see what the intruders looked like?”

“There were two people… one had short, reddish-brown hair, and the other had a big beard,” Nagu said, recalling what she had seen from her hiding spot after they left the treehouse. “They both had peacock-green decorations like yours.”

“Everyone in the Azulan tribe wears that color; it’s a symbol of the tribe,” Hamoyin shook his head. “Any other distinctive features?”

“I’m not sure, but I think one of them was called Gon… Gora?” Nagu mimicked the sound she had heard, though she wasn’t sure if it was a name. “Something like Gon-something.”

That was clear enough. Hamoyin nodded, “I know who it is.”

“You do?”

“Gonkachala, and the other one is probably his brother.” These two brothers hunted in the middle of the river, not too close but not too far from his area.

I’ll deal with it tomorrow, Hamoyin thought, continuing to clean the dirt off Nagu’s arm.

Author’s note:
Nagu: So, not a cat, but a reptile!
Hamoyin: …Yes.