Chapter 82 – The bird eggs
Translated by Sunyancai
According to Ta’s theory, once badly wounded, plants like the Fire Lance would not approach them again for a short period of time. Also, its blood could prevent other creatures from coming close. So temporarily, the tree hole was safe. In fact, it was a lot safer than it was previously.
Many speculated that those two Fire Lances were coming after them for the Green Thief. Because of that, Ta didn’t waste any time. He took a few warriors to the marsh pool and brought back some mud. They covered the stone box containing the adult Green Thief with a layer of mud. After that, they used a tree leaf with a refreshing fragrance to wrap it up and finally tied it tightly with straw rope. By doing that, they could hide most of the Green Thief’s smell. This was the same method used in the past when they found plants with strong smells. Although it was very difficult for humans to smell the scent of the Green Thief, some plants and animals had their own special ways to sense it. In any case, taking a few protective measures was also good.
Now, no one would belittle Shao Xuan again. Even though they still felt that setting traps were merely some little tricks, nobody could deny the benefit they had gained from it. And so, Shao Xuan was treated with a much better attitude by the others.
Perhaps it was true that Shao Xuan had the blessings of ancestors, which helped them to find the Green Thief. Meanwhile, Shao Xuan’s own skills could not be ignored. At least in the eyes of the group, Shao Xuan had many more accomplishments than most of the newly-awakened warriors back in the tribe so far.
After resting for some time, Ta took a few warriors to go search nearby, hoping they would be lucky enough to find more Green Thief seedlings, while Shao Xuan climbed up a tree following Tuo and Keke. The tree hole was in the middle of the trunk. Above it, different kinds of birds inhabited the treetops where there was lush foliage. Although they were not big, with the biggest one only one meter in wing expanse, however, they were large in numbers. So normally, the advance group wouldn’t mess with them for no reason.
But because of the earlier fierce battle, many birds were scared away. Basically, all the birds that were usually guarding or resting in their nests were scared off by the crossfire. So when the warriors got back to the tree hole, Shao Xuan followed Tuo and Keke to rob the nests, and they collected many bird eggs.
When eating bird eggs in this place, Ta and the rest always ate them raw.
Shao Xuan took out three bird eggs from one nest, but oddly, they did not look alike at all, even though they were from the same nest. The biggest one was larger than an adult’s fist, while the smallest one was the size of a normal chicken’s egg from his past life. They were in different colors as well. One was purple red, one was covered by blue and white dots, while the last one was in the color of khaki, with circling patterns on it.
“Are they all edible?” Asked Shao Xuan.
Keke looked back, “Sure, I’ve tried them all.”
“How can one nest have different eggs?” Shao Xuan carefully put the eggs in his animal skin bag, and he had also put a lot of tree leaves.
“Perhaps the bird stole the eggs from elsewhere.” Keke did not seem to care.
“Stolen?” Shao Xuan was surprised.
“Of course! With their size, how can they lay such big eggs? The bird from this nest can only grow this big.” Keke gestured the size with his hands, “How could a tiny bird like that produce fist-sized eggs? It’s not possible! But that kind of bird has long, thin talons, convenient to steal eggs from the other birds.”
“All the bird eggs here are stolen?” Shao Xuan was shocked one more time.
“They must be.” Keke was positive.
There’s a saying that things of a kind gather, birds of a feather flock together. These were all egg-stealing birds, regardless of their different species. They lived together because they did not worry about the eggs in the nests being stolen by others, for they were not their own eggs! They wouldn’t feel heartbroken when losing them, anyway.
Thinking about that, these birds must have their own secret places to lay their own eggs. It should be somewhere concealed, or they must have had some unique way to reproduce.
When collecting the eggs, Shao Xuan noticed that there were many eggs that were pecked to pieces. Some broken eggs had some leftover egg white, while in some broken eggs there were remains of the baby birds. It turned out that all those eggs were stolen to be used as food.
When Shao Xuan filled up his animal skin bag, he climbed back down to the tree hole. Ta and the others had been searching for a long time, but none of them could find another Green Thief seedling. They were probably taken away by other creatures. Judging from the behavior of the Fire Lances, the Green Thief was indeed in hot demand. Luckily, Shao Xuan’s trap caught the Green Thieves at night, and they got up early enough to find them before they were snatched away.
In the meantime, it could be speculated that it was highly likely that most of the creatures interested in the Green Thief were diurnal ones, while the nocturnal creatures had no special interest in the Green Thief.
No matter what, they were fortunate enough to have caught the adult Green Thief and some seedlings.
“Boss, would the Green Thief seedling die soon after picking them up?” Ah-Suo looked at the few turquoise seedlings and shared his worry with the others.
The others quickly understood Ah-Suo’s point. They had been in similar situations before. When they picked up a seedling from the soil, it would die quickly, no matter how careful they were, even if they used soil to wrap it. The shelf life of a seedling was much shorter than a grown one’s.
“It’s possible.”
“Why don’t we eat the seedlings now? Or it would be a huge waste.”
“Yes, yes! I agree. What if we wake up tomorrow morning and then find that all the seedlings have died? The seedlings are not adults after all. They can’t be kept for long!”
Everyone gathered together and discussed. If it were other plants in the past, they wouldn’t be so nervous. But it’s the Green Thief for God’s sake! It had not showed its existence in hundreds of years! Any waste of the seedling would be a huge loss!
Finally, Ta decided that they would share the six seedlings at hand now.
Ta thought about waiting until they reunited with the other small group, but he could feel the life fading as he held the Green Thief seedlings in his hands.
Ta pulled down half a leaf and swallowed it first. He was the strongest warrior in the crowd, as well as the leader of their group. So he intended to try it on himself first and then give the seedlings to the others after he had confirmed of its safety.
The warriors stared at Ta. They watched him swallow down the half leaf, and none of them even blinked, for fear that they might miss anything.
“What’s up, Boss? Feeling anything?” Ah-Suo asked eagerly.
Ta carefully checked his body, but he shook his head, “I don’t feel anything, except that I’m a little less tired.”
The group was disappointed. But even then, they still shared the six seedlings eventually. Shao Xuan got a whole leaf. It was a larger share than the others, but no one complained about it. Calculating the credit, Shao Xuan’s share was more than the others combined. If not for the rules of the hunting team that all prey must be shared in the group, Shao Xuan could have kept the Green Thief to himself. Just like the last time when he killed the Thorn Black Wind, the Green Thief could have been kept by him as his game.
Hence, the team knew at heart that they were the ones who had profited from Shao Xuan’s victory. They planned on hunting down more ferocious animals for Shao Xuan on their way back.
The sun set quickly. The sounds of the birds chattering had halved, as not many birds had returned to the nests. They had other nests in other places. When one nest was endangered, they would hide in other nests until the danger passes.
Before darkness fell, Keke asked Shao Xuan to set another trap nearby, to see if they could capture any other creatures. There was no white thread left, so Shao Xuan could only replace it with thin vines and straw ropes.
But Shao Xuan had the feeling that tonight they won’t have anymore gains.
When night came, instead of preparing to go to sleep, everyone unexpectedly squeezed in front of the tree hole.
“Why am I feeling that the seedling is taking effect?” Tuo looked at a minor bulge, which was about ten meters away from the tree hole and said excitedly.
“I feel that too!”
“Although not very clearly, I can indeed see further than before.”
“It’s true! This is just a seedling. What if someone ate the big one? Could he move around freely at night then?”
Even Ta could not achieve the state to move around freely at night. Without night vision like the nocturnal ferocious beasts, movement would obviously be restricted in the darkness.
The effect brought by the Green Thief seedlings was a pleasant delight to them all, but they would not keep it to themselves. They would take the Green Thief in the stone box safe and whole back to the tribe, right into the hands of the Shaman.
Shao Xuan admired the Shaman more because of that. All the warriors adhered to the principles, even when they were faced with huge temptation. This was all from the Shaman’s teachings.
That night seemed to be extremely quiet. Everyone had sweet dreams, while the night guards paid extra attention to the traps below. They all wished to catch more Green Thieves.
Shao Xuan had a good sleep that night, but he didn’t have any dreams. No flowing green light entered his dream.
Early the next morning, all warriors hurried down the tree to see Shao Xuan’s traps before sunrise. Aside from Shao Xuan’s trap, the other people who knew about setting traps also made a few snares. However, they were disappointed today. Nothing was captured. However, the ground which was previously covered in red was replaced by green. Grass grew dense and high to people’s knees overnight. The “blood” of the Fire Lances became their nutrition.