Chapter 92 – Boomerang
Translated by Sunyancai
When the rainy season ended, it was Ta’s hunting team’s turn to go out hunting.
This time, Shao Xuan was in Mai’s hunting group. Before they went out for hunting, every one gathered together on the mountaintop to sing the Song of Hunting. Ta said nothing when seeing Shao Xuan. He was in a bad mood, but still, he dared not to act it out obviously.
Perhaps, the Shaman had already talked to him, which left him no other choice but to swallow his anger. He would be considered disrespectful to the Shaman once he revealed any traces of dissatisfaction.
Ta had no choice but to take a deep breath and carry on. He assumed that they could gather more plants even without Shao Xuan’s help. At the very least, some warriors in the advance group also knew how to set traps if setting traps was required. Unless the ancestors would only bless Shao Xuan, and turn a blind eye to the real elites of the tribe? He did not believe that.
The others in the hunting team were also staring at Shao Xuan curiously, especially those young warriors. Apparently, they were mocking him secretly, and their looks seemed to say: Look at that! I knew that this guy would get kicked out from the advance group! I knew it!
Lang Ga worried that Shao Xuan might think too much, and he kept comforting him all the way up to the mountaintop. However, he had no idea that Shao Xuan did not care about it at all. And he was the one who made the proposal.
Caesar and Chacha were both left in Old Ke’s place, so was the remaining food. There was still something stored in the ice cave near the mountaintop, so there was no way that they would ever starve.
This time, the hunting period for them was relatively tight, so right at the end of the rainy season, Ta quickly summoned the hunting group leaders, and had them be prepared for the next hunting mission.
They had to be back to the tribe before the full moon, because at that period, the ferocious beasts in the forests would become even more irascible. So, based on the experiences they had in the past, whichever hunting team had the mission, it should be return before the full moon. The sooner, the better.
Last time when Shao Xuan was hunting with Mai’s hunting group, they stopped at the second location because they had found the ancestors. However, this time, the hunting i the first and the second location was smooth. So, Shao Xuan followed them to the third location.
There were a lot of lakes in the third location. Since the rainy season had just passed, some lakes became even larger, and there were some new smaller lakes around.
Many beasts, including many ferocious beasts, would come out after the rainy season. With the hunting experience that he had gathered before, and due to the fact that he was much stronger now, Shao Xuan had a good harvest. Since he had put down many high-level game, this time the food he had could support him for over fifty days.
In the tribe, Old Ke was not as worried as the last two times. After careful thinking, Old Ke found that it was because this time, Shao Xuan did not say the words “rest assured” before he set off.
Well, it was true. This time, the hunting mission went quite smoothly, and Shao Xuan tried with his full ability. He assisted the others, filled the leaks, and set a lot of traps. He was no longer a walk-over character. In fact, Shao Xuan was very satisfied with this fruitful, enjoyable hunting trip.
The only difference there was from the earlier hunting trips was that, as the time went by, the moons at night became brighter and brighter. At night, the forest was a little shiny as if it was covered by a layer of silver silk. The vision was not as dark as well. But similarly, nocturnal animals and ferocious beasts tended to be more irritable. Roars and cries of beasts and other animals could be heard, both day and night, and they were more frequent than before.
After twenty days, the hunting team returned to the tribe.
Because of the frequent riots of ferocious beasts, many people in each hunting groups were injured. Luckily, they were well prepared for the unpredictable accidents. Only three of the warriors were badly injured, even though many others were hurt as well. Considering the tough situation that they were all in, three was a lucky number. Fortunately, no one in Mai’s hunting group was severely injured.
When they were heading back to the tribe, Shao Xuan noticed that the river’s water-level dropped a lot as they reached the river in the mountain foot area.
The fish fences were still there. The first fish fence was near the river surface originally. When the rainy season ended, the rising river dropped again, and it was only a little higher than it was before the rainy season. So, the first fish fence was in the water.
However, now after twenty days, they returned, only to find that the water-level dropped sharply, and it was even lower than before!
“It’s almost the full moon, and the river would drop more in the following few days.” Said Lang Ga.
At second thought, Lang Ga smiled, “The fish fences that we made did not catch anything in the rainy season, but they might work after this full moon.”
The peculiar thing about this world were the two moons at night. They only become full moons once in a year, when they would move to each other’s direction, until they met, overlapped, separated, and then went in different directions.
When the moons were full, it was the time for them to overlap.
Last year at the same time, Shao Xuan was spending most of his time in the orphan cave like the other kids. They were nowhere near the river, so naturally, they did not see the rising and sinking tides. Although many people began to start fishing after the rainy season, but they were not allowed to touch the water when the river dropped. They needed to remain in the caves.
After taking care of the game, Shao Xuan took Caesar and Chacha back to his place.
“They were a little manic, you should pay attention to it.” Said Old Ke.
Shao Xuan glimpsed at the bones in the corner. The long ribs were chewed into small pieces, Caesar didn’t eat them, but left them there. There were marks of claws on the ground. However, Chacha, who was very active before, on the other hand, now became very quiet. In the past, he would try to peck on everything he saw, and sometimes clutched on those things while chirping. But now, he became very quiet and still. When he was not sleeping, he would just stay in his nest, not going anywhere.
Shao Xuan got back to his cabin, looking at overactive Caesar, and then the abnormally quiet Chacha. He thought for a while, and took out his knife to make something.
During this hunting mission, a tree’s leaf reminded Shao Xuan of something.
The Flying-around dart, also called boomerang, was something that Shao Xuan used to play with in his previous life. It could be made from paper. But since he was now in the tribe, he chose to make it with wood.
The boomerang that Shao Xuan made was in the shape of the character “V”. Because he became familiar with making stoneware and woodware, it was not so difficult for him to make such a boomerang. He knew how to do that.
It took him less than an hour to finish his work. After some more detailed polishing, Shao Xuan took his end-product outside.
“Come out, Caesar!”
He called Caesar out, as Caesar was walking around howling in the cabin earlier. Shao Xuan tapped on the wolf’s head with the boomerang, and said, “I toss it out, and you fetch it back for me.”
In the past, he had done the go-fetch training with Caesar. Sometimes, Shao Xuan would throw a stick or a bone out, for Caesar to fetch. So, Caesar was not alien with this game.
Seeing that Caesar began to stare at the boomerang in his hand, Shao Xuan knew that he was prepared, so he tossed it out hard.
The boomerang that was tossed out, quickly flew away, but soon enough, it flew back to Shao Xuan after flying around a large circle on the left.
Caesar kept running after the boomerang in a circle, and now he was very confused. Why could this thing come back to the starting point?! When Shao Xuan tossed it out again, he quickly followed the boomerang to see where it went.
“What?!”
Tuo and Keke came to see Shao Xuan. But all they saw was that Shao Xuan throwing a piece of wood out, and the wood would oddly come back to Shao Xuan after flying around. How astonishing!
“What is this?!” Tuo approached Shao Xuan and asked curiously.
They had a good harvest during this hunting mission, and the things that they collected were very sizable compared with their earlier hunting missions. However, the quality was not as satisfying as the quantity. Last time, they had brought the Green Thief and the Wind Ball back! They even set traps outside every night when they were in the hunting mission, but nothing was obtained. Some of the traps were destroyed by some unknown objects. Tuo and Keke came to Shao Xuan, just to ask him whether he would be interested in rejoining the advance group. However, unexpectedly, they saw something new and curious as they came by.
“This is called a boomerang.” Shao Xuan said.
“Well…may I have a try?” Tuo itched to try it himself.
“Sure.” Shao Xuan passed the boomerang to Tuo, and told him the trick to throw it properly.
……
“Are you sure that it will come back instead of getting lost in the woods?” Tuo was not so confident about the outcome. After all, he was used to throwing stone spearheads and darts. He had the feeling that the thing he threw out would fly to somewhere afar, well, about flying back…
“I’m sure.” Shao Xuan promised.
“Okay, then I’ll try it first.”
Tuo threw it out gently, and he was much relieved to see that this thing did come back to him. On the second time, he threw it harder.
Keke kept his eyes wide open as he stood right beside Tuo without blinking. With his own eyes, he saw the piece of wood fly back after Tuo threw it out. He rubbed his palms and swallowed his saliva, “Let me try it!”
Keke promptly took the boomerang as it flew back to Tuo. However, the result of Keke’s taking over was that, before the boomerang could be thrown out again, it was broken by accident.