Chapter 29 [Mera's Encounter with Silas]...
When you wake up after a good night's sleep and find that the weather is exceptionally sunny, your mood will also brighten up.
At least Mela is in a good mood today.
Even during her daily routine checks, when she discovered that many of the black irises she had recently managed to find had withered buds after being planted in flowerpots, Mela didn't angrily call Lex over to check what was going on.
In contrast to her was Silas, who seemed to be shrouded in a visible dark cloud, with a constant drizzle falling as she moved.
Even Mela couldn't help but back down and temporarily distance herself from Silas, lest she add insult to injury for the poor crow.
"Do you know what's wrong with Silas?" Mela quietly approached Lex, deliberately lowering her voice as she asked.
As Silas spent more and more time with Lex, there were some things he was unwilling to confide in Mela, his master, due to some inexplicable pride, but was quite willing to share with Lex.
Although it always added "Remember to keep this a secret" after saying it, Lex remembered that he had never agreed to it.
So whenever Mela asked, Lex would reveal Silas's secret without any hesitation.
This time is no different.
"You got rejected by Miss Lily again, didn't you?" Lex said casually.
"Miss Lily?"
"That's the name it gave to that white dove."
"Miss Lily's feathers are so white and beautiful, just like a beautiful lily flower." This is Silas and Lex's shared thought process about naming their child.
White dove?
Oh, Mela remembered, Lex had mentioned to her that Silas had recently taken a liking to a white dove that had just moved to the Dark Forest.
"But did the white dove agree to it naming the other person without its permission?" Mela asked again.
Lex pondered for a moment, then honestly shook his head. "I don't know."
Silas doesn't tell him everything.
For example, when it comes to things that make it feel ashamed, Silas rarely shuts its talkative mouth, becoming harder to pry open than a tightly closed clam shell.
“However, if I were that white dove, I probably wouldn’t like a name given to me by a different race.” Lex thought about it from Lex’s perspective.
Rather, if one day a foreign race came running over excitedly and called him in a strange tone, as if it were a name they had specially chosen for him, Lex would definitely not be able to help but show a look of disgust.
Who wants a name that someone else comes up with randomly? Lex clearly has a proper name of his own.
That's true. Mela nodded in agreement.
Although in the eyes of humans, crows and doves are just birds and can hardly be considered different species, in the eyes of real crows and doves, the difference between them is greater than that between humans and dogs.
Therefore, when Lex heard that Sylas had fallen in love with a white dove, even he showed a rare expression of surprise.
Mela gave a soft "hmm." At first, she was indeed a little surprised, but soon she realized there was nothing to be surprised about. After all, it was Silas. "From the moment he could speak, Silas was destined to no longer be an ordinary raven."
To some extent, Mela even managed to understand Silas's choice.
Silas has always been proud of its powerful wings and glossy black feathers, so it's perfectly normal for it to fall in love with Miss Lily, since it will never have another set of pure white feathers in its life.
Speaking of this, Lex turned to look at Mela, "I remember that Silas was able to speak because he accidentally drank a potion you made?"
“Hmm…” Mela was lost in memories as Lex spoke; it was a story from a very long time ago.
At the time, Mela was living in White Pine Town and was only fifteen years old.
Just six months ago, Wipdo died unexpectedly from a high fever. As the town's only doctor, hundreds of people relied on him to treat their headaches and fevers.
When he also fell ill, those who had previously disdained to seek Mela's medical help now had to acknowledge her status as the heir to Wipdo. Crucially, Mela's medical skills were indeed in no way inferior to her father's.
So, as soon as Wipdo's funeral was over, Mela officially took over his mantle and became the town's new healer.
Besides treating patients, Mela still goes up the mountain to collect herbs from time to time.
Silas was the poor little crow that Mela encountered by chance on one of her mountain hikes.
At that time, Silas's feathers hadn't fully grown in yet; he was still a fledgling and unfortunately fell from his nest in the tree.
Because he had broken several bones, little Silas was in so much pain that he kept letting out weak cries.
However, at this time, only Silas's brothers and sisters, who were also not yet adults, were in the nest. Even though they heard Silas's cries of pain, they could only crane their necks and respond mournfully, but they were powerless to rescue him.
Fortunately, Silas's cries attracted Mela, who was nearby, before attracting other wild beasts; otherwise, such a small bird would probably have been swallowed up as a snack.
With her excellent hearing, Mela didn't miss the faint chirping sound carried on the wind. "It must be some kind of bird calling," she thought.
However, she honestly turned her toes in the direction the sound came from, and instead of continuing up the mountain, she followed the sound to find her way back to the source.
Sure enough, it was a little bird chirping. Mela saw little Silas lying on the ground, unable to move. He was an ugly little crow.
It looks like it accidentally fell out of its nest in the tree.
Mela looked up and immediately spotted the round, bowl-shaped nest, and then estimated its height.
It is a bit high, but for Mela, who is an excellent tree climber, it is not impossible to climb up.
If it were anyone else, they would probably be thinking about how to get the little crow home by now.
But Mela is different.
She thought, since it was the little crow she intended to save, why should she return it? Of course, she should take it back and keep it as her own bird.
So Mela bent down, picked up little Silas who was still barking incoherently and even more frantically because of her actions, held him in her palms, and without even picking any herbs, went down the mountain and back to her house.
Back home, Mela casually placed little Silas on the table.
After searching high and low, she finally found the healing potion hidden deep inside the cabinet, and also grabbed a spoon along with it.
Unfortunately, little Silas is still too young, and Mela can't force the medicine down his throat.
I could only drip a little into the spoon, creating a shallow little lake that reflected Mela's seaweed-green eyes.
Mela used a bit of force, prying open little Silas's beak with the spoon and pouring the medicine in.
As expected, little Silas strongly resisted what Mela wanted to feed it, flapping its wings and even clumsily maneuvering its injured body as it turned to run away.
Unfortunately, Mela saw through its intentions beforehand, and with an evil hand, she grabbed the palm-sized little crow and imprisoned it.
So little Silas was forced to drink all the medicine in the spoon.
After making sure there wasn't a drop left in the spoon, Mela finally moved it away and went about her other business, leaving little Silas coughing wildly behind her as if he had choked on the wind.
After a while, Silas finally recovered. It was already a little listless, and now it curled up even more, cautiously surveying the unfamiliar environment.
It was surrounded by things it had never seen before.
Including the tall platform beneath its rear end, made of many pieces of wood.
Fortunately, the aged woody scent on it was a familiar smell to little Silas, the scent of the white pine trees most commonly found around its nest, which reassured little Silas a little.
After a while, Mela's figure disappeared on the stairs, and little Silas mustered up his courage and tried to take two steps forward.
Strangely, little Silas tilted his head and felt no pain at all, as if he had never fallen out of the nest.
Although the exact reason is unknown, even though its brain is now only a tiny bit big, little Silas realized that the fact that it wasn't in pain was related to what humans were feeding it.
Therefore, when Mela reached out again, took it in her hand and examined it closely, little Silas stopped struggling and quietly let Mela look at him.
Hmm...it looks so ugly right now. It should look better once its feathers grow in, right? Mela thought, staring at the little Silas in her palm.
To help little Silas grow beautiful feathers as soon as possible, Mela added many ingredients to the porridge she fed him, including some herbs that are beneficial to human hair.
Although Mela didn't know if the herbs were effective for the birds.
Of course, it doesn't matter if it doesn't work; you have to try something the first time.
At first, little Silas refused to eat the strange-tasting food, shaking its head wildly and refusing to let the spoon touch its beak.
Unfortunately, to Mela, this struggle was just like whining.
Mela even pinched little Silas's head and sternly warned him, "Don't be picky about food, or you'll definitely get sick from an unhealthy body."
After saying that, Mela herself was taken aback for a moment.
Once upon a time, Wipdo used the same method to deal with little Mela, who didn't like carrots.
However, Mela quickly regained her senses, used a spoon to pry open Silas's beak, and successfully poured the mushy food into Silas's mouth.
At this point, little Silas had no choice but to swallow the food.
Later, perhaps realizing that resistance was futile, little Silas not only learned to accept his fate, but would also bury his head in the small bowl that Mela had specially prepared for him, and eat with relish.
As it turned out, those herbs were effective not only for humans but also for birds. Soon, little Silas really did grow beautiful feathers, successfully transforming from an ugly fledgling into a reasonably pleasing little crow.
After growing its feathers, it should be time to learn to fly.
But Silas's parents weren't around, and Mela didn't have wings, so she couldn't teach him how to use his wings to fly like a real bird. Therefore, Silas had to learn on his own.
Fortunately, the instinct to fly seems to be ingrained in birds.
Little Silas naturally knew that he had to jump down from a high place to learn to fly.
The place it chose to practice was the same table it had sat at when it first came to this home.
The table was about four or five feet high, which, at Mela's current height, reached just to her waist. It was very convenient for her to put something down temporarily or reach for something.
But for Silas Jr., falling from that height brought him real pain.
Perhaps he'll break a few more bones.
Nevertheless, the desire to learn to fly kept urging little Silas to stretch out his claws, walk step by step to the edge of the table, spread his wings, and jump down—
The pain was so intense that Silas didn't even have the strength to stand up.
"Ouch, that hurts," was the only thought in its head, which was about the size of a melon seed.
Unfortunately, it actually broke a few more bones.
Suddenly, Silas remembered the strange-tasting water that Mela had forced him to drink a month ago.
Little Silas remembers that after drinking the water, the pain in his body stopped.
Thinking of this, little Silas began to move his body, enduring the excruciating pain, and crawled forward little by little.
It knew that Mela usually liked to hide the bottle containing this water in a cabinet, and would only take it out late at night to pour it into another bowl and stir it.
The cabinet wasn't locked, after all, Mela was quite certain that no one would break in and steal anything from the house, unless he didn't intend to continue living in White Pine Town, otherwise no one would dare to offend the town's only healer.
So Silas simply grabbed the handle, pulled, and the cabinet door opened, revealing the dark interior.
With its current size, it could easily squeeze in.
There were just too many bottles of all kinds—tall ones, short ones, ones with big bellies, and ones as thin as necks. Little Silas was overwhelmed and couldn't pick out any bottle that contained water that was useful to him.
At that moment, Mela was walking home.
Yesterday, Mrs. Charlotte sent her maid to the door, saying she was feeling unwell and asking Mela to come and take a look at her the next morning.
Therefore, Mela left home early this morning with her first-aid kit.
When Mela saw Mrs. Charlotte leaning against the bed, her lips turning purple, her expression turned serious.
This is not to say that Mrs. Charlotte's ailment is incurable, but it would be somewhat troublesome to treat. At the same time, it is fortunate that she sent someone in time; otherwise, if it had been delayed for a few more days, the condition would have become even more complicated.
After successfully securing the generous consultation fee, Mela hummed a song as she walked home.
When she opened the door, she found that Silas wasn't on the table, so she called out its name, "Silas—where are you? Did you fall into the sofa cushions while playing?"
Mela put down the medicine box, walked to the sofa, and pulled back the soft cushions, but found no trace of Silas.
Okay, it seems Silas isn't here.
"Silas? Where are you?"
Mela had no choice but to call out again.
At the same time, he carefully observed the carpet under his feet to avoid accidentally stepping on Silas.
"...I...I'm here..."
A faint, mosquito-like sound came from the cabinet against the wall.
Um? !
Mela walked quickly to the cabinet, squatted down, and immediately saw Silas, who was curled up like a ball but was staring at her with a forced smile.
It seemed to know it had done something wrong, and its whole body trembled like a leaf.
Beside it lay several empty bottles, which had already been drunk from.
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