The fluffy beast is a hybrid of wild animals from the forest that steal fish...
Jiang Yunlan held the thorny fruit with its light green inner shell and looked up at the golden autumn forest.
"Lan!" Feng Hong broke open a few thorny fruits, held the fruits that revealed their white flesh, and squatted down in front of Lan, raising her hand with a smile, "Eat!"
This fruit is delicious, and she wants Lan to try it too.
Seeing her offer the fruit, Jiang Yunlan belatedly realized that the fruit growing in this grove was the food she was looking for. This meant that all the thorny fruits on the ground were edible.
The orcs have food now, food to help them get through the winter.
"Thank you, Maple Leaf," Jiang Yunlan said with a bright smile as she took the white fruit, her voice light and cheerful, "We've found the food you were looking for."
There are so many edible prickly fruits.
Jiang Yunlan had a new worry: the worry of storing these prickly fruits. She pondered this as she ate the pulp from the pale green shell.
The white flesh has a texture similar to jelly. It has a fruity aroma and a very sweet taste; you could eat dozens of them in one go without getting tired of them.
Jiang Yunlan ate three prickly fruits in a row, then noticed Feng Hong blinking her expectant eyes at her. She somehow understood Feng Hong's expression and nodded firmly, "The food is delicious."
Maple grinned, happily stood up, took off the vine basket from its back, and began collecting food. The other orcs in the gathering team also took off their vine baskets or wooden buckets and threw the thorny fruits they had collected into them.
022 floated beside Jiang Yunlan, recording the characteristics of the prickly fruit while watching her busy work.
Suddenly, 022 turned its head and scanned the plant waterfall at the entrance of the valley. Jiang Yunlan noticed its unusual reaction, followed its gaze, and said knowingly, "It's Yanlin coming over and hiding behind the climbing plants."
Helpless, Jiang Yunlan glanced at Yan Lin's barely visible figure, then walked over and grabbed him.
"Yanlin, come and pick the fruit." She looked up at Yanlin, who was trying to hide, and clearly arranged things for him while he was flustered and at a loss.
He was injured and ill. Jiang Yunlan originally planned to let him participate in labor after he recovered, but she did not expect that he would go out hunting every day despite his injuries.
As Jiang Yunlan watched, she silently suppressed her thought of letting him join the gathering team. She had clearly seen him lingering outside the group of orcs. She remembered that he and the other orcs, including Feng Hong, would avoid each other. He didn't like this clan, nor did he like the orcs here.
However, Yanlin, who dislikes the orcs, secretly follows behind them to protect them out of concern that they might encounter the furry beasts.
Yan Lin bent over, watching Lan's gestures, then glanced at Feng Hong and the others below the thorny fruit grove, and hesitantly agreed to Lan's request. He hadn't wanted to show up, but the cub Lan was looking at him like that…
Unable to resist the cubs, Yanlin picked up the fruit he rarely ate and quickly put it into the nearest vine basket.
Seeing him suddenly appear there, Yan Lin stopped picking fruit and approached him, asking, "Yan Lin, did you come here specifically to find us?"
On their way to the Hedgehog Beastmen's territory, Rock and Maple walked ahead, unaware that Abai, who was walking behind, spotted Rock Forest and pointed it out to Lan.
"Let's see if you're dead or not." Yan Lin replied without thinking, his words extremely provocative.
The rock, adaptable to the situation, interpreted what he meant and said to him, "Still alive."
"Yanlin, look. Lan found all this food." Yanlin put down the thorny fruit he had smoothed out, and a rare smile appeared in his eyes as he looked at him.
Food always brings joy to the beastmen, and even if it's not their usual food, it can't suppress the happiness that a bountiful harvest brings them.
Yan Lin recalled the meat in the cave—meat from the furry beasts that the cubs would use to grind their teeth—some fish, and a few other prey with little meat. He remained silent for a moment, then nodded and quickened his pace in carrying the fruit.
There were so many thorny fruits in the forest that the vine baskets and wooden barrels couldn't hold them all. The beastmen would need to come back a second time to take all the fruit they could.
Jiang Yunlan was not worried that the remaining thorny fruits would be eaten by the animals overnight. Carrying the heavy food that pleased the orcs, she calmly led the orcs back to the cave.
Yesterday, she washed a small portion of the fur from the fuzzy animals, degreased them with wood ash, and laid them out on a semi-circular platform to dry.
Every day, Maple Syrup sits on the semi-circular platform, tending the fire in the earthen kiln and watching over the dried fruit and fur drying on the platform. The clan's pottery bowls are already enough for the beastmen's use; the pottery she's been firing these past few days consists of pottery jugs and jars, several of which have been successfully fired and are just the right amount to use for washing the fur of the furball beasts.
However, the remaining water in the cave wasn't enough to wash the nearly two vine baskets of fur, so the beastmen had to take these pottery jugs and jars to the river. If it weren't for the wild animals lingering near the river, they could have simply taken the fur to the riverbank to wash it.
Jiang Yunlan and the orcs returned to the cave too late, and it was dark before they could go to the river again.
As the orange-red sky darkened, Jiang Yunlan obediently stayed in the cave to eat her dinner. The appearance of the furry beast made her realize that there were many magical creatures in the beast world, and that seemingly harmless creatures could very well be the real danger.
Wandering at the foot of the mountain at night was already teetering on the edge of danger. She couldn't possibly cross the perilous forest with the orcs at night to fetch water from the river. They weren't nocturnal orcs, and neither was she.
For dinner tonight, Jiang Yunlan finally got to eat fried eggs, eggs fried in the oil that came out when cooking the Three White Beasts.
The big bird laid an egg today, and it was still a light blue egg. Unfortunately, she had used up all the chives while making the purple chive soup, so she couldn't make chive and egg stir-fry, making it difficult for every beastman to eat this egg.
However, Jiang Yunlan did not give up. She insisted on cutting the small fried egg into small cubes and distributing them to each of the beastmen's bowls. She wanted them to try every food they could eat.
Seeing her actions, 022 asked in confusion, "Why not save up thirteen bird eggs and then fry an egg for each orc?"
Jiang Yunlan helped up the elderly deer-beastman whose arm was still movable, and sat down in front of her with a bowl in her hand, letting her slowly spoon the food into her mouth.
Her name is Green Robe. She is a stubborn deer-beastman who loves cleanliness and prefers to eat by herself.
“022, I don’t want them to wait,” Jiang Yunlan said gently, looking at the woman in green who was too weak to hold the bowl. “Because if they wait, they might never get to eat it again.”
022 was stunned, looking at the other two elderly deer-beastmen being fed, and felt that she understood something.
It had always known that most living beings had short lifespans, but only now did it suddenly realize just how short they really were. So short that it might not even live to see a fried egg a few days later.
“022 understands,” it said.
Orcs have such short lives.
It watched as Lan patiently waited for Green Robe to finish its food, watched Lan take a bowl and spoon to wash it, and watched Lan return to its haystack bed to make a wooden comb to groom its downy fur.
It realized that Lan's life was but a blink of an eye. So it watched her until she died, pausing only for a fleeting moment.
Before this fleeting moment vanishes, it doesn't need to rush to explore the world. In any case, this clan and the storm are both objects of its chosen observation.
Time passed slowly, and Jiang Yunlan, with the newly made wooden comb under her, curled up on her side and went to sleep.
The transparent slime ball didn't go out tonight. It landed lightly beside the squirrel-beast cub's hand and looked up at the double moon outside the cave entrance.
With a gentle blink, the sun appeared.
"...022? You're back so early today." Lan, who had just woken up, rubbed her eyes and spoke in a soft voice. It was at this moment that she looked more like a cub.
022 looked at her and said, "I didn't go out last night."
Jiang Yunlan understood. She got up from the haystack bed and went to the semi-circular platform to wash up. After preparing the weapons she would take with her today, she took her uneaten breakfast and a bunch of peeled thorny fruits and called for the beastmen to finish their breakfast before heading out.
The transparent slime floated silently beside her and followed her out the door.
Seeing their actions, Yan Lin said nothing, silently got up and followed them. Jiang Yunlan glanced at him, took out a vine basket for him to carry, and told him to follow at the back of the group.
The beastmen ran to the river, cautiously hiding in the woods, observing the river from a distance.
Six furry creatures were drinking in the river, their eyes following the movement of fish. Their fluffy bodies, however, became an obstacle when they tried to catch fish; otherwise, they would float on the river unless they completely wet their downy fur.
Upon seeing them, Jiang Yunlan belatedly realized that the furry beast was the one that had torn apart the fish basket and eaten the fish.
Seven wild animal footprints had been found along the riverbank. These six furry beasts, plus the one Feng Hong and the others killed, made a total of seven furry beasts. Jiang Yunlan pursed her lips, stared at them, let out a long breath, patted Ah Bai's arm, and led the beastmen away from the riverbank.
There were simply too many of those six furry beasts; we couldn't defeat them all, so we had to make a tactical retreat.
Once again, Jiang Yunlan gathered food at the foot of the thorny fruit forest, pondering how to deal with the fluffy beasts.
If we can separate and kill those six fluffy beasts one by one, we can get enough fluffy clothes and blankets for winter, and also eliminate the danger of fetching water from the river in the future.
Jiang Yunlan tried to explain her ideas and tactics to the orcs, but could only see the blank and bewildered expressions on the faces of Feng Hong and the other orcs.
She paused for two seconds, then said very succinctly, "I want to kill the furry beast."
Feng Hong immediately sharpened his senses and, gripping his stone spear firmly, declared, "Kill!"
The orcs echoed, "Kill!"
A battle between them and the furry beast was inevitable; it was only a matter of time.
Jiang Yunlan smiled, pursing her lips, and returned to the cave with food and the beastmen to prepare nets for catching the furry beasts and food to lure them in. She had already devised a strategy for hunting the furry beasts; all that was left was to put it into practice the next day.
A note from the author:
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The little angel "Youyu" used 9 bottles of stabilizing agent on the net made by the beastmen, making the net woven from vines and grass stronger and increasing the probability of successfully capturing the furry beast.
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