Then he pressed the two stones together and repeatedly said to me, "Top, Lo..."
It was then that I realized what he meant by wanting to understand each other's languages.
The young indigenous people used two stones joined together to abstractly represent their desire for a unified language that we can all understand.
I have to say that these indigenous people are really ahead of their time. I never expected that they would actually take the initiative to ask to learn a new language.
I gathered my thoughts. The way these indigenous people spoke their language was so fast; it felt like they were reciting tongue twisters at an accelerated pace.
Since it's about learning, it's easy if one of us understands the other's language first. I think my speaking speed is a bit slower, so learning should be easier for me.
So I looked at the young native, took both pebbles into my own hands, pointed to myself, and asked if he could learn my language.
The young indigenous man seemed very pleased that I had understood what he was trying to say. As for whose language he was learning, he didn't seem to care.
Seeing that I wanted to primarily use my own language, the young indigenous person nodded, indicating that he was happy to learn my language.
Later, this language played a significant role in communication during some subsequent events, but that's another story.
Our top priority now is to find a place to stay as soon as possible. Yesterday, sleeping with dozens of people together was a terrible experience.
I think no one wants to continue sleeping curled up like that right now.
The problem was ultimately solved by the tribe's high priest. The high priest suggested taking us to an ancient ruin where we could stay for a while.
Perhaps it was destined, but the next site we were to visit provided me with a wealth of important information about this land.
This contains information about why the High Priest waited for my arrival, and how our temporary stay here was also something the High Priest wanted to show me.
After we finished processing the dried meat, we immediately set off for the ancient ruins that the high priest had mentioned, which is said to be the place where their ancestors lived.
Because we didn't bring any essential living supplies, all we had besides some simple weapons were some dried cave bear meat.
Traveling light made our daytime journey much faster. But it didn't feel like a major move to me; it felt more like a relaxing outing.
The journey went very smoothly, and the wild beasts during the day knew that these native inhabitants were not to be trifled with.
Luo, who was leading the way, had already intimidated most of the wild beasts in the jungle, making them dare not approach us easily.
On the way, I demonstrated my blowgun skills to the young native, and a lone moorhen by the stream came into my view.
It's also possible that it's not distributed in my area. Since leaving my hometown, I've rarely seen this kind of waterbird.
This water chicken has clearly never experienced the dangers of the world.
Seeing me approach, the moorhen only took two symbolic steps forward before continuing to forage for food in the grass along the stream.
This seemingly harmless but extremely insulting act—who does it think it is? I've decided to teach it a lesson today.
An arrow was inserted into the blowgun, and with a whoosh, the water chicken fell directly to the ground on the bank.
The young local man next to me wanted to help me retrieve the moorhen, but Top ran out faster than the young man and picked up the moorhen.
Top held the moorhen like a hound that had caught its prey. He bared his teeth and threatened the young indigenous man who also wanted the moorhen.
Perhaps Top still remembered that the person in front of him was the one who had almost killed him with a blowgun, because Top had always been lukewarm towards this native.
Top stared at the young native, then threw the quail in his hand into my basket with a displeased look. This action seemed to suggest that the native might try to steal my prey, which made me feel quite embarrassed.
However, the young local didn't pay attention to these things. He just grinned and was about to reach out to touch the interesting monkey.
Unexpectedly, Top slapped the young native's outstretched hand, jumped away to keep a distance from the native, and spat at him.
I shook my head and smiled wryly. Where did this guy learn to spit and mock others? But it seems Top really doesn't like this young native in front of him, at least not yet.
Pat has had the most comfortable time these past two days, because the large group of people has been traveling and there's no need to patrol the route along the way.
With Luo leading the way, if any foolish wild beast dares to cause trouble, Luo will certainly spare no effort to teach it the rules of the jungle.
As long as the wild animals don't mind, we certainly won't mind either; stockpiling more food isn't a bad thing.
This time, we walked for about two hours before arriving at the place where I first met the young indigenous people.
My initial guess was correct; there was indeed an indigenous settlement here, but it had been abandoned for a long time.
If these natives hadn't had their homes occupied by red tiger ants and been unable to return for the time being, they wouldn't have come to this place to temporarily settle down.
We are now heading in the same direction as the gentle mountain range I saw earlier.
I was planning to carefully climb up this mountain to check the situation, but then Top had an accident and was hunted and taken away by this young native as a wild monkey.
My only thought is to get back Top; this is my first time visiting these mountains.
Led by the people in front, we arrived at a cave that faced south and was covered with vines.
It's normal that we didn't discover it before because of the vines blocking the way, and because the cave was located in a shady spot near the mountain.
At that moment, the indigenous people pulled at the vines covering the cave entrance, and most of them were torn down.
The sight of this cave was quite awe-inspiring.
This cave was not the usual kind that was low and required one to duck to enter.
On the contrary, the cave is quite large, with a height exceeding two and a half meters. Moreover, the cave is not made of water-eroded limestone, but of hard granite.
The cave walls inside and outside are relatively smooth, suggesting that it was formed by a combination of geological movements and wind erosion.
There are some artificial traces of burning and vandalism on the upper edge of the cave. I think the cave entrance was probably not this big at first. It was probably enlarged later when more people lived there to make it easier to enter and exit.
Upon entering the cave, what caught my eye on the rock wall made me realize why the high priest had insisted on bringing me here.
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