eurekapd Chapter 3: A New Home for Two
Chapter 3: A New Home for Two
"Luo..." came the boy's cautious voice from the doorway.
Jiang Luoluo subconsciously looked up as she picked a new basket of herbs.
A young but sturdy boy stood there, looking uneasy. He was dressed in clothes made of animal hides and held a weapon made of stones and sticks.
"Alright, Ge is here to pick you up. No need to pick them anymore, just go with him." The young shaman casually picked up the cub sitting on the ground and pushed her toward the door.
Jiang Luoluo took two steps, then hesitated and looked back at the young witch.
Previously, through the conversation between the young shaman and Chief Jing, Jiang Luoluo had already understood that she was the sole survivor of a wild beast attack, and that her parents and many of her people had perished in the battle against the beast.
Go was the same; his parents and relatives also perished in the accident. However, he probably felt that the wild animal attack was related to him, so he fell into deep self-blame and took responsibility for the only survivor, Luo.
—But neither the young shaman nor the chieftain Jing thought so. They believed it was an accident, an accident that had nothing to do with anyone, an accident that happened like a natural disaster.
As a human child who is only six years old—whose human identity is currently in doubt—especially since she is a human child who cannot speak, Jiang Luoluo felt that it would be more stable for her to live with the young witch than with a sixteen-year-old boy!
However, if the young witch could adopt her, she would never have agreed to Ge's proposal.
"Let's go." Seeing the cub's dependence and attachment, the young shaman softened his voice and gave the cub another push.
Realizing she had no choice, Jiang Luoluo could only turn and walk towards the boy at the door.
“Ge, Luo is too young. She may have bumped her head, or the fire poison may have damaged her brain. She doesn’t remember anything.” The young shaman looked at the boy who was burdened with endless regret and sighed.
Upon hearing this, young Ge felt even more self-reproach in his eyes before speaking softly, "...If you don't remember, you won't be sad. Wu, I will take good care of Luo."
Without further persuasion, the young shaman handed a package wrapped in leaves to the boy, Ge. "I haven't found a medicine that can cure the fire poison yet. It can only relieve the pain that may occur. If you see Luo is in pain, boil some water and give it to her to drink."
“When you’re done drinking, come get it from me.” The young shaman looked at the cub next to the boy, Ge. Although he couldn’t keep it by his side to take care of it, he could still offer some help. “Also, if Luo needs anything, bring her to me.”
"Thank you, Wu." The young man thanked him and took Jiang Luoluo's hand as they left the wooden house.
Once she left the wooden house, Jiang Luoluo realized where she had been all along.
The mountaintop, or rather, a huge mountaintop that had been leveled.
A huge bonfire was built with stones in the very center of the mountaintop, and the flames inside burned fiercely, day and night, as if they would never go out.
Not far from the campfire was the wooden hut where the young shaman lived, standing alone on the mountaintop. Behind the hut, some land had been cultivated, and many plants that Jiang Luoluo recognized were scattered around—the herbs she had seen in the hut.
Seeing Jiang Luoluo stunned by the huge stone campfire, the young man Ge thought of what the young shaman had said about the cub not remembering anything.
After thinking for a moment, he squatted down and gently explained to the cub, "Luo, I know you don't remember, it's okay, I will teach you again."
"This is the fire of our Yanshuang tribe. It is the resting place of our people, the protection of our ancestors, and the continuation of our tribe. As long as the fire is extinguished, the tribe will continue to exist."
"What are you talking about?" Jiang Luoluo made no attempt to hide her incomprehension, but the young man Ge didn't seem to care.
No five- or six-year-old child could possibly understand these things.
Young Ge simply repeated his parents' teachings from memory, passing them on to the cub before him: "You don't need to understand, Luo. You just need to remember them. You'll naturally understand their meaning when you grow up."
They slowly descended along the path at the top of the mountain. The young man, Goben, wanted to carry the cub, but the cub refused by waving its hands.
The piece of meat she had eaten earlier still left her with a burning sensation in her stomach. The young shaman said that moving around would help it digest, and then he found her a bunch of chores that required her to sit and pick herbs.
This is a good opportunity to digest while walking.
Jiang Luoluo quickly discovered that the mountain was strange. It was not the kind of steep mountain that was common, or rather, it might have been before, but it had become quite gentle due to human intervention.
Like a multi-tiered cake tower, after descending from the top platform and traversing a wide, compacted road wide enough for four large trucks to pass side by side, Jiang Luoluo and the young Ge arrived at the second "platform".
This place is not as lonely as the top floor with only a stone campfire and a wooden house. There are many tall wooden houses here... even two-story wooden houses, built irregularly on top.
Jiang Luoluo even saw a familiar figure; that two-story wooden building was the residence of Chief Jing!
"Chief." After greeting him from afar, the young man, Ge, led Jiang Luoluo on their way down.
As Jiang Luoluo went down, she saw more and more wooden houses. Although the area became larger as she went down, the houses became more and more densely packed because more people lived there, and their quality visibly deteriorated.
Considering the locations of the residences of the young shaman and the chieftain Jing, the Frostfire tribe probably built their houses from top to bottom according to their social status.
Seeing that the young man Ge continued walking down the mountain without stopping, Jiang Luoluo understood that their future home... probably wouldn't be too good.
In fact, when Jiang Luoluo saw the two people's "home," saying it was bad was already an overestimation.
It was a cave.
That's right, it's not even a dilapidated wooden house; it's simply an artificial cave carved out of the mountains, with an area of about 20 to 30 square meters. Because the surrounding area is irregular and there are significant height differences inside, the actual usable area is even smaller.
"I'm sorry, Luo." Perhaps sensing the cub's disbelief at seeing the cave, young Ge couldn't help but apologize. He always felt he had let down many people, especially the cub in front of him.
“...Our previous home was burned down, and I don’t have the ability to build a wooden house of my own right now, so, Luo, I’m sorry, we can only stay here for the time being.”
"But I promise you, soon we'll have a new cabin, just as big as the one we lived in before..."
Jiang Luoluo didn't care about those things, but since she had already come here and didn't know how to get back, she could only try to live her life well for now.
Since we're already here, we might as well make the best of it. Maybe we'll figure something out later.