Yarra’s Adventure Notes
Chapter 396 - 22 Reclaiming the Hunting Grounds_1

Chapter 396: Chapter 22 Reclaiming the Hunting Grounds_1

"I want to help them." This was Diana’s first sentence after sitting down.

After two days of fast horse riding, the six-person party managed to arrive at Parqi’s tribe just before Huront’s solar chariot return to the Divine Realm. The tribal leader personally came out to the tribe’s camp entrance to greet these last hopes of the tribe. After greeting the group into the tribal camp, the enthusiastic beastman elder insisted on holding a large bonfire party to celebrate the professionals’ willingness to rescue the tribe in crisis. The three girls also set foot in the beastman tribe for the first time, feeling incredibly amazed by everything around them.

Completely different from human society, the beastman tribe couldn’t be described as a village or town but rather a camp. The entirety of the camp possessed no buildings, streets or anything else present in the human world. It only had the unique landscape of the beastmen and the prairie.

The tribe of their client wasn’t particularly big in size, with merely over a hundred people. However, there were over a thousand domestic animals and more space prepared for these animals in the camp than for the people. The hundred or so inhabitants lived in huge, special tents organized by household. Each family had their own tent cluster, and next to it was an animal pen that belonged to the family. The pen’s size varied according to the number of livestock, and all of the family’s livestock would be confined in there after grazing. The tent clusters’ distribution across the camp was very sparse, and each cluster was separated from each other by hundreds, or sometimes even thousands, of meters. This setup made the sparsely populated tribe occupy a large area. If one wanted to visit each other in the tribe, they would have to depend on horses as their mode of transport. Otherwise walking would exhaust them even in a slightly larger tribe.

The outer periphery of the tribal camp didn’t have any over-arching wall. Around each tent cluster, beast skin was stretched out over some crude wooden fences to create a relatively independent space. The fence’s purpose was merely to prevent wild animals from mistakenly intruding whereas its actual defensive capability was negligible. The camp’s center was a huge grass field where any significant activities or celebration would be held, including the entire tribe’s bonfire party planned for that day.

The skies had not darkened yet, but the great bonfire had already been lit at the center of the field. The tribal leader, a senior member of the Cow Clan, was being pulled aside by Parqi and whispered something as he often glanced at Lina. Following their conversation, the clan leader treated the members of the party with increased respect. It was apparent that Parqi had reported to the chief on Lina leading a wolf pack in the hunt. While a druid could influence animals, their powers of influencing or taming a few of them couldn’t fully integrate them, the chief had to treat this unprecedented case with increased caution.

A few roasting racks were set up over the central bonfire. The most prominent of these racks bore Diana’s catch: a full-grown buck. The other racks held prairie sheep that were slaughtered by the tribe at the last moment. For their guests, such hospitality was considered the highest standard, even if the leader of the tribal alliance personally paid a visit, they would only be treated with such hospitality. As guests, the five parties were immediately directed to the seats reserved for honored guests as soon as they sat down. From there, they could leisurely watch the tribe’s members bustling about.

"I want to help them." Diana repeated earnestly, "Those children, they need help."

"What happened the night before last?" Catherine asked cautiously, "Could you tell us first?"

"Of course." Diana nodded, "However, I am very tired. I have told Lina everything, so let her explain to you in detail, and I will rest for a while. See you tomorrow."

In Marcia’s view, the person in front of her seemed to change after only a blink of an eye. She no longer saw a powerful beast ready to bare its fangs, but rather a human trying to imitate a beast by dressing up in beast skin.

"I’m back." Lina did her best to imitate Diana’s demeanor, maintaining the dignity of the Wolf King, she stated with a deep voice, "We have arrived at the tribe, your movements were pretty fast!"

"Is your body okay?" Catherine was most concerned about this, "I’ve never seen you let them control you for so long. I remember you saying that it would deplete your vitality and make you tired. Aren’t you tired after such a long time?"

"It’s okay, It’s not about time, but the frequency and physical condition." Lina moved her body a bit and nodded, "There’s no problem, it’s just that my muscles are a bit sore, well, my palms as well."

"It’s impossible not to be sore." Catherine rolled her eyes, recalling Diana’s actions throughout the day, and said with a wry smile, "You’ve been running around all day, be glad you still have the energy."

"Exactly." Pannis approached them with a malicious smile, saying, "Let me tell you a story. It’s about what you did today, a very interesting story."

"Thank you, I don’t want to hear it." Lina glared at Pannis, "You don’t have to tell me."

"Dear Mr. Pannis." Catherine’s hand rested on Pannis’s shoulder, she said through grit teeth, "I think we need to have a serious talk again."

"I was wrong." Pannis always maintained a proper and swift attitude when apologizing. "Please forgive me."

"You guys are so noisy." Vivian, who had been sitting with her head down, suddenly lifted her head and complained discontentedly, "Don’t interrupt my thoughts. This calculation is very complicated, and a slight mistake will ruin everything."

"What are you calculating?" Lina asked curiously, "Is it still about the improvement of that formula?"

"Yeah." Vivian nodded: "I’ve had some new thoughts since the last incident with the diary, and I’ve been working on them these days."

"Diary?" Everyone blinked in unison: "Didn’t we fail to obtain it in the end?"

"Exactly because we didn’t get it." A faint smile appeared on Vivian’s innocent face: "After thinking about it, I realized that not getting it might indeed be a good thing. I was heading down a wrong path before. Every time I encountered a difficult problem, I would always think that I had considered everything yet still couldn’t find a solution, and then I would study others’ thoughts, learning and being inspired from them. Such learning is not necessarily a bad idea, but the biggest problem was that I had become too dependent on it. I even put all my hopes on this kind of learning. This is a very foolish practice in the academic world. Not only would I eventually lose my own ability to think, but I could also easily be misled by others. Once I realized this, I began to feel grateful. Maybe it was Lord Weston’s glorious guidance that made me unable to get the diary and gave me this enlightenment. Because shortly after I realized this truth, I had a new train of thought."

"To me, it seems you just made a breakthrough in the field of knowledge. Keep it up, we’ll support you with all we’ve got." Catherine patted Vivian’s soft hat and encouraged her before saying: "But let’s not think about that right now, pay attention to what’s being said about the mission."

"Mission?" Vivian nodded, rubbed her face hard to wake herself up: "No problem, go ahead."

"This is what those children told Diana." Lina had been quite serious these past few days, and now she was more serious than ever: "The children said they came from the west over the mountains. In that position, the only mountain to the west is one."

"Is that our destination?" Catherine looked up at the continuous mountains not far to the north: "That’s quite a coincidence."

"I confirmed it with the children, that’s the one." Lina nodded affirming Catherine’s idea: "The children’s hunting grounds used to be in the mountains, for many, many years. They said there’ve always been a lot of moving bones in the mountains, but those bones had their own range of activity and did not conflict with them. But since about a year ago, the range of activity of the moving bones had been expanding, continually compressing the living space of the children. Even though the children are very strong and not afraid of the bones, there are simply too many of them, and no matter how hard they tried, they couldn’t kill them. The most important thing is that the prey was scared away by those bones. Food supplies became scarce, so they had to contemplate migration."

"Were they also disturbed by the undead?" Catherine drummed her fingers on her shield and pondered: "So how do you plan to help them?"

"Actually, it’s very simple, just complete the tribal task as soon as possible." Lina stressed the words ’as soon as possible’: "We need to be quick. If it takes too long, considering the number of children, there might not be enough food in the vicinity for them and we might face a situation where a child starves to death."

"Lina, I have a question for you." Pannis suddenly interjected: "Considering from your perspective, not Diana’s, do you think we can get those Silver Wolves to help us?"

"Pannis." Catherine interrupted Pannis’ question, discontentedly saying: "Don’t make such difficult considerations."

"No, such consideration is necessary." Pannis stated gravely: "If the Silver Wolves want to reclaim their living space, they need to strive for it themselves, not wait for others to help. Indeed, this matter would be dangerous, both for the Silver Wolves and for us. But it’s precisely because it’s dangerous that they should face it themselves. This is the law of nature. Even if there are significant casualties afterwards, I think Diana would understand."

Pannis’s argument left Catherine speechless. In fact, Catherine also knew that what Pannis said was not wrong, but as a sister, she would rather be a bit tough herself and not make her younger sisters worried. But she also understood that she had no right and no position to ask Pannis and Vivian to think the same way. However, when the two did not think the same way, she still felt a slight disappointment.

"No, I think you’re mistaken." Pannis had already guessed what Catherine was thinking and immediately explained: "You can’t consider magical beasts as humans, or even as domestic animals. They are spirited. They must face danger and nature themselves. All we can do is assist. Otherwise, if you let them hide in a safe place while we face the danger, what’s the difference between them and the cattle and sheep in the animal pen over there?"

"Big sis, Diana agrees with what Pannis said." Lina leaned against Catherine’s arm: "But, she wanted me to thank you on her behalf."

"I’m sorry." Catherine sighed and shook her head: "I’m really bad, actually misunderstanding my family over something like this, and getting disappointed over it. It’s my fault. I hope you can forgive me."

"Forgive? Hehehehe." Pannis had a wicked smile on his face as he rubbed his chin: "Forgiveness doesn’t come without a cost, unless you..."

"I suggest you look back before you say anything." Catherine smiled weirdly: "Think it over before saying it."

"I was wrong." Pannis apologized shamelessly without even looking back. Turning his head, he saw Vivian quietly retracting the thick ice spear that almost hit him.

"Heroes." Seeing everyone starting to joke around, Parqi helped the old leader over: "The banquet is about to start. Could we take up a bit of your time?"(To be continued. If you like this work, please come to qidian.com and vote for it. Your support is my motivation. Mobile users please go to m.qidian.com to read.)