Ancient Eden

Chapter 10

(3.3)

The thirsty feeling assaulted Mu Qing yet again.

This time, she did not need to save on drinking, she simply cut all the fruits she had in her backpack with the knife and drank them in one gulp. She slightly rubbed on her clothes the few wild fruits she had before also eating them.

While she was eating and drinking, the man was never idle and kept himself busy beside her.

When she finally raised her head after eating and drinking to her fill, she found out that he was gone.

.

Mu Qing, sitting in place, waited for a while, but when she did not see him come back, unexpectedly her heart slowly started to feel a little anxious. She stood up from the ground, hesitating whether or not to look for him around. But she very quickly dismissed the idea. Tilting her head, she looked up at the wooden house, on the fork of the tree. She was thinking in her mind that it would be safer to climb up and stay inside the wooden house.

Just when she was halfway-up there, after her somewhat clumsy efforts to cling to the bumpy tree barks, she felt something suddenly poking her buttocks behind her. Her hands and feet shook and she fell to the ground with a “pa”. Although there was a thick layer of leaves on the ground, landing on the ground with a poor arm posture was still a little painful.

She looked up in disarray and saw that it was the man, standing in front of her, while looking at her from above.

Mu Qing cursed him several times in his heart. She got up with a frown and patted her body to get rid of the dead leaves and dirty soil.

The man turned around and walked towards a direction, he was carrying what looked like a deer sort of animal on his shoulder, as well as other preys that were hanging on the side.

Just as Mu Qing was hesitating whether or not to follow him, he stopped his steps and looked back at her impatiently.

Mu Qing understood and immediately ran to catch up with him.

She followed him for another several hundred meters, and gradually, she could hear the sound of water.

In front of them was a tree barrier, there was only a few dozen centimeters of distance between each tree, while the diameter of all the tree trunks measured more than one meter. The trees had no leaves and stood upright and high up. Only the branches which were about a dozen floors high above the ground had a dense foliage. Branches were intertwined together, and it was impossible to tell which branch belonged to which tree. A chilling scream came from the dark and humid environment.

Mu Qing thought of those blood-sucking bats in vampire movies.

Getting goose bumps all over her body, she hurriedly took a few steps forward to catch up with the man.

After passing through this tree barrier, the sound of water sprang in front of her, and the view suddenly became bright and open.

A river with a slow current suddenly appeared in front of Mu Qing. The river surface was wide. There was a large tree at the foot of the river, with a boat tied to it, it was a wooden boat made with an entire huge log which had been hollowed out in the middle.

The monster bird was tied on the bow of the boat, while on the stern of the boat, a few miscellaneous fruits and several other animal carcasses were piled up, some of which had left coagulated blood traces on the boat.

Mu Qing saw the man jump on it and make another pile on the boat with the preys he had on him, he then looked up and gestured for her to come onto the boat as well. 𝒃𝒆𝒅𝙣𝒐𝒗𝙚𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝒎

Mu Qing looked at the surface of the water. The water, of a muddy color, was murky and the riverbed was wide. She hesitated a little inside, what to do if this thing capsized in the middle of the river?

But there nothing she could do about it. The man was already frowning with some impatience.

Mu Qing could only use the large tree at the foot of the river, which had protruding roots, as a support to carefully get on the log boat. She sat in the middle of the pile of animal carcasses with a strong smell, facing the man.

The man untied the rope that secured the wooden boat, took out two paddles, tapped on the shore, and then the boat was propelled along the stream.

Translator : Laura