The road back was not as rugged as the one there. They did not encounter any mutated sea monsters blocking their way, nor did there appear sea storms or extreme weather. During the several days drifting on the sea, most of the time it was sunny, a small part was cloudy. Even if there were small waves, they were pressed down by the two enormous beings on the wooden boat, and the boat did not capsize.
Instead, when they were close to the coastal waters, Song Xu saw primitive beasts circling in the sky like flocks of birds. These winged primitive beasts were rarely seen in the coastal forest where the big tiger lived.
They all looked very familiar. Song Xu remembered that when she had once gone to watch Uncle Weishan and the others hunt primitive beasts out of curiosity, she had seen quite a few like this.
Later, there had even been one primitive beast that somehow crashed into Snake Snake’s cave, causing an accident.
These primitive beasts that were good at flying were probably here to look for food, to eat their fill, and then begin this migration.
They were attracted by the dazzling golden big tiger on the sea surface and tried to swoop down to hunt. The big tiger was not polite at all and raised her head in a burst of furious roaring. Those primitive beasts did not dare to come down. The only one that was a bit bolder flew a little lower, and was bitten on the neck by the giant snake that suddenly shot up from the water. Poison was injected, and it immediately fell into the sea, becoming a floating mass of bird corpse on the surface.
After that, the group of primitive beasts flew farther away and never harassed them again.
They finally reached the shore smoothly. When she saw the familiar rocky beach and the green forest behind it, Song Xu almost cheered and wanted to run down.
During this period of time, she had eaten so much seafood she was about to turn into seafood-flavored. A little squirrel, not having eaten a single bit of green food for so long—was this reasonable?!
She howled and tried to pounce toward land, but in reality the boat had not yet reached shore and there was still quite a distance. So the squirrel with eyes turning green was firmly tied to the boat by a snake-tail seatbelt. Not arrived at the destination, the driver did not allow getting off.
Snake Snake stopped the little squirrel, but did not stop the big tiger.
The agile big tiger leapt down from the boat, stepping through splashing water, and in a few strides ran to the shore—then shook sand off her feet wildly at the shoreline and stretched her stiff limbs crazily.
Heisen had once lived in this forest and on this beach for a very long time. Even after losing her memories, she had been unwilling to leave. Now, the matter she had been concerned about was already resolved, and she was eager to leave this place, not wanting to stay here even a moment longer.
As a big tiger that loved to eat meat, she had gnawed on unpalatable primitive beasts for so long, and then eaten seafood that was not even on her menu for so long, and had not eaten her favorite wild water buffalo for several years—was this reasonable?!
The big tiger led the way in front, constantly turning back and letting out urging roars, urging the two cubs behind her to leave faster.
Because there were still many carnivorous primitive beasts nearby, she maintained her beast form that was more convenient for fighting.
Wumu was in half-beastman form. Now he could transform into a beastman, and when in beast form he could also speak normally, but he still felt that the half-beastman form he was used to was the most convenient. With one hand, he held the little squirrel, who was also in beast form, against his chest. With the other hand, he snapped off branches by the roadside and handed them to the little squirrel in his arms.
From the moment Song Xu entered the forest, her mouth had not stopped, chewing flowers and tender leaves like a rabbit. If one listened carefully to the puff-puff, crack-crack chewing sounds, one could imagine the juice splashing out as thick, crisp leaves were crushed.
When Wumu occasionally lowered his head to look, he could see the little squirrel holding a huge thick-petaled white flower with both paws, her entire head buried in the middle of the flower, eating in a completely absorbed manner. Her two hind legs kicked happily, and her tail also swept happily across his abdomen.
His arm unconsciously tightened a little.
Wumu would stop to pick some more sweet-smelling flowers and leaves for the little squirrel. The unrestrained big tiger would run far ahead, then after a while realize they had not followed, and could only run back and roar unhappily a couple of times.
However, every time, Snake Snake would only look at her like that, as if not understanding what she was saying, or as if calmly too lazy to speak, exactly the same as when she was young. The squirrel wore an innocent expression. Then next time, when the big tiger discovered again that they had not followed and turned her head, she would see the snake and the squirrel busy collecting various mature plant seeds.
The big tiger helplessly spun around in place twice, then lay down beside them gloomily to wait for them to finish picking, and at the same time drive away carnivorous primitive beasts that ran over after hearing the commotion.
Only when they encountered large groups of large carnivorous primitive beasts would Heisen speak to urge them to leave quickly and not linger here. Once the number of primitive beasts became too great, even a big tiger would not dare say she could definitely retreat unscathed.
They passed through the forest where land primitive beasts lived. The trees in front of them suddenly parted, and standing ahead was a towering cliff.
Song Xu and Wumu had once climbed for a long time in order to descend from the cliff. Now, looking up from the ground, it seemed even more majestic, rising high into the clouds.
The big tiger leading the way stopped by a small stream. She was tired from running, her abdomen rising and falling as she panted heavily, and she drank water by the stream overgrown with wild grass.
Wumu also swam over to drink water and placed Song Xu between them.
The big tiger drank very boldly. They liked to use their tongues to lap water—worthy of being large cats. While lapping, they conveniently washed their heads as well, and the way she shook the water droplets off her head in the sunlight looked bold and handsome.
The big snake drank water with loud gulping sounds, stormily sucking it in, like a water pipe drawing water, and also like a water tank being filled.
Only the little squirrel was refined and slow. She had been gnawing flowers and grass all along the way and was already no longer thirsty, so after taking two sips of water she went to taste the tender grass tips growing beside her, extremely unfocused.
After drinking water, the big tiger identified the surrounding environment and walked in one direction.
“Mom? Heisen? You’re going the wrong way!” Song Xu remembered that when they had come down before, they had descended from the gentle slope on the other side.
But Heisen had come from the opposite direction, and she was more inclined to walk the road she remembered. For a moment the two sides were a bit stuck. Song Xu jumped over and grabbed the big tiger’s paw, dragging it toward her own side. “I still need to go over there to say hello to a friend and tell her I’m back safely. Let’s go this way first, then we’ll listen to you and go to the other side, okay? Please, Mommy!”
The big tiger looked unwilling, but was still easily dragged along by the little squirrel’s small paws. They followed the green slope beneath the cliff and moved forward, while Song Xu walked and tilted her head up, searching for flying figures in the sky.
The eagle beastwoman she had met when she came, Huhu, had said she would often fly over this stretch of sky. Several months had passed—she didn’t know whether Huhu was still practicing flying in this area.
A black shadow suddenly swept across the cliff above. It was the eagle beastwoman Song Xu had been talking about, but when she stopped nearby, Song Xu did not dare recognize her right away, because the black-and-white-patterned eagle from before now had feathers that were completely black, and her wings were also a bit larger, gleaming with an oily sheen.
“Huhu?”
“It’s me, it’s me! Song Xu, you’re back!” The eagle beastwoman standing on the ground spread her two claws and ran over with bouncy steps.
When eagles fly in the sky, they can be described as sharp and handsome, but when they run on the ground, that temperament can only be described as goofy. After running a few steps with her two claws alternating, Huhu finally reacted that she could transform into a beastwoman, and in the blink of an eye a familiar energetic young woman pounced over.
“I fly around here every day, and I finally saw you! I thought you wouldn’t be able to come back, hahaha, that’s great! Look at me, I’ve finished molting all my feathers. I can fly super steadily now, I’m amazing! What about you? What did you encounter? What is the forest over there like?”
As Huhu spoke, she curiously looked at the somewhat different half-beastman big snake, as well as the newly appeared big tiger.
“You found the person you were looking for? Such a beautiful big tiger beastman!” Huhu stared enviously and longingly at the tiger covered in fur. Her fur-loving tendencies clearly hadn’t improved.
Song Xu chatted with her for a while, told her that she had seen the sea, and then fished out from that beast-hide pouch that had gone through hardships a seashell strung with a thin cord. “I found this seashell on the island. It’s for you.”
She had picked it up the night she went with Wumu to catch jellyfish. There were also some pretty shells, small corals, and the like—things she had prepared as souvenirs to give to beastpeople she met along the way, if she could still encounter them.
Huhu was indeed very happy to receive the gift. She lived at the edge of the primitive beast forest, but had never gone to the sea at the forest’s edge, nor had she ever had such a seashell. She fondled this novel little object, unable to put it down.
“Huhu, I’m leaving. Goodbye.”
Hearing that the friend she hadn’t seen in a long time was leaving again right after meeting, Huhu was reluctant and said without thinking, “Then I’ll escort you! You said you still had to tell me stories!”
Song Xu: “Okay.”
With an extra chattering eagle, but it did not affect the tiger’s pace. She led the group to search for the route she had taken down. By nightfall they still had not arrived, and could only stop to rest temporarily.
Song Xu lit a fire and roasted tubers dug up from the forest beside it. After they were cooked, the sharing-loving little squirrel gave everyone some. The tiger and the snake symbolically took two bites. After Huhu finished eating, she flew away. She flew up to the top of the cliff, and after a while came back carrying two rabbits, probably caught on the wasteland above.
One was given to Song Xu, and the other was carefully placed in front of the big tiger.
The big tiger lay alone on the other side of the campfire. She was actually already hungry, but this was still a region where primitive beasts were active, and there was no food suitable for her to eat, so she could only endure it. The suddenly appearing rabbit made her look at Huhu one more time.
Before coming here, Heisen had only hunted large prey. Small things like rabbits were something she had never deigned to catch. But later on this journey, many places simply had no food she could eat, so whether it was rabbits or mice, or even smaller prey, she had eaten them whenever there was no food.
A small rabbit was only equivalent to a single biscuit, barely better than nothing.
Song Xu went to process the rabbit. When she wasn’t looking, and came back, she discovered that Huhu had already moved to the big tiger’s side. With the lazy tiger’s tacit approval, she was happily touching the tiger’s tail, looking as blissful as a modern person petting a cat.
Song Xu was certain: Heisen! A heartthrob tiger!
She fed the processed rabbit to Wumu, and they rested here for the night. The next evening, they arrived at the location Heisen had mentioned. This place looked like a breach where a large basin released water. The upward slope was gentler than the slope Song Xu and the others had descended before. And this place was already far from Huhu’s tribe’s activity range—no wonder they had never seen tiger beastpeople.
Climbing up from this slope, although tiring, was much easier than climbing a sheer cliff. They spent another two days climbing up to the top of the cliff.
The squirrel, exhausted and panting, looked at the wasteland above and froze. Was this still the wasteland of yellow earth and flying sand from when she had come? Here, green grass spread everywhere, wildflowers clustered in groups, completely lacking any trace of the wasteland from her memory.
