twin moon

Chapter 11, Scene [-]: First Acquaintance, Part [-]

On the top of the hill, Jiang Yan's whole body trembled suddenly due to the long screeching of clouds resounding outside the cave.At first glance, the voice is a bit like a mountain eagle, but it is obviously louder than the mountain eagle, and it makes people tremble with fear.The young man was stunned for a moment, then got up from the bones on the ground, hurriedly protected Ning Yue and retreated out of the cave:
"The witch's words are not all false - there is indeed something living on the top of this mound! It's just that it may not be the god in the hearts of the villagers, but some kind of man-eating bird of prey!"

"How can there be birds of prey that can hunt living people?"

Ning Yue was frightened by her companion's appearance, and asked tremblingly.But Jiang Yan refused to stop at all:
"Yue'er, you don't know that birds of prey usually swallow their prey directly, and then spit out the indigestible bones and hair. There are a lot of hair attached to the bones in the cave, except for being swallowed and then spit out , otherwise, how could the roots stick to the bones so tightly!"

Listening to the other party's explanation, the last trace of doubt in Ning Yue's heart was completely dispelled.She didn't dare to ask any more questions, and just staggered out of the cave, and ran down the mountain along the way she came.But before she ran far, she found that her companion suddenly disappeared behind her at some point.

"What are you doing, little stammer?!"

Ning Yue turned her head and saw that Jiang Yan was taking the bow and arrow from his back, looking around vigilantly, and immediately understood, she turned back and pulled the other party to persuade him, "Don't be stupid, now we don't even have that man-eating thing What it is is not yet clear, what if it is not a bird of prey, but some other more dangerous animal?"

"Then I have to fight it! Uncle You has treated me with great kindness, and I have to avenge him!"

Ning Yue knew that Jiang Yan had been dazzled by grief and anger, and wanted to open her mouth to persuade her again, but the little white fox in her arms struggled to jump out at this moment, and burrowed into the grass growing under the rocks, Immediately disappeared.

Immediately afterwards, piercing chirping sounded again in the air.Before the two of them could react, a huge black shadow rushed straight to the top of their heads!
That is really a huge bird of prey!It has always stood on the top of the mountain, disguising itself as a rock, motionless, now it found an opportunity, and finally launched an attack on the two living people who dared to touch their nest!

The man-eating bird's wingspan was more than two feet, and its gigantic body was like a giant net that was cast down from the sky, which instantly robbed the young man of any chance of attacking.

Seeing this, Jiang Yan also understood that continuing to stay on the unsheltered hillside at this time would be tantamount to seeking death, so he yelled out to be careful, and stretched out his hand to push Ning Yue, who had already been stunned, into the cave again.

After only a short delay, the raptor's sharp claws grabbed the young man's celestial cap.He had no choice but to take advantage of the momentum and roll on the spot, then bent his bow to lead the arrow, turned around and shot.

With a sound of "swish", although the feathered arrow flew straight in front of the strange bird, it was blown off-point by the strong wind from the bird's wings at the last moment.But this also gave Jiang Yan enough time to get up from the ground and plunge into the bird's nest.

The raptor fell to the ground without fear.It wasn't until this time that the boy and the girl finally got a clear look at its appearance—the bird's body was not much different from that of an ordinary mountain eagle, but the feathers on its body seemed to be faded, with a pale gray color. There are also dots of copper coin-shaped spots on it.

From the neck up to the bird's head, there is only a short layer of fluff, revealing the bright red flesh below.What's even more creepy is that, apart from a sharp beak that pecks at bones and tears flesh, there is actually a barb-shaped long horn that is as long as an adult's forearm on the hideous bird's head!
"This is Gu Ying!"

Jiang Yan couldn't help screaming, and immediately shot another arrow at the head of the strange bird outside the cave.This time, there was no interference from the feather arrow, and it hit Gu Ying's left eye firmly.Only after hearing it screamed miserably, did it realize that the prey was not so easy to get, so it hurriedly dodged to the side.

"What is Gu Ying?" Ning Yue, still in shock, asked.

"It's a strange beast that survived from ancient times."

"How do you know each other?"

"Now is not the time to talk!"

Jiang Yan suddenly stopped the conversation - now the injured Gu Eagle did not hide away, but quickly flashed past the hole from time to time, tilting its head and staring viciously at the hole with the only light yellow eagle eye left The two were desperately looking for every opportunity to attack.

The young man knew in his heart that continuing to hide would not be a long-term solution, so he looked down at his quiver, there were only three arrows left in it, and he had to come up with a way to escape as soon as possible.

"Yue'er, do you still have the strength to run?"

After thinking for a while, he asked Ning Yue who was beside him who was too scared to speak, but his hand was still drawn to the half-full state of the bow, and he did not dare to relax at all.

Only then did the red-haired girl loosen the corner of Yan's clothes that had been tightly clutched, her voice still trembling: "Yes, it should, it's okay."

"I know you are very scared now, but you must listen carefully to every word I say next and keep it in your heart. Only in this way can you survive! Can you do it?"

Looking at the young man in front of her, Ning Yue suddenly forgot to answer - although the other party was only a child of the same age as her, when she was in danger, she showed a calmness that did not match her age.It seems that there is an innate courage and determination in him, which is inspired by the powerful threat outside the cave at this moment.

"Yue'er, did you hear what I said?"

Seeing that there was no response from his companion, Jiang Yan asked again in a raised voice.

The red-haired girl came back to her senses and nodded hesitantly.

"Go down the road up the mountain, and you can run into the woods in about half a cup of tea. The bird is too big to spread its wings among the trees, and it can no longer launch a top-down attack. After running into the forest, you immediately continue down the mountain in the northwest direction. There is a mountain spring on the mountainside about five miles away, which is easy to find. If you get lost halfway, you will wait for me in the bushes near the spring. I will definitely find you! Now that the clouds are clearing and the fog is clearing, as long as you keep the twin moons right in front of you, you won't lose your way easily! Remember?"

"Remember!" From the resolute and firm tone of the other party, Ning Yue felt the desire for survival again, and saw a glimmer of new hope from the desperate situation.Infected by her companion, she was surprised to find that her body also gradually stopped shaking.

"Now, take off your cloak."

As Jiang Yan said, he raised his finger and pointed at the other party, "I will take an arrow and tie the cloak later, shoot it down the cliff, and attract the Gu Eagle to chase after it. No matter what happens, don't look back. You can only stop when you reach the spring in one breath."

Ning Yue obediently took off the torn cloak with a big cut from her shoulders.However, the moment she handed it out, she suddenly realized that the young man didn't seem to have fully told herself the plan, and immediately gave a shock:
"Wait, what about you?"

"I'm going to stay behind."

"Don't you still want to find a chance to kill that strange bird outside?"

"You just have to take care of yourself!"

Jiang Yan, who had been seen through by the other party, knew that it would be a waste of time to say any more, so he tied Ning Yue's cloak to the arrow cluster in his hand.

"It's too dangerous to do this! Let's go back to the village first. Wouldn't it be better to find more people?"

"Those selfish people in the village will never put themselves in danger because of you, me, or Uncle You. It would be a waste of effort to tell them! You only have one chance, be prepared!"

Ning Yue wanted to continue to dissuade her, but Yan Que had already stretched the bowstring with all her strength, and shot the arrow tied with the cloak to the cliff outside the cave in a blink of an eye.

In the dark night, the cloak that flew out with the arrow seemed to Gu Ying's eyes as prey that suddenly jumped out of the cave.Hearing a scream, it immediately waved its huge wings and chased after it.Seeing that the plan was successful, the two people in the cave also quickly got out, seized this hard-won opportunity and rushed towards the dense forest hundreds of steps away.

Jiang Yan originally didn't intend to fight head-to-head with the Gu Ying on the top of the mountain, he just wanted to wait until he rushed near the forest line and then deal with it, waiting for an opportunity to kill it.However, he didn't expect that the speed of the arrows shot earlier was greatly reduced because of the cloak tied on, and they were held in mid-air by the Gu Eagle before they could fly very far.

The raptor soon realized that the so-called prey it was holding in its mouth was just a bait for smacking around, it flew up from the cliff angrily, and caught up with the boy and the girl again in the blink of an eye.

Ning Yue didn't know about the murderous intent behind her, and Jiang Yan was also afraid that her companion would slow down her pace by reminding her, so she had to draw the bow with her backhand, and blindly shot an arrow behind her without aiming.

Although this arrow completely missed its aim, Gu Ying, who was shot blind in one eye just now, was still frightened and slowed down his pursuit.In this way, Ning Yue finally ran to the forest line smoothly, and dodged and hid behind a big tree.

Putting half of Yan Yan's hanging heart down immediately, he took out the last feather arrow from the quiver, ran forward a few steps, turned around and squatted down in front of the forest line.

The string sounded and the arrow came out, before the Gu Eagle on the opposite side could react, its wide wing on the right was pierced by the howling iron arrow!
The Gu Eagle, which was stretching out its claws to pounce, let out a scream, and fell heavily from mid-air to the ground, its body slid a long way along the steep hillside before stopping.Although its vitals were not injured, most of the long feathers on its wings were broken on the spot, making it difficult to fly.

The injured raptor was completely enraged.It screamed and got up, stretched its two thick and powerful legs, stretched its neck and continued to peck at the young man at the bottom of the mountain. appearance.

Fortunately, it is not good at running, and its pursuit speed is greatly reduced after landing. It is much easier to get rid of it in the forest.Jiang Yan dodges and hides in the dense forest, but he understands that it is still too early to talk about escape.Because he clearly saw that Ning Yue who was not far in front of him was running slower and slower, and her steps became staggering, and she was about to exhaust her physical strength.

After thinking about it, the black-eyed young man actually slowed down and decided to use offense instead of defense.He glanced back at Gu Ying who was following closely behind him, suddenly changed his direction, and ran in the opposite direction to Twin Moon.

After traveling for about two miles, Jiang Yan, who kept his figure in front of the man-eating bird, accelerated sharply at the edge of a forest clearing, completely out of its sight.

The menacing raptor was instantly placed in a dilemma.It tilted its head and hesitated for a moment, not knowing whether it should continue to search for traces of its prey, or let it go.However, just as it walked to the center of the open space, with a soft "pop", a black shadow flew out from the treetops without warning.

The speed of that thing was quite fast, in a blink of an eye, the Gu Eagle who had no time to react was hit on the chest impartially by it, let out a scream, and then was taken into the air by that thing, fell heavily on the ground on the ground.

What hurt the raptor was a sharpened branch, straight and strong.This time the strength of the young man's bow bending was so great that even the arm of the bow that had just been repaired was stretched to the point that it was broken in two again.

The steaming bird's blood splattered among the dead branches and leaves in the woodland.The Gu Ying who had suffered so much flapped its wings frantically, trying to escape back to the top of the mountain, but it was already powerless.The feathers on its body are no longer as smooth as before, but turned up unevenly.The ferocious killing intent in the remaining one eye also lost, only the panic before dying remained.

Jiang Yan walked to the side of the raptor, pulled out Baipi and cut it off without hesitation, with a pair of round eyes full of anger, fixedly staring at the food that had had the upper hand a moment ago. Human strange bird.

Gradually, the Gu Ying whose throat was cut off finally stopped struggling.Jiang Yan lost control of his emotions immediately, and fell to his knees with a plop with red eyes, roaring heart-piercingly:
"Bastard! It's not good to catch anyone, but you want to catch Uncle You! Give Uncle You back to me!"

The boy was so sad and angry, but he couldn't shed a single tear.It seems that once upon a time, all the tears have been shed dry.

At some point, the figure of the red-haired girl who should have run away reappeared under the tree more than ten steps away.Looking at the grief-stricken young man in front of her, Ning Yue didn't know how to comfort her, and she wasn't even sure whether she should go forward to persuade her.

Many years later, Ning Yue will still feel uncontrollable heartache whenever she thinks of the back that was wrapped in wolf fur and knelt on the ground, twitching constantly.Occasionally, she would feel a little lucky, glad that fate allowed her to see the real and fragile side of this boy with ink-like eyes in that undefended cardamom age.

After a long time, Jiang Yan stood up straight again.As soon as he turned his head, he saw Ning Yue hiding behind the tree, and immediately turned his face away in a panic, and rubbed his face that was distorted due to sadness:
"Yue'er, why did you follow?"

"I saw you for a long time, so I followed the sound of the strange bird to find you." Ning Yue smiled, pretending that she hadn't seen anything, not wanting to embarrass the other party, and lamenting that she and her companions were still alive Get up, "But little stammer, you are really amazing, you actually killed this strange bird by yourself! We can finally go back!"

But the young man waved his hand: "No, I can't leave now. I have to go up to the top of the mountain again. Uncle You's remains are still there, so I have to take him back for burial!"

As Jiang Yan spoke, he took up the knife and cut off the ugly head of Gu Ying, tied it around his waist, and went back to the bird's nest on the top of the mountain.He took off the wolf skin from his body, solemnly gathered Uncle You's scattered bones, and wrapped them up carefully, but his hands were trembling uncontrollably.

(End of this chapter)