twin moon

Chapter 5, Scene [-] First Acquaintance [-]
The spring is cold and the frost hangs on the branches.The shaded area in early spring has not yet been nourished by the first ray of sunshine in the morning, and it is still dark and cold.The boy in wolf fur breathed into his palm, and rubbed his fingers that were a little numb from the cold.

He is a hunter in this mountain, he chased a deer for a long time yesterday, but he still lost track.

The hungry boy sighed silently, as if blaming himself for his lack of hunting skills, but still carefully removed a dark maroon hornbow from his back.The jet-black pupils with circles of white water marks stared straight ahead without blinking.

In front of him was a piece of forest grass that wasn't too big, and the young man tried his best to relax his movements of his hands and feet, for fear of scaring away the hare that just poked its head out of the meadow.

The bow arm made of bamboo and wood is carefully polished to be round and smooth. Two pieces of black horns are glued on the back of the bow with fish-maw glue. At the joint between the grip and the tip of the bow, a layer of strong beef tendon is densely covered. It exudes a faint fishy smell.The surface of the entire bow is not painted, although it is a little rough, but it is evenly coated with a layer of animal fat for maintenance, which is faintly haloed in the early morning light.

The young man slowly pulled out a feathered arrow from the quiver on his back, put it on the string and pulled it vigorously.

His hair was obviously trimmed by himself with a knife, it was ragged and unkempt, and looked a bit sloppy.The body wrapped in wolf fur was obviously exhausted, as if he hadn't had enough to eat for a long time, but the two bowed hands were as steady as rocks - except for the ups and downs with breathing, the arrow tip didn't shake at all.The boy's physical strength was not small, and even the bowstring that an adult could only pull made a small creaking noise.

The hare in the meadow seemed to have heard the strange sound, and suddenly propped itself up on its two hind legs, and the small nose above the three-petal mouth twitched nervously.It stared at two round eyes like black beans, and turned its long ears in two different directions, catching any wind and grass that might indicate danger.

The bowstring was full, and the creaking sound became more and more obvious.The hare finally determined the position of the predator, bent down and was about to run away close to the ground.

However it is still a step too late.The young man held his breath and concentrated, and had already reduced the shaking of his left hand holding the bow to an almost imperceptible level.The moment the arrow tip flew towards the hare, he accurately released his thumb that held the string.

"Teng!"

The feathered arrow roared and flew towards the hare, passed through its right hind leg accurately and ruthlessly, and then nailed into the solid soil under the meadow.The hare flopped on the ground in pain, but the feather arrow was buried in the soil for several inches, and it couldn't break free at all.

The boy hiding in the bush happily put away his bow and arrow, jumped out, and walked towards his first hunt since entering the mountain this time.

But he never expected that there was another person hiding nearby.Before approaching the prey in the distance, the young man saw a figure suddenly rushing out diagonally.The opponent's speed was very fast, and before he could see clearly, he picked up the hare from the ground and rushed towards the other end of the forest.

"Shameless thieves, how dare you take prey from people, stop quickly!" The young Orion drew out another feathered arrow with his backhand without thinking much, put it on the bowstring and chased after him.

For him, this mountain forest is like his own backyard.Where is the stream to drink, where is the cliff; where is the luxuriant vegetation, where is the unknown shortcut, all of them are clear by heart.And in this virgin forest that stretches for more than a hundred miles, there is only one inconspicuous village.

Including the young man himself, only three hunters in the village will enter the mountain at this time.But it was obvious that the figure who snatched the rabbit just now was not the other two he was familiar with.

If the other party is just a stranger who has just arrived, the boy is not worried that he can easily run away.Even in the soil covered with thick fallen leaves in front, only some incomplete footprints can be seen gradually, and even the sound of fragile vegetation branches being trampled off by that person can hardly be heard anymore.

However, not far away, a distant singing sound suddenly came from the dense vegetation in front of him.That voice obviously sounds like a girl's, it's clear and sweet, like the soft chimes of wind chimes, or the singing of nightingales.However, the indistinguishable words and songs spit out from the lips and teeth are not like any songs the young Orion has heard.

The young man couldn't help wondering why the other party was so confident, so he squeezed the horn bow in his hand even tighter, hesitated for a moment, and decided to follow the singing to have a look.

As we kept moving forward, the singing in the wind became more and more clear.Finally, the boy met the owner of the song on the edge of a cliff.I saw him wearing a strange dark blue cloak, kneeling on the ground with his back facing him.But the girl did not kill and roast the hare as he thought. Instead, she took out the feathered arrow that had pierced its hind leg, and carefully bandaged the wound with a piece of gorgeous fabric. .

The other party seemed completely unaware that the danger was quietly approaching from behind him, but while stroking the soft fur on the back of the hare's neck, he continued humming that song without a beginning or an end.

The boy suddenly realized that this tactful ballad was actually sung to the injured hare!
There seems to be a kind of power in the girl's singing that moves the vegetation and mountains and rivers.As they sang, even the air became warmer.And the injured hare lay obediently at her feet, letting it play with it, and no longer thinking about running away.

This situation made the young Orion stunned in place. It took a long time before he came back to his senses. He hurriedly picked up the horn bow in his hand, shot an arrow at the opponent's feet first, and then took another arrow, threatening loudly:

"Hurry up and return the rabbit to me! If not, don't blame the bow and arrow in my hand for being blind!"

The girl didn't seem to have thought that someone would be chasing after her, but she didn't want to run away. Instead, she bent down and hugged the hare back into her arms, turned around and asked:

"Who are you? Why order me?"

As the girl said, she raised her hand and turned down the cloak covering her head, looked at the arrow under her feet, and then at the indignant boy who was pointing the bow at her. With an indignant look, "Oh—you were the one who hurt the rabbit with this kind of twig before?!"

A mass of fiery red color suddenly appeared in front of the boy's eyes - it was the waist-length curly long hair on the other side's head.The girl on the opposite side looked only twelve or thirteen years old, but her skin was much fairer than her own, which made the red hair all the more beautiful.

The boy originally thought he was right, but he was a little overwhelmed by the other party's questioning.He couldn't help muttering in his heart, only thinking that the rabbit was a plaything raised by the girl, he instinctively avoided his eyes, and suddenly there was a blaze of heat on his face, but he stuck his neck and argued:
"What are you doing! No one's name is written on this rabbit!"

But the girl carried the rabbit and took a few steps forward. She approached the young man without fear and said angrily:
"Savage! Even if it's an ownerless rabbit, can you kill it at will? Besides, if you think you are right, why don't you even dare to look at others?"

The boy did not expect the other party to be so eloquent and aggressive.Although he was aggrieved in his heart, he didn't dare to entangle any more, so he put down the horn bow in his hand and took a step back. He didn't expect to be caught by the weeds that reached his ankles again, and he staggered and fell to the ground firmly.

"what happened to you?"

The girl was startled immediately, bent down and stretched out a hand towards the boy, trying to pull him up.

The young man didn't know what the other party wanted, he lowered his head and stammered that he was fine, while struggling to get up quickly.However, the withered grass in the mountains entangled his legs like a fishing net, and when he looked up again, he saw a beautiful face that had completely occupied his sight.

He didn't take a closer look before, but now he looked astonished—the girl in front of him had feathery eyebrows, head and tail raised, her whole body was as clean as a white cloud in the sky, and as bright as a star in the dark night. A group of red flames.A pair of sparkling eyes is an extremely rare cyan blue, like the Chanying Sea under the sunny summer sun, gentle and calm.

The boy had never seen such a charming girl before, staring at her face fascinatedly, he was stunned for a while.

"Bah! Why do you keep staring at people? Could it be that I got something on my face? Oops—you were injured too, and you bled a lot!"

The girl's series of yells brought the young Orion back to his senses, and when he lowered his head, he saw that when he fell to the ground, he was pierced by a feather arrow that fell by mistake and pierced his right thigh.In the hole in the trousers, a two or three inch long wound was exposed between the skin and flesh.Although the wound was not deep, the blood quickly soaked through the surrounding clothes.

"It's just a little flesh wound, don't worry about it!"

The boy thought in his heart that he was unlucky, answered a few words angrily, and tried to get up again.Unexpectedly, the girl in front of him raised her hand and held him down without any explanation, and tore off a piece of fabric from her skirt with a "swish" sound, and bandaged his wound on the spot:

"Don't move around, or people won't be happy to help you. Speaking of which, you are the first person I met in this mountain. If there is no other reason, I'm afraid you won't come here alone—" —”

What the girl said made the young man startled suddenly, and he stopped struggling.The moment the cloth touched the skin, the pain on the wound was relieved a lot—the material was exactly the same as the other party used to bandage the hare before, embroidered with beautiful and complicated patterns, and still carried a little girl's warmth.It seems to have a miraculous effect on hemostasis, and the blood has stopped flowing as soon as it is tied.

"My name is Ning Yue. Everyone calls me Yue'er on weekdays. What's your name?"

Hearing the girl's question, the young man's nose was filled with the faint body fragrance from the other party's body, and he inadvertently caught a glimpse of her beautiful collarbone and fair skin under the neckline.His body trembled slightly, and he didn't even have time to respond. The blush that had just faded quickly spread from the ears back to his face again, and he lowered his head again embarrassedly.

"Does the wound hurt?"

"I can bear the pain!"

"Tsk tsk tsk, since it hurts, why do you have to endure it!"

As the girl said, she willfully held the boy's cheeks with her own hands, and lifted his face up with all her strength.

This move made the young man feel even more embarrassed, he shook his head vigorously, and hid himself from the girl's palm: "I haven't washed my face for several days, so I'm not afraid of getting your hands dirty?"

"It doesn't matter, I haven't washed my face for days! What's more, your face is not dirty, look at my hands are still clean." The girl said and raised a pair of white and slender hands in front of the other party. , paused, "Hey, I was asked your name just now, don't tell me—all the people here don't have names?"

The young Orion hurriedly shook his head, but he still didn't dare to look into the other's eyes, he just replied hesitatingly: "My name is—I'm Jiang Yan, the general of the general, the Yan of Guangyan."

The girl repeated his first and last name, and deliberately elongated her voice: "Jiang-yan-is really a strange name, which is quite difficult to remember. But you are very funny when you speak, and you stammer, why don't you call him Yan from now on? Forget about your stuttering."

"Who's stuttering? I'm—I'm—"

"Oh, now that we know each other's names, can you and I be friends from now on?" The girl just laughed and patted the boy on the head.

"Tch, there's no reason in the world to steal food from friends..."

Jiang Yan retracted his neck and muttered something softly, but he didn't object to the word "friend" - he lived in this mountain for many days, and it was the first time he met his peers, so he couldn't help wanting to be friends with him. The other party said a few more words.

"So you wanted to eat this rabbit! Is there no other food in the mountains?"

"Why are you asking so much?"

"After all, it is still a lively little creature. This girl will make the decision for you today, let it go!"

Ning Yue didn't allow the young Orion to make any further excuses, so she put the hare in her hand on the ground, muttering to herself, "Little rabbit, go home quickly. Make sure to hide it well this time." Now, be careful and get caught again!"

The hare, who was curled up obediently in his arms just a moment ago, seemed to understand the words of the people. As soon as it landed on all fours, it slid back into the meadow and disappeared immediately.

After a lot of tossing, he watched the prey he got let go in front of his face. Jiang Yan couldn't help being angry and funny, and his stomach growled, and he protested:
"There's no one like you. I'm a hunter. If I don't hunt, do I have to live by eating wild fruits?"

"Isn't it okay to eat wild fruits?" Ning Yue asked with her big blue eyes flickering.

"Now it's just spring, and there are not many flowers. Where can I eat wild fruits?"

Jiang Yan didn't know whether the other party pretended not to understand or really didn't understand, so he patiently explained.Hearing what he said, the red-haired girl in front of her seemed to have heard something terrible, and she clapped her hands in amazement:

"If you really have to wait for the spring to have flowers, the book is absolutely right!"

The young man secretly guessed in his heart - he didn't know that the girl in front of him was a daughter of a rich family, who happened to pass by here when he was out for an outing, so he asked her:

"There are not many days and nights when you can't walk in this mountain. If you don't even know this, what do you live on along the way?"

"Seaweed, honey, bamboo shoots, mushrooms, there are much more edible things on land than in the sea. If it doesn't work, I can climb a tree to touch a few bird eggs to roast."

The girl rolled her eyes and laughed, the skin on the bridge of her nose was slightly wrinkled, playful and cute.

In this way, the withdrawn boy who is not good at words and the innocent girl who is straightforward and innocent meet in such an unforgettable way.

For many years after that, every time Jiang Yan thought of the scene when the two first met, a red-haired girl with a hare in her arms would appear alive and kicking in front of his eyes just like what he saw yesterday.So alive, so beautiful.

(End of this chapter)