Section 24: The Nest of the Thorn Bird (1)

Legend has it that there was a thorn bird that sang only once in its life.

Her singing voice is euphemistic and beautiful, unmatched in all things.

From the moment she left the nest, she was searching, sleepless, just looking for the thorn tree that belonged to her. - Song of the Thorn Bird

Hills is a small village with just over two dozen homes and a small grocery store. It is close to Silvermoon City, and most of the residents work for the beautiful city, such as providing food, eggs, wild animals, and other things that cannot be produced in the city.

Wood is also a much-needed commodity, but no one would be foolish enough to offend the mysterious druids for a few trees, unless you have the face and the ability to get their approval. Apparently there is no one in the village who can impress the stubborn naturalists, and the lumber yard that existed many years ago can only be left to be left untouched.

Now the inhabitants of Hills are beginning to care about the lumberyard, because more than half a month ago four strange creatures occupied it, three "humans" and one probably a giant, who "brutally" tore down the original wooden house and built a new house in ten days, the style of the house is a little strange, but very beautiful.

The inhabitants weren't very worried about the origin of these strangers, because it was close enough to Silvermoon City, even if it took only half a day, the guards of Silvermoon City were enough to protect them, not to mention that Hills also had their own defenses - a dozen adult men with simple militia training, and the people of Hills were more of a curiosity about strangers.

One of the curious people is Elm, the owner of the grocery store, who has been taking advantage of the opportunity to check out the traps every morning for a walk around the lumberyard. Most of the time Elm would meet the man who often made strange moves, and occasionally the woman who was not too tall to look human, always holding a delicate-looking tomahawk and looking like a great warrior, and of course very beautiful, just a little too tall.

That morning, Elm made another routine trip into the woods to inspect the traps, and when he reached the place where the trap had been laid, he found that the trap had been broken with leather ropes and iron rings, leaving only a small pool of blood and a few scattered feathers on the ground. After taking a closer look at the scene, Elm had a bad feeling in his heart, and with his past experience, he believed that a big creature weighing at least five hundred pounds had appeared in the vicinity, and had vilely eaten his prey.

Elm rechecked the old hunting bow he was carrying, and took out a single-shot crossbow and hung it at his side. After rearranging the traps, Elm continued to inspect the traps at the next location, moving much more carefully.

Unlike in the wilderness, where the snow was uneven and there were traces of birds, Elm carefully avoided the paths of the large beasts, stopping along a trail to observe his surroundings. When he reached the second trap site, Elm was fortunate to find that the trap was still intact and undamaged, and certainly had no prey to harvest.

Elm checked the remaining traps, and they were all as usual, and he even found a shalf-pound adult rat pig (a small rodent with a head that resembles a wild boar) weighing several pounds, which was a nice catch. Elm couldn't wait to rush home and let the cute little Mi Luna share his joy, but the thought made Elm involuntarily let his guard down, and before he knew it, a terrible predator began to target him.

Elm still needed to take a walk around the abandoned lumber yard and get a look at the outsiders from a distance. Truth be told, the job was not a pleasant one, and Elm would rather fight the agents of Santarin than waste his time on these "non-threatening" men, not to mention that he had a more important task to do, even though it had been going on for more than a decade.

Elm carried the rather fat rat pig in his hand, carried his old hunting bow, and walked up a small ramp, the object to be observed was dozens of meters away, and the man who looked very strong maintained a very strange movement in the distance, obviously standing still, but making people feel that he was carrying out extremely vigorous movements. There was also a red-haired little girl playing not far from the ramp, the little girl looked about the same age as Mimi Luna, but she was much more lively, and she had the crisp laughter that Mi Luna lacked. The little girl wore a playful little horned helmet on her little head, and Elm thought that she should buy one for Mi Luna to wear when she turned around. ,

Elm looked thoughtfully at the little girl frolicking in the snow, and a strange warmth arose in his heart, then he suddenly felt that something was wrong behind him, and the past experience made Elm react quickly, he quickly turned and pounced sideways and blocked the body of the rat pig. Elm, who threw out, only felt a tightness and a light hand, but it was the rat pig that blocked the attacker's fatal blow instead of him, and Elm did not hesitate to let go of the palm holding the rat pig and rolled down the ramp.

After a violent tumbling, Elm got up a little top-heavy when he reached the bottom of the ramp, and he finally saw the appearance of the attacker, which was a large monster that resembled a jackal, with gray-black bony plates clustered on both sides, and the earthy yellow messy hair concealed the greedy and evil **-Cruel Jackal, a kind of predator with an evil nature.

The unusually ugly-looking monster had swallowed the whole pig, but it was only a plug between its teeth for gluttony, and the brutal jackal had already turned its attention to the two humans below the ramp.

Elm looked at the monster that was ready to pounce on him with cold hands and feet, how could such an evil thing appear nearby? Am I going to die here today?

The brutal jackal is an extremely evil creature that is said to be a close relative of the gnoll, both of whom love to feed on intelligent creatures and take pleasure in teasing and abusing each other before killing their prey.

Both Gnoll and Brutal Jackals are accustomed to thinking in terms of their bellies, but Gnolls will eat any non-Gnoll allies, such as Bear Goblins, Goblins, Ogres, or Orcs, when hungry, while Brutal Jackals will not only eat their allies, but they will even eat other Tyrannical Jackals (including their brothers, spouses, and children) as food when they are hungry.

It is said that the Tyrannical Jackal was once the pet of the Abyssal Monarch Enohhu, but in the end, even the Lord of the Gnolls could not stand their backlash and had to banish these loyal, unreverent, monsters from their territory.

Knowing that a catastrophe was about to befall the inhabitants of Hills, Elm endured the despair in his heart, turned back to the curious little girl not far away and shouted, "Boy, run" and quickly took off the hunting bow on his body, only to find that the hunting bow had been bitten off by a brutal jackal and could not be used, and the hand crossbow hanging on his side was missing.

Elm laughed miserably, clutching the broken hunting bow in his left hand and drawing a spare dagger in his right hand, ready to fight to the death against the brutal jackal that pounced, at least a little longer for the child behind him. He didn't have any hopes that the little girl would escape, just to get the attention of others, such as the remaining three, and give them a chance to inform the villagers of Hills.

Although the unknown monster not far away looked ugly and vicious, but Mi Sha'er was not afraid, she even had the heart to count the teeth of the brutal jackal, and when Elm shouted for her to escape, the little girl turned around and shouted: "William, there are monsters here" The little girl was startled by the snow wave rising behind her, which was the snow powder that William brought up when he ran at high speed.

Elm bravely faced the brutal jackal that pounced, he sent the broken bow of his left hand, including his palm, into the monster's bloody mouth, and the dagger in his right hand slashed fiercely into the cruel jackal's left eye, at this time Elm actually had a little happy thought in his heart: "It turns out that my skills have not regressed greatly."

Unfortunately, Elm was destined to be disappointed, and the brutal jackal, who had no intention of dodging, only closed his left eyelid, and the dagger forged from steel only left a bloody mark on the monster's thick skin. Stunned for a moment, Elm suddenly felt a pain in his left hand, and his entire left palm had been bitten off by the monster.

Losing his palm, Elm screamed, and a cruel excitement flowed through the eyes of the brutal jackal, and it used its forelimbs to trample the human in front of it on the snow, opening its large mouth with jagged teeth and continuing to bite Elm's left arm.

Elm kept screaming loudly, although he could still endure the pain, but Elm had to pretend to scream like this, the brutal jackal likes to listen to and revel in the screams of their prey when they are tortured before they die, and if the prey no longer screams, they will quickly kill the tortured person and look for the next target as much as possible. Many creatures who understand this will endure the pain and remain silent when attacked by a brutal jackal, so that they can suffer less torture before dying.

Elm's left arm was broken at the elbow again, the wound was blurry and uneven, and as he prepared for the third attack of the brutal jackal, he found that the monster had diverted its attention, was it going to attack the little red-haired girl? Elm's heart was once again filled with despair and sorrow, and he roared loudly and struggled to attract the monster's attention.

A dull fist blow sounded, accompanied by a slight sound of bone cracking, and Elm suddenly noticed that the terrible monster standing on top of him was actually screaming and flying upside down. A flushed figure appeared in front of him, his breathing sounded like an elephant exhaling, with a fierce roar, it was actually the man who was just more than a hundred meters away, and Elm really didn't understand how he had crossed such a long distance in a few breaths.