There is no other scenery in the grassland, except for the light blue sky and the white clouds floating above, the only thing that exists is the endless swaying of the weeds, and the fresh breeze that blows on the earth all year round. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

Occasionally, a few shrubs and trees stand alone, in stark contrast to the boundless forests of the south, closer to the coastline.

Movement and running are the eternal themes of the longest lateral length of the land in the world that spans almost the entire continent in Rigal, and the steppe horses that grow here are amazingly enduring, although they are not tall and strong enough, but in long runs, the tall horses of the mainstream of Yavenella and Sivalier are far from being comparable to them.

Herbivores such creatures are very good at running, while predators, unlike their forest-dwelling relatives, prefer to ambush, and large cats such as lions and cheetahs in the grasslands are often in a race against their prey - so endurance is an important factor in determining whether they can survive.

The boundless grasslands have no hiding place, and natural predators and predators naturally do not mention it. From torrents of rain to natural disasters such as tornadoes, animals that can easily sweep over large areas and do not have shelters to hide can only run and exercise to protect themselves. Life is always colorful, and while large animals such as elephants, rhinoceros, and large dragons that choose to avoid predators with their huge size are also abundant here, the vast majority of grassland creatures are unique and have the ability to run and jump long distances.

Even the large creatures that are in the impression of human beings as sluggish are in fact migrating all year round - this is naturally due to the change of climate, which, despite being in the tropics and subtropics, has lost its shrubs and trees as water and temperature conservators, and the environment here can be described as quite harsh. During the day, the water evaporates very, very quickly in direct sunlight, and at night when the cold wind howls on the grassland, the temperature quickly plummets to the teens of degrees.

Water is a very important factor in the migration of all the animals here, and they must constantly move as the rainy and dry seasons change, otherwise they will die of thirst, starvation and even sunburn. And this is true not only for wild animals, but also for the people who live on the grasslands.

"Phew—" Mi stretched out her tanned hands and glanced at them, everything here reminded her of her hometown of Acasta - except that the strong winds of Absera were not like Acasta that only took away the temperature in autumn and winter, and even in the middle of summer, it was said that if you came here for the night, it was better to bring an extra blanket or an extra piece of clothing.

The wind was howling, and the hem of her light cotton burqa was blown and swayed, revealing her gleaming half-body armor.

Because there is no covering, a light burqa worn over the armor is an important piece of equipment to prevent the metal from heating up quickly in direct sunlight while wearing armor and causing heat stroke shock.

The white-haired girl rode a war horse taller than the others, fully armed and heroic, and most of the people around her were mercenaries who were also wearing armor, and these people accounted for about thirty people, and Mira was not very conspicuous among them. The rest of the dozen or so men were merchants, and the long procession, mostly on horseback, was pulled by four carriages of canvas cloaks. In addition, there are more than a dozen carriages that are not small in size and pull wooden cages.

These people are here to do business with the grassland people.

We mentioned in the previous story that the only mutual export between the south and the steppe is war and bloodshed, which is actually not entirely accurate, because even the Soradin Heights on the west coast have the existence of naturalized steppe people, and the more "enlightened" know how to sell some plundered materials to obtain the steppe people they need, naturally it will not be rare.

The so-called wealth and danger are in conflict, and the official and the overall territory are in conflict, and they are constantly in a state of mutual conquest. But privately, slave traders and dealers of all kinds of treasures, gold and silver, often risked being beheaded and executed, and tried to exchange high-value treasures at a very low price from the steppe people who did not understand the market and did not know business.

The merchant group that Henry and Mira were in this time was a group of slave traders, or at least on the surface, the reason for this was somehow related to the fact that they had gone to find Juan of the Felex family. Because the conversation between the two was in Lamani and mixed with a lot of local slang and technical vocabulary, Mira could only understand six or seven percent, and she did not know many specific details.

But despite this, Mira already had a rough idea of what Henry and she had come here for.

She glanced over at the elite mercenaries in front of her, who were guarding her side intentionally or unintentionally, wearing half-length armor and plate armor and other things that were the most unfortunate and wearing burqas, there were about fifteen of them in total, dressed in a variety of styles, and they didn't have much contact and communication, and they weren't very conspicuous among the other hired freelance mercenaries - but they weren't the ones who really accepted the task.

Just like this entire army of slave traders, these dozen or so escort mercenaries were all drawn from the forces of the Ferex family by Old Juan. The purpose of the mission statement issued by the Mercenary Guild to hire the remaining green and blue mercenaries is to escort them to trade with a tribe in the Absela steppe and return, but only Mira and Henry, as well as the rest of Felex's people, understand that this task is only secondary.

Old Juan's contribution this time is not insignificant, the Absera steppe is full of dangers, even the grassland people who have cooperated with him before may suddenly be in a bad mood or too good mood today and decide to kill you, not to mention the vast majority of hostile peoples. All the troops sent here must be prepared to go and go, and a whole caravan with a dozen elite mercenaries is already a lot of excitement for a noble family that is only powerful in the town.

Spending so much manpower and material resources to help Henry, according to Old Juan's own words, it is inevitable to say that it is to save his life and so on. But this kind of talk can't even be deceived by Mira, so she can only maintain a little superficial warmth. In the end, he is an old and cunning southerner, he doesn't see a rabbit and doesn't scatter an eagle, although it is a fact that he saved his life, but if there is no interest, Lao Juan will at most verbally express his support, and he will definitely not invest a lot of capital like now.

The nature of the people of the South is like this, always smiling and welcoming people, but don't really believe that they will be good for you, if there is no use value, even if they are life-savers, they will kick away mercilessly, and our almighty sage knows all this, and when he asked for help from old Juan, he naturally did not mention things like the stupid young man who saved him many times, but single-handedly threw out the conditions that the other party could not refuse.

Mira looked at Henry's back in front of him, it was the end of November, and the road from the south through the forest to the grassland was not easy, even if it was a relatively gentle area, it still took them a lot of time to get here. At this moment, the lightly armed mercenaries in front of them are running and patrolling nearby as scouts to confirm whether it is safe, and the team with a dozen carriages will definitely not be able to outrun those steppe people, so it is necessary to make sure that there is no ambush or passing tribe in front of them before moving forward.

But in the end, is that a good thing? Many of the people who stayed here were drinking water or drinking to replenish their physical strength, and the white-haired Luoan girl thought like this, and unconsciously her little eyebrows wrinkled together.

"Still thinking about that? Perhaps noticing her gaze, the sage in front of him nimbly commanded the horses to retreat back to her side, and then asked in the low-volume lingua franca of the West Coast - Mira nodded, and Henry was silent for a moment, then said to her: "Decision-making and progress are always accompanied by labor pains, and neither is the same, although we do not know whether it will bring good or bad things, but after the pain, something will always change. ”

"And, isn't that what you've been looking forward to?" Henry smiled at her, and Mira was stunned for a moment, then reacted and nodded vigorously: "That's right." ”

She said this, and after a while there were a few brief "beeps" in front of her—these were the secret signals of the scouts, and they could see each other in the endless distance on the grassland, so if they were discovered by the nomadic patrol riders, they had better deal with each other quickly—if they were simply identified by clothing, they might be killed by the other party and disguised, so that those who traveled here naturally learned such a short way of whistling and ciphering.

"La-" The mercenaries in front of them let go of their hands and retracted their arrows into their quiver pouches against the bowstring in front of them, then turned over and climbed onto their horses. Although there is a risk of being detected by whistling, the possibility of being spotted by whistling is quite slim, considering that the scouts have either been discovered by the enemy when they come back or have already probed and found that there are no enemies nearby.

"Confirm what's ahead. Forward!" said the two blue-badge mercenaries who were in charge of acting as scouts after their return, and many of the people who were resting nearby gathered up their affairs and turned over and climbed into the seats of the horses or carriages, and then everyone shook their horsewhips and began another day's advance.

The two blue-card scouts riding excellent steppe horses returned to the team and notified the advance, and then ran out of the front again together, although they had been explored before, but the existence of the flanks was still important, and two of the more than a dozen of the Felex family's subordinates mixed in the mercenary team also ran out on horseback in the other direction, and they could find the traces of the nomads earlier when they were outside the main formation, whether it was a vigilance to flee or a war negotiation, gaining the first opportunity was a necessary condition for reasonable arrangement of countermeasures.

The vast procession marched forward, and the existence of steppe nomads has always been elusive, and they will not only plunder and kill the people of the south and the west coast, but also the conquest between the major tribes for many years. Coupled with the way of life, which drives cattle, horses, and sheep along with water and grass, it is already a great adventure to find a particular tribe that has traded in the past and is still willing to trade.

The journey might have come to naught, but in any case, they hadn't yet reached that time, and they were just slowly continuing to walk forward in the scorching sun in the grass more than a meter high.

Sunset, moonrise.

After spending a whole day walking through the long grass and the short grass and the meadow with a small patch of stagnant water, all the sights were similar, and the initial shock of the endless savannah turned into numbness, and many people who came here for the first time, including Mira, began to feel a little tired, but fortunately time passed quickly in the full advance, and after the sun turned orange in the unobstructed sky, they found a place with a few large trees and many shrubs in the last remaining light, and by the way, they also captured a few marmots that had been hiding here as a snack for the night。

Mira, the rodent that eats this rodent, is still somewhat resistant, but a few marmots the size of a hare are not enough to be eaten by everyone, so the white-haired Luoan girl had to enjoy the salted meat and grain soup boiled in a large pot with the others, and then paired with bread and pastry, which can be regarded as a full meal.

The caravan traveled differently from the hunting party, they took a relatively gentle road, and the supplies they carried were very sufficient, and the four material wagons were stacked on top of the cart near the roof of the car, and a large pile of dry food and salted meat and pickled vegetables were tied and reinforced with hemp rope, enough for the whole team to eat until about February, plus the existence of various cattle, sheep, and hares, etc., in terms of food alone, the number of people at this level did not need to worry too much.

The only trouble is how to find the tribe they are targeting.

More than a dozen carriages with cages surrounded the makeshift wall, and the people took down their tents and began to camp on the spot, but in any case, the day was over.

After arranging the candidates for the first page of the shift, the group actually spent their first night on the Absela savannah.

Here we go. (To be continued.) )