Black Iron’s Glory

Chapter 32 Night watch

Claude believed he would never forget this evening, when the fire rope gun in Velikro's hand sounded like thunder, the whole forest instantly calmed down, except for the wind and running water, and only those mountain deer were heard rushing towards the woods. And all Claude could see in his eyes was the slightly palpitating body of that shot mountain deer in the stream.

Four men held fire and walked towards the bullet deer, and Velikro retaken the rope with good gunpowder and guns, handed it over to Claude and placed the three of them on alert, while he peeled the body of the deer here in the creek.

“We can't carry this mountain deer back to the camp and dissect it. That way the camp will make it smell bloody and attract beasts in the mountain forest. That's not a good result for us. The biggest possibility is that we keep our eyes open with weapons for one night, and by tomorrow no one will go climbing the mountain...”

Velikoro nags and ripens the skin off the deer with a short knife in his hand: "… For a hunter, the prey he just killed is best peeled immediately, because the muscles are relaxed and elastic to quickly separate the skin and meat. If the whole thing is stiff for a long time, then skin peeling is a bit difficult, and if you accidentally cut the fur, you don't get a full skin. Of course, this is what my father taught me..."

In the distance the moonlight was on the stream, jumping a little silver scale, four nearby torches stuck on the ground, the light lit this red, Claude and Bockard, Erickson three with weapons, look at the silent forest, look at Villikro dissecting the mountain deer, listen to him whisper, blood kept running down the stream...

It only took half an hour for Velikoro to break this mountain deer down into four big pieces, head, four hooves, tail and viscera, all of which he didn't want. He soaked the skin of the mountain deer in the stream for a while and rolled it up. He also rinsed the four big pieces of mountain venison and connected them with two canes. Velikoro was satisfied to say, "Let's go, we should go back. ”

This mountain deer is not big, and after decomposition, these four large pieces of meat are estimated to be more than 20 kilos. When he returned to the camp, Claude washed the iron vortex and threw the meat from his left front leg into a small piece of iron pot and slowly boiled it on the campfire. The other three pieces of meat were ready to be split into pieces, and then made bacon out of smoke, so that he could take it home if he couldn't finish. Anyway, it's also the first prey of the four people, or the mountain deer. Take it back and let the family taste it and blow the cow...

On the other hand, Velikoro cut off a few branches, set up a shelf, then laid the deer skin on the shelf, and then carefully cleaned the skin with a knife. When it peeled off, it didn't separate the clean meat crumbs and blood muscle, and then applied it with charcoal ash...

Bok Al and Eriksson had long lost their sleep, and they clapped around the mountain deerskin: "Vero, you're a good shot, just through the head, without destroying the fur on your body. I bet this deerskin can sell a silver taller in town...”

“More than that," Bok Al shook his head: “This is deerskin, and all hunters know that mountain deer are the most sensitive animals, like elves in the mountain forest. And they have very little guts, and there's a little movement, and they run right away, and it's very difficult to catch mountain deer. I didn't expect that we would be so lucky to hit such a mountain deer. The fur is so complete. Don't say that the leather stores in town, the tailors will also grab what they want. We won't sell without a silver taller five riazos...”

“Vero, why don't we go ambush the creek tomorrow night, maybe we can hit another deer.” Eriksson's eyes were glittering with gold, which would be in his mind, running between the woods not as mountain deer, but as a silver taller.

“If you don't go, there's no way there's going to be another mountain deer drinking tomorrow.” Villicro shook his head and didn't slow down his hand: “You all know mountain deer are cowardly animals, but they also have a good memory. We shot the deer in the creek, so they won't be drinking water in the creek for a long time to come. Because they'll remember where they lost a partner. ”

After eating venison from the broth, Bok Al and Eriksson went to bed first, because it was the first night of camping, and Veriksson decided whether it would be better to spend the night with Claude or not, and there was a response to anything, and in three or four hours, he told Bok Al and Eriksson to get up and change shifts.

Mountain deerskin shelves have been moved to the campfire by Verricolo, ready to be roasted with fire and the fur dried. He took the knife and cut a few pieces of mountain venison and roasted it on the fire, and the grease dropped on the fire to make a "clattering” sound.

Seeing Claude hang the chopped venison strips on the fire and smoke them, Vericulo pointed to a few pieces of venison that had been castrated by salt and asked, "Do you want to hang them too? ”

“No, I'm going to fry the steak with these venison in the morning. Didn't we bring a saucepan and some butter? Just fry it for breakfast. I guess this venison won't be bad for one night.” Claude replied.

“Not bad.” Vericulo said for sure, "It's not hot at night, it's cool, and you sprayed it with salt again, it's not that fast. ”

Claude hung up the bacon and walked back and sat down: "Vero, are we really going to the ruins of that magic tower tomorrow morning? Where's the camp at night? ”

“What, are you scared? ”

“No, I'd love to see if the ruins of that magic tower you said were really that big. Look at the walls. I'm really curious how ancient magicians built that tower with those giant gray rocks...”

“As a matter of fact, I was surprised to see it. It's all broken walls and nothing to see.” Velvety stuffed the venison in his mouth, probably baked poorly, and he threw up on the floor after a few bites.

“So, is there a basement in the ruins of that magic tower?” Claude asked, “I mean, the magic tower has fallen, and it's not up there, so is there a basement below it? Like the basement under our house? ”

“I suppose so…” Villicro thought, "I remember three down holes and a stone staircase, but I never went down. My father said there was a layer underneath, but over time, there was a thick layer of sludge underneath, one or two feet deep. ”

Three down holes? I don't know if it's the three stone ladders that are connected to the lower level of space, or the lower level that separates the three spaces, each with a stone ladder...

Verricolo says he's never been down there. I don't know what it looks like down there. Claude thought to himself, "Big deal. Tomorrow, go look behind all three stone stairs and see if there's anything left by the diary master named Landers."

“What's the matter, what are you thinking?” Villicro asked curiously when he saw Claude not talking and staring straight at the campfire.

“Nothing...” Claude said softly looking at the bear's campfire, “I was just imagining why the magician had built such a magic tower on the White Eel. By the way, Vero, almost all the books I've read say magicians are evil, but why are they evil and not say, you know why? ”

“I don't know,” replied Villicro with regret, "you know I don't like books, I don't have much interest in history. My father taught me to live my life well. Whatever you do, it's up to the big people to take care of their brains anyway. It's none of our business...”

“Oh...” Claude laughed, too: "Your father was right. Just live your life. Forget all that mess. We're just little bums. When we grow up, it's enough to find a way to earn our own national identity...”

The distant woods finally restored their liveliness and the sounds fluctuated. Far away came a few "Ow..." screams, Vericulo made a lying gesture and listened to his side ears.

Soon Véricolo didn't think so: “It's okay, relax, that was supposed to be a Bobcat howl, they probably found the mutton of that deer we abandoned in the creek, there was a fight to grab food, the screaming was their battle horn, indicating a threat to the enemy and declaring the place belongs, they were afraid of humans, they were not dangerous to us. ”

Apart from this interlude, nothing else happened at night. When the venison was smoked, it was almost four o'clock, so I called Bok Al and Eriksson up, stuffed the flame rope gun into their hands, and Claude and Verickro went into the tent to get ready for bed.

It's just that for the first time out camping, we caught another mountain deer, and tomorrow we'll be at the ruins of the magic tower, so Claude's a little excited, so he can't sleep on the flip. After a long time, Claude finally fell asleep in confusion after listening to the slight snoring of Velikro and the burglary whispers of Bok Al and Eriksson outside at night.

When he woke up, it was already bright and the sun was shining in the tent, and through the gaps in the curtain, Claude found his three partners busy demolishing the other tent.

“What time is it?” Out of the tent, Claude stretched a lazy waist first.

“It's almost 9: 00.” Bok Al picked up the crystal hourglass and looked at the next timescale answer, which he deliberately brought in from home to keep track of the time. Six hours needed to be reversed up and down to allow the colored fine sand inside the hourglass to start again.

“Why didn't you wake me up so late...” Claude complained.

“Vero said you were a little tired last night after half a day of bacon, so let's not call you, let's get you some sleep. Okay, you get up and make breakfast. We're all hungry.” Erickson said with a smile.

Looks like they're hungry, and Claude found half a pot of broth hanging from an iron pot on a bonfire last night that they drank clean, and even their bones were eaten up. He washed his face quickly, rinsed his mouth a few times, came to the semi-extinguished campfire, put in some firewood, pulled the fire pile, set the pan on fire, and began to fry the venison steak.

After breakfast, the four of us packed up the camp, put it in the cabin, pack up the backpack to take away, but only camp at the ruins of the Magic Tower for one night, no need to bring a lot of things. According to Velikro's plan, we arrive at the site at noon, so that one afternoon we can go hunting in the mountain forest and see if we have any luck hunting some more. At night we camp in the ruins of the Magic Tower to exercise our courage...

A half-day walk along this abandoned rocky mountain road, Claude discovered that Villicro was right, and that this mountain road, besides the magician, could not be repaired by human and material input alone. At the beginning, the intermittent destruction of those rocks by plants could not be seen. When a large rocky mountain road appeared some way ahead, Claude only realized that this rocky mountain road was not staircase type, but rather a pan mountain road that was winding up the mountain waist. You can imagine that when this rocky mountain road was intact, you could take a carriage from the foot of the mountain to the magic tower at the top of the mountain...

Bok Al and Eriksson also stumbled upon this rocky mountain road, which led to lengthy discussions on horror stories about Bai Lu, many of which Claude had never heard of. And Alexon knows the most, which should be related to the fact that he often mingles with the crew of the sailors at the pier to listen to stories, and a lot of rumors about Bai Lu are all nonsense about the crew of the drunk sailors.

Verricolo has no disrespect for these legends. Since his father brought him to White Eel for two winters to hunt and camp at the ruins of the Magic Tower, he has stopped believing in these rumours and legends...

After walking for about two hours, Vericulo pointed to the front and said: "We are here, that is the ruins...”