Chapter 91: The Blood on The Fences
Ikarus and Cerus refused to put cloth in their mouths, but they never expected they would end up doing something so embarrassing that they wanted to dig a hole and hide in it for the rest of their lives.
They had screamed as Maeve spread the High-Grade Regeneration Gel over their wounds. The pain only lasted for about ten minutes, but to them, it felt like the longest and most humiliating ten minutes of their lives.
"No one cares about something like this," Maeve said as both of her mates sat in the corner with their knees pulled up against the wall. "Everyone screams when medicine is put on their wounds."
"The last time I screamed like that was when I was a kid," Cerus muttered with a gloomy look on his face. He truly looked as if the Pyrax Tribe had crushed every bit of his pride.
"People are too busy worrying about their own problems," Maeve said again. "No one cares."
"Oh, Leaders! We thought something was wrong!" A few Azuryn warriors appeared at the entrance of the cave. "We heard both of you screaming so loudly a while ago."
Cerus twitched at the corner of his eyes, while Ikarus buried his face even deeper between his knees.
"Nothing happened here!" Cerus shouted. "There’s nothing to see, so go... just go away!"
The warriors exchanged confused looks, but since their leaders said nothing had happened, they simply accepted it and left.
"Oh, Cerus, you shouldn’t be so harsh!" Maeve scolded him as soon as the warriors were gone. "They were just worried about you. They thought something bad had happened. Besides, it was only screaming, not something as embarrassing as... moaning."
Maeve had moaned much louder when she had slept with Cerus in her hut. Maybe that was why she had become a little less bothered by embarrassing things.
"Moaning isn’t embarrassing," Ikarus suddenly said as he lifted his head. "It’s a sign of pleasure."
Maeve took a deep breath before replying, "Then the same goes for screaming because of medicine. It’s just a sign that your body is healing."
Ikarus looked like he wanted to argue, but before he could say anything, a loud commotion came from outside.
"Hey, didn’t the Goddess warn us not to let the fence get stained with blood?! Why is it covered in blood now?!"
"We were attacked by the Pyrax Tribe! Do you think I had time to make sure the fence stayed clean?!"
"Besides, those Pyrax trash kept trying to wipe out all of the Clouds, so we had no choice but to fight near their pen."
They immediately jumped to their feet the moment they heard that. Pinky had never told Maeve what would really happen if the fence got stained with blood, but for some reason, she had a very bad feeling about it.
[Will it turn into a monster, Host?] Pinky flew beside her, looking genuinely curious. [Maybe it’ll become a giant monster that spits out wood?]
’Damn it, stop talking!’ Maeve snapped. ’This tribe has already been through enough after the Pyrax attack. The last thing we need right now is another monster!’
More than anything, Maeve didn’t want to lose her precious fence.
Without wasting another second, she ran toward the Clouds’ pen, with Ikarus and Cerus close behind her
When they reached the Clouds’ pen, dozens of tribe members had already gathered around the fence. Some were arguing, while others stared at the blood-covered wooden posts with worried expressions.
Maeve quickly pushed her way through the crowd. "Move aside!"
The tribe members immediately stepped back, making room for her.
The wooden fence was stained with fresh blood from top to bottom. Some of it had already soaked into the wood instead of simply dripping down the surface.
Maeve frowned. "How much blood got on it?" she asked.
"I... I’m not sure," one of the warriors admitted. "The battle was too chaotic. Some of us were injured here, and the Pyrax warriors also bled after we struck them down."
Another warrior pointed at the lower part of the fence. "It started soaking into the wood a few moments ago."
Maeve’s expression turned even more serious. "Soaking into it?"
The warrior nodded nervously. "Yes. We tried wiping it off with water, but it didn’t come off. It’s like the wood... absorbed it."
The crowd fell silent. Then, a low creaking sound came from the fence.
Creak...
Everyone turned toward it and saw the bloodstains slowly disappeared into the wood, leaving the surface looking as clean as before. For a brief moment, nothing happened.
Maeve frowned. "That’s it?"
Just as she finished speaking, the entire fence suddenly began to twist.
"What the—"
The wooden posts bent inward as if they had come alive. Thick roots burst out from beneath the ground and wrapped tightly around the fence, pulling it deeper into the soil.
"Pull it back!" one of the warriors shouted.
Several men rushed forward and grabbed the wooden posts, but they couldn’t move them at all. It was as if the fence had fused with the earth.
"It won’t budge!" one of them grunted.
More roots spread through the ground, racing in every direction beneath the soil.
The loud cracking sound grew even louder, and the ground beneath Maeve’s feet shook violently.
"Open the gate! Get the Clouds out of there!" she shouted.
Without wasting a second, the warriors immediately followed her order. They quickly herded the Clouds out of the pen before anything terrible could happen to them.
The moment the last Cloud made it out, more roots burst from the ground. They moved beneath the soil like giant serpents, twisting and crawling in every direction.
At the same time, the wooden fences slowly bent toward each other and began to grow taller and taller until they were several times taller than before.
"What is happening?!" Cerus shouted.
No one could answer, not even Maeve.
The roots continued to spread beneath the ground, drawing more and more energy into the fence. Thick branches burst from the wooden posts, twisting around one another as they stretched toward the sky.
Leaves quickly covered every branch, then came the flowers.
Hundreds of pale pink blossoms bloomed all at once, filling the air with a sweet fragrance.
Maeve stared in shock. "Trees?"
Within only a few minutes, the once-simple wooden fence had completely disappeared. In its place stood a row of enormous trees surrounding the entire Clouds’ pen like a living wall.
The blossoms lasted only a few moments before small green fruits appeared.
The fruits grew at a frightening speed. Green turned to yellow, and yellow slowly became bright red.
"Apples?!" Maeve shouted, looking even more shocked.
Wasn’t something terrible supposed to happen if the fence got stained with blood? Then why had it turned into apple trees instead?!
Were the apples poisonous?
[Searching for more information...]
Pinky’s eyes turned into something that looked like a computer screen, filled with lines of glowing text. After a few moments, it finally found information about the seller of the wooden planks.
[The wooden planks you bought came from Planet Korta. The people who live on that planet are extremely sensitive to cyanide.]
[Even though apple seeds contain only a tiny amount of cyanide, the people of Planet Korta can still die if they eat them.]
[Their skin can even blister if it comes into contact with any part of an apple tree.]
[Because of that, apple trees became an illegal species on Planet Korta. The trees even had to go through a series of special processes to make sure the wooden planks could no longer be identified as wood from an apple tree.]
Maeve could already guess that those processes involved illegal magic. Otherwise, there was no way an entire tree could grow back just because it came into contact with blood.
[In conclusion, the apples are poisonous to the people of Planet Korta, but they are the same as the apples found on Earth. They won’t harm you or the Azuryn people.]
[However, because this apple tree has already come into contact with blood, it will continue to need blood in order to keep growing.]
Alright, the last part was definitely creepy, but as long as everyone gave a little of their blood, it didn’t seem like it would be a big problem. Besides, the people of the Azuryn Tribe were much bigger and stronger than ordinary humans, so donating a small amount of blood shouldn’t be difficult for them.
"I can’t believe this..." Cerus murmured as he stared at the trees. "This is the first time I’ve ever seen trees as lively as this! Are they really poisonous?"
Maeve stepped in front of everyone and clapped her hands to get their attention.
"These trees aren’t poisonous to us!" she announced. "They’re just ordinary apple trees. But since they’ve already come into contact with blood, it looks like we’ll need to feed them a little of our blood from time to time to keep them alive."