Chapter 18: Exchange
Although the process was grueling, the dwarf deer hide was much easier to peel off than Su Ran had imagined.
She hardly used the knife at all, tearing the entire animal hide off the dwarf deer’s body. Only at the end did she use the tactical knife to cut a few times at the four deer hooves and deer tail.
This restored a bit of her confidence.
She spread the peeled dwarf deer hide flat in the river water, letting the flowing river water first rinse off the blood. Then, like with the kelp before, she found a few stones to weigh down the deer hide to prevent it from being washed away.
After doing all this, Su Ran picked up the dwarf deer body that was now just bones and meat, preparing to marinate it with sweet leaf vein tree leaves and then make honey roast meat.
But as soon as she turned around, she almost crashed into the werewolf’s embrace!
She instinctively wanted to dodge, but she was no match for the werewolf’s actions. The next second, she was pulled into a solid embrace.
Su Ran’s forehead bumped into the werewolf’s solid chest, and she couldn’t help letting out a soft cry. Before she could react, a cheerful “ao wu” sound came from above her head, followed by an enthusiastic face-licking greeting.
Su Ran carefully tilted her neck to dodge the werewolf’s actions, lest it lick where it shouldn’t.
But with a glance from the corner of her eye, she saw that on the werewolf’s exceedingly handsome face, there was unexpectedly an expression mixed with motherly benevolence, satisfaction, indulgence, and pride!
So what did this mean?
Su Ran was stunned for a moment.
Was it happy for her that she had successfully peeled off the dwarf deer hide, praising her?
Or was it delighted, relieved, and proud because she had independently handled an animal?
Did this werewolf really like a nurturing dynamic? Then how useless had she seemed in the werewolf’s eyes originally?
Su Ran fell silent…
However…
Thinking about the females here who could both hunt and leap acrobatically between jungle branches, and even liked to confront and fight with male beastmen, someone like her who couldn’t even leave the bird’s nest without the werewolf indeed seemed a bit weak…
The werewolf held Su Ran and licked and rubbed against her vigorously for a good while before slowly loosening its grip under her resistance.
But even after letting go, the expression on its face was still one of extreme joy and pride.
The slightly raised eyebrows and the tail tip hooked behind it betrayed its inner emotions completely.
Back by the campfire, Su Ran began selecting branches and skewering the dwarf deer on them.
The branches in the campfire were almost burned up, so Su Ran quickly broke some thin twigs and piled them on top. After watching the campfire reignite with a small flame, she went to wash her hands and began smearing the juice of sweet leaf vein tree leaves onto the dwarf deer.
And at that moment, the werewolf sitting beside her suddenly stood up and walked toward the direction behind them, holding the remaining bit of roasted white-headed sheep meat when it got up.
Su Ran curiously turned her head to look, her hands not slowing down at all even as she did.
Then she was surprised to see the werewolf exchanging with other beastmen!
Many of those beastmen were ones Su Ran had just seen running into the forest; now they were returning one after another from the forest, each beastman carrying or shouldering a lifeless prey.
And right now, the werewolf was using that remaining less-than-quarter piece of roast meat to exchange with the other beastmen.
In no time, a big pile of prey had accumulated at the werewolf’s feet, and the roast meat in its hand had been completely traded away.
However, the beastmen who had finished exchanging didn’t leave; they still gathered around the werewolf.
From afar, Su Ran saw the werewolf say something to the group of beastmen, and the next second, the beastmen scattered like birds and beasts, all running back into the woods.
Meanwhile, the werewolf bent down and picked out five or six slightly larger prey from the pile at its feet, looking delighted as it wagged its tail, dragging the prey back toward Su Ran.
“Ao wu~”
Before it even reached her, seeing Su Ran’s curious gaze, a hint of smugness seemed to appear on its face.
Then it threw the several prey onto the stone beach by the campfire, turned to Su Ran and ao wu-ed a couple more times, as if saying: “How about it, am I awesome?”
Su Ran…
After the werewolf returned, it plopped down right beside Su Ran.
But it was extremely restless at the moment.
In just a few short minutes, it shifted its butt this way and that, scratched its ears now and then, and kept looking at Su Ran with a hesitant, as-if-wanting-to-speak-but-stopping-short expression. When Su Ran looked over, it quickly averted its gaze, looking guilty.
The werewolf’s behavior piqued Su Ran’s curiosity.
It had only exchanged some food, so why did the beastman in front of her look like it had done something wrong?
But soon, the werewolf’s behavior resolved her doubts.
Less than five minutes after the werewolf finished exchanging prey and returned, the other beastmen who had just scattered came running back one after another from the woods.
When they returned, each beastman was holding dry branches or sweet leaf vein tree leaves, then went to a spot not far from her and the werewolf, waiting from afar for something.
And now, the werewolf began poking Su Ran’s arm, its voice carrying a weak, fawning tone as it pointed at the campfire in front of them one moment and at the nearby beastmen the next, ao wu-ing.
Su Ran understood its meaning almost instantly.
It seemed this werewolf hadn’t just exchanged that small piece of meat with those beastmen; it had traded away the entire method of roast meat.
But since roast meat was her idea, and only she knew how to make fire, those beastmen would really need her to learn how to roast meat.
Or rather, the werewolf wanted to use those few prey to help the other beastmen here exchange with her for the methods of making fire and roasting meat!
That’s why this werewolf in front of her was acting guilty and fawning; because this was somewhat taking initiative on its own.
Of course, the beastman probably didn’t understand what taking initiative meant; perhaps it just instinctively felt that after exchanging the prey, remembering it hadn’t consulted her—the main person involved—seemed a bit overstepping.
And it also had to worry about what if she didn’t want to teach?
Su Ran certainly wanted to teach; she even thought this was a good opportunity to integrate into the settlement.
But she hesitated a bit on how to teach the beastmen to use fire.
The best and simplest method was of course to make tinder.
But she also had to worry that if these beastmen were careless with fire, it might cause a forest fire.
After all, firewood was the least scarce thing here.
Now, the biggest problem in front of her had shifted from food to the language barrier.
Su Ran pursed her lips, ultimately deciding that for now, she couldn’t entrust the right to approach fire to the beastmen.
Because of the language barrier, she couldn’t clearly inform the beastmen of the dangers fire might cause.
So she didn’t dare imagine or bear the possible consequences.
She turned to look at the werewolf beside her; receiving her gaze, the werewolf’s ears immediately perked up energetically, and it widened its eyes, staring intently at her.
Su Ran smiled at the werewolf, then stood up and walked toward the beastmen.
So for now, she could only have the beastmen learn to roast meat and eat cooked meat first.
As for the skill of making fire, that could be postponed.
