Chapter 48: Rope Ladder
For the wooden sticks to bind the rope ladder, Su Ran selected ones with a diameter of about seven or eight centimeters.
While packing these wooden sticks, she had already cleaned off some small branches and knots on the wooden sticks very thoroughly.
In addition, she had beforehand ground a shallow groove about two fingers wide on both sides of each wooden stick to bind the rope, so that the rope wouldn’t slip off when tied on.
And now the work of binding these wooden sticks on was much easier.
The rope was still in a folded state, and Su Ran started binding the first wooden stick at a position about two meters down from the midpoint of the folded rope.
The rope folded into two strands, each first wrapped two loops side by side in the shallow groove dug out on the wooden stick, then used the remaining rope to wrap one loop around the rope on the wooden stick, and passed the rope end through the loop to tie a knot.
Both ends of the wooden stick were tied to the ropes on both sides in this way respectively.
After the first wooden stick was tied, about fifty centimeters below, Su Ran continued to bind the next wooden stick.
The werewolf seemed to have no interest in Su Ran’s work of binding things with rope.
At this time, as Su Ran sat here binding the wooden sticks one by one, it lay sideways by her side, quietly watching her actions.
Until forty minutes later, a long rope ladder took shape. Su Ran carefully stepped out of the bird’s nest holding this string of rope ladder and walked onto the tree trunk.
She sat on the tree trunk, carefully placed the rope ladder coiled into a bundle in her hand on the tree trunk, and found the spot at the beginning where two meters of rope was left folded.
She held one end of the rope end, lay on the tree, and slowly passed the rope end from one hand to the other, using the rope end to loop around the tree trunk once.
Then she passed that whole bundle of rope ladder part through the midpoint of the folded rope end, just like when binding the rope before.
Afterward, she directly threw the entire rope ladder down the tree, and the whole rope ladder instantly unfurled and spread out by itself in the blink of an eye.
Su Ran sat on the tree trunk and glanced sideways downward, discovering that the tail of the rope ladder didn’t seem to reach the ground.
But from that height looking down, if she climbed down along the rope ladder and then jumped directly to the ground, it should be fine.
And at this moment, the werewolf finally got curious and couldn’t help but also step onto the tree trunk, squat down, point at the rope ladder under the tree, and call out to Su Ran: “Ao wu~ Ran Ran, wooden stick, rope?”
“Rope~lad~der~”
Su Ran drew out the tones, teaching these two words to the werewolf.
After hearing it, the werewolf moved its lips, looked at Su Ran, its brows twitching as if about to furrow, and in its light green eyes, the round black pupils occupied half of the irises.
Finally, after a while, it only let out a soft: “Wu?”
“Pfft…”
Su Ran couldn’t help but laugh at the werewolf’s dazed and cute expression. She coughed lightly to stop laughing, and repeated to the werewolf once more: “Rope~~lad~der~”
“Rope~thing… ladder!”
“Mm.” Su Ran nodded encouragingly to the werewolf: “Rope ladder!”
“Rope… ladder!”
The werewolf raised its brows, its voice slightly stiff when pronouncing the word “ladder,” as if the pronunciation of “ladder” was a bit tricky for it.
It reached out and tugged at the green rope tied to the tree, silently mumbling it to itself in its mouth twice, then looked up at Su Ran and pointed at the rope ladder under the tree: “Ran Ran, rope ladder, bird’s nest?”
As soon as it finished speaking, while Su Ran was still trying to connect the associations between these three words it said, the werewolf finished inspecting the rope ladder and suddenly moved.
It stretched its foot and stepped onto the wooden stick below.
The werewolf’s thighs were long and straight.
Its long legs stepped down, directly skipping the first wooden stick and landing on the second wooden stick of the rope ladder.
At this point, both of its feet were standing on the second wooden stick, with the part above its chest exposed above the tree trunk.
It held the tree trunk with both hands, tilted its head looking at Su Ran, and instinctively let out an “Ao wu~” from its throat.
That sound was soft, like coquetry.
Then it looked down at its feet, grabbed the ropes on both sides with its hands, and slowly took another step downward.
This step made the entire rope ladder sway a bit.
So it suddenly widened its eyes, straightened its tail, stared intently downward at the ground under its feet, and even its wings behind had unfolded halfway, ready for takeoff.
“Ao wu~~”
Once the rope ladder stabilized and stopped swaying, the werewolf slowly turned its head to look at Su Ran, brows slightly furrowed as it called out, its expression carrying a bit more uncertainty.
Then it continued climbing downward.
The rope ladder swayed again due to its movements, but when it reached the sixth or seventh step, the werewolf seemed to gradually master the technique of going up and down the rope ladder, and the speed of its actions clearly increased a lot.
A dozen seconds later, the werewolf had jumped from the rope ladder onto the ground.
By now, the sky had completely darkened, and Su Ran sitting on the tree trunk could no longer make out the werewolf’s figure.
No way, her eyesight couldn’t compare to its night vision, so Su Ran finally gave up the idea of testing the quality of the newly made rope ladder right now.
If she missed a step and fell because she couldn’t see, that would be her own fault.
Moreover, the werewolf had just climbed down the rope ladder and tested its quality for her; the werewolf was much heavier than her.
The werewolf that had descended to the ground soon flew back from under the tree.
Looking at the werewolf landing on the tree trunk, waiting for her next action, Su Ran quickly reached out to it: “Gray!”
Perhaps because of the canopy overhead blocking, the light in the woods dimmed extremely quickly; almost as soon as it got dark, the next second when she came to her senses, it was already pitch black all around.
And Su Ran, whose night vision ability was only at an ordinary human level, after snapping out of it from the rope ladder, discovered that the surroundings were already pitch black where she couldn’t see her own hand.
Even looking back, the rope ladder that she could still clearly see just now could only be felt by touch for its position.
And the werewolf standing in front of her right now, even with her eyes wide open, she could only see a black silhouette.
Darkness itself was frightening, let alone now being trapped high on the tree trunk like this, the suspended feeling under her feet where she couldn’t touch solid ground made her heart shrink in fear.
At this moment, even a second of waiting felt endlessly long.
After Su Ran called out to the werewolf once, she felt like there was no response from the werewolf for a long time, which amplified her unease in the darkness again.
And just as she was preparing to grope along the tree trunk bit by bit back to the bird’s nest, she was suddenly lifted up with great force.
In the blink of an eye, she had been gently placed on a patch of soft dry grass.
It was Gray!
The already very familiar male scent enveloped her, and Su Ran’s violently beating heart gradually calmed down.
Then she felt her cheek being nuzzled, followed by a wet tongue licking the side of her face and her lips…
The next second, a soft: “Ao wu~”
Rang softly by her ear…
