Chapter 119: The Big Dog and the Garden Hose
Nuan carefully checked her inventory slots while her wet clothes and the thick muskox hides dried under the morning sun on the river boulders.
"Kael, while we’re already out here, let’s cross over to the other side. I need to harvest a very specific type of absorbent leaf to make pads before my monthly nightmare hits."
Kael gave a nod, plunging into the water. The two of them swam smoothly across the current, cutting through the refreshing cool water until their feet touched the muddy banks of the opposite shore.
The moment they stepped out of the river, Kael instantly shifted into his massive wolf form and shook his body violently, sending a massive spray of water droplets flying everywhere like a rogue lawn sprinkler.
Nuan shielded her face, looking down at her dripping loincloth skirt, then glared at the silver wolf who simply turned his back to give her privacy. "Good boy! At least you have some basic gentleman instincts now."
Nuan quickly wrung out her hair, changed into a dry set of clothes from her inventory, and laced up her shoes. "Alright, let’s go."
Kael shifted back into his human form with a nod, and they began navigating the dense, silent foliage of the abandoned Bramor territory.
"Man, it’s really getting scorching lately. Mid-summer is no joke," Nuan murmured, wiping a bead of sweat from her neck.
"But the thick leaves and the deep shadows keep the ground cool," Kael answered, his golden eyes scanning the high branches.
"Yeah, that’s true. Hey, what comes after the summer heat waves around here?" Nuan asked, curious about the seasonal cycle.
"The heavy rainy time. The sky opens up, and water falls down constantly for moons."
"Ah, I see. So a full-blown monsoon season is next," Nuan mumbled to herself, her chest tightening slightly. I seriously need to hurry up, finish my pushcart, and start my journey out of here before the mud turns the entire jungle into a swamp.
Kael’s ears pinned back instantly the second she mentioned her journey.
He stopped dead in his tracks, his voice dropping into a tense whisper. "Don’t."
"Kael, please, not this argument again. I told you, I have to leave so—"
"No! Don’t move!" Kael interrupted sharply, his voice dropping into a lethal, predatory register as his nostrils flared, sniffing the air.
Nuan gulped, her survival instincts screaming. With a swift mental command, she pulled one of her newly crafted wooden spears out of her system inventory, gripping the smooth handle tightly.
She stood perfectly still, her eyes darting through the surrounding bushes, completely ready for whatever prehistoric monster was about to leap out.
Instead of a roar from the bushes, a soft, heavy rustle echoed from above. A massive, sleek shadow glided down from the high canopy.
It was Eryx.
His long, iridescent green snake tail coiled tightly around a thick tree branch, holding his weight effortlessly as his human upper body hung upside down right in the narrow space between Nuan and Kael.
"Psss... it has been quite a while, Nuan," Eryx hissed smoothly, a slow, mesmerizing smirk spreading across his handsome face.
"Oh, Eryx!!!" Nuan let out a massive sigh of relief, lowering the blunt point of her wooden spear. Thank goodness, it’s just the local oversized garden hose.
But Kael didn’t share her relief. With an aggressive, territorial roar, the silver Alpha launched himself straight into the air, his jaws snapped shut exactly where Eryx’s throat had been a millisecond prior.
Eryx’s cold-blooded reflexes were too fast; he instantly snapped his upper body upward, coiling into the safety of the leaves and dodging the attack with fluid ease.
Kael landed heavily back on the dirt right beside Nuan, his fangs bared and his chest rumbling with a vicious growl as he prepared to spring a second time.
Nuan didn’t waste a second. She lunged forward and wrapped both of her arms securely around Kael’s thick, tense neck, physically anchoring him to the ground.
"Whoa, whoa! Down, big boy! Why are you suddenly being so violent?! He is the guy who helped to save your ungrateful life in the first place!"
Kael growled fiercely, his golden eyes locked onto Eryx as the reticulated python beastman hung down a bit lower, his face hovering just a tiny bit above Nuan’s.
"I can see the Alpha of the silver-grey clan has recovered from his injuries..." Eryx said, his parted tongue slowly licked his pale lips. "But how rude to bare fangs on the one who saved your life?"
Kael’s chest was rumbling like a faulty engine. Nuan tightened her grip around the wolf’s neck, trying to keep him grounded.
"Kael, I told you, didn’t I? He helped to slow down your internal bleeding after that moose hunt, and he even carried you back to the pack from the lake! Why are you so angry?"
"Because he tried a sneak attack from above on you!" Kael snapped, his muscles tense under her arms.
"I was not sneak-attacking Nuan..." Eryx countered smoothly. "Because if I was, you would have never seen it coming. Not until she was already halfway inside me and I lifted her up into the tree while you just kept barking down there like a puppy!"
Oi, what exactly do you take me for? A midday snack?! Nuan snapped, her eyes instantly turning into full predatory mode as her grip on her wooden spear tightened.
"Not that I’ll ever actually do that..." Eryx chuckled, his body swaying slightly in the leaves. "I was just watching the surroundings from up here, but then I saw you, so I came down to say hi to my favorite borrower."
"Tsk... I’ll repay you for your help and whatever else soon, I’m not going anywhere!" Nuan huffed, rubbing the back of her neck. "And at least if you say you came to say hi, then land on the ground. My neck hurts from constantly looking up at you like this."
Eryx chuckled, his fork-tipped tongue flicking out to lick his lip once more. With a graceful, soundless, and smooth motion, his massive python coils unwound from the branch, and he got down right before her on the forest floor.
He leaned forward, his dark hair falling over his shoulders as he looked down at her small form. "But I heard something else from up above... it seems like you are leaving this big dog of yours," Eryx whispered.