Chapter 87 – The Shaman’s blessing
Translated by Sunyancai
Going up the mountain the following day, Shao Xuan took the animal skin bag. He thought it would be better to inform the Shaman about him keeping the bird.
The animal skin bag contained Chacha. That little one had been contained in the animal skin bag for so many times, that he had already gotten used to being carried like that. In fact, he remained silent inside.
Residents up in the mountaintop were quite familiar with Shao Xuan, and some of them would even greet Shao Xuan once they saw him. Shao Xuan greeted them back one by one with a smile, no matter whether they were from Ta’s hunting team, or from the other one.
“You came.”
The Shaman was sitting inside the stone room, waiting for Shao Xuan. His smile grew bigger as he saw Shao Xuan enter. The wrinkles on his old face stretched all over his face.
Actually, not everyone could receive the Shaman’s nice attitude, let alone the fact that Shao Xuan was still pretty young. He was pretty much the only one of his peers who could be treated by the Shaman like that.
There was no need to say more, and Shao Xuan walked in directly before sitting on a straw mattress.
“Chirp!”
As Shao Xuan sat down, Chacha chirped inside the animal skin bag. Perhaps he had sensed the alien environment in the surroundings. When the animal skin bag touched the straw mattress, Chacha shouted out uneasily.
Ever since Shao Xuan went inside, the Shaman had made quite a few glimpses at the animal skin bag that he carried. Now with the sound, the smile got replaced by a puzzled expression on the Shaman’s face.
Shao Xuan reached inside and took Chacha out from the animal skin bag.
Compared with the time when it was newly born, Chacha had grown much bigger now, and Shao Xuan could barely hold him with one hand.
“Tthis is…?” the Shaman stared at the baby bird that Shao Xuan held in his hand.
“It’s from a bird egg that I brought back last time.” Shao Xuan explained the whole story briefly, “So I guess I can train him as an experiment. I can train Caesar, so I assume that I can do the same with Chacha.”
The Shaman remained silent, “…”
Seeing that the Shaman remained to be puzzled, Shao Xuan hurriedly added, “I mean, I can train Caesar into a hound, so perhaps I can train Chacha into a falcon. Old Ke had said that Chacha might be some aggressive predator, hence I would like to try training him. It may probably be useful while we hunt. Even if not for hunting, it can be an observer in our tribe, and warn us from the sky if danger approaches.”
The Shaman looked down, with no other facial expression. He asked as calmly as ever, “What if you fail to do that?”
“Then I’ll kill it.” Shao Xuan had no hesitation about that, for he had lived long enough to know the rules in here.
All those undisciplined ones would either be killed or be abandoned. Normally people in the tribe would tend to choose the former option, killing. It was more efficient and straightforward; less irresolute and hesitant. They had no meticulous emotions, so they acted in a rough and wild way.
“Good.” The Shaman smiled again, and this time, it was a more delightful smile than the first one when Shao Xuan entered the room. He seemed to be quite joyful.
“Let me take a look more closely.” Said the Shaman.
Shao Xuan stretched his arm out and held Chacha below the Shaman’s nose, so that he might have a closer look at the bird. Meanwhile, Shao Xuan prepared his other hand to defend in case that Chacha should want to peck on the person in front of him. The Shaman was one of the two people of the highest position among the whole tribe, and in fact, he had somehow a higher status than the Chief. There’s no way that Shao Xuan would allow Chacha to offend the Shaman. If he really hurted the Shaman, he would definitely be skinned alive by other people in the tribe.
However, to Shao Xuan’s surprise, Chacha behaved pretty well today. Except for the sudden scream he had made at first, he remained quiet, and nor was he about to peck on anything, or anyone.
The Shaman stared at the baby bird as it was covered in fluff quietly, while Chacha stared at the man in front of him in silence.
After a while, the Shaman lifted his dead-bark-like hand, and took out a palm-sized stone plate from a short desk beside him. The stone plate contained some black powders. He reached out the other hand and soaked his index finger as well as his middle finger into the powders. After doing that, he used his thumb to twist on the index finger and middle finger, with the black powders in between. Then, he made a half-fist without his thumb, and reached his half fist in front of Chacha.
The Shaman tapped on Chacha’s head with his thumb. It was a light tap, but a visible stain of black quickly inked on Chacha’s brown gray hair. However, Chacha did not dodge at all, he kept staring at the Shaman, very quiet, which surprised Shao Xuan a lot. That thing hadn’t been so quiet ever since the day it hatched.
No matter why the Shaman did what he did, Shao Xuan knew that the Shaman had permitted his deeds. In other words, the Shaman had given his permission on Shao Xuan keeping the bird in the tribe. Moreover, after being “blessed” by the Shaman, no one would harm him even if he could not be tolerated in the tribe. No one would ever dare to kill him, and the worst case would be to abandon it.
However, the Shaman did not stop after placing the stone plate down. Instead, he took out a patterned plate and passed it to Shao Xuan. It was the same patterned plate that he gave Caesar earlier. Clearly it was for Chacha.
Apparently, he valued Chacha more than Caesar, for he gave a double guarantee to Chacha this time!
Shao Xuan was a little confused, because Chacha was merely brought back and kept as “potential food” with unforeseeable future, and it could oddly receive the Shaman’s high attention like that! Unless the Shaman could predict the future, and he had seen Chacha’s potential?
Unfortunately, when the Shaman chose to play mysterious, no one could pry the words out of his mouth, no one dared to do that as well.
He was just some old man with one foot in the grave, but he could always strike people with awe and veneration.
Shao Xuan tossed Chacha back into the animal skin bag, and made a sincere salute towards the Shaman, so as to show his gratitude. With the Shaman’s blessing, it would be much easier for Chacha to live in the tribe in the future.
With Chacha’s matter finished, the Shaman chose to talk about something serious. He asked Shao Xuan about his experience back in the green forest during the hunting mission. Shao Xuan shared some things with the Shaman. Not all of it, but this time Shao Xuan was less reserved, and he mentioned that he saw some shadows of the Green Thief vaguely.
Shao Xuan did not think that he could keep his special ability to himself forever, given that he probably would be spending all his life in here. He had no one to rely on, and because of Ta, Shao Xuan would not be stupid enough to set all his hopes on the Chief. What’s more, what if Ta really becomes the next Chief and makes things hard for Shao Xuan? It was not Shao Xuan just being pessimistic. During this time’s hunting mission, he did feel that he could not get along well with Ta. There was no human in the right in the tribe, for everything could be decided by the leadership. When a leader said that you were wrong, then you were wrong indeed. There would be no chance for you to make any explanation.
After some observation, Shao Xuan would rather believe in the Shaman, the so called spiritual leader in the tribe. Although this isolated tribe was not developing fast, it was not severely deformed, and that was all the shamans’ credits during all these generations. He believed that the next shaman wouldn’t be too bad.
He decided to reveal his secret little by little, so that the Shaman could also be prepared for the whole truth someday.
After listening to Shao Xuan’s description in silence, the Shaman amiably passed him two packs of mixed herbs, without asking more about the details, “One pack is health recovery, and the other one is mixed with the Green Thief. Use them soon, especially the one with the Green Thief. Do not store them for too long.”
After carefully placing the two packs of mixed herbs, Shao Xuan heard the Shaman say “Who do you intend to follow during the next hunting trip?”
“I was about to tell you that…I want to tag along with Uncle Mai’s group during the next hunting mission.” Said Shao Xuan.
Ta had not removed Shao Xuan from the name list of the advance group, for he had probably changed his mind and wanted to take Shao Xuan with them during the next hunting mission. However, Shao Xuan was the one refusing to do that. He would prefer to tag along with Mai’s hunting group. By doing that, he could get proper opportunity to train himself in the battlefield. If he continued to follow the advance group, he wouldn’t be able to keep up with their paces, and he wouldn’t be able to solve all the problems with a single trap. Perhaps Ta would think Shao Xuan was an ungrateful kid after hearing his response, and hate him even more.
But so what?
Shao Xuan did not want to enter the advance group and serve as a mascot. He refused to be the one watching in a distance when it comes to real hunting.
“Okay, I understand.” The Shaman nodded.
Shao Xuan worried no more after the Shaman had said that. Ta was totally timid in front of the Shaman. He dared not to judge, let alone refute the old man. Even his father, the chief of the tribe, Ao, would not directly refute the Shaman’s decision.
When Shao Xuan left, he made a salute to the Shaman again. The more he knew about the tribe, the more he believed that such an old man deserved people’s respect. It had nothing to do with the brainwashing, or anything else.
When Shao Xuan walked down the mountain, he deliberately took a detour to Mai and Lang Ga’s houses, to ask them if they had similar situations when they ate the bird eggs. However, the answer was no. The bird eggs they ate were no different from any normal eggs, and Chacha turned out to be a total exception.
“You actually hatched an egg!!” Lang Ga was stunned.
Shao Xuan was totally speechless, but he found it very unflattering.
Lang Ga was more than surprised, and he pulled over Shao Xuan’s animal skin bag to look inside. He even reached inside to take Chacha out for a closer observation. The bird was blessed by the Shaman!
However, Lang Ga’s hand got pecked on hard as soon as he reached inside.
If he weren’t someone with thick skin, or if his totem power was not awakened, he would’ve been bleeding for sure.
“This bird is ferocious! Better than Caesar!” Apparently, Lang Ga and Keke had the same standards and definitions for “good”.
For most of the people in the tribe, all animals and beasts were judged by the same standard. The fiercer they were, the better. Hence people would have more sense of accomplishment when they killed the thing.
“Oh, by the way, Ah-Xuan, you should check on your cabin when you go back home. The wet season is about to come. Although your cabin was newly built this year, it would be safer for you to check it carefully. And you should store more dry timbers inside.”
The wet season?
Shao Xuan thought about last year in this time. Indeed, the wet season was about to come.