Chapter 7 - Meeting

One year had passed since that day on the lake. So many things happened at that time, and in the end, Bao Bei had no other choice but to reveal the truth about the humans to her son Hei and agree to let him get in touch with them.

But, despite her son's great desire to know his species and broaden his horizons beyond that familiar forest, Bao Bei decided to extend the wait as much as possible.

There was a valid reason for that choice. She wanted Hei, Xing, and Ye, to learn all that was needed to interact with humans to avoid troubles and misunderstandings.

She didn’t know how much had passed. Nonetheless, she knew that if she were to send them as they were, they would only get unwanted attention without proper education about human society. In the end, that attention could bring danger to all of them.

Therefore, she spent this year scouring the area outside the forest to understand the situation better and teach her children about human culture.

Since she would frighten anyone if she showed up directly, she could only move at night when Hei, Ye, and Xing were sleeping. Of course, this was only after reinforcing their home-like spider web with new spiderweb’s defensive layers.

Although she was worried and anxious about leaving them alone, she knew that the forest around didn’t contain spirit beasts that were strong enough to break the spider web. Moreover, she moved away only up to a distance that allowed her to monitor their refuge from far and return quickly in case of need.

Of course, this was true as long as they stayed inside their home without leaving since she created a secret passage in case they needed to escape for any reason. But fortunately, after the lesson received that time at the lake, the three of them had promised never to disobey Bao Bei again, and therefore, they remained in their home to sleep.

The first few nights, because it was the first time Bao Bei wasn’t present with them during the night hours, they were a bit afraid and struggled to sleep. Fortunately, they had each other to keep each other company and to face the loneliness of the night.

But, as the days went by, they soon got used to this feeling, not to mention that Bao Bei would always leave after they fell asleep, and when they woke up, she would be present with them with a pleasant breakfast.

However, thanks to her patrols, Bao Bei was able to understand the situation better, and she was able to find the answers to some questions she had.

She had thought of doing something like this several times, but the tender age of Hei, Ye, and Xing didn't allow her to go too far from them. Moreover, as the days passed in their company increased, the desire to know the outside world diminished within Bao Bei.

After all, before she met Hei, Bao Bei had lived a period of constant struggles and fatigue, so she had become so absorbed in this peace that she wished it would last forever.

However, it wasn’t possible to stop the passage of time, and she had to recognize that it wasn’t healthy to limit her children's future by her selfish whim. Thus, she decided to do a reconnaissance despite the risks involved.

She discovered that they were on an island called Rainbow Island that was divided into three kingdoms. At the time, they were in a forest on the eastern part of Rainbow Island, called Multicolor Leaf Forest.

Both names sounded unfamiliar to her, and they couldn’t make her recall anything. However, it wasn’t strange as it could happen that the people occasionally changed the name of a place, especially when it had passed a long time. And a lot of time had passed since the year she remembered.

One hundred thousand years had passed since the era in which she lived.

Although the spirit beasts that had developed spirit power had a longer lifespan than humans and demons, they couldn't live that long. However, by performing a special technique, they could go into hibernation and thus preserve their life in exchange for absolute inactivity during that time frame.

Unconsciously, Bao Bei had activated this technique after she was teleported on the Multicolor Leaf Forest. Therefore, she had managed to live so long, even though she would have to be dead by now. After all, albeit hibernation prolonged the life span of the spirit beast, it was impossible to live up to 100,000 years. Nonetheless, somehow, she was still alive.

This discovery brought enormous amazement to Bao Bei. She hadn’t expected that it had passed so much time, but she suspected it was related to the one she loved. After all, it was him that brought her to that place.

Bao Bei didn't know whether to be happy about this time gap, but she decided not to dwell too much. From the beginning, she had a hunch that it would be like this, although not to such an extent. So, instead of thinking about the past, she decided to focus on the future brought by her three cubs.

Apart from these discoveries, she also found that the nearest city was called Leaf City since its proximity to the forest, but because it was a city full of people, she decided to discard it. For their first interaction with humans, a city could be too much to handle for Hei, Xing, and Ye alone.

Fortunately, near the outskirts of the forest eastern side, a village of humans had settled there. They built the village there to take advantage of the water sources passing by the forest and the abundant timber supply. Since it was only the outer edge of the Forest, the creatures present inside weren’t a significant problem for humans, as long as they didn't go too deep and attracted the attention of dangerous beasts.

This village was probably the place where the girl, who Hei had seen that day, came from. It was in the same direction that Hei had followed and, since there weren't any other settlements nearby, it was the only possibility unless she was a passing traveler.

Regarding the language, she discovered it was a different language from the one she remembered. But this year of reconnaissance let her understand that new language.

Despite being a spider, she was still a high-level spirit beast. Creatures like her had an intellect equal to or superior to human beings. Moreover, she knew how to use glimpses of fragments to understand the language, thanks to her experience.

Of course, it wasn’t a process that could be done in one day, and it took her several months to start making sense of those words, but in the end, she succeeded. She then taught Hei and his sister the ancient language of humans that she already knew and the new one she learned on her reconnaissances.

Since it was a language learned without proper education, there were likely to be errors. But that didn't matter too much. After all, Hei was only about seven years old, and it wouldn’t seem strange if he made some mistakes.

Furthermore, Bao Bei trusted Hei's ability to learn, and she knew he could improve and fill his gaps, not to mention that he could benefit from the help of his two little sisters who had undergone the same training.

So once they were assessed as being at a passable level, Bao Bei finally gave Hei, Xing, and Ye permission to go to the human village and let them experience the outside world firsthand.

They set off in the morning at dawn. Bao Bei made Hei, Ye, and Xing climb on her back, and soon they reached the eastern outer border of the forest. At that point, she stopped and had her three children come down to tell them the latest recommendations.

‘Remember what I taught you and stick to the rules I imposed on you. Try not to get noticed too much, and if you run into some trouble, don't worry. I will come immediately to help you. Remember to come back here before sunset, all right?’

"Yes, mother, we'll pay attention, and we'll be back in time. Don't worry; everything will be fine." Hei comforted Bao Bei as he hugged his mother.

Then it was Xing and Ye's turn to hug her even though it was a little different from the word hug since they didn't have arms. Xing used her legs to wrap herself around her mother's legs while Ye used her tail instead.

After that, the two of them went up Hei's body, and they hid under Hei's clothes. Bao Bei had woven a scarf and a hat to hide the two little spirit beasts for that occasion.

Despite not representing a threat, they were still species not liked by most people, and it wasn’t advisable to frighten humans during their first visit. So they decided to hide under Hei's clothes to look at the situation first.

At this point, Hei finally set off and left the forest for the first time.

The sun had risen and had begun to heat the air, although some of the night's coldness remained. With everything new to him, He looked around with curiosity while going straight in the direction his mother had indicated him.

After a while, he could see a row of houses from afar that formed what looked like a village. Since it was the first time, he decided to observe it from that position for the moment. After all, despite being curious, he also had a bit of nervousness for that unknown world he had known only through his mother's stories.

Seeing him uncertain, Ye urged him, "Aren’t we going? Even if we see things from afar, we won't be able to understand much if we are here."

"Can't we take it easy? After all, we don't know who we're dealing with. So watching them from afar is more advisable for now." Xing replied in Hei's place.

Seeing them having conflicting opinions, Hei smiled and hurriedly said, "You are both right. If we stay here, we won’t be able to observe much, but it could be dangerous if we get too close without understanding how the village is structured. So, we will get closer, but we won't go inside for the moment. The ideal would be to be able to find that girl or another child."

By opting to use both a proactive and a safe method, the three got closer. Slowly, the houses got bigger and bigger as they could begin to see agricultural fields located on the opposite side. They also perceived some rumors coming from the people who lived there.

It was typical for villages to start their days with the sun's rising, taking advantage of the sunlight to carry out their activities comfortably.

This village was named after the nearby forest and was called Leaf Village. Although it was a village, given the proximity of the forest with its abundant resources, it was larger than an ordinary village. It housed not only farmers but also hunters, blacksmiths, leather workers, miners, and merchants.

Since it was the only settlement in the eastern side of the forest while Leaf City was on the western side, the village represented the only place where the merchants, who passed by, could buy the various goods deriving from the Multicolored Leaf Forest. Although they were products obtained from the outskirts of the forest, they were still highly sought after by people and were sold rather well.

As he didn’t want to meet them directly, for now, Hei walked around the village, hiding behind every possible hiding place he could find.

His years of training in hunting had given him a considerable skill in concealing his presence and moving without being seen. After all, it was well known that animals had more perceptive senses than people, so it was normal for a hunter to learn these skills.

As he walked around the village, he saw a girl with long brown hair come out of one of the houses. Her fair complexion shone in the rays of the rising sun. She wore a dark green suit with the sleeves pulled up, and she left the house carrying a large bucket containing water.

Her light brown eyes were narrowed a little from the effort of carrying such a weight, but she still proceeded at a brisk pace towards the small vegetable garden behind the house.

When he saw her, Hei got excited because he immediately recognized her as the girl he had seen a year ago in the forest. Although she had grown up, only a year had passed. As a result, her outward appearance didn’t change too much.

Unsure of what to do, he stroked Xing with his right hand while stroking Ye with his left hand. Then, feeling their warmth and presence, Hei took courage and slowly walked towards that girl.

Since the girl's house wasn’t located in the center of the village, and Hei had proceeded furtively, no one had discovered him. But when he approached the house, the girl was finally able to see him.

In truth, she remembered him. After all, meeting a child in a forest alone that suddenly disappeared was unusual. After Hei left, she begged her father to look around because she was worried about the child's safety, but they couldn’t find anything. For days this thought tormented her mind, and it was only after some time that she managed to push it away from her mind.

But seeing him again, this memory surfaced alive more than ever in her mind. Rather than his face that she saw only for a brief instant, it was his shiny silver clothes in contrast with his brown complexion that had impressed her strongly. And it was these that reminded her who he was.

Seeing him getting closer and being in excellent shape, she couldn’t help but smile. From this gesture, one could say that she was a good-hearted person since she was so worried about a child she didn't know at all.

When Hei arrived near her, he prepared himself to greet her using the language taught to him by his mother, "Hi, my name is Hei. And yours?"

Although his intonation was a bit uncertain, and his accent wasn't typical of the place, Hei was nevertheless able to formulate the sentence so that it had a meaning.

Because he used understandable words this time, the girl could reply, "Hi Hei, I am Lei Lei, but you can call me big sister Lei. You're the child of that time in the forest, right?"

"Yes, I am... er... I'm sorry if I scared you at that time. I didn't want to." Hei said in an apologetic tone.

Bao Bei had expressly told him to apologize if he was able to see the girl again as it would be an excellent way to arouse sympathy towards Hei so that he would have someone who could introduce him to the village safely.