Chapter 17 Journey (Part 2) (Extra)

The moon is in the sky, and the vibrancy of the Valentine tribe in the distance remains, and joy continues.

But there are people who avoid such joy.

A petite figure was moving forward in this stone forest. It was dark, and the moon above her head could not bring enough lighting. The shadow of the stone pillar made people unable to see the ground under her feet. When a roar of an eagle came from her head, she fell unexpectedly and fell off guard, and her head hit the stone, moaning in pain.

He is a human girl, maybe a Valentine.

The traveler jumped off the wind-erosion column and walked to her. She retreated in fear, her back tightly against the stone wall, and shouted: "Don't catch me! Please, let me escape! Don't tell the patriarch and the high priest!"

"Who are you?" asked the traveler.

The girl's fear was calmed by this question and this voice. She mustered up the courage to look up at the stranger. Under the moonlight, the handsome traveler made her open her mouth unconsciously: "My name is Aya, Wa, a Valentine."

"Where are you going?" asked the traveler.

"Ant City...I'm going to Ant City!" Aya was very quiet at first, but suddenly said loudly.

"You should leave before dawn. The desert at night is very dangerous." The traveler warned.

Is he caring about her? Aya looked at the stranger in shock. He was tall and fair-skinned, completely different from the short and brown Valentines, so handsome that it makes people excited.

Aya suddenly turned around and looked at the bonfire in the distance, and suddenly had an idea in her heart.

She stood up from the ground, dusted the gravel and gravel on her skirt, and looked at the traveler tremblingly. He stood in front of her, as quiet as the moonlight, and as firm as a poplar that would not fall. She was worried, but forced by the anxiety in her heart.

"You... do you want to invite me to dance? We can dance the whole night!" Aya mustered up the courage and said a subtle and extraordinary invitation with a flushed face.

If it were people from the Valentine tribe here, they would understand what she meant. Aya was afraid that he wouldn't understand, so she boldly squeezed out a sentence from her throat: "I'm already an adult, and I'm more intimate than dancing, it's OK!"

After saying that, she lowered her head quickly, afraid of seeing contempt in the eyes of the traveler. This shame mixed with fear made her red eyes and she was so sad that she almost cried.

"Sorry, I am a monk." The traveler answered her.

Aya's heart was already retreating. Even a girl who lived in a remote tribe like her, she understood what this meant - he would not rashly get close to a girl, nor would he do anything beyond the rules before entering marriage. She should apologize and run away in shame.

But fear of the future was forcing her. She trembled her lips and begged desperately: "We can get married. I don't want gifts or rings... We will get married tonight, and you don't have to come to visit me tomorrow. Please, I don't want... I don't want..."

The traveler replied: "Sorry, I have a lover."

Aya started crying, crying all over. She was jealous of the lucky girls in the tribe. They could dance with the boy they liked on this beautiful night, but she was locked in the room, waiting for fate to come. She escaped, but where could she escape? She could not pass through the vast desert of quiet sea, and could only go to the underground ant city - the hell on earth that scared her. She had no power of a bear, no sharpness of an eagle, nor the avian aura. How could an ordinary human girl survive there?

There is a dead end everywhere, and there is no trace of hope. She finally despaired. She wiped her tears and turned around and walked towards the tribe. She escaped impulsively, but now thinking about it, there is a dead end everywhere, so why didn't she go back obediently and accept her fate?

But the traveler stopped her: "What are the difficulties you have? Do you need my help?"

Aya stopped and turned to look at him. The traveler stood in the bright moonlight and stared at her with her gentle blue eyes. This stranger was caring for her and caring for her pain. This recognition made Aya burst into tears. She wanted to express her grievances, but when she was stared at her with such eyes, she could not say anything and could only cry silently.

"Thank you...sir...thank you."

During the joyful celebration, this tribal girl with honey-colored skin told her story intermittently.

The Valentine tribe is a tribe that migrated here from other places. Unlike the indigenous people with high nose, deep eyes, snow-white skin, they have darker skin and not very tall figures. In addition, they come late, and on this land with thin water plants, their relationship with other tribes is not harmonious, and they are even discriminated against.

The demon has always liked pure human girls. As the Dragon Ant Queen grows up, she asks for more offerings. The secret of her bloody and cruelty is circulating in the Jinghai Desert - she sucks a lot of virgin blood in an attempt to save the traces left by time. Aya, who has just grown up, was selected as a tribute from the Valentine tribe this year and will be sent to the Dragon Ant Queen's palace in the underground ant city. She doesn't know if she will really face a bloodthirsty tyrant, but she knows that the girl sent has not come back.

Aya's mother died early, and her father was bewitched by a businessman and became a believer in the ideal country. She left the tribe to pursue her dream ideal country. Aya, alone, was raised by the tribe on the condition that she would serve as a tribute to the tribe after she became an adult.

Aya, who had no choice, grew up in panic. In order to maintain her purity, the patriarch and the high priest strictly prohibited her from contacting the opposite sex. Seeing her peers entering marriage one by one, she felt sincere envy and deep fear.

Finally, during this unattended bonfire festival, she was moved by this joy and excitement, quietly escaped from the tribe, trying to mingle into the underground ant city to make a living, and then she met someone who changed her life.

Now, she and the man were sitting on a low and easy-to-climb wind-eroded column, looking at the bonfire in the distance.

She talked intermittently, sometimes confused, sometimes self-pity, and sometimes even felt guilty: "Maybe I shouldn't have escaped. If I leave, there will be other girls to be sent there instead of me. They don't want this... They should have a better life."

The traveler who had been silent told her: "No one should bear this pain, so do you."

Dried tears flowed down from his eyes again, and Aya choked and said, "But everyone doesn't think so. Since I have accepted the support of the tribe, I should repay them. This is a matter of course."

"Raising a child is an obligation, and it should not be claimed by this obligation to repay her with her life, which is unjust," said the traveler.

"Isn't it my fault? Isn't it because I'm too selfish?" Aya asked hopefully.

The traveler shook his head: "It's not your fault, nor anyone's fault."

"Whose fault is that?" Aya was confused.

The traveler couldn't answer, and he was also thinking, if this world forces a passionate and kind group to betray their kind in exchange for a perpetrator, who would be wrong?

"It is the devil's fault." said the traveler, "so we must destroy them and drive them back to the demon world, so that they will never come to the earth."

"That's great. In this case, Dad will no longer believe in any ideal country, right? The world is not as beautiful as the demon. It is an ideal country. I want to live in such a world. Everything is good, the best, the best," said Aya. Her barren vocabulary cannot express the world in her heart, she can only describe it as "the best".

"What kind of world?" asked the traveler.

Aya thought hard and described the ideal country in her heart: "That must be an equal world. In addition to humans, there can also be a kind of demon that does not hurt people... I heard that there are such demons in the underground Ant City, and they may even intermarry with humans. If they do not hurt us, I can accept their existence. No matter what skin color, is it like you or me, whether we are men or women, whether we have faith, as long as we are willing to be peaceful and friendly, and do not hurt each other, they should be equal and should be happy."

The traveler was surprised. He did not expect that a tribal girl who had not received education would have such a mind and ideal, which would make his heart that was blindly hostile to all demons feel ashamed.

Aya imagined such a world and couldn't help but smile: "How great would it be if she could live in such a world."

As she said that, she curled her smile again and sighed softly: "What do you want to do so much? We don't even know if we can survive the next demon tide... There will always be some demons running to the ground in those days of each month. Last month, they ate the five sheep from the clan leader's family and had eaten people before."

Aya asked, "I heard that monks like you can do magical spells, will you?"

"I don't have that power, but I have a Lord in my heart." The traveler replied, even though he had been exiled, he still believed it.

"Will you become as smart and powerful as you believe in the Lord? Can I believe in it too?" Aya asked nervously.

The traveler handed her a heavy book as an answer.

Aya held the book carefully, afraid that her hands would dirty the precious book. She looked at the words on the cover and pronounced it with difficulty: "Is this the way the Scriptures are pronounced?"

She only knew some simple words, for fear that she would remember them wrongly, and after turning on the pages, she was even more embarrassed to find that she couldn't even read most of the contents in them.

"This is left to me by my mother, and now I will give it to you." said the traveler.

Aya closed the book in panic, threw it back, and hit the traveler's waist and abdomen. He groaned and his face turned pale.

"Are you okay? Did I hurt you? I'm sorry!" Aya apologized in fear, and tears fell from her eyes.

"It's okay, it's the injury I suffered before." Although the traveler's face was gray, he looked calm, as if the wound on his body was really just a minor injury. He put the book back on Aya's hand, "It's okay. I can memorize this book very early. If it can help you, it's valuable."

He did not feel sorry for giving the Book of the Book of the Book of the Book of the Book of the Book of the Book of the Book of the Book of the Book of the Book of the Book of the Book, and the place he was going to was very dangerous, and the result of carrying it may be to let it sleep underground forever. Let her take this Book of the Book of the Book of the Book, at least the people of the tribe would not blame her for her escape.

There is a seed of kindness in her heart. Whether she believes it or not, she should be treated kindly.

"Thank you, thank you really." Aya thanked her repeatedly, holding the book so happy that she was at a loss.

During this uninvited bonfire festival, she still received a gift. Perhaps the traveler didn't know the meaning of the gift, but it still made her secretly excited. There was a happy bird singing in her heart, almost flying out of her heart.

But he had a lover. Aya lowered her head sadly, trying to hide her sour mood. She lowered her head and turned on the pages, and read the words on it in the moonlight, but secretly blushed: "Love is... again..."

"Love is forever patient and kindness." The traveler told her the pronunciation.

These words that cut the heart made her feel excited. She seemed to be inspired by fate and continued to read bravely: "Is love...what?"

The traveler slowly told her: "Love is not jealous."

Aya's hand, which was touching the pages, froze, and her ignorant longing turned into a full of loss and self-deprecation, but in the end she felt thoughtful.

Love is not jealous. Aya silently read this sentence in her heart. Don’t be jealous of those girls who can dance with their lovers, and should not be jealous of the lovers who are worried about by strangers. That is not her love.

The bonfire in the distance has become weak, the sound of celebration has gradually become low, and the festival has come to an end.

Aya held the book and whispered: "I want to go home."

The traveler said, "I can take you to Ant City and help you settle down."

"No, I'm willing to go back, thank you." Aya said, "But before leaving, can I talk to you for a while? Anything can be done."

The traveler agreed to her.

Aya happily talked about the past, no longer mentioning the fear that made her suffer and hesitate, but talking about the interesting things she encountered. When she was drawing water, the bucket was pushed into the well by the sheep, and she was so angry that she went to chase the sheep. When she was making naan in the naan pit, she burned her hands. The neighbor's guy helped her get water to cool down. When the merchants talked about the outside world, they learned that there was a place called the Holy See. She wanted to tell all the interesting things, because she felt that the traveler was not happy, she wanted to make him happy, and she also wanted to know his past, even if it was just his name.

But the traveler is always just a silent listener, and he has no intention of telling his own story.

She didn't know where he came from, what kind of pain and despair he had experienced, why such gentle sadness was deposited on him, and what kind of person was that he put in his heart and carefully collected.

But the traveler didn't say anything, he didn't say anything.

It was late at night, and the girl was extremely sleepy. She murmured and asked, "Where is your lover, where has she gone?"

The traveler replied: "He has always been in my heart."

Aya could no longer tell whether this was what the traveler said or the dream she had. She fell asleep on the pillow of the book. The traveler took the rude to take the strange girl back to the tribe, so she covered her with a blanket, sat next to her to watch for her, and went to the nearby area to find some dry wood to raise fire, which made her feel warm.

The traveler did not sleep by himself. He was waiting for the rising sun to rise, and then quietly left and continued his journey.

Before this journey began, he actually didn't have many opportunities to watch the rising sun. He couldn't see it in the dusk country. He arrived at the never-ending home. Half of the year was shrouded under the eternal starry sky. When he was performing a mission outside, he was even hurried and had no intention of waiting for the rising sun. He actually did not have any persistence in the rising sun. If his lover was still there, it would be beautiful to watch the sunset together. The sunset in the dusk country never fell. They could sit shoulder to shoulder on the beach, holding hands, and seeing the world forever.

He wanted to take him to the snow mountain to see if the snow leopard he had treated then occupied the snow-capped mountains, where there was a beautiful waterfall and ice lake. The frozen blue-green lake in the snow made the mountain beautiful like a fairy tale. He also wanted to take him to the polar regions to see penguins, and even adopt an abandoned penguin, feed it, and watch it stagger on the ice surface until it is strong enough to return to life in the ethnic group.

He has many things to do with him, maybe he doesn't want to do things, he just wants to do it.

When people in love are together, even if they don’t say a word, they can feel each other’s hearts.

But if we are separated from life and death, can this distant longing still reach the other side of the Styx?

The traveler watched the rising sun rise from the horizon and his heart was peaceful. He was like a small boat, drifting from one port to another, and maybe he would encounter storms along the way, but when the boat arrived at the harbor, he still felt lucky and never felt hard.

He never felt that he should take it for granted. His faith was not to seek happiness, but to give peace to his heart, even if he was punished.
To be continued...