Chapter 15

Titus stayed near the cave tonight because he couldn't block the cave entrance due to the fence he had built, so he could only sit beside it. By now, Cloudy should have fallen asleep, and he could only hear the steady sound of breathing coming from inside the cave.

He leaned against the left side of the fence, looking towards the rainforest in the distance on the green slope. In the past few days, people from other settlements had been wandering along the borders, supposedly to hunt their prey, but this had happened three times this season. Titus and his brothers knew that a more intense conflict was likely to occur before the rainy season arrived.

To secure food resources.

Speaking of the rainy season, Titus still didn't know how to help Cloudy get through this long and tough season. Once Cloudy's residence entered the rainy season environment, it would become very unpleasant, with mudwater constantly rushing down the mountain. When he heard about the strange creature caught in the settlement a long time ago, Titus wasn't very concerned.

At that time, he and his brothers were out hunting, and upon returning to the settlement at the end of the hunting season, they learned that someone had caught a very, very strange creature - with only two pupils, short stature, and very strange skin color... They didn't know which settlement had expelled the deformed child. The Matriarch just took one look and had the person thrown out to fend for themselves.

However, people patrolling the rainforest and the border with the plains said that the deformed child was not devoured by the fierce beasts in the rainforest, but had found a cave to live in on the gray stone slope outside the rainforest.

The first time they encountered Cloudy was quite a coincidence. They were working together to hunt down a giant bone beast that had accidentally entered the rainforest. After killing and dismembering the prey, Titus noticed a furtive head on the hill in the distance. At first, he thought it was a small wild animal waiting to scavenge the remains. But one of his hunting brothers, with a somewhat disgusted tone, reminded them that the deformed child who had been expelled before had appeared.

"Wait to pick up some scraps from here. Have you carefully looked at the appearance of that thing? It's so strange, very terrifying."

Titus hadn't seen it, so he became curious. While the others returned to the settlement with their spoils, he deliberately found some excuses to stay behind. Just out of pure curiosity.

Before and after the deformed child arrived at the remains of the giant bone beast, he began to observe its actions. From its appearance... it did indeed seem underdeveloped, but it wasn't as terrifying as others had described. It looked thin and weak, and the desperate act of digging meat from the remains made Titus feel a bit sorry for it.

It was this sense of compassion that made Titus decide to help Cloudy to the best of his ability.

In the few days of getting to know Cloudy, Titus had also struggled to adapt to her eyes and appearance. But beyond looks, Cloudy was interesting; she spoke a strange language and did some very strange things, like suddenly howling loudly and energetically running around. After finishing his tasks in the settlement each day, Titus would come over to see what Cloudy was up to.

He couldn't explain why he did this, but not checking on Cloudy made him feel somewhat bored. Recently, their communication had also grown.
As smooth as can be, Cloudy is amazing... very clever. She understands things right away and can say them immediately after just one mention, much better than the children in the settlement who are just starting to learn how to speak.

...If only Cloudy could live inside the settlement. Titus looked towards the direction of the rainforest and sighed. Cloudy living in the tent next to his house would be much better than living in a cave.

It wasn't until dawn that Titus, satisfied that there were no enemies hunting, stood up and decided to head back home. However, after walking a short distance, he remembered how surprised Cloudy looked when she saw him in the afternoon, continuously checking if he had any wounds. Does that mean that she had been worried ever since he suddenly disappeared and returned home yesterday?

"..."

...

Cloudy yawned and slowly got up from the grass mat. After sitting still for a moment, she started crawling towards the entrance of the cave.

"Cloudy! What are we doing today?"

"Ah ah ah!!" Pushing the door open, Cloudy was startled by Titus's loud voice. She climbed inside the fence and looked up at Titus standing outside the fence. "You, why are you here!"

"I was worried about you, so I didn't go back last night." Titus bent over the fence, reached out, grabbed Cloudy, and pulled her out. "Are you happy?"

Happy, but still not fully awake. Cloudy yawned, not caring that Titus was still holding her. "If you don't go back, won't your family worry?"

Titus seemed indifferent. He put Cloudy back on the ground and looked at her expectantly. "What are we doing today? Are we continuing to build things?"

"I haven't decided yet," Cloudy scratched her head. "But first, we need to bring back some water." There was only a shallow layer of water left in the insect shell, and once they drank it today, there would be none left. Just as she finished speaking, Titus rushed over to grab the insect shell. Quick to react, Cloudy also ran over and stopped him. "Put it down!"

"?" Titus didn't understand why he was suddenly being scolded. Holding the insect shell, he stood still and looked down at Cloudy. "What's wrong? I'll help you get water."

"No, no, no." Cloudy shook her head and snatched the insect shell back. "You can't help me, but we can..." After a moment of recollection, Cloudy remembered how to say "go fetch water together."

"Great, that sounds good! Let's go play together."

Isn't it fetching water? Didn't expect to start getting annoyed as soon as she woke up.

With Titus joining in, the morning preparations and collection work sped up significantly until noon. After finishing breakfast, Titus carried Cloudy and the insect shell and quickly ran towards the vicinity of the rainforest.

Cloudy didn't intend to be carried by Titus, but her arms were no match for his legs, so she was forcefully carried like a big horse. However, there was an unexpected gain. Titus took her to a place even further to the east of the rainforest and rushed into the forest.

Before entering the particularly lush vegetation zone, there were some shallow streams on the ground, very, very narrow, probably only as wide as Cloudy's two arms.
Not long after, they both filled a basin with water. While Cloudy was fetching water, Titus was busy jumping around, picking up vines and sticks.

He believed that Cloudy could make use of these items. He also took the opportunity to teach Cloudy how to identify edible fruits nearby.

"Titus, if we walk in this direction, will we find a large lake?" Cloudy pointed in the opposite direction of the stream. "Are there fish that we can catch?"

"There are many, many fish, and a big lake..." Titus shook his head. "It's very dangerous, especially for Cloudy. Insects, wild animals, they are all there."

It's true, many animals tend to gather around lakes. As a beginner who had not yet left the newbie village, Cloudy didn't dare to have any thoughts about the plump fish. For now, she settled for some fruits and insects. Unfortunately, Titus had other ideas: "If Cloudy wants fish, I'll get them for you!"

"Don't do that, what if we get caught?!" Cloudy chuckled nervously, shaking her head repeatedly.

After fetching the water, Cloudy and Titus returned to the cave entrance. Once they had stored the water and the materials Titus had collected, she took him to dig up some roots. However, as they dug, Cloudy noticed something was off with Titus; he kept blinking, zoning out, and speaking less.

"Titus, are you tired?"

"A bit," Titus yawned. "But it's okay, I'll help you dig for food."

That won't do; one must stay energized in such places. Cloudy picked up the roots they had dug, led Titus back to the cave entrance, and asked him to wait there. She swiftly ran to a spot with broad-leaved plants, plucked several large leaves, and brought them back.

"Rest." Cloudy spread the leaves next to her fire drill workstation, which was relatively flat. Then, she pulled out her own coat from the bottom of the chest in the cave, folded it into a small pillow, and said, "Here, rest!"

After Titus lay down, Cloudy placed the coat pillow under the back of his head. He widened his eyes and said, "Cloudy, what's this? It's comfortable..."

It was a women's lightweight down jacket. Cloudy smirked, "Just rest." She patted Titus's forehead, suspecting he had stayed up late guarding the night before. Feeling the sunlight was too strong, she took off her waist bag, folded it into a strip, and covered Titus's eyes with it.

"Why cover my eyes?"

"It's too bright, this way you can rest." She held Titus's shoulders to prevent him from getting up. "You rest, I'll be right here."

"Okay! Cloudy, don't wander off."

I have nowhere to go... After Titus mumbled something she couldn't understand, perhaps due to the comfort of the pillow or the eye cover, he quickly fell asleep, his breathing becoming slow and steady.

Once Titus was sound asleep, Cl...
Cloudy went to the side to start organizing the vines and wooden sticks she had brought back because the fine fluff hadn't dried completely. Today, she planned to learn how to tie the bone pieces securely to the front end of the wooden stick.

After fiddling with it for about ten minutes, she was still unsatisfied. She held the pieces that had broken into three parts earlier, turning them over in her hands while starting to reminisce about the tools from her era.

Hammer, scissors, kitchen knife. She felt truly sorry now, in that era, they were just everyday items to her, not realizing how useful they could be once stranded in the wilderness. Speaking of the kitchen knife, Cloudy suddenly remembered her previous broken fruit knife, with the wooden handle swelling and breaking due to moisture. It revealed the connection between the blade and the handle... the rectangular end of the blade, which would be embedded into the wooden handle.

Cloudy widened her eyes, suddenly feeling foolish... why hadn't she thought of such a simple solution earlier? Just split the front end of the wooden stick a bit, then stuff the bone pieces in, and securely tie a few loops with the vines, wouldn't that fix it in place?

Perhaps she had been too hungry before, with her mind not working properly. Once she figured out the solution, Cloudy immediately started working on it. She chose the sturdiest and most handy wooden stick to modify. First, she split the tip, then forcefully wedged the bone pieces in, and finally tightly bound the split area with the fine vines.

Cloudy stood up, wielding the spear with force a few times, and the bone pieces didn't fall off. At this moment, she was already excited, aiming the spearhead at the ground, thrusting it in with force, then pulling it out... the bone pieces were slightly askew, but still held firmly.

Now Cloudy was completely thrilled, jumping up and down excitedly in place with the spear held high. Even though it was a spear, as long as she put enough force into throwing it, it could also be considered a ranged weapon! If only she could find a way to secure the spearhead better...

If Titus wasn't sound asleep, Cloudy would have let out a loud cheer.