Chapter 24

When Cloudy saw the tragic scene near the cave with her own eyes, she immediately regretted it. Perhaps she shouldn't have let Titus take her back to the cave to get things... When the two arrived at the cave, it was almost noon, meaning everything around was brightly lit by the sun.

The intact fence and cave door that were fine before leaving had been completely destroyed, scattered all over the ground, many of them broken. These were not the main attraction; the real shock came from the splattered pieces of flesh, blackened and stinking everywhere... This was too intense, not a sight for someone of her age to witness.

Cloudy turned her face away, trying not to look at the grotesque skull with no jaw that had fallen not far away. Did Titus do all this... was her food-delivering friend actually a violent executioner? Even without looking, the images she had just seen kept flashing in her mind, making her feel a bit queasy. Cloudy hid behind Titus, "Is it safe to kill them? Will it cause trouble?" She was really worried about this, not wanting Titus to get into any trouble, as he was her only good companion!

"Trouble? No trouble," Titus didn't understand why Cloudy was hiding behind him, taking a step to the side to let her see, but Cloudy continued to hide behind him, and the two of them sidestepped together for several steps. "What's wrong? Aren't we going to get things?"

How dare she go, isn't that a mass grave ahead of me, my goodness! This kind of scene might be commonplace for Titus, but for her, she had only seen it in movies, she wasn't prepared to face a real R-rated movie set!

Titus probably wouldn't understand what she was afraid of, after all, their living environments were different. Cloudy closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths before stepping forward. She usually didn't leave anything outside the cave, things like sticks could be collected again in a new place, the insect shells and bird feathers she collected yesterday were kept inside the fence, now scattered everywhere due to the destruction of the fence... Cloudy could only frown and pick out a few feathers from the pile of corpses that hadn't touched blood and put them in her waist pouch, the insect shells were smashed, scattered around losing their original value.

"..." Goodbye, my water bottle, Cloudy sighed and bent down to crawl into the cave. Because the cave entrance was too small, the savages couldn't get in even after breaking the wooden door, so everything inside was intact, which relieved her greatly. She squatted in the cave, took out the down jacket from under the grass mat, and spread it out, putting her broken phone and some food from the cave into the down jacket.

There wasn't much stuff, and after wrapping everything in the down jacket, it was only a few hands in size. Looking at this small bundle, Cloudy felt a mix of emotions. She had been here for two months, and this was all she had accumulated. Would things get better in the future?

Who knows... living one day at a time is what matters.
Cloudy gathered all her belongings and emerged from the cave. Titus stood outside, looking alertly around, "Can we leave now? There are wild beasts around here."

"No problem, let's go!" She held onto her clothes as Titus effortlessly lifted her onto his shoulder. They started running down the hillside, Cloudy glanced back at the disappearing cave until it vanished from sight.

"Will we ever come back here?" Cloudy found it strange that she was somewhat attached to this small, uncomfortable cave. "No, we won't," Titus quickly replied. "I will tell the tribe that you and they died here because of a wild beast attack."

Cloudy was surprised at how well Titus could lie. After witnessing the grim scene at the cave entrance, she had a slightly different view of Titus, not a negative one. Titus was so kind to her, almost perplexingly so. She wouldn't have any complaints about Titus; this was just their way of survival, and she wouldn't let it create a rift between them.

She found it increasingly hard to pinpoint Titus's character. Initially, Cloudy thought Titus had a simple and kind personality, but as they spent more time together, she realized his mindset was more complex than she had thought.

This also indicated that the level of civilization in Titus's settlement was higher than she had imagined. Was that a good thing? Cloudy wasn't sure.

...

"There's no way we can stay here."

It had been three hours since Titus had led Cloudy away from the green slope. A lot had happened in those three hours.

They first retraced their steps along the eastern side of the rainforest back to the stream entrance, but before entering the rainforest, they encountered a group of small dinosaurs.

Yes, dinosaurs. Cloudy was certain that those were dinosaurs, specifically small carnivorous ones. They had thick hind legs, slender forelimbs, and were gathered on the grassland outside the rainforest, gnawing on something. Cloudy dared not look closely.

These small dinosaurs had deep green heads, large eyes, and a strange lightning-shaped pattern running from their necks down their bodies, with the pattern in a darker color. Their long tails extended behind them, and they were only slightly taller than Cloudy, a total of four of them.

Cloudy expected Titus to show some panic and guide her around the dinosaurs, but he didn't. He simply walked straight towards the dinosaurs with Cloudy, showing no intention of avoiding them. What happened next was even more bewildering for Cloudy.

The small dinosaurs, upon seeing Titus approaching them, made chirping sounds and scattered in all directions.

What did this mean? It meant that Titus held a certain place in the rainforest food chain.
Above these dinosaurs. Cloudy began to feel a bit speechless; it was like his own time-traveling cheat had dropped onto someone else, leaving him speechless...

After the little dinosaurs gave up their food and ran away, Titus walked up to see what they had been eating. The prey had been torn to pieces, bones sticking out of the ground like spikes. Titus kicked the prey with some disdainful clicking sounds, then protected Cloudy's shoulder, bending down to pull out a few bones and handing them to Cloudy, saying, "These will come in handy. Let's keep them."

"O-Okay..." Cloudy trembled as he accepted the offering from the top of the food chain, thanking Titus.

After that, they entered the rainforest. Titus pulled her along at lightning speed, running from here to there, darting from the ground to the trees and back. Cloudy, sitting on his shoulder, was starting to feel a bit dizzy.

The first location was a cave in the rainforest, spacious and well-hidden. Two kilometers away at the back of the cave, a water source could be found. Besides that, there was dense undergrowth near the cave with many edible plants, except... they were ambushed by giant bugs as soon as they reached the cave entrance.

Titus threw Cloudy to the ground and quickly engaged in combat with the three-meter-high bug, liquid splattering everywhere. Cloudy rolled around in the bushes, avoiding getting caught in the human-bug battle. During her hiding, she even found a horn that had been torn off the bug. It felt like playing a side character picking up dropped items behind someone else.

The second location was on a massive tree where three levels of a villa could be built. However, Titus quickly dismissed the idea as he imagined Cloudy falling from the tree and dying. Cloudy protested, confident in her tree-climbing skills.

"No, no, falling from there would be fatal," Titus shook his head and left with Cloudy.

The third location, where they were now, was on the edge of the rainforest based on the vegetation and the sparse canopy above. It was a small clearing surrounded by several huge trees. Even without Titus saying anything, Cloudy could tell this place wasn't ideal. Despite the open space, she would be an easy target for wild animals. If they were to live in the rainforest, they would need to find a place with more cover.

"Mm..." Titus was getting impatient. The three places he brought Cloudy to were all known only to him, but after seeing them, he didn't feel comfortable leaving Cloudy alone in any of them. The rainforest at night was full of wild animals, and the grasslands were too easily discovered.

It was really difficult to hide Cloudy. Titus felt like he was facing the second toughest challenge of his life.
At this moment, he began to consider the possibility of bringing Cloudy back to the settlement: "Cloudy, I... can't find a place, what should I do."

He regretted saying that, not wanting Cloudy to feel unreliable. If he couldn't rely on himself, what would Cloudy do?

"It's okay."

Titus perked up his ears and turned his head to look at Cloudy sitting on his shoulder, who was smiling and patting his neck from behind, "I... know of a place, maybe we can stay there."

"Cloudy, you're amazing!!"

Why did he suddenly say I'm amazing again? Cloudy was puzzled, "But, I can't remember that place." It was where she had temporarily hidden while escaping in the rainforest before, and now recalling it, that place might be very safe.

"Let's find it together." Titus gently nudged Cloudy with his head, "Can you remember the direction?"

The direction... Cloudy furrowed her brow, carefully searching her memory. After being thrown out of the settlement, she must have run straight ahead for a long time, "Settlement, being driven out. Then I found that place."

"Near the settlement?"

"Not nearby, it's a distance away." Cloudy twisted a few times, signaling Titus to put her down. Once on the ground, she crouched down and started making a map on the ground with small stones and leaves at hand, "This stone is the settlement."

She placed a stone in the center, then put a leaf underneath it, "I ran for several days to get here."

Titus stared at Cloudy's simple map for a while, pondering, "I don't understand."

...Can't blame you, I can't make sense of it myself right now. Cloudy clenched her fists, trying hard to recall the situation back then, with more stones and leaves piling up on the ground.

In the end, both of them fell into a long silence, gazing at the chaotic stone and leaf map.