Chapter 60

Although it was morning, due to the structure of the stone house, there was almost no natural light deep inside the house. However, a small fire in the corner provided some brightness. At this moment, Cloudy sat on a stone platform, feeling very nervous.

On the stone platform, besides the children's bones, there were many things that she found hard to describe. The stone platform was a relatively neat rectangle, about four feet high from the ground. At the front of the stone platform, there were many fresh plants, with the most eye-catching being the large blue flower in the center, about as wide as three palms.

The petals looked very thick, like succulent plants, with golden-yellow spots that made one's scalp tingle, while the stigma was a very striking peach color. Overall, the entire flower exuded a "I'm poisonous" vibe.

In addition to this most eye-catching large blue flower, there were many smaller flowers as accompaniments. Getting a bit closer, one could smell a strong fragrance. Cloudy wasn't the type to like perfumes, but this heavy floral scent strangely captivated her and even... made her feel pleasant.

Along the sides of the plant circle were some patterned stones, large and small, very beautiful, somewhat resembling rain flower stones. At the bottom of the stone platform lay the children's bones, with the skull facing the door, its mouth stuffed with dark hair. It was somewhat unsettling to look at.

Cloudy tensed her whole body, her feet still hanging outside the stone platform without fully sitting on it. "Is it okay to sit like this?"

The Matriarch didn't answer but directly grabbed her legs and moved them onto the stone platform. "Lie down."

I don't want to lie down! If I lie down, it'll be like offering myself on the altar completely. Are they going to sacrifice me alive? Cloudy sat in a very awkward position on the stone platform. "...Why do I have to lie here?"

Just as she finished speaking, the other locals who had been keeping their distance from the stone platform suddenly began to move forward, until there was no gap between them and the platform. The Matriarch stood at the end of the children's bones with her back to Cloudy. "Today, we welcome a guest who can walk in the rain*&#..."

As the Matriarch spoke to the others, her speech speed returned to normal. Cloudy found it a bit difficult to follow, but overall, it seemed similar to a leader introducing a new employee in a company, highlighting their unique skills.

After speaking for several minutes, the Matriarch stopped, and everyone around started a low chant, not sounding like words, just a melody that made her equally uncomfortable. It seemed like they were going to sacrifice her alive. Would they cover her with straw later and set her on fire?

"Lie down." The Matriarch turned around in the chant, her massive figure almost blocking all the natural light barely shining in from outside the door. "For Tuna's companion."
Titus was always called "图那" by Matriarch since the beginning. What is that? Is it his nickname? Cloudy wanted to ask, but now is not a good time. She stiffened and slowly lay down on the cold stone platform, then Matriarch walked through the seated crowd to her right side and began to remove her clothes.

"Why are you taking my clothes?" Cloudy had to start resisting, grabbing her underwear. "Are you going to eat me?" But her strength was no match for the local Matriarch, who swiftly stripped her like a plucked chicken.

Normally, in the cave, Cloudy and Titus walking around without clothes didn't seem like a big issue to her. But now, with over twenty people in the room staring at her, her long-buried modern shame surfaced, growing into a towering tree in an instant.

With a very standard posture, one hand covering her chest, the other covering below... she started trembling on the stone platform: "Titus! Titus!! They are taking off my clothes!!" she screamed helplessly.

The next moment, a louder shout came from outside, "Don't panic, Cloudy! It's okay!! I'm right outside the room!"

Hearing Titus's voice temporarily reassured her, but the next moment when Matriarch began touching her skin, she uncontrollably screamed again, "Titus, Matriarch is touching me!! Why! I feel like they want to eat me!!"

"What?!" Titus's voice came again, "We don't eat people!!"

"No one will eat you, we don't have the habit of cannibalism in our settlement." Matriarch, seemingly unable to bear their loud exchange any longer, began to explain, "You will become our mother, and we are preparing you for that now."

Finally, Matriarch smiled suddenly. This smile still seemed very terrifying to Cloudy, "Titus's companion, you have a good relationship. Titus has never been this happy in the settlement."

"...Is Titus really unhappy here?"

"He hasn't liked us since he started hunting outside," Matriarch said, noticing that communication was helping Cloudy calm down, "We thought Titus would leave the settlement, but he stayed, for the newborns."

So, Titus's dislike for the settlement wasn't just a passing mood, he genuinely didn't like it... she felt it necessary to figure out why Titus didn't like it here.

Matriarch's hands, broad and calloused, rested on Cloudy's shoulders, "Your body is softer and more fragile than ours. But why can you walk in the rainy season?" Matriarch first checked her shoulders, then moved down to start kneading Cl...
Cloudy's arms.

In fact, Cloudy's body has become much stronger now, and her skin has darkened slightly from long-term sun exposure, but she still can't compare to the locals: "I'm afraid of heat, but I'm not afraid of cold. It's been like this since I was born."

"What about food and plants? What kind of medicine did your settlement use?" The Matriarch began pressing Cloudy's abdomen with her hands. "Can everyone in your settlement walk during the rainy season? Where is your settlement located?" Even the well-traveled Matriarch was meeting someone who could walk during the rainy season for the first time.

"If my people were here, they could also walk during the rainy season, but they are not here. Only me. The settlement is in a very distant place, not in this rainforest." Cloudy tried to answer truthfully. "We haven't used any medicine, it's just how we are naturally."

The Matriarch nodded, untied a small leather pouch hanging from her body, containing a deep red powder. The Matriarch took some crushed plants placed on Cloudy's head, letting the juice drip into the powder, stirring it slightly to form something like paint.

Dipping her index finger into it, the Matriarch began drawing strange patterns on Cloudy's abdomen.

Is this the seal of the nine tails? Cloudy raised her head slightly to look at her abdomen and found that the Matriarch was drawing a triangle. The entire drawing area covered her whole body, and the paint had a fishy smell that made Cloudy a bit nauseous, but she managed to hold back her urge to vomit.

In the final stage, the Matriarch dabbed a bit of paint on each side of her chest just below the center. This should be the symbol of the mother's status that Titus mentioned before. What do those two dots represent?

After finishing the patterns, the whole ceremony seemed to be coming to an end. Just as Cloudy was about to breathe a sigh of relief, the Matriarch suddenly took out a strand of hair from the child's skeleton's mouth and handed Cloudy the largest blue flower: "This is a gift. As a guest, let Titus guide you to rest in the settlement for three days."

...

"What did the Matriarch say?" Titus caught Cloudy, who had slipped out of the house, and led her to a secluded alley behind the house. "What do they want you to do?"

"They want Titus to guide me to rest in the settlement for three days." It's probably to help her get familiar with the settlement. This place is actually quite a large settlement, so it's important to spend some time getting to know it.

"You can't call me Titus..." Titus's expression was a bit awkward. At first, Cloudy thought he was unhappy, but then his tall, pointed ears gave him away. "Now only the Matriarch can call me that."

"Why?" Upon careful recollection, when she first met Titus, he did indeed introduce himself as Titus, but only that one time with his full name.
"She has a shallow memory.

"There's no particular reason, it's just a rule," Titus said as he reached out to start examining Cloudy, checking the patterns on her body. "I've drawn two dots for you, hmm... quite high. Cloudy's status is higher than many matriarchs."

"Really?!" That was unexpected. "How many dots does a matriarch have?"

Titus gestured with eight fingers. "If Cloudy tells them you can make fire, I think your status will immediately become only slightly lower than the matriarch's."

Is this my golden finger? Cloudy suddenly realized. "By the way, the matriarch also gave me this. Are these decorations? Or can they be used for something?" She lifted up the huge blue flower and brought it close to Titus. She knew that hair had many uses, but the thought of it being someone else's hair was a bit...

"Smell this, it'll make you happy. But I don't really like the smell," Titus leaned back, signaling for Cloudy to quickly move the flower away. "It makes me lazy."

After some thought, Cloudy brought the flower close to her nose and took a deep breath. Compared to the faint fragrance on the stone platform earlier, the heavy scent and the subsequent feeling of emptiness in her mind became even stronger after the deep inhalation.

Titus watched as Cloudy, with dilated pupils, inhaled the fragrance of the flower. "Do you like it?"

Cloudy wanted to answer, but after opening and closing her mouth a few times, she just made a strange laughing sound. She couldn't help but lower her head to smell it again, and then again, and continued... When she went to smell the flower for the fourth time, Titus intervened, "You can't smell it anymore."

At this point, Cloudy's nose was covered in peach-colored pollen, and Titus had to help her wipe it off. "This is for when you're injured and in pain, smelling it will be comforting."

Is... is that so... Cloudy's head was spinning, and she started leaning towards Titus, feeling like she couldn't stand up anymore. "I want to smell it again..."

"No, you can't!"

"Just once..."

"No!"