Chapter 6

The next morning, Cloudy was woken up by Titus. For some reason, this wild man had run over early in the morning. Cloudy usually woke up relatively early, but Titus was even earlier. Almost the moment the sky began to lighten, Titus was squatting at the entrance of her cave, shouting loudly.

"Stop shouting... oh my goodness..." Cloudy wriggled a few times on her bed of leaves, still feeling a bit uncomfortable from being woken up by Titus. She slowly crawled out of the cave, but didn't fully emerge. Like a snail, she only exposed half of her body outside the entrance. She looked up at Titus, who was squatting beside her, watching her intently.

Even though he was squatting, the wild man still gave off a towering presence. He was blinking his eyes, those eyes that instilled fear, looking happily at Cloudy like a snail. After chattering in a language Cloudy couldn't understand, the grass in front of Cloudy suddenly had more food, mostly small fruits and some of the smelly slices Titus had given her to eat yesterday.

"Thank you!" Cloudy exclaimed in surprise, her eyes widening. "All for me?"

Titus blinked his eyes, looking friendly but not quite understanding.

Although Cloudy wanted to climb out and communicate more with Titus, she was just too tired. Unable to resist, she yawned three times in a row and then lay motionless on the grass.

Titus didn't know what Cloudy was doing. He waited for a while beside her until he heard her snoring. It dawned on him that he might have disturbed Cloudy's rest. He thought about pushing her back into the cave, but he was afraid of waking her up with his strength.

Leaving her outside to sleep wasn't a good idea; even passing insects could take a bite or two. With this in mind, Titus simply sat down. His over two-meter-tall body sat cross-legged, resembling a stone wall at the entrance of Cloudy's cave.

While Cloudy napped, Titus kept picking at the grass nearby, rolling it between his palms. His strength was immense, and in a matter of minutes, the green grass turned into a clump of mud.

Titus spread the mud in one palm and applied some on Cloudy's arm with the other. After using up the mud, he started a new round of picking grass and continued until all the scabbed but still swollen wounds on Cloudy's arms were treated.

After finishing, Titus eagerly compared his hand to Cloudy's beside hers. Titus's hand was four times larger than Cloudy's, with an extra joint in each finger, thick and sharp nails. Cloudy's hand, under comparison, looked like a pale, formalin-soaked chicken claw.

"Umm..." Just as Titus was about to compare the size of their arms, Cloudy finally woke up. She smacked her lips a few times, groggily opening her eyes.
Seeing a huge figure resembling a monster squatting beside her, she instinctively let out a short scream. This startled Titus, causing him to jump up, "Titus! It's Titus!" He pointed to his face and then waved at Cloudy.

"Sorry, I just woke up and didn't react in time..." Cloudy awkwardly smiled. She thought Titus might get angry if he knew she screamed because he looked a bit scary... Cloudy reached out to climb out of the cave, only to then notice a lot of green mud on her arm, "What's this?"

Seeing Cloudy's confusion, Titus began gesturing and muttering something under his breath.

As Titus started gesturing, Cloudy actually guessed what was on her arm, but her brain was a bit slow due to just waking up. When she crawled back to the cave poisoned that day, she had scraped her arms and legs in many places. Although the wounds had scabbed over, they were still a bit red, swollen, and itchy. Titus must have seen that her wounds weren't healing well and applied something to help speed up the recovery.

But the question was, what was this deep green mud? Just as Cloudy was about to ask more, Titus, fearing Cloudy wouldn't understand, began demonstrating.

He swiftly pulled out the green grass at the mouth of the cave, then clasped his hands together and vigorously rubbed...

So, just grass can be used to treat wounds! Watching Titus create a new batch of grass mud, Cloudy was amazed. At this point, Titus gestured for Cloudy to apply it to her legs.

"Aguru!" Cloudy took the grass mud from Titus and started tending to the wounds on her legs. Meanwhile, Titus sat across from her, rocking his body back and forth like a child.

If only there was a way to communicate with him, Cloudy thought as she stared at Titus while applying the ointment. "Your language is really ancient. How long would it take for me to learn it and communicate with you?"

Titus didn't understand but excitedly chattered away. As he spoke, he pushed the food he had placed on the ground in front of Cloudy, "That, that."

"That?" Cloudy pointed at the food. This was pretty straightforward. That plus that probably meant food, and 'that' might be some kind of friendly invitation to eat.

Cloudy looked at the food Titus had pushed over. It wasn't much, but it would probably last her until tomorrow. She could be lazy for two days... Was this what they called relying on parents at home and friends outside?

"That!" Titus picked up a small, thumb-sized, greenish fruit and tried to put it in Cloudy's mouth. If she hadn't stopped him in time, he would have continued feeding her.

In such harsh living conditions, Cloudy knew she couldn't refuse any form of food that came her way, but some things in her nature were hard to let go of... Accepting things from others for no reason like this was...
Feeling guilty, she still had to eat! Cloudy quickly devoured a third of the food in just a few bites, intending to save the rest. When Cloudy suddenly stopped eating, Titus was puzzled. He reached out and handed a thin slice to Cloudy, asking, "This?"

"No more 'this,' no more 'this,' if we 'this' again, there won't be any 'this' tomorrow." Cloudy took the food from Titus, tidied up the area, and placed the food at the entrance of the cave. "I want to save this for tomorrow."

Seeing Cloudy placing the food at the cave entrance, Titus finally understood. He grinned, revealing his slightly sharp teeth, and chuckled, "To...morrow..."

Are you copying me now? Cloudy thought it was a good way to bond by mimicking each other's speech. However, she didn't plan to teach Titus her language; Chinese was already difficult, let alone teaching it to a caveman from thousands of years ago.

But... she still needed to let Titus know her name!

"Titus."

"?"

Pointing at Titus's face, Cloudy said, "Titus," then pointed at herself, "Cloudy." She repeated this several times until Titus began to mumble her name, "Ah...yun..."

"Mmm..." Cloudy felt exceptionally happy; this was the first time someone had called her name since arriving in this strange place!

Seeing Cloudy so delighted, Titus became excited too, repeating Cloudy's name incessantly. They sat on the grass, calling each other's names like fools, sharing in the simple joy.

Once sure that Titus fully understood that Cloudy was her name, she decided to have Titus teach her some caveman language since they didn't need to forage or fetch water that day, and she didn't want to make a fire. They had plenty of time to bond!

But how could she convey that she needed to learn their language? Cloudy furrowed her brow, contemplating, while Titus mimicked her, furrowing his brow and rubbing his chin with a hand.

Finally, Cloudy thought of the simplest way: just as kindergartens teach children to recognize things, she would have Titus teach her! With that realization, Cloudy hurried into the cave, bringing out a water-filled bug shell and a food stick, lining them up in front of Titus.

Titus: "?"

Cloudy pointed to herself, then to Titus, saying, "Cloudy, Titus."

Then she pointed at the water, saying, "Huhu."

She pointed and named each item until she pointed at the food stick, eagerly awaiting Titus's response.

"Tebe wei." Titus promptly replied.

"Great!! You understand exactly what I'm doing!" Cloudy couldn't help but clap, and Titus followed suit, clapping along.
Titus' response made Cloudy very happy. The main reason she wanted to communicate with Titus was actually because she needed to learn how to make Stinky Thin Slices. She absolutely had to know how that thing was made!

Excitedly, Cloudy grabbed Titus' arm, and he stood up as she pulled him around near the cave, basically saying whatever Cloudy pointed at. From stones to birds suddenly flying by, everything recognizable around the cave, Titus answered in the language of the wild.

"How do you say that over there?" Cloudy pointed to the distant rainforest, turning to look at Titus. But this gesture seemed to have confused Titus, as he looked at the rainforest in the distance and then back at Cloudy.

Next, those two large hands reached out and grabbed Cloudy, placing her whole self sitting on his shoulder.

"No, I'm not trying to ride a big horse." Cloudy had a bad feeling in her heart, and naturally, this feeling came true. After placing her on his shoulder, Titus started charging towards the direction of the rainforest.

"I didn't mean to go over there—" Cloudy's shout was shattered by the sound of the wind. The surrounding scenery swiftly passed by, and although the speed was fast, Titus' two hands were like the safety bars of a roller coaster, firmly holding onto Cloudy's waist.

In her panic, Cloudy grabbed Titus' hair with both hands, his hair was very rough, like a handful of dry hay...

"Stop!"

"You're running too fast...!"

"Ugh..."

"Ugh oh oh oh!!"

It took less than a minute from trying to get Titus to stop to raising her hands high and enjoying the wind brushing past her face. It felt like riding a horse on the grassland!

The sunlight was generously sprinkled on the green slope, and the fragrance of grass permeated the air. In that moment, Cloudy felt all anxiety and fatigue disappear; she just wanted to keep going like this.