Chapter 98

On the third day at noon, Cloudy successfully lured the green monkey out of the pit. After two or three days of feeding, this cautious animal had lowered its guard slightly, at least not struggling as vigorously when entangled in the vines and pulled out.

Upon getting it out, she immediately tossed the monkey out of the animal hide bag, putting fruits and food inside. After tightly securing the opening and placing it on the ground, she waited for the monkey to stop its frantic sprinting inside the bag before slowly lifting it up onto her back. On the way back, the green monkey occasionally wriggled a bit, but not too violently... She tried her best not to make any sudden movements to agitate the animal inside the bag.

Before the sun set, panting heavily, Cloudy returned to the house with her loot, a tough ten-kilometer journey. However, she didn't have much time to rest as she temporarily stored the bag in the backyard and went to find Wowen and other women to help her make a "cage."

"It needs to be big, made of branches." Unlike Titus, the women didn't need much instruction from Cloudy to know what she needed to make. It was a clear division of labor, and these people were very skilled at crafting.

About two hours later, Cloudy and the others finished making a fully enclosed rectangular cage, about a meter high and two meters wide. The entire top had a hinged door that could be opened and closed, with a latch on the right side to securely lock it. The gaps were not more than half a fist wide, ensuring the green monkey couldn't escape.

Once the cage was ready, Cloudy hurriedly brought out the animal hide bag and, under the watchful eyes of Wowen and the women, poured the green monkey into the cage before securely closing the door.

"It's alive!" Wowen looked surprised. She hadn't expected Cloudy to be out hunting for three sunsets. "Why lock it up? Doesn't Cloudy eat it?" The women squatted by the cage, chattering away. Cloudy clapped her hands to silence them. "This one is to be raised. It's important for the settlement, for me."

She didn't really expect to develop animal husbandry techniques in the settlement herself, but if she could guide the locals, tell them which type of animal is easier to domesticate, and just keep improving the breeding environment, eventually, domestication would succeed... Besides, having a furry medium-sized animal at home always felt like having a pet, improving her darn modern human mental state.

Although this green monkey looked ugly, its eyes were big and innocent, and its fur color was uniquely beautiful... She gazed lovingly at the shivering green monkey curled up in the corner through the crack in the cage. If it didn't survive these few days, it would be fine - consider it an extra meal for her.

"Listen, in the past, we also raised animals." Wowen and the other women talked a lot, mostly about previous attempts at animal husbandry in the settlement. Among their lively descriptions, Cloudy heard the most exaggerated story... capturing a super fierce carnivorous animal, five meters tall, with huge teeth, a long tail missing half, and tough scales.
The large carnivorous animals that can support themselves are really rare; they can devour half of a settlement's food in just one meal.

In addition, there are many small animals, but most of them are brought back half-dead by hunters and don't survive long. Cloudy also unexpectedly learned that bringing animals back half-dead is a "preservation" measure taken by the settlement hunters. Many prey animals are actually still gasping for air during transport and are only killed when they get close to the settlement.

While chatting with the mothers, the green monkey in the cage suddenly started squeaking anxiously, its big eyes looking around frantically.

Perhaps the noisy chatter made it uneasy, so Cloudy prepared water and food and placed them in the cage, covering it with leaves to give the monkey some privacy.

In the afternoon, Cloudy and the mothers were busy near the warming hut. She buried some wood to try to make a large batch of charcoal. Based on her experience of obtaining charcoal from the attic of the warming hut last time, the charcoal-making environment needed to be semi-sealed and slightly humid. The success rate was quite high, with three to four small charcoal pieces in each batch. Cloudy saved them all to distribute to the locals during the rainy season.

The construction progress of the warming hut was slow. A few days ago, Cloudy dismantled the left wall and rebuilt it with a top-level wall experiment with small ventilation holes. Currently, the warming hut covered an area of 60 square meters and could accommodate all the newborns in the settlement who couldn't walk yet. In addition to the warming hut, the production of rudimentary down jackets was also slowly progressing. This relatively simple task only required sewing feathers into animal skins, without the need for sleeves or anything else. She just needed to make a fur down bucket that could hold newborns to provide a certain level of warmth.

"..." She felt like she didn't need to worry about these things; she just needed to teach the mothers. Cloudy stood at the entrance of the warming hut and yawned.

The next morning, Cloudy asked Waben to take care of the green monkey for her, just giving it some water and food every day. After feeding it, cover it with leaves... After giving instructions, she packed a few days' worth of dry rations and set off to check the traps.

Unfortunately, after four consecutive days outside, Cloudy found no live animals in the traps she discovered along the mapped route. On the fourth afternoon, she arrived near a large lake. This was also the first time Cloudy had seen a lake in the rainforest... It was very beautiful, like a huge sapphire in the bright afternoon sunlight, with occasional ripples on the calm lake surface.

The trap area was right by the lake. She walked a few hundred steps along the lakeshore. The traps near the lake yielded quite a bit, but unfortunately, they all contained injured or dead wild animals. The accumulated bodies emitted a putrid smell that attracted the next batch of unlucky ones and many insects.

"What is Cloudy looking at?"

"I'm looking at what's inside the traps..."

After answering casually, she suddenly looked up and saw Titus squatting on a tree branch above her, grinning at her. After hunting outside for a few days, the wild man seemed...
Her hair was fluffy and clean, probably washed in the lake. The heavy pupils of her eyes, still dilated, were somewhat intimidating.

"If there are wild beasts here. Cloudy's neck has already been bitten off."

"...Are you making this kind of joke after not seeing each other for a few days?" She raised her hand towards Titus in silence and waved, "Why here? I thought you would be further away."

"There was enough prey, so I came back first." The huge wild man jumped down from the branches like a small mountain falling in front of Cloudy. The sunlight around seemed to be blocked by Titus's broad body. After landing, he didn't give Cloudy time to greet him, quickly nibbling on her forehead. "I missed Cloudy!"

Although the words were very sweet, why did nibbling on the forehead become a way of greeting already? Cloudy grimaced and lunged towards Titus to nibble back, but the wild man's arm acted like a barrier, keeping her far away. His expression clearly showed he was teasing Cloudy.

"Let me bite you!"

"No, it hurts when Cloudy bites."

"It hurts when you bite too!"

"It doesn't hurt."

Seeing Cloudy struggling to break through his arm defense, Titus simply reached out, grabbed her waist, and lifted her up. "Let's rest over there." He pointed in a direction, although Cloudy couldn't see anything... but it should be a campsite behind the trees and shrubs.

...Wait, is he changing the subject?

Cloudy was even more annoyed to find herself actually being distracted by the wild man. She lifted her foot, placed it on Titus's shoulder, and shook it forcefully. "Afterward, no biting me!"

Next, Titus used a move that irritated Cloudy even more than changing the subject—ignoring her words.

"Let's go, I'll take Cloudy to the campsite to see the prey!"

"No biting me!"

"I caught a very big prey."

"Titus...!!"