Seeing that both savages had eaten the meat, Du Yi brought the pair of them back into the mountains, just as he'd once done with Lightbringer.
The language barrier was no great matter to Du Yi — it just meant learning the thing over again.
And Du Yi had already noticed that this savage was plainly speaking the same language he knew, only one that had undergone some changes, so that its pronunciation and intonation had become another thing entirely.
"Changes brought on by time, I suppose...... just how long did I sleep, anyway?"
Du Yi couldn't help marveling.
Since it was the same language, learning it would be quicker still. Back when he'd learned Lightbringer's tongue it hadn't taken long, and that was with the two of them utterly unable to understand each other — whereas now, he need only adjust his old pronunciations and sentence structures to fit the present state of things.
Of course, as with the old days, he wouldn't have them teach him for nothing; he'd at least keep them fed and housed.
Yet before long, Du Yi ran into some troublesome problems on the matter of food.
"Where's all the prey in these mountains?"
Just as he was about to light the fire and cook, Du Yi was baffled.
He'd meant to make some mammoth again — it was, after all, his very favorite among all his ingredients. Not that the others were lacking in taste or texture; it was simply that the mammoth, as a creature, was far too perfect.
For one, the thing was big enough, an absolute advantage: a vast frame meant plenty of meat, and the things lived in herds besides, which meant Du Yi need only hunt a single herd to eat his fill in one good sitting, even at his present bulk.
On top of that, the mammoth's texture was beyond reproach. These wild mammoths had firm, dense flesh laced with handsome veins of fat; set over an open flame with the simplest of handling, and it gave off a tempting aroma.
And of course, Du Yi's favorite was still the mammoth's great bones — inside those thick bones was marrow brimming with energy, and when the flame slowly heated that marrow into a thick paste, you didn't need any extra seasoning at all; the wonderful mouthfeel of the ingredient itself was enough to make a man forget the whole world and lose himself in it.
What was more, the mammoth had one peerless advantage besides.
That was: the thing had no natural predators.
No natural predators meant no one to compete with him. Even if he hunted the mountain's mammoths near to clean, so long as he laid off chasing them down for a stretch, there'd always be a fresh crop of mammoths springing up.
"So — I've slept so long now, there ought to be plenty of new mammoths grown in, right?"
The thought of that herd of mammoths he'd hunted not long ago filled Du Yi with anticipation.
That was without question the finest-quality mammoth he'd ever eaten, that juice-rich, mellow mouthfeel hardly seeming like something the wild could grow — clearly, over his long sleep and molt, the mammoths had gradually evolved a rather superb breed.
But just now, something seemed to have gone wrong in the mountains.
Day and night had turned twice, and Du Yi had circled the mountains twice, yet he hadn't laid eyes on a single mammoth — and to keep from scaring off any prey he'd even gone deliberately out of his way to hide his movements, sliding along flat against the ground, scarcely lifting his head.
But still he hadn't seen one mammoth. The mammoths that had once bounded merrily through the mountains seemed to have vanished without a trace.
"This makes no sense......"
Du Yi climbed all the way to the summit and looked down at the scene below.
Still not a single mammoth in sight.
Something seemed not quite normal. The mammoths of this mountain region shouldn't have gone extinct — for the sake of having mammoths to eat each time he woke, he'd always been careful about the herds' breeding, never the sort to drain the pond to catch the fish. And by the look of the mountains' present yield, the things mammoths loved to eat were all still here; crowberries could even be found everywhere. There was no way the mammoths had migrated for want of forage.
"Do I have to find something else, then?"
After thinking a moment, Du Yi could only settle, for now, for the next best thing.
If mammoth was out, sabertooth would actually do — its frame wasn't as large as a mammoth's, and the flesh was a touch poorer, but the quantity of meat could still be called sufficient. And most importantly, the things were a good deal more plentiful than mammoths; find a few more and he could still eat his fill.
But after two more turns of day and night, Du Yi found, to his astonishment, that the once-everywhere sabertooths were now scarcely to be found either.
"What's going on?"
Du Yi grew more baffled still; some strange change seemed to have come over the mountains.
Four days of searching turned up no prey, so Du Yi could only head back for the time being — having eaten so many mammoths before, he wasn't terribly hungry. This was where a snake's edge in digestion showed: he could eat a great deal at once, and after a big meal go a good long while without hunger.
But just because he wasn't hungry didn't mean those two savages wouldn't be; if he didn't get back, the pair of them would likely turn into two corpses.
"A proper meal's out of the question, so I'll have to take back a bit of seasoning to tide them over."
Thinking this, Du Yi grabbed some berries and a honeycomb to bring along.
For him this much wasn't enough for a single roast, but given the two savages' size, it was already enough to stuff them to bursting.
"Hope they don't end up malnourished."
Du Yi felt rather guilty about failing to arrange their meals properly.
Luckily, by the time Du Yi got back, the two savages had actually found berries to eat on their own. Seeing the two could stomach plain fare, Du Yi relaxed a little.
He still had to learn the present-day language from these two, after all; he couldn't very well let them starve to death.
So, after leaving the berries for the two savages, Du Yi began, just as he had with Lightbringer all those years ago, by trying to get the two to start from the names of these berries.
Luckily the two savages were clever, too; Du Yi had only to drill them with body language for half a day before the pair — faces bruised and swollen — grasped his meaning.
And under Du Yi's earnest, highly efficient learning, half a day was all it took before he could manage some basic communication with the two.
And it was then that Du Yi learned the reason the mountain's prey had vanished.
"What? You're saying the mammoths in the mountains were all stolen?"
Hearing one of the savages say so, Du Yi's brow furrowed at once.