For the first few years, Bai Shuo had stayed in feather form nearly all the time and rarely came out, since everything in the tribe was too dangerous for him in that state. It was only after shifting into human form that the time he spent down at the foot of the mountain each day grew longer, and so, when it came to thinking about going to market, Bai Shuo had simply assumed by default he’d go in human form.
But Bai Xun’s single remark had opened up an entirely new approach, there was no reason at all he couldn’t keep the other tribes from ever noticing their tribe had brought a chick along. That solved the whole problem, perfectly.
If he set aside this one weakness of his, their tribe’s combat strength was still solid enough, even if someone wanted to take without earning, as long as their head was screwed on right, they wouldn’t pick a group that looked like this one, clearly not worth the trouble of fighting.
With that thought, Bai Shuo felt reassured again.
That evening, Bai Xun and Bai Yun took Bai Shuo to discuss the matter with Hua Yong.
Hua Yong thought it over for a long while.
If this had been a month earlier, Hua Yong probably wouldn’t have taken such a risk, but over this past month, especially these last few days, the changes in the tribe had been especially striking. The young livestock Bai Shuo raised kept growing bigger, more and more animals were being kept penned in the tribe, nearly every household now had one or two prized pieces of pottery, and there was no end to the other tools besides.
Before, whenever they’d caught prey, they’d slaughter it right away, and whatever couldn’t be eaten got smoked and stored, but there was always some that wasn’t smoked properly and would spoil within a few days. Now that problem was gone entirely. At least half of what they caught each day was alive, and what got killed on the spot was enough to feed everyone for the day, whichever day they failed to catch anything, they could simply eat from the livestock instead. Their food was always fresh now, it had been a long time since they’d had to eat spoiled food.
The tribe had also planted many crops. The redroot tubers were growing even better than the wild ones out there, and then there was that food called wheat, Bai Shuo said it could be stored through the snow season, or even for years without spoiling. Not to mention the fields upon fields of leaf-greens. Hua Yong had tried the pickled-greens-with-meat dish Bai Shuo made, and it tasted even better than eating the greens alone, if all that leaf-greens they’d planted got turned into pickled dried greens…
Thinking over all the changes in the tribe, Hua Yong nodded. “Bring Bai Shuo along!” Worst case, he’d just assign a few more people to go with them, with all this livestock they’d raised now, even if the members left behind couldn’t catch any game, no one in the tribe would go hungry.
Having thought it through this far, there was no longer any reason not to bring Bai Shuo, and so the matter was settled. Right after, Hua Yong began selecting the members for this trip to market.
Every year, the group that went to market was called the salt-trading party, named for the fact that this group had originally been formed specifically to trade for salt. Back then, the tribe’s resources were so scarce that the food they had each year was barely enough to trade for salt alone, let alone anything else. Later, once the tribe’s food supply became a bit more comfortable, they were able to spare enough meat to trade for medicinal salves for injuries, as well as better-tanned, more comfortable hides and other goods.
Because so many supplies had to be carried, the salt-trading party always had to be made up of the tribe’s strongest Feather Clan members, and sometimes a few sub-adults were brought along to learn the route, those under fourteen and the elderly were never brought.
The Hundred-Feather Tribe’s gathering and hunting parties together numbered just over a hundred. Hua Yong decided to select fifty to go to market, leaving the rest to search for food and protect the tribe. Fortunately, their tribe was far from any other, so there was no need to worry about anyone raiding while the salt-trading party was away.
Of the three hunting party captains, Hua Yong, as chieftain, naturally had to go, and Bai Xun would go too, to personally protect his own chick. So the other hunting party captain, Huang An, along with Wu Cang, whose strength matched any of the captains, would stay behind in the tribe. Of the gathering party’s two captains, Bai Yun would stay behind, while the other captain, Caiwen, would go to market. The remaining members of the hunting and gathering parties would also be split roughly evenly between the two groups.
Although the number of people in each party was roughly the same, it wasn’t fixed exactly, so there was no issue with people struggling to coordinate once the salt-trading party left. Whenever they went searching for food, all the Feather Clan trusted their leaders completely, so as long as a captain was present, the tribe’s work would never fall behind.
The next market was four months away, and this stretch of time in between was when game was most plentiful and when everyone most needed to build up their reserves, so people tried to bring as much as possible, to trade for more salt, medicine, and hides.
Once the personnel were chosen, the Feather Clan began making their final preparations. Some who weren’t part of the salt-trading party this time handed over their personal belongings, asking the group to help trade for some salt on their behalf.
The salt the tribe traded for collectively would, once brought back, be distributed regularly to everyone, using roughly the same method as when meat was divided, going from hunting party to gathering party and then to the other members. But everyone’s habits differed, and salt got used up at different rates, so when someone ran short, they’d either trade with someone else, or, as was happening now, save up extra items beforehand and have the salt-trading party bring some back on their behalf.
In the Hundred-Feather Tribe, after finishing their meals, there was a stretch of time down at the foot of the mountain devoted to collective work, and once night had fully fallen and everyone gradually made their way up the mountain, the remaining time belonged to each individual, and whatever they made in that time belonged to them personally. So in past years, most of what people handed over to the salt-trading party had been food, but this year, more of it was woven goods and hemp rope.
Besides all this, as departure drew near, the hunting party set out earlier and came back later than ever, hoping to bring back as much food as possible, even though what they’d already prepared was already plenty, Hua Yong still wanted to bring even more. The round trip would take seven or eight days total, and anyone going empty-handed would be wasting the trip.
While the tribe rushed to prepare supplies, Bai Yun was busy getting together what Bai Shuo needed to bring along.
They hadn’t planned for Bai Shuo to come along before, so no extra items had been considered, after all, Bai Xun didn’t need any of this, but with Bai Shuo joining, things were different.
Bai Yun knew her own chick well, Bai Shuo looked much like the other chicks on the surface, just a bit cleaner, but he had quite a few small requirements. Like insisting on boiled water to drink, always putting his bowl and chopsticks away properly rather than leaving them on the ground, or needing a proper nest to sleep in, unable to sleep if he wasn’t comfortable…
Because of Bai Shuo’s habits, Bai Yun packed up all the items he normally used, the clay jar for cooking, the cup for drinking water, his eating utensils, and the hide he liked best to cover himself with, plus various other odds and ends, all together filling an entire backpack-basket. Bai Yun had actually wanted to pack the stone pot too, but Bai Shuo stopped her, the stone pot was too heavy, and although his father was strong, there was no need to make him fly carrying that extra weight for days. Besides, a clay jar could cook food just as well, it was fine if the food tasted a bit worse out there than it did back at the tribe.
Hearing his chick’s words, Bai Xun was deeply moved, and immediately decided. “We’ll bring it. Bring the stone pot too.”
Bai Su, who’d been silent beside them the whole time, reminded their parents. “Father, are you forgetting we’ll only get to eat hot food a few times? Even if we bring it along, there won’t be time to use it.”
Bai Shuo was taken aback, he hadn’t realized hot meals would be so rare. But thinking it over, it made sense, to save time, the stops for rest along the way probably wouldn’t be very long, since staying out longer meant an extra day’s worth of danger.
Beside Bai Shuo, Bai Xun, hearing his eldest son speak up, frowned. “Starting a fire out there is too much trouble.” Once they left the tribe, every time they wanted to eat, they’d first have to build a fire, and half the resting time along the way usually got wasted just on that.
Bai Shuo was a little surprised. “You have to start a fire from scratch each time?” This “starting a fire” clearly didn’t mean lighting a stick that was already burning, it meant starting from friction, drilling wood to get a spark.
“Right, you can’t carry a burning stick with you, it’ll set the trees along the way on fire,” Bai Xun explained to his chick. “And if you’re not careful, you’ll even burn your own feathers off.”
Apparently, there had once been a tribe whose Feather Clan, trying to save time, tried carrying a lit branch while traveling, but unfortunately, the branch dropped and set the forest below alight, burning down another tribe’s territory. From then on, the two tribes fought on sight, no matter where they crossed paths.
Even if the Feather Clan holding the branch was careful and kept sparks from falling, carrying a burning branch while flying was still an extremely dangerous thing to do, because fire burned upward, and the Feather Clan member holding the branch was positioned directly above the flame, which meant the fire could easily reach the feathers on their body. Feather Clan feathers caught alight at the smallest spark, and once burning, couldn’t be put out.
Listening to this explanation, Bai Shuo felt like he could probably make a fire-holder to save time starting fires on the road.
A fire-holder wasn’t hard to make. Bai Shuo found a wooden stick, wound it thickly with hemp rope, soaked it in oil, and let it dry, then lit a small ember and put it inside a small bamboo tube, which he then covered with a larger bamboo tube, drilling a small air-intake hole into the outer tube.
The oil-soaked rope could burn for a much longer time, but since it was covered by the bamboo tube, there was less air inside, so it produced only a faint spark. When needed, though, pulling it out and giving it a light blow would make the flame grow, letting you light a branch before tucking the fire-holder away again, it could be used this way for a very long time.
After testing the effect, Bai Shuo made ten of them in a row, planning to keep them in pairs, so that even if one accidentally went out along the way, there’d be a backup.
No one else had ever seen anything so remarkable. Bai Xun picked up the extra one Bai Shuo didn’t need and studied it for a while, then opened it and lit a small twig, before covering the fire-holder again. A moment later, he lifted the lid again and lit another twig.
Bai Xun tried this twice, and Hua Yong, passing by, noticed and asked a few questions, took it and tried it himself, covered it and waited a while longer, then opened it and tried again.
A Feather Clan member who’d come to discuss something with Hua Yong saw him lighting fires with what looked like a perfectly ordinary section of bamboo, grew curious, and came over to join in too.
And so, by the time Bai Shuo had finished making several new fire-holders with Bai Su and Wu Yan’s help, a whole crowd of adults had gotten hooked on playing with them.
Bai Shuo: “…” Watching Bai Su patiently soaking rope in oil, Wu Yan carefully whittling bamboo with a small knife, Bai Le pounding hemp rope with an utterly serious expression, and then the group of adult Feather Clan still blowing on their fire-holders, for a moment he genuinely couldn’t tell who among them was the grown-up and who was the child.
Besides the fire-holders, Bai Shuo also made a simple tent out of hide. The round trip would take seven days total, and he couldn’t stay hidden the entire time, besides, if he came across something useful, he’d need to speak with other people about it too, and simply finding a spot to shift into human form wasn’t reliable enough. Having a tent made all the difference, he could discuss matters inside it while someone kept watch outside, and even if there were people from other tribes around, they’d never notice their tribe had brought a chick along.
Besides all this, Bai Shuo also brought along some dried fruit, fruit he’d painstakingly made while hiding from the other chicks, originally meant just to test which fruits worked well as dried fruit. Now that the testing was done, it happened to make perfect travel snacks. As anyone could guess, the main food along the road would surely be something simple and easy to prepare, roasted meat was probably more than he could stomach, so it was better to bring his own food to fill his stomach with. To make the trip a bit more comfortable, Bai Shuo also made several jin of dried moo-beast jerky, meant for gnawing on along the way.
Once everything was ready, it was time to depart. Bai Yun spent several days straight telling Bai Xun how to look after their chick, wishing she could go along herself, but with two more chicks at home, she couldn’t bring all of them along or leave them all in someone else’s care, all she could do was give her partner extra instructions. This time, for once, Bai Xun didn’t forget everything the moment he heard it the way he usually did with other things, but listened carefully and took it all in.
On the day of departure, before dawn had even broken, the Feather Clan were already ready. Dozens of Feather Clan members came out of the storage cave where Bai Shuo kept his supplies, carrying backpack-baskets, set them down on the open ground at the foot of the mountain, then shifted into feather form.
This was the first time Bai Shuo had seen a scene like this, birds of prey of every color and every size gathered together, an astonishing sight.
The Feather Clan was a broad category, much like how all mammals capable of shifting into human form were called beastfolk, further divided into lion-beastfolk, wolf-beastfolk, tiger-beastfolk, and so on. The Feather Clan’s feather forms varied in similar ways too, only their classifications differed somewhat from the birds of prey he’d seen in his past life, many of them he’d never seen before at all, though what they had in common was that every single one looked fierce.
The reason for this had to do with the genetic differences between the Feather Clan and the Beast Clan. If two beastfolk of different animal forms had a child, the child’s beast form would follow either the father or the mother, there was no such thing as a nose taking after the father while the eyes took after the mother.
But it wasn’t like that for the Feather Clan. Feather Clan chicks could inherit strengths and weaknesses from either parent in any combination, and during the incubation process, external factors could also cause changes, which was why many Feather Clan feather forms didn’t match anything Bai Shuo recognized, no matter which bird species he tried to compare them to.
Take his own parents, for instance, they looked more like eagles, yet their feathers were pure white, unlike any eagle he knew of. Their feather-form bodies stretched close to two meters long, and with wings spread, probably more than four meters across, he said “probably” because Bai Shuo had never actually measured it, only estimated.
Bai Shuo looked down at his own feather form, and fell silent again. If the absence of reproductive barriers between the Feather Clan, Beast Clan, and Merfolk was already a remarkable thing, then his own existence was something even more baffling on top of that. No matter which parent’s traits he’d inherited, he shouldn’t have ended up this small, not even the size of his mother’s palm.
He stretched out his own claw, if he ran into danger, that claw of his probably wouldn’t even leave a scratch on his enemy. Compared to his astonishingly powerful parents, he was weak by more than just a small margin.
Gazing enviously at the other Feather Clan’s claws, each longer than his entire body from head to tail, and their beaks, clearly razor-sharp and ready to crack open a skull at any moment, Bai Shuo let out a breath.
And then his mother set him down on his father’s back.
Bai Xun’s back was thick with feathers. Bai Shuo burrowed in and crouched down, completely swallowed up by the mass of feathers, from outside, it would look like nothing more than feathers ruffled by the wind.
But this wasn’t where he’d be staying today. Bai Yun had only tucked him there to free up her hands, so she could take out the mobile nest he’d be living in for the next stretch of time, a woven item similar to the bird’s nests made before, only smaller, with a small door on the side. Just as Bai Shuo was pondering this, he was placed inside, and the “door” closed shut, leaving only a few tiny little windows on each side, letting him see the world outside.
Bai Yun hung the rope on the mobile nest around her partner’s neck, then put the mobile nest into the backpack-basket, double protection, so that even if Bai Xun accidentally dropped the backpack-basket, the rope around his neck would still keep the chick safe.
Curled up inside the warm, soft nest, Bai Shuo felt thoroughly secure, from now on, forget other tribes, even their own tribe’s members wouldn’t necessarily be able to find him, unless they’d actually seen where he was.
A few of the younger sub-adult Feather Clan, going for the first time, had apparently stayed up too late the night before, and only rushed down from the mountain in a panic once quite a few people were already gathered below, hurrying over with their backpack-baskets.
The last one to run over was Bai Liang. Once he’d shifted into feather form, every member of the salt-trading party was accounted for. Hua Yong called out once, reminding everyone they were about to depart, then spread his wings, grabbed the backpack-basket beside him, and took off.
The rest of the Feather Clan followed in a rush, carrying their backpack-baskets and trailing behind Hua Yong.
Bai Shuo could feel just how fast everyone was flying, but thanks to the protection of the nest, he didn’t feel any cold or wind at all, it was actually quite comfortable, only being all alone made things a bit boring. Still, thinking about all the supplies they might trade for at the market, he decided this was bearable.
The nest was somewhat larger than he was, with a few small compartments to the side, each one holding food, fresh fruit, as well as dried fruit and jerky, ensuring he could eat whenever he got hungry, though Bai Shuo wasn’t hungry right now.
The sound of wind outside carried through the nest to his ears, and Bai Shuo yawned, deciding to sleep, to make the journey more comfortable, he’d spent all this time preparing various supplies and hadn’t gone to sleep until well past midnight the night before. It felt like he’d barely dozed off before being woken up, and it was only fortunate that today he had nothing to do, his mother had simply scooped him out of the cave and put him straight into the mobile nest. There was nothing else to worry about now, so he could catch up on some sleep, and wake again whenever the Feather Clan stopped to rest.
Probably out of concern that talking would slow down their pace, the Feather Clan stayed remarkably quiet during flight, and Bai Shuo slept quite soundly. When he woke, he felt a slight jolt, and slowly opening his eyes, immediately saw the nest being opened.
“Son, are you scared?” Bai Xun took his chick out, saw the food still sitting untouched inside, and picked that up as well, out of habit. “Why didn’t you eat anything?”
Bai Shuo shook his head to show he wasn’t scared or hungry, then looked around, hoping to find a spot to shift into human form. Since the tribe had chosen this place to rest for now, and his father had already taken him out, that meant there were no other tribes’ Feather Clan nearby, and since it was time to prepare a meal, he naturally wanted to shift into human form. Feather form was easy to hide in, sure, but without hands, only two short wings and somewhat clumsy feet, eating was rather inconvenient.
Bai Xun simply took out the tent from the backpack-basket and let him shift into human form inside it. Bai Shuo went along easily, shifting into human form inside the hide tent and putting on his own hide clothing.
When he came out of the tent, the others had already started gathering firewood and lighting fires. They’d set out before dawn, and it was already nearly noon now, flying the whole way in feather form was completely different from walking on foot in human form the way they usually did. Feather form used up more energy while flying, and though it saved time, that meant needing more food, not less, normally a piece or two of meat a day was enough to fill their stomachs, but now they needed two or three pieces per meal, and had to eat twice a day.
Still, aside from saving time, traveling in feather form had another advantage, greater safety. The chance of running into someone trying to block their path was much smaller than traveling on the ground, after all, who’d dare go up against a group of Feather Clan flying at high speed? That would practically be asking to have their skull cracked open.
The most dangerous points during Feather Clan travel were right before takeoff and right after landing, which was why the ones leading the way were basically always tribal chieftains, experienced enough to know which spots were safe.
Bai Xun found a few large stones and began stacking a stove for his own chick first. Not far off was a small stream, and Bai Xun brought over a clay jar’s worth of water.
Bai Shuo took charge of lighting the fire in front of the stove. Two fire-holders, one in Bai Xun’s hand, one in Hua Yong’s, while the other Feather Clan came over to borrow a flame once they’d gathered enough branches.
Bai Shuo left them their branches, lighting one for each person, then stuffing several new branches into the stove, by the time Bai Xun came back, quite a pile of branches had already accumulated by the stove.
There was plenty of food in the backpack-basket. Bai Shuo ate two pieces of fruit first, gave one to Bai Xun, then went to rummage through the bamboo tubes.
After such a long flight, all the Feather Clan were thirsty, and most didn’t care whether the water was raw or boiled, simply cupping their hands to drink straight from the stream, but their family had already gotten into the habit of drinking boiled water. The bamboo tube held cooled boiled water, and Bai Shuo handed it to Bai Xun. “Father, drink some water.” He then picked up a smaller one for himself.
Bai Xun took it and gulped it down in a few swallows, then waited for the one in the clay jar.
Bai Shuo took out their food for today, the tribe had prepared food for the salt-trading party too, some raw meat and some cooked meat, but as for Bai Shuo’s own portion, he ate jerky and dried fruit himself, which of course he wasn’t about to let Bai Xun just watch, so father and son ate the food Bai Shuo had prepared together.
“This jerky is good, make more next time,” Bai Xun said, chewing on the jerky, enjoying it more with every bite, it felt completely different from any jerky he’d had before. It was hard too, but it didn’t make his teeth ache at all, instead it made him want more.
“We’ll trade for more salt this time, and once we have the salt, we can make plenty,” Bai Shuo nodded, he wanted to make more too, it’s just that the tribe had too little salt. He could only hope they’d manage to trade for more this time.
Bai Xun had a huge appetite, and jerky alone clearly wasn’t enough, but he couldn’t bring himself to compete with his own chick over the limited jerky, so he picked up a few pieces of meat instead, planning to set them by the fire to roast. Seeing this, Bai Shuo took the meat back, had Bai Xun cut it into chunks, brushed it with oil, and skewered it before roasting, this way it would cook faster than roasting it whole. It hadn’t been marinated, but it still tasted better than a large chunk roasted plain.
Good thing they’d brought some oil along, Bai Shuo thought. Some of the salt-trading party’s food was fresh raw meat, even if there wasn’t time to eat it along the way, it could still be traded for goods once they reached market. When Bai Shuo saw the meat, he’d prepared a bowl of oil in a bamboo tube just in case, and it turned out his preparation hadn’t gone to waste, they’d already used it on the very first day. Marinating first and then roasting wasn’t an option given the time constraints, but eating it plain every once in a while wasn’t bad either.
While father and son were roasting meat and eating over here, on the other side, Bai Liang suddenly cried out.
Bai Liang’s voice was so loud that, in that instant, not just Bai Shuo but everyone else in the group turned to look.
“What happened?” Hua Yong, standing close by, was so startled his hand jerked, and the meat in it fell to the ground.
Bai Liang, on the verge of tears, walked over to Hua Yong carrying his backpack-basket.
Hua Yong took the meat back up, glanced inside the basket, and found himself staring eye-to-eye with a black chick that had just woken up.
“Smack—” The meat he’d just picked up dropped again.
“What is going on!!!” Same words, but this time far more disbelieving. Grabbing the wrong basket was one thing, but how was there a chick inside it?
Bai Liang was practically in tears. “I don’t know either, I just overslept, grabbed a basket and went to find you all. Everyone else was flying, so I flew too, how was I supposed to know I grabbed the wrong one.”
Hua Yong: “…”