The Book of Hibernation

Lion led the horses, and Winter Thistle sat behind him.Dew is very human, it seems to recognize winter thistle, so today it walks very cautiously, even if Ryan urged it, it ran a little slower than last time.

Winter Thistle doesn't know much about animals, and wonders if horses have such a complicated inner world.

The brothers quickly arrived at the wharf area, stored the horses in a post station, and walked into the slightly messy fishing port wharf.

The harbor city wharf area is divided into a commercial port and a fishing port. Near the commercial port, there are money shops, warehouses, appointment points of major commercial firms, city guard barracks, etc. There are more residential buildings in the fishing port, and there are many taverns that provide convenience for sailors. and hostels.

The word Ryan knows is "fishing boat" instead of "fishing boat". Anyway, this word is related to fish, and Ryan thinks that it should be found near the fishing port.

Ryan told Winter Thistle what happened last night.He not only talked about meeting the Elf of Yoll Island, but also about the bandits mentioned by the captain of the bodyguard later.

Winter Thistle was quite worried when he heard this, but Ryan said firmly that he didn't think the elf was a bad person, it was the caravan bodyguards who were lying.

Winter Thistle asked him why he was so sure, and Lion couldn't tell why.If I have to say it, I can only say it is intuition.

The fishing port wharf was small, several times smaller than the commercial port wharf. The two of them walked around and went to observe the fishing boats near each berth, but none of the boats had a black fish logo or anything like that.

"After dusk, before nightfall..." Ryan repeated what the previous elf said, "It will be dusk soon, and we have to find him before it gets completely dark!"

Ryan walked faster and faster, and Winter Thistle couldn't keep up with him.When Ryan was about to run farther, Winter Thistle grabbed him: "Wait, I was wondering... is he really talking about a ship?"

"What else could it be?" Ryan said.

Winter Thistle said: "We just came to Harbor City not long ago, so we don't know much about it. Why don't you just ask others?"

Ryan hesitated: "But...can you trust these people?"

"There are fishermen here, why don't you trust them?" Winter Thistle said, "Besides, that elf whispered in your ear. If his password is very complicated, it cannot be deciphered by ordinary people. That kind, is it necessary for him to whisper in your ear? At that time, the other bodyguards hadn’t come yet, so it was fine to speak at a normal volume. And you didn’t put away the sword at the time, so he risked being hurt by you, and he wanted to Stand up close to you before speaking... This shows that there may not be any complicated codes in his speech, and it may even be a very simple place name. If someone hears it, others can easily understand what he is talking about."

Ryan thought about it, and it seemed to be the same.

So Dongji asked him to wait a while, and went to find an idle fisherman nearby, and asked him if he knew where the "black fish boat" was.

The fishermen really knew.Moreover, judging from the tone of his answer, this is not a classified location.

The black fish boat is indeed not a boat, but a tavern in a fisherman's settlement. It's not far from here, but the road is a bit devious.Winter Thistle and Ryan soon found the right place.

The streets in this area are narrow and dilapidated, completely incomparable to the main city of Harbor City. The tavern has a very small facade, with only a single small wooden door, and its signboard is also very small, just a flag hanging on an iron pole, with Black fish in a white plate.

The elf said "after dusk, before night", and now it was sunset, and the gray outer wall of the black fish boat was dyed a layer of gold.

Winter Thistle and Ryan didn't go in right away.They stood outside, discussing what to say and how to say it after going in.

Ryan doesn't know the elf's name, so should he say to people, "I'm looking for a golden-brown haired Isle of Yole elf"... Regardless of whether this is a bit high-profile, first of all, people here may not be able to distinguish elves from all over the world. difference.

In the end, it was Dongji who made up his mind: no matter what, let's go in first.If that elf really wants to talk to you, maybe he's spying on guests somewhere, and he'll come to you of his own accord.

The two brothers pushed open the small door.Although the tavern's facade is small, it has a unique cave inside and can accommodate many guests.Ryan and Winter Thistle attracted a lot of attention as soon as they entered, because they were obviously foreigners, and they dressed neither like fishermen nor merchants.

Ryan asked Winter Thistle with his eyes, and Winter Thistle instructed him to sit in the vacant seat in the corner.

They just sat down when a waitress came over with an empty tray: "Are you going to buy our barreled ale?"

The woman's voice is soft, with a faint foreign accent.Winter Thistle looked up at her. She was quite small, wearing a gray shirt and a one-piece dress, with long golden brown hair hanging over her shoulders, and a little makeup on her face...

"Ah?" After seeing clearly, Dongji exclaimed in a low voice.

The woman lightly made a "shh" gesture, and then continued to ask: "You want five barrels? It's too much, and that's all we produced recently."

She was almost talking to herself, and it was obvious that nothing she said was logical.Ryan looked at her in bewilderment, and then, like Winter Thistle, was suddenly surprised.

This "waitress" is not human, but an elf.Moreover, it was the one who met Ryan yesterday.

Ryan didn't know what to do, so he looked at Winter Thistle.Winter Ji reacted quickly, and said to the "waitress", "We... just need five barrels."

The "waitress" said in embarrassment: "Then I can't make the decision. Come with me and talk to someone who can make the decision."

After speaking, the elf made a gesture to signal the two to follow.

The elf led them up the stairs and into the small room at the end of the second floor.

After letting the guests into the room, the elf turned around to see what was going on outside, and inserted the latch.When he turned his head, he saw Ryan put one hand on his chest and bowed deeply to him.

"I'm very sorry!" Ryan said with a serious expression, "Because you were wearing men's clothing yesterday, I didn't see that you were a lady. How offensive it is!"

The elf was cautious just now, but now he laughed out loud.

Ryan looked at him in confusion, and then looked at Dongji for help, but Dongji was also smiling.

"He's a man." Dongji said with a smile.

"what?"

"It's not that you haven't seen a pure-blooded elf, why, you still can't tell the difference between male and female?"

"But...he is more..."

"I'm a half-elf, silly brother."

"Are you brothers?" The elf spoke again, and the soft female voice was gone, replaced by a clear and normal male voice.

Winter Thistle replied, "Yes, half-brother."

"You have tree sea elf blood."

"Yes."

Originally, the elves were just meeting Ryan, but the appearance of Winter Thistle was an accident.I don't know if it was because he trusted Ryan's beliefs or the tree sea elves' blood, but he didn't ask any more questions, and he didn't show any rejection of Winter Thistle.

The elf invited the two to sit down and poured weak tea for them.

"I'm from the Isle of Yor, you can just call me 'Dolin'," he sat across from the two of them, "The names of the elves on the Isle of Yor are very complicated, and you will definitely not be able to remember them."

Dolin... This pronunciation means "alone" in the language of the sea elves.Winter Thistle doesn't know the folklore of the Isle of Yoll very well, so he doesn't know whether this is a coincidence of the two languages ​​or a deliberate nickname.

The elf announced his name, and Winter Thistle and Lion also briefly said their names.After introducing himself, Lane asked the question he'd been curious about all the way: "Why did you say 'after dusk, before night'?"

Doring said: "Because time is limited, I have to tell you a place that is easy to meet me, and I have to make sure you can find it. You have also seen that I work as a 'hostess' here, and I work every evening. As for' Before nightfall'... The reason is simple. After nightfall, the tavern will be extremely busy until midnight. I'm afraid I won't have the chance to talk to you at that time, and it will be difficult for me to have the opportunity to walk away naturally."

Lane asked again: "Why are you dressed as a woman? Don't they know you're a man? I mean the people in the store."

"People usually don't pay much attention to women who are alone, and men from other races are more likely to be interrogated," Dorin clapped his hands, "Okay, my appearance is not the point of the matter, there is no need to be so curious. Knight Ryan, I will leave it to you Sending a message to talk to you is for some very important things."

"Because those caravan bodyguards are slave traders?" Ryan said directly.

Dorin was taken aback: "You already know?"

Winter Thistle was also surprised: "What? What slave trader?"

Next, Doring told them about the shipment.

First of all, he firmly stated that these goods are not antique treasures at all, but residents of the island chain.There may be gray mountain elves, barbarians, and island elves.

They came from various tribes on the island. The gray mountain elves and barbarians were directly captured by slave traders, and the elves were criminals or slaves among the island elves, who were directly sold to the slave trade team.

Among the island countries, some places are still very primitive and backward, no different from animal settlements; there are also some places that have a certain degree of civilization, but legal slave trade is still allowed today.Therefore, the purchase of slaves and prisoners is legal on the island.

But Sandonia banned slave trade, and so did other nearby land countries.When this batch of "goods" arrived at the port, they could not enter the country immediately, because someone would definitely find the human body in the big box.The slave caravan had no choice but to park their goods in the dock warehouse, and then went to conduct various private negotiations with the city-state council.

According to Duolin's inquiry and speculation, the caravan may want to obtain a "Salvation Society" authorization certificate, describing the slaves as rescued shipwreck refugees, and each slave will correspond to a recipient status. In this way, they You can enter the country legally, and you can be legally driven to any place in the future to carry out the next transaction.

As for why the "refugees" are restrained, no one may care.Everyone only looks at whether there is a legal certificate, and does not delve into other issues.

During the journey of the caravan transporting slaves, some island elves have always opposed the slave trade. They hope that the tribes of the islands can follow the laws of humans and gradually ban the slave trade.

These elves believe that even gray mountain elves whose IQ is equal to that of animals, even criminals among elves and barbarians, they still have dignified lives and cannot be sold as items in this way.

So these island elves organized to intercept the slave caravan many times, but in the end they failed to stop them.The ships of the caravan are big and fast, and the sea spirits of the island are far inferior to them.

On the one hand, the island elf prepared to continue the pursuit, on the other hand, he also released Xinying, and passed the news to his companions in Harbor City.

"Companions" did not refer to other island elves, but Duolin who was in Harbor City.Dorrin had been to several islands, and had some friendship with the young elves there.

After listening to Dolin's story, Ryan asked puzzledly: "I have observed those boxes. The boxes are all closed, never opened, and the inside has always been very quiet. If there are slaves inside, are they still alive?"

Dorin said: "There are spellcasters in the caravan bodyguards. They are battle mages. You may not be able to tell. They look like warriors. There must be ways for mages to deal with slaves, such as keeping them motionless and not needing to eat and excrete. Besides, even if those boxes are full of corpses, we can’t allow others to sell these corpses, they should be buried properly, instead of being sold to unknown places for experiments.”

Ryan nodded and looked at Winter Thistle: "Can you save them?"

Winter Thistle said, "I think we should be cautious. Dorin, did you go into that warehouse yourself?"

Dorin shook his head.He was just observing the situation nearby and never went in.

Winter Thistle said: "Although Ryan has been there, he can't see what's in the box. I think so, why don't we find a chance to see if there are slaves in the box first. What if you make a mistake?"

Dorin said, "Impossible to be mistaken! The Island Cousins ​​have chased these men for a long time, and seen them buy slaves and prisoners, and see them tie Gray Mountain Elves on chains as thick as their wrists..."

Winter Thistle hurriedly said, "That's not what I mean, and I'm not saying that you will misread it. I mean, even if there were slaves, what if the slaves weren't there? The merchant ship was big, and it might have brought back a lot of things. Maybe the warehouse that Ryan guarded There are really only antiques in there, and the real slaves are hidden elsewhere, in other people's care."

Winter Thistle really hoped so.If what Dolin said is true, then something is wrong...

He didn't want Ryan to be involved in something so troublesome, so horrific.

Dolin thought about it seriously: "Well... what you said is also reasonable. It is really necessary to check to see if the slave is really in that warehouse."

He paused for a moment and looked at Ryan seriously: "Time is running out. If you want to check, you have to act quickly, otherwise it will be too late."

"What's too late?" Ryan asked.

"After tonight, at dawn, when the city guards in the dock area change shifts, the rescue team will start their operations."