animal ears

Clenching his fists, Norman maintained a high level of vigilance, even though the other party was a female—it was unusual for a female to appear in such a remote forest, not to mention that the female in front of him did not have any male scent on him, which indicated that he was Alone... single female?This is even more puzzling.

She raised her eyebrows and looked at the vigilant little orc. The female's eyes fell on Cole who was blocked behind, and then walked over slowly with a smile.

"You, don't come here!" Norman suddenly bared his teeth to show his vigilance.

The female stopped in her tracks, closed her eyes shallowly, and then opened them. The purple light was still sizing up Cole carefully, as if she was confirming something. I met a clansman in a place like this."

clan?

When Cole heard this word, his ears moved slightly.

In fact, he just kept looking at the adult female in front of him, especially the animal ears on that female's head. Cole couldn't believe that there are people like him in this world. So he is not a unique "monster" ?

Seeming to see what Cole was thinking, the female immediately said with a smile: "Although I still want to say something more, but you seem to have attracted something extraordinary just now. To be safe, why don't you go to my place and talk about it?"

After speaking, he smiled lightly, turned around and left, ignoring whether the two people behind him agreed.

Cole instinctively took a step, but Norman grabbed his arm violently.

"Don't go." Norman stopped Cole instinctively.

I can't say the reason, although I didn't feel any malice, but Norman just felt that he shouldn't get close to that female, no, it should be as far away as possible!

Cole, however, was different.

It was the first time he met his own kind, and Cole felt nothing but excitement, and he just heard the female say... a clansman?

Cole wanted to follow anyway, so he turned to Norman who was holding onto him tightly, and said, "Norman, I want to follow him."

"No." Ignoring the desire in Cole's eyes, Norman flattened his mouth and refused.

Are you being willful again?

Sighing, Cole stretched out his hand to break Norman's fingers, and said in a low voice: "In this case, you wait for me here, and I will go there alone. I have something to ask, and I will come back when I finish asking." I'm looking for you here, okay?"

Norman's eyeballs were wide open, as if they were about to fall out, and then he replied angrily: "I don't want it either!" He grabbed Cole's arm again in anger, lowered his head, and was silent for a moment before raising his head to look at Looking at Cole, he still puffed his cheeks and said, "I don't want to be left behind by you, I want to go with you."

Is that the reason?

Cole rubbed Norman's head helplessly, then took his hand and followed the pace of the female.

In fact, how could Norman fail to see what Cole was thinking, but the female did emit an inexplicable dangerous smell, and he couldn't refuse Cole's pleading gaze, so he had to follow along, planning to see the situation before talking.

The two came to the adult female's place, which was actually a fairly spacious cave, which seemed to have the smell of a fire bear. It should have been a fire bear's cave before, but now the smell is very weak.

There was nothing in the cave, and the female was sitting by the side, smiling at the two of them, signaling them to sit down.

Although still puzzled, Cole sat down with Norman.

But after waiting for a while, the female still didn't speak. Cole couldn't help it, so he opened his mouth: "Excuse me..."

The adult female smiled, nodded to Cole, and said softly, "My name is Sarah."

Seems like a gentle person.

Cole, who was thinking this way, also politely replied: "Hello, Sara, my name is Cole, and the one next to me..." Cole looked at Norman who turned his head and looked unhappy, and could only reply with a wry smile. , "His name is Norman."

Looking at Norman with a black face, Sarah couldn't help chuckling.

"Why are you laughing!" Norman gritted his teeth and jumped up.

"Norman!" Cole quickly stopped Norman.

"...Hmph." Stopping his movements, Norman reluctantly sat down again, with his back to the two of them, and let out a muffled grunt.

Looking playfully at the performance of the little orc, Sara immediately withdrew her gaze and landed on Cole again. The purple pupils looked and looked, as if staring at something. Finally, Cole couldn't help it, so she looked for it at random. A topic asked: "Well, Sarah, you... do you live here?"

"I do live here now." Surprisingly, Sarah answered quickly.

"Now?"

Smiling, Sarah shrugged and said, "I'm a bard. I often travel around without a fixed place. I just arrived here not long ago. I just heard some movement outside, so I ran into you when I went out to have a look. By the way, Judging by your appearance, you should be children living in the village, why did you come to the forest?"

Cole shook his head and told the ins and outs of the matter.

"No wonder you are in such a mess." Sara smiled, her pretty face seemed to be shining, Cole looked at it a little bit, and suddenly, Cole found himself being twisted hard, and turned around to meet Norman's dissatisfied eyes .

dissatisfied?Why?

Cole realized that he couldn't understand Norman more and more.

"By the way," Cole asked, "what does a bard do?"

Sara smiled slightly, looked at Cole and said, "A bard is someone who collects legends from all over the world, and then spreads them around."

"Then Sara must know a lot of stories!" Cole couldn't help admiring. He was always confined to the village before, never thought about where to travel, and had no chance to learn about things outside.

Facing Cole's adoring eyes, Sarah nodded tenderly, while Norman became more and more uncomfortable.

After thinking about it, Cole suddenly asked Sarah softly: "Sara, when you were at the lake just now, what happened to the 'clan' you mentioned...?"

Sarah glanced straight over, and met Cole's eyes, as if testing.

After a while, Sarah shifted her gaze to the two ears on Cole's head, lowered her eyes lightly, and said, "Cole, have you heard of the beast-ear tribe?"

"Beast ear tribe?" Cole blinked, then shook his head honestly, expressing that he didn't know.

"I think so." Sara spread her hands helplessly, sighed, then looked at Cole again, and said seriously, "When I was traveling, I heard people say that in the far east, near the sea, There is a very secluded village there, and there is a group of people with animal ears on their heads, and everyone calls them the animal ears."

Sara began to speak in a tone that resembled a melody.

"The difference between the Beast Ear tribe and other tribes is that all the children there are born female, but as they grow older, when they become adults, they will have a chance to choose to become female or male."

"What?!" Cole was stunned by the news.

Can choose to be female, or...male?

Also terrified, there was Norman on the side, his body turned involuntarily, and his eyes stared at Sarah in disbelief.

Sarah shrugged, smiled leisurely, and said, "It's just a hearsay story."

Just hearsay?

Cole thought secretly.

Here Sara continued to sing: "Because most of the village did not choose to mutate, most of them kept the appearance of females, but then suddenly one day, an outsider broke into the beast-ear tribe and discovered the secret of the beast-ear tribe. That person then spread the news that the Beast Ears are all female..."

Sarah's tone became cold.

In this world where females are scarce, news that a race is all female suddenly spreads. For that race, it is tantamount to annihilation.

"Since that day, the Beast Ears have been continuously invaded by foreigners, and the people have been plundered, occupied, and bullied, but they were almost wiped out in a few days!" Sara chanted full of anger, and saw him nervously Clenching his fists, his eyes were full of hatred, "In order to protect the group, all the beast-eared people on the spot chose to become males, and fought desperately with the aliens, and finally drove away the foreign invaders. There are not many left... The patriarch at that time did not choose to mutate because he was away temporarily. For the sake of the tribe, he automatically chose to become a female and give birth to offspring for the tribe. However, within a few years, the patriarch disappeared with the newborn child... So Everyone has been looking for the patriarch for so many years, but there is still no news, and because many clansmen were forcibly taken away that year, people in the clan began to travel around, hoping that one day they could bring all the clansmen who were left behind. go home."

After singing such a long string, Sarah retracted her cold gaze, and her tone became gentle again. He looked at Cole gently and said, "That's all I know."

Cole raised his head and couldn't help asking Sarah, "Sarah, are you also a beast-eared tribe?"

Sarah smiled and replied, "Maybe."

"perhaps?"

Smiling helplessly, Sarah replied: "Because I'm not sure if this story is true, and before I met Cole, I thought I was the only one with these ears."

It turned out to be like this...

Cole lowered his eyes, a little depressed.

"But," Sarah said, "if this story is true, would Cole want to go home?"

Hearing this, Cole's heart skipped a beat, and he stared blankly at the smiling Sarah.

But at this time, Norman grabbed Cole's hand first, and walked out without saying a word.

"Norman?"

"Go back." Norman said calmly.

"But, but..."

"But what?" Norman turned his head slowly and asked Cole, "It will be dark after a while, don't you want to go home?"

The tone of the word "home" is deliberately emphasized.

At this time, Sarah also slowly followed. He lowered his eyes and said to Cole with a smile on his face: "Cole, are you leaving?"

Look at the sky, indeed, if you stay longer, you may not be able to return to the village before dark, after all, the forest at night is too dangerous, so Cole nodded and said to Sara: "...It's getting late, don't let me go Go back, Uncle Aili will be worried."

"Oh?" Sara raised her eyebrows and looked at Cole with a serious face. He didn't say anything, just smiled and waved to Cole and said, "Then go back quickly." Then he pointed in one direction and said, "Follow Go here, and you can reach your village along a small river."

"Huh? How did Sarah know that we belonged to that village?" Cole asked.

Sara bent her lips and said with a smile: "There is only that village nearby. I have been here for a while, so I know."

Been here for a while?

"What about Sarah?" Cole took half a step, then turned around and asked, "Sarah won't go back with us? It's dangerous to stay in the forest."

Shaking her head, Sarah frowned and smiled, and said, "No, Cole, to me, people in those villages are more dangerous... I think you know the reason."

Thinking of the story Sara just told and his experience of being bullied in the village in the past, Cole hesitated for a moment and said no more. He had to say goodbye to Sara with a wry smile as he was forced to go on the road by Norman.

"But..." Sara suddenly lowered her eyes as she watched the two people walking away, the gentleness in her brows disappeared, leaving only a cold breath, and then he murmured to himself faintly, "Although it is very dangerous." , but I will definitely find you, Cole."

After speaking, Sarah smiled coldly. ?