Savage Forest - Chapter 112.2
“If it’s Reyhald, he’ll be fine! If anyone is going to get lost in this forest, it would be a disgrace to Nervana.”
Zechariah shouted as he sprinted in the opposite direction of the landslide.
Tarhan quickly nodded and began to move as well. He could feel that things were starting to go wrong. The avalanche roared down with a thunderous noise as if mirroring his troubled thoughts.
* * *
“Did you just hear that noise?”
Enya lifted her head.
“What noise?”
Jahan responded while yawning.
“No, it sounded like something was collapsing…”
“Probably a landslide.”
Fiarca replied.
“With the recent frequent rains, the ground must have weakened. It’s a common occurrence around the dams made by the skull spiders.”
Fiarca muttered while looking up at the drizzling sky.
“If there’s a landslide nearby, the skull spider must be very close.”
Enya’s group, searching for the molt, pressed on without showing signs of fatigue. Half of it was due to her recovered leg. Indeed, her leg had improved progressively, almost perfectly, just as Fiarca had predicted.
‘I’ve never felt my left foot so comfortable in my life.’
Every step she took with her healthy leg brought a wave of overwhelming emotion that she had to control.
“It’s great, Enya. To be able to recover like that.”
Jahan muttered as he looked at Enya.
“Do you think Senu would have recovered like that if he was a Nervana?”
Jahan seemed to envy Enya greatly, considering Silanda’s irreparably damaged left arm and Senu’s increasingly serious condition.
“Enough with the nonsense! If you have time for that, help Senu instead.”
Fortunately, Silanda was pragmatically realistic. Enya had come to appreciate her sometimes cold demeanor. Even though her leg had nearly fully recovered, she made a point of not drawing attention to it to avoid seeming boastful.
“Yaru has never failed a mission. He’s probably bringing reinforcements by now.”
Fiarca said, skillfully interpreting the markings on the trees.
“The movements of the skull spiders are really unusual. At this point, they should have appeared, but we haven’t seen a single molt.”
Fiarca was very on edge due to the strange behavior of the skull spiders lately.
“It’s as if the skull spiders are… agitated, like with a pregnant woman.”
Fiarca’s comment made Jahan jump up in alarm.
Jahan, having traveled with the group and learned about the habits of the skull spiders, was now well-informed.
“That, that can’t be! If that’s the case, aren’t we all doomed?”
Enya was slightly taken aback by the mention of pregnancy but quickly tried to assess the situation calmly.
She considered the slim possibility.
It had been well over three full moons since she last saw Tarhan. If there had been any symptoms, they should have appeared long ago.
Enya looked down at her flat belly.
Not only was there no pregnancy, but her body, which had never been in good shape, still looked thin and attractive. Moreover, Enya had always had a weak constitution. If she had lost a child before, it was unlikely that the baby would have survived the harsh experiences in the Nervana Forest.
‘Could it be Silanda…?’
Enya glanced at Silanda, who was supporting Senu as they walked. Silanda’s healthy, sun-kissed body was sweaty but still resilient.
She also considered Fiarca.
Although Fiarca seemed to avoid the topic, it was clear that she had had a romantic relationship with a Nervanan male at some point. But no matter how much she thought about it, the idea that there was a pregnant woman among the group seemed like nonsense.
Fiarca, equally puzzled, groaned in frustration.
“So why are the skull spiders acting like this?”
Lately, Fiarca had been frequently explaining the appearance and habits of the skull spiders.
“It might sound odd, but there’s an important interaction between monsters and the daughters of nature. Ancient daughters of nature are said to have ridden on the backs of gigantic monsters. Occasionally, there were even cases where they could communicate.”
Enya always found Fiarca’s stories fascinating.
“How did they control them?”
“I don’t know that part.”
Fiarca answered simply.
“Of course, I’ve heard that Eireke had a particularly bad relationship with skull spiders.”
Enya thought of her biological mother, Eireke.
Fiarca continued.
“Kiyan believed that the dilution of blood and weakening of connections over time was the reason. Eireke was terrified of skull spiders. She wouldn’t even touch them. She always tried to minimize contact, only warning the monsters to avoid harming the villagers or hunting too severely.”
She then added, “Even that minimal interaction would leave Eireke bedridden for days. According to Yaru.”
Enya closed her mouth.
The interaction with skull spiders. If Eireke, who was born in the Nervanan Forest, had such difficulties, Enya couldn’t even begin to imagine how she would fare.
“This skull spider is said to be a very old monster.”
“Old?”
Enya asked Fiarca, surprised by the unexpected term.
Fiarca answered.
“Skull spiders have generations, too, like the daughters of the forest. This particular skull spider is rumored to be over a thousand years old.”
“A, a thousand years old?”
As Enya stuttered in astonishment, Fiarca replied earnestly.
“At least a thousand years old.”
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