Iron Powder and Spellcasters

   Chapter 219 The Traveler

  Although Winters can move freely, Erlun still accompanies him, even more than before.

"I'm willing to talk to you in this tent." Erlun said this, her expression a little sad: "Everyone in the camp, alas, they don't want to listen to me, and they don't need to listen to me. "

  The herdsmen have dispersed with their herds, probably because the pastures can accommodate limited animals.

   But the camp is still running, and many people, tents and herds remain here, all of which are Erlun's personal property.

  White Lion's wife and his children died in the war in the early years, and now their children are still young.

  As the younger sister of the white lion, Erlun is naturally in charge of part of the old camp. The white lion also loved his sister, and gave her many subjects, slaves, and herds.

   So Erlun is the hostess of this camp.

   But she was away from the wasteland for ten years. At Red Pine Manor, she was Mrs. Kalman's valet. In the Chihe Department, she suddenly became the master of an ordeal.

   Not to mention that the followers are not suitable, even Eerlun himself is not suitable, it is unavoidable that the servants bully the master.

"I don't know about Hurd society." Winters thought for a while, then said in a deep voice: "But when I see tribes moving, they pull out camp, walk, and camp every day. In fact, it's no different from marching and fighting. The army, the most important prize. Punishment. Reward for doing well, whipping for doing well."

   Eerlun shook his head again and again and whispered, "How dare I use a whip to whip someone."

   Winters said calmly: "You don't have to do it yourself, just assign someone else to do it. But there must be rules and fairness."

   "I..." E'erlun's eyes turned red, he hesitated: "Alas..."

  The little lion ran into the tent and interrupted the conversation between the two.

   He winked and asked Winters, "I heard Bell say they call you [Wolf Blood]?"

  Bell and Little Lion are about the same age and have similar experiences, so they can chat very easily.

  Eerlun wiped her tears, turned and walked out of the felt tent.

   Winters sighed and left the felt tent with a cane.

   "Eerlun? Batu? How did you two go?" The little lion was puzzled, turned his head and asked Charles with a smile, "Why do you call him a wolf? Wolf is not a good word!"

   Just now, Ciel, who pretended to be deaf and dumb, asked back, "Wolf is a bad word? Don't you worship wolves?"

The little lion said angrily: "That is the slander of the tribes by outsiders! Wolves are greedy and vicious, how could they worship wolves? We all use words like eagles, stags, horses, and mastiffs to praise people. Have you ever seen people praise people? Do you use wolves? People who scold you will use wolf cubs. All the tribes will fight if they see a wolf."

  The little lion smiled and asked Ciel: "It's Batu, didn't he happily accept the nickname [Blood of the Wolf]? Then who is worshiping wolves? Is it you or us?"

  Ciel was speechless, he muttered: "My brother is not 'happy' either..."

   "Then why do you call him [Wolf Blood]?"

  Charle said helplessly: "Because my brother's previous nickname was even worse."

   "What? What else?" The little lion became interested and pestered Ciel to ask, "Tell me about it quickly."

  …

   is also the mouth of the little lion. During the day, the wolf is bad, and at night the wolf will come.

   In the middle of the night, there was a sudden commotion in Erlun's camp.

   Someone banged on the gong and shouted desperately: "[Herde] The wolf is in the ring! The wolf is coming!"

  The men were startled in their sleep and rushed out of the felt tent with wolves in hand.

  Winters, who was awakened, frowned, and also leaned on a cane to go out.

  The sleepy-eyed Ciel lost all sleepiness in an instant when he saw this scene. He hurriedly stopped Winters: "Brother, your injury is not healed yet! Don't go!"

   Winters walked into the camp without saying a word.

  The wolf jumped into the sheepfold, wanting to have a full meal. He was frightened by the herdsmen and ran into the distance.

  The men in the camp mounted their horses one after another, calling to each other, waving wolves and chasing them out.

   The sound of hooves gradually faded away, and the camp returned to peace.

  The women who stayed behind lit torches and were busy counting the sheep.

  Two ewes with lambs were frightened to abort, and several sheep were bitten in the neck.

  The men came back one by one, either empty-handed or wounded—running horses at night was dangerous.

  Eerlun was searching hard in the crowd, and when he saw someone, he asked, "Have you seen Batu?"

   Everyone shook their heads.

   More and more people came back, except for Pratubatus.

  In the end, the little lion also came back.

  Eerlun rushed forward, grabbed his brother's arm hard, and asked with tears, "Did you see him?"

  The little lion shook his head.

   Eerlun seemed to be drained of all his strength in an instant, and fell limply to the ground.

   "Let's go." The little lion wanted to help his sister up.

  Eerlun just stared blankly at the direction where the man disappeared and refused to leave.

  The little lion had no choice but to light a bonfire beside his sister and accompany her.

   The night gradually receded, and Erlun's tears had dried up.

  When the sky was dawn, the little lion dragged his sister up: "Let's go, he won't come back!"

   Suddenly, the figure of a rider appeared on the horizon.

  The rider walked slowly, but he was indeed walking in the direction of the camp.

  Eerlun's tears poured out uncontrollably.

   The rider was getting closer and the sky was getting brighter.

  The people in the camp saw that the rider was carrying two wolf corpses on his horse.

   "Badu! Woohoo!" Everyone waved and cheered, shaking their coats and hats and slapping their chests.

  Eerlun left silently. She returned to her felt tent and took out a set of clothes from under the wooden box.

   It was a uniform for the cadet of the Army Officers Academy, and she had carefully repaired every damage on it.

   Eerlun hugged this old military uniform and burst into tears.

  …

The day after the wolf attacked, the White Lion sent someone to invite Winters.

   At the White Lion's camp, Winters met Brother Rhett, who had recently seen the dragon.

   Brother Reid has completely changed his appearance.

  The former Friar Rhett will make you involuntarily ignore his thin arms, drooping skin, snow-white beard and vicissitudes of life.

   He would yell, laugh, and talk like a young man.

   And at this moment, Brother Reid is just an old man who is running out of fuel.

   He was still the same him, but extremely weak, and every breath seemed to exhale life force.

   His face also became dark, only a pair of eyes still had a little light.

   He tried to live, as if to see Winters one last time.

  Winters' forehead burst with blue veins, and he grabbed the white lion's collar: "What did you do?"

  White Lion just shook his head.

   "Hey! You kid, cough." Brother Reid scolded with a smile: "What are you doing?"

   Winters then let go.

   "When I was there, wouldn't I know it myself?" Brother Reid labored to greet Winters: "I called you here for the last meeting. Come over and sit beside me."

   Winters sat down obediently.

   Brother Reid seems to spend a lot of energy even talking now: "I asked you to come, and I want you to do one thing for me."

   "Just say it."

   Brother Reid smiled softly and said, "It's up to you to do this. Come and help me shave my hair. I've been through my whole life, and when I'm here, there are people who come to me, kind."

   Winters never worked as a barber, he only shaved himself.

   But Brother Rhett's request, he did not refuse. He simply took the razor and shaves his hair in the felt tent as he was young.

  Two months of sculpting practice have allowed Winters to master the dynamics more precisely.

   He was careful not to injure Brother Rhett's wrinkled skin.

   Brother Reid's silver-white hair fell like snow, revealing round burn scars one after another.

   "I don't really have anything to tell you." Brother Reid closed his eyes and said slowly, "Only one point. You, this little guy, stand too short and look too close, especially at the expense of your body."

   Winters stood silently behind Brother Rhett, carefully controlling the strength of the razor, and continued to shave his hair bit by bit.

   "If you don't think about what will happen in a hundred years, you can't even guarantee what will happen in ten years. If you don't think about the entire chessboard, you can't even occupy a corner of the chessboard."

"Um."

   "I heard that the world is a big ball." Brother Reid's eyes gradually recovered: "Go west, and you can return to the east."

"Um."

   "Unfortunately, I can't finish this journey." Brother Reid asked with a smile: "Do you remember, you still owe my old man three months' salary?"

"Um."

"I don't want your money. We Celica people pay attention to returning leaves to their roots. After I died, you burned my body. Take my ashes, and after this journey, take me back to Celica, okay? Bury me in a place called Phoenix."

   "Okay, I will."

"What must be?" Brother Reid smiled and stretched out his hand and hit Winters: "It's thousands of miles away, life and death are hard to know. How can I trouble you to do such a thing, I mean to say. After I die, you will find a river. , pour my ashes into it, and it will be counted as one hundred."

   Winters was silent.

   Brother Reid seemed to remember something, and continued to laugh: "But my old man has sworn that I will never return to the east again in this life. So you have to find a river that flows from east to west, and don't just find a small puddle to fool the old man."

   "Two mountains are sandwiched by the ground, and there is no river flowing westward." Winters' voice became trembling a little bit: "Don't worry, wait for me, I'll take you back to Celica."

"Really? It's a pity that there is no river flowing westward." Brother Reid coughed twice and patted Winters' arm lightly: "Don't cry, what are you crying, this old man has enough. I've been as far west as I can go. When I die at my age, it's all happy and mourning. You all have to laugh and send me away. Don't look at you guys young, you can't live to my age. ."

The    hair-cutting ceremony was completed, and Brother Rhett made Winters sit in front of him.

"Although you are an unbeliever, let me bless you one last time. This is what Brother Philip said when he consecrated me, and now I say it to you." He held Winters' hand, fingers Lightly tapped Winters' forehead and muttered:

"[Ancient saying] You will not be afraid of the terror of the night, or the arrow that flies by day; neither will you be afraid of the plague that walks in the night, or the disease that kills people at noon; though a thousand fall on your left, ten thousand fall on your side. On your right, this plague must never come near you."

   Winters bowed his head and thanked the old man.

   Brother Reid took a deep breath, and suddenly turned back to the wise man who was full of energy and spirit.

   He asked sharply, his voice pierced through clouds and cracked stones: "Am I poor?"

   "Yes!" Winters replied.

   "Can I be alone?"

"Yes!"

   "Can I go back east?"

   "Never!"

   "Good! Good! Good!" Brother Reid laughed loudly: "I can leave in peace."

   His head dropped slowly, and he passed away in the company of Winters and the white lion.

  …

  Following the wishes of Brother Rhett, his body was cremated.

  Winters and the white lion dragged logs one by one from a distance, and the tower became a crematorium.

  The great shaman also came, and he danced in front of the fire in the highest respect.

   Brother Reid served as a monk, Taoist priest, priest, dharma scholar, and begging monk all his life, and was finally gifted by various shamans.

After Brother Reid left, Erlen also packed up for Winters.

   "I'm sorry." Winters was heartbroken: "I'm sorry."

  Eerlun smiled and shook his head.

   The guilt nearly crushed Winters, but he still had things to do.

When    Winters came out of the tent, the little lion was waiting for him, with four horses leading him.

   "Let's go, I'll take you off." The little lion pretended to be lighthearted and said, "These four horses are for you and Shire. You two can ride each other. Do you want to name the horses?"

   "Can't afford it."

  The little lion was stunned for a moment: "It's okay, it's okay. We don't name the war horse, we only call it the color of its coat."

   "No, I don't want to name the horse anymore."

  The little lion led several guards and escorted Winters and Ciel all the way.

  Eerlun chased out the felt tent and chased it all the way to the hillside. Looking at the man's back, he cried bitterly.

  The white lion also came to the hillside. He wiped away his tears for his sister and said softly, "Don't cry, Erlun, I'll sing a song for you."

  The white lion looked at the sky and sang softly:

   "My beloved,

   has crossed the mountains;

   the one I cry,

   has crossed countless rivers;

   I cry,

   He will not look back on me;

  I want to find him,

   But he could not find his way.

  …”

   This is a woman's love song, but the white lion is singing it.

  The song of the white lion is desolate and desolate, and the mourning is forever, the birds are circling for him, and the cattle and sheep also stop for him.

   must have had a lot of sad experiences to be able to sing this ballad.

   After the song, the white lion said softly to Erlun, "If you want him, go find him."

   "But." Erlun stopped crying, just sobbed softly: "What about the fire roaster?"

   "It's okay." The white lion took his sister in his arms and gently arranged his forehead: "Brother always has a way."

  …

  The little lion escorted Winters all the way to the River Styx.

  He first led Winters to pay homage to Qiang Luck.

  Fortune rested on a beautiful hill, the hillside was full of red and blue flowers.

  There is no tombstone. When the little lion was buried, he laid a stake, and a few knives carved a horse on the stake.

   Winters caressed the stake lightly, like brushing the side neck and long mane of Fortune.

   He had no tears, and he didn't cry again after he came out of the coma, not once.

  Even if Brother Reid died, even if it was a parting from Erlun.

   His ability to cry seems to have been completely deprived.

  The little lion and his guards brought the sheepskin sack and the wooden frame, and they soon had the sheepskin raft ready.

  The two guards made a round trip first to confirm that the sheepskin raft could be used, and came to the little lion to return.

   The first to be sent across the Styx were the four horses, and then the Shire.

  The little lion accompanied Winters and finally reached the east bank of the Styx.

   "That's right." The little lion asked curiously, "Even if your name is Batu, I still don't know what your name is."

   "My name is...Deep Winter in the mountains."

   "Is your surname 'Gunshan'?" The little lion hugged and laughed: "My father's tribe is called 'Wenduoer', which also means mountains and mountains."

  Everything has been shipped to the east coast, horses, food.

   "You won't get lost, right?" The little lion asked Winters with a smile: "There is no distinction between east, west, north and south on the grassland, so it's easy to get lost."

   "I have this." Winters took out Lieutenant Colonel Jesska's map: "You won't get lost."

"That's good."

   "This is for you." Winters took out another roll and threw it to the little lion: "Maybe you can use it."

"what?"

   "The map, I drew it." Winters said softly, "Part of the prairie."

   "Okay! Thank you!" The little lion laughed: "Let's go, the deep winter in the mountains, let's go home."

  The little lion said goodbye reluctantly and firmly: "Never come back!"

   Winters tugged at the reins lightly and rode away, followed by Ciel.

   One hundred and sixty-four wooden awls, carefully stored in the deepest part of his luggage.

   [Thanks to book lovers for their collection, reading, subscription, recommendation tickets, monthly tickets, rewards and comments, thank you all]

   [A book friend mentioned Winters' growth. In fact, he did grow up despite setbacks, but not by dead people.

   Brother Rhett's departure was actually not very exciting to Winters.

   The old man is on his birthday, after all, he is already 95 years old (self-proclaimed).

   He crossed the last man (not Winters) and reached the end of his journey himself. ]

   (end of this chapter)