Lord Highlander

   Chapter 228 227. Lizard Hunter

   Before dawn the next day, the caravan set off for the next village.

A caravan composed of twelve horses and six mules walked along an uneven mountain road towards Hede Village, 30 kilometers away, facing the white belly that had just appeared in the sky. Suerdak rode on the horse, Standing on the upper reaches of the highest river in Wall Village, watching the caravan leave silently from a distance.

  Across the gray limestone formations, the sun leaped out from below the horizon, casting their shadows long.

  Suldak also followed the lizard hunting team in Wall Village and entered the mountains at the southern foot of Pagros.

The captain of this lizard hunting team is naturally led by the village chief Brett who has the most hunting experience in Wall Village. The villagers carried bows, arrows and ropes, and carried dry food for about seven days, and walked into this mountain on foot. Going deeper into the Pagros Mountains, you will find that the inside is even more desolate. The greenery that could be seen in the ravines will disappear when everyone turns over a mountain range.

  Looking around, the mountains in front of me are all made of gray rocks. Occasionally, a few bones of animals can be seen on the stone walls. This place is basically a dead place.

   Occasionally, some thorny seabuckthorn grass can be seen in the crevices of the rocks, shaking the dry branches and leaves in the wind.

Village Chief Brett climbed to a steep rock crevice, stretched out his hand and broke off the branches of seabuckthorn grass that had lost moisture in the rock crevice, the wrinkles on his face became a little deeper, and the vitality here was almost cut off. This area is the active area of ​​gray rock iguanas. These sea buckthorn grasses are the source of life for these gray rock iguanas, but this year these sea buckthorn grasses have dried up and died. Of course, there will be no more gray rocks in this area. Iguana.

  The old village chief frowned, took a sip of water to moisten his thirsty throat, covered his face with a linen scarf, waved to the team, and everyone headed towards the depths of the southern mountains.

  The crater known as the 'pustule' in the distance became more and more clear in Suldak's sight.

The head of Brett led the lizard hunting team in the village for a whole day, passing through four areas where gray rock iguanas were most active in the past, but this year's situation is slightly different. The rock crevices in these places There are no traces of gray rock iguanas, not only that, even the seabuckthorn grass on which the iguanas depend is almost all dead.

The team didn't set up camp until the sun fell into the mountain depression, and then they set up camp under a cliff rock sheltered from the wind. These villagers didn't carry tents, but each of them just carried a worn-out blanket. Everyone gathered around the bonfire wrapped in blankets, tore off some of the dry food they were carrying, and threw it into an iron pot filled with water on the bonfire.

  Wait until the water in the pot boils, everyone will scoop out some food from the iron pot and get together to enjoy this dinner.

This kind of big pot meal is not delicious. The quality of the food brought by the villagers is uneven. Some villagers bring dry food that is baked wheat cakes, and some villagers bring dry food that is chestnut rice cakes. At this time, no one will picky about the difference in food. , It’s just that the first day of hunting was one after another, which made the atmosphere in the lizard hunting team a little dignified.

At this time, the old village head gathered several villagers with rich hunting experience in the village, and began to discuss on an old parchment that there was a greater chance of gray rock iguanas in that area. The brows of these villagers Locked up, it doesn't look too good.

  Suldak sat quietly against the rock wall, beside Village Chief Brett, listening to the discussion.

"All the seabuckthorn grasses in this area are dead. This area is too dry. None of the seabuckthorn grasses survived. The gray rock iguanas should have migrated to other places." The wrinkles on the old village chief's face became deeper, and his lips were a little dry , wanted to take out the kettle to drink, but held back, and just pursed his lips slightly.

  The youngest son, Charlie, looked at the old village head with a puzzled expression, and asked casually, "It's only a ridge away from Wall Village, how could it be so dry?"

"It's not surprising. It happens every few years. As long as we continue to explore the depths of the mountains, we will always find something." An elderly villager who is skilled at twisting a bowstring said to Charlie Said.

   "In my opinion, the gray rock iguanas should be migrating in this direction. As long as we keep chasing them, we will definitely find their traces." Another old villager vowed, pointing to the 'Pug' mountain.

   But his words were immediately questioned by other villagers: "Come on, there is already a dead land over there, do you think the gray rock iguana can survive there?"

  The villager said stubbornly: "Whether there are gray rock iguanas, we will have to investigate to find out..."

  The discussion at night did not get any real results.

  Early the next morning, the old village head climbed to the top of a cliff. He held up a piece of red silk in his hand to feel the wind direction in the mountain.

  He climbed down from the top of the cliff and led the team of lizards to set off, and then the team went against the wind.

  In the lizard hunting team, only Suldak was leading the horse. This Gubolai horse carried most of the team's supplies. He checked two hunting grounds in a row in the morning, but they failed one after another. The wrinkles on the old village chief's face deepened.

In the afternoon, the lizard hunting team from Woer Village climbed over another mountain range, and a limestone forest with strange rocks appeared in front of Suldak's eyes. The ground is covered with sharp spikes. The stalagmites are almost tens of meters high, and the short ones are even ten meters. There are countless mottled cracks on the stalagmites.

  Finally, in a crevice of a stalagmite, Surdak saw a blue-purple sea buckthorn plant swaying in the wind.

"In the past good years, we were able to catch enough gray rock iguanas almost only in the previous hunting grounds. Although there are many gray rock iguanas in the Rockfall Forest, it is too dangerous after all. I have no choice but to won't come here..."

  The old village head stood at the front of the team, looking worriedly at the stone forest in front of him.

   "Is this place dangerous?" Surdak asked the old village chief curiously.

  The old village head nodded very seriously, and said: "Almost all the stalagmites here have broken, and a slight violent vibration will cause these stalagmites to collapse..."

Suldak was a little speechless. At this time, the lizard hunting group of Wall Village had arrived at the outskirts of the rock collapse forest. Suldak had already seen countless piles of rubble, large and small, on the periphery of the rock collapse forest. It was like a cemetery. After hearing the old village head's explanation, I realized that these piles of rubble were all stalagmites from the collapsed stone forest.

  Suldak stepped on a piece of crisp limestone, and suddenly a dark gray shadow sprang out from the crack of the stone under his feet, and burrowed into the crack of the stone beside him in the blink of an eye.

   'Gray Rock Iguana...'

  Someone in the lizard hunting group shouted...

  (end of this chapter)