Stray

    There is an amazingly thick giant sequoia in the backyard of Ramon's hotel. It was so high that it pierced the sky, and its branches were straight.

    If you climb to the top of the tree, you can see the greenery of the frontier forest extending to the horizon. The Ash Mountains are embedded in the deep blue sky, and at sunrise, it seems as if the entire sky can fit into the eye. It was a vast and beautiful new world.

    Oliver Ramon soon discovered this little secret.

    With his strong body, he has been more lively than other children since he was a child. Piper Ramon was about to copy and paste "100 Things Little Kids Can't Do" on his face, but it's a pity that Oliver learned the skill of pretending to be obedient earlier.

    That was about five years old. During a banquet in the backyard of the old Ramon Zhangluo Hotel, he quietly climbed the tree. At first, he was full of interest, but when he climbed halfway, he became frightened. With the thought that if he fell, he would be finished. Oliver climbed to the top of the tree in cold sweat. His limbs were like boiled noodles, and he was stuck on the thickest branch. superior.

    He looked up and saw the huge skull lying in the middle of the tree top.

    It was too big, bigger than the head of any creature he had ever seen. The length of the skull is close to that of an adult, and the height is about that of Oliver at that time. Its shape is strange and twisted, its sharp teeth show no signs of decay, and small patches of moss and thin vines crawl through its hollow eye sockets.

    Oliver was startled, but he really didn't have the strength to stand up and run away. To be honest, he didn't have any special fears at the time. The skull was scary, but it lay in a very gentle landscape. The sunlight leaked through the leaves, and the spot was cast on the white bones. In front of it stood a bunch of artificially tied flowers - although the edges of the petals turned dark and there were signs of withering, it was still clear who had placed them here not long ago.

    Several chubby **** swept down from the air, they didn't seem to dare to rest on the skull. Tit heads tilted their heads, pecking at beetles on tree trunks near their skulls. Two beeps every now and then.

    A living death scene.

    A dragon bone? This size, he thought, was like a dragon, but a dragon only has two eyes. But young Oliver, apart from dragons, had cows as the second pick in his head—that was obviously not the right answer.

    He patted the dust and bark on his trousers, rubbed his bruised knee with a scowl, and circled the skull. It's a secret, Oliver thought excitedly. He has his own secret.

    Oliver knows what he is capable of, and there may not be a few adults in the whole town who can climb the top of a tree. As long as the owner of the bouquet doesn't discover it, this can be a great secret base.

    "I decided to call you 'Mr. White'. Mr. White, my name is Oliver Ramon—you can call me Ollie."

    The loud noise scared away all the **** that were foraging, he announced.

    And now it seems that it is not his secret.

    "How do you know—" He stopped patting Nemo on the back.

    "I don't know." Nemo didn't let go of him, his arms were still tightly around Oliver, as if he would run away if he let go. Again like a drowning man clinging to the last piece of driftwood. "But I just know. Don't move, Ollie, let me hold you for a while."

    "...it doesn't matter if you don't know, we can sneak back to Biaozhen when there is a chance." Oliver did not move in obedience. "Trust me, it's still there."

    "Okay." Nemo replied, his feet softened, and his weight was directly pressed over.

    "Ouch." The witch carried her watering can into the room, her voice full of playfulness. "While I wouldn't mind providing a room, this gentleman is not fit for intense exercise right now."

    Oliver was trying to support Nemo, who seemed to have fallen asleep, for the first few seconds. He reacted for a while, and then his ears began to turn suspiciously red.

    "Just kidding." The old lady put the watering can on the wooden shelf by the door and carefully wiped the water droplets on it. "Don't worry. This is the aftermath of memory sorting. After a long period of recuperation, there will be nothing to do tomorrow... I think you have finished talking about what you should talk about. I will take care of this young man, and you can do what you need to do."

    "He..." Oliver helped Nemo carefully to the side of the chair, and now he was sure that Nemo was indeed asleep, and a deep sleep.

    "He will repeat this process for a few hours, wake up for a while and sleep for a while." The witch moved herself to the workbench, picked up a mortar, and began to mix the powder. "Everyone, including dragons. It's normal."

    Her orange cat jumped on the table and flicked its tail at the group, looking in a bad mood.

      "And I think we need to talk."

    Adrian nodded silently, still looking at Nemo. And Jesse picked up the grey parrot with great interest: "What shall we eat?"

    In fact, they don't have many choices, the whole Caleb village is just one pub.

     Four people sat around the square table, no one spoke. Adrian chewed the bread silently, Oliver concentrated on the soup, and Ann put her finger on the lip of the wine glass and turned absently. Only Jesse slapped the potato wedges in the soup with a spoon, making an impolite thump. And the grey parrot slumped down beside the soup bowl, as if it was one of the food on the table.

    "A complete superior demon, really exciting." Ann broke the awkward silence first. "Oliver, have you kissed him?"

    Oliver choked on the soup and let out an earth-shattering cough. Adrian put down the bread in his hand and squeezed his eyebrows unbearably.

    "If you have kissed." An continued solemnly, "then you may be the first human on the surface to have kissed the body of a superior demon. You have to know that the average superior demon has one tooth. Bigger than us. The Holy See should award you a medal—"

    "There is no such medal." The knight commander finally spoke, "I want to know what you really think, Mr. Ramon."

    "I said it." Oliver wiped the soup from the corner of his mouth, "This has nothing to do with my...well, personal feelings for Nemo. I don't think it's wise to start a dispute first. behavior, especially when he hasn't done anything yet." He put down the napkin in his hand.

    "Let's not say whether power itself is the original sin. Even if Nemo doesn't mean it now, he is a normal person, and normal people are always angry when they are attacked for no reason." He said seriously, "This It's not complicated, is it? Because the other party is stronger, they can justify taking the lead... I don't like that approach."

    "You said it lightly." Jesse chewed the meat and said, "In case he explodes one day and blows the whole world up in half—"

    "He could now, but he didn't."

    "Maybe he hasn't had time to do that."

    "I wouldn't let him do that—I promised Mr. Cross."

    "And you can't." Jessie bit her fork and shrugged nonchalantly.

     "At least I will work hard for this. Compared to immediately reporting to the Holy See, and starting to lose sight of the battle and the definite sacrifice, there is still a glimmer of hope."

    And Nemo was the gentlest man he had ever seen, Oliver thought. He didn't believe that a person who carried his younger siblings behind their backs and let them act like a spoiled child would want to destroy everything. But even if he had a position to make such an assertion, it now seems that his strength has been left far behind by Nemo. But Nemo Wright was really his companion, his team member, his responsibility.

    He didn't want to say some self-righteous naive dreams from the standpoint of an insignificant little person.

    For the first time, Oliver was so desperate to become stronger. If he is stronger, stronger. Strong enough to restrain the panic caused by the "complete superior demon", then he can straighten his back and say that sentence. That sentence he was not qualified to say right now—

    Because I trust him.

    "What are you laughing at?" Jessie raised her eyebrows and poked a piece of meat with her fork. "It's not a funny topic."

    "For the first time, I'm grateful to have strength." Oliver twitched his lips, "Mr. Cross... I hope you will start your training with the highest intensity from tomorrow."

    "Okay." The knight commander said solemnly, "I won't do anything for the time being. But if I find that you don't have the qualifications, I will try to report the situation to the Holy See... I hope you can understand me position."

    "Thank you." Oliver simply pulled away the chair, stood up, and gave a slight salute. "Thank you, Mr. Cross."

    "Rather than this, Oliver, you might as well take him down—"

    "...Please shut up, Ms. Savage." Adrian almost pinched the handle of the spoon in his hand.

    Oliver touched his nose and was about to say something when suddenly the tavern became a mess. People whispered, noisily like a hive of bees. Immediately, they put down the cutlery in their hands, ignoring the half-eaten food that was still steaming, and squeezed out through the narrow tavern door.

    "What happened?" Ann took a sip of wine, "Aren't our voices that loud?"

    "Oh, of course not." The blond young man finally swallowed all the food in his mouth, and his speech became clear. "Maybe everyone's attention was too concentrated just now - the people next to them were loud, and they said 'the horizon is coming'."

    "Horizon Mercenary Group?" The female warrior put away her joking expression and frowned slightly. "What are they doing in such a small place?"

    "Who knows?" Jesse drank the wine from the glass. "Anyone else want to have another drink together—hey, why did the clerk run away?"

    The last one who ran out of the counter was a small young man, full of the smell of fireworks unique to the kitchen, with a turban tied on his head. He charged outward like a cannonball, smearing the oil from his hands on his apron as he charged.

    "Wait a minute." Jesse grabbed his apron strap directly, and the small young man almost flew out. "What is Horizon doing here?"

    "Ouch, let it go!" the little one shouted, "Who knows, I just listened! They said the horizon is coming..."

    He cleared his throat, lowered his voice, and there was excitement in his small eyes: "...he came to hunt witches."

    At the same time, the witch's residence.

    Nimo thought he slept for a long time, and he finally remembered that he hugged Oliver. And now he was lying on the thick fleece blanket in the witch's parlour, covered with a thin sheet. As soon as he opened his eyes, he saw a huge cat face - and then he sneezed hard at the billowing cat face.

    The orange cat let out an angry hiss.

    "Caramel, don't disturb the guests." said a cool and pleasant female voice, and a rickety figure that did not match the voice was busy beside the workbench. "Mr. Wright, how are you feeling now?"

    "Nothing uncomfortable." Nemo propped himself up, unexpectedly refreshed—the resistance was gone, the emptiness was gone, and despite the growing mysteries, he felt unprecedented Practical. "Oli they—"

    "Your companion is out for dinner." The witch filled a glass with bright green liquid, while the other side of the cauldron was boiling something. There was a mix of chamomile and overcooked cabbage in the air. "They didn't leave you, don't worry. Besides, if I were you, I wouldn't get up... The floor of my house is quite hard. If you suddenly fall asleep again, it may hurt a lot."

    Nemo lay down quickly, upright. But even though the witch's living room was very warm, he was still in a panic - he glanced at the books piled up in the corner from the corner of his eyes, and slowly got up.

    "You know what you are, don't you?" The witch smiled when she saw him move like a sloth. "I guess you're a 'big guy'."

    Nimo was silent, he didn't know whether it would be good to speak straight, so he chose a vague answer: "Maybe."

    "You don't need to be nervous." The witch said casually, mixing the two liquids together, and the mixture in the test tube squeaked. "I'm not human either, that's fine."

    Nemo turned his head sharply, and he could even hear a small click in his neck.

    "My race is the 'Eastern Witch'." She shrugged her bony shoulders, "You may have heard of it—don't be so cautious, you can read the book over there."

    Nemo wiped his hands on the robe, carefully picked up a tome, and looked at the witch's back. The witch did not look at him, although her voice was calm, her body was shaking slightly.

    "Ms Nadine, are you afraid?" he asked dryly.

    "Afraid of you? Yes." She didn't deny it, "But you're on my territory, you're my patient... You trusted me, didn't you?"

    "If I make you uncomfortable, I can go outside first—"

    "No. A lousy doctor does that when the patient hangs out."

    "You're not a therapist?"

    "I can't use human healing magic," the old lady coughed a few times, cooling the mixed liquid on the delicate silver stand. The smell in the air started to smell good. "I'm just an ordinary doctor."

    Nemo hummed solemnly, and sat down to open the thick book "On the Disappearance of Earth Hyland". He glanced briefly at the preface, which seemed to document the study of a long-extinct flower—he had never read it in the signpost library, which instantly made him feel better.

    A photo fell out of the pages before turning a few pages. The appearance of the two girls was finely fixed on the thick parchment by the photo-taking magic. The parchment itself had turned yellow, but it could be seen that it was well preserved.

    One of the girls was breathtakingly beautiful, and the beauty beyond human beings even brought a shudder to the surface. Her long blond hair was curled, and her eyes were brilliant sand-gold. The other was much more mundane - chubby, with a flat nose and slightly small eyes. With short brown hair, garish freckles on his cheeks, his nose wrinkled with laughter. They squeezed their heads together, showing unrestrained smiles on the outside of the screen.

    Nemo subconsciously flipped through the photo, and the date was neatly written on the back of the photo—a date sixteen years ago.

     Below are two names, "Naten and Lisa".

    "Sorry, this... well, I didn't mean it." Nemo carefully twisted the photo. "Can I put it in this book again?"

    The old lady turned her head slowly and glanced at the photo.

    "Yeah, just put it in that book." There was no ups and downs in her voice.

    "Is that you in this photo?" Nemo hesitated for a while, but couldn't help but ask. "Of course if you don't want to answer—"

    "It doesn't matter, that's me." The witch's tone was very flat. She poured the cooled concoction into a vial, stood up tremblingly, and stumbled slightly to Nemo. "Drink it, and you'll have to sleep a little longer."

    Nemo grabbed the bottle, this time the potion was a viscous gray-green. Recalling the smell of the last bottle of potion for a while, his hands trembled a little. Holding the book in his other hand, he dawdled back to the rug with a mixture of doubt and generosity.

    And the witch Nadine looked at the black-haired young man's silver-gray eyes that had returned to normal: "I know what you are wondering, I don't care about age so much. How old are you... Twenty-two, twenty-three?"

    "Maybe twenty-three." Nemo twisted the bottle open, and the thick smell of wet bark and camphor pressed against his nose. "I'm not sure, but about the same." Then he drank it. But the thick and spicy stuff directly stuck in his throat, and he didn't swallow it, nor did he swallow it, and he almost choked out tears.

    "I'm only ten years older than you." The witch, aged like a monster, said easily, "Don't worry, I won't force you to call me 'Miss Nadine'."

    The witch's speech was very effective - Nemo gulped the potion down.

    (m..=)