When Snow was out, Nick followed him as well. To YunYun’s questioning gaze he just shortly replied “It’s bad!” and ran towards the closest trees. Then he cut two five-six meter long, long lush trees and used a rope to tie them up like Christmas trees. Afterwards he carried them over to the cave and called King Kong over.
“When I tell you, you slowly pull the ends of these trees so we can get her out. But she’s big, so be careful. I and YunYun will make sure she doesn’t get stuck, alright?” He repeated it two times and then showed how slow King Kong had to pull the trees. Then patted the ape’s big hand and told him to wait.
For the next twenty minutes Nick and YunYun were pulling and pushing the trees in the cave under the confused gazes of the two beasts. These actions didn’t make sense at all, but after witnessing Nick create the healing paste with the pleasant aroma, they understood that humans had probably many strange techniques.
The lush branches made the couple sweat quite a bit, but finally Nick was satisfied with the result. He took out their last big piece of cloth he had and spread it out atop of the leaves.
“For me to treat you, I first have to get you out. Unfortunately I’m not strong enough to carry you and the cave opening is very small, therefore we will pull you on this cloth and then out from the cave. It might hurt a bit, but I guess you are in much pain already.” Nick whispered and caressed the doe again.
YunYun couldn’t even say anything because she was barely holding herself back from crying. This was way too cruel. She understood the hunting as the necessity for others to survive, but this beautiful doe was obviously dying here for several days. She couldn’t understand why, but she had a feeling as if someone close to her was suffering and tears were filling her eyes.
“YunYun, help me.” Nick beckoned her to help him pull the large doe over onto the cloth.
Both of them did their best to be as gentle as possible, but the soft whimpers were evidence that it still hurt.
“Please hold on for just a little bit.” YunYun whispered to the doe while tears fell down her cheeks.
After they managed to get the doe on the cloth, they pulled the cloth on the branches and positioned the doe so her legs would get in the way as little as possible. Then YunYun knelt near the front and Nick near the hind legs and, after receiving Nick’s command, King Kong slowly started to pull them out.
This time the big ape clearly understood the importance of his task and didn’t fool around. Nick and YunYun also managed to move doe’s legs so they didn’t get stuck and couple minutes later they were outside, but unfortunately it didn’t make them feel any better.
They were kneeling at the side of a beautiful golden colored grand doe who was injured all over and pieces of its flesh were rotting where the bolts penetrated the skin. It was similar to what Nick already saw inside, except now he felt completely powerless. The doe was extremely weak and was barely breathing. She tried to lift her head as if to say something, but simply couldn’t gather the strength.
“This much poison! How much willpower do you have to still hold on?” Nick whispered with tears in his eyes. Maybe it was YunYun’s influence or he felt that way on his own, but this was simply too cruel. Even both rank six beasts made sad growls and whimpers while pacing around helplessly.
“Fine! I’ll do what I can!” Nick loudly stated and tried to pull himself together.
The two beasts brought them here in hope they could help, so he had to do his best. And the only way how to approach the situation was to remove the bolts one by one, then clean the wounds and remove the poison. Even if it was unrealistic, he still wanted and had to try.
“YunYun, take this bucket of water and tear these bunch of clothes in smaller pieces. I’ll start removing the bolts and cleaning the wounds.” Nick instructed and YunYun was brought back to the reality. They did have quite a bit of ingredients, but to clean so many injuries, to disinfect them and to neutralize the poison they needed even more water and bandages.
“It will hurt. I will remove the bolt first and then the rotten flesh around it.” Nick said and a small knife appeared in his hand.
Then he leaned closer to one of the wounds, inspected it and carefully grabbed the bolt. Around his hand and then the bolt a thin layer of Qi was formed and as soon as he thought he felt the whole bolt, Nick immediately pulled it out. As he expected, it was stuck over fifteen, maybe even twenty centimeters deep and when puled out caused a great pain to the doe. Still, she almost didn’t let out a sound, only tears filled her eyes.
“Hold on, ok? Now I’ll clean the wound. YunYun, the water! Give me another bottle!” Nick was washing the wound with large amounts of water while cutting off the rotten flesh and cleaning it away with cloth pieces YunYun passed to him. After an hour he, sweating all over, was finally done with the first wound, at least he hoped so. He put on a layer of paste and covered it with a piece of clean cloth.
Then he sat back for a minute while panting.
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“Damn!” Nick cursed, “We don’t have enough water! Snow, King Kong! Can we bring her back to your valley? The water there and the rich Qi could help otherwise I believe I will only be able to clean few wounds before she dies.”
The two grand beasts got startled for a moment, but then nodded.
“Good. King Kong, you’ll have to carry her, but try to no shake while running and hold her gently. Can you do it?”
The ape nodded and lifted the doe in his big arms like a feather.
“Go, don’t wait for us. The sooner she gets there, the better surroundings will she have. Also, try talk to her on the way so she stays awake!” Nick shouted and King Kong soundlessly disappeared in an instant between the trees.
“Sorry, Snow. You will have to show us the way or we might get lost.” Nick said apologetically, but the tiger didn’t care and rushed after the ape while from time to time glancing back at the slow humans.
Nick and YunYun did their best, but still couldn’t run faster than they did on they way here.
“Nick, how come Snow is trying to help the doe and not eats it? I don’t think she’s rank six.” YunYun asked while they ran, “He should normally eat high rank beast meat, right?”
“I thought of it as well.” Nick nodded, “And my guess is that the doe is rank five, probably really close to tank six.”
When he saw Snow glance at him in surprise, Nick continued.
“I could even make a guess that someone attacked her while she was hibernating to become a rank six, am I correct?”
The tigers eyes visibly enlarged as his surprise grew. How does this human manage to read his mind even when they are running?
“But still she wasn’t rank six and even if she was, why didn’t Snow want to eat her?” YunYun was still confused.
“You see,” Nick explained, “it’s already extreme rarity for any beast to become rank six, but for carnivores like Snow it is comparatively easier. Even King Kong is omnivore and sometimes feasts on animals, therefore it’s not a big surprise for him to become rank six. But for a pure herbivore like a doe to become rank six … I doubt there are any records in the history that speak about a similar event. She’s absolutely unique, you can even call it a miracle of nature.”
They were running while Nick gave his explanation, but Snow was watching him with a complicated gaze. No wonder this human could get so well along with them – he understood the nature on such a subtle level.
“Sigh, she is so beautiful.” YunYun dropped another tear while running, “What are the chances of us really saving her?”
Suddenly Nick stopped, grabbed a small branch from the ground, then started to draw and calculate. Snow got anxious since he didn’t understand why would they need to stop at this moment – weren’t they in a rush?
Five minutes later Nick looked at the tiger.
“Snow. Even if we continue like this, there’s no chance for us to save her.” But before YunYun and Snow could start to panic, he continued, “But there is a way, the only thing is – it will require a great sacrifice from you.”
Tiger tilted his head in confusion and YunYun was confused as well.
“Did you see how I cleaned the wounds? Not only it required water, but also large amount of clean cloth as well. If I don’t use the cloth for removal of the old flesh and to stop the bleeding right after, the whole procedure will become a bloody mess and most likely somewhere in those many wounds I might leave a small piece of poisonous rotten flesh and she will die in the end anyway.”
Snow became solemn. He observed what the human did before and it definitely wasn’t easy. Even more, he saw the way human used the small knife wasn’t simple at all – it was covered in a thin layer of Qi to make cuts more precise. Animals were not capable of this and Snow could only rely on this young male to save the doe.
When Nick heard Snow’s anxious growl, he continued.
“There is another aspect to this situation. YunYun is the daughter of the ruler of all humans here and if she doesn’t show up in a couple of days, her mother might even come in the woods with large armies to look for her.” Seeing tiger’s weary eyes, Nick quickly added, “But if she shows up and warns her, there will be no need for you to worry. What I want to ask from you is to bring YunYun to the west part of lake Tai – it’s the biggest lake on the continent and you definitely know what I’m talking about. YunYun will show up to say she’s fine and to warn her mother about her absence. In addition, she will bring back large amounts of clean cloth we can use and then we will have a chance to save the doe.”
Snow thought for a bit, nodded and turned to run towards south west.
“Wait, Snow!” Nick shouted, “There lies the problem and why I said you will have to make a sacrifice. If you run like this, it will take you three, maybe even four days to get there! Only if you carry YunYun you can make it on time!”
At this point both YunYun and Snow looked at him in shock. They missed such a simple point! But for the rank six beast to carry a human was a total disgrace! These proud beings were the overloads of the woods and mountains and would rather die than to serve the hateful humans.
Snow was obviously torn and paced around for a while thinking.
“Even if you decide to help, you shouldn’t show yourself to the humans and stay hidden while YunYun is in the camp.” Nick added.
“Snow, I know this is much to ask form you, but let’s do our best to save her. I’m very light and small, no one will even notice me on your back with your speed.” YunYun said in a pleading voice.
After one more minute Snow finally agreed and before YunYun got on his back, Nick passed her one of his wristbands.
“Give me your ring. Take as many clean cloth as you can and preferably confiscate all the available bandages that are in the camp. And, if you find the opportunity, steal several empty barrels as well.” Then he looked at Snow, “I will get to the valley if I continue directly straight ahead for approximately half an hour, right?”
After Tiger confirmed, Nick immediately dashed away, but YunYun got on Snow’s back.
“Sorry, Snow.” She whispered and the tiger growled in displeasure.
But the next moment YunYun glued to his back as close as possible, because from the incredible speed that Snow was running at, her vision blurred.