This time Xia Ya Leiming pried the beast trap open for him, and the poor bastard no longer even had the strength to cry out in pain. He just clung to his boots with both hands and trembled.
"Hey, let go. Let me take a look at that wound." Xia Ya Leiming called out, and when the fellow gave no response, he simply forced his hands apart and pulled both his boots off.
Where the iron teeth had clamped onto each calf, there was a full ring of torn flesh, a bloody mess, with red blood still welling and running. Fortunately, when Xia Ya Leiming felt along his calves, the bones weren't broken.
"Huh. Lucky you," Xia Ya Leiming sighed. He took out the blowgun darts he'd prepared and jabbed several pine needles into the wounds on the man's calves.
"Ah!!" the fellow shrieked, then snarled in a shaking voice, "Wha—what are you doing?!"
"Quit thrashing around. I'm killing the pain for you." Xia Ya Leiming felt a pang of regret over his pine needles — ugh, mud frogs are hard to come by this time of year, so these darts don't come cheap. Those poisoned needles had been meant for the lion beast, and now he was using them to save a man instead.
The mud frog's numbing venom worked fast. In no time the fellow's moaning gradually died away; the poor wretch felt his calves going numb, the pain easing considerably, and he raised his head to stare at Xia Ya Leiming in horror. "Wh-what did you do to my legs?!"
Before Xia Ya Leiming could answer, he suddenly jabbed a finger up, pointing at Xia Ya with a trembling hand, and screamed, "Ah! I know! You — you're going to saw off my legs!! No, no!!!"
As he spoke he flung his arms around wildly, struggling, his fingertips nearly raking Xia Ya Leiming's face open.
Xia Ya Leiming was losing patience. "What are you screaming for?! Saw off your legs — what, is there something wrong with your head?!"
But the poor wretch suddenly burst into tears, and said in a choked, despairing voice, "You don't have to lie to me! A wound this bad… I've heard about it. Before they do surgery, they always use anesthetic first, and you…"
"Idiot!" Xia Ya Leiming couldn't be bothered to argue with him. He glanced around, got up, took a few steps, grabbed a handful of saw-toothed green leaves off the ground, stuffed them into his mouth, chewed hard until they turned to mush, spat the mush out, and smeared it over the wounds on the fellow's calves.
At once, the bleeding slowed.
"You just stay put and don't move! If you don't want your legs sawn off, then stop yelling!" Xia Ya Leiming simply resorted to scaring him, then nimbly pulled out two lengths of rope. He looked at the robe the man was wearing, and without so much as asking, reached out two big hands — rip, rip — and tore two strips off the hem.
The fellow had probably been scared witless; his mouth hung open and his eyes were fixed on Xia Ya Leiming, and only when his clothes were torn did he suddenly let out an "Ahhh!!!"
This scream was actually twice as loud as the one he'd let out when he stepped into the beast trap. It was shrill and pitiful, like a wildcat whose tail had been stepped on.
Phew!
Xia Ya Leiming backhanded the rest of the herbal paste into the other's gaping mouth, then quickly wrapped both his legs with the strips of leather, tied them off with rope, stood up, and looked down at the fellow with contempt. "There! Stop yelling! You're not going to die!"
The man stared at Xia Ya Leiming with eyes full of terror, the whole of him apparently stunned out of his wits. It was quite a while before he suddenly began coughing violently, desperately trying to spit the paste out of his mouth.
"Blehh! Blehh! Blehh! It stinks!! You — how could you do such a thing to me! Something you've already chewed, into my mouth…"
"Stinks?" Xia Ya Leiming scratched his head. "That's probably the medicine you're tasting. I don't have bad breath." He grinned wide, showing a mouthful of gleaming white teeth.
And with that, he casually smeared another dab of the paste onto the cut on the man's forehead, then laughed. "Hey, I saved your life. Even if you can't manage a thank you, there's no need to insult me."
"Saved…" The fellow wobbled his head, his eyes still shying away, but he finally got a grip on himself, hesitated a while, and then said quietly, "…Thanks."
"Forget it." Xia Ya Leiming waved it off grandly and turned to leave. He had taken only two steps before the fellow behind him called out, "Hey! Wait!"
"What now?" Xia Ya Leiming frowned — his mind was still on hunting magic beasts.
"You…" The man seemed a little frightened of Xia Ya Leiming's rough manners, but said helplessly, in a low voice, "You're… just leaving like that? What about me?" He dredged up his courage and looked Xia Ya Leiming in the eye. "I mean, my legs are hurt, I can't walk, and this is the middle of nowhere. Even if I don't starve to death, if a wolf happens to come along, I'm afraid I'll…"
Xia Ya Leiming scowled in annoyance, hesitated a moment, and finally heaved a sigh and stamped his foot. "All right, you win! Whatever else, a life's a life. If I'm saving you, I'll save you all the way! But let's get one thing straight: no more screaming! This place is dangerous — if you yell and something fierce comes running, we're done for!"
So saying, he reached over and hauled the fellow up.
After Xia Ya Leiming's threats, the man's forehead was beaded with cold sweat from the pain, yet he clamped his lips shut and would not make a sound. But when he got to his feet, what startled Xia Ya Leiming was that this fellow was genuinely tall!
Xia Ya Leiming was eighteen, and in Wildfire Town he already counted as tall, and yet this fellow was actually a shade taller than him! Only his shoulders seemed a bit narrow, and he had a frail, can't-stand-a-breeze look about him.
"All that height wasted, and thin as a rake… hmph." Xia Ya Leiming carried him a few steps and felt how heavy the other's body was, and couldn't help laughing. "Hah, skinny as you are, you're all bone and muscle underneath. You weigh a ton!"
"You—you're the one who's heavy!" the man retorted before he could stop himself.
A pause, and then he couldn't help asking, "Am—am I really that heavy?"
This odd creature seemed not in the least worried about his injuries, but terribly concerned about his weight.
Xia Ya carried the poor wretch whose skull he'd cracked for the better part of half a day, and by then the sky had gone completely dark.
Xia Ya Leiming studied the sky, then looked over the surrounding terrain, and finally picked a sheltered hollow out of the wind and set the poor wretch down there.
"We're stopping here for the night." He clapped the dust off his hands, then went around and gathered a pile of dry branches, stacked them into two piles, and lit them with his flint.
Night had fallen, and Wildfire Plain was still bitter cold. The fellow clearly couldn't take the chill at all; he couldn't help edging closer to the fire. That little move earned him another verdict in Xia Ya Leiming's mind: a spoiled, pampered thing.
Yes — this fellow was plainly no adventurer come to Wildfire Plain to make his fortune.
Just look at him: can't endure hardship, scared of pain and scared of cold, and a temper as strange as they come. And his clothes — that leather robe he wore, to Xia Ya Leiming's experienced hunter's eye, was fine black goatskin at a glance, and even those battered boots were top-grade deerskin.
Once the blood and grime were wiped from his face, the fellow's true features showed: fair, fine, delicate skin, the skin of someone who had plainly never known hardship. Even his hands had not a single callus on them.
Huh… and also, why were his eyes so big? And his mouth so small?
Xia Ya Leiming stared at the poor wretch a shade too long, and the other seemed to grow uncomfortable, shrinking back as best he could and returning Xia Ya Leiming's look warily.
Oh no. Don't tell me this guy got a look at my face and has gotten some nasty idea about me… Yes. Yes, that must be it!! If—if he dares lay a hand on me, I'll fight him to the death!!
A certain someone inwardly raised his guard, clenched both fists, and glared ferociously at Xia Ya Leiming — and that venomous glare only left Xia Ya rather baffled.
"I said, what are you glaring at me for? Is there something on my face?" Xia Ya rubbed his own cheek.
"…Nothing."
The poor wretch's eyes slid away. But just then a "grrrgle" reached both their ears.
Xia Ya Leiming blinked, and then came two more: "grrrgle, grrrgle." The poor wretch's face went red at once, and his head sank lower and lower.
"Huh? The mud frogs sound really weird tonight," said Xia Ya Leiming, deliberately looking all around.
"…N-no, that's not a mud frog, that's my stomach!" The poor wretch clenched his fists ferociously. "Hey — don't… don't you eat dinner or something?"
Xia Ya Leiming roared with laughter and dug a chunk of black-rye bread out of his coat, broke off a small piece and tossed it over. He looked hearty enough on the outside, but inside his heart was bleeding a little: that bread had only been enough to feed himself for two days, and now with one more mouth, he'd probably have to start figuring out where his next meal came from tomorrow.
It seemed the old geezer had been right all along — being a good man comes at a price.
The poor wretch caught that black, rock-hard flatbread and turned it over and over in his hands, looking at it this way and that, yet never taking a bite. Xia Ya Leiming couldn't stand it anymore. "Hey, don't you know bread is for eating, not for looking at?"
"Wh-what did you say?!" The poor wretch gasped. "This — this thing is for people to eat?!!"
Xia Ya Leiming was outraged. "Of course it is! If it's not for eating, what — is it for shitting out?!"
The poor wretch was speechless again, his face crimson as he glared at Xia Ya Leiming.
"Either you eat it, or you starve! I've got nothing else to eat, that's all there is." Xia Ya Leiming snapped indignantly. "Do you have any idea you're holding a tenth of my entire fortune?! Bah! If you won't eat it, give it back!"
He reached out to snatch it back, and the poor wretch panicked. He truly had never seen black-rye bread before, and seeing Xia Ya about to take his food, he grabbed it tight, opened his mouth and bit down with all his might.
That bite was a disaster…
He really was starving — a whole day and night without food. Given his station, never in all his life until now had he suffered anything like this, so that bite cost him every ounce of strength he had.
And meanwhile, black-rye bread is coarse and tough to begin with; to keep it for long journeys it's fermented until it's dry and hard, and on top of that it was winter now, and the cold on Wildfire Plain had long since frozen the stuff solid as a rock.
Crack!!
There was a crisp snap, and when the poor wretch opened his mouth, the hard bread was intact and untouched — while one snow-white tooth had dropped out of his mouth onto the ground.
A moment of silence. Then a wail that could rend the heavens.
"Waaaah… my tooth!!!!!!"
This was how Xia Ya and "the poor wretch" first met. Unlike the romantic coloring of every legend ever told, at that first meeting with Xia Ya, "the poor wretch" not only had both legs mangled, but had his skull cracked by Xia Ya — and, more pitiful still, had lost one precious front tooth.