Chapter 202

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Chapter 202: Strange Wind

"Hey, Jesse, are you still alive?"

"Alive, alive!" Jesse raised his hand and sat up, groping around. The small fire on the stone seat in front of him was flickering, and his hazy vision gradually became clearer.

"We should go!" Greed said. "To Quel’danil, it’s already 10 o’clock, if we don’t leave now, it will be difficult to arrive before the sun sets."

"Really?"

Jesse moved his mouth, licked his dry teeth, and felt a bit dizzy in the head.

"Last night… what kind of drink was that?!" He grabbed Greed and said, "You said it was gryphon saliva?"

Greed frowned, stared at Jesse, and asked, "What is gryphon saliva?! That is ‘Tears of the Gryphon’, a special brew here, you can’t drink it anywhere else in the world! It is the most wonderful thing in this world… you can die without regrets after drinking it!"

"After drinking it and not regretting, this sentence would be more meaningful if I said it myself, right?" Jesse said helplessly.

"It’s okay, I can say it for you, and I promise it will definitely live up to that comment."

Greed packed his things and said, "Take all your stuff, we’re leaving and not coming back."

"Not coming back? Going straight to Southshore after Quel’danil?" Jesse asked.

"Yes, to save time," Greed nodded.

"If I understand correctly… " Jesse sat up, stretched his neck, waited for the dizzy feeling to go away, and continued, "You plan to fly me back."

"You got it right," Greed said, "But even if we fly back, I can’t sneak off with the gryphon from Aerie Peak, right?"

"So?" Jesse asked, "Are you planning to catch one now?"

"Catch one?" Greed asked, puzzled, "Catch what? Catch a gryphon? Have you seen a gryphon before, do you think it’s realistic? Who catches whom? I plan to negotiate with the gryphon, understand?"

"I don’t really know," muttered Jesse.

"Then just watch and learn, little one with no clue. I don’t expect you to understand the art of communication," Greed said as he tied his braids tightly, put on a fur coat, fastened his belt, hung the rope from the hammer handle around his waist, looked at Jesse, and asked, "How about now, do I look like a true knight?"

"If only I were a little taller."

"Even though you’re tall, you don’t seem like a fighter," Jesse remarked.

"Why are you dressing so formally?" Jesse asked.

"One must not lack in presence when meeting the elves," Greed patted his inflated belly and said, "Those Quel’danil fellows dress for battle as if they’re attending a wedding."

"You’re exaggerating…" Jesse replied.

Jesse finished packing his luggage before putting on a shirt. It was warm inside the dwarf’s cave, almost forgetting that it was already winter outside.

Chuckling, Greed said, "Wearing more layers is to guard against wolf encounters, Jesse. In the past, I patrolled those lands with six or seven heavily armed dwarves. Ordinary wolf packs wouldn’t dare to threaten us. But now, with just the two of us, it’s hard to say. The wild wolves in the Hinterlands have survived by stealing food from trolls, imagine how fierce they can be… Definitely not something the small characters in Elwynn Forest can compare with."

Jesse picked up the magic wand leaning against the wall and shook it, saying, "No wolf dare come threaten us. When the time comes, you just need to stand your ground and not run with the wolves."

He tied the magic wand to his back, tightened his belt, puffed out his chest and smiled, saying, "I’ll try not to hurt you!"

Greed tapped the war hammer and said, "By the time you finish casting the spell, those wolves might all be twitching and gone. Jesse, you will witness the true power of a Gryphon Rider."

The climate in Hinterlands is slightly warmer than in Hillsbrad. Jesse guessed it might be because the sea breeze from the east is blocked by Aerie Peak.

Unlike Hillsbrad and Alterac, where there are mostly pine and cedar trees, Hinterlands has more oak trees, tall fir trees, and even some huge and bizarre unknown species of giant trees.

Jesse believed that those supernatural giant trees in the north must have some kind of connection to the World Tree, or else, how could they be so huge…

Hinterlands already gave Jesse a feeling of being beyond the civilization he understood, with almost no signs of human activity as far as the eye could see.

Although he knew that continuing east would eventually lead them to Amani Troll villages or strongholds, trolls were not the kind of race that liked to aggressively reshape nature with big axes. So, compared to the lands of Lordaeron, this place was quite untouched.

The two of them filled their water bottles at a small pond and then ate some food under the broken walls of an old troll ruin nearby.

Jesse was chewing on bread brought from Aerie Peak, when he suddenly heard a strange sound mixed in with the sharp wind blowing through the cracks in the wall.

Sometimes it sounded like intermittent whistling, and other times it was like a low hum.

He glanced into the crack in the wall, but saw nothing.

"Hey, Greed, did you hear that strange sound?" Jesse asked.

Greed stopped chewing and slowly raised his head. After a moment of silence, he replied, "I did hear something, but in this forest… Jesse, what do you think this sound is like?"

"It sounds like someone talking with their mouth covered," Jesse said.

"That’s very specific," Greed asked, "do you have any guesses? In the forest of Hinterlands, a hesitant voice…"

"What are the chances it’s someone trapped in a spider’s web?" Jesse asked.

Greed stared at him for a moment, then nodded and said, "Quite high!"

Jesse glanced at the nearby wall ruins and asked, "Should we follow the sound to see what’s there?"

"Since we heard it," Greed said, "If it’s an elf, that’s one thing, but what if it’s a dwarf? We can’t just ignore it. Aerie Peak is not far from here. Though it’s hard to admit, the chances of my kind encountering such things are much higher than elves."

"The spiders here are related to trolls," Jesse asked, "They worship the Spider God Shadra, right?"

"You actually know about that?"

"You told me, remember?"

"Hmm… I think you mentioned it before." Greed scratched his ear and said, "But the spider priests reside near Shadra’s lair. The spiders on this side of Aerie Peak have already escaped the trolls’ control. The hunters used to come and kill the spiders, driving them further away from Aerie Peak. Now that the war has just ended, I suppose they took the opportunity to come back and cause trouble again."

"Just like the Gnolls in Elwynn," Jesse said.

"Exactly like the Gnolls," Greed agreed.