毒物 Gift of Venom

对于多数人而言，一百年很长。一整个世纪的时光，可以让一个人走遍世界，遇见成千上万的同胞，或是完成数不胜数的杰作。所以，每个人都会说，在一个地方站着不动呆上一个世纪，简直就是暴殄天物。但是，恰恰是这样的一段岁月，艾翁•荆足所收获的，远远超出任何人的奢望。

For most people, a hundred years is a very long time. In a century, one could explore the entire world, meet thousands of people, or complete countless works of art. Now, anyone could easily assume that standing in one spot for over a century would be a colossal waste. But during that time, Ivern Bramblefoot accomplished more than any could dream.

比如，他平息了一簇地衣和他们寄居的巨石之间漫长的争执；帮助每一批过冬后的松鼠找到他们忘记藏在哪里的秋实；把一只离群的狼哄回了她的族群——尽管其他狼都说她的嚎叫“太刺耳”。

For instance, he settled a longstanding dispute between a colony of lichen and their host boulder, helped each generation of winter squirrels find their forgotten autumn acorns, and coaxed a lone wolf to rejoin her pack, despite the fact that they once called her howling “shrill.”

艾翁的趾头穿过浮土，深深扎进地下，绕过戒心重重的块茎和健忘的蚯蚓，与古树们的根缠在一起。周围的丛林因而怦然大盛。当然，还有很多很多事情，但这些例子已经足以证明他这一个世纪的成就。

Ivern’s toes burrowed deep beneath the topsoil, curled between vigilant tubers and oblivious earthworms to mingle with the roots of older trees, and the forest around him bloomed. There was much more, of course, but those examples alone are proof enough of a good century’s work.

万事顺流如意，直到有一天，檫树丛嘀嘀咕咕地说，森林边缘进来了不干净的东西。

Things were going swimmingly until the sassafras started murmuring about dark doings on the edge of the forest.

猎人！树根把他们的叫喊传了出去，大半个森林都听到了他们的警报。

Hunters! they cried through their roots, alarming half the forest.

艾翁知道檫树非常神经兮兮，哪怕是一只盐蜗牛稍稍偏离了路线也会让他们紧张地举起叶子。而且归根到底，打猎也不见得一定是坏事，因为在生命的循环中，没有什么东西是毫无用处的。但檫树已经通知了知更鸟，然后鸟儿又告诉了蝴蝶们。而一旦蝴蝶知道了什么秘密，那这片森林就全知道了。

Ivern knew sassafras to be anxious trees, raising their leaves in panic over the slightest stray saltsnail, and after all, hunting wasn’t so bad, for nothing is wasted or senseless in the cycle of life. But the sassafras had worried the robins, who told the butterflies, and if butterflies knew a secret, so did the entire forest.

所以艾翁站直了身子，简单地安慰了一下一窝子大钳蚁，因为他刚刚挪了一下他们的老家，甩甩身子摆掉了干硬的树皮，然后悄悄地出发了。他脚下步步生花，一路穿过了丛林，而檫树的警报已经沸反盈天了。

So Ivern stood up, and after briefly soothing the clipper ant colony whose ancestral home he had just displaced, he stalked away, shaking off layers of crusty bark. With each flower-blooming step through the forest, the alarm grew more frantic.

三个，他们。松鼠絮絮叨叨。

Three of them, nattered the squirrels.

眼睛就像一对血月。迅捷蟹躲在河泥中胡言乱语。

Eyes like twin blood moons, gibbered the scuttle-crabs as they hid in the river.

比厄玛克还要嗜血。这是厄玛克们的声明。

More bloodthirsty than elmarks, proclaimed the elmarks.

游隼发誓说猎人是为了掏走他们的蛋。象牙白菊则担心起自己最得意的花瓣——搞得小菊也一惊一乍起来，因为她很爱花。艾翁一一安抚了他们，然后叫他们藏好自己，直到威胁过去。他假装没有发现小菊一直跟在他身后，尽管她觉得自己潜行的本事一流。

The peregrines swore the hunters were after their eggs. The ivory-wreathed chrysanthemum feared for her illustrious petals—that worried Daisy, who loved her flowers dearly. Ivern calmed each of them, and urged them to hide until trouble passed. He pretended not to notice Daisy following him, since she thought herself to be quite sneaky.

他看到了一头八角羚死在草丛里，三支箭穿透了它脖颈上厚实的肌肉。一滴眼泪滑出了艾翁的眼窝，一只名叫米可斯的松鼠窜上他的胸口，轻轻地依偎在他的脸颊。

He saw an eight-tusked shagyak dead in the grass. Three arrows were thrust deep into the thick hump of muscle at the base of its neck. As a sappy tear escaped Ivern’s eye, a squirrel he’d named Mikkus scampered up the Green Father’s chest and lapped it off his cheek in solace.

“猎人将肉做成食物，”艾翁大声地说：“猎人把骨头削成玩具和工具，猎人剥下皮毛做成了大衣和靴子。”

“Hunters take meat for food,” Ivern said aloud. “Hunters whittle bone into toys and tools. Hunters sew pelts into garments and tan skin into boots.”

地上的尸体不见了八根珍珠般泛光的长牙。艾翁把手按在地上，八角羚身边生出了一圈小小的雏菊。一条幼年的石鳞蟒钻了出来。他们的智力非常早熟。

The corpse was missing its eight shimmering, pearlescent tusks. Ivern touched the ground, and a circle of daisies bloomed around the dead shagyak. He saw a baby stonescale viper slithering away. Stone-scale vipers are wise beyond their years.

没咝咝咝咝……事了？”小蛇嘶声问。

“Ssssssssafe?” the snake hiss-asked.

艾翁知道，蛇类通常会为自己口齿不清的毛病感到惭愧，所以长久以来他们在说话时都会尽量避免用上带“丝”音的词汇。他也劝过他们大胆地挑战这些最难堪的发音，结果他们心领神会之余矫枉过正，现在说话不带这个音都不行了。

Ivern knew snakes were embarrassed by their lisps and for a long time had avoided words with sibilant sounds. He’d challenged them to embrace the words they feared the most, but they took the lesson to heart and now spoke exclusively in words beginning “s.”

蛇啊，真的是，顺时随俗。

Snakes; such overachievers.

现在没事儿了，小家伙。”可怜的小蛇肯定亲眼目睹了整个过程。“在这里盘好，帮我守着八角羚。等我解决了这件事就会回来。”艾翁命令小蟒蛇。

“It’s safe now, little one.” Poor thing must’ve witnessed the whole ordeal. “Coil up here and watch the shagyak for me,” Ivern urged the baby viper. “I’ll return once I get to the bottom of this.”The shagyak horns clacked relentlessly with each step Risbell took, so much so that she had to stop and repack the tusks lest the noise scare off their next kill. Upriver, those horns would earn them a fortune. City people paid well for half-cocked backwater remedies these days.

里斯蓓每走一步，八角羚的长角就会咔哒咔哒响个不停，搞得她很头疼。为了不惊动下一个猎物，她只好停下来重新捆扎一遍。在河流上游，这些角能卖一笔好价钱。城里人在这些乡下土药上花起钱来毫不吝啬。

Niko, the square-jawed hunter with one eye, uncovered another set of shagyak hoof prints. She beckoned behind her to Eddo, the rich city man with the whalebone bow, and grinned. Eddo’s toothy smile and malicious eyes made Risbell, the youngest of the crew, shiver.

独眼，方下巴的猎人妮可，又发现了一列八角羚的蹄印。她向里斯蓓身后的埃多挥手示意。埃多是城里的富豪，带着一把鲸骨弓。他咧开嘴笑起来，森森的牙齿和邪恶的眼睛，让里斯蓓这个猎团中最年轻的成员不禁一凛。

Up ahead, in a glade, another eight-tusked shagyak grazed on its very favorite variety of grass. Each of the three hunters approached slowly and quietly, rustling nary a dead leaf.

前方的空地上，另一头八角羚正在咀嚼它最喜爱的草皮。三名猎人慢慢地靠上去，连一片落叶都没有惊动。

In rehearsed synchronicity, all three readied their bows and took careful aim. The shagyak’s head was still bent low, as it dined on the soft mulderberries and scullygrass, obscuring the knot of muscles at the base of its neck. When pierced, the hump would keep the blood flowing while the hunters hewed off horns. It was very important that the shagyak still be alive when the tusks were harvested to increase their potency, Eddo said.

正如反复演练过的那样，三人同时张弓搭箭，小心地瞄准了目标。八角羚的脑袋仍然垂着，新鲜的土莓和摇橹草让它吃得头也不抬，脖子上的肌肉也藏在了草丛里。只要射穿了脖子，它的血就会止不住地流出来。猎人就可以锯角了。埃多说过，锯角就是要趁八角羚还活着的时候，这样才能保证角的品质。

Sweat beaded down her neck as she waited for the shagyak to raise its head. Just as the beast’s head swung up, the glade of low scullygrass bloomed impossibly fast, from ankle height to over their heads in a moment. The stalks stretched toward the sun, flowers blooming instantly in an array of radiant petals. A flowering wall of scullygrass completely obscured the shagyak.

她架着弓等待着，汗珠从她的脖子上淌下来。正当那头野兽扬起头的瞬间，摇橹草突然开始疯长，片刻的功夫就从脚踝高过了头顶。草茎向着太阳伸展出去，大团的鲜花爆炸一般绽放开来。一堵满是花朵的草墙严严实实地挡在了八角羚身前。

Eddo dropped his bow. Niko’s one good eye looked as if it was going to bulge from its socket. Risbell’s arrow errantly soared through the air. She didn’t command her fingers to release the bowstring. She backed up against the nearest tree, terrified.

埃多的弓掉在地上。妮可的独眼似乎要从眼眶里蹦出来。里斯蓓一箭脱手，不知射去了哪里。她后退几步，惊魂未定地靠在一棵树上。

“I told you these woods were cursed,” Risbell whispered. “We should leave now.”

“我跟你说过的，这片林子有问题。我们趁早走吧。”里斯蓓轻声说。

“I’ve dealt with sorcery before,” Niko said. “I will do this the old way.”

“这种妖术，我处理过。按我的法子来就好。”妮可说。

She placed her arrow back in her quiver and pulled a long, mean-looking dagger from her belt.

她把弓箭收回箭袋，从皮带上解下一柄寒光毕露的长匕首。

Eddo did the same. They both beckoned for Risbell to stay put with the tusks as they stealthily disappeared into the wall of grass. She waited and held her breath, but couldn’t even hear their footfalls. One day she hoped to be as silently deadly as her companions. Still, she couldn’t shake the unnerving feeling that the wall of vegetation was a warning to be heeded. Stories her grandmother told her, of the strange creatures of magic that wandered this world, came back to her. Just children’s tales, she reminded herself.

埃多也是一样。他们让里斯蓓待在原地，看好已经到手的长角，然后两人鬼鬼祟祟地没进了草墙。她屏住呼吸等待着，但却听不到他们的脚步声。她真心希望自己有朝一日也能像她的同伴那样，悄无声息，致人死命。然而，她始终摆脱不掉脑海中的一个想法：也许这面草墙是一个警告呢？她想起了奶奶讲过的故事，说的是有一些带着魔法的生物在世界上游荡。小孩子的童话罢了，她安慰自己。

An eerie and unfamiliar sound echoed through the glade. It wasn’t the shrieking of a shagyak, but the heavy sound of rocks smashing into ground with loud, splintery thuds. Whatever caused the sound, it was enough to make Eddo and Niko race out of the brush, running at full tilt. Their skin was pale and their eyes were wide. Then she saw what had caused her companions to flee.

一个怪异的陌生声音突然划过林地。不是八角羚的尖叫，而像是沉重的石块被人用力地砸在地上发出的碎裂声。不管是什么，都足以让埃多和妮可撤退了。两人不要命似的跑回来，面无血色，三眼圆睁。紧接着她便看到了让她的伙伴落荒而逃的东西。

A flower, a simple ivory-wreathed chrysanthemum, was dancing on top of the grass. It was a rather curious sight.

一朵花，一朵小小的象牙白菊，在草墙顶端舞动。看起来还挺奇妙的。

Then Risbell realized it was getting closer. The grass parted, and there stood a behemoth of stone and moss. A living incarnation of granite, massively strong, and moving with rhythm. In the moment it took Risbell to reconcile what was happening, she heard a calm voice calling to the creature.

然而，里斯蓓发觉那朵花靠近了。草丛向两边分开，冒出一尊披着青苔的石头巨像。它全身顽石，体形魁梧，走路还带着节奏。里斯蓓过了一阵子才弄明白眼前发生的事情，她听到一个冷静的声音呼唤着巨像。

“Daisy! Be careful. And... gentle!”

“小菊！小心。轻点儿！”

Risbell grabbed the satchel of tusks and ran after Niko and Eddo, trying to remember the route that led back to their camp. At each tree, a new wall of grass sprouted up. Something stalked within the grass, rustling through the leaves as it walked, giggling as Risbell spun in circles trying to find her way out. She was alone in a strange forest, and behind every infernal tree lurked more grass, springing up nearly instantly.

里斯蓓抓起装着长角的包裹，跟着妮可和埃多跑起来，试图想起回到营地的道路。每一棵树脚下都生出了一道新的草墙。有什么东西在草里潜行，搅起了叶子，看着里斯蓓无助地在原地打转，发出咯咯的笑声。她独自一人，困在了一座诡异的森林里。与此同时，鬼怪一样的树木背后还在不断地冒起草丛。

Risbell realized she was being corralled the same way grandmother used to herd sheep. Knowing full well that she was walking into a trap, Risbell squared her shoulders and followed the grass.Ivern watched as the young hunter stepped out of the grassy maze and approached the shagyak’s body. The poor thing looked positively terrified. She clearly had never seen anything or anyone quite like himself before. He tried to be gentle, but humans tended to be so individual in their reactions. Unlike, say, the caterwauling of smug mewlarks.

里斯蓓发觉自己已经被圈起来了，就像奶奶放牧的羊群一样。虽然明知道前方是个陷阱，她仍然挺直了腰杆，跟着草丛走去。

“Please. Don’t be frightened. Unless that is your natural state. In which case, fright away. I’ll wait. I really don’t mind.”

艾翁看着年轻的猎人钻出了草叶的迷宫，慢慢走近了八角羚的尸体。可怜的家伙看起来完全吓坏了。她肯定从来没见过他这样的人——或者东西。他想表现得绅士一些，但人类的反应总是不尽相同。一点也不像，比如，拉克猫的叫春声那样大同小异。

It wasn’t Ivern’s intention to frighten anyone. But no one can account for another being’s experience.

“请你，不要害怕。除非那是你的自然状态。如果是那样，你就先躲开吧。我会等的。我真不介意。”

“Get on with it,” Risbell said. Her voice quavered and her eyes flinched. “I’ve trespassed, I know. I’m at your mercy. Just let it be quick.”

艾翁不打算吓跑任何人。但是没人能保证别人的感受。

“Be quick?” Ivern shrugged. “Certainly. It didn’t cross my mind that you might have better places to be. Very well then.”

“动手吧。”里斯蓓说。她的声音发颤，眼神畏缩。“我闯进了不该来的地方，我知道。我现在落到你手里了。痛快点儿吧。”

The girl closed her eyes and lifted her chin, exposing her throat. She reached her hand back toward the scabbard at her belt and wrapped her knuckles around the dagger. If he came for her, there would be a surprise.

“痛快？”艾翁耸耸肩。“当然。我刚才没想到的是，你有更合适去的地方。那么，好极了。”

“But I only want to know why,” Ivern said in a voice filled with merriment. He gestured with his branchlike fingers to the shagyak’s body. His arm stretched longer than it should, to the dead beast’s back, where he lovingly stroked its blood-mottled fur.

女孩闭上了眼睛，仰起脖子露出喉咙。她的手伸到背后摸到了刀鞘，然后握紧了匕首。如果他敢过来，就有好戏看了。

Risbell drew her dagger and then felt a sharp pain in her ankle. A cold sensation spread up her leg. When she looked down, she saw the culprit: a stone-scaled viper, the most venomous asp in all the Aulderwood.

“但是我只是想知道原因。”艾翁的声音里充满了愉悦。他树枝一样的指头伸向八角羚的尸体。他的手臂抻得超出了极限，轻柔地爱抚着它沾满血迹的皮毛。

Out of anger and instinct, she lashed out at the snake.

里斯蓓抽出匕首，立刻感到脚踝传来一阵刺痛。一股寒意顺势沿着她的腿窜上来。她低下头，看清了罪魁祸首：一条石鳞蟒。奥尔德森林中最毒的蛇。

“No!” Ivern shouted.

出离的愤怒外加本能之下，她狠狠地抽向小蛇。

Viney roots sprouted up from the soil and caught her arm, preventing her strike. They wrapped around her wrists and ankles and knees. She dropped her dagger in her struggles to break free.

“别！”艾翁大喊。

“I’m going to die!” she cried. The venom’s coldness spread up past her knees.

藤状的根须从土里迸出，缠住她的手臂，阻止了她。根须裹住了她的手腕、脚踝和膝盖。她拼命挣扎起来，手里的匕首也跌落在地。

The serpent slithered to Ivern’s feet and coiled up the outside of his leg, climbing up and around his body until it vanished into his armpit. It emerged from the back of his head, curling around one of the branches, and licked its forked tongue at Ivern’s ear.

“我快死了！”她哭叫道。毒液的冰冷感觉已经越过了她的双膝。

“Sssssssorry,” hissed the snake to Ivern. “Ssssstartled.”

小蛇滑向艾翁脚下，盘上了他的腿，一路往上，直到钻进他的腋窝，又从他的脑袋后面探出来，绕在一根枝杈上，朝着艾翁的耳朵吐信子。

“Please,” Risbell said. “Help me.”

“咝咝咝失误了。”小蛇对艾翁窸窸窣窣地说。“吓咝咝死我了。”

Ivern thought for a second.

“救救我，求你。”里斯蓓说。

“Ah yes!” His honey eyes twinkled with an idea. “There’s one thing that loves shagyaks. Especially dead ones.

艾翁想了一会儿。

“And please, forgive Syrus; he’s only recently hatched and doesn’t know how to control his venom. Gave you a full dose, I’m afraid. He’s asked me to tell you that he’s awfully sorry. You startled him and he reacted purely on instinct,” Ivern said. “Now, watch.”

“对了！”他甜美的眼睛眨了几下，想到了一个主意。有个东西很爱八角羚。尤其是死掉了的。

The tree man knelt before the shagyak’s body, closed his eyes, and hummed a deep, earthy tune. His hands were in the soil, fingers splayed out. Twinkling green pops of light cascaded from his rune-carved head, down his arms, and into the dirt. Odd purple mushrooms popped up from the carcass. They were tiny at first; then their stalks rose as rot overtook the shagyak’s corpse. Soon there was only fur, bones, and an army of violet mushrooms.

“还有，请你原谅赛鲁斯。他刚出生，还不知道怎么控制自己的毒液。恐怕全给你了。他想让我跟你说，他很抱歉。你刚才吓到他了，他完全是本能的反应。现在，看。”艾翁说。

“Ah, stingsalve fungus,” Ivern sighed. He plucked one delicately. “Always so punctual.”

树人在八角羚的尸体前跪下来，闭上眼睛哼唱起来。他的声调极其低沉，仿佛来自大地深处。他把双手插进土里，手掌箕张。刻着符文的额头上有绿色的光芒流泻而出，沿着手臂灌进了泥土。尸体上跳出了奇异的紫蘑菇。一开始还很小，但随即便布满了八角羚的身体，后者也开始腐败。很快，草地上只剩下了毛皮、骨头，还有一大丛亮紫紫的蘑菇。

The vines retracted from Risbell’s body. She collapsed in a heap. Her hands immediately shot to her heart. The icy pangs of stone-scale venom had reached her chest.

“啊，刺膏菌。”艾翁叹了口气，小心地拔起一株。“总是那么守时。”

“Eat this,” Ivern said, offered the purple mushroom to the dying woman. “It might not taste like salamander dew or sunshine, but it’s not as bad as lippertick apples.”

缠住里斯蓓的藤蔓松开了。她一个大踉跄摔倒在地上，双手猛地捂住了胸口。石鳞蟒的冰冷毒液已经蔓延到了心脏。

Risbell had no idea what the strange treeman was on about, but her options were severely limited at that moment. A voice came back to her from the past. Her grandmother’s. Trust in nature; the Green Father never leads you astray.

“吃了这个。”艾翁把紫蘑菇递给她。“虽然味道比不上阳光或是蜥蜴露，但总不会比跳浪苹果更糟。”

She grabbed the mushroom from Ivern’s hand. It tasted like bitter tea and mulch; a disappointing final meal. Then the icy grip around her heart thawed and retreated. Within minutes, her legs worked again.

里斯蓓完全不知道这个古怪的树人在说什么，但她当下的选择并不太多。她的脑海中传来一个久远的声音——是奶奶。相信自然。翠神不会引你走上歧途。

As she recovered, Ivern made her a tincture of odd leaves, tree sap, and water from a spring he’d discovered with his toes. He served it to her in a bird’s nest cup that a peregrine dropped into his hand.

她从艾翁手里抓过了蘑菇。味道像是苦茶，又像植物的护根。这最后的晚餐可真不像样。然而，攫住她心脏的寒意一松便褪去了。只过了几分钟，她的腿又能活动了。

“You’re him, aren’t you? The Green Father.”

等她恢复得差不多时，艾翁弄了一些树汁，一把古怪的叶子，又用脚趾头掘开了一处泉眼，取了一捧水。一只游隼飞过，把一个鸟窝扔到他手中。艾翁把材料兑在一起，递给了她。

Ivern shrugged as if he didn’t know. “You know what we could do here?” he said, turning his attention to the shagyak bones. “Moss always loves to pretty up the place.”

“你就是，艾翁，对吗？”

As soon as he said it, a thick carpet of moss crept over the bones. With the mushrooms, what once had been a grisly sight was now beautiful.

艾翁耸耸肩膀，似乎一无所知。“你知道我们要做什么吗？”他一边问，一边看向八角羚的骨头。“苔藓会把这里装扮得很漂亮。”

“Sheldon would love how beautiful his bones turned out to be. Badgers will use his ribs as shelter from the autumn storms. Nothing is ever wasted,” Ivern said, turning his attention to Risbell. “It seemed so senseless, but it makes perfect sense. If it wasn’t killed, you wouldn’t have lived.”

他正说着，一层厚厚的苔藓就铺上了骨头。加上成群的蘑菇，方才还是血腥的现场已经变成了美丽的景观。

“We wanted its tusks,” Risbell said. She fixed her eyes on her boots in shame. “Rich people clamor for them. Willing to pay a lot.”

“谢尔顿如果看到自己的骨头会变得这么漂亮，也会高兴的吧。獾会躲在他的肋骨下避过秋天的风暴。所有东西都不会被浪费。”艾翁看向里斯蓓。“看上去好像没有意义，但实际上意义重大。如果他没有被杀死，你也活不了。”

“I remember money. It’s rarely a good motivator.”

“我们想要它的角。”里斯蓓羞愧地盯着自己的靴子。“富人们追捧得很，他们愿意付很多钱。”

“I knew we shouldn’t have killed it. My grandmother used to tell me that if one must kill, one must use all parts to honor the beast.”

“我记得钱。不是一个很好的动机。”

“I would love to meet your grandmother,” Ivern said.

“我知道我们不该杀掉它。奶奶曾经跟我说过，如果一定要杀生，那就必须对野兽心存恭敬。”

“She is gone to the ground.”

“我很愿意认识你的奶奶。”艾翁说。

“Returning to the soil that which the soil gave is noble.”

“她已经入土了。”

“I’m sorry,” Risbell said after a long moment of silence.

“土里来，土里去，非常高贵。”

“All life is precious.” The gentleness and warmth and forgiveness in Ivern’s voice moved Risbell to tears. Ivern patted her on the head. “I probably couldn’t have handled the whole thing better myself. I’ve so much to remember about humans, and so much too I had forgotten to ever learn.”

“我很抱歉。”长长的沉默之后，里斯蓓说道。

Ivern helped Risbell to her feet.

“所有生命都很宝贵。”艾翁声音里的柔情、温暖和宽恕让里斯蓓流下了热泪。艾翁摸摸她的头：“我自己可能没办法把这事儿处理得更好。关于人类，我要记得的东西太多，已经忘记、需要重新了解的也太多。”

“I must be off now. I promised the tadpoles of Southern Pond that I would monitor their elections for the king of lily pads. It’s quite the contentious race.”A while later, Risbell emerged from the tree line near the river. After gulping down some water, she dug a hole on the banks and tenderly placed the shagyak tusks inside. She scooped up a handful of dirt and recited the prayers of honor her grandmother had taught her. She repeated this ritual until the horns were buried. Then she bowed her head in reverence and left the site marked as a grave.

艾翁扶起了里斯蓓。

From the depths of the Aulderwood, Ivern smiled at the gesture. The shagyak herd would be proud.

“我要走了。我已经答应了南方池塘里的蝌蚪，去给睡莲国王的选举仪式做见证。竞争很激烈呢。”

过了一阵子，里斯蓓从河畔的树丛中钻出来。她捧起河水大口地喝下去，然后在岸边挖了个坑，小心地将八角羚的长角放进去。她抓起一把泥土，默默念起了奶奶教给她的祝祷词。她一直重复着这个仪式，直到把所有的角都埋好。她带着悔意，对着小小的坟茔深深地鞠躬，然后才离开。

在奥尔德森林的最深处，一切都尽收艾翁眼底。他微笑起来。八角羚群会很自豪的。