Waves of stabbing pain dragged Tu Hu out of his deep unconsciousness.
He struggled to open his heavy eyelids. His vision was blurry at first, then gradually cleared.
He saw a gray sky and several towering wooden poles braced against one another.
Memories from before he lost consciousness surged back.
He snapped fully awake and propped himself up, discovering that he was lying on a black stone slab.
"Yoo~"
Just then, a young-sounding cry came from behind him.
Tu Hu turned and found three strangely shaped creatures gathered behind him.
They had humanoid bodies, stood only about knee-high to him, and had large heads. Round eyes as clear as gemstones occupied most of their faces. Their pupils were vertical, yet held no trace of ferocity.
The one in the lead had dark blue scales and a Diamond Mark on his forehead.
To his left was a pale pink little creature with the largest eyes, which looked particularly lively. She seemed especially interested in Tu Hu's clothes, constantly tugging at his trouser leg with her little claws.
To his right was a dark green little creature, gently sniffing the air as though trying to distinguish his scent, with a thoughtful look in its eyes.
Not far behind them lay the slain giant spider, the charred hole in its corpse a shocking sight.
This instinctively led Tu Hu to guess that these three harmless-looking little creatures had dealt with the giant cave spider and rescued him.
Now, noticing that Tu Hu had awakened,
the three little creatures huddled their heads together, making repeated "yoo yoo" sounds.
Yet to Tu Hu, those sounds carried specific meanings.
"That Ferocious had his scent on it, so he must have done it-could he be dangerous? Were we right to save him?" the little blue one in