Side Story: Gravel Scales (2)
After gathering some herbs, the two returned to the hut where they had stayed to rest.
As the sun sank below the horizon, turning the desert a deep indigo, a wisp of sand, like a ghost, bypassed the gnarled trunks of the poplar trees and came to the hut. It was none other than Shadu.
To their surprise, the little girl named Lulu also climbed onto Shadu's broad back and sat steadily in front of him.
She and Shadu chattered incessantly the whole way, occasionally eliciting low, joyful laughter from Shadu.
The night quickly thickened to the point of being as dark as ink. The moon had not yet risen, and the vast desert was pitch black. But for Shadu, the lizard man with infrared vision, the dunes, rocks, and every tiny temperature difference were clearly visible.
Traveling through the darkness was as effortless as traveling in daylight.
Soon, flickering lights appeared on the horizon ahead, and the figures of many lizardmen could be vaguely seen moving around near the lights. There were even some small groups leaving the camp in an orderly manner, clearly preparing to hunt or gather in the cool night.
"After the sun sets and everything falls silent, that's when life in the desert begins to stir," Shadu explained.
Feeling the rare coolness in the night breeze, Ruixiuli nodded with deep feeling, "That's certainly how it should be."
****
Soon, the three entered the huge camp.
A large number of lizardmen moved about in the firelight. Many of them held woven vine plates with their three-toed hands, and their forked tongues shot out quickly and accurately to snatch the food from the plates and put them into their mouths.
With her mind focused on the important matter at hand, Stacy, led by Shadu, soon met several elderly lizardman shamans in the camp, their bodies adorned with mysterious totems.
"Those tribespeople who contract the disease will uncontrollably go into heat and mate," a shaman said worriedly. "This has led to a great many unplanned pregnancies among the tribespeople."
Ruixiuli, who was standing nearby, was stunned for a moment and blurted out, "Eating and mating... is that a disease?"
"Kids shouldn't interrupt!" Stacy snapped, flicking her finger lightly across his forehead.
"We lizardmen are different from humans!" Shadu, standing to the side, patiently explained to Ruixiuli earnestly, "We only have one mating season a year, and... it happens very rarely!"
During the brief and precious period before the rainy season, reptilians engage in reproductive activities. Reptilian females possess the ability to store sperm. This means that after a successful mating, they do not need to reproduce again for the entire reproductive period.
Therefore, for the vast majority of reptilians, this event truly is "once a year" in the literal sense.
****
In the dimly lit hut of the shaman, by the flickering light of an oil lamp, Stacy meticulously inquired about and recorded the timing of the onset of the disorder over the past few years, the development of its specific symptoms, and the extent and speed of its spread among the various lizardman camps.
She carefully recorded the information in the leather notebook she carried with her.
Stacy then proposed two preliminary hypotheses. The first was a completely new virus or bacteria that relied on the oasis water source; the second was an unknown mutation of a desert plant commonly eaten by reptilians, which might have a strong aphrodisiac effect when consumed.
"Next, I need to conduct a thorough investigation of the surrounding environment, including water sources and the collection areas you frequently visit," Stacy explained the next steps to the shamans. "We need some time to collect samples, observe, and analyze them."
"Thank you for your hard work, Indigo Kite!" The lizardman shaman's voice was filled with sincere gratitude, but a deep helplessness was evident on his wrinkled, scaly face. "Our generations of medical skills are powerless against this strange disease."
After greeting the shamans, the group left the hut filled with the smell of herbs and dust.
They hadn't gone far when, as if struck by a sudden inspiration, Ruixiuli clapped his hands together. "Ah! I understand!" His eyes lit up. "If they don't mate during the rainy season, the newborn lizardman cubs will face a severe food shortage! So this disorder is extremely troublesome for the reproduction of the lizardman race!"
Stacy stopped and looked at him with a "You're only just realizing this?" look, then sighed softly, "Just how deep is your reaction time...?"
Night had fallen as dark as ink. This dim environment was a good time for the lizardmen to move around. However, it was a great obstacle for Stacy, who needed to accurately identify plant species and investigate the growth of plants over a wide area.
The two consulted with Shadu. Considering the actual situation, they decided to return to Euphrates Poplar Village to rest first, and then begin the formal investigation work early the next morning.
Shadu naturally did not object to this.
"Oh, right," Shadu added, as if remembering something, "A merchant caravan happens to be visiting the camp tonight. If you need to replenish any supplies, you can go to the trading area to buy them from her."
Ruixiuli and Stacy quickly found the small caravan that Shadu had mentioned by the firelight at the edge of the camp. The caravan consisted of ten Bactrian camels, which were kneeling quietly on the sand, ruminating. Leading these camels was none other than a human female druid.
She sat quietly cross-legged on a spread-out felt, dressed in clothes woven from tough grass, vines, and rough linen, with goods laid out in front of her, occasionally answering inquiries from the lizardmen who gathered around her.
The items she sells come from the human world and are all practical items suitable for use in desert environments: well-sealed water bags, windproof and sandproof goggles, and durable, thick leg wraps, etc.
Stacy planned to replenish her sunscreen oil, while Ruixiuli took a fancy to a pair of gloves sewn from some kind of tough animal hide.
However, when asked about the price, the seller quoted thirty silver coins for such a small item!
"You're robbing me!" Ruixiuli was so shocked by the price that he almost jumped up.
"Do you think it was easy for me to carry this little bit of goods and cross those sand dunes so far?" the druid merchant retorted immediately, her voice hoarse from the wind and sand. "Look at my poor camels, their humps are practically rubbed raw by the cargo bags!" She pointed deeper into the camp, "I have to pay a management fee to every camp I pass through here to sell my wares!"
Just then, a lizardman tax collector with dominoes and a leather bag hanging from his waist walked over and greeted him familiarly, "Oh, we meet again, Leonite!"
Leonite looked up and recognized the person, then sighed heavily as if resigned, her face full of reluctance. "Your Excellency Tax Official, I don't want to see your debt-collecting face at all!"
She took a gleaming gold coin from a pocket close to her body and handed it over along with a wooden plaque. The lizardman tax collector took it, then took out a small stamp from his waist with a date pattern at the end, and skillfully pressed it firmly onto the wooden plaque, leaving a date pattern engraving.
This is precisely the unique identifier for this camp.
He glanced at the existing engravings on the wooden sign; there were already five date palms, and interspersed with symbols representing other major settlements of the reptilians in the desert: scorpions, sand lizards, wind-eroded rock pillars, and so on.
"You've been coming out of season all these years," the lizardman tax collector said casually, handing the stamped wooden plaque back to Leonite. "Isn't business better during the rainy season?"
The desert is rich in produce and traded during the rainy season. Moreover, the climate is relatively pleasant for caravans, making the journey much less expensive.
"Sigh, what can I do?" Leonite shrugged helplessly. "There are too many caravans during the rainy season, it's like a gerbil burrow, and prices are driven down drastically. My small business can only squeeze in during the off-season when nobody wants to come, making a meager living through hard work!"
Seeing this, Ruixiuli completely gave up the idea of buying the gloves. But sunscreen was a necessity, and after some bargaining, Stacy finally bought three bottles of the ointment from Leonite for ten silver coins.
Meanwhile, Shadu bought Lulu a frozen aloe vera popsicle. After the four of them reunited, they returned to Euphrates Poplar Village.
****
The following day, at the crack of Dawn, Stacy and Ruixiuli, led by Shadu, began a detailed survey of the surrounding water sources and major food crops. This work was complex, requiring them to survey multiple locations and repeatedly collect and record samples.
By mid-morning, the heatwave began to scorch the earth. The three of them quickly set up a makeshift sunshade with the wide cloth they had brought to rest. They only resumed their work in the evening when the heat subsided slightly.
After a day of investigation, they went to the Date Camp again.
Just as they reached the shaman's low hut, they saw a lizardman couple approaching, their expressions somber, carrying five or six lizard eggs. The rainy season was over, and the impending drought meant that the mortality rate of the young lizardmen would be despairingly high.
However, these eggs could not be stored until the next rainy season—if they were to be hatched then, the newborn reptilians would be weak and sickly due to congenital deficiencies and would hardly survive. Under the cruel laws of the desert, the parents had no choice but to painfully abandon these future children.
The shaman received the eggs, still warm from life, carefully bound them with supple vines, and gently covered them with a clean piece of linen. Then, the elderly lizardman began to dance a slow, heavy, and sorrowful dance, while reciting a long and ancient prayer in a low, hoarse voice, bidding farewell to the unborn lives.
Stacy stepped forward and conducted some basic physical examinations on the two lizard-man parents, but found nothing abnormal.
The lizardman parents took one last look at the wrapped egg, silently bowed to the shaman and healer, and turned to leave.
"What will happen to these eggs...?" Ruixiuli asked softly, looking at the eggs in the shaman's arms.
The shaman's vertical pupils gazed into the distance, his voice carrying a solemn calm, "Send them to the ancestral land for burial. Even if they were not born, they are still beings connected to our bloodline, beings who have lived in this world."