Page 15
Before long, they returned to the riverbank.
Jian Mo looked around and spotted an inconspicuous little opening in the mountainside. "Do we go in through that opening?"
Wu Jiong shifted back into human form, caught his falling beast-hide skirt and wrapped it around himself. "Yes. Stay close."
Wu Jiong bent down and entered the opening.
It was a bright, sunny day outside, and the weather was quite hot. As soon as Jian Mo entered the cave, a damp chill mixed with the smell of earth hit him, and he shivered.
Wu Jiong glanced back at him.
Jian Mo waved to show he was all right, pulled his jacket tighter and lowered his head as he followed Wu Jiong onward.
The cave passage twisted and turned, and the light was very dim, but it did not hinder Wu Jiong.
Wu Jiong led Jian Mo through a series of twists and turns. Before long, they passed through the narrowest section and saw light ahead.
Jian Mo perked up and immediately realized that the light was sunlight shining through the hole smashed through the mountaintop!
They walked another ten-odd meters, and sure enough, the passage suddenly opened up before them.
Ahead of them was no longer a mountain passage, but a large cavern.
The top of the cavern had been smashed open, and a beam of sunlight shone through, forming a bright column of light.
By the sunlight, Jian Mo immediately spotted the enormous creature in the middle of the cavern.
It was a giant beast lying flat on the ground, its eyes tightly shut.
It was covered in long fur and looked a little like a raccoon. It was probably a mammal, yet it had broad, birdlike wings growing from all four legs.
Those wings were spread out and were practically as big as a house.
No wonder it was called a Flying-Winged Beast!
Once his initial shock passed, Jian Mo smelled a rotten, fishy stench.
The Flying-Winged Beast might have had wounds that had become infected.
Wu Jiong stared at the Flying-Winged Beast. "The cry you heard yesterday might have been it calling out while it was awake."
"Maybe." Jian Mo looked over the unconscious Flying-Winged Beast. "What do we do now?"
Wu Jiong said, "Flying-Winged Beasts are docile. Some tribes train them as pack animals. Let's take it back to the tribe first."
Jian Mo turned to look at the passage they had come through. "The passage is too narrow. We might not be able to get it out that way."
Wu Jiong gestured for him to look up. "We need to go back to the tribe and get help, then use ropes to hoist it out through the opening at the top."
After making their plan, they returned to the tribe.
There were not many people left in the tribe. When everyone heard that they had found a Flying-Winged Beast, they were excited.
"That year I went with Father to the Mengshui Tribe for the hunting gathering, I saw beastmen ride in on Flying-Winged Beasts."
"Was it the one twelve years ago? I saw them too! I even wanted my father to raise one for me, but he said we didn't have any around here."
"Chief, how big is the Flying-Winged Beast you found? Can it be ridden?"
When Wu Jiong said he needed a few people to bring ropes and help hoist the Flying-Winged Beast out, everyone offered to help.
In the end, nearly every adult, beastman and sub-beastman alike, came along except those on patrol. A group of half-grown youngsters followed, hoping to join in the excitement.
Everyone headed straight for the mountaintop. After widening the opening there, they tied ropes around the Flying-Winged Beast and slowly hoisted it up.
By evening, they had successfully transported the Flying-Winged Beast back to the tribe and laid it in the clearing.
Jian Mo watched from among the crowd and could see numerous wounds on its body.
Its wings were probably the most severely injured. They might have been broken, and their position was visibly abnormal.
As Jian Mo was examining it, someone waved him over. "Jian Mo, come quickly! See if you can treat this Flying-Winged Beast."
Jian Mo walked over. "I need to examine it."
Wu Jiong and the others held the Flying-Winged Beast down in case it suddenly lashed out and hurt someone. "Be careful."
Standing diagonally in front of its injured wing, Jian Mo gently pulled and moved it. Sure enough, he heard the distinct grating of bone against bone—the wing was indeed broken.
Besides the fracture, it had wounds of all sizes, the most severe of which was on its head.
Someone asked, "How did it get hurt and fall into the cave? Surely there aren't many animals in the sky that could beat it?"
"Maybe it was struck by lightning." Jian Mo pointed to the charred wound on top of the Flying-Winged Beast's head. "Look at those branching marks. They're a fairly distinctive sign of a lightning strike."
Everyone crowded closer to look, quite amazed.
Wu Jiong asked, "How do we treat it?"
Jian Mo assessed its condition. "I'll stabilize the fracture first, then wash the dirt and pus from its wounds with salt water. After that, we can only wait for it to heal on its own."
If he had still been in the modern world, he could have thought of several treatments right away.
But without equipment or medicine, there was nothing he could do. He could not even determine what was going on inside its body.
Everyone was curious about the Flying-Winged Beast and equally curious about Jian Mo's treatment.
Whenever Jian Mo asked for something, someone immediately ran off to fetch it.
Jian Mo set up a large pot by the river and began boiling salt water.
He also tossed his clean T-shirt into the salt water to boil.
Once the salt water had boiled, he gave it a quick filtering and let it cool until warm, then used the T-shirt to wash the Flying-Winged Beast's wounds.
The pain woke the Flying-Winged Beast. Its eyes were wet, and it kept whimpering at Jian Mo while struggling weakly.
Listening to it, Jian Mo realized that the cry was indeed the sound he had heard before.
Afraid the Flying-Winged Beast might hurt someone, the beastmen hurriedly shifted back into beast form and crowded around, pressing their paws against it to keep it from moving.
Once Jian Mo saw that they had it secured, he scooped up water and carefully rinsed and wiped its wounds.
The main purpose of rinsing and wiping was to remove the bacteria on them, as well as the dirt, sand and fallen leaves in the wounds.
The Flying-Winged Beast had probably been injured for several days, and the bacteria had likely formed a fibrin film over the wounds, trapping the pus beneath it.
Jian Mo wiped it clean and helped squeeze out the pus.
Once the pus was out, it would heal a little faster.
While they were treating the Flying-Winged Beast's wounds, the people who had gone out hunting and gathering returned one after another and came over to watch.