Chapter 21
Chapter 21 – You are burning
Translated by Sunyancai
This was Shao Xuan’s first trip to the mountaintop.
In the tribe, people with higher position would also live higher near the top.
As they were closer to the mountaintop, Shao Xuan realized that the kids around, and those warriors leading their way ahead, including Ge, had lost their casualty as they went and became much more serious and reserved.
When Shao Xuan and his companions arrived, there were already a lot of people gathered around the fire pit. People living in mountain foot district stood relatively far from the fire pit. In fact, they were standing according to their living positions. The higher they lived in the mountain, the nearer they stood to the fire pit.
Luckily, even though they stood far from the center, the spot they stood on was a high terrain, so one could also barely see the situation by the fire pit.
How many people did the tribe have in total?
Everyone stared at the direction of the fire pit, and their eyes were filled with reverence.
It was completely dark, and the two moons were hanging up on the two ends of the sky. However, on the mountaintop, it was pretty bright and covered with a color of red because of the dancing flames in the fire pit.
The Shaman’s singing did not stop, yet it grew much louder and more sonorous. Then, sounds of drums joined the singing with a certain rhythm. The percussion of bones and stones could also be heard along the singing.
Some people clapping their hand, drums resounding high and low. However, the timbre was totally different from the drum’s sound that Shao Xuan had heard during his former life.
Bones’ clicking, stones’ hitting and drum’s beating melted together.
The male and female warriors standing beside the timber piles began to move and they joined the Shaman’s singing. One by one, they kept a certain distance and circled around the fire pit, as they were dancing with their arms and legs.
That was the ritual dance that was passed down from the beginning of the tribe’s establishment.
Shao Xuan recalled the words of his schoolmate whose major was archaeology, “Many tribes have their own styles of ritual dances. That is a very important part in each tribe’s ritual. It carries with it the unique decorum of a certain era, and conveys the worship they have towards their tribal ancestors. The ancient dance is not supposed to be delivered or learnt just by any normal person. Ancient traditions must be followed and respected.”
And now, those who were dancing around the fire pit were all elites in the tribe, and those who had earned the qualification to dance the ritual dance on the ritual activities.
Even though some moves seemed to be ridiculous in Shao Xuan’s eyes, it was a great honor that everyone desired to acquire. When back in the cave, Shao Xuan often heard some kids’ daydream about becoming one of those ritual dancers someday, and dancing during a ritual ceremony.
The melody played in the ceremony was incomparably weird, as every individual syllable sounded harsh or dull when it was singled out. However, when combined together, it was perfectly suitable for that certain time, under those certain circumstances. People felt it natural to hear that melody here and now. During this ceremony, the melody and rhythm was supposed to be like that.
However, compared with the ritual dance and weird rhythm, Shao Xuan cared more about the kids standing by the fire pit.
As the picked out warriors were dancing the ritual dance surrounding the fire pit, the flames in the fire pit grew bigger and bigger, and then many flames flew out from there.
Yes, flew out.
One after another, sparks and flames flew out from the fire pit and they floated in the air.
The second Flame of the fire pit – Flying Flame!
However, the kids standing near the fire pit did not try to avoid, but kept standing there respectfully, and let those sparks and flames float down onto their bodies.
Shao Xuan stared at that direction with his eyes wide open. The sparks and flames did not burn them as they floated down onto the kids’ bodies, and they did not even burn their clothes. It was like the flames and sparks integrated into their bodies directly.
With more flames and sparks integrated into their bodies, some kids began to show the special patterns of totemic warriors on their bodies. The more they contacted with the flames and sparks, the clearer and more complete their totemic patterns became.
The flying flames did not stop after they made contacts with the kids chosen by the Shaman, who stood around the fire pit. Quite a lot flames and sparks also flew around and afar. Some flames and sparkles also flew to the place where Shao Xuan was sitting at.
Seeing the approaching flames and sparks, Shao Xuan wanted to step aside naturally. However, he forced himself to calm down and remained standing still. Since others did not move, it should be not as harmful as he imagined.
Indeed, Shao Xuan only felt a comfortable feeling of warmth when he was contacted by the flame, with no pain of burning.
At that time, Shao Xuan was fully relieved, so he kept staring at the fire pit, regardless of the fact that more and more flames and sparks flew towards him. The kids around the fire pit were the luckiest ones among the whole year. They would acquire strength and power through the fire pit, and awaken their totemic power. He wondered if the three kids from orphan cave and Mo-Er would be able to successfully awaken their totemic powers this year.
As he was gazing at the pond, Tu, who stood right beside Shao Xuan suddenly called out his name in a low voice.
“Ah…Ah-Xuan! Ah-Xuan!”
“What?” Shao Xuan came back to himself and moved his eyesight from the fire pit, only to realize that every kid surrounding him was staring at him as if he was a ghost.
“What’s wrong?” Shao Xuan wondered. He was too enthralled by the fire pit and did not notice his surroundings.
The few kids hurriedly stepped backwards, yet still stared at Shao Xuan in shock.
Tu swallowed his saliva and said, “you… you are burning…”
“Burn what?” Shao Xuan was still confused. What were they saying? I wasn’t burning…
“You… you are burning…with fire…”