Shadow Slave novel Chapter 1410

Chapter 1410 River Nomads

The three women looked at him expectedly. Sunny hesitated for a few moments.

"You know where we are, right, Jet? In general, I mean."

Taking the cup of tea and cradling it in her hands, she nodded.

"Yeah... we are inside that weird pyramid. Somehow. This place is the Great River, which is supposed to flow endlessly from the future into the past."

He sighed in relief. It seemed that Effie and Jet had learned a few things about the nature of the Third Nightmare, as well.

"Indeed. Because of the nature of the Great River, there are all kinds of strange things happening to time in this Nightmare. For example... Nephis and I have been here for about four months now. But Cassie has been here for more than a year."

Nephis and Cassie nodded calmly, since they had already known that fact. Jet, however, seemed perplexed.

"What?"

Sunny looked at her, lingered for a moment, and said:

"Yeah. What about you?"

Soul Reaper suddenly seemed uncertain. He touched her hair briefly, then blinked a couple times.

"About... two months? Effie and I were sent to the same place, two months ago."

This time, it was Neph's and Cassie's turn to look stunned.

"How can that be?"

Sunny smiled faintly.

"I'll explain in a bit. But first, Jet... can you tell us what has happened to you two?"

She took a sip of tee, then smiled back at him.

"Sure. Why not?"

Jet's icy blue eye grew a little distant.

"The three of you must know more about this place than we do. Look, you even have a ship! Effie and I... we weren't that lucky. The people whose roles we've taken belonged to a tribe of river nomads. Their ancestors were the survivors of one of the destroyed cities, I think, but these guys... they had already regressed into abject savagery. Which is not that surprising, really, considering how they lived."

She sighed.

"The river nomads did not have a place to live, constantly migrating instead. They rode sea creatures as steeds and hunted weaker abominations for sustenance. When Defiled or powerful Nightmare Creatures appeared, they ran. Actually, their way of life was really ingenious... and tenacious. I have never even thought that it was possible, for humans to live entirely in the water without ever stepping foot on land."

Cassie tilted her head a little, confused.

"These nomads... they were Riverborn?"

Sunny was confused, too. How could Riverborn lead nomadic lives? Weren't they bound to a span of the Great River they were born on?

Jet nodded somberly.

"Yeah. That was why they regressed that much, that quickly. The nomads lived very short lives, you see. No generation lasted more than a couple of decades. They rarely remained as children for more than a year or two, and were expected to join the hunts immediately after. If there was danger, the older generation was sacrificed to let the younger one escape. Even if there was no danger, they had to follow the abominations they could hunt. So..."

She shook her head.