That was a familiar smell to Xing Ze - the smell of decay.
Not far away, under a deciduous tree, a white creature was lying on the ground.
"It must have been dead for a week." Hagrid said as he came closer. He exhaled a breath and reached out to inspect the unicorn's body.
Ali Shafiq also stepped forward to check, not paying any attention to the rotten smell.
"Who could do such a thing?" The eldest lady's tone was laced with anger, "Killing a unicorn."
"I don't know, miss," Hagrid gasped, "but this is the fourth one this month."
"Check your neck." Xing Ze reminded, and then looked around.
"Neck?" Hagrid looked puzzled, "The cause of its death should be the wound on its stomach."
"It's black magic." Ellie checked it with her wand. "There are residues on the wound. But... the unicorn has strong magic power, and it is difficult for ordinary black magic to harm it."
The raven overhead sounded a warning, and suddenly there was a rustling sound in the surrounding bushes.
Immediately afterwards, a brown-red horse jumped out of the bushes, raised its front hooves and roared.
"Don't be nervous! Ronan, it's me, Hagrid." The gamekeeper called loudly, "Look clearly, it's me!"
The centaurs took a few steps back and breathed a sigh of relief after seeing the person clearly: "Hagrid? Okay, I thought it was an intruder."
He glanced at Xing Ze and Ai warily, then raised his head and neighed like a horse, and the rustling sound sounded again. After a while, two more men and horses jumped out from the bushes.
One of them has a black head and body, and looks more rough than Ronan, while the other has the body of a horse with a silver mane.
"Nice to meet you, Miss Ellie Shafik." The silver-maned centaur greeted the eldest lady.
"Firenze, is this the girl you often mention?" The black-headed man came immediately, "My name is Bain, miss."
"Nice to meet you, sir." Ellie smiled, "Nice to meet you, sir. I would be extremely honored if you could tell me your name."
The brown-red centaur hesitated, but finally introduced himself: "Ronan, just call me Ronan, distinguished lady."
"Oh, forget about the distinguished lady." Ellie shook her head, "Have you ever seen that distinguished lady come here and check the body of the unicorn as if nothing happened?"
Everyone except Xing Ze laughed, and the tense atmosphere relaxed a little.
"Okay, let me introduce one more person." Hagrid strode to Xing Ze's side, "This is Xing Ze, and Miss Shafik is here to help me investigate the cause of the unicorn's death."
The atmosphere became heavy again, Firenze picked up his hooves uneasily, Ronan remained silent, and only Baine walked towards the dead unicorn.
"We found it six days ago," Bain said. "It was drained of blood."
"Six days ago?" Hagrid shouted dissatisfied, "Ronan, I met you three days ago, why didn't you tell me about it."
"I have no obligation to tell you everything that happened in the forest." Ronan replied, "There are many secrets hidden in the forest. If I told you one by one, I wouldn't be able to finish them in three days."
"Okay, okay, guys." Firenze hurriedly tried to smooth things over, "There's no need to argue, we have the same goal..."
"Stop talking, Firenze." Bain interrupted, "Human beings cannot understand the secrets of the stars. No matter how much you talk, they will not understand."
"Then why don't you tell them the truth?" Firenze said angrily, "We can fight against those evil guys in the forest together."
Bain looked up to the sky and roared, "That's enough, Ronan, take Firenze away, take him out of here. I think he was probably blinded by anger."
"No, I didn't. I am the most sober one among you." Firenze shook off Ronan's hand, nodded to Ellie and the others, and then quickly rushed into the jungle.
Bain wrinkled the thick eyebrows on his face and explained to Hagrid: "Please forgive me, Hagrid, we have sworn not to disobey the will of the stars. You can only rely on yourself."
After saying that, he raised his hoof and was about to leave, but Ellie stopped him: "I see that you can't deal with the evil lurking in the woods, why don't you cooperate with us?"
The hooves of the men and horses trampled on the ground, and he replied viciously: "The last time we cooperated with humans, what happened? What did we get in exchange? It was expulsion and massacre!" After he finished speaking, he ran into the woods without looking back.
middle.
"At least they didn't drive us out of the woods." Xing Ze said, he walked to the unicorn, "Hagrid, listen to me, turn it over."
Hagrid muttered something. He picked up his umbrella, but after thinking about it, he put it back in the package on his back.
He reached out and turned the unicorn over together with Xing Ze. Xing Ze leaned down to check. He gently stroked the white hair on the unicorn's neck and found the desired wound near the aorta.
"Oh my God." Hagrid looked at the wound and shouted, "This is...this is..."
Ellie looked solemn: "Something bit it, but why?"
"Because we need blood." Xing Ze said, "Do you still remember Bain's words?"
Hagrid slapped his forehead suddenly and said: "It was sucked dry by something. How did you know, Xing Ze?"
Because I have read the script. Xing Ze thought to himself, but said: "Judging from the wound on its abdomen, the amount of bleeding will only be this amount. Look around again, Hagrid, look around."
Hagrid took a look around, and his experience as a gamekeeper quickly made him realize something was wrong.
"There was no struggle and no other blood stains. It was attacked here, and then..." He looked at the wound carefully, "This is not the tooth mark of a beast, more like a human's."
"Human?" Ellie bit her lip, "Keep talking, Hagrid, keep talking."
"Someone attacked this unicorn here and he sucked its blood like a vampire, hell,"
"But the wound on its abdomen?" Ellie still had some questions.
"In order to conceal his true purpose." Xing Ze explained, "I bet you, Hagrid, there will also be wounds on the other dead unicorns. Have you checked them?"
"Um, I..." Hagrid faltered and was speechless.
"Now is not the time to dwell on this." Ellie said, "So, now there is a monster that sucks unicorn blood wandering in the Forbidden Forest. I can think so, right?"
"That's right." Xing Ze nodded, "They are not collecting blood, but sucking it up on the spot. When it is alive, flowing fresh blood is far more magical than dead blood."