41 Sentinel

◎The lion was so burned that it kept jumping around wildly in pain, as if it had lion fever.◎

Four against one, it looked like there was no chance of winning. It seemed that these five cubs were about to become orphans.

No, Qiao Jinnian frowned. So, why did those cheetahs besiege the mother cheetah? Perhaps it was to kill the five cubs. This would reduce the number of their own kind in advance and avoid too many competitors on the grassland.

After figuring this out, Qiao Jinnian felt that she had seen the truth. This cheetah mother was actually using her own life to protect her children.

Thinking of this, Qiao Jinnian felt very depressed. Was she really going to watch them kill this cheetah mother?

But she is just a human cub, what can she do?

Reiner was also watching from a distance, lying in the grass. He was obviously here to gossip and had no intention of going forward to help. After all, that was the cheetah's family business, what did it have to do with him, a lion?

The mother cheetah was forced to lie on the ground with her four legs facing the sky. This is the defensive posture of cats, because in this way, they can avoid their spine being bitten by other animals and can fight back with all four claws at the same time.

The four claws desperately slapped the four cheetahs surrounding it. At this time, the cheetah mother probably thought that she was going to die. After all, she couldn't bear to watch her cubs die like that.

As the fight continued, more than ten minutes passed and the mother cheetah had many wounds on her body, all caused by the scratches and bites of the four cheetahs. However, the mother cheetah still did not give up and kept struggling desperately, scratching with her claws and raising her head to bite.

Qiao Jinnian couldn't bear to watch it. The fate of this cheetah mother seemed to be doomed.

However, at this moment, a howl unique to elephants was heard in the distance.

"Moo——" It was a very loud roar.

As the sound echoed across the grassland, all the animals looked towards the west, where the elephants lived. An adult female elephant strode towards the west.

As it got closer, the animals, including Qiao Jinnian, had no idea why the elephant suddenly came over, but the five adult cheetahs at the scene continued to fight.

Until the elephant sounded a warning again. This time, she suddenly sped up and ran towards the group of cheetahs. When she was 20 meters away from the cheetahs, she began to roar fiercely to drive away the cheetahs.

The four cheetahs were so frightened that they had no time to fight anymore. They quickly stood up and ran towards the grassland in the distance.

However, the seriously injured cheetah mother was still lying on the grassland, unable to move, just looking at the five cubs standing on the big tree stump from a distance.

The elephant did not drive away the injured cheetah. It seemed that she came to rescue the cheetah mother. Seeing that the cheetah mother was safe, she walked closer and touched the cheetah mother's head with her nose to express her comfort.

After a while, the elephant turned around and walked back to its territory.

Seeing that they were finally safe, the cheetah cubs carefully climbed down from the tree stump and staggered towards their cheetah mother.

Running to the cheetah mother, the cubs cried "Ah Wu" and began to lick their mother's wounds.

The cheetah mother was seriously injured, but it seemed that no vital injuries were caused. After a while, she struggled to get up, lowered her head to lick her baby, and finally stood up tenaciously.

The mother cheetah and her six cubs walked towards the bushes in front. As they walked, the mother cheetah looked back and observed her surroundings, appearing very alert.

Oh, Qiao Jinnian couldn't help sighing in her heart. How can a cheetah mother raise five cubs? It seems that the cheetah has sacrificed all its hunting ability and put all points into speed, so they are very fast. However, their bite force and hunting ability are not as strong as other animals.

However, this is a world where the strong prey on the weak, and Qiao Jinnian could only sigh in her heart.

If she has enough ability in the future, maybe she can help them. Unfortunately, she is just a cub adopted by the lion father now. What can she do?

However, the elephant was really kind and came over to save the cheetah mother's life.

Qiao Jinnian couldn't find any staple food, so she had to go back with Brother Lion.

At this time, the meerkats were still busy, constantly digging up the sand on the ground and looking for arthropods underground as food.

The meerkat chosen as a sentinel stood on a high hillside today, standing upright and looking in all directions. If anything bad happened, it would immediately sound an alarm to the family.

At this moment, the sentry saw Qiao Jinnian coming back and shouted to the tribe, "Gugu, gugu."

This slow, peaceful 'cooing' sound means all is well and safe.

Qiao Jinnian thought the meerkats were really cute and didn't want to disturb them while they were looking for food, so she just sat down and leaned on her lion father and continued to find things to do, such as weaving a pair of straw sandals. After all, her straw sandals wore out too quickly and needed to be replaced.

Knowing that the cub had returned, Ryan raised his head and licked her face to express his affection, then turned over and continued to sleep.

Lion father and sister Sa now sleep during the day. Night is their home turf. Hunting is more efficient at night because the weather is cooler and it is the time when most animals are more relaxed.

Only Reiner, this weird lion, would have nothing to do all day and wander around with her.

I don't know how long it took, but the meerkat sentry suddenly ran down the hillside. As he ran, he stared at a certain spot in the sky, as if he had discovered danger. Suddenly, he made a sharp sound towards the tribe, saying, "Oh oh—"

Then all the meerkats looked up at the sky.

I saw a bird of prey flying extremely fast in the sky. It seemed to be just circling in the sky, but suddenly it stopped circling and swooped down towards the meerkats.

At this moment, all the meerkats quickly crawled into their own tree holes.

The huge bird of prey rushed to one meter above the ground and then stopped precisely. It was a little annoyed because all the meerkats, without a single one left, had crawled into the tree hole.

When the bird of prey swooped down, Qiao Jinnian saw clearly that this was the same bird of prey that had taken Silverback and her away.

Ah, thankfully the big lions were at home, so the bird of prey didn't look at her because she was leaning against the big lions.

However, this one was obviously not the eagle whose leg was injured by her, because there was no trace of wound on its leg at all.

When the eagle did not find any small animals nearby, it had to fly into the air again and fly to other places to look for new prey.

At this time, the meerkats climbed out of the tree hole again and continued to look for food.

Qiao Jinnian walked over and rubbed the meerkat sentry's head: "Gugu——"

She was praising him in her own way. This sentinel was so dedicated to his duty. He protected all the members of the tribe and also alerted the lions to the enemy attack in the air.

Qiao Jinnian really likes these good neighbors more and more.

The mongoose that was slightly injured was able to go out to look for food again after a few days of rest. Because Qiao Jinnian brought him back home at that time, he is now very attached to her. He would come to visit from time to time, run into her arms and snuggle up and down, and he is not afraid of Ryan, the lion.

Although it was the dry season, Ryan and Sister Sa were very experienced in hunting, and the lion group never went hungry.

So, life was pretty good, and Qiao Jinnian had more time to search for the staple food she wanted.

After many days of exploration, Qiao Jinnian finally found some crops similar to plant roots further north.

It was the monkeys on the grassland who dug it out and discovered it.

Since monkeys can eat it, then she can eat it too, but this thing is neither a potato nor a sweet potato. It is very large. In short, it is an edible tuber.

Qiao Jinnian was very happy to find the starch. In order to prevent the whole piece of land from being dug up by monkeys, she sat down and weaved a larger package with hemp rope.

Now, her knitting skills are very strong, and she doesn’t care whether the knitting looks good or not, as long as it is strong and useful.

After it was done, she packed as many packages as she could, filling two full packages and putting them on Reiner's back for him to carry back.

But because Brother Lion was carrying something, Qiao Jinnian couldn't sit on it, otherwise Reiner's spine wouldn't be able to bear it.

But Brother Lion bit her grass skirt, not letting her walk by herself, and insisted that she ride on him.

Perhaps he felt that the ground was very dangerous, and she was indeed walking slowly, so she couldn't resist Reiner and turned over and sat on it.

After returning home with her brother, Qiao Jinnian couldn't wait to start boiling water and cooking. She planned to boil two pieces of rice first to try the taste.

As the tempting aroma of food wafted away, many furry heads appeared around Qiao Jinnian.

The little lions came over and wanted to see what their sister was cooking here. Why did it taste different from the usual barbecue?

Qiao Jinnian knew that she was the only one here who ate these starches, which carnivores didn't like at all, so she didn't let anyone else taste them. She took the chopsticks made of branches, picked up a piece, blew it cool, and put it in her mouth.

Well, it tastes slightly sweet, a sticky starchy flavor, which is not bad and can be used as a staple food. She plans to eat a few and try to grow the rest.

While thinking about it, she picked up another piece with a fork. Unexpectedly, before she put it in her mouth, Sa Dadan swallowed the whole tuber in one gulp.

Qiao Jinnian: "..."

Sa Dadan eats very fast, but he has to blow on the food before eating, otherwise it will be very hot.

Sure enough, Sa Dabing was scalded and cried out "Ah Ah", running around in panic. He even put his paws into his mouth to try to get something out.

Unfortunately, he was afraid that his sister would not let him eat it, so he swallowed it without even biting it. Now, this thing tasted terrible and was extremely hot.

The lion was so scalded that it kept jumping wildly on the spot, feeling extremely uncomfortable, as if it had lion madness.

This scene frightened Sister Sa so much that she ran over and checked him everywhere, trying to see if her son was injured. Why did he suddenly become so crazy? Was he bitten by a poisonous snake?

Sister Sa was suspicious and started looking for poisonous snakes everywhere. However, she almost turned the whole place over and still couldn't smell any poisonous snakes. It was impossible. If there were poisonous snakes, she would not have been unaware of it.

Qiao Jinnian: "..." She had no choice but to pick up another piece and bring it to Sister Sa, wanting to explain to her what was going on with her son.