Pat had already spotted the rabbit ears in the grass and was now eager to fly out of my control.
To increase Pat's chances of success, I didn't release it immediately. Instead, I held down its wings, which were trying to flap, and circled around to the upwind side of the rabbit.
This is a high vantage point, and both Pat and I have a good view of the rabbit, but it's difficult for the rabbit to spot us from this vantage point.
I know that this place offers Pat a greater advantage in terms of concealment, which increases its chances of a successful hunt.
"You little brat, stop making a fuss, I'll let you out right now." With that, I pointed to the rabbit below and gave Pat a command.
"attack!"
Pat immediately flapped its wings and took off, a process so quiet that it made no sound, thanks to the special structure of its feathers.
Pat dove vertically, his body shooting towards the rabbit's location like an arrow.
The rabbit, realizing what was happening too late, tried to escape, but it was too late.
In its panic, the rabbit kicked its legs, not knowing which way to run, and could only try to confuse Pat by moving left and right.
But today it clearly didn't do its homework well, nor did it perform well. Perhaps due to nervousness, its dodges and weaving were obviously not inherited from its family, making it look like a greenhorn who had just entered the world.
Even I, a complete novice, can't stand these exaggerated steps. If you're going to dodge, at least make some big changes in your footwork from side to side. What's with jumping around in place?
At this moment, I seemed to have forgotten that I was on Pat's side, and I was just anxiously watching this clueless idiot in front of me who had no social experience at all.
With a cry of an eagle, Pat secured the first kill without a doubt.
Alright! This wild rabbit doesn't need to go home to find its mother today, because I want to treat it to a meal and let it experience the taste of human life.
"Go back!"
I gave Pat another command from a distance. It had taken me a lot of effort to correct Pat's behavior during a previous training session.
It either eats up the target without paying any attention to my commands, or it makes me offer something even greater than the target before it will bring the target back for me.
This guy's actions really made me both laugh and cry at the time. Pat's personality of never giving up and never taking a loss was a waste of his talents if he didn't go into business. Fortunately, I managed to correct this bad habit of his later.
Although Pat was somewhat reluctant when he heard my command, he still followed my instructions, picked up the rabbit on the ground with his paws, and flew quickly toward me.
This wasn't because Pat had a change of heart, because it knew that if it didn't do as I said, it wouldn't get any food from me for two days in a row. Compared to a momentary craving, a long-term food guarantee was more practical.
That's why Pat was willing to help me bring the prey back, and it's also a way I trained him. Playing with intelligent animals is no match for cunning two-legged creatures like humans.
I looked at the gray wild rabbit in my hand; I estimated it weighed about four or five pounds. Since leaving our hometown, Top and I hadn't seen a rabbit in a long time.
At this moment, I can almost see the tender, succulent body of the rabbit beckoning to me. As a food, rabbit is definitely a delicacy, and I would even trade bear paws for a rabbit to eat.
Okay, I'll go back and make some stir-fried rabbit. The first order is already placed.
We continued our journey to the place where we had found the rubber trees yesterday, encountering mostly unidentified small birds along the way.
Pat didn't even bother to lift his eyelids at someone like that, and simply closed his eyes to rest like an old monk in meditation.
We soon arrived at the taro field. Top was as happy as a thirsty fish seeing water when he saw the taro. He made a move to pull some taro out of the field. I didn't even have to ask him to do it.
I gave a wry smile. I just brought back a whole basketful yesterday, and now I have to do manual labor again so soon?
It seems I need to make something to reduce the burden on my body, otherwise my body might become depleted if I keep doing this.
I stopped paying attention to Top and put Pat down. The kid was too lazy to even fly up to a slightly higher branch and just squatted on the ground to rest like a hen.
I rolled my eyes at Pat. What kind of weirdos are these? Are there any raptors as lazy as you?
Pat still ignored me, squinting his eyes and dozing off on the ground like a hen.
I shook my head, then took out a few ceramic jars and placed them next to several tall rubber trees.
To tap rubber, you first have to cut the latex ducts that secrete sap. These latex ducts are similar to those in lacquer trees, and are mainly distributed in the venous structure of the second and third layers of the bark.
I used the method of tapping raw lacquer to make a V-shaped cut in the bark of the rubber tree, with a cut width of about one centimeter.
The larger the V-shaped notch, the better, so that more white milk can flow into the bottom of the V-shaped notch for easy collection.
I inserted a hollow wooden tube, made from a branch of an unknown shrub, into the bottom of the V-shaped notch. The white sap that flowed out could then flow into the earthenware jar below.
I made one of these devices on top of each pottery jar so that I wouldn't have to stay here all the time.
I'd like to wander around the area a bit more to see if there are any new finds or valuable minerals.
Top and Pat are staying together now. Being wild animals, their natural alertness allows them to detect potential dangers nearby. I haven't gone too far, so leaving them for a while shouldn't be a problem.
I had just passed through the rubber trees when I came to a clearing with some shrubs and low grass. Some unidentified shrubs were blooming with small yellow flowers, which looked quite pretty.
Just then, I heard a soft tapping sound. The sound was so faint that I could have easily missed it if I hadn't been listening carefully.
Wow, what great luck today! Pat just caught a rabbit, and now he's already found another one.
Judging from the sound, the prey shouldn't be very big; it sounds a bit like the sound a badger or hog badger makes when it's hunting.
I took the crossbow off my back, strung it up, put a bolt in the quiver, and then, following the faint clicking sound, crept over like a cat fully focused on its hunt.
The animal had clearly heard something, as the pattering in the grass suddenly stopped. Hearing this, I quickly ducked behind a bush.
Slowly peeking out with one eye through the gaps in the bushes towards the source of the sound, the animal indeed emerged from the grass and looked around.
When I saw this animal, tears welled up in my eyes. Good heavens, it was a badger that probably weighed around twenty pounds!
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