Chapter 20: You can’t smell it? Xu Nian: Something is wrong, very wrong…
It snowed heavily for five consecutive days. At first, Kaie could still deliver a hare every one or two days, but later it became very difficult.
Everywhere you look is covered with snow, and there is ice and snow everywhere. However, there are several clear claw marks in the snow. It can be seen that these are the big claws of a snow leopard.
This paw print is so iconic.
"What are you looking at?" Los walked in front. These few days were enough for Xu Nian to walk all over the top of the snowy mountain.
Xu Nian looked down at his claws stuck in the snow, then pulled them out. A few days ago, when the snow was not particularly thick, he could walk on the snow and leave a complete claw mark. Now, he sank in with every step he took, and sank deeper with another step. Before, when the snow was not deep, he just walked around casually, but now he found that wild animals also have their own skills in walking on the snow.
The snow is fluffy and collapses.
But when he suspected that the problem was the snow, he saw the snow leopard walking in front of him as if it were walking on flat ground. The sound of its big furry paws stepping on the snow was very light, almost inaudible, and even when it walked past, it only left a line of paw prints, unlike Xu Nian, where every step was difficult.
"Don't push your lower claw in." Los watched Xu Nian walk with his eyes fixed on his claws, and the more he stared, the less he could move. He sighed and said, "If you walk like this, you'll only sink deeper and deeper. When you put your claws down, don't put the tip of your claws down first. Use your claws to pad the ground."
Xu Nian's furry ears trembled slightly. He looked very serious. After nodding, he raised his paws and licked the snow on it. There was some ice and some sticky paws. He shook his head and continued to follow Los in the cold wind.
"Don't think you don't have to go to the top of the mountain. You still have to go up when spring comes." Because the snow on the top of the mountain is thicker and there is no place to shelter from the wind, Los did not urge Xu Nian to continue to reach the top these days. But at least at the current height, as long as Xu Nian is careful, he can walk around the mountain wall.
When he was a human, he was a smart man. As a snow leopard, he was still an obedient, sensible and smart snow leopard.
Although they lived together on this snowy mountain, their hunting times were deliberately staggered. Los sniffed gently and could not smell Kai's scent here. He said, "It's not so bad here."
"I feel like I haven't seen any mountain goats for several days." Xu Nian followed Los and said.
"The mountain goats need to dig through the snow to get to the grass underneath, and there's not much grass here," Los instructed. "Follow me closely. The worse the weather, the more likely you are to encounter wolves or brown bears, which is not a good thing."
Xu Nian nodded, obviously remembering Los's words firmly. Seeing this, Los expressed his satisfaction.
In fact, Xu Nian had seen Los hunting, even many times, whether running on flat ground or hunting on the mountain wall, but this was the first time he saw Los chasing a rabbit in such heavy snow.
Unlike Xu Nian, Los's steps were very light, his tail obediently raised slightly behind him, and he slowly approached the rabbit.
When Xu Nian saw Los hunting, he remembered that when he was in school, he saw stray cats catching birds in the school. They did it in the same way, lowering their bodies and moving forward slowly, with their paw pads touching the bottom, almost reducing the sound to the lowest level.
Then wait for the opportunity and jump up!
At this moment, Los pounced directly towards the rabbit. The rabbit reacted immediately and wanted to escape almost instantly, but it was still a step too slow. The snow leopard quickly changed its body shape, and kicked its hind paws in the snow, splashing countless flying snow.
Then it suddenly lowered its head and bit the rabbit, then used its claws to hold down the struggling body of the prey. Blood flowed from the snow leopard's fangs and flowed down. It looked very wild and full of the innate charm of wild animals.
Xu Nian squatted there obediently, watching Los hunting snow leopards. Every detail was worth learning.
After all, he couldn't always rely on Los. He had to learn to be independent. One day he would have to leave Los, and he had to do so before Luo Yin returned.
Otherwise, when Xu Nian looked at the tragically dead rabbit, he could not help but gasp as if he saw his lie being exposed.
"There's something wrong with you lately." Los came over with a rabbit in his mouth. He put it down on the ground, looked at Xu Nian, and said, "Are you hiding something from me?"
In the past, when Xu Nian went out hunting, although it was very tiring, the snow leopard was always happy. But recently, it was obviously worried.
"No." Xu Nian sighed in his heart. How could he tell this to the victim Leopard?
"..." Los narrowed his eyes slightly and stared at Xu Nian. The other party's eyes were a little erratic, but Los found that when Xu Nian's beautiful eyes looked around, his already round eyes looked even more beautiful, making Xu Nian's snow leopard face look even more innocent.
But when Xu Nian really looked at it, Los avoided his gaze.
Los thought: Did he notice that I was staring into his eyes?
Xu Nian thought: Did it see that I was lying?
Both of them felt a little guilty, and after avoiding each other's sight, Los was holding the hunted rabbit in his mouth, ready to take Xu Nian back to the top of the mountain. On the way, Los suddenly stopped, and Xu Nian, who was behind him and had a lot on his mind, almost bumped into Los, but fortunately he stopped in a hurry.
"What's wrong?" Xu Nian asked.
Los didn't answer, but just sniffed around with his nose, as if he smelled something. Then he suddenly put down the rabbit and walked towards a rock. Seeing this, Xu Nian immediately picked up the rabbit and followed him, looking at Los with a confused look on his face as he lowered his head to sniff something.
Xu Nian subconsciously prepared to sniff along, but was suddenly blocked by Los. He raised his head and looked at Los in a daze.
"What are you smelling? Don't sniff around." Los flicked his tail and was about to walk back holding it in his mouth. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the snow leopard behind him holding a hare in its mouth. It was walking with difficulty in the snow that had already covered its belly. It took every step carefully, but was in a hurry to keep up with Los, so the hare in its mouth became a burden.
Los thought about it, stopped, turned and walked towards Xu Nian. He turned his head and prepared to take the rabbit from Xu Nian's mouth.
Xu Nian was walking seriously with a rabbit in his mouth, and he didn't notice the snow leopard suddenly turning back. As soon as he looked up, he saw the leopard approaching him. He was walking hard in the snow and took off instantly.
The frightened Los also jumped up.
After they both landed on the ground, they were both frightened by each other, but the rabbit in Xu Nian's mouth did not fall out of the water.
"Why are you scaring me?"
"Why are you scaring me?"
The two snow leopards questioned each other face to face, but one had a fierce look in his eyes while the other was still in shock. As they stared at each other, the snow leopard with the fierce eyes instantly turned away with a guilty look.
"Let go of the rabbit." Los's tail swept the snow behind him, and his tone was no different from usual.
Although Xu Nian didn't know what Los wanted to do, since the other party said so, Xu Nian naturally obediently loosened his fangs and put the rabbit on the snow.
Los didn't even look at it. He just walked forward with the rabbit in his mouth, and said without looking back: "Follow me with the tail in your mouth."
It was already a bit difficult to walk in such thick snow while dragging a big tail. He couldn't hold the rabbit's tail in his mouth before. Now that the rabbit was held by Los, Xu Nian picked up his long furry tail very neatly and followed behind Los.
Ross's tail swung slightly to control his balance. He held a rabbit in his mouth and said vaguely, "Follow my paw prints."
Its original intention was to reduce the difficulty for Xu Nian, but Xu Nian looked at the row of snow leopard paw prints in front of him and felt a little worried. He raised his furry leopard paw and gestured up and down, as if he was hesitating about where to place the paw. But seeing that Los was about to go far away, he had to quickly catch up.
Although it was indeed much easier to walk forward by following Los's paw prints, Xu Nian always felt that something was wrong when he looked at his crossed paws while walking. It seemed that the amplitude was too large and the posture was too twisted.
"You..." Los turned around with the rabbit in his mouth, and was about to ask Xu Nian to walk faster, but when he turned around, he saw the other party walking towards him with a teasing leopard posture. The furry body of the snow leopard looked fluffy and beautiful at this moment, and its tail was held in Xu Nian's mouth. Otherwise, it would not be difficult to imagine Xu Nian's walking posture with his tail raised.
Los couldn't remember how many times he had been silent, but this time was different from before.
"...Do we really have to go this way?" Xu Nian felt more and more that something was wrong as he walked. His slightly round ears twitched slightly. He looked at Los in some confusion, and then looked at where he had placed his claws.
Yes, it was indeed the claw marks that Los had left before.
But why does it feel like he and Los have two different walking styles?
Los said nothing, but turned around and continued walking towards his nest. However, this time, his tail, which had been quite obedient, kept shaking slightly without his control. Los turned around angrily and glared at his tail.
If it were usual, it would definitely walk with its tail in its mouth, but now it had the rabbit in its mouth, it could do nothing and let its tail dangle gently.
So, when a Tibetan fox passed by here, it had already walked past, but suddenly stopped, and its square fox face was full of questions.
It looked at the two snow leopards passing by with some shock, and felt that neither of them was serious.
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