Chapter 21: Covering Breath Kaier: You're not going to jump off a cliff, are you? ...
“A-choo——”
Returning to the top of the mountain, Los and Xu Nian placed the hunted prey in front of them. It was just a rabbit, far from enough for the two snow leopards. Xu Nian lay on the ground, holding his long tail in his arms. The tip of the tail trembled slightly, making his nose a little itchy.
After he sneezed, he shook his head and saw that everything he saw was covered with snow, making it difficult to find prey.
Los was looking down at the snow that was getting deeper and deeper. He knew that the days ahead would only be more difficult. The snow this year was much heavier than in previous years. They were facing not only a shortage of prey, but also attacks from other carnivores, and even disasters such as blizzards and avalanches.
But when Xu Nian came over, Los immediately regained his arrogant look, flicked his long furry tail, and lay down on the edge of the cliff, but looked towards Xu Nian and said, "Rest after eating. Try to maintain your strength recently."
This angle is well chosen. Los is half lying on the edge of the cliff, with the cliff and the sky behind him. The cold wind makes his fur flutter, and the snow leopard patterns on his body are clear and distinct, which looks very beautiful.
Xu Nian was looking down at the rabbit, but he just listened to what Los said with his ears erect, and didn't look at Los at all. He lay down again, fiddled with the rabbit with his paw, and then licked his paw pad with his tongue.
He simply rolled on his side in the snow, curling up his four paws. The furry fur covered the snow leopard's iconic large paws. The paw pads were not very soft because of years of walking on the rock walls. Xu Nian licked the fur on his paws, then turned his head and scratched his face with his paws.
His long tail was also loosened because of playing, and when it swung from side to side, it almost hit Los who was not far away.
"Why are you so interested in your claws?" Los tilted his head in confusion, then looked down at his claws, but didn't feel anything different.
Super-enlarged cat paws are rare among all cats. It's as if they are wearing furry slippers. Hearing Los's question, Xu Nian opened his front paws and said, "No, I stepped on something and it's not very comfortable."
Only then did Los realize that there seemed to be some blood on the other's furry paws. His face changed slightly, and he immediately stood up and walked over. He lowered his head to look for a long time, then lowered his head and licked it.
Almost all large cats have barbs on their tongues, and snow leopards are no exception. These tiny hooks that slightly bend backwards usually play a big role when eating or combing fur. Xu Nian himself has them, but he doesn't feel much when he licks his fur himself. But when Los licked the wound for him, Xu Nian felt a little strange.
But when he thought about it carefully, he realized that he had been licked by a cat when he was a human. After thinking about this, Xu Nian convinced himself again and let Los lick his wound carelessly.
"Maybe he got scratched by gravel while climbing up." Los lowered his eyes to look at Xu Nian's wound. The claw that couldn't be found after licking it a few times was covered with a layer of fur. He looked away and said, "You stay here."
After saying that, it stood up and prepared to go down the mountain. Seeing this, Xu Nian asked in confusion, "Where are you going?"
"One rabbit is not enough. You don't have to come with me." Ross thought for a moment and added, "I'll be back soon."
After saying that, Xu Nian had no time to reply. He only saw the wild snow leopard nimbly jumping down from the rock wall next to it, and then its claws landed steadily on the extended rock wall. Every step it took seemed to be calculated very precisely, and its body did not shake at all.
Xu Nian couldn't help but sigh: "It's indeed wild."
Sure enough, the racial talent was fully demonstrated at this moment!
Los had just left here not long ago, and Xu Nian was now lying there. After a while, he suddenly stood up again. He raised his paw and walked to the place where Los left. He sniffed subconsciously and his eyes fell on the paw prints on the snow.
"Look at these claw marks... I guess they're going down the mountain and won't be back for a while." Xu Nian squatted on the ground and rubbed his claws. He took a deep breath and suddenly had a plan in his mind.
His furry face was full of seriousness. He thought about the plan carefully and felt that it was very feasible, so he chose to implement it immediately.
This place was as easy as walking on flat ground for Los, but it was not so simple for Xu Nian.
He lifted his injured paw and limped to the edge of the cliff. Then he tentatively stepped down with his left hind paw. After making sure that the snow was solid, he slowly slid as he walked.
For wild snow leopards, climbing walls and running on rooftops is a piece of cake, but for the People's Education Edition snow leopard, sliding while walking is also a special skill.
He stepped carefully on the fluffy snow and walked up the steeper slope. As he slid and walked, a vulture looking for food saw a sneaky snow leopard quietly slipping down.
It faced the cold wind, whistling in the air, then turned its body sideways, spread its wings, and glided down in the direction of the wind. After grabbing a pika that had just emerged from the snow pile with its sharp claws, it rushed into the air again.
"It's great to have wings." Xu Nian said enviously.
Just as he raised his head, he stepped into a snow pit dug by a pika. With a flick of his claws, he rolled down the steep cliff.
The pika that went out without checking the almanac was caught by a vulture and lost its nest, but it is likely that it will not come back.
*
Kaier had promised to deliver a rabbit a day, but recently he couldn't find any prey. He was hungry and could only look for food everywhere. He then spent most of his time curled up in his nest to rest and maintain his strength.
It will wait until the prey is more active before going out, and will never waste any energy.
There was a slight noise outside, and the cry of a vulture could be heard. It looked at the weather, lowered its head to lick its belly, and then stood up to go out to find food.
However, before it could take a single step out of its nest, it heard a loud crash. It subconsciously stopped and took a step back. Then it saw a snow leopard lying in front of it with its limbs spread out like a snow leopard pancake, with its head buried in the snow.
It's not just the Rat and Rabbit who go out without checking the almanac, but also Xu Nian.
"You... are crazy! I just owed you two days' worth of rabbits and didn't deliver them!" Kaie was extremely shocked. He stared at Xu Nian who was struggling to get up with wide eyes and asked in surprise, "Is it really that serious? You're not chasing prey, so why are you jumping off a cliff?"
Xu Nian's furry ears twitched, and he sighed deeply, saying, "It's a bit anxious."
He also wanted to save face occasionally. Since Kaie didn't see the truth, Xu Nian naturally wouldn't tell the truth. He sat up. Fortunately, the snow below was thick and the snow leopard was resistant to falls. Apart from some snow on his body, he had no other problems after rolling down.
He shook off the snow and dead leaves on his body, tilted his head to lick his slightly matted fur, glanced at Kaie, and then glanced outside. After confirming that Los had not returned, he said, "You said Luo Yin was around here too."
"Yeah." Kaie remained wary of Xu Nian, and looked at the cowardly and bad snow leopard vigilantly.
Hearing this, Xu Nian coughed lightly, seemingly deliberately, then moved closer to Kaie and whispered, "To be honest, I... I have a secret to tell you."
Xu Nian looked at Kaie seriously, he even tilted his furry head slightly, looking very sincere.
"Tell me a secret?" Kaie sneered and said, "I think you want to harm me. You have bad intentions."
Hearing this, Xu Nian sighed, shook his head, turned around and left, saying as he walked: "Okay, then I won't tell you this secret."
His tail dragged behind him, leaving a trail on the ground, and his back looked very lonely.
Just as Xu Nian was about to start climbing the mountain to return to his nest, he moved very slowly, as if he was waiting for something. Sure enough, after a while, he heard Kai's voice behind him -
"What secret do you want to tell me?"
Xu Nian knew that no cat could escape the temptation of curiosity.
At this moment, another wild snow leopard was preparing to walk back with the hunted marmot in its mouth. Suddenly, it stopped and went to the place where it had hunted the hare before, and then stared at one of the rocks for a while.
If Xu Nian was here, he would be surprised to find that this rock was the one that Los had sniffed several times before, but blocked his way when he was about to sniff it.
But now Los sniffed the scent and confirmed that it was this stone. He immediately turned sideways and rubbed it on the stone, covering up the scent of the other snow leopards and leaving his own scent.
Then, it picked up the marmot again and walked back with its head held high.
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