novelden Chapter 17, Table Feast
Chapter 17, Table Feast
The thing was pressed low, its head almost touching the ground, and its four legs moved cautiously, each step carrying a solemn sense of "I am quietly approaching my prey".
But its tail is upright.
It stands upright above the grass, like a moving antenna, precisely broadcasting its location to all sighted creatures within a fifty-meter radius.
Chen Fei looked for two seconds, then moved his gaze forward and found the target that Da Tou had locked onto.
A warthog cub was rooting in the soil at the edge of a bush, its tusks not yet fully grown, its mouth covered in mud, completely unsuspecting.
Chen Fei mentally calculated the distance.
The large head was about 25 meters away from the warthog, in an open grassland with no cover.
He sighed and sat down again.
Lion cubs begin to develop independent hunting instincts, usually around four to six months old. Da Tou is just over five months old now, which matches the timeline. But having the instincts is one thing, and having the skills is another entirely.
It takes nearly two years for a lioness to repeatedly demonstrate, correct mistakes, and involve the cubs in hunting in order to establish a basic hunting framework.
Da Tou's current state is roughly equivalent to a child who has just learned to hold chopsticks and decides to cook a feast for himself today.
It's understandable, but the outcome was predictable.
Sel walked over from under the acacia tree, sat down next to Chen Fei, followed his gaze to Da Tou, and gently swept his tail across the grass.
No one spoke up to stop it.
It is necessary to let the cubs try, even if the result is failure.
The two remained silent, acting as spectators.
The "antenna" in the grass continued to advance. Big Head lowered his body and slowed his steps, his expression solemn and confident, completely unaware that his tail had betrayed all his movements.
The warthog cub rooted in the soil for a while, then raised its head and glanced around.
Big Head froze instantly, his four legs rooted to the spot, even his breathing stopped, his head buried in the grass roots, his eyes fixed on the warthog, and his tail still standing upright.
The warthog looked to its left and then to its right, but seeing no threat, it lowered its head again and continued rooting in the soil.
Big Head slowly exhaled and continued to move forward.
Chen Fei mentally rated his ability to disguise himself, rounding it up to approximately zero.
But the warthog didn't run away, probably because the wind was in the big head's favor, carrying the scent to the other side; luck played a big part.
Big Head didn't realize he was relying on luck; he clearly believed it was skill. Because when he advanced to fifteen meters, a subtle confidence began to appear in his strides. His body wasn't so close to the ground anymore, and his tail went from standing upright to tilting upwards, like a child who had just learned to walk suddenly feeling that he could run.
Twelve meters, ten meters.
Chen Fei shifted his gaze towards the warthog, and glanced at the ground next to it.
There is a hole hidden next to the roots of a bush. The hole is not big, but big enough for a warthog baby to pass through.
He kept this detail to himself without saying a word.
Big Head was already eight meters away, which was the distance he chose to jump from.
He braced his hind legs, leaned forward, and then sprang out.
The warthog raised its head the moment he jumped.
It wasn't because I saw him, but because I heard the sound of his hind legs snapping the grass stems.
The warthog's reaction was surprisingly quick. Instead of running forward or to the side, it suddenly turned around, rear end forward, head backward, and pushed off the ground with all four legs, charging into the hole in a bizarre backward posture, its tusks pointing outward, wedging itself into the entrance and becoming a moving roadblock.
Big Head missed his target.
Its front paws pressed against the edge of the hole, and its entire head almost hit the hole. The momentum of its hind legs couldn't be stopped in time, and its whole body rolled forward, doing a full roll next to the hole, landing on its back. It paused on the grass for two seconds, and then slowly rolled over and got up.
Chen Fei mentally marked the behavior of the warthog.
When warthogs encounter predators, they have a fixed habit of "retreating into their burrows," using their tusks to block the entrance and prevent the predator from biting their necks. This is an extremely practical defense strategy. Digging into the burrow is pointless, as warthog burrows usually have multiple exits. Digging in one side will only allow the predator to escape to the other side, wasting time and yielding no benefit.
Big Head clearly didn't know any of this.
He stood outside the cave entrance for two seconds, looked down at the entrance, then at the warthog's wary eyes, and then made a decision.
He started digging.
With its front paws, it dug and dug, sending the soil flying backward. It worked very hard and with great force, digging a small pit around the entrance of the hole. The loose soil collapsed along the edge of the pit, making the entrance smaller and smaller.
Chen Fei watched from the side, feeling a soreness in his chest.
It's not heartache, but a subtle frustration of "this child's thinking is correct, but the direction is wrong."
Big Head kept digging, becoming more and more engrossed, digging deeper and deeper. His head pressed down little by little with the movement of his front paws, until finally his entire head was inside the pit, with only the part behind his neck sticking out. His tail swung back and forth in the air, showing a kind of perseverance that only became stronger with each setback.
Sel sat next to Chen Fei, his tail stopped wagging, and his expression froze into a look that was hard to tell whether it was heartache or helplessness.
Big Head dug in the pit for about twenty seconds, then suddenly stopped.
He lifted his head out of the pit.
His face was covered with a layer of fresh yellow soil, two grass seeds were stuck in his nostrils, half a withered leaf was stuck on his left eyelid, and all the whiskers around his mouth were crooked in one direction. His whole face showed a kind of desolation as if all his livelihood had been ruined.
He slowly turned his head and glanced at the entrance of the hole.
The entrance to the hole was empty; the warthog was long gone, probably having slipped away through another exit, and even half of its scent had dissipated.
Big Head looked down and looked again at the hole he had dug.
The pit was quite large, but it was completely useless.
He stood by the pit for a while, wiping the dirt off his face with his front paws. After wiping off some of it, he smeared some more on his face. The final result was that what was originally the left half of his face was now covered with dirt on his entire face.
Chen Fei then realized that for a fleeting moment, the heat from his right forepaw had almost been pushed out.
It wasn't that I wanted to help, but it was an instinctive reaction from my body when I saw Da Tou thrash around in mid-air.
He pushed the heat back down.
Making a move is easy, but the price is that Big Head will never know where the warthog's hole is, never know that he has to back up into the hole, and never know where he went wrong.
It's not worth it.
[Host: Chen Fei]
[Identity: Sub-adult male lion]
[Energy Points: 468↑]
Sel walked over, squatted down in front of Big Head, lowered his head, and used his tongue to lick the dirt off Big Head's face, starting from his left eyelid.
Big Head awkwardly tilted its head to the side, but was gently pressed down by Sel's paw. It had no choice but to stand there resignedly, with a "whatever" look on its face, its ears drooping and its tail hanging down, temporarily setting aside all its pride.
After Sel finished dealing with it, he shook his head, flung away the remaining dirt, sneezed, and expelled two grass seeds.
Then he turned his head and looked in Chen Fei's direction.
Chen Fei didn't move, but instead focused his gaze on the grass behind his head, pretending not to see anything.
Big Head stood there for a while.
Then he slowly walked towards the grass on the east side, stopped at the spot where Chen Fei had stood that morning, lowered his head, carefully sniffed the ground, and then raised his head to look in the direction where the warthog had disappeared.
Chen Fei then turned his gaze back to Big Head.
The little creature was facing the open grass, slowly lowering its body, taking lighter and lighter steps, its tail drooping down, not sticking up.
There was no prey, no target; they were just moving around in thin air.
[Host: Chen Fei]
[Identity: Sub-adult male lion]
[Energy Points: 473↑]
From the direction of the old territory, the wind blew, carrying a faint, lingering scent of dark brown mane.
Big Head didn't notice that he was walking towards the air for the third time, this time with his tail hanging lower and his steps a little more steady than the last time.