Chapter 115: Who is the King of the Mountains and Forests
He picked up the high-powered flashlight next to the chair and shone it over, this thing seemed a bit unaccustomed to the strong light shining on its body, stood up from the bushes, so the whole appearance was exposed in front of An's eyes. This guy was like an enlarged version of a domestic cat, at least over a meter long, with a black stripe next to his nose and eyes, like tear marks, similar to the eyes and nose of an African leopard on TV, with a black stripe between them. The sturdy limbs, especially that small tail as thick as a can of Coke, had a section of black fur at the end of the tail, and the fur on its body was gray, somewhat resembling an African lion.
After a while, it was clear that this big guy was the mountain lion mentioned by Old Thomas, also known as American lion or American golden cat, gray devil and other names. Now in North America, it is also a protected animal and generally not allowed to be hunted. What made Juan feel strange was that in Thomas's mouth, the activity of the American lion was usually more hidden, rarely appearing in front of humans, and even a while ago, there were reports in the newspaper about a mountain lion entering a household and being chased away by the owner with a wooden stick.
But now this big guy seems to have chosen to confront itself, not only facing itself, but also three fierce dogs that are roughly the same size as itself. Did Old Thomas say it wrong? Or does this guy have a special taste, liking to eat tender human flesh? Glancing at its own side, it seems more reliable to eat a fox family. The big cat standing in the bush is watching itself vigilantly, but it doesn't seem to have much hostility, just standing firmly there in the bush.
He slowly lowered the gun in his hand, then sat back down on the chair, placing the handgun on his knee, ready to strike at any moment. He didn't want to joke about his own life, and it was his first time facing a fierce beast that weighed almost as much as a person in the wild. He tried to call Tiger Head and the others back to the bonfire, wanting to show the big cat that he meant no harm. When they heard Ju An's voice, they turned around and returned to the bonfire, but this time they didn't immediately lie down like usual. Instead, they stood up and observed the big cat, seemingly hearing the silence outside. Finally, Teddy Bear, who had been hiding under Ju An's chair, poked his head out, took a look at the big cat outside, then hid behind Ju An's legs again, not caring how much of his chubby body could be hidden by Ju An's thin legs.
The big cat saw that Ju An and the dogs had retreated, so it let out a cry, somewhat like the sound of a domestic cat, and then walked towards the edge of the small lake. As the big cat walked away, Ju An discovered the problem - the hind leg on his back was clearly not agile, almost always lifted off the ground, never touching the ground. I said why it didn't run, it turned out that it was injured and couldn't run fast. Since this forest killer comrade's movements were not agile, Ju An also put his mind at ease. At its current speed, it hadn't even run two meters from him, let alone catch up to him.
With a sigh of relief, he felt that his palms were all sweaty while holding the gun. He handed the gun to his left hand and wiped the sweat off with Teddy's body using his right hand. Then, with a bit of effort, he tried to pull this coward out from behind his legs, but didn't expect him to be so heavy that he could barely move him with one hand.
It's estimated that Teddy noticed the big cat had shifted its attention to this side, so he followed the force in Ju An's hand and drilled out from behind. Only when Teddy's chubby body came out did Ju An discover that Comrade Teddy wasn't the biggest coward after all - Wu Song was tightly grabbing onto Teddy's back, and even now didn't dare stick his head out.
After Teddy came out, he followed the flashlight in Gu An's hand and stared at the big cat drinking water by the lake. He then looked at the fox family, and this guy's waist was no longer sore, his legs were no longer shaking, and these guys were no longer crowded together. It was as if they had just taken a magical calcium supplement from a TV commercial, and their spirits immediately appeared. If they went to shoot an ad, it would be more convincing than an old lady kicking a shuttlecock. From time to time, a small tail would shake back and forth, still staring at the big cat drinking water, but with a clearly different mood. Even the big cow stopped panting heavily, raised its head, and stared at the mountain lion drinking water, secretly despising the few guys who were eating meat and couldn't even compare to the grass-eating big cow. The most cowardly was Teddy. Old Thomas had said that wild mountain lions would definitely turn around and run away when they encountered brown bears. You guy was almost scared to pee, where was the majesty of the king of the North American forest? Angrily, he just wanted to kick Teddy's fat butt. He couldn't remember at all that his own palm was also sweating while holding the gun earlier.
A group of people stared at the mountain lion as it finished drinking water, then watched as it turned around and left. They were more focused than fans watching a superstar concert. As soon as the mountain lion turned its head, they noticed that one of its hind legs seemed to have been bitten by something. The surrounding area was dark and swollen, with fresh red muscle exposed in the middle, and several clear tooth marks on top.
As the mountain lion dragged its hind legs into the woods, Ju An finally felt completely at ease. He added a few more logs to the bonfire, making it burn even brighter and warmer. The tiger head and others also lay down, while the grass-eating gentlemen lowered their heads and started nibbling on the grass by the fire. A group of cowards also lay down, yawning, preparing for sleep. Teddy this time snuggled up next to the little fox, placing his big head on its tail and lying down. Ju An took a look around and then pulled up the quilt, ready to continue chatting with Lord Zhou Gong.
Who knew that not long after falling asleep, still in a daze, another howl was heard. Ju An pulled down the quilt covering his head, and he was about to go crazy. He shouted loudly: "Do you have any public morals? I'm going on the road early tomorrow morning! Is this a public toilet or something? You come and go as you please!" After finishing speaking, he directly picked up his rifle, loaded the clip, opened the scope, and prepared to give whoever dared to show their head another peanut. Who was so blind that they would dare to disturb his sleep twice in one night? Did they think the gun in his hand was a fire poker? It seemed that this place wasn't just special to him, but also to all the creatures in the mountains.
A shrill scream echoed from the woods, followed by a "wow wow" sound. The comrades around the bonfire became alert again. As Ju An stood up and turned on his flashlight once more, pointing it into the woods, he saw that the mountain lion that had just drunk water was retreating back, seemingly in a state of disarray, looking back as it retreated, and directly heading towards the bonfire. This made Ju An and the others immediately become alert, and Ju An picked up his rifle, this time not caring about protecting animals, clearly thinking that this guy belonged to the type that asked for trouble and looked for death.
After a few glances, I found that the mountain lion wasn't trying to come towards the bonfire, but rather had its eyes on a large tree about 20-30 cm in diameter by the lake. It was crouching down and preparing to climb up. This time it wasn't just the injured hind leg, another hind leg also had a small piece of skin torn off, with blood constantly dripping from it. The fur on its tail was also torn off in several places. After climbing for a bit, it fell back down, then flipped over again and continued to anxiously try to climb up the tree, seemingly frightened out of its wits. Seeing this, I put down my gun and turned the muzzle towards the woods, thinking that whatever could scare the mountain lion away would be better dealt with first. After all, the mountain lion hadn't shown any signs of being a threat.
The firelight illuminated the surroundings, and in a short while, four or five wolves, similar to large dogs, emerged from the forest. To call them large dogs would be an exaggeration, as they were smaller than tiger heads by at least three sizes. The several wolves formed a fan shape and exited the forest, staring at the mountain lion climbing the tree, standing at the edge of the woods.
The leader, a slightly larger wolf, stared at the mountain lion that was constantly climbing and falling from the tree for a while, then shifted its gaze to Ju An's side. It curled up its upper lip, revealing a row of shiny white teeth, but did not make any attacking moves, seemingly somewhat fearful.
Tiger Head and Garlic Head, along with Pidan, stood up together, with Pidan at the front, Tiger Head and Garlic Head slightly behind, leaving a few body lengths of distance in between, forming an arrowhead shape. They walked forward for a while, staring intently at the wolf pack, making low, muffled "woo" sounds with their mouths. After estimating the distance to the wolf pack, he put down his rifle, pulled out his revolver, and took out two spare cartridges, placing them by his side, ready to reload at any moment.
Three dogs and five wolves stared at each other for half a day, without showing any signs of attacking. The onlookers were getting sleepy. "What the hell is wrong with you guys? Can't you see that it's been half a day and still no fight has started?" Actually, it was because the wolf pack was hesitant to attack Tiger Head and his group, while the dogs, seeing their opponents as similar in kind but with a physical advantage on their side, were fully prepared and confident to start fighting. They were just waiting for An's order, but An himself was so tense that he forgot to give the command. It was like two teams standing in the middle of the field, waiting for the referee to blow the whistle to start the game, but the referee had forgotten where he put his whistle.
After waiting for half a day, Ju An finally lost his patience. A gunshot rang out and hit the ground in front of the wolf king. The wolf king was startled and jumped up, looked at Ju An, then looked at the mountain lion under the tree, before turning around and leading the pack back into the forest.
Seeing the wolf pack retreat, Ju An put down his gun and scolded himself: "Really stupid, if I had fired a shot earlier, these guys would have run away long ago, and we would not have been in a standoff for so long."
Sat down on the chair, looked at the watch, it's already late, might as well wait for dawn, this sleepless night is really depressing.
