Chapter 117: The Bird Thief

  Watching a group of silly wolves searching around in the back, comfortably sitting on the bean grass, taking out the map, adjusting the direction of the team, leading the team to the next camp.

  As they walked for a while, Ju An discovered that the big cow seemed to be more stable on the rocky path in the woods than on the bean grass. When going uphill, it also appeared to be lighter than the two horses. Squatting on the back of the bean grass, Ju An carefully stared at the big cow running ahead with Tiger Head, watching as it trotted along with ease, occasionally swishing its tail, eating small leaves from the trees or finding a small tree top to bump against its forehead. Sometimes when it fell behind while playing, it quickly caught up by striding forward and continued to run ahead.

  After walking for a while, when Ju An led the team to rest, looking at the carefree big cow gnawing on tender leaves on the ground, he had a bad idea in his heart. He took down the saddle from Dou Cao's body and put it on the back of the big cow. Trying it out, damn, the belly strap was almost not tight enough, two circles bigger than Dou Cao's belly. The big cow turned its head to look at Ju An who was saddling itself, even forgetting the leaves in its mouth. The cow face looked at Ju An blankly.

  After preparing the saddle, he took out a spare water belt and put it on the big cow. He didn't need to use the bit anymore, and with one lift of his foot, he got on its back. The cow's back was slightly lower than that of Bean Grass, making it easier to mount. After getting on, Ju An felt around and urged the big cow to take a few steps, feeling slightly more comfortable than riding on Bean Grass' back, except for occasionally having to exert some force to control the cow's head. Generally speaking, everything was fine, so he made up his mind that from now on, he would ride the big cow in the forest. The big cow seemed to be still unaware of its impending doom and continued to nibble at the tender leaves on the small trees.

  For the next two days, Ju An's hunting party moved a bit faster, and Big Cow was particularly powerful when climbing small slopes. With a few kicks of his sturdy cow legs, he would climb up the slope. When Ju An was on Dou Cao's back, Dou Cao would walk more carefully, sometimes even testing the ground with his hooves to see if it was stable enough to climb. Unlike Big Cow, who would simply press down with one big hoof and then start climbing with his neck stretched out, without any hesitation at all.

  At the beginning, Ju An still looked back and saw the five ghosts following up. Who knew that after following for a distance, several wolves turned their heads and went back. It seems that they felt that the mountain lion was no longer in the team, and Ju An's hunting squad was too strong, not something that these few wolves could afford to provoke.

  The higher you go, the colder it gets. The snow that has been accumulating on the mountain top for years and never melts is getting closer and closer. The trees are also getting taller and bigger, with giant trees as thick as five or six people can be seen everywhere. On the way, Lu An put on a woolen sweater under his jacket to keep warm.

  Upon arrival at the campsite, it was clear that this small stream was indeed a tiny one. The creek water couldn't even cover the slightly larger rocks, and the icy snowmelt flowed gently down the slope. After settling in and unpacking, they began to prepare food and drink for the group, feeding the hungry bunch until they were full. For the next two days, they would also need to bring along a family of mountain lions, which was fortunate since the cubs were still nursing; if they had started eating meat, it would have been a headache for them. During this time, they occasionally checked on the mother mountain lion in the space and found her lying motionless on the ground, while the cubs frolicked around her happily. They also fed the mountain lions water from the earth pit several times, hoping to help the mother recover quickly and get rid of these mouths to feed. However, after two days of feeding, they didn't notice any improvement, but the cubs in the space had clearly grown bigger, their legs now more agile than before when they were still a bit unsteady.

  After putting the lunch in the pot to cook, Ju An picked up the binoculars and looked around, thinking about whether to continue going up. In the past few days, Ju An had also put down the idea of hunting a large deer, mainly because he had weighed it and considered how long it would take for him to peel off a deer skin with his own skills, let alone bring back a bloody deer head.

  Actually, I really wanted to go to the edge of the snow mountain to take a look. Since childhood, except on TV, I have never really seen a snow-capped mountain. But at my own pace, if I arrived at the foot of the snow mountain, Old Thomas would surely sound the alarm, and after struggling in his heart for half a day, he made up his mind to camp here today and turn back tomorrow morning.

  Just as he was enjoying the snow-capped mountain scenery with his binoculars, a loud eagle cry suddenly entered his ears. He immediately put down his binoculars and looked around at the sky, then saw a black old eagle flying over from not far away. Hurriedly using his binoculars to take another look, a large eagle suddenly appeared in his line of sight, with its talons holding onto a small prey, whose long ears seemed to be those of a rabbit. Following the eagle, An's gaze fell upon a large bird's nest on top of a big tree.

  Putting down the telescope, Ju An took a look and found that the eagle's nest was not far from this place. The eagle landed and began to tear at its prey, as if feeding its young eaglets. As soon as he thought of the little eaglets, Ju An's heart felt like it had grown wings. Riding a fine horse, holding a falcon, chasing dogs and hunting hares - who wouldn't know how alluring this kind of life was to a group of people who grew up watching Mr. Jin?

  After staring at the eagle's nest for a while, I found that another old eagle landed on the nest. This one had nothing in its two claws and flew back to the nest empty-handed. I made up my mind to steal the little eagles from the nest and raise them myself. Later, riding on the bean grass, with Tiger Head and others following behind, I would fly above these two old eagles, which was a thrilling thought.

  After lunch, Ju An called out to Pidan, taking Wusong and Teddy with him. He had originally wanted to bring the fox family along as well, but ever since they heard the eagle's cry, the fox family had become much more obedient. Now, they suddenly liked to gather around Hu Tou and Suan Tou, basically inseparable. It was unclear when they had become so intimate with the two dogs.

  Riding on the big ox, this time without even putting a saddle on the ox, they headed in the direction of the bird's nest. The bird's nest didn't seem far away, but it took nearly half an hour to get there. When they arrived near the nest, hiding in a grove of trees, Wu Song waited for the old eagle to fly away and made sure to pay attention to when the two big birds would take flight, then he sent Wu Song directly up the tree to fetch the young bird.

  Who knew that this wait would be almost two hours, during which Ju'an also solved a bit of his stomach problem. The posture for observation changed from standing to squatting, and finally he even put down a small blanket, on which Ju'an lay down sideways, occasionally taking the binoculars to take a look. If the eagles didn't fly away, Ju'an was prepared to head back to the campsite. Who knew if this family would stay in their nest overnight?

  Finally, the last eagle flew away, and in no time, the last one also flew away. Wu Song excitedly stood up and watched as the two old eagles gradually disappeared from view. Then, he brought Wu Song to the bottom of a large tree, standing under it and looking up, "Wow, this nest is as high as five or six floors!" He took the grapes that Wu Song was eating and put them down, then pointed at the bird's nest above and said to Wu Song, "Wu Song, go get the birds in the nest for me!" As soon as he finished speaking, Wu Song stretched out his small black hand and plucked a grape from the bunch in Wu Song's hand, putting it into his mouth. He quickly climbed the tree, and before long, he reached the bird's nest. Wu Song looked around cautiously, then stuck his head into the nest, suddenly pulling back, and then quickly stretching out again to grab a fluffy little creature, biting it with his teeth. He quickly climbed down the tree, causing Wu Song below to shudder. "Brother, don't bite it to death!"

  Wu Song waited until he climbed down the tree and handed the bird over to Ju An, who only then discovered that the snow-white young bird was not injured at all. Just as he was about to praise Wu Song, he saw Wu Song take another grape from his hand, put it in his mouth, and climb up the tree again. After three trips back and forth, there were three more fluffy white eaglets in Ju An's cowboy hat. After catching the eaglets, Wu Song took the grapes from Ju An's hand, sat down next to Teddy with a calm face, and continued eating the grapes while occasionally feeding one to Teddy.

  Looking at the three little guys in his hand, Ju An scratched his head. How many birds were there in Jin Da Shi's "The Legend of the Condor Hero"? It had been a while since he last saw it and he couldn't quite remember. After some thought, he decided to keep two of them. Good things come in pairs, after all. He handed one of the smallest chicks over to Wu Song, telling him to return it to its nest. With the two young eagles in tow, Ju An mounted his large cow and took off with his little bird-stealing squad, leaving the scene of the crime behind. Even Little Short Legs Teddy seemed to know that Ju An was up to no good, running away with a hum-hum-hum.

  When they arrived at the campsite, Ju An patted the big cow's buttocks and it happily went to eat grass. Upon hearing the chirping of the young eagles in Ju An's hat, a family of foxes came over, their mouths open and tongues licking, thinking that Ju An had brought back food again. Ju An quickly flashed into space, if these two birds were left outside, they would probably end up in the fox family's mouths as soon as he fell asleep.

  Entered the space, saw the playful little mountain lion, and Head's head grew another circle. These two little guys are not easy to give birth to, and they can even climb trees. The key is that they all eat meat, fortunately, the big mountain lion still cannot move.

  No choice, used the leftover wood from last time to build a frame over a meter high for Little Eagle, three long legs supported a large wooden board, so that the little ones could climb onto the frame but not onto the stage, and then put the hat on top. Cut some small pieces of meat again, first hung up the meat strips, fed twice, and then put some into the hat, leaving it for the two little ones to eat.

  Out of the room, sat down on a chair, let out a long sigh, pulled out a bottle of white wine, poured a small cup, drank it down, a warm current flowed down his throat and into his stomach.

  The hat had become a bird's nest, and in no time at all, I felt a chill on my head, so I picked up the square scarf around my neck and wrapped it around my head, which made me feel much better.