CH 44

After leaving this question for future generations of scientists to ponder over, Sita happily led everyone to the next location.

Unlike the other cubs who were still being carried by their parents, Louis preferred to walk on his own feet. 

He couldn’t really understand Sita’s words, but he could understand what he saw, so he would always be the first to grasp what was being taught. 

Even Sita admitted that Louis was the smartest cub she had ever seen.

Not just that, when Sita taught everyone how to look for food under the snow, he was the first to dig something out!

What he found was a dark fruit.

“I don’t recognise this fruit either…” This object he found even posed difficulty for Sita to recognise. She looked all over the fruit, even giving it a sniff, but couldn’t come to a conclusion even after a while.

“I know this!” Finally, Eim gave an answer. “This is a Stem Fruit. They can only be found underground. It’s also one of the main diets for us snow rabbits!”

“The most important thing is that Stem Fruits are really tasty, and grow in large patches. As long as one fruit is found, there will definitely be a lot more around it!”

As soon as he said these words, Sita decided to stop and pick these fruits.

On this continent of ice, the discovery of any type of food means the ability to feed another mouth. Hunting was not a stable source of food, and in times of scarcity, their group had to be relied on to find fruits and other plants to feed the mouths of the entire tribe.

Louis showed everyone where he found the Stem Fruit.

Seeing the small and deep dark hole, everyone was stunned.

“Louis is really too smart. Dad taught him how to dig a hole, and now his digging skills are even better than mine!” Eim felt emotional looking at the hole dug by Louis.

Louis chirped proudly.

Meng Jiuzhao went silent: a Kantas, overlord of the skies, learning the skill of digging rabbit holes… He really had no comment.

But since Louis looks so happy about it, let’s just praise him first.

Hence Louis became heipi-er[1].

Along with Eim’s family of rabbits, everyone dug many more holes, while other beastmen followed behind to pick fruits. When everyone’s little sack was filled with fruits, Sita signalled everyone to return.

“Why? We only collected this much, and there are still many left there!” A group of younger beastmen weren’t too satisfied.

“One of the principles of hunting in the wild is to not be greedy!” Sita rapped their heads.

“It’s not easy to carry large quantities of food. When danger arises, you can’t protect that much food anyways, so why not come back another time to get more? If you’re lucky, the Stem Fruits may even grow!”

“Alright…” Most of the beastmen accepted her explanation, except for two young reindeer beastmen.

As herbivorous creatures, the discovery of Stem Fruits were too important to them. Even if they could digest meat when in human form, their favourite food was still plants. 

Discovering so many Stem Fruits at once made them unable to help picking more. With more fruits, the other reindeers would also be able to eat more.

With such thoughts present in their hearts, their motion of retreating also slowed down a lot.

“Hurry! Hurry!” After Sita made a marking to show that food was discovered here, she noticed that the other beastmen had not finished gathering. Doing a headcount, she noticed that the only missing people were the two reindeer.

“Phil! Philly! Where are you two? We’re going to leave!” She hollered once, then another time when no one replied. However, there was still no reply after a long time.

Eim’s rabbit dad suddenly twitched his big ear, before letting out a bunch of unusually high pitched squeaks!

“Ah? This is actually my first time hearing your dad speak! What’s he saying?” A female wolf, Ada, who was next to him, was interested.

“Dad is saying that…”  After understanding the meaning behind his father’s squeaks, Eim’s face paled.

“There’s danger! Dad is warning us! He says that there are scary monsters here! Really terrifying monsters!”

“Run! Quickly! We have to leave!” Eim cried lowly.

“Monsters? Terrifying?” Ada did not put Eim’s words to heart. In her mind, any carnivorous beast would be considered a scary monster to rabbits, and Eim’s father could not be believed.

“No! Please believe my dad! Dad’s warnings have never been wrong!” Eim was anxious. His rabbit father and siblings have long made preparations for escape, and were only waiting for him to move. However, Eim felt that he couldn’t leave on his own, and had to inform the other beastmen! But these people didn’t believe him!

“Sita! Please believe me! We have to go! Now! Immediately!” Eim howled.

“I believe your dad.” Sita said with a solemn face.

Louis, who always insisted on walking on his own two feet had suddenly jumped onto his father and made hurried chirps. Not knowing if it was because of his influence, the other five female cubs also started crying one after another.

Sita had always been guarding the cubs, and at that moment, she felt that something was wrong. The next moment, as if confirming her suspicions, Eim’s dad also acted up!

“My grandmother said before that one’s experience may not always be reliable. In critical situations, we must always trust two important groups of people: first are cubs who know nothing about the world! And the second are rabbits older than twenty!”

Generally speaking, the lifespan of a rabbit was approximately 20 years, but nearly 99 percent can’t live past the age of 15.

Any rabbit that has lived past the age of 20 were definitely experts at sensing danger!

“Listen to Eim! Quickly go! Follow his dad and run!” Sita yelled.

All the beastmen started running, as if Sita’s words were the gunshot at the beginning of a race. They closely followed behind Eim’s family, running like mad.

But Sita did not follow them. She was worried for Phil and Philly who had not caught up with them. They were so young, so why wasn’t she stricter when telling them to follow her instructions? 

Sita blamed herself.

She stubbornly called their names again, but this time, she heard their replies!

However, what she heard were the brothers’ miserable cries–

The meaning of their cries were…

Pain… and…

Run!

“Run!” Phil was howling!

Sita saw Phil. The young beastman had already transformed into a reindeer of 2 meters in height. His horns looked majestic, but only half of those majestic horns were left. 

He was fleeing in panic, and was being chased by a group of monsters!

That’s right… Monsters!

The monsters were at least two meters tall! They were the same height as Phil, but had much longer bodies than him. Encircled by them, Phil looked weak, just like a rabbit among a group of lions!

Sita had never seen these monsters. They looked very terrifying with appearances different from other animals. 

These monsters had abnormally developed, strong hind legs and contrastingly small forelimbs. They chased poor Phil energetically and quickly, using their tails to drive him towards a certain direction. From time to time they would also use their claws and teeth to leave hideous wounds all over his body.

Phil spotted Sita!

Sita could see a ray of hope in the eyes of the young reindeer, but very quickly, it vanished and his eyes became calm. 

He decisively ran in the opposite direction from her!

“No… No…” Sita murmured, before giving one last look at Phil, then running back as fast as she could!

Phil left her with a chance to escape, so she couldn’t waste it!

What about Philly?

She no longer dared to think.

She heard Phil’s last scream.

Then…

She heard the monsters’ footsteps.

She knew, despairingly, that although Phil sacrificed himself, the monsters still noticed her in the end, and chased after her!

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