CH 57

Wiesel was the youngest in the group of Utah Raptors, he was not yet an adult.

His parents died in the terrible earthquake, and before they died, his father only explained to him that he had to find a group to live with and get by until adulthood.

Hence, after Wiesel found that he managed to survive the quake, the first thing he did was to find other Utah Raptors to live with.

The other raptors were brothers from the same ethnic group [1], and excluded Wiesel who joined their group halfway through. But being forced to live in this strange place, they made an exception to let him join.

Since he was smaller and weaker than the rest, and was not used to a life of hunting alone, he had to live a hard life of suffering from humiliation everyday.

When the other Utah Raptors ate meat, he gnawed on bone;

When other Utah Raptors gnawed on bone, he would eat skin (← Which was why he reflexively thought of the skin Sita passed him to be food);

When the other raptors had nothing to eat, he… He would hide himself to prevent himself from being eaten.

Life before adulthood was difficult everyday T-T , but Wiesel didn’t feel disheartened. He had to fight for every bite of food so that he could grow up. Once he grew up to be larger than the other raptors, he could eat the ones who bullied him, and become a big boss! (←This was an Utah Raptor with aspirations)

Precisely because of long-term malnourishment, Wiesel who was just a sack of bones couldn’t run as fast as his companions. Hence, the ones who could run fast were killed, and he, the last one, managed to survive.

But in the end, Utah Raptors were dinosaurs that lived in groups naturally. A few days of travelling alone made Wiesel inevitably feel lonely.

Travelling alone on foreign land daily and seeing things that his parents never taught how to eat caused him to eat many poisonous things after separating from his group, and he nearly died from excessive vomiting and diarrhoea. 

Other than that, he couldn’t forget about his companions that were eaten. Their natural enemy, the Kantas, had also come to this land!

Those big guys loved eating Utah Raptors the most.

Wiesel was clear that he alone could not defeat a Kantas, not to mention that as far as he knew, there wasn’t only one Kantas.

Hence, he did whatever he could to avoid hunting during the day, only daring to go out deep in the night to look for things to eat. Then when he was walking around, he fell into Eim’s trap.

Not long after falling into the pit, snow started falling. Wiesel felt that he was about to die, from the cold and hunger. He had to find a way… A way to survive…

In the end, he transformed.

Wiesel was dumbfounded: His sharp teeth were gone, and his powerful claws also disappeared. He didn’t know what had happened! 

Wiesel was terrified and wanted to go back to his original form, but he couldn’t no matter what he did. 

However, he soon found benefits to this form: The burden of a humanoid form is much smaller, and he didn’t feel that hungry anymore.

But even if he wasn’t that hungry, he was still hungry. Unable to escape the trap, death would sooner or later befall him. 

Until one day, a bear fell from above, so he bit its butt, then…

He was crushed unconscious.

Papa said that we will go to a great place after death, Wiesel thought. He was definitely dead, since this place was such a nice place.

“The animal skin is for you to wear, why are you eating it?” While Sita asked, she noticed that this person was probably hungry (←If he wasn’t hungry, he wouldn’t be biting on the bear’s butt without letting go), so she took out some raw meat from the kitchen to grill for the person to eat.

Oh oh! “He” was actually giving himself meat! Not skin! Not bones!

Wiesel was moved!

Sita looked at the young man gobbling down food with gentle eyes.

After polishing off the last piece of meat, Wiesel emotionally looked at Sita. Sita was gently prepared to listen to his words, but in the end–”

“Ah— Ah—”

Listening to the youth’s hoarse voice like the sound of wind blowing through grass, Sita started pitying him: He’s a mute–

Wiesel was unaware of her sympathetic looks, and continued earnestly cleaning up all the pieces of meat on the bone. He looked at the bone that was licked clean, about to eat it.

Then Meng Jiuzhao let out a yawn.

With small tears at the corner of his eyes, Meng Jiuzhao tugged on Black’s clothes.

“Shleepy.”

Black immediately hugged him, “Baby is tired, so we’ll go back first to sleep.”

Hearing him say this, Eim also hurriedly carried his dad and jumped up to leave.

“Ah?” Sita looked dumbfoundedly as the two families disappeared. The only people left in the nest quickly became herself and the unlucky mute. Alright, there was still Carat who was deep in hibernation.

Men and women had differences, and it was better for them to sleep separately. Thinking for a moment, Sita lifted the pot which contained Carat, leaving her own nest to Wiesel.

Thus, when Wiesel finished chewing the bone to bits and swallowing it, he realised that he was the only one left in the nest.

“Hic–” He hiccuped for the first time in ages. 

His stomach seemed to have expanded after releasing the air, and his brain sobered up.

Wiesel looked at his hands and feet curiously. He recalled that the 2 Kantases from earlier looked the same as him (囧), and that the Kantas that approached him (←White) also looked like that. Then, he suddenly transformed back into his original form!

If they could transform back, he should be able to do so too!

When Wiesel realised this, he started working hard. Not knowing if it was because he had eaten his fill, he started feeling a strange sensation around his body. 

The sensation came from his bones, and even deeper within. He felt that he was moving in the correct direction, so he continued envisioning his original form: Strong legs… Sharp teeth…

A huge pain seemed to burst through his skin, following which came nausea, causing him to sit down on the floor with no strength. He lowered his head, and his familiar big feet brought him joy: Success! His original body came back!

He wanted to jump up to cheer, but when he stood up, he realised that there wasn’t enough space. Although Sita’s nest was constructed to be more spacious, it wasn’t big enough to allow someone slightly larger than her original form to jump around freely. His big head knocked on the walls of the nest, forcing Wiesel to lower his head. Then, he noticed something strange–

There were 2 big skulls lying at the corner of the straw covered ground.

Why did those teeth look so familiar?

Wiesel couldn’t help gnashing his teeth a few times, before he made a big realisation: Aren’t those my teeth? No! That’s not it! Are they the exact same as mine?

These- these were actually Utah Raptor teeth!

Wiesel finally figured out the true identity of the skull.

Wiesel came to a horrifying conclusion: could he have entered the lair of Kantases?

Why was he so stupid? How could he forget about the 2 Kantases after finding something to eat? They were obviously in front of him! And that guy [2] who gave him the meat, although he smelled really delicious, he could also be a Kantas!

The more he thought, the more horrifying it became. Staring at the skull with empty eye sockets that seemed to be looking straight at him, Wiesel fled from Sita’s nest.

*****

As the saying went, One could see his childhood from how he behaved at age 3.[3]

Louis was a cub who led a very routine life.

Since he was able to run and jump freely, he became the earliest in the family to wake up.

As usual, when dawn broke, little chick Louis crawled out of bed. 

Crawling out from under Dad’s wing (When Black and White slept, they kept their original forms for keeping their cubs warm), he habitually went to look for his brother. 

Meng Jiuzhao’s sleeping posture wasn’t the best, even if he fell asleep next to Louis, he would always end up at the base of Dad’s wings in the morning, which was the warmest area.

Sure enough, today as well, Louis found Meng Jiuzhao under the base of White’s wing.

Louis spread his own wings, comparing sizes with his dad to find that his were pitifully small, to the point that he couldn’t even cover his brother’s head with it. But he quickly cheered up.

Getting closer to Meng Jiuzhao’s waist, Louis carefully sniffed, ensuring that Meng Jiuzhao did not wet the bed, before using his beak to grab onto his little sweater and pull.

Pulling him out and placing him out his own back, Louis happily carried his drooling brother and started running.

They were going to pee!

It was once said before that Louis was a child with good life habits. He would absolutely not pee in his own nest.

Now that he was slightly older, he even made it a habit to not pee within the tribe areas. The spot that Louis has recently chosen to pee was one of the traps that were dug, downwind of the tribe.

Let’s digress: Ever since Louis started peeing over there, that poor pit as well as the traps around it have never caught a single prey.

Louis quickly finished peeing.

Ever since he was carried on Louis’ back out of the tribe, Meng Jiuzhao was awake.

There was no choice, since it was freezing cold.

But Louis woke up just in time for him to feel like peeing, so under Louis’s gaze, Meng Jiuzhao grabbed his little pp and started peeing into the trap.

But before he finished peeing, a sound travelled from the pit he was peeing in. It was the muffled roar of a wild beast–

Meng Jiuzhao was frightened, and he could no longer urinate. He nervously laid on the edge of the pit as he peered inside.

“Raptor!”

An Utah Raptor fell to the bottom of the pit, with a patch of water on his head. It howled lowly at Meng Jiuzhao.

Oh no! He peed on the head of an Utah Raptor! What should he do!? Black lines appeared on his face.

Author has something to say:

Regarding Student Zishi’s[4]  worries about Carat during the previous chapter:

How scary… What if he was really cooked? Will they eat him?

Author-sama thought for a while, if he was cooked, probably…

Fendi: Why is Carat’s meat so hard? He definitely hasn’t been wiping off his dead skin when showering! (Blatantly complaining)

Xiao Ding: Carat’s meat is as terrible as the food he cooks– (Silently complaining)

Sita: Carat, even though you taste bad, I will still finish you up, don’t worry! (Cherishing the memory)

The other tribesmen: (Gnawing) It tastes bad, but let’s continue eating.