Chapter 127: Motherly Love
Really, we can’t even eat a meal in peace!
Although it was a very soft noise, practically all of them heard it. They couldn’t help noticing the sound. After all, it was very easy for something to go wrong if they weren’t more alert in New Zealand now. Bai Yi had wanted to question Momo and Sharpei about what going on just now, but he was interrupted suddenly and focused his attention diagonally behind him.
Slowly, a large animal walked out from that direction. They were all immediately taken aback when they saw the animal…Tiger? No, that’s not right, it wasn’t a tiger. It only looked like a tiger, but it should be a cat-like creature, or rather, it was actually a cat. There weren’t any more pure animals left in New Zealand, and they couldn’t be bothered to identify every gene that every animal had fused with by now. It was fine as long as they identified the base lifeform correctly.
Sharpei stood up, but Bai Yi raised his right hand.
Strange!
This giant cat was more than 2 meters in length. It didn’t seem to be hostile, but rather seemed to be carrying some hope and caution with it. The big cat tensed slightly just from Bai Yi turning his head, and released a rough meow. The big cat slowly and carefully walked toward Bai Yi, and everyone realized that there was a deep wound on its waist. It was so severe that they could almost see the bone. The wound practically stretched all the way to its back leg, causing the big cat’s walking posture to be awkward.
So it was like this. This was why they had heard that slight incoordinate sound just now.
“You want something to eat?” Suddenly, Bai Yi had a mysterious feeling in his heart. Although this big cat was quite wary, it didn’t have any hostility toward them. Moreover, he got a vibe similar to a real house cat meowing cutely to humans. From this action, Bai Yi could immediately tell that this big cat was searching for food.
“Meow~!”
Bai Yi found a basin and filled it up with the caterpillar meat, putting it in front of this big cat. This big cat immediately bit the basin and ran away, carrying the basin with its mouth. This big cat was a bit awkward while running due to its injuries, but it still disappeared before their eyes very quickly.
“This is?”
“It probably smelled the aroma of the food and wanted to ask for some of it. This cat should be a cat raised by humans in the past, so it’s still quite amiable to humans,” Bai Yi slowly explained.
“It’s really strange, we met quite a few domesticated animals in the past too, but this is the first time we saw one that was still quite amiable to humans.”
“You guys saw it too, the giant wound on its body probably affected its normal hunting greatly. It was probably its last resort to come here, I think it hasn’t eaten for a long time. The aroma of the food and its memories of getting fed by humans in the past attracted it here, but actually, when it first appeared, there was more wariness than amiableness,” Bai Yi explained.
“Oh really, but why didn’t it just eat here? It still brought the food basin away,” Woolf said.
“It probably brought the food to its other companions,” Heloise said as well.
“En, probably.” Bai Yi nodded.
Bai Yi didn’t keep this big cat on his mind. In truth, this actually wasn’t anything worth mentioning to him. Although they would hunt for prey, they never killed needlessly or for enjoyment. They especially wouldn’t harm something that didn’t have any hostility toward them and was previously a house pet.
“Momo!”
“Here!” Momo immediately jolted upon hearing Bai Yi’s voice.
“Just what are you and Sharpei playing at?” Bai Yi’s voice wasn’t loud, but on the contrary Momo felt very scared. Little kids always had some sort of fear toward their elders, especially when they were hiding something.
“That is, that is…” Momo’s eyes shifted continuously. That is why they said that Momo was still too tender, it was totally obvious that she had something to hide from how she looked. Momo’s brain kept turning at this time, trying to find an excuse to muddle her daddy, but her simple head just couldn’t think of a solution. Woolf and Heloise would definitely not help her out, they were just prepared to watch a show.
“Daddy, a sound, a sound!” Momo suddenly said.
“Don’t try to change the topic.”
“Really, sound!” Momo said and pointed her little finger toward the direction the big cat had left in.
At this time, they didn’t continue to pay attention to this thing but seriously tried to hear anything coming from that direction. Sure enough, just like Momo had said, the sound was very soft, but it was indeed a rough and mournful cry of a cat. Almost instantly, all of them thought of the big cat that left just now.
“Let’s go take a look.” Bai Yi saw all of them looking at himself and couldn’t help but say this.
Momo immediately grabbed a hold of Sharpei’s bone spike and landed on his back with a flip. “I’ll go,” Momo said hurriedly. At this time, Momo completely seemed like she was running away, fearing that Bai Yi might stop her. Heloise couldn’t help but laugh seeing Momo’s actions. No matter what, they couldn’t let Momo go alone. All of them immediately followed, running toward the sound’s location.
They really didn’t expect that the big cat ran such a long distance in such a short period of time, and they only found the big cat more than a kilometer away.
Apparently, this was a lair, the big cat’s lair. However, the lair was now stained with blood, and the big cat was facing off with another animal.
This lifeform had a very thick neck, and was also more than 3 meters in length. Its body looked very streamlined and slim, but its legs and neck bulged with muscles. They couldn’t identify what animal this thing used to be, but it looked rather like a creeper (TN: I assume this is the creeper from Minecraft). The creature’s mouth was stained with blood, and there were still a few leftover corpse parts of small cats on the ground.
They knew with a look why the big cat would suddenly try to get close to them, and tried to bring the food back.
It wasn’t convenient for it to hunt due to its injuries, so it suddenly recalled the memories in its body of it relying on humans. Even if it knew that approaching humans now was very dangerous, and that it could be hunted down, it still approached them because it was a mother cat. It apparently brought the food back to feed its own children.
In the end, when this mother cat returned, it actually witnessed its own children getting eaten by this creature.
Woolf immediately grabbed his greatsword and wanted to charge in to help. However, at this time, the mother cat suddenly turned its head and roared loudly at Bai Yi’s team; this cry seemed both mournful and resolute. Bai Yi immediately stopped Woolf, and sure enough after Bai Yi did this, the mother cat once against charged toward the killer of its children.
“MEO-RAROW!” At this moment, the big cat completely displayed its aura, an aura of viciousness and massacre. Cats had always been predators on Earth. This evolved cat was even more powerful, and the scene of it being so tame in front of Bai Yi’s team just now seemed like an illusion.
However, the other unknown creature was also very strong, and it wasn’t at a disadvantage facing the mother cat. Since the mother cat was already injuried, it very quickly fell into a disadvantageous state.
“Daddy!” Momo looked at her daddy, not knowing why Bai Yi wasn’t helping when it knew that the mother cat wasn’t the creature’s match.
“Just look, this is a mother’s final struggle.” Bai Yi’s eyes were very serious.
The Momo who didn’t understand Bai Yi’s words much initially became stunned. Momo never had a mother, so she didn’t know motherly love, but it was enough for her to have a daddy. At this time, looking at the mother cat that was still struggling despite being at a disadvantage, something was touched in the depths of Momo’s heart for a reason she couldn’t understand.
A battle between wild beasts had always been very bloody. The big cat fought with this unknown creature, and displayed this point to the utmost. Even if it was them, they couldn’t help but feel shaken at this scene. So this is the most primordial way of fighting in the wild.
The big cat’s life force gradually got weaker and weaker, and it fell into a further disadvantage. Bai Yi held the fang sword in his hands, but he didn’t act. Bai Yi knew that this big cat did not wish for somebody else to interfere in this battle, because this was her last duty and struggle for its children.
Suddenly, nobody saw clearly what had happened, but the mother cat’s body suddenly twisted and bit toward the creature’s neck at an impossible angle. After it managed to clamp its jaws onto the creature, the mother cat never released its jaws again; there was only the sound of it wrestling and rolling around on the ground with that creature.
After more than 10 minutes, the struggling finally stopped, only leaving behind a ruined ground in the surrounding area.
Suddenly, Momo rushed toward the buried lair. In front of everyone’s shocked eyes, Momo dug open the collapsed lair and everyone realized that in that corner, there was a weak little cat that was stuck under a rock. The cat was only as big as a palm; it seemed adorable yet pitiful.
This little cat had apparently suffered from some injuries, but it still struggled vigorously in Momo’s hand until it managed to break free. After landing on the ground, the little guy ran toward the mother cat clumsily. This small cat ran to its mother’s side, continuously licking away the blood on its mother’s body, and releasing a soft and weak ‘meow’. The mother cat that they all initially thought had died suddenly moved again, its eyes opened painfully as it slowly stretched out its tongue to lick the little cat’s face again.
This little cat seemed to enjoy its mother’s doting very much, and immediately closed its eyes as it showered in the motherly love.
Bai Yi’s team weren’t emotional people, but at this time they still couldn’t help but feel their eyes getting wet.
“Meow?”
“Meow…Meoooww!” The little cat’s puzzled voice gradually turned to sadness then to mournful. Apparently, the mother cat that had always loved it and its siblings had really died like that.
“Daddy, can we keep this little cat?” Momo suddenly said to Bai Yi.
“Ok.” Bai Yi nodded without any hesitation.