บท 19: The Hardworking Little Snake (Part 2)
The Silver Banded Eagle Monarch lazily opened one of it closed eyes. Contrary to Kuro's hope, it did notice one of the eggs at the fringe of his territory falling from its nest again.
It closed its eye again with an unperturbed expression.
Its subjects at the lowest tier were quite dumb as usual. They must have not secured the eggs properly inside the nest. Even worse, the nest was made sloppily.
These birds didn't need this king benevolence. He made a harrumphh sound and internally grumbled.
I'm not your sister's slave to save every single little egg. If the ones from the top falls, maybe I'll consider. Whatever.
Two days ago, a couple of eggs from the mid-tiered nest had already fallen down the other side of the mountain due to harsh wind. Even then the Silver Banded Eagle Monarch didn't even blink and let them be. How can a single egg on the lowest-tiered nest make him move right now? It didn't even warrant an extra glance from it.
As for the eggs' parents, they won't dare to confront him about the incident. Not when it would mean killing themselves by questioning their monarch.
All this while, The Silver Banded Eagle Monarch was quite tyrannical; no other eagles could question its authority. Although many of them were unsatisfied with it, they couldn't do a single thing since it was the strongest eagle in the flock.
It continued cultivating with the resources scattered around its nest while waiting for the others to return to give half of their share. With food and cultivation materials delivered to its doorstep, it didn't need to do anything at all except wile away doing things it liked best.
Life is great! The Monarch chuckled gleefully.
....
With that, our lucky but ignorant little Kuro had survived the greatest threat to his life and was successful in snatching one of the egg from the Silver Banded Eagles territory. It didn't know it was almost caught but were saved by the bird king's nonchalant attitude towards its own lower subjects (well, not just yet).
The bird king truly didn't notice the presence of the snake; but it was only because it didn't even try. It was very sure that no other beast would encroach into its territory, especially a weaker one.
The brown egg rolled beautifully downwards without encountering any obvious obstacles. It was as if it glided on a body of water. Before it hit any sharp protrusions or big boulders, it unwittingly glided to the side as if being steered by something.
As the brown egg rolled to a stop inside the many bushes at the foot of the mountain, Kuro had already devise a method of transport for it. There was no way for it to swallow the whole egg. It was too large and too fragile. He could only try his best to drag it home.
Although Kuro's appetite was quite substantial, and it was able to finish up a big animal, its strong jaws could actually tear the meat piece by piece just like tearing off tissue paper (1). So, it might accidentally damage the egg rather than swallow it if he tried.
From here, one would've realized, its 'attack' on Hana was actually a friendly shallow little nip which lacked any murderous intent.
So, what would the solution be?
Kuro moved towards the egg with determination and wrapped its own lower body in a circular fashion at the lower-half part of the egg. This way, it could doubly act as the damper to cushion the egg when it moved. It was basically the same method it used to drag the egg to the edge of the nest. Since it was successful then, it should be successful again now.
The first few times, the egg slipped from its body.
Kuro was so exasperated!
It can't help it!
Both its scaly body and the egg were smooth with no friction. Hence, it couldn't grip the egg well. Kuro wandered how did it managed to drag the egg out before in one swift (snail-like) move?
When it tried to grip tighter, the egg simply popped out from its coiling body from the top again and again. It tumbled left and right, making Kuro slightly panicky. It quickly followed the egg and tried again. Thank goodness the area was lush with greenery. The grass and leaves helped cushioned the naughty egg from breaking.
Kuro tried hard to get the egg to stay inside its coiling body with frustration. It dragged the egg covertly while trying its best not to make sounds that might attract the bird king.
In the midst of tumbling and dragging, it finally managed to leave the boundary of the bird's territory, however it was unsure of the bird king's true detection range.
....
About an hour later, Kuro heaved a relieved sigh after it had acclimatized with the new method.
Feeling good about itself, it prepared to start its journey home when suddenly, long and shrill shrieking sounds were heard from the air!
Kuro looked up and saw two angry eagles the size of a full-grown cow plunging down towards him from the air! Both of the bird's eyes were red with fury when they saw their missing egg in the grasp of a tiny insignificant black snake.
Rewinding back on what has happened a couple of minutes ago, the Papa bird and Mama bird had returned to their nest after offering what meager harvests they obtained from their hunts, only to find one egg was missing. It was even the biggest one!
Mama bird was so furious, she urged her spouse to confront with the Bird king. After a short quarrel, they took flight and seek audience with their monarch only to be slapped with a wind attack in response. The king didn't even explain as it snorted in contempt towards the bird couple.
Harboring internal injuries from the attack, the saddened couple took up upon themselves to fly around the clan's territory in a bid for finding out the fate of their treasured egg. They had even nurtured the egg with all the energy stones they had so that this descendant of theirs could help them leap up through the ranks and build a new nest in a more gloriously elevated positions.
When they saw their eggs being poached by a small black snake, both of them had lose whatever shred of sanity they had and immediately pounced!
....
Kuro gave a short huff.
It was slightly annoyed with its inability to carry the egg before. However, after practicing again and again and finally succeeding, these birds came and disturbed it, breaking its concentration and its jubilant mood.
It gently uncoiled itself from the brown egg and nudged it to the side.
It activated its innate skill and transformed into a fifteen-meter-long black serpent with a half meter long silver horn!
Kuro's scales were slightly erected diagonally from its body. Each scale was translucent-black, with the shape of an elongated leaf. The end of each scales were razor sharp. The singular horn on its forehead were emitting crackling blue electricity.
When the birds saw this scene, they knew with their internal injury, they had kicked against a steel board (2). However, they simply couldn't stop their plunging motion towards the gigantic snake. They hardened their resolved and accumulated their internal energy at their claws and beaks to attack the poacher resolutely.
It was a do or die attack!
When their physical attacks nearly met with the snake's eyes, the electricity generated from the snake's horn suddenly zapped them both into petrification.
Both birds fall to the ground while emitting a barbecued chicken smell.
They had lose their gamble and it costed them their lives.
If Hana was here, she would've asked Kuro to season the birds first after cleaning their internal organs before eating. It would've been a feast.
Kuro lowered its gigantic head and with a swoop, swallowed both dying birds, leaving no feathers behind.
Tsk! Tastes so flat! (3) It clicked its tongue unhappily.
It quickly resumed it mini size again and recoiled itself on the egg.
It needed to move away as fast as possible. Two low level birds were okay. He knew he was not up to par with the bird king yet. If not, he would've robbed all the eggs in the stupid birds' territory.
It then slithered forward as fast as he could by moving the upper part of its own body forward.
Although Kuro's movement was quite fast, it was not as fast as before where it could jump from tree to tree.
From afar, the little snake looked like a fast-moving snail who was infused with nitrous oxide in its DNA (4).
It didn't occur to Kuro to move in its original form at all. It could've hold the egg in its gigantic mouth and moved ten times faster. In its mind, its cute self was the best, as it knew, even this cute mini self was too much for Hana to handle. It didn't want to be disowned by its mommy.
As the sun was getting lower, the hardworking little snake slithered forward with determination towards its mommy's cave dwelling. It knew she must've return home by now. It truly hoped she was alright. It had left her defenseless for the whole day. It hope that she will be happy with her presents.
What a hardworking little fellow!
Super sweet and sensible right. 😊
Author's note:
(1) tissue paper = Paper napkins. Everyone around here never called them paper napkins, just 'tissue paper' or 'tissue'. If you go to a normal restaurant in Malaysia and ask for a 'paper napkin', they will show you a blank expression (laughing). Just say 'tissue', then you can see a comprehending look appear.
(2) they had kicked against a steel board = a standard wuxia/xianxia saying which means "biting more than you can chew".
(3) Tastes so flat! = Mrs Mooncat dad used to say this all the time when he ate her cooking (mind you, at that time, Mrs mooncat was just a teenager). It means, it lacks taste due to not enough salt/soy sauce.
(4) nitrous oxide in its DNA = refer to the movie 'Turbo', the racing snail. Nitrous oxide is a main component in a supercharger for a car.
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mrandmrsmooncat
mrandmrsmooncat The closing of Kuro's adventure.
Next, we'll return to Hana..she's a bit lonely working alone in the woods without audience haha
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Til next Monday :)
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