Chapter 139 – The Giant Eagle
Translated by Sunyancai
The two serpents were much larger than Shao Xuan, even without their special scales. They were slowly moving towards Shao Xuan and Chacha.
Strangely enough, Shao Xuan saw a kind of ridicule in their cold eyes.
Though witnessing the retreat of their own kind under the sword of Shao Xuan, they didn’t come to help, but kept observing from those high branches. They seemed to have been using him to test out the actual strength of Shao Xuan. As they now found that Shao Xuan was too exhausted to pose a threat to them, and they were also attracted by the seemingly delicious little eagle beside Shao Xuan. Finally, they climbed down from the tree slowly.
The two serpents started approaching Shao Xuan slowly in the special way they crawl.
Just as Shao Xuan was contemplating whether to duke it out or try to escape while carrying Chacha, a shrill eagle scream came from the sky all of a sudden.
The scream not only shocked the silent forest, but also interrupted the slow pace of the serpents.
The serpents seemed to sense something using their tongues, and stopped approaching Shao Xuan and Chacha.
Shao Xuan’s heart started beating violently.
It must be an eagle.
Eagles and snakes were each other’s nemesis. Either the former ate the latter, or the latter ate the former.
Of course, Shao Xuan and Chacha were too weak to threaten the two serpents.
Weak creatures could hardly survive in this forest.
Chacha turned his head, shifting his attention from the serpents to the sky
Whoosh!
A great figure flew over their heads.
It seemed that the two serpents were wavering between whether to leave or not. At the same time, the great figure flew over again. However, this time it directly flew through the dense twigs above with force.
It tore apart the dense twigs with its two big claws, showing an eagle head as large as Chacha himself.
It must be another Giant Mountain Eagle, Shao Xuan thought.
This one could be considered large from among the Giant Mountain Eagles. Compared to it, Chacha was just like a kid in kindergarten.
Ferociously staring at the two serpents on the ground, the giant eagle dived towards them.
The twigs cracked!
Countless twigs broke off and fell down like rain.
Shao Xuan hurriedly carried Chacha and hid. He did not dare to immediately escape, because the giant eagle could fend off the serpents here. However, they might come across more serpents if they just ran away.
So it was better to stay here and check the situation first.
Flying aggressively through the twigs, the giant eagle fell down with its big claws grasping a branch that even 10 people could not embrace, leaving many hollow spots.
When the eagle was merely several meters above the ground, it dived towards one of the serpents with all its strength concentrated on its claws.
However, the space below the forest was still a little bit narrow for the eagle to
stretch its wings, which adversely affected its flexibility to a large extent. Even so, its claws still strongly struck the serpent.
The eagle smashed the serpent with its claws swiftly and violently onto the ground, and then pecked it with its pointy beak that was as sharp as a blade.
The other serpent wanted to help its companion, but only managed to bite a few eagle feathers and then was slapped by the eagle wing.
Normally, eagles would hunt in a wider space than a dense forest, unless they were trapped in them. Besides, it was likely for their wings to be injured by twigs. Even if the eagle had tougher wings than ordinary birds, it wasn’t really free from its influence.
Shao Xuan dared not to help the eagle because he would do a disservice to it if he joined in the battle of the three giant beasts.
The giant eagle grasped the injured serpent and threw it against the thick branch vigorously. The other serpent tried to bite the eagle and was whipped using the captured serpent.
Bang!
The head of the serpent bumped against the branch over and over again, with every vigorous slam leaving a dent on the branch.
Shao Xuan laughed with his mouth wide open. The eagle was indeed a master in this aspect, and was apparently skillful in using a serpent like a whip. It was his first time seeing an eagle using a snake as a whip like this.
The giant eagle seemed to know well about its weaknesses in a forest, thus dealt with its preys in an easier way.
Chacha was also shocked by the scene, but it soon became excited and yearned to hold the serpent like that and throw it around a few times.
Finally, the serpent that was thrown around began to feel dizzy and was ripped apart by the eagle’s beak without finding an opportunity to bite its claw.
Its thick and hard skin had been pecked many times, there was brown and green blood everywhere. Every time when it was pecked by the eagle’s beak, a piece of the serpent’s flesh was torn off.
The other serpent tried to escape, so the giant eagle put down the wounded one to capture it.
Finally, both the serpents fell under the eagle’s claws.
After pecking and tearing apart the two serpents, the giant eagle threw one of them to Shao Xuan and Chacha with its claw, and then fluttered its wings while holding the other one. It seemed that the eagle intended to leave and find another place to enjoy its prey.
The thrown serpent was apparently a charity from the giant eagle. But how could Shao Xuan give up this opportunity just for that?
So he carried Chacha and rushed towards the eagle with all his strength.
He could see that the giant eagle didn’t intend to kill Chacha, but for prudence sake, he slowed down after running forward a few steps.
The giant eagle paused from flying off and glared at Shao Xuan, who got a scare and broke out in a cold sweat.
Chacha also gave a lot of help. It gave full play to its cleverness and “shamelessness” by whining to the giant eagle for sympathy.
While Shao Xuan was approaching, the giant eagle stared at him, seemed to be lost in thought and reduced its fierceness.
It fluttered its wings and flew up while holding out its claws to the ground.
Shao Xuan grasped Chacha by one of his legs and then jumped up and coiled his legs around some part of serpent body which had been pecked to vertebra. It was the only part which was thin enough for Shao Xuan to put his legs around.
Along with the rising of the giant eagle, Shao Xuan hung upside down by holding on the serpent. He was soaked by the brown and green blood. And Chacha was also very uncomfortable, for he was rarely grasped upside down like this.
Thanks to his strong body with the power of a totem warrior, Shao Xuan could carry the weight of Chacha. Usually, in the tribe, it was even not difficult for him to carry big stones, and Chacha was much lighter than the stones, despite of his larger body size.
When rising, the giant eagle could not fly freely, so it often had to rely on surrounding trees, which made Shao Xuan and Chacha collide many times with the trees. Thus they understood the feeling the serpent had that time.
Shao Xuan made every effort to hold onto Chacha firmly so that he doesn’t slip out of his hands.
They dared not to hope that the eagle would allow them to sit on its back. Actually, the eagle had a good temperament. It still showed some kindness to Chacha, even though they were not of the same blood. However, Shao Xuan dared not to ask too much of it, or it might become irritated and eat the both of them.
In the fierce beast world, it was normal for a same species to eat another.
After flying out of the forest, the eagle could fly much more easily. Shao Xuan even felt that it was easier for him to breathe.
The giant eagle ascended higher and higher to keep away from the top of the forest.
It was quite an experienced eagle, while Chacha was just a greenhorn.
Together with the scene of the ground getting smaller, Shao Xuan’s view also got wider. Shao Xuan could see the mountains in the distance, and the green forest.
He hadn’t had the time to observe the giant eagle until he was high up in the sky.
After carefully observing, Shao Xuan found that its state was not as good as he had thought. Fragments of its claws were about to fall off, as well as two bleeding broken toes, which was caused by the battle with the two serpents just now. Besides, its flying posture was also not as swift and violent as it had been before. It fluttered heavily as if it suffered from great gravity. In fact, the weight of Shao Xuan and Chacha meant nothing to such a giant eagle. As to the serpent grasped by the eagle, it could also not be that heavy.
It seemed very hard for the giant eagle to fly.
Then Shao Xuan moved his attention from its claws to its feathers and its beak. Though it resembled Chacha greatly, Shao Xuan was very familiar with Chacha that he could notice the tiny difference between their beaks. Its beak was more crooked than Chacha’s, which was not convenient for pecking prey.
Was it caused by disease?
Or by other factors?
Despite of its seemingly aggressive manner, the eagle suffered from a weakened body. Any fight could bring it tremendous pain.
It was beyond imagination that the eagle, so strong and fierce just now in the forest, should be in such a state. If not for this sight, Shao Xuan would have believed that it was still healthy and strong.
While he was pondering, a possibility occurred to Shao Xuan.
Is it possible that the eagle was getting old?
But he had no idea how old the eagle was and how long it would take for Chacha to
grow that large.
Dozens of years?
Hundreds of years?
Or even longer?
The mountain range was getting close. Shao Xuan had never come here. Besides, the direction the giant eagle was flying in seemed to be the same as Chacha’s.
Was it possible that they were flying to the Eagle Mountain?
However Shao Xuan didn’t see any other giant eagles here. If it was the Eagle Mountain, why did they see no other eagles here?
It appeared that the Eagle Mountain was still far from here.
This location was just where the giant eagle stopped over temporarily.
When they were close to the high mountain, the giant eagle started to flutter its wings vigorously to go higher. This way, Shao Xuan could feel its tiredness more clearly. Even Chacha could more easily carry Shao Xuan before.
Finally, the giant eagle landed beside a cliff, throwing the serpent on the ground. Shao Xuan also dismounted from the serpent and went to the other side while carrying Chacha.
Shao Xuan didn’t touch the serpent because it was hunted by the giant eagle. Most fierce beasts highly valued the exclusivity of their prey, so they would risk their life in protecting them.
Chacha also left the serpent alone, staying quietly besides Shao Xuan.
Shao Xuan grabbed two hunks of medium-sized dried meat from his animal skin bag, which were somewhat hard to chew. He gave one piece to Chacha, leaving the other one for himself.
However, Chacha stared at the meat in Shao Xuan’s hand with some hesitation. Though it didn’t like such processed meat, it had no choice but to eat that to heal.
Bang!
A hunk of bloody serpent meat was thrown to Chacha by the giant eagle.
Chacha looked at the giant eagle who was busy pecking and then to the fresh meat in front of him, giving up the dried meat from Shao Xuan.
Shao Xuan retracted his hand and started to eat the dried meat. Meanwhile, he said to himself silently that the giant eagle seemed to be very kind. Was it a general character shared by the elderly?