Gathering Nectar
The next day, just as dawn broke, De Jiang rushed over with the news. "The Flying-Winged Beast has flown away!"
Jian Mo had just been woken up and was still half asleep. Hearing this, she couldn't react for a moment. "What do you mean by flying?"
De Jiang: "It flew away. We saw the Flying-Winged Beast flapping its wings and flying across the sky while we were on patrol. We thought you guys had gone out early in the morning, but then we saw Flying-Winged Beast there was no one on its back, so we realized it had run away on its own."
Jian Mo was completely taken aback that the Flying-Winged Beast would run away, and after a moment of hesitation, she said, "I'll go take a look."
They rushed to the back of the house, but the Flying-Winged Beast was indeed gone; only a long rope with fresh bite marks remained.
Jian Mo looked at Wu Jiong, her heart filled with mixed emotions, unsure of what to say.
The tribe had originally tied the Flying-Winged Beast with several ropes, and the ropes were quite short, so the Flying-Winged Beast couldn't bite the ropes at all and naturally couldn't escape.
Later, Jian Mo felt that the Flying-Winged Beast was not comfortable in this position, so she removed the other ropes, leaving only one long rope tied to its hind leg.
Now that the Flying-Winged Beast has run away, it's his fault.
Wu Jiong and Jian Mo exchanged a glance and comforted him, saying, "You were the one who rescued the Flying-Winged Beast, so it's alright if it gets lost while you're with it. It's good that food is scarce in winter; if it runs away, the burden of feeding it won't be so heavy."
Hearing this, De Jiang looked up at Wu Jiong but said nothing.
Hearing his clearly biased words, Jian Mo felt both touched and frustrated. "We still need to look for it. I wonder why it ran away?"
Perhaps the Flying-Winged Beast prefers freedom? If it were him, he might run away too.
Thinking about this, Jian Mo became even more frustrated.
After quickly finishing breakfast, Wu Jiong entrusted Tai Yan to Qing Kuo's care, then transformed into a giant wolf and carried Jian Mo on his back to find the Flying-Winged Beast.
Other people in the tribe who had nothing else to do also came out to help with the search.
The Flying-Winged Beast flew away, leaving little trace.
Even with their keen sense of smell and extensive hunting experience, the giant wolves still couldn't find any trace of the Flying-Winged Beast.
They wandered around outside all day without finding anything, and as darkness fell, they had no choice but to head back into the tribe.
Jian Mo lay listlessly on the giant wolf. "What's going on? I thought Jiujiu liked my cooking so much that she wouldn't run away."
The giant wolf turned around and nuzzled him as a sign of comfort.
Jian Mo received it, hugged the giant wolf's enormous muzzle, and rubbed against it.
Even though Jian Mo knew that Wu Jiong in his beast form was still Wu Jiong, she would still unconsciously change her behavior every time she was in his beast form.
The giant wolf looks too much like a big dog.
As darkness fell, they slowly made their way outside the tribe.
Before they could even return, Ban Ming rushed up in his beast form, meowing incoherently. "Jian Mo, Chieftain, no need to look anymore, the Flying-Winged Beast is back! The Flying-Winged Beast just flew back, meow!!!"
Jian Mo sat up straight immediately. "Really?!"
Ban Ming: "Really! It was carrying a whole bunch of Wood-Stabilizing Root! You didn't see how proud it looked, holding its head high! Everyone says it's imitating us when we go out to collect things, haha!"
Jian Mo found it unbelievable. "How could it suddenly go out to gather resources—"
Jian Mo suddenly stopped mid-sentence.
Ban Ming flicked his tail. "You remembered too, right? Yesterday we said there weren't many Wood-Stabilizing Root, so we couldn't make popsicles often. The Flying-Winged Beast must have understood, because it went out to collect them today."
Jian Mo: "It's actually that smart?"
The Flying-Winged Beast has always been quite intelligent. Jian Mo I had to describe it, I think it's about the same intelligence as a Border Collie, maybe a little less intelligent, but not by much.
Knowing that there weren't enough Wood-Stabilizing Root, it went out of its way to collect Wood-Stabilizing Root. The process from making the decision to implementing it was incredibly complicated, Jian Mo's hard to believe that it actually had the drive to do so.
Ban Ming expressed his understanding. "It's normal. Jiujiu loves to eat so much. Every time you mention food, its ears perk up. It even went out of its way to collect Wood-Stabilizing Root because it wanted to eat popsicles. My brother and his friends do the same."
Jian Mo immediately became alert. "Banjiu didn't run away, did they?"
Jian Mo sighed and turned to Wu Jiong: "Remind everyone to watch out for their kids, otherwise I'm afraid there will be copycat crimes soon."
The giant wolf's deep voice rang out. "Alright."
Jian Mo and the others went to see the Flying-Winged Beast.
The Flying-Winged Beast still carried that large bunch of Wood-Stabilizing Root, refusing to let anyone else take them away.
Upon seeing Jian Mo, it immediately raised its head and puffed out its chest, sitting upright and meowing indistinctly while holding Wood-Stabilizing Root its mouth. "Jiujiu chirp chirp!"
Jian Mo with mixed feelings, "You've worked hard."
The Flying-Winged Beast carried the Wood-Stabilizing Root in its mouth and placed it in front of Jian Mo: "Jiujiu!"
Jian Mo looked at the Flying-Winged Beast's big head that was eagerly leaning in for praise, and gently patted it. "I know, Jiujiu is really amazing."
The Flying-Winged Beast was quite pleased with Jian Mo's praise, flapped its wings, and stirred up a gust of wind. "Jiujiu!"
Jian Mo smiled.
The Flying-Winged Beast belatedly realized that Jian Mo didn't seem too happy. It turned its round head to look around, and it seemed that no one around it intended to praise it.
This big guy, who was good at reading people's expressions, followed everyone's gaze and looked to the side, quickly spotting the rope on the ground.
It instantly felt guilty, shifted to the side, and plopped down on the broken rope, covering it with its massive body. "Eek."
Jian Mo's feelings became even more complicated.
You're so smart, you should know that burying your head in the sand won't work, right?
Chapter 25 Obtaining Nectar
Jian Mo returned, and the others went back.
Jian Mo squatted down in front of the Flying-Winged Beast, sternly reprimanding it. "You can't do that next time. You have to tell me before you go out. Sneaking out is not something a child should do."