Chapter 6: The Big Bad Wolf and the Eagle

  A group of children shouted in panic, releasing their entwined opponents and rushing out of the stream, running towards the other side of the creek. Over a dozen naked children sprinted away, with no one bothering about the abandoned clothes on the creek bank.

  The big cow's stone flew out of his hand and hit the leading gray wolf heavily, then turned around and ran towards the other side. When running past an old willow tree, he used his hands and feet to climb up the tree quickly and shouted: "Everyone, hurry up and climb the tree!"

  As soon as the reminder was given, all the children followed suit and rushed to the old willows in a flurry. The children had lived deep in the mountains for a long time, and many were born into hunting or farming families, so climbing trees was not unfamiliar to them. However, there were still five or six people who continued to run along the small road, with Wang Long being one of them. Another three people, whether due to fear or ineptitude at climbing trees, held onto each other, their legs trembling, and no matter what, they couldn't climb up.

  A triangular sharp stone flew out of Da Niu's hand and hit the mother wolf's right temple with a loud "bang". The mother wolf was caught off guard, struck squarely by the stone, and her right eye socket was instantly filled with blood. It seemed that one of the wolf's eyes had been blinded.

  Under the severe pain, the mother wolf let out a loud roar, spun around twice on the spot, then lifted her bloody head and gazed at the big cow that had quickly climbed to the top of the willow tree. The gray shadow flashed by as she pounced towards the old willow tree, climbing up several times but falling down repeatedly, refusing to give up. She circled around the base of the tree, howling wildly, unable to do anything about the big cow that had climbed to the treetop for a while.

  The creek was too shallow to stop the footsteps of a few gray wolves. In an instant, three gray wolves pounced on three little children who couldn't climb up into the trees, while another one chased after the five people running down the path.

  "Ahh!" A shrill and mournful cry, a small child who couldn't climb the tree was bitten on the shoulder by a gray wolf. In the chaos, he turned around, stretched out a small fist to hit the wolf, but the wolf's sharp right claw instantly swept across the child's smooth belly, blood splashing everywhere. A half-foot long gash opened up in his abdomen, and his intestines spilled out. The wolf let go of the child's shoulder and bit into the bloody intestines, tearing them apart with force. The child had already died from the pain, losing all consciousness.

  But all wolves and the like, most love to devour fresh internal organs. This grey wolf's belly is flat, it has been starving for countless days. At this time, it only buries its head and madly swallows blood and flesh, but also doesn't chase after other small children.

  Under another willow tree, a miserable cry came again. The second child who did not climb the tree also failed to escape the disaster and was bitten in the throat by another gray wolf, his belly ripped open.

  The third little boy under the willow tree, although short and fat, climbed onto the trunk with all his might. Who knew that this old willow branch was low and short, and the little boy had not yet climbed high when the gray wolf chasing after him jumped up high and bit down on the little boy's ankle with a loud thud. The sharp wolf teeth instantly pierced through the ankle, unable to be pulled out. The four-legged gray wolf hung in mid-air, howling and shouting as it tried to pull downwards with all its might. The little boy's face turned pale, trembling as he shouted: "Big Cow, save me!" His voice was mournful and terrified!

  Both hands instinctively grasped a willow branch tightly, not daring to let go. Alas, with single strength and weakness, how could he withstand the weight of the gray wolf hanging from his leg? His two hands softened, and he fell from the tree. He heavily slammed onto the wolf's body that had fallen first.

  It happened suddenly, the grey wolf was unable to free itself from the sharp teeth stuck in the child's ankle, and even more unable to stop the child from falling. The terrified child fell onto the wolf's neck, causing it to lose its balance. The wolf's head hung down and heavily hit a large stone protruding from the ground.

  As the child fell, a "crack" sound of broken bones came from the wolf's neck, its head tilted to one side, eyes wide open, and bright red blood flowed out of its open mouth - unexpectedly, the wolf had snapped its own neck. Its limbs twitched a few times before stopping all movement, and it died just like that.

  Unfortunately, the child had already been scared to the point of losing control of his bowels and bladder, and his mind was in a daze. His body swayed and he fell to the ground as well.

  The blind she-wolf, who was rolling around under the big bull's body, looked up at the big bull holding onto a willow branch on the treetop, let out a loud howl, turned around and pounced on the grey wolf that had fallen to the ground with its neck broken. She bit down on the shoulder of the stout little boy who was unconscious and dragged him to one side. Turning her head back, she bit down on the grey wolf's neck and shook it violently, as if trying to wake it up.

  As soon as the big cow whistled, a five or six-year-old girl in green clothes stood up under a large poplar tree tens of meters high near the cold spring, threw off a piece of emerald lotus leaf on her head, and rushed to one side of the grass. The voice said: "Shuixian brother, it seems that big brother is calling us over!"

  A lazy voice came from another boy in the bushes: "Heard that, don't mind him!"

  The little girl pouted, somewhat unhappy, and said: "We've been waiting for such a long time, but those two old owls are still perched in their nest and won't budge. At this rate, we'll never catch the young owlets!"

  "Wait a bit longer, if the old owl doesn't leave, we'll go over. Big brother is urging us to hurry, it must be those kids from Wangzhuang village causing trouble again, a bunch of useless cowards, what are they afraid of?" The boy's voice rang out again.

  The little girl pouted even more and said, "Oh dear! My legs are numb, I don't want to wait any longer! Besides, what if Wang Long is also here? What if big brother can't beat him?"

  As soon as the words fell, a rustling sound came from the treetop, and two greyish-brown eagles flew away from a huge eagle's nest made of withered branches and dead leaves. Hearing the eagle's cry above her head, the little girl quickly picked up a lotus leaf from the ground and covered her head with it, then squatted down and sat back on a smooth stone.

  Several eagle cries echoed, two eagles circled in the air for several laps, didn't find anything unusual, flapped their wings and flew far away.

  A thicket shook, and a 7 or 8-year-old boy in green clothes emerged, followed by a 5-foot-tall tawny dog. The boy's skin was dark, his eyebrows slanted like a brow, his nose straight and mouth square, his forehead broad, with a pair of shiny black eyes gleaming with excitement, he looked up at the huge eagle's nest hanging high on the branches of the big poplar tree, and ran to the foot of the tree in a few strides.

  Spitting out the dogtail grass that had been clenched in his mouth, he rushed to the little girl and said: "Xiao Juan, take Da Huang and hide first, I'll catch Xiao Jiaozi."

  Xiao Juan looked excitedly at the eagle's nest in the tree, nodded, took out a gray cloth bag from her hand and handed it to Shui Sheng. She threw away the lotus leaf in her hand, touched the big yellow dog's head, and slipped into the grass. The big yellow dog seemed to understand Shui Sheng's words, wagged its tail, and quietly followed the little girl.

  Shuisheng tied the cloth bag to his waist, spat a mouthful of saliva into the palm of his hand, hugged the thick poplar tree, and climbed up with both hands and feet, his body as agile and quick as a monkey.

  Xiao Juan lay down in the grass, covering her eyes from the scorching sun with one hand and staring intently at Shui Sheng's figure with the other. She saw Shui Sheng quickly stuff two struggling small sparrowhawks into his pocket, a smile just beginning to form on his lips, when he suddenly caught sight of two old sparrowhawks flying rapidly back in the distance. Alarmed, she cried out in a shrill voice: "Brother, brother, hurry down, the old sparrowhawks are coming back!"

  No sooner had the words fallen than a sharp eagle cry echoed through the air, and two eaglets, seeing someone daring to climb into their nest, shot towards it like two yellow arrows.

  When the sparrowhawk flew back, Shui Sheng's heart was tense, but his hands and feet didn't show a single trace of panic. He quickly tied up the mouth of the bag, not caring how the little sparrowhawk struggled and chirped inside, and only made sure to tie the cloth bag tightly to his waistband before swiftly sliding down to the bottom of the tree.

  Just as he fell halfway down the tree trunk, a hawk had already swooped down first, flapping its wings to fly over Shuǐshēng's head. Seeing that it was impossible to stop Shuǐshēng's rapid descent, it stretched out its sharp claws towards Shuǐshēng's shoulder and swiped at him. With a ripping sound, the coarse linen shirt was torn open, revealing three deep claw marks on Shuǐshēng's shoulder, from which bright red blood flowed out instantly.

  The otter clamped its jaws tightly shut, unmoving, and hugged the tree trunk, only to slide down towards the base. The sparrow hawk flapped its wings and followed behind, diving down repeatedly, but each time it missed, until finally it managed to grab onto the grey cloth bag on the otter's back with a loud "ripping" sound, tearing open a triangular hole in the bag. A small sparrow hawk struggled to poke its head out of the bag, chirping incessantly, but unfortunately the hole was too small for it to squeeze its body through.

  The second sparrow hawk had just flown in, and Shui Sheng had slid down from the tree to the ground, not noticing that his hands and feet were scratched and painful due to the intense friction, nor did he notice the fresh blood flowing from his shoulders, as he turned around and rushed into the bushes.

  Two sparrowhawks angrily cried out one after another and dived into the grass thicket, but the grass was too dense and lush, and their bodies were too slippery. The two sparrowhawks spread their wings, which were five or six feet long, and their huge bodies could not fit into the thicket at all. They flew up and down several times, but got nothing, so they had to hover in the air.

  Before long, Shui Sheng's figure appeared in the middle of the road half a mile away, with a sly smile on his face. He swung the gray cloth bag in his hand at the peregrine falcon circling in the air, then quickly tied it around his waist, raised his hands and shook them repeatedly, twisted his buttocks, whistled loudly, and shouted: "Come on! Come on! Old Peregrine, come chase me!"

  Two hawks in the sky, as soon as they saw the water creature reveal its shape, didn't care whether there was a small hawk in that gray cloth bag or not, let out a shrill cry and charged over at the same time, bringing up waves of fierce wind.

  Shuǐ shēng didn't care about the blood on his shoulder, he kept running wildly. Just as he was about to be caught up, he dodged and jumped into the roadside bushes again. When the hawk flew high, he ran out of the bushes and onto the middle of the road.

  One person and two eagles moved further away from the big poplar tree. In the grass under the tree, a green-clad girl appeared, her black eyes darting back and forth as she looked around. Seeing that the two old eagles had been lured away by the water, she said in a soft voice: "Dahuang, let's go home!" She lifted her small foot and ran towards another path. Dahuang dog followed closely behind her, with a gray cloth bag in his mouth, which clearly contained the two small eagles.

  At this moment, a mournful wolf howl came from afar, Xiaojuan suddenly stopped in her tracks, a hint of panic appeared in her eyes, the long hair on Da Huang's back stood up abruptly, vigilantly looking around, and finally turned his gaze to the creek bank, letting out an uneasy low growl.

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