"Did anyone notice where the howl came from last night?"
After they set off, Zhang Zian asked the elfins.
The elfins looked at each other and all shook their heads. Richard wanted to say something, but it was the least likely to know, so Zhang Zian pinched its mouth in advance.
"I can only roughly tell which direction it came from."
Old Time Tea raised its paw and pointed to the front, drawing an angle of about 45 to 60 degrees.
This was understandable. The howl was too sudden. At that time, they were fully prepared to deal with the wolves in the suburbs. When they suddenly heard the howl, they had no time to carefully distinguish the direction of the howl.
This dense forest covered a wide area, with many plains and few mountains. In the quiet night, the howl could travel very far, and the sound waves were repeatedly divided and reflected between the thick trees. Even if Sihwa, who had the strongest hearing among the elfins, was present, it was difficult to determine the exact source of the sound.
The key was that the wolf had only howled once. If it had howled a few more times, it might have been possible to narrow the range.
Zhang Zian looked down at his phone. The light representing the elfins was also in that range. Maybe it was a coincidence, maybe it was not.
Then, he noticed an anomaly — the light representing the elfins seemed to be dimmer than before.
He rubbed his eyes and took a closer look. It did seem to be a little dimmer, but it could also be a visual error. After all, the weather in the first few days of entering the forest was dim, and the phone screen appeared bright. These two days, the weather was good, and the surroundings were bright, but the phone screen appeared dark. He had always set his phone to a fixed brightness.
In addition, the size of the light seemed to have shrunk.
Unfortunately, he didn't have a screenshot at first, so he couldn't be sure with the naked eye.
Was this new elfins finally going to disappear?
He remembered that when Pi appeared in the Binhai University library, the light representing it was dimming at a speed that was almost visible to the naked eye. At one point, Zhang Zian felt that he couldn't help it find the book it wanted in time. Fortunately, with the help of Xinghai and the help of others, plus a little luck, he finally brought the book to it before it disappeared completely.
In the process of capturing other elfins, he didn't encounter a situation where time was so tight, because they were all captured within a short period of time after they appeared, which was different from the situation with this new elfins.
This new elf had already existed for a few days. In a sense, this should mean that it was very powerful and had a deep obsession in its heart. Even so, its power was still weakening. Could it be that it couldn't hold on any longer?
Zhang Zian felt that it was a pity, but there was nothing he could do. He couldn't just recklessly rush towards its position in the forest just because it might disappear soon. That would be too dangerous.
Judging from the slow dimming speed of the ball of light, there was still quite some time before it completely disappeared.
Similar to yesterday, Famous walked at the front, followed closely by Pi, waving its wooden stick. The other elfins walked around casually. Richard squatted on the backpack, its mouth never resting for a moment.
The burns on the spotted owl's wings were almost completely healed, and fine fluff had begun to grow on its pink, new flesh. At the very least, it would no longer affect its ability to hunt, so Zhang Zian did not need to feed it any more jerky. However, it was still squatting on the backpack. Perhaps it felt that it was good to get a free ride.
The situation of the herd was similar to that of the head deer. After yesterday's frightening night, the herd was even more afraid to leave without permission, and the distance between them was even closer.
Zhang Zian was walking forward slowly when Famous suddenly stopped and said, "There's the smell of a cat again."
He hesitated for a moment. "Forget it. If there's a cat, then there's a cat. Just think of it as a pet cat brought by a homeless person that got lost."
"The smell this time is very fresh," Famous added. "And … there's the smell of blood."
Zhang Zian and the elfins were stunned when they heard that.
Fina was concerned about the safety of the cats, so it walked near Famous and sniffed it. From its solemn expression, Famous was right. The smell of blood came from the cat, not from the prey that the cat had hunted.
"What the f * ck! Who has the guts to hurt these proletarian cats that are actively pursuing progress? "Vladimir clenched a fist and said angrily.
From Vladimir's point of view, the cats that had been brought into the forest by the homeless had nothing. They couldn't enjoy the superior life of the house cats in the city, so they naturally had the potential to become a Meow Meow Doctrine Believer. They were worthy of development and training. Ever since it had heard that there were homeless cats in the forest, it had been thinking about how to unite these cats and establish a branch in the Mahogany Forest. In the end, these cats had been encircled by the reactionary forces, and they had tried in vain to strangle the seed of the Meow Meow Doctrine Believer in the cradle.
Zhang Zian didn't want to meddle in other people's business. At the very least, he wanted to wait until he solved the main problem. If he had the time, then he would think about why the house cats had appeared in the depths of the forest. However, looking at the situation now, Fina and Vladimir both wanted to find out the truth. After all, they were compatriots who shared weal and woe.
Putting himself in Fina's shoes, if he found out that there were innocent people injured or dead in the forest, he couldn't just ignore it. So he volunteered to take on the task of finding Megan.
"Could it be that the cat encountered a coyote or … a wolf?" Old Time Tea said cautiously. Because of what had happened last night, the first thing that came to its mind were these two kinds of beasts.
Zhang Zian nodded. "That's possible. But the problem is … there are trees everywhere in the forest. If the cat encountered a wolf or a coyote, even if it couldn't beat it, wouldn't it climb up a tree to hide? Wolves and coyotes don't climb up trees, so the cat should be very safe hiding in a tree. "
That question was reasonable.
There were almost no snakes in the Mahogany Forest. There were only a few kinds of beasts that the cat might encounter, and most of them didn't know how to climb trees.
"Could it have been attacked by a North American bobcat, a cougar, or an eagle?" Old Time Tea asked again.
Zhang Zian scanned the surrounding environment. "The forest nearby is too dense, and it's not suitable for eagles to fly. I can't say for sure about the other two."
"Instead of guessing, why don't we go and take a look?"
Fina said. It was the first to follow the smell, and it turned a corner and walked in the other direction.
Old Time Tea also nodded. "There's no point in talking. Let's go and take a look."
They couldn't let Fina go alone, so they could only follow behind.
Zhang Zian secretly sighed. Although Famous had pointed out that the smell was fresh, who knew how much longer they would have to walk for it?
Zhang Zian had no choice but to follow.
After following the smell for about half an hour, the smell of blood became more and more obvious. Of course, Zhang Zian couldn't smell it. The elfins all quickened their pace, and Fina even started running. Zhang Zian was left far behind, and he kept reminding them to slow down.
Fina finally stopped in front of the body of a cat.
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