Chapter 677 - 16: Beaver
The rain from last night began to evaporate under the morning sun, and the prairie was shrouded in a faint white fog, significantly reducing visibility.
Both Chen Zhou and Paul’s clothes were still wet, and the three serrated tiger cubs that made it through the night were also quite chilled.
Seeing that they couldn’t make a move anytime soon, and with Paul sneezing repeatedly and looking dispirited, Chen Zhou had no choice but to lead him away from the mound, heading deeper into the forest to find a lower area to try and start a campfire, to dry their clothes, and have a hot breakfast.
...
The forest was muddy, but the early birds, having forgotten the terrifying thunder and lightning of the previous night, were chirping away.
Many insects also started to move, together with the mammals waking up, making the whole forest seem even more alive.
After the heavy rain, finding dry branches wasn’t easy. They had walked about two kilometers forward when Chen Zhou finally couldn’t find any dry branches, so he had to make a makeshift fire-starting tool, hoping to create a spark with brute force.
Although Paul had a fire striker, in such excessively humid conditions, using it would greatly damage the striker, and Chen Zhou believed it was unnecessary.
On the way to find suitable wood for making a fire bow, Chen Zhou discovered a burrow with a diameter of about 1.2 meters.
The wild grass surrounding the burrow had been gnawed away completely. Though now messy due to accumulated water, especially at the entrance, with sporadic tu kui scattered about, Chen Zhou, who was knowledgeable about nature, could imagine how clean and tidy it would be normally.
Suspecting that some burrowing animals had nested here, he figured he had found a source of dry fuel—
Many burrowing animals have the habit of bringing back bits of branches, dry leaves, or fallen bird feathers to line their nests. Some small burrowing animals even use their burrows as storage, hoarding oil-rich fruits in large quantities in their lairs.
Whether it’s dry leaves, broken branches, or fruit shells, they’re all great materials for starting a fire.
Additionally, to prevent their burrows from being flooded, burrowing animals often pile up a mound outside the entrance to prevent rainwater from pouring in.
Some medium to large burrowing animals can even carefully design their burrows, using elevation differences to create a pressure differential inside, which facilitates better air circulation within, indirectly keeping the interior dry.
Though last night’s downpour was heavy, it came so suddenly and didn’t last long enough to inundate the nests of some small burrowing animals, let alone the homes of these medium to large burrowing creatures.
Leaning over to take a look inside the burrow and sniffing the air at its entrance, Chen Zhou smelled neither the stench of carnivores nor any trace of slithering snakes. There were marks scratched by plated bones on the ceiling and claw marks creating grooves on both sides.
Chen Zhou speculated that this burrow probably housed some herbivorous creature, so he mustered up his courage and tried to crawl inside.
Though he was confident that his skills made him brave, believing that given his physical abilities there was no risk of injury from medium-sized herbivores, he prudently took Paul’s knife along as well.
If the burrow’s owner wasn’t home, he’d take some dry branches or ripe plant seeds for lighting a fire. If he was unlucky and "the homeowner" was still sleeping in, he’d have to change theft into home invasion.
From morning till now, neither he nor Paul had eaten, both having a big appetite and subsisting on a few soaked grilled fish last night. They were famished and wanted to find something to eat; if they accidentally encountered the burrow’s resident creature, it’d simply be its bad luck.
...
Though the 1.2-meter diameter entrance wasn’t enough for Chen Zhou to walk through while bent over, it was spacious enough for crawling.
Additionally, this burrow wasn’t the kind with a wide entrance and narrow interior: the diameter remained almost unchanged from the outside inward, not affecting Chen Zhou’s speed at all.
Moreover, this consistent width offered a sense of security, at least ensuring that when retreating outward, one wouldn’t suddenly get stuck—one could smoothly exit the burrow.
Gripping the military saber, Chen Zhou crawled forward in the mud for about three or four meters without encountering any forks, nor did he find dry branches or plant seeds, but the scent characteristic of herbivores grew stronger.
Just as Chen Zhou faintly sensed that the creature that dug the burrow hadn’t left the nest, he bumped straight into a tail as thick as a small mallet.
This tail was covered in armor plates, wrapped in a bone sheath like an armored tail. The end of it was like a flail, bigger than a basketball, and before Chen Zhou could get close, the tail swung left and right, whipping toward him.
"Damn!"
Seeing the tail leaving deep dents on the tunnel walls, Chen Zhou didn’t dare face it head-on in such a narrow space and had no choice but to retreat from the burrow.
Yet the animal revealing its tail wasn’t about to let him go easily, following right behind him as he retreated, chasing him out of the burrow.
Fleeing desperately, Chen Zhou ended up with mud all over his face and head, soon crawling out of the burrow backward, butt-first.
Not far away, Paul, who was braiding grass ropes in preparation to make a fire bow, saw Chen Zhou come out so quickly and thought he had found dry wood, eagerly moving closer, only to be pushed away by Chen Zhou.
"There’s a big guy in the hole!"
Before Chen Zhou finished speaking, the animal’s tail emerged.
Then, its hindquarters appeared in their line of sight—
It was a creature resembling an ankylosaurus, but much smaller; its height was about 1.1 meters, including its tail it was approximately 2.8 meters long, its body covered with large, round plates of bone armor, shaping its body into an arch, with its fore shoulders high, hindquarters low, short legs tucked underneath the protective armor.