The moon was bright and there were few stars out, but the night sky reflecting off Angikuni Lake was beautiful.
There were no industrial buildings, not even traces of humanity from ages ago. There was no pollution, so the night sky seemed extraordinarily clear and beautiful.
What really surprised Li Du was that the island was populated by quite a lot of animals, insects, and birds. He listened to the sounds of insects and birds alike chirping. Ah Meow and the rest went out to hunt and brought back a few wild rodents and birds back with them.
The bonfire crackled as it burned. They had to take precautions against unforeseen dangers since this was a foreign island, so the bonfires that surrounded the camping ground burned fiercely.
They collected a lot of dry firewood in the evening, but it was not enough to last them past midnight.
Brother Wolf brought a few people who circled the area and they found a few dried trees to cut down and bring back to use as firewood. Like this, they managed to hold on until daybreak.
Ah Ow, who had been sleeping by the entrance of the tent, suddenly leapt up at dawn with its ears perked up and cried out a few times.
Li Du was on his toes the whole time. He immediately leaned forward at the sound of the wolf howling. He asked, “What’s wrong?”
A few of the little ones stirred from their sleep. Ah Fei got its head from under its wing, then stared up at the sky in a trance.
Vampire, who had been on duty, walked over and said, “I didn’t get a good look at what happened but it seems like something flew down. It could just be a large bird, there are many of them on this island.”
There were no injuries, deaths, or losses. Realistically speaking, they were not attacked either, so this could have just been a fright. Li Du patted Ah Ow’s head to soothe it a little before going back to nap.
Some time passed before Ah Ow started howling again. At the same time, Ah Meow was roaring and Ah Bai was chirping.
Li Du was roused from his slumber yet again, and he hurriedly stuck his head out to look at what was happening. He saw a shadow on the tent door that was slowly shrinking. Ah Meow and Ah Ow were growling with their heads tilted up, and a strong gust of wind hit them full-on at the same time. Ah Fei flapped its wings and flew up into the sky!
Some of the other people had already woken up and were preparing to fetch some water so they could wash up.
The bunch of them scuttled back at the sight of this. Madman bellowed, “F*ck, what kind of bird is this?”
A large bird was circling around the area from up in the sky. Li Di could not see very clearly, but he saw for sure that the bird was clutching a white blob in its claws, and that white blob was Ah Bai!
The realization sent him into a panic. He called out, “Hurry and take it down, it’s got Ah Bai!”
Madman raised his gun and pulled the trigger. With the sharp sound of a gunshot, the white bird tilted its body. Just when Li Du had thought the bird was shot, it swerved to fly westward instead.
The shot missed and the white bird flew higher yet.
Opening fire was not a good move because the bird had Ah Bai in its claws, so one wrong shot and Ah Bai could easily get hurt.
It was a good thing they had their own air force here. After Ah Fei took off, it flapped its wings with all its might and stretched out its hairless neck as far as it could go, looking very much like a large plane chasing after the white bird.
The white bird was a large one, but it was not as big as the Andean condor, which was terrifyingly huge. The white bird’s wingspan was half as long as Ah Fei’s at most.
Nevertheless, it was fast. Andean condors were famed for their stamina, not so much for their bursts of speed. On top of that, a larger bird would take a longer time to warm up, so Ah Fei could not catch up with the white bird in time.
It was a good thing Brother Wolf had returned at this time. He brought a few men with him, who raised their guns towards the white bird and opened fire as well. The white bird turned back at the sound of gunshots and changed its direction again.
The rest of them had noticed something: the white bird was afraid of the sound of gunshots. Either that, or it was extremely sensitive to the flow of air, so much so that the mere presence of bullets in its flight path was enough to scare it into changing directions.
The people below obstructed the bird by shooting at it and with their help, Ah Fei finally had the upper hand in terms of altitude.
At this time, Brother Wolf waved his hand and the crowd released their hold on the triggers. They could only leave the rest to Ah Fei.
The gunshots ceased and Ah Fei nosedived from where it was. Its colossal body blocked out the sky and the sun and it was as if a bomber was charging towards the white bird from high up in the sky.
The white bird was unusually vigorous even in the face of an opponent that was larger than itself. It did not escape in a panic, choosing instead to look up and welcome the attack with its hooked beak.
“A gyrfalcon,” Brother Wolf recognized the bird. “This is a bird of prey frequently seen in the northern part of Canada, but it’s no match for Ah Fei so we don’t have to worry. We should focus on how to rescue Ah Bai.”
Li Du was extremely panicked. He called out, “Where did this thing come from? How did Ah Bai land in its clutches?”
Vampire confessed a little guiltily, “Sorry, boss, this was the thing behind the sneak attack at the camping site earlier on. I didn’t notice, I thought that things would be fine as long we chased it away—”
“What’s the point of telling me all this?” Li Du roared. “Hurry up and f*cking think of a way to save Ah Bai!”
This gyrfalcon had pounced on the camping grounds earlier and everyone thought the large bird would not return after being scared off by Ah Ow, but they had completely misread the situation. The bird’s first purpose was to get a feel of things, and it never left. The second time it was here it made its sudden attack and grabbed Ah Bai.
Li Du looked up at the sky anxiously. Ah Fei was now locked in a battle with the gyrfalcon up in the sky.
Andean condors might be big, but they were honestly rather average when it came to fighting. The ones who could really fight were the vicious ones like golden eagles and bald eagles.
Andean condors were scavengers and were not good at fighting. They were more used to looking for dead animals.
Gyrfalcons were a type of falcon, birds of prey who were good at fighting. However, Ah Fei was no regular Andean condor. It was unusually clever and knew how best to use its abilities.
After the first round of confrontation, it did not do much damage to the gyrfalcon. Only a few of its feathers were plucked clean off. Ah Fei knew there and then that it was no match for the other bird if it relied only on its skills.
Therefore, it switched to another strategy. Ah Fei did not try to snap at the gyrfalcon again after charging. This time, it capitalized on its strength, relying entirely on brute force to suppress its opponent!
Ah Fei charged with all its strength, tilting its head, completely overshadowing the gyrfalcon before pressing down to send it flying downwards.
The gyrfalcon was panicking now. It screeched, wanting to escape, but Ah Fei weighed it down completely.
At this moment, it was not flying too high up, so it was unable to maintain its balance when Ah Fei pressed down on it and it started tumbling in the air.
The gyrfalcon started clawing about in a panic and could no longer hold on to Ah Bai as steadily as it did before. It loosened its grip on Ah Bai and threw it down.
Ah Bai screeched from high up in the sky, thinking it was falling to its death.
The Markelov brothers reacted quickly. They had already pulled out a tent beforehand, which they now quickly stretched out and shifted to where Ah Bai would fall at the sight of its trajectory.
The material of the cloth was soft and Ah Bai’s fur was soft and fluffy, which combined to cushion its fall. Ah Bai ultimately survived the fall when it hit the tent.
Li Du rushed to check on the situation. Ah Bai was miserable, clutching on to one of its legs and wailing sadly as it stretched on the canvas. It seemed like it broke one of its legs.
Ah Fei forced the gyrfalcon down on the ground, but the bird managed to escape from Ah Fei’s grasp right before it hit the surface. It flipped desperately and flapped its wings in preparation to fly away.
At this moment, Ah Meow ran and launched into the air. Its paws waved about elegantly in the air and then the gyrfalcon was like a plane that had been struck by a guided missile. In an instant, it fell down head-first.
