Chapter 907: The Arrow is on the String
In autumn in the northern hemisphere, there is a slight chill in the air.
Mount Kilimanjaro blocks the humid monsoon from the Indian Ocean. The abundant water vapor flows back to the grassland, dissipating the daytime heat and adding a hint of coolness. Under the night sky, the clear sky is dotted with stars.
The sharp howls of jackals rose and fell on the vast plains. The red-necked nighthawks took cover in the darkness and flew past their peers. The cries they made sounded like sad cries, praying plaintively to the silent gods in the African wilderness.
Apart from that, the night was quiet.
Eleven-year-old Cecil the Lion walked briskly along the sandstone path, occasionally taking long strides to jump over the uneven ground.
The soup-plate-sized soles of his feet grabbed the rocky ground, squeezing and colliding the quartz sand, making crisp sounds.
This majestic lion only pauses to leave his scent on a roadside bush.
As the only cat species in the world with both male and female sexes, Cecil's mane fluttering in the night breeze powerfully declares his unquestionable king status in this tropical savannah.
Since becoming the lion king of this territory, Cecil has patrolled the territory every night for nearly five years, using scent to mark boundaries to maintain his dominance.
This is why male lions do not need to hunt. Their job is to ensure the safety of their territory and fight intruders.
With a powerful scrape of his paw on the sand, Cecil heavily underlined his "smell signature" to finish his work for the day.
Just as the lion king shook his hair and prepared to return to the lion group, a strong and unique smell suddenly came from the darkness ahead.
Elephant meat!
Cecil twitched his nostrils and easily smelled the owner of the scent, and he became excited.
Elephant meat, such a long-missed food.
In the vast grassland, even lions are reluctant to touch one animal: elephants.
No matter how powerful a lion group is, when facing the largest dominant unit on land, they have to live in harmony with each other carefully and endure the pain even if they are starving.
If lions want to eat elephant meat, they can only rely on luck to come across an old elephant that has starved to death, or the remains of an elephant that has been killed by humans.
Generally, they are the remains of elephants killed by humans. Old elephants that died of starvation often died near water sources and were eaten by crocodiles early on. The skeletons, still covered with shredded meat, were covered with leeches and ants, becoming extremely rotten and basically inedible.
However, the elephants killed by humans are almost intact except for their broken heads. As long as they can drive away the hyenas that come to smell the blood, they can have a comfortable meal.
Cecil didn't understand why humans killed elephants and didn't eat them, but the experience of his ancestors told him that it would never be wrong to stay away from humans, as they were more brutal than hyenas.
Cecil, who had not eaten elephant meat for a long time, was suddenly attracted by the smell of a dead elephant in the darkness, as he had just finished his work and was hungry.
Experience tells the Lion King that a free lunch is delivered to his door.
But this wreckage seemed slightly different from previous ones, and based on the big cat's experience, it should avoid taking any risks.
It smells like human.
It can smell it.
No matter how quiet humans think they are and how little they try to smell, animals will always be able to pick up on the slightest hint of something.
Clothes rustled, and the smell of toothpaste and deodorant mingled with gun oil and plastic.
Unless they abandon everything in industrial society and become naked and covered in mud, these smells are so out of place in the sensory world of wild animals, like a white snowflake floating into a black coal mine.
The strong, tempting smell of blood, mixed with the complex smell of industrial products, made Cecil hesitate.
But the smell of elephant meat was so fragrant, so fragrant that every empty intestine of its was shaking desperately, sending eating signals to the brain.
Maybe it’s the humans who drive big monsters and like to roar?
Cecil thought.
Experience has taught Cecil that humans are terrifying, and their "claws" can easily penetrate the thickest rhino skin, but it has also become accustomed to the presence of humans.
More and more humans are authorized to enter the national park for photography trips. The lion king has long been accustomed to the smell of humans. It never approaches and dares not drive them away. It can only wait for the strong, unnatural smell to slowly dissipate on the grassland.
These people must have just happened to be passing by.
Suspecting the neighbor of stealing the axe, once you have a suspect, you will take the wrong information and constantly strengthen your own logical chain. This is a mistake that even the smartest humans will make, let alone a hungry lion?
Unfortunately, the people targeting the Lion King this time were no longer the ones Cecil was familiar with.
To minimize the impact of smells and sounds and prevent them from wafting through the open space, the furtive men hid on a platform raised on a tree trunk, downwind of the elephant's carcass.
An ugly Chinese man crouched on a high platform, looking at the lion king who was stepping into the trap step by step according to the plan. The man couldn't help but grin, revealing his white teeth. It can be seen that he must take good care of his teeth .
But the man obviously did not care about nature. He held a powerful compound bow in his hand, and his palm with slightly blurred fingerprints was holding a sharp arrow in the quiver. It was self-evident what he wanted to do.
Palmer is an American dentist. He spent a full $300,000 to get everything done for this hunt, just for a few photos after the successful hunt.
A sturdy guide was accompanying Palmer on his left, and on his right was a man with an even more sturdy temperament, sitting like a bodyguard. Obviously, the man holding the gun was the safety bolt of the hunting operation.
To ensure secrecy and safety, they used an off-road vehicle to drag the elephant carcass to an open space, then built a platform on a nearby tree and set up a camouflaged hunting tent to better observe the elephant's remains from above.
After completing the disguise, Palmer went up to the platform and waited quietly for the lion to appear.
Sitting motionless in this narrow hiding place and facing all kinds of reptiles and flies should have been an unbearable chore, but the excitement of the upcoming spoils dispelled all negative factors.
This reminded Palmer of his childhood memories of sitting in front of a video game console and holding his urine to pass levels. However, as he grew older, he became interested in more exciting sports and had the financial resources to put them into practice.
As the lion got closer, everyone knew that the wait would soon be over.
The lion was an excellent hunting target - alone at the edge of a protected area and accustomed to the presence of humans.
Cecil sniffed the open space, and eventually the attraction of the elephant meat overcame his vigilance. He slowly approached the elephant carcass, and his sharp teeth tore through the hard elephant skin that felt like dry firewood like scissors, revealing bright red flesh and blood tissue, and an even stronger smell emerged.
Just a few minutes later, Cecil, who was absorbed in eating, did not notice that the hunter had an arrow on the string.
