Become a Cheetah
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The elephant herd was highly organized, but their pace was slow.
Over sixty elephants marched in a line, led by the matriarch, a fifty-six-year-old female elephant named Masha.
Her twenty-three-year-old daughter, Lola, followed closely behind. Lola had recently given birth, and her six-week-old calf, Vika, walked beside her, looking like a tiny speck.
The mother elephants with calves were well-protected in the center of the herd, while the stronger adult females and sub-adults walked on the flanks.
In Luo Qiao’s previous life, it was rare to see such a large elephant herd. Poaching and the encroachment of agriculture and livestock had made survival difficult for elephants. But on this planet, such massive herds weren’t uncommon.
Luo Sen and Luo Rui were seeing so many elephants for the first time. The two cubs pressed close to Luo Qiao, their soft gray fur blending seamlessly with the grass as long as they kept their heads down and tails still.
Luo Qiao was also nervous. Until the entire herd passed, he and the two cubs could only lie motionless in the grass.
Suddenly, the leading elephants stopped. A liquid began to secrete from their cheeks, a sign of stress when predators were detected. The females in the herd began to gather, forming a protective circle around the calves.
Among them were three or four newborn calves, making the entire herd even more cautious.
Masha raised her head and let out a loud trumpet. Luo Qiao didn’t understand what her call meant, but if he had been fluent in this 'language' he might have grabbed the two cubs and run for his life.
Lola and several adult females, hearing Masha’s call, immediately turned and charged toward the grass where Luo Qiao and the two cubs were hiding.
Luo Qiao was still clueless about what the elephants were up to. It wasn’t until they were close enough for him to clearly see the anger in the females’ eyes that he realized what was happening.
The females flapped their ears and charged at Luo Qiao and the two cubs with a speed that belied their massive size.
The elephant herd was used to dominating the savannah. They wouldn’t tolerate any predators lurking nearby, even low-threat cheetahs!
Luo Qiao and the two cubs shot out of the grass and bolted in the opposite direction. But the towering ladies were relentless. If they caught up, one stomp would turn Luo Qiao and the cubs into pancakes.
"I wasn’t planning to attack you! Why are you chasing me?!"
Even if he wanted to, he didn’t have the means! One of their legs was thicker than his waist.
"Still chasing?! The road is wide enough for you to go your way, and me to hide mine. How does that bother you?!"
Luo Qiao ran while glancing back, trying to draw the chasing elephants away from the cubs. But there were five or six females after them, and he couldn’t divert them all.
Perhaps, rather than chasing an adult cheetah, the females were more interested in stomping on the tiny cubs.
Luo Sen and Luo Rui ran for their lives, but at their speed, they couldn’t outrun the three adult females behind them. Just as one of the elephants raised her foot to stomp on Luo Sen, Luo Qiao, ignoring the danger to himself, lunged forward like lightning. At the last moment, he grabbed Luo Sen and dodged the fatal stomp.
But now Luo Qiao couldn’t run anymore. Once a cheetah reaches top speed, it can only maintain it for about thirty seconds before it must stop to rest. Otherwise, it risks injury or death from overheating. At this moment, Luo Qiao was virtually defenseless. The females could kill him with ease.
The elephants had surrounded Luo Qiao and the two cubs but weren’t in a hurry to kill them. Instead, they kept them trapped until the entire herd had passed.
When the matriarch Masha let out another trumpet, the six females finally released Luo Qiao and his sons, turning to leave. As they walked away, it seemed as if they were mocking Luo Qiao.
If it weren’t for protecting the calves, they wouldn’t have bothered with these lightweight, soft, and easily overpowered cheetahs.
Luo Qiao was left dumbfounded by the herd’s "divine intervention." What was that all about?
The elephants' arrival was a nuisance to Luo Qiao, but it was a disaster for the herbivores living there. These massive creatures, with their air of invincibility, would ruthlessly seize the water sources, grazing grounds, and forests.
The nearly dried-up ponds and the muddy tributaries of the Gansa River became their natural swimming pools. Both adult elephants and calves loved to bathe and roll in the mud to rid themselves of parasites and prevent mosquito bites.
The elephants' consumption of food and water was several times that of other animals.
Wherever the elephants went, trees were uprooted and toppled because they craved the juicy roots. The remaining green leaves and grass stalks on the grasslands were scraped clean. The water sources, already scarce during the dry season, became even more precious.
Not all animals dared to approach the Gansa River, and the Oros lion pride's territory was vast. Venturing across the entire territory to drink water was a risky gamble that could cost them their lives.
Rather than become a lion's meal, they chose to continue their thirst. The herbivores, unable to migrate, could only watch helplessly as the elephants plundered without restraint, their eyes brimming with tears as they begged these giants to leave.
Compared to the crisis facing the herbivores, the lion pride felt their authority challenged. In their territory, lions were the undisputed rulers, and even other predators dared not cross their path.
But these elephants, who had traveled far and wide, didn't care about the lions' rules.
On their first day in the center of the lion pride's territory, they made their presence known by charging into the acacia forest where the lions hid, chasing away the adult lionesses and even the cubs.
This was a tactic usually employed by water buffalo, but the elephants did it with equal ruthlessness.
The lionesses, protecting their cubs, were unable to fight back. Even with Oros's strength, he couldn't take on an entire herd of adult elephants alone. As a result, the elephants swaggered through the lion pride's territory, while the lions could only watch helplessly.
Even the herds of water buffalo, which were usually fearless, didn't dare confront the elephants. The only animals that could stand up to the elephants were the rhinos, but they had not been seen in the Oros lion pride's territory for a long time.
The Oros lionesses scolded him relentlessly, saying that a man who couldn't protect his home wasn't a real man, and a male lion who couldn't drive away the elephants and defend his territory wasn't a real lion!
Oros felt upset. He wasn't scared of the elephants. When he was young, his pride often hunted elephants for food. His old pride was huge, with many strong lionesses, male lions, and cubs. They could easily take down adult elephants.
If he hadn't left his pride alone, especially when he was younger than his brothers, he wouldn't be so embarrassed by a group of female elephants.
Just as the Oros lion pride was being humiliated by the elephants, Luo Qiao led the two cheetah cubs out of Oros's territory and into the territory of another lion pride.
The owners here were a small pride with only one male lion and three adult lionesses, all of them of the original species. Luo Qiao's arrival was purely accidental.
He had followed a herd of hartebeests here, but he didn't expect to meet a beautiful female cheetah named Gama on his first day in this territory!
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Poor Luo Qiao so much suffering just because he is a cheetah. Thank you for the chapter😍😍
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