Chapter 38: ◎Antarctic Sweet Girl Adélie (4)◎
There is a smell of other Adélie penguins in the abandoned nest. The penguins here must have just left for a few days. The little penguin couldn't sleep when she smelled this smell, and she moved closer to him without leaving any trace.
Feeling that there was a little fur ball that radiated warmth getting closer and closer to him, the male Adélie, who was used to being alone as a penguin, opened a gap to the side.
It's summer now, and the coldness is gone. There's no need to get so close to keep warm.
But as soon as he opened a little distance, he was immediately filled in by the clingy little penguin. The other party's dependence was too obvious, and the big penguin had no choice but to lie down and stay still.
After eating, the little penguin has enough calories to burn in its body and is no longer as afraid of the cold as before. The reason why she sleeps next to him is because she wants to use the smell of the other person to cover up the original smell of the nest.
She has a bad habit and cannot sleep well without familiar smells.
Before she was lost, Adélie's mother was with her. Later, she started wandering around on her own. She couldn't get a full night's sleep in other penguin's nests. She couldn't eat well or sleep well. The whole penguin looked depressed and her physical strength couldn't keep up.
It's different now. The little penguin smells the familiar smell around her and feels that even if she comes to the Antarctic from the grassland inexplicably, it's no big deal and she can still live.
The little penguin's head is very close to the big man's fur, and she can smell the ocean's unique scent on him.
Compared with the wildness of the leopard before, it was a bit more cool and refreshing like a glacier, like dew condensed into frost on the tips of pine leaf needles, covering up other smells in this stone nest.
For the first time, Shi Qiao had a good sleep, which was also the longest she had slept since coming to Antarctica.
The male penguin will not move around as soon as he wakes up and shouts with the neighbors to wake up the cubs like other Adélie parents. Instead, he will quietly wait for the cub to sleep until they wake up naturally.
Shi Qiao slept all night without even dreaming. When she opened her eyes, she still couldn't tell where she was.
She habitually wanted to rub her old mother's belly and then found that what was rubbing against her old mother's belly was not the soft belly, but the head of a certain male Adélie.
The little penguin looked at him blankly, and then she recalled it when she saw those eyes that were even brighter than the other Adélie.
She actually found the boss.
Things are unpredictable. She became an orphan without parents again and was picked up by the boss by accident.
Seeing the penguin chick staring straight at him after waking up, Klein felt that the other person was hungry again, so instead of the young Adélie penguin taking the initiative to open her mouth and chirping at her parent to be fed, he consciously fed the food in the crop to the other person again.
Before Shi Qiao could figure out her next plan, she was involuntarily fed breakfast. The meal she had last night was still undigested in her stomach, and now she was full again.
It's two extremes from when she was about to starve to death.
A certain penguin looked as if he wanted to throw her into the nook and cranny of his horns, but he did not stop feeding her. It was only after Shi Qiao turned her head away first and refused to eat that he stopped.
The feeling of being able to eat as soon as she opened her eyes was so rare that Shi Qiao struggled to swallow the food for fear of vomiting and wasting the food.
Now when she thinks about the days when she had to compete to get food, she feels that it is different than now.
With Klein by her side, the little penguin was eagerly looking forward to returning to Adélie parents. She couldn't outrun Eric, and she would have to wait for death if she went back.
However, the male Adélie next to her didn't know the reason at all and still wanted to send the picked cub back to her home.
If she wanders outside for a few days, she will be eaten by Antarctic skuas. Very few penguins are willing to mind their own business and adopt a stray little penguin.
And no single man without a partner is willing to cause trouble for himself.
Don't be too relaxed if he has a penguin. He doesn't have to take turns taking care of the children like other Adélie parents. Even if he goes to sea, he can stay as long as he wants. The food he catches is his own, so he doesn't need to set aside most of it to raise his children.
No matter how he looks at it, he can live comfortably without the oil bottle.
Shi Qiao finally lost her strength, and her body gained strength after a night's rest. The male Adélie was ready to take her to continue searching one by one using yesterday's elimination method.
The little penguin didn't want to go back and wait for death. However, when the other party saw her lying down again, he thought that the little penguin was probably not very smart, so he simply didn't talk nonsense to the little penguin who didn't understand the call of the penguin. He directly held the little penguin's neck, carried the little penguin to his feet in the same way as yesterday, and used himself to help the other person move.
Shi Qiao was forced to follow the boss who insisted on taking her to find a home. It was much easier to walk without having to stagger on her own. It took a lot of effort for her short legs to keep up with the boss.
Even the family search plan is still not going well.
When some Adélie parents see a little penguin led by a "parent" approaching them, they mistakenly think it is a provocation. They stick out their heads and start nagging, almost poking the little penguin's head with their pointed beaks.
The beak of an adult Adélie is so hard that even Antarctic skuas have to get out of the way, let alone use some strength to pick off the head of a cub. Being poked will cause pain for a long time.
Just as Shi Qiao was about to retreat, the male Adélie who was following closely behind her had sharp eyes and a quick mouth. He intercepted the adult parent who was about to attack her halfway, slapped her flippers, and punched the opponent hard. The Adélie parent was pushed to the ground, and then she was slapped several times on the head by the ferocious male.
The adult Adélie penguin was stunned. It was beaten on the head and face before it even had a chance to touch the baby. How could the penguin be so black?!
Shi Qiao stood aside and watched the boss fight, slapping her flippers and applauding the opponent. Even if he became a penguin, he was still a boss who was not easy to mess with. He didn't push too much and would beat the opponent if he didn't like it.
Of course, it was also because the other party bullied the cub he was protecting.
Although the little thing looks stupid and easy to bully, it cannot be used as a sandbag by these penguins.
Klein called out to the cub behind him, signaling for her to follow him. He left behind the Adélie parents who were still struggling to get up from the ground, and continued to the next home with the little penguin.
Shi Qiao followed behind the big boss, feeling like she was a little follower again.
With Klein backing her up, Shi Qiao, who had been either bullied by cubs or driven away by the adult Adélie in the past, could finally walk around this settlement with swagger.
But despite searching, she still couldn't find the previous stone nest and the penguin parents who were directly related by blood.
It wasn't that the little penguin was pretending to be stupid on purpose. Shi Qiao felt that when she saw the big boss, she couldn't even remember the appearance and sounds of Adélie parents.
Face blind as she is, it seems she can only distinguish the appearance of a penguin behind her.
The other person didn't even let her walk and just put her on his feet instead. She felt a little embarrassed. After half a day, she got off the other person and followed him, taking the initiative to help the boss lighten the burden.
Not far away, there was a commotion in the pile of Adélie penguins behind them.
Shi Qiao already had experience, and she knew without even looking at them, just by listening to the sound of these Adélie expulsions, that the Antarctic skua must be coming to hunt again.
In the past, this was the time when she would hurriedly seek help from other adult Adélie. Now the little penguin didn't panic at all when she saw the circling figure of the great skua. With the big boss here, how could he let her be eaten by her natural enemies?
Some penguins have an air of being kept away from raw geese, like street kids who only know how to fight, but they actually have a very strong sense of responsibility.
If he says he wants to help, he must help to the end. He cannot let the other party burp under his nose on the way home.
Pushing the little penguin behind him, he called out a few times to the eagerly watching Antarctic Skuas. The call of the male Adélie is not as sharp and harsh as other species of the same kind. It has a powerful and scornful aura, coupled with its size that arrogantly dominates the geese, it makes the raptors consider whether to take this risk.
Shi Qiao peeked her head out from behind the opponent to watch the confrontation between the big brother and the Antarctic skua. Adélie in other places has been captured by another great skua, and the unprotected young have become the prey of the raptor, happily taking them back to share the food.
The Antarctic skuas here really want to take away this fragrant and tender little penguin.
However, the little penguin that it had coveted before now hugged its lap, and it still had extremely strong legs. As soon as the big bird landed in front of the male Adélie, he was grabbed on the wing by the male Adélie, and several flight feathers were plucked out.
Skua: "..."
This penguin is too cruel.
Even more ferocious than the Antarctic raptor.
Seeing that the situation was not good, the Antarctic skua ran away decisively. When it flew up, a few feathers that had been loosened by pecks fell from its wings.
Klein turned around, picked up the little rookie, and put the opponent on his feet. It was safer to protect her in front of him.
In this way, Shi Qiao once again became the boss's movable pendant, which attracted the other Adélie who had just sent away the Antarctic Skua to look at them sideways. They had never seen such a pampered child. All their little penguins could run and jump and didn't even walk much.
Klein turned his head and looked at Adélie who was pointing, and the parents of Adélie who were screaming were instantly silenced.
Antarctic skuas will shy away from each other when they see each other. They don't want to cause trouble for themselves.
Shi Qiao didn't expect that she wouldn't have to walk independently this time as if her legs were broken. This shows that a certain single male still dotes on his child without knowing it.
She is doted on and won't let go of other penguins who don't like her and will be beaten up if they bully her. The main thing is that he has an arbitrary way of raising a baby.
After several days of searching for a home for the little penguin, there was no progress. Even though Klein's crop, which was rich in food, had been greatly depleted, only the last bit of krill was left.
When Shi Qiao saw the other party's visibly deflated stomach, she knew that the boss probably didn't have much extra food.
The little penguin closed her mouth tightly and didn't complain about hunger for two or three days. She just wanted the other person to save the food and not waste it all on her.
Klein found that when he was preparing to feed in the past two days, he couldn't get a certain cub to open her mouth. The cub looked soft and limp, but in fact, she turned her head and was very stubborn. She said she wouldn't eat just because she said she wouldn't.
The impatient male Adélie held down the penguin chick's head with one of his flippers, preparing to force it open, but unexpectedly, his belly was rubbed by the penguin chick.
The little penguin's moist and bright eyes were a little worried, and he touched his belly with her tender beak.
It seemed like he was being asked to keep the food.
The male Adélie glanced at the little guy and called her impatiently: "I'm not hungry, please open your mouth and eat quickly."
The little penguin didn't get angry when she was attacked, but she just didn't want to accept the food obediently.
In the end, her arms couldn't twist her thighs. Klein caught the other person under his flippers, pried open the little penguin's beak, fed the remaining food in, and watched the other person swallow it all before letting go.
It was the first time Shi Qiao was fed so roughly that she almost choked.
After finally swallowing the food, she saw a certain male penguin turning his head and lying on his nest, as if nothing had happened just now.
She angrily bit the opponent's head with her mouth, but unfortunately, the power was too weak and could only cause 0,0000001 damage, which was completely negligible.
The rough-skinned Klein didn't even raise his head. He glanced at her lightly and let the little thing do whatever she wanted.
Although the little thing he picked up was an idiot who couldn't understand the language, she was still very considerate and sensible. She didn't eat for two days in a row just to keep it for him.
Klein thought as he watched the little penguin, who was only angry for a short while, lie down on the ground and sleep next to him regardless of any previous grudges.
Unable to find its parents, the baby penguin was left to die.
He decided not to waste time doing useless work and just take her with him and raise her by himself.