Vegetarian wolf66-65

65

Silver Hoof joined the cows to find the carcasses of dead animals for the Wolf and Hyena by following the vultures. They soon spotted a few vultures. They walked under the trees, completely focused on the direction of the vultures’ flight. Sometimes they had to run to keep up with the vultures and not lose sight of them. Long moments passed as the vultures headed south through the jungle. Silver Hoof and the cows followed them on a very long path to the south. However, the vultures did not land. After three hours of flying south, the vultures changed their course toward the east of the jungle. Silver Hoof and the chasing group had no choice but to head east as well. They traveled for another two hours eastward, and then the vultures changed direction again, heading north through the jungle. Despite the severe fatigue that Silver Hoof and the cows were experiencing, they changed their course northward along with the vultures, hoping to find a carcass. However, after covering a very long and, of course, more difficult distance for the four-legged animals—since the vultures were flying in the sky while Silver Hoof and the cows were on the ground, and the path was uphill for them—they reached the vicinity of the mountains.

But still, the vultures did not descend. Not even to rest for a moment did they perch on the trees. The vultures continued to circle in the sky, veering their path toward the west. In pursuit of them, Silver Hoof and the cows, who were now half-dead from exhaustion, forced themselves to move westward. When they reached near the western borders of the jungle, they could go no further and collapsed. One of the cows fainted from extreme fatigue and fell to the ground. The others could no longer walk. Two more also fell to the ground, unable to move. All of their legs ached. Silver Hoof stood, and although he couldn’t take his eyes off the sky, he knew that if he walked for just a few more minutes, he too would lose consciousness. They saw no choice but to camp right where their energy had run out. They collapsed onto the grass, and the cows fell asleep. The stallion, terrified for his life, could neither sleep nor continue the chase; he saw no option but to rest, and shortly afterward, he lost sight of the vultures as they disappeared from view.

66

After a long rest, Silver Hoof and the cows regained some strength to walk. They set off helplessly towards the herd of cows.

Upon seeing Silver Hoof and the cows, the Wolf asked: “What’s going on? Why hasn’t anyone come to report the finding of the carcasses?”

Silver Hoof replied: “We spent the whole day chasing the vultures. But they didn’t land anywhere.”

The Wolf said: “So they didn’t see any carcasses?”

Fire Hoof added: “Well, of course, they didn’t find any carcasses. If they had, they would have landed.”

Silver Hoof and the cows passed by the Wolf and disappeared in search of a quiet corner to rest.

Three days later, the same thing happened again, with the difference that Silver Hoof and the cows grew tired more quickly than on the first day and gave up chasing the vultures. When Thunder saw that the search party was returning empty-handed, he became suspicious. He knew something was off. He realized that the vultures were playing tricks on them, and without a doubt, Sheba had taught them this.

The next day, Thunder told Silver Hoof and the cows that there was no need to chase the vultures anymore. The Bloodshot Eye asked in astonishment: “Why not? Don’t you want food?”

Thunder said: “The vultures are toying with us. This is all because of that damned Sheba!”

Silver Hoof, who had just realized why the vultures had been leading them all over the jungle for the past few days, got angry and said: “That damned Sheba! We need to come up with a plan for this annoying creature soon, or we’ll regret it!”

Thunder replied: “You don’t get to talk!”

The Spotted One started laughing at Silver Hoof. Silver Hoof endured Thunder’s barbs and the Spotted One’s laughter, just as he did the anger and aggression of the Bloodshot Eye.

Wrinkled Ear asked: “So what should we do?”

Thunder said: “We need to start the fight with the lion immediately and settle this matter quickly. Once we get the Broken Claw out of the way, it will be easy to take care of Sheba too.”

The Bloodshot Eye said: “But it’s still unclear whether the lion has weakened or not!”

The Wolf replied: “That’s easy. We’ll go take a look and see what condition the Broken Claw is in!”