Mom stayed obsessed with the fish trap for several days before finally realizing that fish were not going to gather in the river for no reason anymore.
Jas, who had been forced to wake up early every morning because of this obsession, felt deeply relieved.
"Finally…so peace."
To be honest, he had briefly considered teaching Mom how to build the fish trap properly.
But after thinking about it, he decided it was a bad idea.
First of all, building a proper fish trap wasn't as simple as pushing stones into the water. The stones had to be arranged in a specific shape, and that took patience and a bit of planning.
There was a good chance Mom wouldn't bother learning it.
And even if she did learn it…
That might actually be worse.
If Mom suddenly abandoned her role as the mighty predator of the forest and beca a full-ti fishing tiger, Jas would probably carry that guilt for the rest of his life.
So in the end he decided it was better to just let Mom return to normal.
Once Mom stopped obsessing over fish, the cubs' hunting lessons returned to their usual routine.
Zack and Zoe continued practicing the basics of hunting.
As for Jas, Mom and Dad had already started thinking about bringing him along to hunt larger prey.
---
Autumn in this region was extrely short.
Only a little more than a month after the season began, the temperature in the forest dropped sharply.
As the family walked through the woods one morning, a drop of dew fell from a branch and landed right on Jas's nose.
The cold droplet splashed across his whiskers.
The wet, itchy feeling made him lick his nose automatically.
"Is it going to rain?"
Jas looked up at the darkening sky.
At that mont, a cold wind swept through the forest.
The icy air made him shiver.
"Okay… that's cold."
He instinctively moved closer to Mom for warmth.
As winter approached, the bodies of saber-toothed tigers were already preparing for the coming cold.
Jas could clearly see the changes in his own fur.
The soft coat he had before was becoming thicker, and a tougher outer layer of fur was starting to grow on top.
The combination worked like a heavy winter coat, helping saber-toothed tigers survive temperatures as low as minus forty or even fifty degrees.
However, Jas's "winter coat" was still developing.
Compared to him, Mom and Dad already had thick, dense fur that protected them much better from the cold.
During this preparation period, saber-toothed tigers also increased their food intake to store fat for the winter.
That was exactly what Mom and Dad were doing now.
The family traveled across hills and rivers, constantly searching for prey.
Dad and Mom walked at the front.
Zack and Zoe followed closely behind them.
Jas moved at the rear, sniffing the air and looking around.
Suddenly, he noticed movent in a patch of dense grass nearby.
His eyes imdiately sharpened.
Lowering his body silently, he crept toward the grass like a shadow.
"Let's see what we have here…"
As he moved closer, he finally spotted the source of the movent.
"A fox."
A gray fox was wandering near a small burrow in the ground.
Jas didn't rush to attack.
Instead, he stayed still and watched.
The fox circled the burrow a few tis before starting to dig.
Jas looked at its size and shook his head slightly.
"That little guy is living a risky life."
The fox was less than a ter long and only about forty centiters tall at the shoulder.
About the size of a Shiba Inu.
In a world filled with giant Ice Age predators, a small hunter like this could only sit sowhere in the middle of the food chain.
And very often, it ended up becoming prey itself.
Saber-toothed tigers included.
"Well… looks like today's unlucky volunteer has been chosen."
Jas was about to attack when sothing unexpected happened.
The fox suddenly pulled several tiny animals out of the burrow.
Baby guinea pigs.
There were more than a dozen of them, each only about the size of a baby's fist.
Jas blinked.
"Well… that's a buffet."
The fox excitedly circled around the helpless babies.
Then it began killing them one by one with quick bites and claw strikes.
The scene looked disturbingly casual.
It reminded Jas of soone popping bubble wrap.
The fox even let out a soft howl afterward, clearly pleased with itself.
Watching the scene made Jas raise an eyebrow.
"Looks harmless…but acts like a tiny serial killer."
He knew this behavior had a na.
Surplus killing.
So predators killed far more prey than they actually needed.
Wolves were famous for it.
There were recorded cases where a group of wolves attacked a sheep pen and killed over a hundred sheep even though they could never eat that many.
Predators with this instinct didn't think about saving food for later.
They simply killed as much as they could.
That was just part of their nature.
The gray fox picked up several guinea pig bodies in its mouth and prepared to leave.
But suddenly—
The fox froze.
Its body stiffened as if it sensed danger.
Without hesitation, it dropped the food and bolted away.
Jas blinked in surprise.
"Seriously? I haven't even moved yet."
But it didn't matter.
The hunt had already begun.
Jas exploded forward.
Within seconds he pushed his speed to the limit and chased after the fox.
At the start, they were still more than ten ters apart.
But the distance shrank quickly.
Soon there were barely two ters between them.
The pounding sound of Jas's footsteps echoed through the forest like a death sentence for the fox.
The fleeing fox could probably hear his heavy breathing behind it.
But the small predator had one advantage.
It was extrely agile.
And it had a clever escape thod.
Climbing trees.
Just as Jas was about to catch it, the fox suddenly jumped toward a nearby pine tree and scrambled up the trunk like a monkey.
It reached a thick branch within seconds.
Jas chuckled.
"Oh please… I practiced tree climbing too."
He jumped up and dug his claws into the bark.
Then he began climbing after it.
Focusing on the prey helped him ignore the height.
That was probably sothing only a human mind could manage.
anwhile, the fox clung to the branch above, completely panicked.
It growled nervously.
"Urrr!"
The terrified expression on its face imdiately reminded Jas of a .
Don't co any closer!
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