Two pairs of dove eyes stared at each other. In fact, they had no hatred, this was just a fight between the Ostrich King and the Ostrich King. But it is a battle in which water and fire are incompatible.
The two young ostrich kings were already covered in color. However, the fighting continues.
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In Alexander's eyes, the Ostrich King, who was as tall as himself, was no longer a kind of person, but had turned into a scorpion, a scourge that it had to get rid of.
The sun hung brightly over the sky, only the edges painted an incongruous layer of deep black. Lion roars, jackals, and barks all go away with the zebras and antelopes migrating first. Looking out, there are only a few flocks of ostriches on the ground, and the Kalahari (South Africa) presents a lonely area characteristic of the early dry season.
The female of the neighboring ostrich flock lounged on the ostrich eggs, absentmindedly watching the two red-faced male ostriches as if the battle had nothing to do with them. Originally, the war between ostrich flocks was equivalent to the fight between male ostriches, and female ostriches could never only accept it.
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"Snap! Syllable! Syllable! Alexander leapt up suddenly, and with the inertia of its wings flapping, its legs alternated in three graceful arcs in the air, and a difficult "triple kick" hit the same point in the breastplate of the neighboring ostrich king.
The Neighboring Bird King was still standing, as if this heavy blow, which was enough to penetrate the breastplate, had no damage to it. Before Alexander could lower his claws, it flew up, and the tip of the claws pointed straight at Alexander's abdomen. Alexander, who was accustomed to holding hands with beasts, deftly flashed, and then shook his head, and his beak went straight to the eyes of the neighboring ostrich king.
The neighboring ostrich king deftly dodged Alexander's political attack, and taking advantage of the gap between Alexander's preparations for the next round of attack, it raised its hoof claws upside down and struck Alexander's left flank.
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Alexander pulled his flesh-and-blood blurred left flank and stared at the neighboring ostrich king, who was looking at each other two meters away in the fading visibility of the sky. The two ostrich kings paced back and forth, staring at each other.
At the end of the day, Alexander was the mastermind of the battle. For two months, Alexander had long coveted the oasis-like fat aquatic weeds and numerous female ostriches of the neighboring ostrich flocks. Today, it has crossed borders and provoked trouble. Alexander wanted to annex the flock. Insatiable, or covetous, is the nature of all kings.
In this battle, Alexander must succeed. Otherwise, it will lose its ostrich herd forever.
The sky was getting darker, and a strange gray-black color was reflected in the sky. The arc of the black ray swallowed half of the sun's rays. The sun wheel hung dimly at the highest point of the firmament, with an inexplicable chill, as if it were a cold moon that appeared at the wrong time.
The eclipse begins. This is a rare astronomical wonder.
The combat experience accumulated during his youth in the ostrich swarm was Alexander's precious treasure, and at this moment, scenes of bloody battles unfolded in similar situations, and every move seemed sophisticated. Just as intense, just as exciting, just as likely to be the last fight of his life. However, this time the object of life and death is the same kind, not the beast.
Thinking of this, Alexander's heart fluttered softly.
The ostrich king of the neighboring group looked at the eager Alexander, calmly straightened his chest, opened his hooves, and set up a defensive posture.
Alexander jumped up and swooped down a step away from the neighboring ostrich king, and Alexander's hard breastplate crashed under the breastplate of the neighboring ostrich king by inertia. The neighboring ostrich king held his breath and pressed on the ground, trying not to be knocked away by Alexander. However, Alexander stood up to the other side and pressed forward step by step. The neighboring bird king's muscles had tensed to the limit and involuntarily retreated his footsteps.
Suddenly, yellow sand filled the air and smoke and dust rose everywhere. I don't know when, the sun has no trace, the sky dome is high, there is only a bottomless black hole, the edge of the black hole reveals a shallow white, the deepest black between heaven and earth is embedded in it, oozing infinite weirdness.
This is the mysterious total solar eclipse.
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When vision is obstructed, the sense of smell becomes exceptionally sensitive. There was a faint smell of Alexander's familiarity in the air, which reminded Alexander of his childhood three years ago, the old days of the Kalahari migration in the dry season, and the smell of hugging under the wings of the female bird Wendy...
Memories are like a cruel thunderbolt across Alexander's inner world. There is no doubt that the male bird struggling on the sand in front of him is Alexander's long-lost brother Amos. No one knows how it came out of the oasis where leopard sounds intertwined, how it grew up in a dangerous desert, how it became a generation of ostrich kings through its own struggle...
The harsh but happy childhood with the pure sound of the water like the water of the river flooded from the depths of Alexander's soul, and it was vividly remembered: on the way to migration, he and the two brothers of Amos worked together to catch a locust, and Amos, who had not yet tasted the taste of food from the eggshell, gave it the locust to eat; At night, there was a cold silence in the wilderness, and Wendy took the little brothers in her arms; By the thatch, Alexander asked Amos to wait by the lake, but he never went back...
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Amos twisted his body and was trying to get up from the sand.
Alexander took a steady step and walked to the side of Amos...
"Click!" The sound of a bone breaking at the same time as the larynx. Alexander slowly pulled the blood-red tip of his hoof out of Amos's neck, drawing out the black blood that flowed from the tears in the obscure light.
Amos closed his eyes gently, it just began to dream, forever into a beautiful dreamland, in which Wendy found it in the thatched bushes of the oasis, it chased and frolicked with Alexander, and ran along the evergreen banks of the Farr River... Now, Amos could no longer get up.
Alexander would not let his brother get up, and although he could let the old male bird who was fast becoming a vulture go, he would definitely put his brother to death. If Amos is allowed to leave, Amos will soon be healed by the flame of youth, and will be a potential threat to Alexander's throne.
This is the way Alexander, an ostrich king, thought. In the perilous African wilderness, there are many times to remember, and there are also many emotions to be cut off. All the efforts made by an ostrich king are just to strengthen his own family.
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"Boom! Rumble! Rumble! Alexander's pleura exploded with a sonorous and powerful king's voice. Nine female ostriches quickly stood up and surrounded Alexander.
Alexander led nine female ostriches toward the center of his territory. Now, they are all members of Alexander's ostrich family and will produce offspring for Alexander.
The eclipse gradually disperses and the sun slowly emerges in the middle of the sky. However, everyone knows that the original sun has been swallowed up.
Ostrich eggs are lonely abandoned in the wilderness.
■ Text/Excerpt from "Ostrich Family" (by Yuan Bo, published by Hebei Children's Publishing House)
■ Editor / Wang Xiao
■ All rights reserved, may not be reproduced without permission