Under the Red Dragon.

Chapter 16 Anna on the Prairie
Today is a sunny day. The temperature on the grassland remains in a warm range under the soft afternoon sunshine, which makes many animals living on the grassland active.

There are many rivers on the grassland irrigated by abundant rainwater, and the low ground on the grassland has also formed a depression.

At this time, many fat hippos also emerged from the bottom of the river and walked into the water park to play.

Many animals that come to drink water are not afraid of these huge-looking hippos and stand by to drink water peacefully.

They have to hurry up and replenish water, because hippos are a group of feces-producing machines. This rare safe and clean water source will soon be made turbid by the numerous hippos, and they will get sick if they drink it.

The shadows of the young dragons were projected onto the ground by the sunlight, and the shadows of the gathered dragons covered a large area of the grassland.

Shadows quickly passed over the animals that lowered their heads to drink, for dragons would not hunt near water sources.

The young dragons pursued their prey and soon swooped down with Charon in tow.

The white dragon Gmot was at the end of the dragon group. He was the most timid one among the young dragons and always liked to hide behind the dragon group, even when facing prey that he could not resist.

It is now easy for the young dragons to hunt for food. The clustered young dragons are the undisputed overlords of the grassland, especially when led by a strong red dragon. These young dragons can easily become more aggressive.

Soon several white-headed bison were captured by the giant dragon, but the young dragons did not stop to eat. They flew with their prey to a place not far from the Dragon's Nest Mountains before landing again.

This place is where the dragons eat. It’s not that these young dragons in front of them have some strange sense of ritual, but this place is special to the dragons, or to Charon.

They eat here just to keep more of the dragon's scent here.

The white dragon Gmot, who suddenly wanted to change his taste, took the initiative to help Karon remove the hair and internal organs of his prey, in exchange for the help of the red dragon's dragon fire.

The red dragon controls its violent dragon fire and makes it docile, which will undoubtedly train the red dragon's ability to control fire.

The softened flames wrapped around and licked the bison's body, slowly roasting it until it was charred. Only a hind leg with a large piece of meat was left unburned by the flames, still raw flesh and blood.

But Gmot was not surprised, because the young dragons all knew that Kalon would use the handling fees to feed his own pets.

Caron held the bloody bison hind leg in his mouth and walked towards the place not far from where the young dragon was feeding.

There is a green banyan tree growing alone on the grassland. Its dense crown can effectively block the sun that is sometimes too strong on the grassland.

Usually, such places belong to powerful beast tribes or some ferocious animals. But on the contrary, the only person occupying this place is a female leopard, which is not very powerful even among ordinary beasts.

This female leopard is obviously old and now looks a little old.

The female leopard lying under the tree began to droop its cheeks, making it look like a toothless old cat, and its once bright eyes began to become a little cloudy.

But when she saw Karon coming, the female leopard did not run away. Instead, she walked slowly to Karon with her body, which was no longer as agile as before, rubbed the red dragon's forelimbs, and then lay down, exposing her pale belly to show submission and obedience.

Kalon gently put the beef leg on the ground, indicating that the female leopard could eat freely. The female leopard climbed up and began to enjoy the delicious meal with a snoring sound.

Anna is the name that Kalon gave to the female leopard, and Anna grew up under Kalon's care.

The red dragon has always had a liking for this big cat with beautiful fur. After he discovered that this creature had come to his territory, he had been paying attention to it.

Anna's family seemed to be different from other wild animals, starting with Anna's mother. This family of leopards seemed to have richer emotions than ordinary wild animals.

Generally speaking, a mother leopard will drive her offspring away from her territory after raising her young cubs, even those solitary dragons do the same. But Anna's mother left alone after raising Anna, leaving this safe territory to her offspring.

Perhaps it was because Anna was too lazy, and her mother was no longer willing to endure Anna's dependence on her, but was also unwilling to drive Anna away.

Because of her laziness, Anna just slept all day and didn't even learn the hunting skills. Forced to live with a leopard, Anna had to start learning hunting skills on her own.

But most of the time they still go hungry and can only pick up the leftovers of other animals.

It was like watching a documentary about Anna's life, as Cuarón watched the leopard Anna go from being clumsy when she first started hunting alone to later learning superb hunting skills.

Later, Anna started to rely on her parents again, or more precisely, her husband. Anna met a male leopard, and she became lazy again, sleeping all day long.

But perhaps Anna's influence inspired the beast in him, and this male leopard was also different.

For Anna's sake, it would attack and punish the wild animals that offended the female leopard. It also allowed Anna to eat with it, shared food with the female leopard, and gave birth to offspring with Anna.

Because the male leopard was very reliable, Kalon named him Reliable. Unfortunately, Reliable died.

Anna took on the responsibility of raising the cubs only after Reliable died, but after she raised the two cubs, she started to eat her own cubs again.

When her two leopard offspring grew to their prime, they also became tired of the lazy mother leopard. However, they did not drive away Anna, whose strength had begun to decline. Instead, they left the land like their grandmother did. This is how Anna has lived until now.

The female leopard has never been afraid of Kalon because she always sees this big guy who is quite friendly to her in her daily life.

Kalon watched Anna eating slowly. This female leopard was already old. For Kalon, it was just a transition period from a young dragon to a baby dragon, but for this leopard, it was most of her life.

The leopard's claws and fangs are no longer strong and sharp, making it difficult for it to catch prey, so Kalon now sends some of the prey over every day.

At this time, the two leopard cubs sleeping under the tree woke up. They ran over happily and played around at Kalon's feet without any scruples.

These are the cubs born to Anna and another male leopard. Anna once held them in her mouth and wanted to give them to Kalon.

Perhaps Anna also noticed Caron's companionship and loneliness, so the female leopard, who was about to die, chose to give her last cub to Caron.

Charon refused. The red dragon looked at the sun gradually setting in the sky, thinking that he and the dragons would rule this land for a long time, and he would also pay attention to and protect Anna's family for a long, long time.

The black dragon Rosani looked at the red dragon covered in twilight and asked in confusion: "Why does Kalon like this kind of beast so much? It is weak and short-lived."

"Maybe it's because these beasts have the same complex and rich emotions towards family and blood relatives as humans." The blue dragon Doss looked like a wise man. Although he always felt that using the words family and relatives to describe beasts were too anthropomorphic, the blue dragon thought it was very appropriate to use them on Anna.

These young dragons often watch documentaries with Caron, and several male dragons were even called by Caron to urinate under the big tree.

"Why does Charon like these beasts with emotions?" Rossani always seems to get stuck in a rut. The psychology of many dragons is always closer to that of beasts.

"That's of course because Karon also has complex and rich emotions, idiot." The red dragon Clenaya cursed impatiently. She raised her dragon claws high, intending to wait for Rossani to ask another question before she put her claws on the black dragon's stupid head to enlighten him.

Rosani shrank his head and muttered in confusion: "Feelings?"

(End of this chapter)