POA Ch 19

A long time after the rumbling came to a halt, the world returned to its silvery white state.

Not long ago, there were dinosaurs grazing everywhere, and a dreamlike scenery of frolicking dinosaurs. 

All this dissipated into a silvery white landscape. A neat crevice in the shape of “一” split the land, and originally flat ground turned into a cliff. On the opposite of the cliff, was the land they came from. It was too far away, and nothing could be seen.

At the edge of the cliff, a cry was heard, followed by another. White was the source of this intermittent sound.

It was a cry of calling for his partner.

Meng Jiuzhao did not know how to comfort him.

The cliff was too steep, and the crack was perfectly vertical. White had no way of going down to search. 

For a whole three days, he stayed at the edge of the cliff without moving an inch. He would find food for Louis and Meng Jiuzhao at regular intervals, but the rest of the time would be spent calling for Black.

Food around the cliff was limited, and White would give all the food he found to the cubs. As a result, days of grief and starvation caused White to feel extremely weak on the fourth day. In the evening, he fell over without warning.

“Chirp chirp! Chirp chirp!” Louis instinctively felt that the situation was not good. He carefully jumped onto his favourite spot on White, his neck. 

He grabbed onto the feathers on White neck in an attempt to maintain his balance, but the originally thick and tough feathers fell and scattered. Louis was terrified, and thinking he had done something wrong, he jumped off quickly.

He thought he would be scolded, but White ignored him.

“Chirp?” Louis turned to Meng Jiuzhao in confusion. He lowered his head, wanting to look at his claws, but only managed to see his round, furry belly. From his movements, the scattered feathers fell onto the ground.

Meng Jiuzhao’s mind went blank.

He carefully stood up to touch White’s nose: there was still breathing, and his body was still warm, but–

White was too weak. His hair loss that had been improving had worsened once again, and now without even needing to pull hard, just a slight touch would cause a bunch of feathers to fall. When the exposed skin was left to freezing air, it would quickly harden.

Meng Jiuzhao tugged Louis’ wings.

Louis seemed to be born with an understanding of Meng Jiuzhao’s thoughts, they dug a deep hole in the snow and rolled White inside. 

After carefully sealing the surrounding area, Louis and Meng Jiuzhao carefully stuffed themselves inside.

White’s body was not as warm as it used to be, and the hardened skin with no feathers was also not as comfortable, but Meng Jiuzhao still stuck onto him closely, they had to lend their body heat to White. 

Louis, who was now capable of running about, took on the important task of supporting his family. He would always find Crunchy Grass and other inconspicuous fruit to stuff into White’s big mouth together with Meng Jiuzhao.

At night, the surroundings would be more terrifying.

The ice field would be dead silent, and Meng Jiuzhao almost felt that he was the only human left in the world. Whenever that happened, Louis would let out a soft chirp, and Meng Jiuzhao would feel much more at ease.

Pulling on the fluffy Louis, they moved slightly closer to White.

In the cubs’ hearts, the safest place was next to Daddy.

During noon of the second day, when Meng Jiuzhao and Louis were doing their best to feed Crunchy Grass into White’s mouth, those two large round eyes opened.

Tears fell from those eyes.

He struggled to get up, breaking the roof of snow above him as he embraced the two cubs.

“Baby, Louis, Black, Black is–”

His voice cracked as he choked with tears.

With tears in his eyes, White looked to the direction of the cliff. The cliff where Black appeared on in an embarrassed state… 

Hm?

Black?

“Black… Why are you also bald now?”

His crying stopped abruptly

Translator has something to say:

No more QAQ, can’t leave this on a cliff it’s too unbearable

myu

I’m learning to translate as I go, my translations vary between loose and close to the original raws, but I’ll try my best to convey the meaning of the story ( ＾ω＾ )