The sun shone from the side and behind, making it warm on my body.
Although it was morning and midsummer, the temperature at night and early morning was not higher than 20 degrees, which was not the most comfortable temperature for insects.
At this moment, the sun is shining on the body, and "Xiao Hei"'s body temperature rises rapidly. The protagonist's constant temperature body no longer feels like it is radiating heat outwards, making it warm and comfortable.
"Xiao Hei" flew in the air, trying to avoid the big trees and looking for open space to move forward. It cannot fly too high. If it flies above the canopy of a tree, the wind there will be too strong and it will consume a lot of extra energy.
At this time, Qinghe and [New Yangcheng] have been left far behind, and only the crown of the big poplar tree can be seen when looking back. While flying in mid-air, the scenery kept slipping away quickly behind me. It was a vast expanse of wilderness with undulating grass, just like the blue waves of the green sea.
The flying height of "Little Black" is much higher than that of ordinary flies. Although it has not exceeded the average height of trees, there are few insects flying at this height. Most flying insects are active near the ground, foraging and mating. Or flee.
Only a few insects that can migrate long distances, such as migratory locusts and giant butterflies, can persist in flying to this altitude.
The advantage of flying at high altitude is that there is no interference from other insects. Whether it is a shy gnat or a ferocious dragonfly, no one noticed that the protagonist and "Little Black" were passing by overhead.
But there are also disadvantages to flying at high altitudes. Although the airflow here is not as changeable as on the surface, the wind is stronger. At the beginning of the departure, it is still a tailwind or crosswind, so it is not a problem.
Until then, a gust of headwind arose. "Xiao Hei" was already burdened with a heavy burden, and the wind was strong. "Xiao Hei" tried hard to flap his wings and managed to maintain his balance, but he was forced to retreat.
The luggage on the abdomen is a bit heavy, which changes the position of "Xiao Hei"'s center of gravity. It is usually fine, but when it needs to accelerate and exert force, it seriously interferes with "Xiao Hei"'s movements.
The protagonist couldn't move forward with "Xiao Hei" in the air. Seeing that his mount was still reckless, he tried to flap his wings to fight against the wind. He hurriedly pulled on the reins and controlled the mount to fly to a low altitude - there was no need to waste his energy fighting this stubborn wind.
The wind blew very suddenly. At this time, the flying insects were also running away from the low ground. This is how small insects are. The power of nature, even if it is just a playful breath, can make them fall off their feet.
The protagonist and "Xiao Hei" are like this, flying at a "high altitude" of five or six meters above the ground when the wind is suitable, and closer to the ground the rest of the time.
After flying for about two hours, the protagonist noticed that the frequency of "Xiao Hei"'s wing flapping was obviously decreasing, and he was obviously exhausted.
So he controlled the mount to descend and stopped on the leaves of a shrub.
There are still unevaporated dewdrops on the back of the leaves. An ant and a fly each lie in front of a drop of crystal dew, pierce the water film on the surface of the dewdrop with their mouthparts, and then suck the nectar to replenish moisture.
After drinking enough, the protagonist took out some more food. "Xiao Hei" has special food. Although its chewing and sucking mouthparts can also eat solid food, it needs to be moistened with saliva in advance, which is more troublesome. In contrast, it prefers to eat liquid or liquid food.
The food that the protagonist brings to "Xiao Hei" is liquid, a mixture of fat, minced meat, and honeydew. It has the preservative effect of honeydew. It is not a problem to store these foods for a week. However, due to the weight, the protagonist only brought it three days' worth of food.
There are a total of nine packages of "Xiao Hei"'s exclusive food. Each package is wrapped in grass leaves. The protagonist cuts the rope with an obsidian dagger and opens one package. "Xiao Hei" happily licks and sucks the small package of food dry.
I rested on the bush for about 30 minutes, and there was no sudden incident. In fact, although competition for survival is fierce, there are so many insects in the world that not all individuals are in danger every minute. Most insects can survive safely most of the time.
Seeing that "Xiao Hei" has regained his strength, the protagonist ties the luggage to it again and continues to take off.
In this way, with an average break of half an hour every two hours, when the sun is about to set on the first day of the journey, the protagonist has flown far away. Even if he climbs the tallest tree nearby, he can no longer see the clear river and big poplar trees.
Night is relatively more dangerous, and it is difficult for flies to risk flying at night without being able to see, so the protagonist begins to look for a place to spend the night at dusk.
The most suitable place to spend the night is definitely a tree hole or a gap in the bark. It is far away from the surface and there are few insects active on the trunk itself, so it is relatively safe.
However, the protagonist happened to be in a meadow with few trees. The only trees had a high density of bugs, and tree holes were often filled with insects, either poisonous spiders or some disgusting-looking bugs.
The protagonist does not intend to occupy these tree holes by force, otherwise he will not be able to sleep peacefully if he lives in them.
As the next best thing, he looked for crevices or caves in big rocks, but there was no harvest yet.
Another way is to hide on the leeward side of trees and survive the night. This is what most bugs do. There are so many feng shui treasures that can protect you from the wind and rain. You can just endure the night with your body.
But the protagonist, as an ant, is used to living in a warm and comfortable underground, and is not happy to suffer like this.
In the past, in my hometown, even when traveling long distances to conduct reconnaissance in the northern part of the Pavement Ant Barbarian Kingdom, a group of flying knights would stay together for the night. They had never slept in the open like this.
Finally, the protagonist came up with a way. He found a twig with no insect activity in the lee of a locust tree, used an obsidian dagger to peel some tender skin fibers to make a rope, poked holes in two adjacent leaves, and used the rope to Tie the leaves together to make a simple leaf tent, and ants and flies can sleep in it.
The protagonist is sleeping inside, and "Xiao Hei" is outside, using his body to block the cool breeze coming in from the entrance.
The first night passed like this.
The next day, July 30, the protagonist and "Xiao Hei" woke up and had breakfast each.
"Xiao Hei" still eats sticky high-calorie mixed food. The protagonist eats something simpler, just a small piece of roasted mealworm jerky with salt, and an original roasted grass seed, and drinks the morning dew. .
After eating and drinking, the ants and flies set out again. Today's luggage is much lighter than yesterday, and "Xiao Hei" flies lighter.
The protagonist holds the direction while preventing the mount from suddenly changing direction without permission. At the same time, he also paid careful attention to the ground. If there was suitable food, he had to add that the food in the luggage was enough for two more days!
But there was no harvest today. At night, the protagonist and "Xiao Hei" had arrived at the edge of the mountainous area and continued to set up a leaf tent on a tree for the night.
