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.
James, who had been forced to wake up early every morning because of this obsession, felt deeply relieved.
"Finally…some 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 became a full-time fishing tiger, James 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 James, Mom and Dad had already started thinking about bringing him along to hunt larger prey.
---
Autumn in this region was extremely 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 James's nose.
The cold droplet splashed across his whiskers.
The wet, itchy feeling made him lick his nose automatically.
"Is it going to rain?"
James looked up at the darkening sky.
At that moment, 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.
James 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, James'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.
James moved at the rear, sniffing the air and looking around.
Suddenly, he noticed movement in a patch of dense grass nearby.
His eyes immediately 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 movement.
"A fox."
A gray fox was wandering near a small burrow in the ground.
James didn't rush to attack.
Instead, he stayed still and watched.
The fox circled the burrow a few times before starting to dig.
James looked at its size and shook his head slightly.
"That little guy is living a risky life."
The fox was less than a meter long and only about forty centimeters 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 somewhere 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."
James was about to attack when something 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.
James 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 James of someone popping bubble wrap.
The fox even let out a soft howl afterward, clearly pleased with itself.
Watching the scene made James raise an eyebrow.
"Looks harmless…but acts like a tiny serial killer."
He knew this behavior had a name.
Surplus killing.
Some 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.
James blinked in surprise.
"Seriously? I haven't even moved yet."
But it didn't matter.
The hunt had already begun.
James 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 meters apart.
But the distance shrank quickly.
Soon there were barely two meters between them.
The pounding sound of James'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 extremely agile.
And it had a clever escape method.
Climbing trees.
Just as James 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.
James 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 something only a human mind could manage.
Meanwhile, the fox clung to the branch above, completely panicked.
It growled nervously.
"Urrr!"
The terrified expression on its face immediately reminded James of a meme.
Don't come any closer!