In the early morning, a cool breeze blew gently, white clouds drifted lazily, and the sky was as blue as if it had been washed. The vast plateau lay shrouded in the light of the rising sun, the undulating mountain ridges were deathly still, and only a mountain eagle circled in the sky, letting out a sharp cry every now and then that shattered the silence of this boundless plateau.
The mountains were bare, with hardly a trace of green vegetation. A plump wild hare slowly stuck its head out from a burrow under a large rock halfway up the slope, warily observing its surroundings. Its beady eyes spun around, its ears stood bolt upright, and its whole body was taut. After waiting for about a minute, perhaps sensing no danger, the hare hopped forward about two meters, shrank into a ball under a watermelon-sized clod of earth and stone, and continued to scan the area.
