My hand closed the diary book I was writing. A pop sound could be heard. After putting it inside school bag, I tried to stretch my arms. But I only found that my left shoulder which was shot by an arrow yesterday felt very painful. I tried finding the arrow head with my right hand, but as soon as I touched it I moaned in pain. My body tensed up and my face grimed. I kicked my foot against the ground and took few deep breaths. That helped alleviate the pain a little.

After a while, my head was clear again. This time I promised I wouldn't touch my wound carelessly in the future. My right hand now moved to the bag that was looted from the archer's body. Rather than a bag, it was better to call it a pouch. Since it was just animal skin that was tied up by thin rope. I opened it and looked inside.

"What is this? Hmm, dry meat... jerky?" There were 9 pieces of dry meat inside. My hand picked one that was a bigger piece and put it into my mouth. I chewed it. The texture was rough. It tastes like meat but salty. It was also dry. Oh god, eating this jerky made me thirsty. I needed a drink.

I closed the jerky pouch and checked up my school bag.  My school bag was a frameless backpack that could hold enough books and water bottle inside. Hmm? I raised one of my eyebrow. I rechecked the content again. This time I opened my mouth and my mouth felt drier than ever. How could it be possible that I forget to put water bottle inside? I clenched my fist and kicked the ground three times before holding my head.

“This is bad. This is bad. What am I going to do? There is no water. I forgot to put the goddamn bottle. Why of all times, I forgot it two days ago?” I shook my head as this was just too unbelievable. I chewed my lips and sighed. Nothing I could do about it. If I forgot then that was it. If there was no bottle water then it wouldn’t suddenly just appeared out of nowhere. Although I knew, it was just so frustrating. My throat was thirsty but I couldn’t drink a gulp of water. At least when I was at home I never had to worry about water. No good, this was just me trying to ran away from reality.

“No, no, no. If I have no water I just have to find it, right? Think positive. Now, where can I find water here? I need to find a river or lake. Haha, yes, I just have to walk.” I tried to convince myself and shrugged my shoulder. After I tidied up everything I started walking towards west. The same direction I had been going since yesterday.

The ground I walked on was uneven. There were many roots here and there. Sometimes, my shoes stepped on bugs and let out some squeaky crunching sound. My body was already sticky enough and smelled so bad. And some parts of my body, like my arms and back felt itchy. Was it bug bites? As if I hadn’t been tortured enough. It couldn’t be any worse than this.

“God. Why is it so hard just to find a river? I mean, how many days of walking I should spend to find water? This is just so crazy.” I growled and tensed up my neck a little. Sometimes I tripped over a root or uneven ground and fell because of it. It made me so angry that I face palmed my forehead many times.

I spent 3 hours of walking before I heard that angelic music ringing in my ears and I jerked my head. “Isn’t that… sound of river?!” My lips opened upwards and I had tears in my eyes. I could feel the inside my mouth filled with saliva, asking for as much water I could drink. My face was flushed and I laughed without sound as I ran towards the sound. I could see it, the border of tree forest and riverbanks.

“Oh, water.” I never felt this way before about water. I guessed being tortured by thirst for a day could make anyone view water as gift of nature. My legs moved towards riverbanks and froze after I saw a certain creature.

It was a black thing. It had mane like a horse along its spinal cords. Its body seemed like all of it was made out of muscle. Its legs were short but seemed strong enough to burst with power. On its mouth was two tusk that was bigger than any of its teeth and pointed outward its lips. It was a big black boar. What made it scary was that its size probably around my chest.

I didn’t move. I couldn’t move. I just watched it drinking water from river. And then it did the last thing I hoped didn’t happen, it looked at me. It grunted and postured its body towards me. It approached me and suddenly rushed in to ram me. I ran back towards the forest and without thinking I climbed one of the trees. I was so panicked that I dropped my school bag which had my diary in it. But I didn’t even notice it until I was on a branch high enough to make me thought I was on 2nd floor from the ground.

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It grunted. The monster which was probably even longer than my height was grunting at me and circled around the tree. I gripped my hand around the tree’s bark. My instinct told me I definitely couldn’t afford falling down from this tree. Or else…

I was shaking, trembling, and freezing in the inside. My eyes opened wide towards that monster boar. It just kept circling as if it didn’t want to let me go. Because it couldn’t get me, it approached my school bag down there and ripped it off with its teeth. All my books and stuff came out and now was spread open on the ground. It continued to husk and try to get me. I hunched my shoulders, shrinking my body and told myself “It will be okay, it cannot climb. Don’t panic, don’t be afraid. It will be okay.”

I buried my head in my hands and bowed my head. Truth was, tears fell on my face. I was scared to death. My breathing was short and my mind was in shambles. This situation happened until probably 30 minutes. Maybe it was bored or had something better to do, the monster boar grunted for the last time and it went away. I was shocked, staring it with wide eyes and my mouth hanging open. I felt like I wanted to jump and dance around, but also displeased as I thought before boar was just a pig which I didn’t have to fear. But now I felt confused, I tilted my head with narrowed eyes and rubbed my eyes.

“Is it really leaving?” Deep inside I felt suspicious. I couldn’t believe what I am actually seeing. But then I pinched my nose. “Focus, focus. I have to be focus.” The monster boar was out of my sight now. But my heart felt like it was thumping loudly. It was as if it was telling me there was danger if I climbed down the tree now. So I waited fifteen minutes and after it passed, I climbed down.

From the bushes 10 meter from my side, the monster boar suddenly ran and tried to slam at me. I opened my eyes wide and I half-circled the tree and climbed up again. It almost got my foot. My heart beat like it jumped through the roof. I smacked my right palm to forehead. “This boar is smart. It actually tricked me and almost got me.” I felt so stupid that I actually was almost trapped by it.

The monster boar grunted again as if it was laughing and mocking me before it stayed beneath me and rested there. It was actually pretended to sleep there! “Does it think I was so stupid to actually fall for its trap for a second time?”

“How much longer is it going to wait for me?” The sky was already red, and soon sun would settle. My thirst was already so bad that my mouth was very dry and I felt so light headed that sometimes I almost fell asleep. Well, actually I did fell asleep but the boar never moved. Did it plan to rest and wait there until morning? My eyes was already sunken and no more tears came out when I was crying. As if it couldn’t be any worse, my body felt burning hot. I felt sick of fever.

“What a misfortune.” I said with toneless voice. I bit my lower lips and twisted my lips in half a smile. I was suddenly thrown out to an unknown forest, with no one rescuing me. Instead, a random was shooting arrow at me, and it hit me. And then I was almost eaten by a bear. As if that wasn’t enough, I couldn’t get any water to drink. Then, I think fate is mocking me. The river is just over there! But how can there is also a wild-monster-boar? And now I am trapped on this tree. And the boar is just resting beneath me. What a misfortune.” My expression was vacant. My shoulder was slumped. I frown a bit as my fate was now uncertain. I laughed a little. “Isn’t it already certain? If I go down, I’ll be eaten by a monster. If I stayed up here, probably I will die of thirst and then fell and be eaten by that boar."

My pupil contracted and my hand was clenched. "If I am going to die anyway, might as well take its life too. Well then, how do I kill it?”