The tip of Jack’s spear blurred forward as he made a lightning fast thrust into the shallow water. The speed that he moved surprised him; though, it was nothing but a passing thought as he focused on his target.

The tip of the spear was cleanly embedded in a four foot gray scaled fish. “HAHA Finally!” Jack celebrated his catch with a laugh. This should be enough to feed him for at least a few days. ‘That's if its edible’ he corrected himself. Jack was lifting the fish from the water when he heard it. *Tweet* *Tweet* *Tweet* *Tweet*. The sound stood out. Even more so because for the last twenty-four hours it had been entirely absent. Looking out across the river, Jack saw it. There was a bird flying just below the top of the tree line. In fact, now that he noticed it, there was more than one bird.

For some reason, there was wildlife beyond the river, but not any around the area he’d already explored. Jack knew it wasn’t that large of an area, but still. It was very strange. ‘Going off my predator theory that would mean that the predator should be pretty close, but I haven’t seen or even heard anything.’

Jack hefted his fish over his shoulder. The weight of the fish wasn’t a joke. ‘This thing is easily over a hundred pounds in total. Well not that it matters.’ He thought smugly while flexing his free arm. Jack spent an unnecessary amount of time admiring his muscles and newly toned body.

“Okie dokie, Let’s get headed back to camp.” Lucky for Jack, nobody was around to see him talking to the still twitching fish on his shoulder.

Jack was making his way back to camp when suddenly- *BOOM* *CRACK* *BOOM*

The sound of a loud impact followed by the swish and crash of a tree startled Jack and stole his hard earned calm.

The sound came from ahead and to the left of him. He was conflicted. He wanted to see what had caused it but was also afraid of whatever it was. Images were conjured without Jack calling for them. An elephant pushing over a tree or a rhino ramming into one, knocking it over.

His heart beating a hundred miles a minute, Jack crept in the direction of the noise as silently as he could. He guessed that whatever it was it had to be the apex predator. Knowing what and where it was might be crucial for his survival. *ERROAAAAR*

The sound of a roar boomed less than thirty feet from Jack. Jack jumped and his eyes widened in fear. ‘Nope, No No, FUCK NO!’ Jack made a b-line for the largest tree he could see. He scurried up it as fast as possible dropping his fish in the process. He hoped whatever monster was tipping trees like dominos didn’t think he was important enough to chase. Luckily it seemed that the monster had other things to worry about.

*HISSSSS*

‘Giant snake monster? Also big nope.’

From his vantage point higher up in the tree, Jack could see the battle happening between the two monsters. One was a gray snake with dark green and black stripes. The entire thing from head to tail was easily longer than a bus. Its body was at least a few feet in diameter. The one that really got Jack’s attention was the snakes’ opponent and the owner of that roar. It was a black bear at least 8 feet tall and that was without it standing on its hind legs.

This was one of the strangest situations in Jack’s life and it wasn’t only because he was watching two monsters duke it out in a forest while he was hiding in a tree.

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When he saw the two fighting, he felt something. Something for both combatants. For the snake it was… hunger. He WANTED to EAT the snake. Jack knew this wasn’t normal and guessed it was a part of his evolution.

The part that was truly strange was what he felt for the bear. It was… respect and… reverence? The creature was a work of art. It was just beautiful. He couldn’t put what he was feeling into words. Clearly Jack knew the motto “Appreciate nature from a distance.” but it was still a strange series of sensations. He felt little to no fear from the beautiful animal as strange as that was.

The bear let out another roar and charged at the snake. The snake hissed and darted at the bear’s hind leg while it was still partially airborne. The over one-foot-long fangs sunk into the bear’s left thigh. At the same time, the bear slashed deep gashes into the middle of the snake, then it locked its jaws around its body, holding it in place.

It appeared the aim of the bear was mutual destruction. Holding the snake in place, the bear tore at its body nonstop with its sharp claws. Digging its claws into the snake and pulling with its jaws, the bear tore the top third of the snake clean off causing a shower of blood to spray from the segmented halves of the body.

Due to its injury and loss of mobility, the snake let go of the bears' leg.

There was nothing it could do but writhe and twist in agony on the forest floor waiting for its demise.

The bear didn’t feel like waiting though. It advanced on the downed snake whilst dragging its injured leg behind it.

It was clear that the bear was disoriented. The snake’s poison seemed to be doing its job, but the bear didn’t seem worried about it. Lifting a front paw, the bear caught and held the base of the snake’s neck to the ground. It bent down and once again began to tear the snake into another two pieces. This time Jack noticed the wet tearing of flesh and the snapping of bones, causing him to shudder.

The entire fight lasted around twenty seconds. He was having a hard time accepting that he was really stuck on a planet full of monsters. ‘And to think I’m expected to SURVIVE here…’

*EROOAAAAAAARRRRRRRR*

The bear let out a final, drawn out roar of triumph before promptly collapsing from exhaustion. Jack assumed the poison contributed quite a bit as well.

Seeing that the bear was down, Jack recalled the hunger he felt for the snake. The call to eat the snake was overwhelming. Although it wasn’t his kill, he didn’t think the bear could do anything if he took a little meat.

Jack climbed down from his tree and collected the fish that had fallen on the ground during his escape. He considered also killing the bear while it was down as it was absurdly strong, but the thought just felt wrong to him. Slowly approaching the two titans, Jack got a closer look at the two. The snake was motionless in a sea of its own blood and the bear was clearly tired and breathing heavily.

Walking closer, Jack arrived at the back half of the snake and took his spear to cut off some large pieces of meat. Seeing this action, the bear let out a threatening huff that Jack thought could have been a weak attempt at a roar.

To pacify the lord of the forest, Jack took the fish he’d gotten from the river and lobbed it toward the bear. His aim was terrible. The fish only made it about halfway to the bear. Glaring at Jack, the bear was clearly wary of him.

Very slowly to not startle the bear, Jack approached with his hands out to show that he wasn’t a threat. Picking up the fish, he slowly shuffled to the bear and set the fish down before quickly retreating again.

He felt guilty taking something that he didn’t work for, his pride wouldn’t let him off if he didn’t somehow pay back the favor.

Jack returned to collecting snake meat when he heard a snapping noise behind him. He turned to see that the bear had bitten the fish he’d given it in half and was chewing loudly. The crunching of bones was still hard to listen to for the man.

It had only been a day, but the stress of the situation must have been getting to him. Jack never would have taken such risks before or done half the things he’d done today. Jack paused. A scary thought came to him at that moment. ‘Did the evolution change more than just my physical abilities? Is it affecting my mind too?

Well, at this point what’s done is done.’ He shelved the possibility to ponder over later.

Jack threw the long cuts of meat over his shoulder and gave the bear one last look before taking off. Every movement was carefully observed by the cautious creature as he walked back toward micro mountain.