Inside the cave stood a lion that was double the normal size with a huge horn coming out from its head. The lion was atop a pile of dead nature deer's that it was slowly making its way through. Observing this sent a shiver down Thrain's neck "I'm not even sure we can fight something like that!"

Almost as if jinxing himself for even thinking about the impossible Thorin decided to run straight towards the horned lion. The lion swiftly turned around at the sound of Thorin's foot steps and it bent down and got ready to pounce once he was in range. Thorin ran a bit closer and...

ROAR

The lion launched its attack at Thorin jumping into the air and in response to the lions jump Thorin readied a vertical slash ready for the lion to get in his range. As this was happening Thrain knew he couldn't just stand back and do nothing so he quietly walked around the edge of the cave eventually reaching the rear of the lion.

The sound of flesh being ripped apart reverberated as Thorin slashed tore through part of the lions paw. Once the lion landed it backed off a bit glaring at Thorin. Backing closer to Thrain who took this opportunity and started to close the distance between him and the lion once he was closer enough he thrusted his sword deep into the lions rear.

Another roar was let out, Thrain backed away from it now that he had now made himself known. Soon after though the lions tail stood straight up and then started to move erratically, Thrain could have sworn he saw a pair of eyes and a mouth with fangs grow from the lions tail. Without hesitation the tail charged at Thrain who now had his shield in front of him, The snake like tail smashed against the shield throwing Thrain into the back wall of the cave.

As the dust cleared a gasping boy could be heard. Lucky he hadn't sustained and fatal injury asides from minor scrapes and cuts, although Thrain did look down at his shield "Why did it have to break now?" in a defeated tone. Seeing this Thrain hurried to stand up and move as the tail had realised by now that he had survived.

Thrain started to sprint towards Thorin "We have to get out of here. NOW!" Thorin hearing the desperation in his brothers voice turned towards the entrance and started sprinting. The lion closely behind.

Running out of the cave the boys saw the tall grass and dove into it, covering themselves in whatever was on the ground. The lion also reaching the outside started to dart around looking for them then he came to a halt and Thrain could hear the sound of it taking in a huge amount of air then letting it out, repeating this for a couple of times before it was satisfied and went back in.

Sighing a breath of relief the boys stayed low there was one more area for them to check out around here so they slowly made there way through the tall grass. Exiting the clearing the boys found the local watering hole that was connects by a river that went around and behind the cave . Thankfully with no animals near by. The boys got closer to the watering hole and looked at the water. It was crystal clear and they could see so many fish swimming around. The boys got undressed and quickly jumped in the pond too clear of the mud and dirt hopefully getting it out of Thrains wounds. Once cleaned Thrain grabbed one of the huge blades of grass and wrapped them around his wounds.

"Okay we have a way to get water and food, now we should find some temporary shelter and then we should plan our next course of action". Thorin nodded. They stood up quietly to see if there were any spots nearby. "Look over there" Thorin pointed to a tree that was by its self just on the edge of the jungle. "Good eyes, lets go over and make sure its safe first".

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Nothing of interest happened on the there. However once there Thrain knelt down and rummaged through his suit case and gave Thorin a rope. "I wont be able to climb that high" pointing to branches that looked tough and plentiful "So you're going to need to climb up and tie a rope" Thrain said to Thorin who said in response "I get to eat the first thing we catch around here" Extending his hand. Thrain groaned a little bit cursing internally about the fact he was physically weaker but shook his hand solidifying the deal.

Thorin made it look easy as he skilfully made his way up to the floor of branches tying off the rope to the main trunk and letting it down.

POF.

It landed and Thrain made his way up. Arriving at there new temporary residents Thrain jumped a little bit but sure enough the branches held his weight without budging a bit. The only downside of this shelter was the lack of roof but Thrain was at least eighty percent sure that it couldn't rain in here. They then separated into two different sections of the tree where they could leave their spare belongings for a bit and then they regrouped back in the middle.

"What's our next plan of action" Thorin questioned. "First I think we make our way back to the watering hole and collect some of the fish, shouldn't be too difficult then from up here we can observe what goes on below" Thrain answered.

Over the next 30 minutes or so the boys collected some of the fish from the pond leaving enough behind and set up a campfire in the... tree?

Thrain didn't like the idea but setting it up down below would be much more dangerous so they grilled up the fish and to Thrains surprise didn't burn down there new base. Thrain handed the first fish over to his brother as per the agreement then dug into his fish. The fish was fishy and salty nothing out of the ordinary. After this they began to observe both the cave and the pond.

Over the next two hours Thrain reported that a lot of smaller animals and medium size animals like the nature deer showed up to drink although none of them attacked each other, Then there was a roar coming from the cave. Yep the lion. It was almost like it was announcing it was coming out because as soon as the animals heard the roar they all scattered and the lion appeared.

Besides this there was two things that Thrain noticed. One being that the injury inflicted by Thorin had now healed already, "It must have an incredible rate of healing" Thrain though to him self. The second thing was that the tail had gone back to being a normal tail.

Seeing this Thrain had to make sure of one thing.

He told Thorin about his plan, he was reluctant to let Thrain go through with this but it was be crucial information for the final battle with the lion.

Sneaking up behind it while it was at the watering hole Thrain picked up a rock and threw it at the lion to see what would happen. The tail started to move erratically again growing another pair of eyes and a mouth. Just had Thrain thought "It's snake like tail only happens when its rear is attacked". Thrain crawled back to the tree avoiding the surveying eyes of the lion.

"Thorin I have an idea on how we can beat the lion!" Thrain hurriedly said.