“-or”

“Se-or”

“Senhor the plane has landed” A voice gradually pierced through Issac’s dream waking him up. For a moment Issac was confused, where were the gunshots, the screams into the night. As the fog cleared from his eyes the first thing he noticed was the pretty flight attendant standing in front of him. She stood bent down slightly with her hand resting over her knees. Wearing a baby blue flight attendant uniform as she stared down at Issac, her brown eyes looking down with concern.

“I’m so sorry Senhor, but you have to leave so that we can get this plane ready for the next flight.” Standing back up, the flight attendant smiled down at him happy that she had gotten him awake before it had gotten too late. “ It must have been a wonderful dream Senhor, you were smiling the whole time as we landed.”

Looking her over, Issac noticed that she was a typical Latina woman with black curly hair tied up into a bun and a dark brown tan over her skin. Scanning over the rest of the plane, Issac saw that he was the last passenger still on the plane.

He had seemed to have slept throughout the landing sequence and past the disembarking. Even his talkative neighbor whose fat always seemed to flow around the armrest had disappeared, somehow without waking him up.

Smiling, Issac looked over to his right through the plane window and witnessed beautiful tall green mountains overlooking a deep blue ocean and between them a vibrant city that exuberated life. Jotted through the mountain sides were rows and rows of buildings all going up the mountain forming what seemed like steps leading towards the city. Before he turned his head back Issac noticed a statue atop a mountain reaching out with its arms opened wide, as if it was accepting all people that came.

“ It was.”

Standing up Issac fixed his sandals over his feet before tucking his shirt back into his pants and brushing back strands of black hair out of his purple eyes before he turned to face the flight attendant. “Obrigada Senhorita, if it weren’t for you I might have found myself flying back to the states before having a chance to experience beautiful Rio.”

“It’s nothing Senhor, I am happy to be of help.” Looking back towards the front of the plane she stepped out of the way holding out her hand to allow him to go past “ thank you for flying with us today but we need you to exit the plane please senhor.”

Ignoring her, Issac held out his hand. “ My name is Issac, really thank you, according to my mother I can fall asleep anywhere, so it's no surprise to me that I was able to fall asleep here.”

“Like I said senhor it’s no problem however, again, like I said it's time to disembark the plane, we need to have enough time to prepare it for the next flight please.”

Quickly grabbing his satchel, Issac bowed his head in an apology all the while never letting his smile leave his face. Stepping off the plane, Issac was forced to shield his eyes from the early morning sun. Shifting through his pockets, Issac pulled out his phone and saw that it was barely ten in the morning.

Having flown through the night Issac was unable to have been able to witness the infamiss Amazon Rainforest. A forest that was so grand that it nearly covered the entirety of South America. The trees and rivers are so treacherous that people still today can get lost within the dense forest.

Stepping out of the entry tube of the plane Issac, right behind the attendant, allowed her to lead him towards the central hub of the airport. Looking to his side Issac focused on her name tag, ‘Marigold Silva’ a little unsurprising, Silva was known to be the most common last name in Brazil.

After walking into customs Issac waved goodbye to Marigold before trying to locate the front desk. Scanning through the crowd, Issac followed the signs until he found a large front desk that seemed to fit five attendants each helping what seemed like a long line of people.

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Noticing his annoying neighbor from on the plane standing in one on the lines Issac quickly sped behind the line closest to him hoping to avoid being called over for even more inane chatter. He did not even notice that in front of him were at least twenty other people all waiting to proceed through customs, the most in any of the five lines.

After what seemed like hours of waiting Issac was beginning to wonder if the hunt this time was really supposed to be worth living through this hell of boredom.

While he thought through the pros and cons of just walking out of the airport and risk getting into any trouble with the authorities, the hunt be damned, Issac noticed that the spot in front of him had opened up right before a male clerk who looked as if he too was about to die of boredom.

With renewed glee Issac rushed towards the spot as if someone was about to magically appear and take it from him. Slamming into the desk Issac, ignoring the pain from running full force into a wooden desk, smiled and said.

“ Ola senhor, I am a new arrival to Rio and I am in desperate need to have my customs papers filled out.” Before handing all of his paperwork forward to the clerk. Not even having enough energy to scold Issac for running into the desk, the clerk grabbed the papers before opening up a page on his computer, typing in the answers that Issac happily gave to speed up the process.

“Name ?”

“ Issac Gratis”

“Age ?”

“Fourteen.”

“Birthday ?”

“ February, second, 2000”

“ Country of origin ?”

“ The United states.”

“ Any parents with you today ?”

“No.”

“ Reason for visit, and for how long ?”

“Business, and it shouldn’t be more than a week.”

“ Do you know that as a minor under eighteen years of age and without a parental guardian you are under obligation to read and sign this waiver that states that the Country of Brazil is in no way responsible for any complication that may arise during your stay ?”

“ I am perfectly aware.”

“ Okay then here you go.” handing over the paperwork, the clerk finished typing in the information leaving Issac to sign the documents and hand them over while he collected his belongings. After finally going through all the procedures Issac was finally able to leave the airport and start walking down the crowded streets of Rio.

Checking his phone again, Issac was surprised to see that the entire process had only taken a little less than two hours to complete, meaning that it was time for lunch.

After contemplating for a while Issac pulled up a map on his phone and noticed that the closest restaurant seemed to be a burger joint sitting down beside the ocean. Closing the map Issac took off walking down the street.

The streets of Rio were packed with both natives and tourist crowding the streets with a mass of bodies. Traveling through this sea of bodies, Issac couldn't help himself but break out into a grin as the sound of drums distantly ringing in his ear.

For once Issac would have the chance to tackle a piece of rare game. Or at least what he hoped would be, something that could liven the game up again, something that could actually be a challenge for him. The past few months had been one disappointment after another, the hunts ending far too quickly. And even after spending so much time and effort to make the hunts more fair.

Things just weren't the same any more. When he first started these games of his the hunts could at least give him a little trill. The preparations, the chase, and at the end of it the final fight of a cornered animal. But now any prey left had begun to recognize his scent, they knew when he was coming.

Prey started hiding more and more, never coming out of their holes to jump at his throat, the population had been thinned too far. No matter what he did Issac found that this game that he played had started to taste stale. Even when he gave every advantage that he could give the difficulty never rose each and every time, lately he had even begun making elaborate traps hoping that they would at least make the game more fun, but they never did.

Now he had decided to try his hand at trying to catch a bigger game and surprisingly it had actually hidden itself well. So well, in fact, that Issac would be wasting a large amount of time if he tried to luck his way out in finding its hole.

But really, that's what made the hunt so much fun.