Chapter 2
The bear snuffed around, making small grunting noises as it poked, smelled and licked the corpses of the wolves. After a small inspection of the slain, the bear appeared to have grown bored and slowly looked around while yawning. Locking its eyes on me, my first instinct was to run, run or climb, whatever it took to get away from this animal, this beast that easily drove off the biggest danger to my life. However, these thoughts were that of the voice, the br- my brain, instead, reminded me what I know about these animals. Brown bears usually eat their prey alive; they also aren’t scavengers by nature and more times than not leave dead animals alone.
I slowly ease myself to a flat lying position, relax my body, and breathe as lightly as I can muster. I hear the bear slowly lumber over to me and I try my best to keep my body from trembling or my voice from betraying me and letting out a fearful scream. The bear slowly begins to prod me, sniffing at me, nudging me with its nose, and turning me with its paw. I barely manage to avoid yelping when it lays some of its weight on my injured leg. After a few minutes that felt like an eternity, I finally hear it start to trundle away. Even after its footsteps disappeared, I still laid there, refusing to move, on the off chance this was all a feint by the beast.
I don’t know how long I laid there, ignoring the gnats flying in my ears or the mosquitoes sucking me dry. What finally made me move was the thought that eventually the wolves may come back. I opened my eyes and was greeted by pitch darkness, I looked up towards the sky, only to be greeted by the tree canopy, blocking light from reaching the ground. “That isn’t important right now.” I told myself, right now I need to get out of here before the creatures of the night come to claim the two corpses on the ground.
When my eyes locked on the bodies of the dead wolves, I took a moment to think things through. With this injury, it’d be hard to gather any berries, much less hunt! Moreover, even if I wanted to hunt, I don’t know if I’d have the stomach for it. Before any other animal, now was my best chance to claim meat, fur, and anything else I could use. With that line of thought triumphing in my brain, I felt my way through the darkness, as I dragged myself to the body of the first wolf.
At first, I was scared, jumpy, believing that the wolf would spring back to life at any moment and sink its jaws deep into my throat. After nudging it for a while I finally calmed down enough to begin trying to harvest it. I shouldn’t have known how to handle the whole process, but the voice provided amazing input whenever I was stumped. I pulled a bone knife from the fold of my tattered garments. A knife that until recently I had no idea I had, a knife that would've been a real confidence booster had I had it in the face of the wolves. A knife I used to skin both wolves, and cut of decent sized chunks of meat from the chest and softer meat from the stomach area. I also dug a few of the larger teeth from the mouths of the wolves. My other brain, as I’ve decided to call it, believes that is a good idea.
I put all of the gathered materials onto pieces of the hide that I’d harvested. I then grabbed the edges of the hide up so that they met in the middle, then tied them with another strip of hide, making it into a makeshift bag. I then put this small sack on my stomach and began to drag myself farther away from this gory mess. The flies and mosquitoes were already feasting on the bodies, which meant other scavengers wouldn’t be far behind. After dragging myself for what seemed to be about 100 meters, I finally stopped due to exhaustion. I was extremely thirsty, another problem, I simply laid on my back. Looking up at the never-ending darkness, too tired to swat at the bugs buzzing around me. Once I’d gathered a bit more energy, I, while struggling greatly, managed to hoist both myself, as well as my sack into a tree. I climbed to a height I believed decent enough to avoid many of the predators and other animals that roamed the forest at night. As soon as I secured myself in a position where I wouldn’t fall, I fell into a deep slumber.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
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I quietly sit on a branch in a tree, barely more than a meter off the ground, but high enough, and in such a position that no unsuspecting animal will spot me. I wait, ears preened for the signal that is sure to come. The shrill cry of an unnatural bird bounces off the trees, this is the signal. I tense up and prepare for what I know will soon approach, suddenly from the brush bursts forth a deer. It has a serious limp due to the spear lodged deeply in its left hind leg. This doesn’t seem to bother the deer too much though, as it pelts towards the location I am currently perched upon.
Just before the deer arrives under me, I jump from my hidden position and fall towards the ground. I land on the deer’s back, startling it, before it can make any sudden moves, I rip my bone dagger, my pride, a dagger made from the fangs of the mighty bantila, from a sash within my robes. With all of my strength I plunge the dagger deep into the deer’s neck. It makes a heart-tearing bleat, but I continue to stab, twice, thrice. The deer finally loses momentum as it tumbles to the ground and lays still.
I jump up and move fast to slit the beasts throat, putting it out of its misery. I offer a quick prayer of thanks to Akinola, He who Lords over the Skies. As I finish the prayer, the other two hunters of our tribe jog up to me.
“Good job Pino! Your father would’ve been proud of you. When he was your age, he couldn’t even throw his spear straight!” A man who appeared to be in his 40s said.
“Thank you elder.” I responded with a large smile on my face.
The other hunter, just a bit older than me said, “If it weren’t for my spear hurting the dambi there is no way you would’ve been able to surprise it. How great of you! The son of the Bantila slayer, to hunt like a coward.”
The smile quickly left my face, “Who are you calling a coward?! Say it again, I dare you!”
Before things could get out of hand, the elder intervened, “You are both the hopes of our tribe. You are the last two young men alive after the Bantila hunt. I pray to Akinola that you can both work together for the betterment of the tribe.”
We stared daggers at each other before responding in unison, “Yes elder.”
The elder sighed while looking at the two of us before saying, “Lets quickly bring this thing home, we haven’t had meat in days. This is cause for celebration!”
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“What the hell was that?” I wondered aloud.
That was too real to be a dream, but I’ve never met those people in my life.
“Pino…” I murmured as I stare at my dagger, the dagger that I saw in the dream.
My mind is drawn away from the useless thoughts by the constant throbbing in my leg.
“Before I can worry about any of the bigger questions, I have to survive first.” I said, while slowly clambering out of the tree.
I took out the dagger and marked the tree with a large X, before saying to no one, “I’ll be back soon.”