CH 11
…
Day seven
…
“Arh-wooo”
I snap awake at the sudden sound. This howl was much louder than any of the other howls that I had heard during the nights. They were close and that howl signaled the beginning of a hunt. I fear for the prey that the wolves hunt. And I can only hope that the prey isn’t me.
“Arh-wooo”
“Arh-wooo”
“Arh-wooo”
“Arh-wooo”
“Arh-wooo”
Then the silence of the night was pierced again and again with howls in reply. Some near, some far. But none were as close as the one that I had heard first. Fearing an attack I sat awake peering into the night. With my spear in hand, watching, waiting, and cowering in my shelter, hoping that the pack wasn’t after me. And don’t forget my glowing shoulder that just draws attention towards me, it is a beacon right now as it grows brighter.
Man I hope nothing finds me tonight.
…
After a stressful night the sun slowly rose into the sky and the howling of the wolves subsided. Unfortunately for me I still hurt every ware and my shoulder refuses to turn off, stupid mark. I’m still afraid that I might be attack. So today I’ll stay here and prepare for the worst.
First I gather some meat and skewer it onto a stick like I had the night before. I add a few more sticks to the fire just too make shore it won’t go out. Now it’s time to cook the meat. I place the skewered meat onto my little spit. Now I begin the ridiculously painful and long process of melting snow in my pot to get what mother called “safe water”. I would drink it as soon as I saw that it had melted. For some reason the water didn’t feel as hot as it did last time. Better not question it and accept that it benefits me. After I’ve eaten and effectively burned my mouth a few times I get ready to prepare for the worst.
I go and gather more sticks and add them to my pile. Then I take the pelt that I had skinned off of the frost rabbit and laid it on the ground in my shelter. That should help with the cold nights.
Now I need to get ready for a fight. I take a few of the larger sticks and carved there ends into sharp points, just like I had done with my first spear. I make spear after spear until I have ten of them.
But will these wooden weapons do anything to the wolves if I face them. My dagger barely cut into the frost rabbit. Wolves generally have thicker fur. I hope my dagger can cut into it. I have to make a stronger spear. But I need my dagger on hand so I can’t attach it to a spear. So what can I use that’s harder than wood but not my dagger?
Well if I think about it if I hit a rock with a stick the stick breaks but if I hit a rock against metal the rock supposedly breaks first. That’s it I’ll take a rock and make it into a spearhead. If I want the best spearhead I should use the shiny rock that I had used for the fire, it seems to be pretty strong.
I walk to the shiny patch of the bolder and begin to move the snow around to uncover the small rocks underneath. I find dull rock after dull rock until I find two small shiny rocks that are a bit duller then the shiny patch on the bolder. It’s kind of hard to tell. Now it’s time to head back to the base and make some spears.
Once I’m back to the base I notice that the sun is halfway down from its peak. I grab two sticks, two strands of cloth, the two rocks, and my dagger. First I have to make a spearhead out of the rocks.
“chenk chenk chenk”
I start by chipping the rocks edges with my dagger trying to make it into a point. Man this is much harder than thought it would be.
“chenk chenk chenk”
“chenk chenk chenk”
“chenk chenk chenk”
“chenk chenk chenk”
“Aww that took a while.”
After chipping one rock into a point the sun had almost reached the ground. My hands are shaking from all the impacts I had made against the rock.
I better eat before I start to work on constructing the stone spear. I cut some meat off the frost rabbit and skewer it like I had done this morning. I place it over the fire to cook, and then I gather some snow and place it in my pot so that I can get some warm water to heat me up.
As the food is cooking I take the two strands of cloth and cut them again on their lengths. Then I take a stick and split its end into fourths. Now I can secure the rock to the end of the stick. I place the spearhead onto the end of the stick hoping that it will stay. But the spearheads edges are sticking out at the bottom. I have to take some more off of the sides.
“chenk chenk chenk”
I finish making the indents in the sides of the spearhead and place it back onto the end of the stick. I grab my four strands of cloth and wrap them around the end of the stick where the spearhead and stick overlap. The cloth is overlapped and placed into the crevices of the spearhead to hold it tightly onto the end of the stick.
And now it’s done.
I hope that these will do better than the wooden spears. It took a lot of time to make this so it better be worth it.
Is something burning?
“OH NO THE MEAT.”
Ok it’s not too burned but I’m afraid that the wolves will catch its scent. No matter I’ll have to fight some of them eventually. Why not now?
Please not now…
Aww this meat is still delicious no matter how burnt it is. And the water I’m drinking doesn’t hurt so much anymore. My shoulder is still glowing faintly for whatever reason, hope that stops soon. Whatever, I have to sleep while I can. I crawl into my shelter and check to see that I’ve got everything in order, one last time, as I fall into a faint sleep.
…
“Arh-wooo”
I hear them. There howling sounds like their closer than they were last night. I really hope they aren’t looking for me.
I can’t fall asleep now. I fear that their looking for me. That fear won’t let me lower my guard so that I can fall asleep. So I just lay there wondering if I’m the pray they hunt. And all I can do is hope that I’m not found.
“Arh-wooo”
They’ve found what they were looking for, I know it.
How you might ask?
Well, I know it because I see a set of glowing green eyes peering through the night. I can’t tell if those eyes are watching me or the corpse of the frost rabbit I had killed. Either way I think I’m going to have to have to fight. Because I’m not going to give up my food to anyone who tries to take it for themselves.
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Luckily for my there seem to be only one pair of eyes in the night.
Unfortunately that doesn’t actually mean that there aren’t more of them out there.
And because it’s so dark tonight I don’t know how big it is ether. Let alone what kind of physical shape it is in. All I know is that there is a pair of eyes watching me, preparing to attack.
So how am I going to fight this?
I could charge in and kill it while it’s alone, maybe. I could wait for it to start eating then stab it in the back, doubtful. I could throw my spears at it until it’s crippled or dead, but the spears might not be able to pierce it. Or I could go out and challenge it head on for the rights of my food, which probably will get me killed the fastest.
What to do what to do.
I don’t want to charge at it. When fighting the frost rabbit I saw that this was not an effective way to fight the beasts. And if there are more of them I’ll be killed instantly. I don’t want to throw my spears at it and lose all my weapons in an attempt to stay safe. And I refuse to be a coward and let the beast take any of my food for any reason. So I guess that leaves me with only one option. I’ll have to stand and challenge it to a fight to the death, I’ll probably be the one to die.
Well crap.
I hate all of these options.
Well I better stand up and fight, even if that means that I’ll die. I doubt that I’ll be able to come home with pride if I don’t do at least this much. Father always told me to respect your enemies when you fight.
“Up we go.”
I stand outside of my shelter with my stone spear in my right hand and one of my wooden ones in my left, with my dagger at my waste. I stand tall and walk calmly over so that I stand in-between the peering eyes in the dark and the dead frost rabbit. But really I was ready to wet myself at any given moment.
“Gerrrr”
The wolf snarls at me.
“This is my food beast. I will not give it up.”
I yell sternly much like my father had when disciplining me or brother. I’m hoping this will be an acceptable way to challenge the eyes that stair at me.
“Arh-wooo”
It howls as it steps out into the light of the fire, reveling itself. It is about the size of the frost rabbit that I had killed only a bit smaller. It had dark black fur with small silver streaks running along its side. It had large white fangs and claws that shone in the fires light. And it looked like its whole body was made of dense muscles.
It was a night wolf.
And I was as good as dead.
“Gerrrrr”
Until then I had only noticed the one set of eyes in the darkness that surrounded me. Only now did I notice the other wolves appear out of the woods one at a time. They stayed in the woods only letting their eyes be seen. From my count it looked like there were around ten new pairs of eyes staring at me.
I am so glad I didn’t charge this night wolf.
So there we stood staring at each other in the light of the fire. Me ready to wet myself and it ready to eat me as I wet myself.
None of the wolves around us had moved forward but they had all gone quite after the wolf in front of me took a firm step forward. I doubt that they will interrupt this fight. But if I kill that wolf will they attack. Who knows, but I won’t know until they attack. The other option is that I die. Soooo I’m going to hope that they don’t attack me. But I don’t trust them so I’ll try to keep an eye on them while I fight.
I ready myself and stab the wooden spear into the ground next to the dead frost rabbit. Then I spread my legs apart and point my spear at the night wolf.
“Gerrrrr”
It growls at me and we begin to circle each other. Then I notice that my back is now facing the night wolfs pack.
Crap.
I glance behind me and notice that they haven’t moved an inch.
I messed up again.
I turn around just in time to see the wolf running at me with full intent on killing me as fast as possible. I side step to the left and swing my spear around and hit its head slightly pushing it to my right. I narrowly escaped a quick death after I had lost my focus on the night wolf in front of me.
I can’t lower my guard against this beast. But I also have to be aware of the night wolves that surround us. Man this sucks. How am I going to be able to see everything around me at the same time? I only have two eyes.
Just then I remember something the self proclaimed goddess had told me. She said something about everything having mana in them.
Whoa that was really close. As the night wolf swung its claws at me. I had stepped back narrowly avoid its attack. Man I have to pay attention to this fight and get series. I’ll have to use my mana if I want to get out of this alive. I begin to pump mana through my body. Hopefully this will make me strong enough to beat the night wolf.
But I still have to watch my surroundings and I know that they have souls so why does it matter that they have mana.
Wait, if they have mana then I can absorb the mana from my surroundings and sense the pockets of mana that move away from me and towards other body’s. After all souls have large stores of mana inside them and are always gather more unconsciously. Shiri found that out when she was studding mana control.
“AHHH”
I scream as the wolf cuts a light gash into the side of my stomach.
I have to stop daydreaming and focus on this fight. I’ve been dodging most of the attacks the night wolf has thrown at me but it seems to me that it’s getting serious. Man that blow to my stomach hurt.
Ok there we go I’m absorbing mana now.
Awww there are the other night wolves and surprisingly the trees.
Oh crap got to dodge. I jump back avoiding its attack again. But now that I can feel the movements of the other night wolves, I can give my all to fighting this one without having to worry about a surprise attack from behind.
I get back into a stance and prepare for its next attack. But it jumps back instead and stairs at me. It knows I’m paying attention to it now. So that must mean that this fight has just begun.
I can really get into it now.
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