Jake woke up to the sound of crunching wood behind him. He didn’t jump this time, he was getting used to the knives or rocks being thrown his way to act as wake-up calls, but as time passed something felt off. He couldn’t hear any other moment throughout the camp except behind him, where the crackling of dead wood continued softly, growing closer.
Sitting up slowly, Jake turned his head and froze in place. Moving through the wasteland of dried roots and stumps, low to the ground was a lone wolf. It looked injured, its fur matted and stained black as scratches covered its body. It walked with a slight limp but pulled itself forward uncaring toward Jake.
Its snout was elongated and drawn back into an unending snarl, drool continuously pooling and falling from its face to the floor. It walked low to the ground, and Jake noticed its ear was missing. But what struck him most was the eyes of the beast. As he’d turned toward the cracking sound, he’d made eye contact with the monster and both now sat, frozen in place. Jake was drawn once more into the beast's gaze, its fury and desire to rip him apart disarming him completely.
Pure instinct and hatred stared back at Jake yet the wolf stayed still for now. Thinking rapid fire, trying to calm himself as he already felt himself begin to freeze up completely as he stared into the eyes of the best, he posited maybe it waited because of how injured it was. But despite waiting Jake could tell the madness that drove the other monsters he’d seen to hunt and kill remained. The instant Jake made any sudden moves, made any sort of opening that invited the wolf to attack he’d be lunged upon.
The wolf was close, closer than he’d have ever liked. Close enough to be fully illuminated by the camp's light cast by Lana the night before. From the corners of his eye, Jake saw the wolf's muscles contract the longer it stayed in the light. He saw it wince in pain, yet it stayed still locking eyes with Jake waiting for its time to strike. It was close enough that with one leap it would be upon Jake, ripping him apart.
Jake wasn’t sure what to do. He felt any cry for help toward the group would result in the wolf mauling him before anyone could act in his defense. Perhaps they were already awake, unsure of how to act given the situation. The only grace Jake held was that the blanket covering him hadn’t fallen away completely, allowing him to stealthy reach into his pocket and take hold of one of the knives he’d been practicing with thus far.
Yet he felt no safer holding the knife, if anything he felt more on edge. The knife made the truth of the situation all the more real, made the truth that he would have to personally deal with the wolves alone all the more apparent. Silently swallowing a gulp. Jake turned the knife over in his sweaty hands and watched as the wolf began to jitter in place. It was growing antsy, soon it would act with or without Jake.
Jake understood now was his best chance to try and gain the upper hand, if he was going to do anything now was the time. Yet still he found himself stuck frozen, staring into the wolf's eyes, feeling helpless. He tried to goad himself forward, force himself past his fears to take action but his body refused to respond. Small shakes began to occur throughout his body, unsettling the wolf and causing it to let out low, fierce growls and begin slowly advancing moving into position to pounce forward.
Sitting frozen, trembling, staring into the eyes of the advancing wolf Jake tried harder and harder to force himself to act without avail. In a spark of desperation, he thought of screaming for help from behind and ducking down to hopefully use the blanket and block the wolf's claws. All at once, amongst his panicked thoughts, the story Rick had told days ago came to mind. Taking as deep a breath inwards as he could so as not to trigger the wolf to attack, Jake locked eyes with the wolf one last time before closing his eyes and plunging his vision into darkness.
He could hear faint growls, the faint snapping of rotted roots crumbling to ash, the ruffling of matted fur. But the horrid eyes of the wolf, eyes that had chased him for weeks now, the eyes of the predator were gone. With another deep breath, he took his chance.
Eyes still closed, he flung his arm forward sending the knife he held out in front of him blindly as a distraction while he ducked back down, throwing the blanket wrapping him up into the air. He opened his eyes to a sea of ruffling fabric and the sound of a collapsing body, as the wolf pounced at his sudden action.
He scurried away, quickly crawling backward trying to push the blanket away but failing as the weight of the wolf landed on him, tangled in the blanket. It laid still for the moment, but Jake knew it wouldn’t be long before it managed to rip the blanket apart. The blanket around him was quickly stained black as blood and fur stuck from the wolf's wounds, and though Jake's head was now free of the fabric that once covered it the wolf remained covered, making it impossible for Jake to tell where it was going to attack from next.
Fortunately, as Jake scurried away from the wolf momentarily trapped in blankets he created a lot of noise, enough noise to rouse the rest of the camp behind him. Turning he saw Lana and Leopold rising bleary-eyed from the complete opposite ends of the camp. Rick meanwhile was still sitting reclining against the stump he’d claimed yesterday, staring at Jake. How long he’d been watching Jake couldn’t tell, but in his hands, he held a knife at the ready.
With a gulp, Jake pulled himself to his feet. His clothes were now stained black; blood smeared from the wolf as it gnashed at him from beneath the blanket he’d thrown over it as he tried to escape. He felt a bit more at ease now. It was only an injured wolf, probably one that managed to escape Rick and Leopold's hunt yesterday, facing down a trio of skilled warriors. Rick alone would be enough to deal with the problem.
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As Jake turned back toward the blanket, expecting to see it thrashing about he saw it instead lay still slowly becoming more and more darkened by the leaking blood of the wolf. Only, the amount was too much for the scratches Jake had seen before. The blood flowing freely into the blanket hadn't been at nearly this amount.
Cautiously, Jake walked back toward the blanket. Rick, who’d been watching his movements since he emerged from under the blanket gave no objection. With a pull, Jake tugged at the blanket trying to remove it from the wolf. The blanket did not come easily, it was wrapped firmly around the body of the wolf and laid in a tangled heap unhappy to move. The wolf, however, gave no sort of objection to the sudden tugging of the blanket.
When the blanket was at last removed, it revealed the wolf's corpse. It lay there dead, the knife Jake had blindly thrown sticking through one of its eyes. Jake heard a whistling sound and turned to see Leopold and Lana arrive at the scene, having taken some time to realize what was happening in full and get prepared. Leopold wore no armor, carrying only his sword while Lana still looked extremely sleepy. Her bed hair was at an all-time high, the worst Jake had seen of it in a while as recently she’d fixed it with magic before Jake could see it. As she stood there swaying on her feet, looking out of it, Jake worried she might have somehow overused her magic again.
“Where’d this bastard sneak in from?” Leopold asked, turning towards Rick, who shrugged in response. “Thought this area was safe, might have to start keeping watch earlier than I expected. Good work Rick. Kid, you look pretty shaken up, sorry if the wolf landed on you.”
Leopold gave Rick a pat on the back and grabbed his shoulder while laughing and gesturing haphazardly to the blood covering Jake’s clothes. Rick shook Leopold’s hand off and said,
“The Kid killed it, go bother him about it.” Though he acted annoyed, shaking Leopold's hand off a smile hint of pride shone through his voice when addressing Jake. Leopold turned toward Jake a look of shock apparent on his face, before he started laughing and clapping ecstatically.
“Never thought I’d see the day kid, not for a few more years at least. All that training with the trees paying off finally, huh? Ok then kid, since you killed it you get to skin it. Rick, help your mini-me with that.”
Leopold let out another laugh, before walking over and clapping Jake on the shoulder, giving him a thumbs up and saying,
“Good job, Kid” in a voice dripping with sincerity, a kind smile on his face. After that, his face broke into a smirk as he chuckled and strolled back across camp toward his bedroll. Lana for her part gave Jake a tired thumbs up before also stalking back to sleep.
Rick, though looking annoyed at Leopold's comments, said nothing in response and walked over to where Jake was still frozen. He couldn’t bring himself to look down at the body of the wolf again, it didn’t feel right. At first, he felt ecstatic at his first kill, at successfully managing to hunt and survive. To beat the predator staring down at him.
But the longer he stewed in his victory the worse it felt. He hadn’t bested his enemy with any sort of skill on his part. In the end, when face to face with his fears yet again he failed, freezing up and being unable to act. It was only in a desperate hail mary that he succeeded. It was literal blind luck he’d managed to kill the wolf. He hadn’t been aiming; he couldn’t possibly aim. Every time he tried to, the stares of the beast pierced his soul.
Rick pulled Jakes abandoned knife from the wolfs eyes, glowering at the fresh black blood that stained its sheen. Still, he held it in his hands and gripped the wolf around its midsection, flipping it over he brought the stained knife to the wolf's neck and made a cut into the dead beast’s jugular. As blood began flowing freely from the fresh cut, Rick lifted the wolf with a grunt and carried it to a particularly tall trunk. He let it dangle over the edge, blood flowing freely out of the wolf onto the ground below.
Whipping his hands, Rick went to stand next to Jake who still hadn’t moved, standing stock still and staring out into the distance. Rick didn’t say a word at first, only pulling a handkerchief out from his cloak to wipe the blood away from the knife. After several minutes, he gave a nod, and while passing the knife back into Jake’s hands said,
“For someone who just hunted his first kill, you don’t seem very happy kid.” Jake took hold of the knife, staring down into its sheen before saying,
“I failed.”
The statement hung in the air for a moment, unbroken silence filling the space till Rick asked,
“How exactly?”
“I failed. I failed again. I just… couldn’t do it. All it had to do was look at me and I sat there, frozen. I tried so hard to make myself face my fear, make my body move, but even with certain death staring me down, I just couldn’t. I just sat there, waiting to die.”
Rick nodded his head, slowly, before looking over at the bleeding wolf and asking,
“Then how come you're alive and the wolf’s the one lying over there bleeding out onto the ground.”
“I just… I just shut my eyes; and broke eye contact. Used that split second of desperation to throw the knife forward and duck down. Don’t you get it through? It wasn’t my aim, or my skill that killed that thing, just blind luck.”
Rick nodded again, before asking,
“So how exactly did you fail?”
Jake turned his head toward Rick who seemed too stubborn to understand his point, ready to continue arguing only to find Rick smiling kindly at him, the first smile he could ever recall the gruff man giving.
“Kid, I don’t know how you haven’t figured this out by now but most survival boils down to blind luck. Facing your fears, skills, and knowledge? Great edges to tip the scales of fate but at the end of the day, it all comes down to blind luck. All that matters is you stay alive. And look at that, you’re still breathing. So how exactly did you fail?”
Rick pointed toward the wolf, still bleeding on the ground, and said,
“When you figure a way you failed, let me know. Till then, go wait with that thing kid. Your first kill, you get to skin it.”
Jake nodded; throat clammy. He couldn’t think of anything to say anymore, all the arguments he had, the frustration he felt about feeling frightened yet again. It all felt childish when compared to the bigger picture. Walking over to the bleeding wolf, he laid his hand across his heart and felt it beat.