Prey
Few days had passed since I had entered the Peixa forest and built my base.
I had managed by storing rainwater, and when it ran out, it was back to the muddy pools.
As for food, I was surviving by eating worms and insects that I caught on top the plants I found. And yesterday…. I succeeded in acquiring some kind of meat in the forest.
It had no patterns, and had rotten to the point where you couldn’t even tell what animal it was but, it was feast for me.
It would have been unthinkable for me before, but I had carried this rotting meat back to my base like it was treasure.
The smell was foul enough to make my nose go crazy but it should get somewhat better after I roast it with leaves and herbs I have.
Feeling excited, I mulled over which kind of leaves would go well with the meat and prepared the best meal the current me could produce.
This is without a doubt the worst kind of meat I have ever eaten, can confirm…..But it was as good as a first class dish to me for now.
With tears coming out of my eyes, slowly savoured the meat bit by bit.
.
.
Feeling full for the first time in days, I suppressed my desire to just go to sleep and went off to look for more food.
The forest was quite low on living things in general, which made it quite safe for me yet as a result it was hard to find anything truly edible easily.
I was wasting the whole day looking for the next day’s food and the cycle continues. As you can tell it is not very efficient.
The wound that I had received from Klaus had more or less healed, perhaps thanks to some herb among the many that I ate, and I was now equipped with a makeshift axe made out of a stick and a sharp rock; ready to finally hunt an animal or even a monster.
Once in a while, I’ll stop and investigate the surroundings but all I’ll hear is the distant chirps of birds or the rustling of trees.
That’s why even the rotten piece of meat felt like gift from the heavens….
WHile in my thoughts and continuing my usual gathering of food, I heard a sound that was clearly different from the usual sounds of nature, like the scraping of grass and trees; from the east.
Slowly something advanced, directly close to me; the perfect prey.
From the sounds, it should be pretty big, thus dangerous, but now that I have felt the taste of meat I had lost my sense of danger.
I ran towards the noise directly, afraid to lose sight of the prey.
With a sense of concentration beyond what I had ever experienced, I sharpened my five sense and searched for the traces of the prey.
Traces of branches being crushed, footprints, the slight scent of a living animal in the air, I finally traced the prey—–till I saw it in full.
The sounds’ origin was none other than the synonym for dangerous monsters–an Orc.
Once before, I had seen an Orc. This one though, was bigger than even that one.
Did it grow this well because of a lack of natural predators in this forest; or did it simply look bigger it was something I intended to fight?
Either way, it was dangerous and that was a fact.
When I was young and ran into an Orc, my father singlehandedly took care of it. But that was my father, a [Swordsman] that had spent day and night working hard, training daily. And even he still had some trouble with it.
Well I too could give my father some trouble as long as skills are not involved so I should be at least close to the level of that Orc at least.
But considering the difference in equipment and such, to say it was dangerous for me to fight was an understatement…….but all I see right now is tasty meat.
My hesitation lasted only for a second, and my resolve for victory emboldened once again.