"Where are we going, Master ?" Quint asked. His eyes glared to the man sat next to him. The man turned his head to the boy. They both were in a back seat of four-wheel drive car that headed somewhere.
"You're going to go camping, Boy," he said.
"Camping ?" Quint confirmed with glimmer in his eyes. However, a second later he frowned. "But we don't bring any camping equipment." He had watched some camping activities in television where the people lived in colorful tents and sleep in sleeping bags.
His master curled his lips up a little. "You don't need them," the man said then gave him a five inches hunting knife and a large drinking water, "You are a tough boy. These should be enough for you to survive."
Quint perplexively looked at the two items on his lap then looked back at his master. "Am I going to camp alone ?" he asked innocently. His master just nodded.
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The little boy stepped his feet through the thick forest. Not once he turned his head to his master who was still standing on the edge of the forest.
"I will meet you at the other end of this forest within five days." That's what his master said before sending him off. "Just go straight to east and you will get there," he added that time.
Soon enough, the darkness of forest had already surround Quint. However he still could see sunshine in between leaves way above him. His mind only kept one vivid memory, his master's hand that pointed at the east, direction he needed to remain to be able to reach the end of this forest.
The forest was quiet where only the sound of breeze accompanied his steps. Quint slowed down his steps. not only because the sunlight was getting dimmer, but his stomach was actually starting to grumble. His bottle was also almost empty. He needed to find foods, and most importantly water spring.. or at least a source of drinkable water. In the other hand, however, he was afraid to lose track. After all, this was the first time he went to a forest. Alone.
After thinking for few minutes, Quint finally found a solution. Since he only had a knife on his hand, thus he craved a circle on a tree beside him. He then closed his eyes, trying to hear the slightest sound of water flow. A minute later, his lips curled a little while he opened his eyes. Decisively, he walked toward the direction where he heard the water flow.
He was so calm and patient. Every time he slightly changed direction he didn't forget to carve an arrow that point out the direction he was from. Maybe around 200 steps from where he started, he finally saw the water spring. A deer was drinking on it.
Quietly, Quint approached the spring. The deer heard him and instantly ran away. Quint was not disappointed though since he had never targeted the deer in the first place. He opened his bottle and filled it until overflow. He then satisfied his thirst and hunger by drinking straight from the spring. The water was cool and freshening.
After satisfied, guided by signs he made earlier, Quint walked back to where he was. It was actually almost pitch dark at that moment since the sun was already completely set down. He was so grateful for his hard trained the last few months. With lacking sight capability, he still could see his signs clearly with his touch.
Suddenly Quint halted his steps as he heard noises. He continued his steps again a little hasty. From the scrapping sound also shrilling and bone crumbling sound, he could figure out that an animal was in a danger., could be a squirrel or chipmunk, based on the shrill. The bone crumbling could only mean that the animal was being crushed alive. The scrapping sound could only meant the predator was a reptile, a snake perhaps based on its slow but steady sound.
Quint decisively ran toward a direction. He heard a hiss, a signal that the snake recognizes and being disturbed by his presence at once. However, it had its victim already, thus it was reluctant to let it go and attack this intruder. But, within few seconds later, the snake might regret its decision as a sharp knife suddenly cut through its head.
With a mouth still wide opened, ready to swallow its prey, the snake's head fell off and rolled couple times on the ground. Its body was slowly releasing its snare to its prey. Quint helped the animal that was still trapped within the snake's snare to come out. Quint was right, it was a chipmunk.
Once it was free, the chipmunk shrilled with its high-pitch voice, perhaps saying its gratitude. Quint patted its head several times before the chipmunk left him ran through the darkness.
Quint lifted the snake body. It was not big, but it was enough to fill his stomach. while dragging the snake's body, quint walked back to his starting point.
There, he collected some small branches and piled them. After on topped the branches pile with dry leaves Quint started a fire with his knife and a rock. Soon, the fire sparked and burned the leaves. While waiting for his little bonfire to grow, Quint skinned down the snake's body, cut it into bitable pieces. He then stuck a piece to a sharpened branch and held it on top the bonfire to let the fire cooked it. That was his dinner.
After he finished his dinner, he put down the fire and get ready to rest his body. He decided to climb the tree where he put his circle sign. The tree was big enough and it had a low branch that could be used as his bed for tonight. He rested his tired body on the branch. Soon, he already fell asleep soundly.
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A high-pitch shrill forced Quint to open his eyes. As he expected, it was chipmunk. The same chipmunk he saved last night. The chipmunk jumping on his chest while shrilling excitedly.
"Morning," Quint said while rubbing his eyes. Knowing the little boy had awaken, the chipmunk rushed down the tree. Few seconds later it was already on the ground, once again shrilling to get Quint's attention.
The boy looked down to the chipmunk. The chipmunk stood in the center of some berries, nuts, and other things.
"Whoah..." Quint said with glimmer in his eyes. He quickly jumped down from the tree. The chipmunk once again shrilled in shock to see his action. "For me ?" Quint asked while taking a berry. As if understood him, the chipmunk shrilled again.
"Thank you," Quint said with a smile then putting the berry inside his mouth. He then sat crosslegged and started to eat his breakfast, provided by the chipmunk.
There were quite a festive breakfast. Few handful of berries, nuts, seeds, and well.. insects. Al though not consuming the insects at that time, Quint observed them to make sure he would be able to identify them next time. Since they were prepared by the chipmunk it was obvious that those insects were saved to be consumed. Who'd know, he might need them in the future. But as for now, his stomach was more than satisfied with the berries and nuts.
"Thank you," Quint said once again then patted the chipmunk's head. It shrilled happily then ran, once again disappeared in the woods.
Quint decided to go to the water spring to wash his face and filling his drinking bottle before continued his journey. His small feet stepped quickly but not hasty in the deep of the forest. soon he realized he could no longer see the sky as it was fully covered by the thick leaves of the forest. Thus, the forest became even darker, al though it still left some illumination to help Quint to see at least a few feet before him.
The lost of the sunlight didn't bother Quint. This far, he had walk straight to the direction his master pointed. So he assured, even without seeing the sunlight, he was in the right direction. Even when his surround was almost pitch black, Quint was not flinch and kept on his journey.
Quint finally decided to stop and rest only when he felt so much exhaust. Like the day before, he marked the near by tree before went to find water spring. He had a little ran of luck this time, as the spring was way much farther than previous day.. But at least he found one.
While he was filling his bottle, his mind was deciding whether he should hunt or just picking fungi and fruits for dinner. At that time, he heard steps, not from an animal but from at least three or four ones. There was only one predator in this kind of woods that preyed in group. Wolves
He quickly stood up. Nope.. there were not only four, as he just heard other steps from his right and left. Without waiting nay longer, Quint's first reaction was to turn around and ran to the tree behind him. He jumped and started to climb up the tree.
Despite his quite quick movement, this pack was quicker. Soon as Quint acted, they also immediately ran to chase him and jumped, trying to catch him. they couldn't bite him. However, one of the wolf manage to bit his drinking bottle. Its sharp teeth firmly pierce the metal bottle. It then pulled it. The pulled was so strong and surprising, it made the little boy lost his grip and fell to the ground.
The wolf still pulled the drinking water, making its line tighten on Quint's neck. In immediate, Quint reached his knife and release himself from the pull. But of course, another danger had awaited for him as other wolves were pounding at him like competing to be one who killed him.
Quint without hesitance slashing his knife to the nearest wolf on top of him. His slash slitted the wolf's neck, making it cried in pain and backed off. But less than a second, its position had been replaced by two other wolves. One wolf attacked his neck, while the other tried to snatch his hand that gripped knife.
Quint punched the earlier wolf and tried attacking the other while his legs were busy kicking any wolf about to snatched them. However before he tried to slash his knife for the second time, another wolf out of nowhere snatched it. Quint screamed in pain. He reflexively swung his hand to release the bite. It worked, but beside losing the bite, he was also losing his knife.
Without his knife as his only weapon, even his strength had reach third level, he was overwhelmed dealing an attack of eight wolves in once. All the defense skills he had learnt were useless now. Thus all he could was to attack as defense. He punched and kicked continuously. But every time one or two wolves backed down, their friends replaced them. He knew he was in a big trouble.
@@@@@Author's Note@@@@@
I realized now no one read Author's thought below.. so I will tight on the chapter from now on :D
Please vote this novel :D