— Looks like I need to improve the trap—
Seeing the footprints surrounding the wells, coupled with the disappearance of the food baits, Sven decided to widen the range of the traps.
Meanwhile, in the sky, the clouds began to change color to a darker shade.
Some of the animals that felt the change began to cover the entrances of their dens and others directly moved away from the center of the clouds.
Looking up at the sky, Sven couldn't notice the changes until he saw the first drop of water fall.
At the beginning he did not take much importance, but hearing the thousands of screams that sounded in the forest, he decided not to be careless and went to the refuge.
The distance from the traps to the shelter was just over two kilometers. When Sven was halfway there, the torrential downpour was so strong that it had destroyed the path to his shelter.
Cutting off some of his clothes, Sven covered his arms and shielded his view so she could move on.
— What is this?—
Feeling an itch in his arms, Sven took refuge under a tree and checked the affected arm.
Above them, two parasites tried to penetrate his skin by closing their teeth on the flesh. One of them was halfway to enter a blood channel.
Scared, Sven took his blade and cut the parasites next to a piece of his skin to avoid being infected.
Looking at the pools of water that formed in the ground, he found hundreds of the parasites swimming in the waters.
— Better move fast—
Cutting several branches, after tying them into a handmade umbrella, Sven advanced to his shelter avoiding the water holes in the ground and the landslides along the way.
Every time a parasite managed to sneak through the umbrella, he using his blade split it in half and threw it to the ground.
The beasts that had not yet found shelter were not very lucky, each time the parasites managed to break through their skin, they released pheromones that drove the other parasites crazy, causing thousands of those on the ground to launch into a race against the parasitized animal.
Upon reaching the shelter, Sven lit a fire and checked every part of his body, looking for any parasites that had crept into his body.
After an exhausting search, he was able to find a parasite on his clothes. Stopping his urge to kill him, Sven carried the parasite onto a counter and began to observe the little creature.
The parasite measured four centimeters long and was the thickness of an index finger, in its mouth it had two rows of sharp teeth together with four dark fangs.
After dividing the parasite body, he found that inside it had thousands of eggs ready to be expelled.
A chill ran through Sven's body at the thought of what would have happened to him if those eggs had entered his bloodstream.
In the end he couldn't find anything else, and using a torch he burned every part of the parasite and cleaned its blade.
Looking through the entrance, in the forest only hundreds of wild beasts could be found seeking refuge.
The strangest of them for Sven was a three-foot-tall bull toad that stood impassive in the rain. Concentrating his vision, Sven could see that the toad was not quite still, every time a group of parasites fell next to the rain, it extended its tongue and caught them at a speed almost imperceptible to the eye.
After a few hours, some changes happened in the beasts that had been killed by the parasites. Those who still had their bodies joined, stood up with lost eyes and began to stagger in the direction of the west of the forest.
Little by little, thousands of parasitized beasts ran westward, creating a strange sight for those animals still seeking refuge.
Every time these parasitic animals found a healthy animal, they went crazy and, accelerating their pace, they attacked them, killing them on the spot.
After several minutes, those poor slain creatures would get up with empty eyes and join the march west.
Seeing that the herd of animals would pass near his shelter, Sven covered the entrance and put out the fire. He didn't want to attract the attention of those parasites.
In the middle of the night, the group of parasitized animals numbered more than ten thousand creatures. Among them, a woolly bison took the lead, leading them out of the forest.
After seventy kilometers, leaving the protection of the forest, the herd found an endless desert, where a small army of one hundred people covered with brown blankets awaited them.
The little exposed skin of this army revealed various tribal markings, and a tanned muscular skin.
When the totality of animals came out of the forest, three people stood in front of the herd chanting a spell in a strange language.
At the end of their song, the beasts regained the brightness of their eyes, but they did not run when they saw that they were not in the forest, but they looked with respect at the three people in front of them.
After turning around, the three people raised their scepters and ordered the army to advance.
After half an hour, all the beasts, together with the army, disappeared in the middle of the desert, leaving only the footprints in the desert as evidence of the strange encounter.
With the withdrawal of the parasitized animals, those creatures that had not managed to possess a body lost their energy and deflated like a balloon, leaving only a piece of skin on the ground.
Angry, the bull toads when they saw that their food did not fall any more, they retreated to the rivers trying to catch some unsuspecting in their way.
The last change that occurred in the forest, was the improvement of Sven's hearing, it was the first night that he tasted the rodent's meat, assimilating the ability during sleep.
Upon getting up, Sven noticed a slight headache that he related to a poor night's sleep.
Gathering the water accumulated by the recycler, he took some preserves and went to the traps.
The place was completely flooded, and most of the spears had been lost.
Feeling a bit discouraged, he decided to explore the region a bit more.
So far, Sven had only drifted three miles from the shelter. This time, he decided to advance until he had covered at least ten kilometers.
Although he was on the lookout for predators, he felt more confident remembering that thousands of animals had left the region where he was staying.
The variety of plants that he encountered on the way far exceeded what he knew, among them, he found a plant in the shape of a heart that locked up its prey by slowly devouring them.
Another chance encounter was getting four ostrich-sized eggs.
Not wanting to tempt his fate, Sven left that part of the forest and drove in some stakes marking how far he had come.
Upon returning, some animals would come out of their burrows in search of their morning food.
Since he woke up, all the creatures Sven encountered were larger than those of his time, some of them were unrecognizable to him, but at the moment he did not think much about it, his priority was to get out of the forest and find people.
Arriving near the shelter, Sven found several bloodstains on the ground that were heading to his destination.
The doors of the shelter were bent in half and some claw marks were formed on their edges.
The path of blood led into the shelter. Holding his breath, Sven tried to listen to the invader, but after 5 minutes of waiting he could only hear a very low breath.
Arming himself with courage, with his left hand he took the sharpest spear he had and with his right he kept the blade at the height of his waist.
Controlling his breathing, Sven advanced cautiously for any strange sounds.
In the smallest room he was able to find a complete mess, the remains of the rat's meat had been eaten by the invader only leaving a stain on the floor.
As he stood behind the entrance to the largest room, he could feel the slow breathing of the invader. Moving forward a bit, he looked inside noticing a figure sleeping on his bed.
The creature was a dark blue color of more than four meters, from his breath, small rays of energy were expelled disappearing into the air.
The invader was a huge wolf, with partially destroyed bone armor. Without losing his cool, Sven noticed that the wolf had part of its belly torn and its front legs were full of wounds.
In his mind, Sven was debating whether to seize the opportunity and launch himself against the sleeping wolf or withdraw from the place seeking a new refuge.
Retreating to the smaller room, Sven remembered the water recycler, he was clear that if he lost that water source he would not last long in this forest.
Making up his mind, Sven stepped out of the shelter and cut several branches to create spears. Preparing several of them, he created a suspended trap at the entrance of the shelter and decided to initiate his plan.