It was around midday when Noah reached the west forest. The sun was beating down on him and he just wanted to drink all of his water which he had been drinking sparingly. He reminded himself that the next town was still around half a day away. He shuffled his things around and entered the forest.
Upon entering the forest he immediately felt the cool of it. He let out a sigh of relief and lent upon a nearby tree, taking his things off to rest. While he was doing this he was careful to keep attention to what was happening around him. There were birds chirping in the trees and the rustle of leaves in the wind.
After a while he picked his things back up and continued on his way to the next town. While walking he looked around and saw some birds flying frightened above him. He looked around to see what scared the birds and heard some branches snapping to his front left. Noah quickly grabbed his spear from his back and took a fighting stance, facing the sound. After a few moments a wild pig came running out, causing Noah to jump back in shock. Once he landed he heard barking and saw two wolves in front of the pig. Realizing that this was a hunt, Noah put his spear back onto his back and continued on his way.
"Well that was interesting." Noah said aloud with a chuckle to himself. He soon heard the screams of a dying animal and knew that the wolves finished their hunt. He sighed internally knowing that would be one less problem that he would have to deal with. He soon heard his stomach grumbling in hunger. He sat down and grabbed some beef jerky out of his bag and began to eat it.
Soon after Noah began to eat he heard panting to his side. After turning and seeing that it was a wolf, he scrambled backwards into shock. He quickly stood up and after hearing leaves rustling behind him he turned and saw two other wolves approaching him. He wondered what the wolves wanted from him after just eating the pig. He looked at the wolves while trying to approach a tree to turn his back and he saw that all their ribs were showing. He began to debate whether to throw the rest of his beef jerky down and run for it or to just fight them head on. While he was debating this a wolf went behind him, trapping him in a circle. Noah realized this and the fact that his plan wouldn't work, put his beef jerky in his pocket much to the wolves' displeasure. The wolves began to circle Noah and he grabbed his spear, not quite pulling it out. He waited for the wolves to have one in front and two behind him. Once they were in that position he launched himself at the wolf in front of him, pulling his spear out and stabbing the wolf straight through its head. The two wolves behind him were quick to act, lunging at Noah after the death of their packmate. Noah messed up his landing and ended up falling on the ground. While Noah was trying to get back up a wolf bit into his right thigh, causing Noah to shout curses at the animal and being forced back down. Noah kicked back at the wolf connecting with it's throat causing it to let go of Noah's thigh. Noah quickly turned onto his back and in one swift motion, pulled his spear out of the corpse of the first wolf and threw it into the other wolves. The starving wolves no longer cared for their dead packmate and began to devour it, giving Noah time to assess his injury. Sees that the bite wasn't too deep and that the wolves were still fully engrossed with their meal, he stood back up and knowing that after his first attack his spear would be a detriment, got his combat knife out of his bag and hooking it to his belt, wondering why he didn't do so earlier. By the time he finished doing this the wolves were already done with their meal. Noah quickly lunged at the wolf on the left, jumping over what remained of the first wolf and plunging his spear into its head. Without missing a beat Noah turned to face the last wolf, unsheathing his knife. While opening his arm out to swing the knife, the wolf leaped at Noah and clamp its jaws on his arm. Noah winced in pain and almost dropped his knife. He adjusted his knife and stabbed into its neck. While the blade didn't go deep enough to kill the wolf, it was enough for it to release his arm which Noah quickly put the rest of his blade into the animal's neck.
Noah stood breathing heavily after the fight. He looked at the injury to his arm, seeing that even though it wasn't bad it was worse than the injury to his leg. He set down his bag and got first aid supplies out of it and did some basic treatment to his injuries and would get them checked out when he got to the next town. When he was done he gathered his things, this time leaving his knife on his belt, and continued on his journey being careful to not put too much pressure on his injured leg.
* * *
Noah stood back up from a break he took. It was nearing sundown and he knew he was close to the town but still wanted to just go to sleep here. That wasn't an option however because if he were to go to sleep the wildlife would be sure to make that permanent so he kept on his path.
Pretty soon after he started walking again he heard the startled chirping of birds and saw a few fly overhead. 'What's happening this time? Well I shouldn't care too much about it, all this tells me is that I need to get out of here.' Noah thought, quickening his pace. Not soon after he heard the birds he heard something come thundering towards him. This caused him to speed up his pace even more. The sound of thunder kept getting louder until he saw a bear come running straight at him. Noah seeing this and getting scared senseless broke out into a run. Noah looked at the bear and saw that it wasn't coming straight for him and instead running in a straight line like it was being chased. While he was looking back he tripped over a root that was sticking out of the ground and fell onto his injured leg, gasping in pain. The bear seeing and hearing this changed course and began to run at Noah. Noah, hearing this before seeing this, couldn't get up in time and waited on the ground for the bear's attack. The bear raised its left and swiped it down with crushing force. Noah quickly rolled out of the way and stood up. Noah tried to grab his spear but didn't have enough time to and had to dodge the bear's next attack. When Noah finally got his spear out he realized just how bad his position was. There was a tree to his back and bushes and roots to his side making movement difficult along with a bear to his front. Oh crap, this is really bad. What should I do? Noah thought, frightened. The bear had already turned to face Noah and began to prepare another attack. Then an idea formed in Noah's head. He quickly unsheathed his knife and threw it at the bear. The bear was too big and too slow to dodge the projectile in time and the knife sunk deep into its shoulder. The bear roared in agony and fury and gave enough time for Noah to run past it and into a better position to dodge it's attacks. Before the bear could orient itself Noah attacked with his spear, thrusting it forward and pulling it back just as the entire head made contact. He did several of these while circling the bear leaving it with multiple shallow wounds. While Noah was doing this he noticed that, like the wolves, the bear was skin and bones. Noah began to wonder what was going on in the forest to cause such starvation. He shook his head to refocus on what was happening in front of him but it was too late. The bear was charging straight at Noah and landed a brutal shoulder bash sending Noah flying into a tree. Noah sat there stunned and with the wind knocked out of him. The only thing he could do was watch as the bear approached him. He began to chastise himself for being useless as the bear got ever closer. Suddenly an arrow whizzed out of the forest and into the bear's shoulder. The bear roared and turned around to face the new threat. As it turned more arrows began to fly at it, each one hitting its mark. The bear, getting overwhelmed by the sheer amount of arrows, tried to turn away and escape back into the forest but its wounds were too many and too great and it didn't get far before collapsing.