Chereads / Born To Fight / Chapter 58 - Chapter 58 - Snow Tiger on the Hunt.

Chapter 58 - Chapter 58 - Snow Tiger on the Hunt.

Wilson walked nonstop out of the small rural village and through the plain fields for the next one week. He was beginning to believe that those horned monkeys had left an indelible 'aggression mark' of some sort on him. After all, even though he ran away and avoided being seen, some stray horned monkeys still tried to mob him. He walked on and on, refusing to stop for reasons he would rather keep to himself out of embarrassment. His feet were filled with blisters and frostbite, he could barely walk, not to mention that he was extremely cold and would have been colder if he had not grabbed a woolen coat on his way out of the village. He regretted not stopping to take any footwears. Even slippers would have been better than nothing, right?

He was hungry and tired and had not stopped running these past three days due to three white-furred horned monkeys. Who knew there were white horned monkeys, anyway? Wilson remembered himself being stunned at the beauty of the white fur as he stared from behind. Then, the monkeys which were feeding on something, had turned and chattered angrily at him. At first, he tried to retreat but then, he stepped on a sharp twig that was slightly covered by the snow. He would have noticed it if he was looking at where he placed his bare feet, but how could he, when three horned monkeys were snarling at him and chattering loudly like three little children? He slipped and managed to regain his balance but still winced in pain. His feet were already numb at that time and the slightest prick at his skin caused immense, indescribable pain.

Perhaps, the horned monkeys had seen his expression of pain as an expression of provocation, because they then, became angry and ran at him, opening their mouths and baring their vicious fangs as they got closer. And man, they moved fast, clearing twenty or so meters in like one and a half seconds. It was literally a single leap and they were right before him. But Wilson would have felt even more embarrassed if he died to them that easily. All his past attempts to survive would come to naught, wouldn't it? As they leapt, he realized that these horned monkeys had no tails and looked bulkier. Their chattering also sounded different to what he was used to hearing, but that was of little concern to him at the moment. He turned and ran, ignoring the insane pain he was going through. In a bid to encourage himself, he said to himself; 'only the living can experience pain.'

The horned monkeys (which by the way were actually baboons without horns. Wilson had yet to notice they were hornless), chased after him as he ran. They would get really close, forcing Wilson to run faster. This increase in speed increased the distance, but not for long. The baboons would quickly close the distance again, swiping and sometimes chomping at Wilson's behind, forcing him to run even faster and leaving them behind for a short period of time before they caught up again.

They played this annoying and excruciatingly painful game for three days straight before the baboons finally stopped and turned around to go back the way they came. Wilson ran forward some more, then collapsed out of exhaustion. he would have lost a lot of blood if the wintery cold had not long stopped the blood loss for him by literally freezing his bloody wounds.

Wilson was tired. His stolen winter coat that was the only thing covering his torso had been badly ripped by those baboons' violent swipes. As soon as he hit the snowy ground, he laid on his side in a fetal position and wrapped his hands around himself and seemingly ignoring all the freezing cold he was feeling, he fell asleep.

*ROAR*

Wilson didn't know how long he had slept for, but when he woke up, he was covered in a thin layer of ice. His teeth were chattering at the immense cold. His body ached and refused to obey his command. He was so cold, he was actually beginning to accept the possibilities of him freezing to death.

*ROAAAR*

Another roar echoed through the winter. Wilson had a vague feeling that he was being approached and watched like a pretty, but he could no care less. He was dying anyway, if a predator pounced on him right now, won't that simply make his death faster and less painful?

'That really does not seem like a bad idea.' Wilson thought to himself and closed his barely opened eyes as he awaited inevitable death.

He had only one actual regret though. He did not get to apologize to his beloved mother.

***********

Jim, a slim, tall, slightly muscular, sixteen year-old blondie, dressed in all white winter clothing and boots slowly walked in the snow, checking his dysfunctional holographic-display wristwatch every thirty minutes interval.

"F*ck! F*ck!...." He cursed continuously. He tapped his watch again and again.

"Come on man, work for me! I only need to check the map yo!" Jim sweet talked his watch. He tapped the watch again but still won't function properly. Instead, it chose that time to shut down. This annoyed Jim and he yelled angrily at the watch. "You can't do this to me! I have been faithful to you!"

He knelt on the cold snow and raised his head till his face was parallel to the sky and yelled his lungs out; "F**********CK!!!!"

Jim did not know how long he yelled for, but he only stopped when he was completely out of breath. He panted till he regained his breath. He stood up on his feet and breathed out cold steam.

"F*CK!" He cursed. "The temperature has gone down a couple degrees again. How the hell am I supposed to get there now? F*cking baboons! If they had not been in my way, I would not have to take this shit*ss detour. Now, I'm lost. F*ck!"

He looked around him. All he could see was a snowy plain stretching on and on around him, seemingly to infinity.

"I guess I will just have to take a random direction and keep walking straight and hope I don't land somewhere nasty." He said to himself and walked straight ahead, cursing some more at the cold, the large expanse of snowy plains and most especially, the white-furred baboons that chose to be on the route he was given.

Jim walked on for some couple hours. The temperature dropped continuously and it was becoming increasingly painful and stressful to walk on, but Jim persevered. As the snow crunched beneath his feet, he heard a low growl. Quickly, he went flat on his stomach as he tried to look around him while making the tiniest noise possible. Just as he tilted his head a little to his right, a couple kilometers away, he saw a big white furred mammal walking slowly as if hunting, it's back turned on Jim. Jim sauinted his eyes and tried to get a better look without moving an inch. The mammal was four-legged and moved like most predators would when sneaking up on a potential meal. Yup, definitely a carnivore. But what was it sneaking up on. Jim thought that if it was trying to sneak up on a prey, it was doing a terrible job at it. After all, apart from snow, there was absolutely nothing keeping it concealed. Its huge size did not make it any better. It was literally in the open. Jim shook his head, he felt embarrassed on the mammal's behalf. He squinted his eyes again and stretched his neck a little, not daring to move the rest of his body and could vaguely see stripes. Those were stripes, right?

"Oh my God! Is that the infamous, rarely seen Snow Tiger of the Summer-Winter plains? I have to record this." He said and moved his hand to towards his head only to then realise that his watch was as dead as dead can be.

"F*CK!" He cursed for the umpteenth time. He might have cursed a little too loudly though, because the tiger turned around.

"Oh no! Gotta go." Jim said and tried to turn around and run for his life, but he couldn't. He hurriedly looked at his own body and realized he was now frozen in a thin layer of ice and was completely rendered immobile.

"F*CK!!!" Jim cursed out very loudly this time and the huge two meter long tiger growled and pounced in his direction, clearing the couple kilometers distance in twelve seconds.

*BANG* *BANG* *BANG*

Three gunshots rang out.

"F*ck! You motherf*cker, you ruined it's beautiful coat. You should have shot the tiger's head." A voice angrily yelled after the gunshots.

"I was afraid I'd shoot the man." The shooter said in his defense.

"That wasn't our problem. Is he family? Quick, shoot the head!"

*Bang*

"Aaaaaargh! F*CK!!"