Throughout the last 5 or so days, I had learned to always trust my gut instinct, but at this very moment, I had to go against it.
I knew that going in without a plan would be dangerous, especially since I now knew there were creatures out there that could have probably devoured an entire town in minutes without feeling an ounce of fatigue in the process.
However, I also knew that the food on me would probably last less than a day before growing bacteria and eventually rotting, meaning I would eventually have to leave my cave and find some food.
I had already cut all the meat and roasted it before containing it within a small rock tomb which I had tried to sanitize with both hot water and the fire that I had created.
After doing so, I left my little cave hideout and began to stroll towards the forest behind it.
When I entered, I felt a very light dread, something that felt like it was just a cold breeze passing by yet at the same time, a premonition of something worse to come.
For that reason alone, I had chosen to not go deep into the forest while also making sure to keep an eye on the sun so I could return before nightfall.
Walking through the forest, I encountered a few creatures here and there yet I had already learned how to avoid most of them.
On the one hand, the dragonflies were really easy to kill, only having to draw them into a narrowed space where I could turn around and indent my ax into their heads.
The recurring hippo on the other hand was a lot harder to run away from.
Hippos are bodies of water that are extremely fast, and these were not even normal hippos. These were hippos on steroids mixed in with alligators while also having a tail that seemed to only function for the sole reason of making them swim faster.
Of course, I could just avoid large bodies of water like lakes or larger rivers, but there was also one more thing that made them unique compared to the hippos in my era.
They could camouflage pretty well!
You might be asking, 'Hey Ezra! How is this possible?'
Well, the answer is quite simple young lad!
They cover themselves in mud and start rolling in leaves and grass, and while that would usually work pretty well on smaller animals, the hippo somehow made it work as they could use their claws! Yes... You have heard me correctly. They had claws.
Anyway, they would use their claws and simply dig into the ground, leaving nothing but their gigantic maw above ground as well as their backs that kind of just poked out yet at the same time was almost invisible to the passerby.
Anyway, today was a different day, however.
I was not looking towards preying on some dragonfly, wasp, or enormous bee that I might happen to find that will most likely have another allying bee close by. Instead, I was looking for fruits!
While fruits might not have a lot of protein, something I really need for my wounds to heal, they have almost everything else I would need to survive, meaning I could just live as a peaceful vegetarian and not eat meat for the rest of my life since I am almost certain that there must be some kind of plant out there that has a good amount of protein.
Vitamin C also is a huge help since it helps with fixing wounds, while the protein simply helps with gaining muscle mass and fixing issues. I think...
As you can see, I clearly was not a biologist.
Anyway, I carried on with my day, avoiding certain animals while simply killing the annoying flying creatures which happened the be half my size and capable of biting my head off.
Eventually, however, I began to smell something. Something pleasant and sweet. It was something that had made my nostrils flare, not out of disgust, but more out of surprise and pleasantness.
"That smell... Its amazing!" My eyes lit up as I muttered those words and immediately began dashing in the direction of the smell.
My instincts were all telling me that the thing would be delicious, to the point where my mouth was uncontrollably salivating nonstop.
When I felt like I was within a 100-meter radius of the source, I suddenly paused and began to look around with caution.
There was no way that I was the only one who could smell the thing, meaning that there must have been a few others around who also came close to see what it was.
At the same time, how did I not notice such a good smell before? It was as if it had appeared out of nowhere which was not so much of a good sign.
After looking around for a few minutes trying to find someone or something that might have been attracted by the smell, I finally realized that the area around my ass was oddly quiet.
"Something isn't right." I muttered to myself just to feel a sense of dread coming from my right.
Without hesitation, I quickly jumped back and landed before sliding a few meters back while watching something dash in front of me, grazing the tip of my nose in the process.
'Crap!' I thought, ducking again and putting my hand over my head to protect it from whatever was coming after it.
Within the split second, it had taken me to duck, I had felt the creature appear behind me and reach out to stab me through the chest, yet due to me being crouched it had completely missed and instead grazed my shoulder.
With my senses and reaction time being at their peak, I quickly turned around with the ax off my back and now in my hand being swung at full power towards the creature that had appeared behind me.
'Let's see you survive this one.' I smirked victoriously, however, just like every other time where I had smiled before hitting my target, my facial expression quickly dropped to one of panic.
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