- Midnight -
Michael slips a bag of alma fruit past the guard at midnight and leaves the village. He has been doing this for about three months. due to the next trial, which is in 7 days. He needs to develop a plan for hunting these monsters. Children are solely taught how to use their muscles to hunt effectively in the Boniha community, trap-laying is not taught.
They did teach you how to do it, but it's not the kind of trap like a tripwire or pitfall that kills the monster. These traps merely distract the monster, allowing the hunter to swiftly finish the job. This type of trap is only valued by them because it helps them develop their strength.
He walks off into his usual spot not too far from the village. After three months of tracking Alma the lizard, Micheal decides on this location. Although it could take a significantly shorter time to track these monster Micheal don't know how. That topic is only covered by the top class of the tribe.
Illuminated by the moonlight Michael finds the pitfalls that he's been digging. He is currently working on a trap that might kill the beast, though. He has to slay one little monster today, For three months of labor to pay off.
The trap is quite simple. It has a plank with a wooden spike on one side and is designed as both a pitfall trap and a mouse trap. The lizard will be drawn into the pitfall trap by the Alma fruit. He then lowers the spike-encrusted wooden block to kill the lizard. The jaws of a predator served as the model for this trap. Although it may not be the best, he is happy with the outcome.
As he waits for his victim, he places more leaves on top to disguise the hole and drops the bag of Alma fruit on the trap. The only thing left to do is wait.
An hour pass
No sign of prey. Michael grew increasingly tense and slightly out of it. Around this time, an Alma lizard can frequently be spotted, but today is incredibly silent. He planned and tracked the alma lizard for three months, so he has high expectations that this will succeed.
Yet another hour passed.
A rustle of a leaf jolts him awake just as he begins to lose hope. A green Lizard is moving toward the trap he set as he casts a glance in its direction.
'Come on, get inside!' Michael prays as the lizard approaches, it sniffs something. It then turns toward the Alma bag that he prepared. The lizard moved eagerly in its direction. Michael was aware that his trap was going to succeed.
The Lizard comes closer and is about to reach the alma fruit...
3..
2..
1..
Pash!!
The floor that has been covered with leaves split open and the 3-meter-long lizard fell right into it. Michael was delighted! He pops out of his cover and pushes down the spikey wooden plank.
Pah!
ROarrrrr!!!
Michael pushed additional rock onto the wooden plank while the monster shrieked in pain. The creature wriggles over the pitfall trap. having both the bottom and top of its body penetrate.
The beast is still alive, though. In an effort to get back up, it slithers around the pitfall and grips the walls. Michael fills the hole with more rock despite his extreme fear. Fortunately, one of them got stuck in the lizard's face and made it collapse.
ROarrrRRrr!!!
It screamed once more as the spike dug deeper into its body. Michael quickly hid behind a tree and waited for the outcome because by this point he had run out of rocks to throw at it.
ten minutes later
The Lizard has not yet appeared. Although Michael believes it must have passed away, he isn't sure. In order to check the lizard, he breaks a branch off of a neighboring tree and throws it into the hole
Zero reaction.
His heart begins to pound. After three months of work, he is about to succeed. He strides enthusiastically to the hole. Approaching the pitfall trap cautiously in case the Alma lizard is still alive. Michael is greeted by Alma Lizard's face when he peers through the hole.
'It's really close....'
Roarrr!!!
"AWWKWKWKWKWaaa"
Micheal's soul almost left his body! The lizard is still alive despite having numerous holes caused by the spike across its body. Michael found it hard to believe.
He immediately makes a break for it. As he flees through the dense bush, his life flashes before his eyes. The Lizard chases, breaking trees in its path.
He is followed by the beast farther into the jungle. In an effort to lose the Alma lizard, Michael guided the lizard through the forest's twists and turns. Despite this lizard is still closely following his trail.
His mind began to churn out strategies on how to lose this lizard. Seeing that running around the forest in a weird way didn't work. He thinks back to the alma fruit.
'That right the fruit!'
He searches his body and came out emptyhanded the only thing that was with him right now is his light armor, a silver necklace, and a small knife. He left all the alma fruit in the trap! Now he has no way the lose the lizard.
'Damn it!'
If he got the strength of the other children in the tribe this hunted would be a lot easier. Why was his body so weak?! He laments.
20 minutes later
Michael had begun to feel worn out from his constant running. The alma lizard is very persistent, but fortunately, The morning exercise from Gurara has given him more endurance than the ordinary person. Nevertheless, this level of endurance was still below that of a typical Boniha kid.
Compared to other island tribes, the Boniha tribe is stronger. They are the only tribe left on the island because of it, forcing the others to leave. The harsh environment of Boniha island is where their custom originated.
He suddenly came upon a strange structure. It's a 3-meter tall monolith that contains some sort of word on it. Michael is unable to read the strange character that is inscribed on the item but, For a brief moment, it leaves him in a trace.
He quickly recovers and looks for the lizard, he is surprised it is nowhere to be found.
The boy scratches his head in confusion. Seeing its persistence earlier he doubt that the lizard will give up this easily. So he doubled back on where he came from with more alertness than before. Along the way, he couldn't hear any noise in the forest.
This creeps him out but he presses on. He's sure that the lizard must have died while chasing him. He refuse that his three months of work could only leave him with a heavy injury. Knowing that the lizard is impossible for him to overpower Micheal plan to search for only 30 minutes.
If he can't find the lizard in this time frame he would go back home empty-handed. Even if he wants this hunt to be successful, his escape through the forest might attract a more dangerous monster. It's a miracle right now that he didn't find any other large monster.
20 minutes later
'Yesss!!!!'
After looking for the monster for 20 minutes, Michael finds it. Just as he is about to give up, he realizes what it is. He celebrates the hunt by dancing around the monster. But, The joy only lasts for a while until he realizes there is a serious issue.
He can't carry this!
This issue rarely affects the other children in the tribs. They typically hunt things they can carry or large monsters if they are hunting in a group. Alma lizards are typically hunted by a single individual, but it's the Baniha tribe's young people!
This never cross his mind! As a kid who's been taught by the Baniha tribe that you could carry this monster by yourself. He felt lied to.
'Maybe I could..' he tried to lift the 3-meter-long alma lizard to no avail. Dragging this to the village would take him until morning to reach it. Michael sigh. He decides to leave the corpse here and get Gurara or Layla to retrieve it in the morning.
He covers the bodies in leaves before returning to the village, but not before slicing some meat and scale from the Alma lizard for the next morning's breakfast.
He hid the corpse and prays that it would be intact in the morning.