"Egbo is dead, Ovie said with a low husky tone his voice barely above a whisper with tears in his eyes.
"How?" I quickly asked what happened.
"We fought a strong beast and he died distracting it," Ovie replied his voice already muddy.
I just sat down and thought about him, I remembered seeing him right before we left the tribe but now he's dead.
The wonders of life intrigued him, just some moment ago he was alive smiling and laughing with the group but now he was dead.
My mind was still muddled thinking about it, tho I and Egbo weren't that close as friends we were rivals, and now he was gone.
I stood up and looked around for Fejiro, not hoping the same fate to befall him, after looking for some time I saw him sleeping under a tent nearby.
I let him rest, the journey was tiresome even though I needed rest.
As I went to prepare my tent to sleep, I saw most of them gathering a boy. I looked closer to see who it was, I was surprised, it was a miracle the boy who hated training, had a large scar on his neck.
I listened closely, he was telling them about his experience in the forest and other things.
I left them alone to discuss whatever as I looked for materials to prepare my tent.
Some sticks, large leaves from bananas or plantain trees, and some vines, It was built in less than ten minutes as I entered to have my rest.
Entering the tent I lay on the floor, trying my best to sleep but nothing happened, my mind started wandering to my mates I saw recently then I realized how lucky I truly was.
With everything that happened to me, I still returned alive and well, but some are out there without limbs, or with wounds that will take forever to be healed unless they had a miraculous fruit or opportunity.
Even though I almost died, and endured tremendous pain I'm still fine and I don't even have an inch of a scar or wound on me. But some are out there dead.
At that moment, I made a vow to protect my tribe, to protect everyone from being hurt.
To do that I needed strength, overwhelming strength, and now my new aim is to get that strength while protecting the tribe.
After making that vow, my heart felt calm and I slept peacefully.
I woke up to the chirping noise of birds and the noise of people moving around my tent, I stood up leaving the tent, the blinding rays of the sun filled my eyes.
Although I had a good sleep, mosquitos ruined it, they couldn't pierce through my skin due to its toughness and just started flying past my ears making an annoying buzzing sound.
Looking around I saw people destroying their tents, while those who slept on the tree were all coming down cleaning themselves.
"Everyone gather round" Okoro spoke out loud as he and Ese stood close to the tree.
We all gathered around, facing them, and greeted them. "Migwo," we all bowed our heads and greeted.
"Vrendo," they both replied.
We are missing three more people who didn't come back from this hunt except Egbo. We now must safely bring you out from the forest to the tribe.
So you all have half an hour to prepare yourself before we start moving.
I didn't have much to prepare since most of my clothes or things I brought with me were gone, I watched as they all ran to prepare what they were bringing to the tribe.
I just stood there trying to spark a conversation with my seniors before the rest got ready.
Half an hour passed quickly, they came out looking more refreshed, their faces were no longer with dust or mud but just clean.
We all arranged into a file, a line as we started leaving, some children started murmuring behind me. I saw the rest talking to each other, I didn't even know what they were talking about, weren't they all talking yesterday?
I paid them no mind as I looked ahead as Okoro and Ese led the way.
We sometimes met some minor prey, which someone would kill and add to their collection. It wasn't going to reward me so I didn't join them, for I had already crossed a threshold.
This continued for about two and a half hours, I was feeling hungry already, my stomach was churning and my head was aching. I had barely eaten since the hunt, the only food I had was the boar that I had killed.
I started searching for fruits while we walked when I noticed something out of the ordinary, we were being spied on, before I could locate it the target had moved from its position.
I told Okoro and Ese about what I saw or felt and we became more cautious, we didn't know what was following us, but for it to keep following us with our large numbers and the power Okoro and Ese were excluding which meant it was strong.
I didn't take note of anything spying on us again, either it had left or it was following us more discreetly.
I continued my search for the fruits, my headache getting worse as the hot sun shined at us, the ground burning to walk on, the only thing giving us temporary shade are the trees we pass by.
We stopped for a quick break for everyone to rest a little, I walked through the surroundings finding something to eat, not long I saw a tree filled with berries, I plucked them and started eating.
It had a sweet sour taste, with plenty of seeds which I had to spit out, I hated swelling seeds. We were told while we were younger that swallowing seeds could cause a tree to grow in your stomach since then I have done my best not to swallow seeds again.
While eating I heard a rowdy commotion at where my group was, I ran towards there to see four apes standing with big clubs in their hands.