Survivor
As I awakened, I felt the energy of the Pancha Bhuta rushing throughout my body. It was a feeling I had felt never before… as if something was crawling within my body. But the strangest thing that happened was with my Indriya. Suddenly, they got enhanced significantly. Now— I could hear the slightest of sound around me, could see distance further away, could tell that rain is going to happen just by smell and taste, and lastly, my reflexes improved drastically.
Without wasting any time, I let out a gust of wind with my right hand that sent the animal flying few meters away. I didn't know how I was able to create a gust of wind. It just happened naturally on its own, like walking. We walk naturally without thinking anything.
Now that I was able to distance myself from the wolf, enduring the pain, I ran towards the stick, grabbed it, and broke it in half. Meanwhile, my enemy regained its posture and rushed towards me. I quickly conjured some small rocks and threw them at its eyes.
Caught by my feint, I again let out a small gust of wind. But this time from my right foot and dashed towards the canine, holding two broken sticks on each of my hand, their pointy side facing towards it. As the predator opened its gritty eyes, I was right in front of it, facing it head on.
With as much strength as I could muster, I stabbed both of its eyes with my broken sticks. I could feel the sensation of my sticks crushing its rubbery eyeballs.
"AAAHHHHHH!" I screamed while attacking.
Blood started coming out of its eye sockets. The wolf howled in pain. Its loud and terrifying howl made my heart beat even faster than before. Resisting my fear, I took the sticks out of the animal's eyes and stabbed its neck with all my might. I struggled to pierce its neck as the skin was hard. It was also struggling to free itself.
I knew this was my only chance and if I fail to kill it, I'd surely die. I threw one stick I was holding, and pushed the other stick that was still stuck on its neck with both of my hands. Mustering wind around my hands for external force, I pushed the stick as hard as I could.
"DDDIIIEEEE!!!"
After much effort and fighting for my life, I heard the sound of bone cracking and I knew… I had won this fight. The wolf stopped responding and collapsed on the ground.
My legs had no strength left to support me, due to which I also fell to the ground. Tired from the fight, I was breathing heavily and my body was still shaking, couldn't believe I'd just killed a wolf.
Anant, calm yourself… take a deep breath… steady your breathing. After steadying my breathing and calming myself down, I slowly got up with a wobbly motion, my legs still shaky.
My hands and face were covered in the predator's blood. The wound on my right shoulder was not deep, but the one on my left shoulder and right leg were bad. But the most gruesome ones were the wounds on my arms. My arms were mauled pretty bad, blood coming out of them constantly. While I was thinking what to do next, I heard something—or someone— approaching me from few meters away from my right.
W-what is it now?
Not knowing what to do, I started running away from it but couldn't take a single step because of my condition and fell. I started dragging myself in an attempt to flee but after a few short pulls I got exhausted and gave up. Now, all I could do was pray… pray that it was not some another predator hunting for food. After a few seconds— what seemed like hours— something jumped from the bushes. It was a wolf cub.
Wait, don't tell me there's a pack of wolves here. I can't fight them!
I was lying motionless, seeing the above sky. My eyes filled with tears, waiting for my ultimate demise. I waited and waited and waited… but nothing happened. No one— neither any animal nor any person came. While lying helplessly on the ground, I turned my gaze towards the cub. It was howling and licking the lifeless body of the defeated predator.
Watching the cub, it felt like… it felt like as if the cub was trying to say, 'Get up! let's leave before anyone arrives,' to the deceased wolf. I stood up, my legs trembling, and staggered over to the breathless body of the wolf.
I knelt beside the cub; it paid me no attention and gently I started stroking the fur of the deceased one.
Why it never occurred to me until now? Attacks on humans by wolves are very rare. Generally, wolves try to avoid human contact. They only attack humans if provoked, cornered or to protect their young ones. The fact that there is only one cub present here, I could already guess what happened to the rest of the pack…
Normally, a pack of wolves consists of 5–10 members. But since there are only two present here, I could only think of two things— either they became prey of some other predator, or they became victims of poaching. To me, the latter seems more presumable. As the only ones left, these two wolves might have wandered around the forest, ultimately coming here. We unknowingly went into their territory. This means rather than attacking us to eat… the wolf attacked us because it felt threatened. It was only protecting its cub.
As I was gently stroking, I looked at the cub who was still howling and licking its only member who was now… dead and the one responsible for it was… me.
What will happen to the cub now? Because of me, it's now all alone in this world full of darkness. Will it be able to survive by itself? Does this mean I did something terrible? While from the outside, people might think I did the right thing by killing it but… isn't this our fault? We went into their territory; we made them feel threatened. It was just protecting its cub… When the animals come into our territory, we kill them saying it is to protect us. But when we go into their territory, we still kill them saying it is to protect us. Then where will they go? Don't they have the right to defend themselves? Are we really protecting ourselves?
While I was questioning myself, I turned my gaze towards Madhur's cold and lifeless body. His eyes gazing towards a never-ending distance. I tried to get up but felt intense pain throughout my body. My muscles were hurting like they have been tore apart. I couldn't even lift a single finger of mine. Suddenly, blood came rushing out of my mouth and my consciousness started to fade away.
As I fell to my knees, I saw the grey, dark sky, and clouds looking like a spiral abyss, lingering above me. Suddenly, it started to rain.
"I told you it was going to rain," I remarked before going into a deep slumber.