Struggle beside the stream

At night while Sam and his team are sleeping comfortably. The remaining teams are having a hard time. Many of them doesn’t even have any food in the two days and they don’t have any proper shelter to find rest in the cold night.

But not all the teams are having this much of a hard time, a team is much better off than others and that is team 3.

Hawk and Kelly are in this team. Due to Hawk’s status and prestige he was made as the leader immediately. He did justice for the position given to him by other members.

Even though, they don’t have fire and warmth, nor shelter and meat. They still are ten members left and they were able to find enough fruits and wild vegetables due to Hawk’s observation and familiarity in the forest.

He is not as skilled as Sam, but at least his teammates have enough food and water and they have some little gain in points.

“How are you feeling?” Hawk asked Kelly as he passed a fruit to her to eat.

“I am okay.” Kelly has a beautiful smile on her face as she replied. Even though she looked haggard and a bit pale, she is as beautiful as ever. All the members are men in her team except for her. If not for the fact that Hawk is her friend and has her back, she knew how her situation would be, just based on the looks the people are giving her.

“How do you think, he is doing?” Hawk asked.

.....

“I don’t know exactly, but I think he is definitely in a better situation than us.” Even though both of them didn’t mention the name of that person, they knew who they were talking about.

Kelly is looking at the sky as she thought of a handsome face which is usually cold as ice with a smile, when he was satisfied with the dress, he made for her. She smiled at the thought of the arrogant smirk he had when he received the pseudo rank 3 tailor artisan badge.

Looking at the beautiful lady smiling like a silly little girl, Hawk shook his head and said. “I hope we could meet him. Let us see if what you said is right. I really want to see, how many points he got.”

Then a guy came and asked. “Hawk, what are the plans for tomorrow? Are we going to search for another team or are we going to search for scrolls?”

“I don’t know. I think we need to take a risk for tomorrow. All this time we are avoiding all the dangers from the beast. I think if we don’t go and look for them, we won’t have a chance for getting anything substantial. Tomorrow our target is to get some scrolls, either they are point scrolls. Cultivation scrolls, attack scrolls. We have to find something and we will be picking the way tomorrow. Tell them to rest properly tonight.”

After receiving Hawk’s instructions, the guy went to the other teammates and gave the message.

“You also need to rest properly.” Hawk said to Kelly and stood up.

Kelly nodded at him and smiled without any reply.

Next day morning.

Sam and his friends were already awake and are getting ready to move. Right now they are eating some bear meat.

“The meat will not taste good and there is a chance that it might be spoiled soon. We need to get some new food today. So, you can eat as much as you want and don’t hold back with the intention of preserving this. ｂｅｄ𝚗ｏ𝚟𝚎𝚕.𝚌𝚘ｍ

This is only third day and we have a long way ahead of us. Now that we know that we need to target the animals with higher level of danger to get rewards, we will get fresh food.” Sam said as he took a big bite off of the roasted meat in his hand.

The remaining three nodded and continued eating the meat.

After their meal, they made preparations. They put the left-over meat and the bamboo containers along with the defence scroll in the bag. Jack is holding a make-shift bamboo sword he made himself yesterday and Eve is holding the dagger.

Sam held the axe and Shor was left with the bamboo pike. Sam carried the bag and four of them started their move. They put out the fire and Eve is holding the container with the live dried wood, which has a small spark on it.

“Today, let us go near the stream and explore. From every water source, there is a chance that we can find some trails leading to other animal’s nest. If we are lucky, we can have another prey today.

They moved towards the stream and when they reached there, the bank is empty and there are no other creatures. Sam and Jack started searching for trails while, the remaining two are on look out. When they found no trails of some big animals, they started moving along the bank in the same direction as the stream flow.

On the way, Sam saw many trails, but none of them are any of the big animals and the animals they encountered are also not that big. There are rabbits, wild cats, racoons and some other animals like that. Since, they already have food for now, they are not interested in hunting them

After sometime, Sam and the group arrived at a place, which is a bit weird and different. There are no trails of any animals at all. The grass on the bank is too lush and tall compared to the other areas near the stream.

“Let us stop here for a while. Rest a bit far away from the bank.” When the group sat a bit away from the bank, Sam started looking around. He saw that there are no patches in between the grass near the bank and the vegetation is too thick as if there are no animals in the vicinity.

When he came back to the group, Jack saw Sam’s frown and asked. “Is something wrong?”

“Don’t you think the grass is a bit too dense and tall when compared to other areas we have been to previously?” When Sam asked this question, Jack was a bit confused due to the weird question, but he still answered.

“Now that you mention it. It does have difference. But does it make any difference?”

“This situation happens when there are no animals in the vicinity and that happens mostly in two cases. First one, if the vegetation has a problem here which by my observation is not the case and the second one, they are afraid of something here.” Sam explained.

“But there are any traces of any creature here. There is no place to stay and this territory seemed to unoccupied. What do you think they are afraid of?” Jack questioned.

“How can you say that there is no place to stay here?” Sam said and looked at the water stream.

Jack understood something and asked. “What do you have in mind?”

“If my guess is right, we can get something here. We need to prepare.” Eve and Shor are just listening from the side without saying anything. They actually didn’t see anything different here and they didn’t notice anything wrong.

“Collect as much dry leaves and grass as you can. Even small twigs will do. The prerequisite is that they have to burn quickly, as soon as they were lit with fire, they have to burn. Don’t bring big ones.”

Sam instructed and he also moved. He started clearing a patch of green grass and picked up all the dry leaves and created a small place with nothing but soil. There is no grass or any other thing in that patch. Even stones are cleared.

After that for an entire hour, they only collected all types of dry leaves, grass, twigs etc.

“Jack go catch some small animals. Two to three will do. Don’t bring them near though. Stand there until I tell you to come near. Shor you assist him.”

Sam said as he pointed to a tree, where Jack has to stay after bringing the animals. Then he turned towards Eve and said.

“Help me arrange these twigs and grass around the patch I created.” Both of them started arranging the dried grass and twigs around the patch. They arranged it evenly such that it was half a foot high when it was all done.

Jack and Shor already came with some wild rabbits. Sam opened the bag and took out all the bear meat left in it.

He gathered with his teammates and said. “If my guess is right, we are against a highly dangerous animal and that is even more dangerous than the bear we took out. We should be careful.

Sam made a small fire and lit a torch. He gave it to Eve and said. “When I say, you have to light the bed of the dead leaves we made just now. Shor, you are responsible for lighting it from other side.

Jack, you and I are responsible for the attack. If we can’t get it done as soon as we can, we might be in danger.

Eve and Shor, both of you should light the bed and move back as fast as you can.”

After Sam instructed them on what to do, Eve and Shor got to the positions while, he took the freshly caught dead animals, with him. He applied the blood to the chunk of the bear meat. He and Jack slowly moved forward with the meat and the dead bodies in hands.

He placed the dead bodies in the centre of the bed they created and then took a step back before throwing the bear meat into the stream.

As soon as he threw the chunk, a huge disturbance could be heard from under the slowly flowing stream. Sam and Jack stood on both sides with a distance.

Slowly, a scaly figure came out of the stream as it looked at the dead rabbits with still warm blood there. It moved quickly and started swallowing it without bothering to look at Sam and others.

“NOW!!” Sam roared as Eve and Shor lit the bed and ran away. A fire surrounded the alligator which made it go frantic. It grew confused as smoke and started clouding its senses. Just as they fire was about to go off, Sam roared again.

“JACK!!!!! Go for the rear.”

As soon as he said that he moved and hacked with his axe just below the head while Jack pierced with the bamboo pike at the rear. The alligator struggled, but Sam didn’t give it any chance. Neglecting the heat waves from the flames, he pressed the upper jaw of the alligator with the leg and hacked it again at the same spot, finally making it stop struggling.

Sam panted as he moved aside. Jack also moved to other side. Both of them are affected by the smoke and heat of the fire. Sam’s pants have slight burns at the edges. He looked at the alligator and thought. If not for the fact he needs to gain points, he would have never gone to so much trouble to take on an alligator. The risk is after all higher when compared to the normal land animals. One bite and we will lose a huge chunk along with the bone.

Just as he was about to relax.

“SAAMM!!!!” Eve shouted.

Sam turned towards Eve and followed her gaze, then only he saw another alligator with its mouth wide open behind him. He immediately moved but the axe was left behind in process of leaving some distance between him and the beast.

Sam squatted on the ground as he looked at the alligator which is clearly larger than the previous one by 1.5 times. This seemed to be an adult one. It looked at Sam menacingly. He is the closest of all people here to the beast.

When Jack saw the situation, he was about to make a move, but Sam gestured him to stop. Alligators are very fierce when compared to other beasts. Many people have misconceptions that the alligators are slower on the land which couldn’t be anymore far from the truth. Any slight disturbance when they are alert, they might go berserk.

Sam and the beast were in a stare down. Suddenly the beast moved swiftly towards him and he also lunged forward. Before the beast could open its large mouth, Sam climbed on its back and pressed his whole weight on it.

He used all his might to make the mouth closed, then both man and beast wrestled as they rolled on the river bed.

Jack was helpless as he watched the situation. He can’t just butt in and attack as it may injure Sam. So, he held the make-shift bamboo sword tightly as he looked at the struggle.

“DAGGER” Sam shouted waking the people from their daze. Eve felt her hands shaking as she threw the dagger towards Sam which fell near him.

Sam and the alligator continued on the wrestle. His clothes started to tear apart. [A/N: He didn’t wear his coat as it will pass as an articraft]. His muscles are bulging as he sweated profusely. After an intense effort, he finally got hold of the dagger.

Then he rolled over and then with the dagger he started stabbing on the abdomen of the beast. For an alligator, the skin is hard all over, and the only relatively soft place is the abdomen area. He stabbed continuously without stopping for a second. He stabbed until his arm felt sore and a pool of blood was formed under him. Even after the beast stopped struggling, he still didn’t stop.

He stopped only after almost all the abdominal area was riddle with holes. He almost stabbed more than thirty times.

Sam kicked the body aside and sat up with struggle, Jack came to him and gave him some water. Eve and Shor stopped the fire. They didn’t know what to say after seeing the struggle Sam had gone through.

After Sam regained some strength, He and Jack started dissecting the beasts. But there are no scrolls inside.

All four of them gritted their teeth in frustration.

“What do we do?” Jack asked as he looked at Sam.

Sam calmed down and started thinking, just as he was about to say something.

*clap* *clap* *clap* Clapping sound interrupted him.