Chapter 41: The days of Hunting

’The forest does not forgive weakness.... I learned that faster than anything else in my time here...

But the only thing good about this place is that l never lack food in here and whenever I do I gotta fight for it.

Days blur together, measured not by time, but by my hunger, by how long I could go before my body demanded something new.’

The air was thick with damp earth mixed in with the savoury scent of animals.

Most of the animals Felix passed by all ran way from him like running away from a predator.

At first, he chased after them without much thought.

A fox had been the easiest for him.

It darted through the undergrowth, a flash of red slipping between roots and shadows.

Felix followed, barefoot against rough soil, his breathing steady and controlled.

The fox turned sharply, thinking it had lost him.

It didn’t see him drop low, pressing into the bushes, stilling his breathing, slowing his heartbeat until even the forest seemed to forget his presence.

When it crept closer, it’s ears twitching

Felix moved instantaneously, his hand shot out, fingers clamping around its neck before it could scream. The body struggled, twisted, claws scraping uselessly against his arm.

He didn’t hesitate. The sound of bone snapping was quick.

He stared at it for a second longer than necessary. Then he ate it.

A wild boar was different. It charged at him before he even got close.

Felix barely had time to react. The impact threw him sideways, his body slamming into a tree hard enough to crack bark. Pain shot through his ribs, it was sharp and immediate.

’ This pain only came because of how slow I still am...i need to become faster.’ Felix pondered.

The boar came again, it’s tusks tearing through the air where his stomach had been a second before.

Felix adjusted his stance.

He didn’t meet it head-on this time. He moved with it, letting it rush past, his hand grazing its flank, feeling the coarse hair, the strength beneath.

Timing was everything on this hunt.

On its third charge, he stepped in. One hand grabbed its tusk, the other drove down into its skull punching it.

The resistance was something else but he only continued to push harder.

The bone finally gave in under Felix’s punches and the boar collapsed beneath him, legs twitching as the life left in it pulsed.

Felix exhaled slowly before carrying it to his cave.

A snake coiled around his arm later that night. Felix didn’t do any hasty movements as he let it stay there.

Cold scales tightened brushed on his skin, it’s muscles constricting, testing him. Its head rose, fangs bared naked it’s tongue flicking.

Felix watched it closely and before it could do anything Felix grabbed it’s head. Felix only covered his hand with scales and continued to tighten his grip on it’s hand. Then he bit first.

By the second week, he had stopped counting his encounters with animals but ones tested on were always a treat.

A deer once tried to outrun him. It almost succeeded.

Felix chased it across uneven terrain, over roots, through shallow streams, his body adapting mid-stride. His lungs burned, his muscles screamed, but something deeper pushed him forward.

He leapt high...His weight crashed into its back, sending both of them tumbling. The deer kicked wildly, hooves striking his side, his shoulder.

Felix locked his arm around its neck and held as he tightened his grip the struggle slowed down up until it completely stopped.

He lay there for a moment, breathing hard, staring up at the canopy.

The sky looked different now as he highlighted his eyesight...his eyes turning into that of a eagle, it looked closer to him than ever before.

Another day passed and birds became a challenge as they learned quickly but Felix adjusted faster.

He watched their patterns, their takeoff angles, the moment their wings tensed before flight. Hours passed with him crouched in silence, eyes tracking their every move.

Then he jumped. It wasn’t graceful but it worked.

His fingers closed around feathers and bone as the bird shrieked, wings beating frantically against his grip. He twisted mid-air, dragging it down with him.

They hit the ground together and the bird didn’t get back up.

Felix stared at his hands, at the trembling still running through them.

’Higher...I want to go higher....no I need to.’

A pack of mutated wolves found him at dusk. Each and everyone of these wolves were above the size of a grown man.

They circled him, low growls rumbling through the trees, eyes reflecting faint light.

Felix stood still. Letting them think he was prey.

The first one lunged at him. He stepped into it, not away. His hand drove into its throat, stopping the bite before it could close. The second came from the side, teeth sinking into his arm.

Pain flared through him but he welcomed it.

Felix turned, slamming the wolf into the ground, his knee crushing its ribs. The first one struggled, choking under his grip.

The third one hesitated in approaching him. That was its mistake.

Felix moved faster than it expected, faster than what he expected of himself.

When it was over, the forest grew quiet once more.

Another day rose and as usual Felix went hunting and came across a rinho.

A rhino was a mistake. Felix knew it the moment it charged.

The ground shook beneath its weight, each step a thunderous a warning he ignored far too late.

He ran, not away but alongside it.

The horn sliced through a tree where he had been a second before, splintering wood like it was nothing. Felix’s heart pounded, not from fear, but from the sheer force of it.

He waited, watched it’s movement. Calculated his advantages and disadvantages.

When it turned, slower than the rest, heavier and committed.

Felix jumped. He landed on its back, gripping tight as the animal bucked violently, trying to throw him off. His fingers dug into thick skin, searching for weakness.

There....He drove his hand down with everything he had again and again.

Felix brought out his claws and started sticking it with his claws.

The rhino roared, stumbling, its movements becoming erratic.

Felix didn’t stop he continued to do it. When it finally collapsed, the ground seemed to exhale with it.

Felix slid off slowly, his body shaking. That had been a close one.

Another day came and today Felix was hunting after speed.

A cheetah taught him how to be patience.

It watched him long before he even saw it. By the time he noticed, it was already gone.

Felix didn’t chase, he waited. Hours passed.

Then some more.

He found its tracks, followed them, then lost them again. The forest shifted, light fading, shadows stretching endlessly.

Finally, he stopped. Dropped into the bushes.

The cheetah came back, this one was another mutated type, one of the ones he had tested on to maximise speed.

Felix let it circle, let it think it was the hunter.

When it stepped close enough...He exploded forward.

The cheetah reacted instantly, claws slashing, teeth snapping, its speed blinding. Felix barely kept up, each movement a near miss, each strike learning, adjusting.

He took a hit across the chest....Another across his arm.

He didn’t try to match its speed. He predicted it.

Forced it into patterns that were favourable to him.

When his hand finally closed around its throat, it wasn’t luck. It was earned.

He fought things he didn’t recognise....Small, vicious creatures that moved in groups, biting, clawing, swarming.

He fought a massive lizard that blended into the ground until it moved.

He fought birds that attacked in flocks, their beaks sharp, their coordination unsettling.

He fought and fought and fought. Each time, something changed.

His body, his mind, the way he moved even the way he thought.

Hunger stopped being a distraction It became direction.

One morning, he saw an eagle circling high above and to his surprise it wasn’t mutated it was normal.

Felix watched it for a long time. When it finally descended, wings cutting through the air as it aimed for something on the ground.

Felix ran, it was about 25 kilometres away but Felix was faster the gap was closed almost instantly. Then he jumped higher than he ever had. His hand shot out and caught it.

The impact tore through his shoulder as the eagle fought, wings beating wildly, claws digging into him. For a moment, they were both suspended, caught between sky and ground.

Then gravity won.

Felix slammed into the earth with the eagle still in his grip. He didn’t let go.

Felix stood at the edge of a clearing, his body covered in marks that no longer stayed for long. His breathing was steady. His senses sharper than they had any right to be.

The forest felt smaller now less like a threat. More like... a resource.

That thought lingered longer than it should have.

He looked ahead.

The trees thinned, the ground dipping slightly, the air changing.

He could smell it before he saw it. Life and decay tangled together.

A swamp which was dense and dark.

Felix stepped forward slowly, eyes narrowing as the first signs of murky water came into view, thick vines hanging low, insects buzzing in the heavy air.

Something moved beneath the surface as he smiled faintly, "Good."

Then he kept walking toward the swamp itself.