"Shit."
Standing not three steps behind him was a creature that looked like a warthog.
Its body was larger than any boar he had ever seen on Earth, with thick muscles and brown fur, tusks pointing upwards. With obvious rage in it.
Ethan stood up straight without thinking. He didn't run; he just stood there without any movements.
"Why does it look that angry at me?" The creature scraped one of its front hooves against the dirt. Ethan could see that it was preparing to launch itself at him.
"Please don't."
The beast lowered its head slightly and started coming towards him. Without a thought, Ethan turned and ran.
He started running through the forest without any care, and he could hear the sound of the creature, which was closely chasing him.
Sharp edges of the branches from the trees are cutting his skin while he runs, but Ethan doesn't have the time to think about all of these things. His only thought right now is to escape from this creature.
All the training he had done over the past two months surged into his legs. Survival was the only thing in his mind right now.
He takes cuts and zigzags while he is running, trying to lose the creature, but the creature didn't slow down at all; it was like the creature had already marked him dead.
It followed him wherever he ran. It almost felt like it wouldn't stop until one of them was dead.
Ethan's lungs began to burn from running for so long. His legs are itching with pain. And he could feel the gap between himself and the warthog getting lesser and lesser.
He understood that he couldn't outrun it, but he still tried his best to outpace the creature.
But it only lasted for 20 seconds. His leg slipped, and he fell on the ground. He tried to stand and run once again, but the creature already got him. He could hear the breath of the creature.
He stood up and made a decision to face the creature head-on. He turned and looked the creature in the face. The animal also stopped and looked at him, grinding his teeth and looking at him with so much rage in his face.
Ethan bent down slightly and grabbed a nearby stick and stood up, facing the beast.
The beast snorted, seeing Ethan's action. "Are you mocking me?" Ethan asked the creature. The creature lowered his head slightly and charged at him.
Ethan sidestepped at the last second, swinging the branch with all the strength he could muster. The wood cracked against the side of the beast's skull—but it was like hitting a stone.
It turned its massive body once again and crashed its head onto Ethan's body. The force alone sent him spinning on the ground. His body hit the ground so hard, and he could feel the pain from that clash all over his body.
Ethan rolled his body a little away.
The beast once again started running towards him. Seeing this, Ethan crouched down and shoved the branch forward like a spear, aiming for its face. The tusk of the warthog hit the branch first.
The branch shattered from the contact; splinters from the branch exploded in his palms. Without stopping, the beast once again crashed its massive head into Ethan's chest.
Ethan once again rolled like a ragdoll on the forest floor.
"At least three or four ribs should... be broken." He struggled to say that, and there was also blood coming out of his mouth. For a second, he couldn't even breathe.
The beast stepped back slightly and snorted, looking at him. It was confident that it could kill Ethan.
He slowly stood up and hit his head slightly to get his vision back on track. "Why am I so pathetic? I can't even stand against a stupid dog."
His mind was working fast on thinking about how he should escape from this ordeal.
Think, think, think!
He knows that running or even fighting head-on with this is going to be a suicide.
Just then, Ethan saw a massive stone a short distance from where he was standing, and an instant idea formed in his mind, a stupid one but a classic one.
He saw the beast eye-to-eye and started waving his arms, saying,
"Look, I'm an orphan, and an adorable, cute-looking one at that."
"Why don't we be friends? Why do you want to make it very bloody? Isn't "hakuna matata" your motto? Why are you not following the script?"
Trying to distract the creature with his nonsensical speech, he slowly advanced towards the stone.
Hearing Ethan speaking, the creature tilted its head slightly and snorted.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I get it. I invaded your territory without informing you. That is a bitch move, and I completely understand it."
"But killing me for such a small crime? Don't you think it's a very horrible thing to do for such a cute being like me?"
Just then, Ethan reached the stone. "Good," he said to himself. He placed himself directly before the stone and looked at the beast and said in a very irritating tone,
"Enough of this shit. Come on then, you worthless, dumb, idiotic piece of shit creature. Come here and take my life. I offer you this life."
The creature felt... the mocking tone in his voice. For a moment, it even thought, "Why has this human changed his tone suddenly?"
It started to roar and take a deep breath. It once again made itself ready to charge at him. It took a huge leap and started running towards Ethan.
It was getting closer and closer with each passing second.
"Closer. Closer. Not yet." His body screamed at him to move. "Not yet."
Just when the creature came right before him, Ethan sidestepped and moved from his place. The creature's momentum carried it forward, and it struck the stone.
The impact was catastrophic. A small crack formed in the stone.
When the creature went behind a little, Ethan could see that one of its tusks was broken and blood was coming from its face.
Ethan didn't hesitate for a second. He took the arrows from his back and lunged at the beast.
The beast tried to shake its body violently to shake him away, but he didn't move at all. Like a koala hugging the tree, he hugged the creature and slammed the first arrow with both of his hands into its eyes.
The sharp tip pierced the creature's eyes and went towards its brain, but he didn't stop.
He took more arrows from his back and stuffed them into the creature's whole head. "Die, die, you dumb creature; just die already."
The beast thrashed wildly and started slamming his body into the stone. After a few moments, it collapsed on the ground.
Ethan stayed frozen for a few moments, kneeling beside it.
After a few movements, he let go of the beast and fell to the side of it. He stared at the sky through the canopy of the woods.
His entire body was trembling from the near-death experience he just had. His hand was shaking, and he couldn't even clench it into a fist.
"I almost died by just facing a dirty dog. What does it make me? And here I am thinking I am some kind of protagonist of this story. "How ironic."
Just a small mistake: "I would have died. I seriously need to train my fighting skills. " He thought to himself.
He turned his head to look at the corpse. "You looked cuter in The Lion King," he muttered weakly.
He tried to laugh at his own joke, but it came out as a cough, blood staining his lips again. After several minutes, he forced himself to sit up.
"Why does it feel so painful?"
"Well, no time to rest. If other predators smell the blood and come, I wouldn't know how horrible my death would be."
Saying that, he slowly stood up. First he went towards the place where he hunted the emu-like bird and slowly pulled it to the place where he killed the warthog. And he started pulling both the crops.
It was very heavy, but still, he took a rope that he had with him for emergencies and tied both of the crops and started dragging them with his body.
The journey back to the town felt like an endless one because of his itching body.
By the time he reached the town, the people instantly noticed him. They can't believe what they are seeing.
A small boy, probably 15 or 16, is dragging two wild carcasses of the beasts. Whispers started coming.
"What—?"
"Is that…?"
"How did he—?"
Ethan kept his head down and kept on walking towards his temporary lodging, the orphanage. He is trying so hard to not collapse because of his exhaustion.
When he saw the building, he almost collapsed from the exhaustion. Just then, a sound reached his ears.
"Blue!"
Of course, who could it be if not Sister Mary? Before Ethan could see, she was already in front of him, and her hands were all over his body, searching for any injuries.
She kept on mumbling.
"What happened? What did you do? What are these creatures? Why is there blood on your clothes? Blue, tell me you didn't—"
Before he could start speaking, she started crying.
Seeing this, he thought, "Not this again."