Cadbury's Quest

Entry Three

Entry Three

         Early the following morning, I resolved to take matters into my own hands. Hunger had won. If I couldn’t figure out which types of vegetation I could eat, I would have to find a different source of sustenance. If I could become a hunter, surely a jungle such as this would be teeming with unsuspecting wildlife. Animals that would be unafraid and unaccustomed to being approached by a bespectacled and starving human being carrying crude sticks sharpened at one end.
         I spent several hours of preparation. I used sticks to dig a pit and I stacked piles of sticks and dead wood of all kinds from the jungle floor with which I could sustain a fire to cook my kill with. I was never happier to be a smoker than I was at that moment, my lighter becoming one of my most valuable possessions. I searched out a short distance from my shelter and discovered a small pool of water. The water was crystal clear and clean. I gratefully washed my face and gulped in quantities of thirst quenching delight. Upon returning to my wood work, I created two long spears and a shorter dagger like stick from the fallen jungle lumber.
         It was hastily done and I emerged from my home base armed to the teeth with weak wooden weapons and a powerful hunger. I noticed the shadowy figure was still watching me dashing behind trees always keeping its distance from me. At first it was a game. I would march in the direction of my stalker and it would retreat to a more distant mass of cover that was so abundantly provided by the jungle. I soon tired of this game realizing that I was getting nowhere and decided to turn my attention towards hunting something I could eat. The first signs of wildlife other than insects were birds. I rounded up some stones and attempted hit one, but it’s a lot harder than it looks to throw a stone accurately at such a small target. I gave up on the idea of eating bird and decided to try something different. Finding the right prey was difficult, but hunger would not allow me to give up.
         By late afternoon I had given up walking about from exhaustion. Weak with hunger, I instead decided to hide in a bush near the pool of water expecting that at some time an animal would come to drink resulting in my best chance for an attack. My patients paid off several hours latter as a large boar emerged from the brush. It was an ugly creature bristling with thick coarse black hairs. The boar seemed huge, at least four feet long with broad shoulders. I was salivating just looking at the animal. My mind raced with visions of barbecue pork ribs, pork chops, slices of ham and bacon, my mouth was watering. The large pig stepped closer and closer to my hiding place. Sweat dripped into my eyes and fogged my glasses. I pushed them up n my usual mannerism and waited in strained anticipation for the boar to get as close as possible before I made my attack. Every breath seemed to echo as if I were heaving heavy gulps of oxygen. The beating of my heart thundered in my ears like a cannon as I gripped my spear tightly. In my head I began a countdown. 10...The animal stuck it snout in the water…..9…8…7….it snorted and shrugged shaking it’s shaggy mane that stretched from it’s brow and down it’s back….6….5….4..It’s tail swished to each side carelessly. The beast arched its back and turned from the water facing me…..3….2….It paused as if it could sense my presence in the bush and seemed to stare right into my eyes, the few feet between us closed to more than I could ever hope for…1….I lunged out in as quick a movement as I have ever made thrusting my spear aiming for the boar’s head. I missed my target striking the surprised animal in the shoulder. I felt the spear dig into flesh. The pig startled and pained twisted his head towards the spear squealing in rage! I let out a cry of exhilaration driving my spear as hard as I could, but my joy was short lived. When my weak wooden spear struck shoulder bone, it bowed and snapped leaving me with a broken stick standing in front of a wounded but hardly subdued and extremely angry pig that suddenly appeared to have very sharp and deadly looking tusks! Another squeal from the beast and a quick charge towards me and I realized the danger of my current situation. I threw the broken stick at it in vain and retreated backwards. I wasn’t quick enough however and the charging boar struck me in the side knocking me off my feet and into the bush that I had been hiding in. The hard jolt knocked my glasses off and I started to scramble into the bush hoping it would deter the beast from attacking further. My hip felt bruised from the impact of the boar’s strike and my pant leg was torn wide open from a slash of its tusks. I shrieked in terror realizing how close I was to being torn into bloody shreds by the animal that I was supposed to be eating! I felt around for my glasses or perhaps even my spare spear in some hopes of putting up a defense. Bracing for another blow I even envisioned the sight of my own blood spilling about from the razor sharp tusks, but it was not to be so. The boar’s squeals of pain and the sounds of a struggle allowed me to sigh in relief; the pig was most decidedly not pursuing me further into the bush.
         Sharp twigs scratched my hands as I felt around blindly and desperately in a panic for my glasses. When I finally did scoop up my precious lenses and brought them back up to my eyes the world quickly regained its focus. There before me as I lay fumbling in a bush at the side of a pool of water was a person. A woman or possibly a young boy it was difficult to tell, slaying the animal that I had attacked and that had subsequently turned the tables on me. This person was dressed in a loose fitting like fur robe like outfit covering the shoulders and torso but leaving the arms and legs below the knees exposed. She (for I had concluded that this person must be female) had long stringy black hair that swung about as she stabbed savagely at the fallen pig. She had high cheekbones and dark eyes that were locked in a concentrated but controlled fury swinging killing blows upon the boars with some sort of archaic hammer like weapon. She was small, right around five feet no taller athletic in form with a tanned complexion. I scrambled to my feet hoping to be able to communicate with her but by the time I had stood up she was no more than a shadow again disappearing into the woods leaving me and the corpse of the mighty boar behind. I fought the inclination to chase after her with thanks for my rescue and instead followed the more carnal virtue of hunger. I began to drag the carcass to my shoddy stick leaf lean to home against a tree and the fire pit I had prepared.
         It was hard work. The dead weight of the pig was pushed, pulled, drug, and rolled by an exhausted, weakened, and near starved man. Somehow I managed to get that pig to my fire pit before dark. In the dusky evening that was alive with gnats. I began the work of lighting my fire, a few dry tinders and my magic lighter soon had a roaring inferno. I rolled the entire carcass into the fire and let the skin burn and crisp away. I used sharp stones to tear away the meat as it cooked. I didn’t worry too greatly about the constant warning of eating uncooked pork in the civilized world. I waited only until the texture of the meat was firm and not slippery before stuffing mouthful after mouthful of hot partially cooked meat into my mouth until I could eat no more.
         I stumbled back to the pool of water in the darkness once I had finished feasting and dunked my head into the water to wipe away the grease. I cupped a couple handfuls of water to drink and then stumbled back to my camp using the fire to guide me home. I kept throwing sticks onto the fire until my pile ran out. The carcass of the pig still smoking in the pit. I would sometimes venture in and tug off an extra good looking piece of meat until finally I feel asleep full belly by the side of my fire.