CHAPTER 3

Several weeks has passed, my loneliness is still there, but it is getting better.

It is hard to live alone especially if you are a child, but thankfully, I'm familiar with hardships of life. One must need to know every craft in exchange for silver and gold.

But for me, hunting is one of the best method to gather money.

I armed myself with a spear and I also strapped the bolo on my back,

And after a minute of preparations, I started to venture in the forest.

Since it is mid-summer, the forest is bustling with activities.

There are plentiful animals to catch and if you really are not that lucky maybe you may take your chances in gathering fruits or herbs from trees or plants.

That why I prefer doing this, it is a win-win situation,

Although you really need to be patient.

After an hour of wandering around, I finally encountered a prey

Bristle hair around its body and a protruding teeth and it's also medium size which is perfect for me to catch. For the record it is a wild boar.

Seeing this makes me smile and I can't help but to think that my luck this day is high.

The boar is munching over ripe fruits that is scattered around the tree,

I approach it silently and when the distance between us is ten meters I stopped.

I grip the spear and hold it up,

I take one step forward to gain momentum, then pull my throwing arm back.

Then I gathered all my strength as I launched it forward.

Swoosh

The hog notice me too late as the spear penetrated its neck.

It then struggle fiercely just to remove the spear. It took him a while but its struggling pay him off.

The spear has been removed but it leave a deep hole on its neck.

I then get the bolo that is sheathed on my back to finish it off.

But the boar didn't want to fight it out. It started to run away.

And because the boar can't think like human and they only acted on their instinct, It didn't know that running away only leads to its demise faster.

I also quickly pick my spear then trail the bleeding boar.

It is true that boar has thick muscles around its body, but that's not definitely the case on its neck.

You just need to aim on its neck and be surely to hit a major artery, that's why I prefer spear than arrows, because it raises the odds of hitting the major artery.

After half of an hour of running madly around the forest, the boar is now getting tired.

It is also the same for me, thankfully it runs out of blood first.

And when the last strength of boar is gone, it helplessly fell down.

Sigh

I finally felt relieve when I see it lying now, I collected my breath first then checked the boar.

It is not breathing anymore, and the blood flowing on the wound is now minimal.

I then hold its hind legs and drag it on a tree.

Having done that, I reached the bread and canteen of water in my bag then I started to eat.

I regain some of my strength after eating and resting for a bit, I then got up.

When I'm planning on how I going to lift the boar, I heard someone chatting and laughing.

I look on the direction of the sound and see three young men and they also saw me.

They smiled and run towards me

"Oi, Gabriel long time no see"

"Yeah, it's good to see you guys"

This guys in front of me is not a strangers, they are my friends. The one who greet me first is Hap, and the other two is Seff and Von. They look shabby and they all have fishing rods.

"Do you want to go fishing with us?" Von said

"No, maybe next time, my hunt this day will end with this one"

I said as I point the corpse of wild boar

"Wow"

They all exclaimed in awe

"You really has a talent in hunting Gab" Hap said while examining the boar

"By the way, can you guys help me put the boar on my back?" I said

"Of course" Hap said

Hap grab the front legs while Von get the hind.

"Okay, here it comes Gab" Von said

"We count to three, be ready its heavy" Hap then give me warning

I took a large breath, then I count with them

"One – two – three"

They then lift it to my back

"Urghh"

Because it is not that big, I thought I can carry but I am wrong.

I struggle a lot, but Von and Hap assist me in stabilizing myself.

"Are you sure you can carry it?" Seff ask while handling to me my spear

"I don't know, maybe I can carry it halfway then drag it up" I said

"Oh common, we can help you carry it" Hap said

"But, you guys will go fishing right?"

"Yeah, but we can't bear to see you struggling to carry that" Von said

"Yeah, you look like you are going to fall down any moment" Hap said

"Okay, since you guys insist, when we sell this off, I will take 80 percent and you guys can have the 20 percent" I said

Seeing them nod puts a smile on my face.

I then put down the corpse of boar, and I gave my bolo to Seff and ask him get some sturdy branches.

Hap is the biggest among us four, while Seff is the smallest and the most agile, and Von has average physique like me.

After a minute, Seff returned with four tree branch

"Is this okay?" Seff ask while giving me back my bolo

"Yeah" I said

I placed the branches on the ground and we stack the corpse on the top.

We then grab the edges of the branch and lift it and started to walk.

"Wow, how do you even manage to lift this?" Seff ask me

But the one answered his question is Von

"Because unlike you, Gab is strong, come on put some strength on it, look, Hap is struggling because you are not carrying it seriously at all"

Our positions is are follows. Seff and Von are on the front while Hap and I are on the back.

"No, it is okay, it is not that heavy" Hap said

"See, Hap doesn't mind, so why are you talking nonsense?" Seff said

"But I mind" Von retorted

"Stop blabbering and just continue to carry you two" I said

When I'm with this guys, I'm always the de facto leader of the group.

Even though we always insult each other, we remain as friends.

"By the way Gab, where do you plan to sell this?" Hap said

"I know some place" Seff happily suggested "why not sell it to Arniell"

"No!"

But Hap and Von both rejected his suggestion

"You only want to go there, because you want to see her daughter" Von said

"Why you guys don't want to see that lady, are you gays?" Seff said indignantly

"Stupid, your fantasizing someone who is double the age than you" Von retorted

"What's wrong with that, you guys are only gaylords" Seff justifiably said "you don't appreciate her body. If you are a man, you will be attracted to her sexiness"

"No! We are not going to that seductive woman, besides, Gab will be the one to decide into which shop we go" Hap firmly said

"Yeah, sorry Seff but I'm not going to that place" I said "we will be selling this to Boss"

Von and Hap nodded firmly as they agree to my decision, but the man who is bewitched by sexiness just stay silently and started to sulk, and he started to murmur.

"Gaylords, Gaylords ,...…."

The three of us just pretend that we don't hear him, we just smirk.

Because Von feels like he scored against Seff,

He started to whistle and laugh to irritate Seff more.