A Poacher Dies Tonight

Across the forest poachers attempted to capture a Domaku.

A large bear-like creature with a fully grown head sitting at about 9 feet high with a wing span of about 20 feet. It was mostly an oversized bear with large wings that allowed it to soar through the air, though now its stature was inconveniencing a quick getaway. The Domaku crashed around in the middle of the forest, wings flapping so hard they could be heard a mile away. Cramped in the small confined space of trees, she tried to flap her wings and intimidate the poachers by snapping her broad jaw in every direction.

Sular, one of the poachers, fumbled backward avoiding being bitten in half by just a hair. Five men surrounded the Domaku that has touched down in the forest. In the hopes that they would be able to subdue this great beast so that they could sell it to the highest bidder, well there is only one bidder, but the highest bidder none the less. Well I guess using that logic, he was also the lowest bidder, but lets not sit here splitting hairs, these were poachers.

Although they'd never poached anything before in their life. They were all young, but poachers none the less. Everyone has gotta start somewhere. At this moment in time they were all poachers. For some, this will be the one and only time they poach and some will poach for the rest of their lives. Poaching is the way that people make a living if they don't have the skills to farm and no money to buy a boat. Only the families that were well off had a boat commissioned or have the funds to be trained by a skilled craftsman. It costs money to learn a new skill such as carpentry all the way down to plumbing and more difficult tasks. But when it comes to poaching, for people strong enough, it's a way to make money in exotic areas, though it is illegal.

"Hey, he's a tough son of a bitch" Sular says while using the tip of his spear to keep her at bay. He shuffled his large, muscular body slowly around the Domaku. She became overwhelmed by the shear numbers, unaware where to focus for long.

"That's the bitch. If you're going to use the word. Though most often bitch is only used for canines, and of course your mom." Poun replies in a jest.

"Fine! Daughter of a bitch, what was that last part!" Solar fires back barely comprehending the insult as an afterthought.

"Okay! Go around! We're going to surround it." Gote barked at them.Sular scowled at Poun. Poun looked at him and laughed. Sular smiled back and mouthed."Fuck you."

"Ow!" Sular looked down and saw the cub and kicked it in is side. He walked up with a callous look on his face, still soured from Pouns' insults. He lifted up his boot and stomped on the lower half of the body and the cub let out a scream. The mother responded to the cry by letting out a vicious roar but was unable to act due to the spears keeping her at bay.

"Hey, what are you doing? Take it easy! We shouldn't kill it." Frander Chastised him for his thoughtlessness.

"Yeah dumbass! If we can collect enough of them, we won't have to hunt them anymore. We can just breed them." Gote chimed in.

"Yeah, he's right." Quitum agreed with Frander. They all talked down to Sular one at a time.

"Where would we even keep this thing?" Sular said short sightedly out of frustration and embarrassment.

"Yeah Gote, look how big its going to get." Poun pretended to agree with Sular, over exaggerating the question.

"I would rather have him alive with the possibility of working something out later, than not. Now stop talking, and focus! Dip your tips and when I draw her attention, you stab her rear." Gote demanded.

They all in turn find themselves surprised that Gote suggested to play as bait. They dipped their spears with no hesitation in the tranquilizer and slowly inched closer to the mother Domaku until she was tightly surrounded by the five men. As they moved closer, her roars turned into deep growls and snarls in a last ditch effort to intimidate them. Accidentally, Frander trips over a rock while side stepping. The mother notices, turns, and charges, forcing him back and out of the circle.

"NOOO!" Quitum yells out in fear. Quitum frantically chucks his spear in the direction of the stampeding Domaku, as Frander is clamped between her jaws, it misses. It was too late for anyone else to respond. The Domaku had already taken the man down. Sunk her teeth into him, held him down with her enormous paws, immediately snapping his collar bone. He let out an agonizing cry. Then, the Domaku clamped its teeth down further and Frander let out an even louder cry, stabbing into their guts.

"Quitum help me. Help me. Help me. AHHHHHHHH!" He pleaded to Quitum or anyone who'd listen. Pinned to the ground, he pushed desperately on her muzzle and stuck his fingers in her nostrils to try and agitate her. The beasts hold on him was absolute. The blood splattered over his face, mixed in with his tears streaming down his cheeks, clouded his vision.

"Help! Help! Help! Quitum! Anybodyyyy!!!" He desperately pleaded for anyone to do something, one more time he begged. He was blinded by the blood and unable to see over the beasts massive body.

Frozen with fear, nobody moved a muscle or dared to speak a word stricken with the peril of being the next victim. In a second, her teeth tore through his muscle and cracked through his ribcage and from sheer pain, he passed out or died. The Domaku removed a clean bite through the entire upper-right half of his body.

All of the men fixated, and disquieted by the sheer ferociousness of the act that had just taken place. Gote was the first to snap back into reality.

"Attack it!" Gote yelled across the field at the still frozen poachers.

Terror instantly grabbed hold of him but he was unable to call back the words already spoken, as he realized the stupidity of what he just did. He had essentially painted a giant target right on his body, volunteering to be her next victim. The Domaku whipped it's head around, and scowled with eyes full of rage. Frander's blood covered her mouth and was dripping from her snow-white beard. Her base maternal instincts had turned this once docile creature into whatever savage beast it needed to be. She was willing to be whatever it took in order for her to ensure her cubs safety.

Slowly making her way towards Gote, each step making the ground shutter beneath the poachers feet. Bow she fixated only on Gote in a blind rage, a spear dug itself into the hide of the Domaku, pinning one of her wings to her side. Sular had broke free of his fright and thrusted his spear. The Domaku let out a massive roar. She jumped and kicked at the air, attempting to loosen her wing and get the spear off. She looked in the direction of her cub and let out a muffled grumble. A look of worry in her eyes, she turned to her wing and back to her cub and realized that she may not be able to protect her cub.

She growled at the cub as a sign for it to run and getaway, then she jumped into the sky in a last ditch effort to try and fly once more. It was her only chance. If she could be in the air, it will be harder for them to attack her, and she might be able to draw them away. Though she didn't want to leave her cub on the ground with them, she had no other option. She rose a little in the air with her one free wing but the lack of the other one lead her to run head first into a tree, knocking the tree over on its side.

She reeled back around and roared again while trying to get up to mount another attack. The poison was starting to take effect, her eyes and limbs became heavy which made moving difficult. She slowly stumbled towards Sular the one who had kicked her cub. She looked beyond him and noticed her cub has escaped because it was no longer at the mans feet. She heard a loud thud and felt an immense pressure on the top of her head. The colors merged into darkness around her.

"Shit." Sular bended over and exhaling a sigh of relief. He looked up at the rest of the poachers still standing, surprised that any survived at all. He'd never seen a Domaku. When you think that you're going to capture a slow-moving, docile, majestic creature, then what just occurred in that forest was the last thing any of them were expecting. Possibly more confusion than blood thirsty.

"FRANDERRR!!! Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit! What am I supposed to tell Frander's girlfriend. I said I was going with him to try to find work at the docks." Quitum said, as he stood over the body of his oldest and best friend. He had also known everyone that he came out here with his entire life, but when everything happened with his parents, Frander's parents allowed him and his younger siblings to stay at their house until they were ready to return home.

"You did and he fell in." Poun, Gote, and Sular had known Frander their entire life although they were older than Quitum and Frander. They just didn't care much for the boys. Most of the time spent with them was of them teasing the two boys for their amusement. So just like any other punchline Poun ever made at the boys expense, he chuckled.

"She's going to want to see his fucking body." Quitum gave him a threatening look in an attempt to stand up for Frander in his final moments. No one should have some one laugh at their death. The look held a bit longer than the usual hurt look that Quitum had when his best friend had been insulted. Poun returned the look relying on his seniority, but when Quitum inched a step toward him, Poun put his hands up and backed down.

"We don't have time for this. Tell her you never saw him. Okay?" Gote stepped in between them.

Quitum's anger was enough to make him pick a fight with Poun but not bold enough to take on Gote. There was always an air about Gote that spelled obvious danger. Quitum put his hands on top of his head and looked up. His anger dissipated and his blood pressure reduced and the fight or flight moment subsides. His knees buckled and he collapsed onto them. His head and his heart took over and a feeling of guilt mixed in with the pain of losing his only real friend.

"...But what about his body?" He had become a puddle of shame and dragged them in. They could only pity him. He pleaded out loud but to nobody in particular, just a vain attempt to distract his mind with a problem that wasn't as dire as processing what he was feeling.

"You're right. Bury him." Quitum's face became pale. Not willing to turn and look at Frander's dead body again, let alone drag it somewhere and bury it, for fear of catching a glare from his lifeless eyes by accident.

"What? Me? Why me?" He protested. Everyone sat back and though they had no problem with doing the task, the fact that he didn't want to do it made them want to protest as well. So, as he looked around no one offered to take his place.

"If you're so concerned about him, you make the grave and dig it deep. We don't want the rain uncovering it or some animal digging him up for all to see." Gote commanded, leaving no room for anymore objections. Then, he turned and addressed Sular and Poun "No one can know we were in this Sacred forest or what we were hunting here. Understand?!" They all nodded and Sular looked around.

"Where's the cub?" Sular was surprisingly the first to notice and visibly proud of the fact.

"Huh?" Gote glared back at him with a look that replaced Sular's pride with shame. As the closest to the cub, he should have been the person keeping track of it. They all stop and look around.

"He's gone! Great job, Sular." Gote chastised Sular again but this time there was no Domaku to distract everyone. Gote looked up in thought. "Quitum! After you dig the grave, then find the cub. that shouldn't be too hard." He decided.

"Bu..." Before Quitum could object he's cut short.

"Unless you'd rather trade places with me and drag this mother all the way home. What if she wakes up? Can you handle that?" Gote challenged.

"Where is the shovel?" Quitum answered.

Before he could prolong his task Sular shoved a shovel at him "Here."

"Why did you bring a shovel? Who were you planning to bury?" He questioned their intentions.

"Just be glad you're the one doing the digging." He replied with a sinister smile.

He sees the shovel is covered in the Domakus' blood and he realized he didn't want to know the answer.

"You're not supposed to be here" Quitum thinks to himself.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Thanks for reading!