Chapter 4: Forest of death - I

*Rafael woke up next morning and sure enough everything was gone. The food, the bags, the tent and even the firewood. There were no signs that the fire even existed*

"Well it looks like the 3 days have begun. First and the foremost let's see what I need. I have dire needs of food water firewood. Thankfully, my knife, ropes and the empty bottles remain. I ate so heartily last night yet I am still hungry again! It is strange, but there is no point pondering over it. So, let's get to work"

*Rafael got up and started heading out. He went in the direction of gathering food first. The arrow marks sure did come in handy today, and he was almost sure that he won't get lost. On and on he went, noticing a lot of firewood was available but no other signs of food. On the way to the tree, Rafael stopped in front of a cave*

"This was not here yesterday. Strange"

*Rafael was about to head inside when he heard a deep and beastly growl*

"Well that decides for me. I am not heading inside it no matter what"

*Rafael headed back in the direction he was heading, but he always kept an eye on his back. The growl had shaken him more than he gave it credit for. He finally made it to the clearing where the all-fruit tree resided. He looked around again and again, was about to head out, stopped and look again, after all in this place one can never be too careful*

"Well, looks like today is my lucky day, as far as luck goes."

*After thoroughly checking the surrounding he went for the tree, climbed and grabbed as many fruits as he could. The tree was a strange place, it had grown incredibly large and had almost all kinds of fruits imaginable on it. He gathered as much as he could hold and then headed back to his camp, all the way munching down on the chowder he had gathered*

"Umm, umm these are really good and gods I was starving"

*Before the time he reached his camp half of the fruits were already finished. Next, he went on to gather water and firewood. Around 30 mins later, he had everything he needed but was hungry again, and so he devoured the rest of his fruits*

"I have never been this hungry in my life, what is happening. But I have to go out and gather more in sometime"

*Rafael lit up some of his firewood and slowly fell to the dark abyss of sleep staring into the orangish emptiness of the fire. He woke up couple of hours later when the sun was already setting*

"Damn it, how long have I been out?"

*He got up and started his journey back to the tree of all-fruits. Thankfully his trip to and from the tree went uneventful but by the time he had reached his camp, the forest had already gone dark. Once again Rafael fell asleep right after eating next to the fire on the ground itself*

*GROANNN*

"Help Me!!"

*Another ghostly whisper in the middle of the night*

"Help me!"

"HELP ME!!"

*Rafael woke up with a jerk*

"HEEEELLLPPP MMMMEE!!!"

*Rafael's first impulse was to rush towards the voice, but he stopped. He had read that many of the mythological beasts had the ability to mimic human voices, that they used to lure out unsuspecting prey*

"What should I do? What should I do? What should I do? I really, really don't want to be someone's mid-night snack but I also don't want someone to die because I was too afraid to go and help"

*Rafael thought a lot about it and then decided to respond carefully. He progressed slowly towards the voice making as little noise as possible*

"HELP ME PLEASE! I AM GOING TO DIE! HELP ME"

*Rafael wanted to kick his caution to the curb and rush to the aid of the mysterious voice, but what good would he be, if he only rushed to die. He progressed agonizingly slow but at a steady place. He picked up a sturdy piece of wood to be used as javelin or a lance or anything. It was way past mid-night and there was nothing to light his way other than the full moon shining above. Yet Rafael, was able to see everything clearly. He reached quite near the voice, and it all lead him back to the cave. The voice appeared to be coming from the entrance of the cave, but he was unable to see anything. Still, he waited to see some movement of sorts, but seeing none, Rafael decided to head back to his camp*

*As silent as he came, as silent he made his way towards his camp. The moment he reached, he straight away went for his bed. Though his cautionary mind was being content on being safe, a guilt lingered in the back of his mind, for not seeing it through. Though disturbed and highly restless, Rafael was able to get some sleep. He woke up with the rising sun and was in more than what could be called as little shock. Right next to his fire, was written 'SMART KID' and next to it was a huge claw mark*

*Rafael frantically looked around but couldn't see anyone or anything. He slowly got down and examined the print*

"This is definitely from a bear. But a bear who could spell English? This place is full of strange beasts"

*Rafael took every step with caution. He knew he was being watched. No rather that he was being hunted and he was intended to stay alive. Rafael still had his make shift spear, and he started sharpening it, but against the apparent size of the bear, this spear would do no more damage than a toothpick*

*As scared out his wits Rafael was, a groaning feeling in his stomach, pointed out to the fact that he needed to get up and gather food. He had gulped down most of his water as well, and his firewood reserves were all time low as well. Once again, he set out to gather resources. He first went to gather food, then water, then some firewood and then some food again*

"This should be enough to last me through today"

*He munched down some of his food and then gathered more wood but thicker pieces, setting up traps everywhere in a childish attempt to possibly survive. He ate some more and then climbed down in his bed. After last night he had made sure that he would never sleep on the ground again. He couldn't sleep, he didn't want to sleep, so he stayed awake, looking at the infinite blue sky that peeked from between the branches of trees, that had flourished over the years advocated to no human intervention. He was lost in his thoughts when the sun had set*

"What in the hell. It has barely been few hours from sunrise"

*Rafael was still not tired, neither did he feel safe enough to drift of to sleep, so he laid there, blankly staring at the fire, remembering the night of the camp, when it all started*

*He was interrupted from his thoughts with a growl. Rafael felt a cold sweat run down his spine. Near his fire, there he was, a brown bear, it was standing as tall as the lionel bird hatchling if not taller, and it was still on his fours. He had yellow rings on various places and with his claws he started writing something in the sould, left his claw print as some kind of signature and then casually took his leave. It read*

'I am coming for you tomorrow. Run if you can"

*Needless to say, Rafael's blood ran cold at that statement. He kept his spear close, but he knew that against a beast of that size, it won't be much useful*

*Rafael had refused to come down from the tree, thinking he would be safe but no sooner had the sun rose, the trees near him started falling*

"Run if you can puny human"

*Rafael got down from the tree as quickly as he could and then started running, running anywhere and everywhere he could go. This place wasn't safe, no place here was safe*

*As it that monstrosity knew exactly what had happened, he came running straight towards him. Rafael ran as fast as he could. He could feel the thumping caused by falling of the feet of the massive creature right behind him, but he did not dare look back, he knew, if he saw him chasing, his legs would immediately fail him, and he would head straight to the ground and from there a one-way trip to the bear's stomach*

*Rafael kept on running, but the bear caught up, with one massive claw he spun him around and Rafael fell. He started crawling back trying to keep the bear at a distance. Up close Rafael could see the rows and rows of teeth that filled the beast's mouth, and the hungry bloodlust that dripped from his eyes. Rafael knew that he was staring at the visage of death itself*

"Run! There is no fun in killing someone who had given up"

*Rafael, got up, he couldn't comprehend what happened, but right now he didn't need to. Right now, he needed to run and that was what he did. He ran and ran, he could still feel the bear, right behind him and he would occasionally lunge in his direction, his massive jaws would fall a few inches behind, and he would lag behind, only to catch up again and lunge again. With every jump the beast was getting closer. Rafael wasn't his meal, he was his plaything. The bear was enjoying his hunt*

*Rafael knew he didn't have much time. The next lunge would be the last one. It would finally catch up and then it would be all over. He felt the thump, thump and then the jump*

*He knew this time it would not miss. He would finally get ahold of him and this time Rafael would die, there was no one to save him and this would be it. But he didn't want to die, Rafael felt a burning desire inside of him to live, and as if it had sparked something within him. His heart beat raced, his vision became blurry, his breathing paced but his body went still*

"Run run run damn it run"

*Rafael's mind was screaming him to run, but his body moved different to the command he was giving it. He felt himself draw his spear, turn around and jam it up the head of the bear through its open mouth. The bear let loose a shriek in a pain, tried to close its jaws and bite of the arm that had injured him. Rafael, felt the beast close his jaws, the rows and rows of teeth pierce his skin. His mind screamed at him, regretted that it had told him to run, but he didn't, and now the results were fatal. He could feel the teeth going deeper into his arm but then the bear stopped in his tracks. His eyes had lost their shine and he fell sideways. Dead*

*Rafael screamed in pain and removed his hand from the bear's mouth as he started disintegrating*

"What in the hell is happening now?"

*In a few moments the massive beast vanished right in front of Rafael's eyes. Rafael couldn't believe what had just happened. He had somehow killed the bear and then it disappeared. But he would have to process it later. He was losing a lot of blood. Rafael tore away at his shirt, and tied the strip as a tight bandage to cull the bleeding. But he had already lost too much blood, and he fell to the ground unconscious*

"Who in the heaven's sake is this guy? He just killed the spirit bear. Damn it we were hunting him for days"