An Arrangement was Made

Chapter 16: Found but not Caught (part 2)

' When I first arrived in heaven, I was only 4 years old. I was dirty, naked, and no one was waiting for me. So they brought me to you. When I first saw you, I was scared. I thought you were a demon. So I stayed in the back where I thought you wouldn't see me. But you did see. And you waved. And you tried to help me fit in. And it worked.

And even though I wasn't scared anymore, you still took care of me. You still trained me. You raised me. You were my dad. I love you, Adam.'

Lute re-read the note she had found while cleaning out her desk. It was her handwriting. It was written on the same paper that was in her journal. She cocked her head to the side. Her eyebrows furrowed with confusion.

"Who's Adam?"

-

Adam was happily hunting the hell hogs that roamed the wilds of wrath. They had eyes all over their backs and sides which made them impossible to sneak up on, but that didn't matter to Adam. He had a wooden spear with a sharpened point and a pair of wings. He circled the herd overhead like a vulture looking for a sick, weak, or injured one that would be easy to pick off.

The herd had a few newborn babies. That made picking out a target harder. Adam hated killing baby animals if he could avoid it. A baby animal could be easily captured, tamed, and farmed for milk and meat. It was a waste of an animal to kill a baby. He couldn't just kill any of the random boars now. He needed to make sure that he wasn't targeting any of the mothers so that the babies he refused to kill wouldn't starve to death. None of them were old enough yet to survive without milk. But if he killed the only male, they wouldn't have anyone to impregnate them and make more boars. Fuck.

Adam did another loop around the herd. There. A lone male was approaching the herd with intent to fight for the rights to the harem. Adam decided he would let the boars fight and he would eat whoever lost. He found a nice place to perch while he watched the two animals fight.

On earth, most animals try to avoid fighting as much as possible. If you get a cut, it gets infected and you die. If you break a leg, a rib, or a jaw: you die. It is so easy to die when you have no hospitals and no medicine.

These pigs did not suffer from the same fears of infected cuts. Whether it was because of their extra thick skins or if it was because they were of wrath, Adam did not know. It seemed the challenger wasn't a complete idiot though. A particularly nasty kick from the hell hog had nearly broken the younger pig's jaw. That scared him off. A broken jaw was a death sentence for any animal. Even though the chances of a wild animal surviving with any broken bone were slim, you have 4 limbs for a reason. You can still survive if you're lucky and smart. You can't eat with broken teeth. Break your jaw and you can't eat.

With the challenger now retreating, it was time for Adam to make his move. He took back into the air, aimed his spear, and dive bombed the creature. The pig's attempts to run from him proved to be little more than a delay of the inevitable. Adam easily drove his spear all the way through the animal. He carried the still living creature high up into the air and dropped it for good measure. That should put it out of its misery.

It was a decent sized animal, about two hundred pounds give or take 5 or 6. Adam slung the corpse over his shoulders to make it easier to carry and started back in the direction of his camp. That was the fastest hunt Adam had ever had. He wasn't the same slow, weak human being he had been on earth. Gone were the days of chasing and tracking for hours or even days until the animal was too exhausted to keep moving. It felt so good to be able to keep up with his prey.