The Soundless One

5 : Get over it! Meet new company

Everything hurts, my face, my hands, ribs, stomach, everything hurts from the fight. I should persevere this. I need to get accustomed to this as long as I'm weak. That was what gets me going living in a place full of torture, the bandits den. There, fighting for extra food, extra space and fend for oneself due to sexual harassment, was the norm. One would even get beaten just because of another bandit foul moods swings.

Looking back and comparing everything here and just now, this is still a grace from god. He gather himself up and dusted himself, and thinking about this journey into the woods. Should he go or back off?

However, he have come out here , so he cannot get back with nothing. He was given few days to himself  to get familiar in the manor. After this, there's house chores and learning with those two master in the manor. Who will do his work now if he's not the one who does it? The bed must be done, the fire place, the floor also must be rechecked if got any holes, and others. These must be done before winter, or he'll be a frozen corpse by then.

Thinking about those, I walked slowly deeper into the woods, where the trees grow taller, and the air seems different. I wonder if I can found some bamboo or rattan in this kind of terrain. Few hours walking, I seems to hear the sounds of a creek nearby. I followed the sound, as I think I could get some rest and drink, but as I moved nearer, the sound was gone.

Weird. I remember I heard the sound clearly and moved to its direction. But now, there only seems to be rocks bulging here and there in this terrain. The view changes unsettled me. I continue forward and reached a staged rocks terrain, slightly higher than an adult man. ah, bad luck. My body's aching and I still need to be here ah..

Touching my ribs to support myself climbing the smaller rocks, I've reached somewhere.. magical? no, the trees are still looking normal. Its just that, the view here is  majestic. The trees seems to be larger in diameter, much color into it, but covered in variety of thorns or small hairs that looks like it kills.  The creeper plant also grow into much bigger size with vivid color, its hooker however, was slightly terrifying. It seems to be alive.

The grasses and mosses were very green and damp, when you stepped on it, red-colored water seems to flow out around the shoes. What the hell? Is this place even real?
I was careful not to touch anything other than the ground-covered-grass. The vines of a tree seems like it moved, but I realized its a snake. Never before I've seen snake that can change its color to suit its surrounding. wow.

I was about to pick a fallen branch when I heard a wailing sound somewhere. I might be mute, but my hearing and sight is top notch. All of it thanks to the crazy doctor in the bandits group who uses human as his test subject. I was blessed I'm still alive after every test he conducted.

I walked nearer, and brushing a few bush, I saw a white cub entangled in a metal trap.
Seems like a puppy. Blood is all over its hind leg as it tries to detach its head and the bloody leg from the creeping hooker plant and vines. Its white furry coat was muddled with mud and the red water from the grass and its own blood.

Its scary, seeing how the hooker plant  twiddling in the pool of blood like its excited due to the blood.., and some of it was like, rooting itself on the poor creature's leg. The movement was slow, but its noticeable.Was it trying to live off of the puppy?
The puppy was growling at the sight of me, as if I near him, it'll bite.

I didn't really know what to do, as I was scared myself. But this could be me. At the thought of that, I take off my shoe. As I put it in my hand, I smacked off the vines and hooker. But damn that things just won't budge. I then try slowly remove the smaller hooker without force, and guess what? It worked. It turned out, force won't always settle everything. Ohho I'm so smart I'd die ;)

The puppy still growls angrily although his hind leg is free from the vines and hookers.
''Such an ungrateful brat. so rude you dared to still glare at me ah?'' Jing Han thought as he looks at the puppy while both of his hand worked on the metal trap.

Suddenly, he felt weird around his ankles. He looked down and saw the hooker plant was entangling his ankles. Turned out he has some scratch at his ankles and was bleeding too.
Luckily the entangling speed of the hooker plant was quite slow.

He's so scared that his body jerked away, forgetting about his ache from the earlier fight.
The hooker plant, as sensing the prey was gone, began to wander slowly its vines.
Seeing such act, his body trembles and his blood looked like its drained from him.
He began to get up, and without realizing it, he tried to ran back to where he came from.
Suddenly, he stops.. and wonder about the puppy.

''poor puppy must be scared too'' he think as he ran back to the puppy.
He reached there, and with a branch he grabs on the way, he slowly pushed the vines and hookers that's now entangling the whole puppy's leg. He made sure he ushered those vines at a distance before working on the trap.

Finally to be able to free the puppy, he grabs the puppy's hind neck and takes them both away from the enchanted woods.

The puppy seems weird. He wont stop glaring and growling although I was the one who saved him. But he didn't do anything else, just limping away as I hold him.
'' I'll take him back for now, before release it back after its healed'' I thought as I maneuver through the outer skirts of the woods.
Then he remembers that he didn't found any rattan or bamboo yet, and the day begins to dark too.. so he just sighs and hoped for a better tomorrow.