The Silent Hunter

Chapter 12: I am not a captain, not a human and certainly not a hero

Tracer and Jaguar have been at sea for a few hours. Tracer was on top of the lookout, eyes closed, feeling the wind in her hair. She opened her eyes again and exhaled gasping. She looked down and shouted:

"HEY JONAS!"

"YES?"

"How do I get down from here?"

"Do you see the hook on the rope? Jump on it and hold on tight."

She jumped forward and held on tight, at full speed, she fell to the ground. Until the rope tightened, she let go and rolled to the ground.

"Wow, that was fun." she shouted as she jumped up.

Jaguar had to laugh.

"Hey, can I steer the ship?" she asked.

"A ship is not a plane, Lena."

"Oh, no. I was one of the best pilots in the Air Force," she said proudly.

"How humble.... All right. But don't say I didn't warn you." he said somewhat grudgingly.

10 minutes later:

The sun was shining clouds away on the clear blue waters of the sea. Everything seemed quiet.

But suddenly the tides parted and a metal spike stuck out of the water. A metal hull followed its connection. On this same hull lay two soaked figures coughing water from their lungs.

The taller of the two stood up and turned to the other who was still coughing.

"Well...that wasn't supposed to happen," Jaguar said in his typical rough voice.

"I'm sorry," coughed Tracer.

It took a few minutes for Jaguar to get the ship working again. Tracer sat on the stairs leading down to the hull and had her head on one hand. Jaguar stepped beside her.

"Hey, don't take it so hard. It happens to almost everybody the first time."

"No. It's not just that," she replied. "it's just that, I just... I feel like I'm failing everything. Since.......since that thing with Mondatta."

"Yes, I have heard about that." He sat down next to her and put his fingers together. "You know? If there's one thing I learned in the jungle, it's how to deal with defeat."

She looked at him questioningly, and he went on.

"The life of a predator consists mainly of defeats. Out of ten attempts at hunting, usually only one is successful. But did I just lie down to starve? No. I got up and tried again. Here, I'll show you something" said the blown man and pulled up his shirt. He showed her a scar that was almost three inches long, on his side.

"You know what that was?"

"No."

"A wild boar. A big bloody one at that. When I was 12, we had a big drought. There were hardly any animals left, and there was no fruit. Out of hunger and a little bit of desperation, I attacked a herd of wild boar. I jumped one on its back and kept hitting its body with my claws. Then suddenly another came running, took me on his tusks and threw me against a tree."

"Ouch," said Tracer. "And then what did you do?"

"I took refuge in a tree and rested for a while. But I had injured the wild boar, so I waited until I could move again and then followed the trail. That took 2 days, but the injured animal was weakened in the meantime and was left behind by the others. So I hunted it and had the first real food for the first time in 8 days.

My point is, you have to accept that you can't win every time. But you know what you can do better now."

"...Yeah...you're right. No use feeling sorry for myself. Thank you," she said, standing up and stepping to the accompaniment, her hands on her hips.