The Silent Hunter

Chapter 15: Tales from the jungle

It was the middle of the night, but nobody could sleep. Tracer suggested that Jaguar should tell about one of his adventures in the jungle.

"Well, I started out alone and spent most of my time hunting prey."

"One question about that..." Genji asked. "How did you hunt the wild animals?"

"For lighter animals like deer and capybaras I jumped on their backs and bit their necks. Dead. Out... It's a classic. With heavy animals like tapirs, it was like this: I sneaked up on them as close as I could, then I stormed up on them and hit as deep a wound as possible and then chased them. A combination of shock and blood loss, ends the life. Not very elegant, I admit, but it works... Hey don't judge me, otherwise I would have starved to death. But that's how it was, I was 6 years old and I had to survive alone in the jungle. Whatever."

".....When I found Tomala on the beach, a lot had changed. He was much more sociable than me and made me seek closer contact with the natives. And that's when it all started. 

It was a normal Sunday, in the course of time a rhythm had formed. Every Monday we had a bath... Well, every first Monday at least and every Saturday, the local missionary came to visit our temple, so we were never home that day. Ha ha ha. But every Sunday we went to the next town. But recently a rich businessman had tried to buy our part of the jungle to cut it down, we couldn't just accept that.

..................

10 years ago:

Jaguar had thrown a linen bag over his shoulder, he had just turned 18 and was already wearing his black coat then, but there was still a lot missing until the gentlemen of today. The only thing he still wore was a pair of beige trousers torn off under his knees, on his exposed chest were spots of dirt and dust. Apart from that he looked just like he does today, except his hair was a little longer. The dark-skinned young man next to him didn't look any better either, he was wearing a torn light brown shirt and an amber necklace.

The two had just shot 2 capybaras and wanted to exchange the remains in the nearby town. Last year Jaguar had killed a poacher and took two laser pistols from him. Although he is now a skilled sniper, he refuses to use them for hunting.

The local restaurateur Chulk was standing behind his counter cleaning a glass when the two of them came in and handed him the bag.

"Well? It's rare to see you two around people. Thanks for the meat, all the lumberjacks, boozing and eating your head off. God, you look terrible," said the bearded man, pointing to the two boys who were covered with numerous cuts.

"A certain somebody thought it would be a good idea to plunder the nests of Curl-crested jay ," said the pale young man, pointing to his guilt-looking blood brother, who just shrugged his shoulders.

"Admit it, you wanted a breakfast egg too." 

Then 4, big and very muscular men came to a table and asked for more schnapps.

"Speak of the devil," said the restaurateur, shaking his head.

Tomala turned to the lumberjacks and yelled.

"Hey...HEY.!" but nothing happened.

Jaguar approached an ashtray from the table and threw it at one of the men's head. The man fell unconscious to the ground.

"Was that necessary?" Tomala asked.

"If you won't listen, you have to feel." The other three men rose and walked threateningly towards the two boys.

"What is this? Do you want to catch a cuff?" said the first one angrily.

"I predict it right away. We're tired of you destroying our home and chasing the animals away," said Jaguar, who, despite his 6'1", was half a head shorter than them. The three men began to laugh.