Lifesaver [Engl.]

16. The snake's worst enemy

The sun was already high in the sky. Jake looked around searchingly. The old farmhouse, which had once been inhabited by humans, lay rotted and derelict in the hot desert landscape. The wind was blowing violently across the flat landscape and whirled up a lot of sand.
Jake looked up at the sun. It was already in the noon and the challenger still didn't show up.
He chuckled mockingly. "I'm sure he got scared and ran away again."
He waited a while longer. When still nothing happened, Jake decided to leave the area again. But just as he was about to turn around, he paused. He thought he felt a slight vibration on the floor. He turned around in surprise. But there was no one to be seen.
Suddenly he heard a low creak from the old farmhouse. A door slammed.
Jake licked and tasted the air. His sensitive mind told him that he was not alone. His gaze wandered back over to the old human farmhouse.
He grinned angrily. He felt like playing a little game now. "You want to hide from me? How cowardly. But good. You want me to get you. That's fine by me."
He crawled towards the ruined house. He stopped in front of the door.
"Come out!" He shouted. "You wanted to challenge me! Well, here I am! Or are you scared now?"
He listened. Nobody answered.
All right, he thought. Then I'll just get you.
He pushed the door open. With a swing the door was open. The room was empty.
Jake let his gaze wander. He licked. He smelled it clearly. Somebody was here.
"Come out! Or are you too cowardly?" He cried into the room.
But everything remained silent. Only the wind could be heard whistling through the broken cracks in the wooden walls.
Jake growled scornfully. "Fine. Then I just have to get you."
With these words he crawled into the house. The room, which had once been a kind of dining and living room, was almost in the dark. Only weak sunlight penetrated through the broken roof.
Jake licked tensely, his revolver ready to fire as a precaution, and his senses ready.
[CRACK]
Jake whirled around. The door was closed and he was standing in the semi-dark. He stared tensely at the door. Then it swung open a crack again. Jake's pulse relaxed a little.
Just the wind, he thought.
For a while he stood in the middle of the room and listened intently. He looked around carefully. There was no more furniture in the room. The humans had taken everything.
He paused. A low creak had caught his attention. His gaze wandered to a dark corner of the room where there were three large boxes that he had not seen before.
Aha, that's where you've hidden, he thought mockingly.
He crawled slowly towards the pile of boxes.
"I'll have you in a moment."
Now he had reached the boxes. Now he just had to go around the boxes to the other side. His venom glands swelled up. He was ready to strike anytime.
Who would he discover behind it? Who would be his next victim?
A few centimeters more. He bent his body into an S-shape and jumped around the corner.
He stopped as if rooted to the spot.
Behind the boxes, hidden in the dark, stood a figure. He stood leaning against the wall in a relaxed position with her eyes down.
Jake screwed up his eyes. With his eyes adapted to the darkness, he recognized every detail of the figure, but not his face. The stranger wore dirty clothes and had pulled his hat low over his eyes.
"Were you trying to challenge me?" Jake asked mockingly.
Although the stranger's casual demeanor irritated him for a second; but Jake saw no reason for danger. The stranger was all alone. What kind of problem should that be?
Now there was a movement in the strange figure and the stranger raised his head.
"And you are that bounty hunter who everyone is talking about?" He asked in an arrogant tone.
Jake snorted. "A little more respect, okay?! You don't know exactly who you're looking at."
"Oh yes. Very well in fact." Now the figure peeled away from the wall and took a few steps forward. Jake tensed his muscles.
Come on! Attack so I can hear you whine, he thought.
He kept his eyes glued to the stranger. He stared intently at his hands. If the stranger pulled his revolver, he would be the first to fire.
But instead of an attack, the stranger came closer step by step. Jake felt his venom glands swell again. Did the stranger want to attack him directly? He didn't seem to know that he could do anything other than just shoot. His venom was not to be underestimated either. On the contrary. Even the humans had great respect for it.
Finally, the stranger stopped just three feet in front of him.
Jake hissed menacingly. What was the stranger up to do?
The figure stepped into a beam of light. Now Jake saw fur under the clothes.
He narrowed his eyes suspiciously. This breed of animal looked somehow familiar to him. But she was definitely not at home in America.
"Well, what is it now?" Jake asked impatiently.
The stranger grinned. "How about a man-to-man fight? Without weapons, just your poison and my speed."
Jake thought he had misheard and stared at the stranger in disbelief.
"You've my apologies. Are you kidding me? You wanna challenge me without guns? The last one who said that to me was dead a few seconds later."
"Are you scared?" The stranger asked mockingly.
Jake raised his eyebrows. "No way!"
The stranger stepped backwards into the middle of the room. "Then come and get me if you dare."
At first Jake stood skeptically next to the boxes. But there was nothing to suggest that he would be ambushed.
Obviously, this stranger was really sick in the head.
Well then, he should experience the shock of his life, Jake thought and smiled wickedly.
Then he crawled into the middle of the room in a winding form.
There they stood face to face, ready to wait for one of them to attack first.
Jake couldn't wait any longer. He wanted to teach this insolent foreigner a lesson at last.
Swift as an arrow, Jake thrust his head forward. But to his surprise, he bit into empty space. Where did the stranger go?
"Are you looking for me?" Asked the stranger behind him.
Jake's eyes widened. How could he be so fast?
Jake thrust his head forward again to catch the stranger with his fangs. But this time, too, he cleverly dodged this attack as if he had never done anything else in his life. Now it was getting too far for Jake. Angrily, he kept attacking the stranger with his teeth over and over, and he kept dodging.
On the seventh attack, the stranger flipped in the air and clung to Jake's neck. Jake hissed menacingly and tried to shake him off. Jake screamed when he felt a pain in his body. The stranger had drawn a whip and hit him several times with it. Then he jumped through the air again in a grandiose air jump and landed skillfully on the ground. He held up his whip in triumph.
"Well, you didn't expect that, did you?"
Jake growled angrily. "There was no mention of that!"
"How so? We said no guns. Is that a gun?"
He waved the whip again and demonstratively slammed it into the air. Then he tossed it in Jake's direction, threatening to hit him again.
Jake backed away. Then he looked up resolutely. He had enough of this game! Agreement or not. He wasn't fooled by someone like that. He pushed forward and drew his revolver into position. "Then eat lead!"
But before Jake could pull the trigger, animals came running from all sides suddenly; who looked like the stranger. Jake was so surprised that he couldn't react when they pounced on him.
He hadn't expected such a rush. He immediately tried to shake off the attackers. But the animals knew exactly where they had to attack. In a flash, three of them fell on his head and pulled him to the ground.
Jake did his best to keep his head up. They were not allowed to gain control over his head, otherwise he was an easy prey. When that didn't help, he tried to defend himself by hitting his body. When he did so, some of them bit his neck.
Jake screamed. Angry as he was, he reared up and threw the animals away.
Suddenly something rushed through the air. A lasso has been turned over his head and was brutally pulled around his neck. Jake gasped. In vain, he tried to pull his head out of the noose again. More ropes were thrown over him. Some of the animals tied several ropes through his belt, pulled them tight, and tried to tame him. Jake struggled like crazy, but that only made him even more tangled in the ropes. Just as Jake was about to use his cannon, it was also held by several lassos.
The stranger who had been standing by the whole time took out his whip again and hit Jake in the face with it. Jake howled. But he didn't want to give up so easily. He furiously tried to hit the stranger with his teeth.
Suddenly he felt a stitch in his side. Shortly afterwards he got tired.
He tried a few more times to break free. Then the vision blurred before his eyes. He sank weakly to the ground. In his half-swoon, he could still see the shadow of the stranger who demonstratively reared up in front of him.
"Never mess with the greatest snake hunters in the world," he said mockingly. "A snake should think twice before messing with mongooses."
Then everything went black.

Rango looked up. Mongooses. He had heard of that once. But he had never seen one before. All he knew about them was that they originally came from Asia and were known worldwide for their fighting and taming of snakes.
"That's why they seemed so strange to me ..." he mumbled softly.
Jake raised his eyebrows, but he said nothing.
Rango leaned forward curiously. "And what happened after that?"

Jake blinked. His head pounded. He felt totally empty, as if drained. He could hardly move. He groaned and opened his eyes. The bright sunlight hurt his eyes. He shook his head to drive away the tiredness. The view slowly became clearer again. Something was over him.
Bars.
He heard a faint clang. Something fell on the floor. A lattice door slammed. Jake struggled to straighten up and regain control of his body. Slowly the anesthetic was wearing off. He looked around.
All around him, above and below him, there were bars of bars. It didn't take him long to realize that he was in a cage. But why? How did he get here? Had the attackers brought him here? What for?
Jake examined the cage. The cage was very low and not very large. Made by humans for whatever. He peered through the bars. He was on a field not far from the farmhouse. An old fence all around. Maybe something like a paddock, where horses or cattle used to be kept.
Jake straightened his torso and slammed the bars above him. The cage was really very low. He could just about half straighten his upper body.
He licked tensely. It smelled so strange. He looked beside him. There was a piece of meat on the floor. It was only half the size of himself. He never got anything like that in his mouth. But if it wasn't for him, then for who was it for?
Jake was startled. A shadow had passed over him. He looked up. His heart almost stopped when he saw the shape of a hawk in the sky. Jake instinctively wanted to run away, but there was nowhere in the cage to hide. He curled up in fear and looked up at the sky again. The shadow was gone. Was the hawk gone?
He listened intently. Only the wind blew over the landscape. Everything was calm.
Suddenly something big landed on the cage above him. Jake screamed inadvertently as the hawk poked its beak through the bars. Panicked, Jake pressed himself into the far corner of the cage. But the hawk seemed to be aiming only at the piece of meat on the bottom of the cage and tried to bend the bars with its beak.
Jake's breathing quickened when he saw a second hawk appear next to the cage and tried to get the old meat.
Jake screamed. A third hawk had sneaked up behind him and pecked at him with its beak. As if chased by a thousand dogs, Jake fled to another corner of the cage. For Jake sheer horror broke out when the three birds of prey shook the bars of the cage like crazy. Some poked at him with their beaks. Even though they couldn't reach him, Jake's heart stopped in fear every time one of the predators came too close. The hawks bit the bars like crazy to reach the meat. One of the birds seemed to be more interested in the rattlesnake and grabbed it with its claws. Jake backed away.
The birds screeched in annoyance when the cage would not open. Angrily, they pulled and tugged at the cage with their beaks. For a moment it looked as if the birds of prey were about to tear the cage apart.
Suddenly a whip cracked and a small figure landed in front of the cage. Jake recognized the mongoose that had challenged him earlier. Grinning maliciously, he looked down at the frightened rattlesnake.
"Well, what about a little catch game?"
The mongoose grinned and grabbed the hook that held the lattice door shut. Jake's eyes widened in horror. "No no no no no!"
But the mongoose just grinned and pushed the bolt aside. The lattice door opened a crack and the first hawk took his chance and tore open the door of the cage.
Jake gave a startled cry, as if he was going to drop dead any moment.
The hawk thrust forward and grabbed the piece of meat that was in the cage. The second wanted to steal the prey from him. But when the first shooed him away, his eyes fell on the frightened rattlesnake in the cage.
In his distress, Jake tried to shoot, but his revolver was empty. Apparently, the mongooses had removed his ammunition while he had been passed out.
Panicked, he pressed himself against the bars. But the third hawk made fun of it and attacked Jake through the bars again. Jake didn't know where to go. He couldn't go back or forward.
Blind with panic, Jake stormed forward and raced out the open cage door. But one of the hawks was faster and pounced on him with a scream of attack. Jake felt sharp claws on his skin, digging greedily into his body. Panicked, he tried to free himself from the hawk's grip, but the bird held him to the ground like a vice.
"I think that's enough for today," he heard a sneering voice.
In the next moment the mongoose jumped forward and cracked its whip at the hawk. The hawk backed away, startled, and let go of Jake. Jake wanted to run away, but the other mongooses had just been waiting for it and threw several lassos over his head. Like a dog on a leash, Jake tried to pull himself free, but the lassos were tied to the fence. There was no way for him to escape.
Another hawk flew towards him. Jake screamed. But in the next moment the hawk was thrown a piece of meat. The hawk grabbed the chunk of meat and flew away. The other hawks also got meat and flew away with it immediately.
Jake gasped hysterically. His heart raced wildly and again and again he looked around in panic in all directions. At that moment, the other mongooses released the ropes.
"Come on! Back with you!" the mongoose yelled at him and cracked his whip and shooed him towards the cage. Jake was still so shocked that he almost voluntarily fled into the cage. There he crouched up in confusion and looked fearfully at the sky. Did the hawks come back?
The cage door was slammed. The mongooses gathered in front of the cage, laughing, while Jake was still shivering in a corner.
Then they went away and retired to the old farmhouse, chatting and joking.
"Man, he was scared," he heard her scoff. "What a coward."

Jake stopped. He had started shaking again. "They left me in the cage for two days. Without water."
Rango's eyes widened. Two days? Even he couldn't do without water that long, especially in the hot sun.
"And then they hung you up?"
Jake shook his head. "No..."

Jake groaned. He had been in this cage for almost two days. His head hurt. The sun burned down on him mercilessly.
Groaning, he turned on his other side. He could hardly think clearly. The heat completely robbed him of his mind.
He heard vibrations. Someone approached.
A figure stood in front of the cage and opened the cage door.
"Come on, get up!"
A whip cracked. Jake was so weak from the heat that he was struggling to get up.
"Up with you!" The mongoose roared at him and let the whip down on him several times.
Groaning, Jake got up and staggered out of the cage. Everything spun around him. But the mongoose didn't care, but shooed Jake over to the old fence. A moment later, Jake felt a rope around his neck again. Loud roars and scornful hoots above him. The other mongooses had all gathered on the fence and tied the rope to the fence, which was now wrapped around Jake's neck. Jake sat there now, like a dog on a leash, weak from the heat. He looked uncertainly over to the mongoose, who now stood threateningly in front of him and kept dragging his whip on the ground.
"Come on, Madog!" His cronies cheered him on. "Shellac him!"
The mongoose, who his colleagues had addressed as Madog, brandished the whip again.
"Now I'm going to teach you some manners."
He brandished the whip and popped it in the air a few times. Then he reached out again and hit Jake in the neck with it. Jake whined, but this lash was enough to rekindle his defensive instinct. He hissed angrily at the mongoose and rattled his rattle menacingly. But the mongoose was completely unimpressed by this threat.
"You want to play?" Madog asked arrogantly and laughed mockingly. "Then go ahead."
He took a few steps back and Jake crawled threateningly towards him. But then Madog jumped forward and hit Jake hard in the face with the whip. Jake cried out in pain and backed away. The whip hit his cheek and the welt began to bleed immediately.
An unspeakable anger rose up in Jake. Angrily, he jumped at the mongoose. But the one dodged his attack, so that Jake slammed on the floor. The mongoose took the opportunity to hit Jake's body several times.
Jake struggled to get up again. But no sooner was he upstairs than the mongoose lashed out again and hit him in the face.
Now Jake had to realize that he had no chance against the mongoose. He backed away and tried to leave, but the noose around his neck kept him from escaping. Escape was impossible.
Again lashes. Jake dodged. The mongoose laughed maliciously. Without pausing, he kept striking the rattlesnake with his whip, driving it from side to side.
A couple of times, Jake tried to get out of the noose. He bent his body and pulled and tugged on the rope. Again lashes and Jake had to flee again.
Madog liked the "battue game" more and more and chased him back and forth incessantly. And whenever Jake stopped, Madog chased him again and chased him in circles.
Jake's movements became increasingly unsteady and uncontrolled. He looked completely disoriented. He couldn't go on. Whimpering with exhaustion, he sank to the floor and lay there, breathing heavily.
But Madog continued to beat him with his whip without mercy. Helplessly Jake hid his face under his body to protect his head from the blows at least.
The other mongooses got bored and pulled on the rope that was still wrapped around Jake's neck. Together they pulled his head back out of the loops, while Madog continued to hit the weakened rattlesnake.
Jake had had enough now. With the last of his strength, he reared up and dashed forward without thinking. The rope around his neck tightened. But Jake kept pulling on the rope and trying to break it. He pulled and pulled, while the noose tightened around his neck and tightened his breath. Jake gasped, but moved on. Finally, he couldn't breathe anymore. He tried to escape a few more times, then he slumped limp and closed his eyes.

Jake slowly woke up from his faint. He heard voices. Everything around him was still dark.
He blinked. Bright sunlight.
He coughed. His throat was like dead.
He wanted to move, but something was holding him.
With difficulty, he managed to open his eyes. He was still lying in the open field in front of the farmer's house on the paddock. He tensed his muscles to straighten up, but he couldn't get up. He tilted his head to one side and realized that he had been tied to the ground with several ropes. The ropes were tied to wooden pegs and rammed firmly into the ground. He heard footsteps.
Suddenly the mongooses reappeared. They gleefully surrounded the tied rattlesnake.
Madog stepped forward and motioned to his people. Now the others were also pulling their whips from their belts.
Jake's eyes widened.
Madog grinned. "Let the game begin."
Madog hit first. The other mongooses did the same and let their whips dash down on Jake's body.
Jake thought he was going to lose his mind any minute. There were lashes from all sides and he could not escape. He writhed like crazy on the floor, but as hard as he tried, the ropes held him mercilessly. Jake screamed. The crusted welts had started bleeding again.
Jake didn't know how long they hit him. His whole body ached, but they kept beating him. Suddenly the lashes stopped.
"Are you enjoying your stay?"
The voice sounded familiar to him.

Jake stopped. "No!"
"What?" Rango asked. "Who or what did you see?"