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Telling a Story

~: Chapter Four:~

Tiger Hunt

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~'~

Silence as the wind

the Hunter will near,

be aware, because you

are the one who are being hunted.

Do you feel its warm breath at your neck?

~'~

He pressed himself hard against the tree while panting as he looked out of his hiding place. It was gone. Good thing. He slid down on the ground and groaned as he put pressure on the wound in his abdomen; three fucking claws had make to slice him there, but lucky enough, they weren't deep.

Then he suddenly silenced as he heard something.

Steps!

Steps barely heard over the sound of his hammering heart. How fast could this tiger even move without barely making a sound? And how the hell could he ever have mistaken its tale for being a little helpless snake?

A growl in the near made his heart beat even faster and he cursed it for being so loud. The wind blew him in the face and sent his smell towards the approaching tiger, which sniffed in the air and at once recognized the smell of blood. 'Fuck!' Sanji began running as fast as he could, he tightened his grip around the sword in his hand as he jumped down from a small cliff and landed on the soft ground right underneath it. He might have a sword to fight with, but he wasn't stupid enough to attack a hungry tiger-mother, who was hot on his trail. If she hadn't been a she and not a mother as well, then he might have killed it for dinner.

He could hear the mother-tiger getting closer, faster than he thought, and suddenly she stood right before him. Sanji planted his feet in the ground to stop at once and turn around, but with a single jump she tackled him to the ground. Long teeth dug down in his throat and Sanji screamed like never before.

Then she suddenly stopped and looked up. The blond listened as well from his clouded mind and heard the tiger-babies call for their mother in the distance. She growled loudly to answer them; she sounded nervous. She looked down on the panting blond for a moment before she stood up, growled and ran away to get to her kids.

Sanji hit his head down in the ground and grabbed his bleeding throat. He gasped and coughed as he tried to breathe slowly. Were the wounds deep? He didn't really know, he couldn't see it, and his throat felt a bit paralyzed so he couldn't feel it either. He fought to get up on his feet's but fell back down again. He had no strength to stand up again. He panted hard, hand still pressed against the bleeding wounds on his throat as his vision went more cloudy and he felt his breathing getting slower.

Shit!

Had she really been biting that deep?

His eyelids slowly closed, but before they shut completely, he swore that he saw a large shadow stand above him, looking down at him. He said something to the shadow, what he said, he didn't even know, and then everything turned dark.

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He remembered that he had some weird dreams, but he didn't remember what they all had been about. His vision was still clouded from sleep as he opened his eyes and sat up at once, as he recognized the place to be his and Zoro's camp. But moving that fast had been a bad idea. His head began spinning and he fell back down on the bed of leafs, groaning as he pulled the cover of fur over him.

Wait!

When did he have such kind of…? He looked down on the fur there laid over him and recognized it as being the fur from a tiger. He sniffed in the air as he meant he smelt something being cooked. He sat up, slowly this time, and looked around, but there was no one around to be seen. He moved his hand up to his throat and felt bandages, looking down at himself, he found more bandages. Where did it all come from? Who had brought him back here?

He sat up, wincing slightly by the movements and stood up. His legs were still a bit unsteady, but he could stand. With drowsy steps he walked slowly over to the pot boiling with something, and as he removed the lid it looked like some kind of soup. And it actually smelled good. He looked around again and laid the lid over it again. Now when he thought about it, he couldn't see Zoro anywhere. His eyes widened and he began to run out of the cave, calling his name, but the rough wind grabbed his words and swallowed it. Cold rain slammed in his face. He shielded his eyes with his arms, and as he looked down, he saw blood in the sand. Looking forward he saw more drops of blood. This wasn't good. This wasn't good at all!

"Oooiii! MOSS-HEAD! WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU?" he called again and coughed. Damn, his throat still hurt like hell, but none the less he called at him again. "ZOROOOOO?" But he still didn't get any answers. He ran, increasing his speed as he fallowed the trail of blood and panicked even more as the drops became pools and the pools grew larger. 'Damn shit, marimo! What the hell did you do?' Rain hammered down on him and soaked his pants and bandages fully. His hair glued to his face, clutching to it for dear life and his legs began to grow tired, as he kept running in the wet sand. He was about to call again as he saw a large form laying some metres before him, and begged whatever god there may exist, that it was the one he searched for and that he still was alive. He hurried over to the large form and stopped right behind it. All those bandages, green hair -it couldn't be any other than him. He grabbed Zoro's shoulder and turned him over so he could see his face, and almost dropped his jaw. Zoro wasn't pale… no, he was white like a sheet and was panting like a steamship on full speed! In his one hand Sanji saw him holding tight around two swords -seemed like that he had found the second out of his three swords. He bit his lips and shook his head. "Damn mother fucker swor-"

A hand grabbed his arm and he looked surprised down at it and followed it down to the panting swordsman, who looked back up at him with a painful expression. Sanji blinked. Then a smile grew on the younger man's lips, a weak one, but none the less a smile, and his one hazed eye softened as it looked upon him. The swordsman swallowed and tried to find the strength to speak. "You… you're, alive," he said relived and sighed. Then he closed his healthy eye and his head lolled to the one side.

"Zoro? Oi Zoro! Don't do that! Damn hell, shit-head! Don't fuck around me like that!" Sanji yelled as he shook him roughly, but got no answers back. "ZORO! Fuck!" he grabbed around him and pulled him up. Zoro moaned in discomfort and the blond sighed in relief. At least the moss-head still was alive. "Let's go home, shit-head."

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~To be continued~

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