I hadn't eaten in days. I never dared hunt anything bigger than me, which was about everything, and anything smaller than me was too quick or clever. I missed my life in the village. Rather, I missed my mother. She always kept me well nourished. She always sang me to sleep at night. If I had just kept quiet a few minutes longer until that man left, I would still be with her.
My stomach grumbled and my mind quickly shifted back to finding food. I thought back to that scaled monster. How it managed to take down what I thought was the top of the food chain with no trouble. But how? Sure it was bigger in weight but those teeth and claws were nowhere near as long as the spotted monsters. Surely it could have defended itself if only it had seen the attack coming. Seen it coming. The scaled monster had the element of surprise. It had the murky water to hide in.
Maybe I can hunt like that too. I find a good spot near the edge of the river to wait. And I waited. And waited. And waited. Eventually, a small furry creature emerged from the forest. It had a long snout-like nose and a huge white patch on it's back. It was actually kinda cute. I almost feel bad for what I did next. It waddled up to the water for a drink. I bit down on it's throat like I saw the scaled monster do. But that wasn't enough to take it down immediately. The creature fell into the water and thrashed wildly as I struggled to keep a hold of it. It kept trying to jump back out of the water and I kept dragging it back down. After what seemed like hours, it fell limp. So did I, completely exhausted. I wasn't sure if it had drowned or bled out. But that didn't matter. I was responsible for it's death. I had successfully hunted my own food. I could only hope it wasn't just luck.