(Hello everyone, here's chapter 13. Hope you all enjoy.)
Chapter 13: Survival of the Fittest
"Sora, what're you doing? We have to open a path, get out of the way." Ingrid's disconcerted warning didn't reach through to him.
Sora suddenly stood, hollering, and holding his long-fang high in front of the herd. The lead pachy bull cried out making the others turn away, but the bull continued its path charging toward Sora. "I'll show you!" Standing his ground, Sora leapt back and threw his long-fang. But the bull pachy deflected it with its baled, domed head; Sora screamed, panicked as the bull charged through with no-where to go.
"Sora!" Ingrid and the others could only watch horrified as the bull watched Sora high into the air.
For what seemed like moments, Sora started awakening lying down on flat rock with leaves and his head on a low branch; he felt an oddly glow of bright green light next to him. As he opens his eyes, he sees his mother Iris and Buge the gigantopithecus stretching his arm over him shining a green light on him.
"Mother…?" Sora says leaning forward seeing her. To his slight surprise, as he lifts his head slightly forward, he sees that it was nightfall outside and he was inside the tree of life; then he felt a slight tinge of pain.
"Easy little one…" Buge tells him as he keeps shining his green light from his hand on him, then the light diminishes from his hand. "There, my healing is done. You should rest for now, your quite lucky that you only sustained minor injuries from your encounter." Buge says expressing his amazement gratefully to Sora, then walks away to leave them be.
"You'll be alright now." Iris reassures him.
"Did we get the pachycephalosaurs?" Sora asks softly curious about what happened, only to see Ingrid in front of him.
"No not even one, because you had to go and disobey orders." Ingrid tells him, and Sora felt distressed that the hunt failed cause of him.
"D-Does it still hurt Sora?" "Hmm." Sora was a bit taken aback that the normally abrasive Ingrid was actually concerned for his well-being.
"Don't worry Ingrid, he'll be fine, run along." Iris reassures her as well.
"Hmph! w-who's worrying, I'm certainly not. As far as I'm concerned, I won't be quick to choose you as a hunting partner or take you on such a hunt again. So there." Ingrid states turning her head high and away, and then turns her back walking away.
"Now Sora, why did you do such a foolish thing ignoring the rules of the hunt?" Iris asked him a bit seriously but curious about his behavior; turning her head to him.
"I, I just wanted to show them that I was grown-up too mother." Sora explained looking down ashamed for a moment then turning his head facing her.
"You're not my little man-cub, you're not grown up yet." Iris said which left Sora perplexed as to why. "You're different from the rest of them. If you were covered with scales like the others, you wouldn't have been injured like this, do you understand?" Iris explains to him.
"No, I don't understand! Do you mean just because I'm not covered in scales and I don't have sharp-claws like the others that I'll never be grown up is that it?!" Sora exclaims feeling that his difference means a blow that he won't be seen the way they are.
"No, Sora. It's not just that, one's behavior also determines that they are ready to be considered grown up for the world. Your reckless behavior today proved that you are not ready to be grown up like them." Iris pointed out to him, only to add on to his distressed and shamed heart.
"Well, now I'll never be allowed to hunt. It doesn't matter how hard I try." "Sora." Ashamed and distraught, Sora stands back up and storms off with only his thoughts. Iris could only look on sighing exasperated with her head slightly down, Buge also had his thoughts listening to their talk.
Under the moon light in the forest, Sora kept on running holding his arm against his reddened side. "I don't understand, why would the raptors hunt the weak and injured animals, isn't that shameful? Does that mean the pachy bull that Tania and Maria brought down earlier was also weak? And they are younger than me…" For Sora, his confusion was unbearable not being able to understand the law and how it relates to him being grown up, his thoughts all went back to Tania, Maria, and the failed raptor hunt.
"I know I can be just like them. I'm going to hunt for some big game on my own, and that'll show them." Regaining some confidence, Sora keeps on running deeper through the forest. What he doesn't realize was that his blood dripped on the floor leaving a trail behind him, and a small saurian was following it.
Nearby by a dead-broken tree, Guru was laying down, sleeping soundly next to it. Then as he takes a sniff, he awakes catching notice of a familiar scent. "Huh." Lifting his head, he's surprised to see Jackal the coelophysis pass right by him with his head to the ground.
"Huh, Jackal? Hmm, don't know why that pot licker is here but it looks as though he picked up someone's scent…" Guru being adverse but curious to Jackal's presence, takes a sniff into the air. "Huh, wait…Yes, doubt about it, its Sora." Guru realizes as he smells the scent, standing back up, he follows it.
Down by the marsh with an island tree in the middle, two spring hares get startled as they were drinking and run. It was Sora who arrives panting a bit and still holding his hand on his side while holding his long fang with the other.
"Alright, I'll wait right here, something big is sure to come." Sora said standing by the water's edge when suddenly the bushes beside begin to rustle, he quickly turns to face it. Emerging from the bushes was Jackal who was sniffing the ground and then notices Sora.
"Well, well, will you look who's here. If it isn't Sora." Jackal greets him cheekily.
"Jackal, what are you doing here? You know this is velociraptor territory, you shouldn't be here." Sora tells sneering against him being both in the territory and standing next him.
"What? Is it too much to take a leisurely stroll in the forest under moon?" Jackal retorts to him but all he gets is a suspicious glare from Sora.
"I doubt that's why. Now look, I'm not in a good mood and I especially don't like you or your kind being here. So why don't you go away, and leave both here and me alone!" Sora tells him suspicious and a bit anxious about his presence, but Jackal just walks and lowers his head to the water to drink.
"…Don't be afraid, I can see your hurt." Jackal reassured and pointed out.
"I'm not afraid of you. I'm out here hunting, and you're in my way so get out of here!" Sora once again seriously tells him.
"Oh what a coincidence, I'm out hunting too." Jackal says turning to him, leaving Sora getting more nervously suspicious about him.
"But everyone knows your kind are supposed to be scavengers, not hunters." Sora retorts knowing this fact with his suspicions.
"Aren't you the clever one. Yes, I'm a scavenger, but I'll make a little effort for something…specially tasty." Jackal's ominous words as he smacks his mouth showing his teeth, make Sora anxiously on edge.
"You're not being a real fair hunter Jackal; you're always sneaking around." Sora scolds him stepping back as he takes steps forward.
"In hunting anything is fair, that is a law of the jungle." Jackals says, then takes a lounge right at Sora who jumps to side avoiding him. But Sora felt pain from his reddened side on his lower body, holding it with his hand but kneeling from the pain's agony. For Jackal, this was something to maliciously chuckle about.
Sora sees the glint in his eyes; Jackal lounges again, but Sora leans back and kicks him over him, but he quickly gets back up while Sora still on the ground. "Now I've got you where I've want you." Jackal pounces again, but Sora swings back his long-fang.
In the forest, Guru was following both the scent of Jackal and Sora, he sniffs the ground and several times in the air. "Looks like they went this way; the direction of the marsh…Hold on…This new smell…Oh, I better hurry over to Sora." Guru speeds up realizing that this new smell meant only trouble.
At the marsh, Jackal was repelled right into the bushes by Sora; for a moment all went silent, but Sora wasn't sure that its over. His eyes turn yellow, and he peers into the forest with clarity of sight. He looks around but nothing; suddenly the bushes start rustling near him. Listening to the sound carefully, he then realizes who was behind it. Jackal springs out, but Sora was quick to counter with his long-fang as he swung at him; Jackal screeches from the blow landing on his side.
"I guess Guru was right about listening to the sounds in the wind." Sora thought gratified that he learned it, he turns and runs up the waters edge, but Jackal quickly gets up and after him. Sora finds himself cornered at a tree's trunk by the marsh's edge. "You know Jackal, I don't think Dra-Khan would appreciate you consuming me." Sora says with his back against the tree trunk.
"What he doesn't know, won't hurt me if I took a chunk or two… You're not going to escape from me, might as well give up." Jackal tells him as he inches closer circling.
"If you think I'm afraid of you you're wrong!" Sora says bravely while holding his own. But Jackal lounges again, but Sora drops his long-fang and quickly jumps on a vine and swings around the tree, while Jackal finds himself plunging into the water struggling to swim. On the trees base, Sora looks on sighing in relief, but then felt a surge of pain again making him sit down.
"My side." Sora says straining, lifting his hand from the side, he sees his palm red with blood. "Maybe I should've listened and rested like Buge said…" Sora thought regrettably; placing his hand back on his reddened side. Then he hears chuckling, he gasps startled that it was Jackal; wet and circling back on him and inching closer. However, the sound of heavy footsteps approaching surprises them.
"What an interesting sight this is." A voice calls their attention, emerging from forest was a large horned saurian with reddish-brown black patterned skin; a carnotaur.
"Toro." Sora says anxiously as Toro approaches them, he then takes a deep breath and lets it out smelling the air.
"Aaah, my favorite scent…The scent of the injured and weak." Toro takes another sniff relishing the smell and looking over to Sora much to his dread.
"Hold on a moment Toro, I got to him first. I've haven't even…" Jackal was saying anxiously but Toro snarled and swung his head, hurling him across the open; Jackal rolls onto his side as he lands.
"Does it look like I care." Toro roars out frighting Jackal who rushes back into the brush. Toro turns his attention to the trembling man-cub; Sora was now left to face the bully of the Sirona lands.
"Toro, you better leave now. I'm warning you!" Sora tells him doing his best to hold his nerve as Toro takes a step closer.
"Oh, so you can still put on a brave face while in the way you are…Then again, I guess it's only fitting that the foolish can do so after experiencing a hunts failure." Sora was surprised to say the least of how Toro mockingly implied about his hunt earlier in the day.
"W-wha? How do you know about that?" Sora asked him a bit mortified from his implication.
"Words can travel quickly around the wind man-cub. I could only imagine the embarrassment the raptor pack must feel having a pathetically brazen hunter in their midst…" Toro chuckled raising his head a bit. "…All to prove himself by trying to break the law." Toro taunted and stated to Sora adding to his shame and anger.
"But how was what I was doing breaking the law? Trying to take the weak seems cowardly." Sora stated his argument to Toro.
"Letting the weak die means that the strong can run. That is one of our most scared laws of the jungle…" Toro states to a perplexed Sora as he tries to comprehend, he then snorts a breath of hot air. "Humph, then again, a man cub who thinks like one wouldn't even understand… So, the least one hunter can do for another is to rid the other of his shame…by showing what the law stands for." Sora could see anxiously with every step Toro takes and his hungered gaze down on him, that the snarling Toro was going to attempt to get what he wants tonight.
Toro lunges forward, Sora screamed seeing his jaws coming; but with his body pumped, he jumps out of the way barely. Toro clamps down on the tree much to his aversion, he releases shaking his head and spitting the bark; he turns his head right to see Sora running. Snarling he goes after him; Sora turns back to see Toro jaws open again. He jumps back as Toros jaws snap at him, but he swings his long-fang grazing Toro; but Sora stumbles, rolling down a small but steep bank. Landing on his bottom, he looks up to see Toro shaking his head from the stinging sensation of the long-fang as he gets back up.
"Gotcha…" Sora smirks that he landed a good hit, but Toro's snarling gaze was angered by being outmaneuvered from his weak prey. "Go, Toro! Unless you want to see how not pathetic I really am." Sora warned, facing the carnotaur above him while panting exhaustedly a bit.
"Still able to talk big man cub? It's going to take a lot more than a scratch to do it!" Toro steps and slides steadily down the bank to Sora's dread. Sora runs off just as Toro snaps his jaws again, they both then cross the stream up towards a hill. Sora stops to face Toro but the pain comes again from his side; groaning in slight agony much to Toro's delight. Toro moves in, but Sora musters his strength and throws his long-fang at him. But Toro bounces off the long fang with his horn, he then stomps snapping the long fang out of Sora's reach to his shock.
"Too bad man-cub, your fangs are brittle like you are…" Toro taunted as he charges in, Sora screams but manages to jump out of the way on Toro's side just as he snaps his jaws. Toro tries to turn but slumps to the ground near the hills edge with his tail almost dangling; he struggles but manages to get back on his feet.
"Alright, I've had enough of this little game of ours." Toro growled fiercely; he chases after Sora further up the hill. Without the long fang, Sora could only bob and weave avoiding Toro's jaws as they snap at him. But at one moment Sora feels the surge of pain from his side, caught off guard, he sees Toro's jaws come at him to his fright. He barely manages to dodge with a jump as the jaws snap, but as he lands on his back and leans forward, he looks back to find himself cornered at a small cliffs edge.
"Damm it, what can I do in this position?!" Sora thought trying to think desperately of a way out; he could see the smirk and glint in Toro's eyes from the amusement that his prey was at the end of the trail as he steps closer to Sora's dread.
Trembling anxiously, Sora braces as Toro lunges at him jaws wide open. Suddenly, Shadow-fang appears leaping forth, tackling Toro to the ground as he tumbles on his side. "Huh, Shadow-fang!" Sora says surprised as Shadow-fang stood between him and Toro.
"You…" Toro was aggravated that Shadow-fang intervened, snarling a bit as he gets back up.
"What are you doing in my hunting grounds Toro?" Shadow-fang sternly asked him knowing very well what he was about to do as Toro turned to face him.
"Nothing that's any of your concern." Toro roared fiercely, snapping his jaws at him. Shadow-fang ducks away and then swipes with his claws landing a blow. As the two clash, Sora gets back up not planning to stand and watch as he should. Shadow-fang then spins around swatting Toro with his tail, he gets knocked down while Shadow-fang pounces but Toro manages to kick him back.
As Toro spins to get back up, Sora then comes alongside Shadow-fang to join him. "…You can stand by your protector all you want man-cub, but I'm not leaving without a piece of someone." Toro stately mocked as Sora growled for his persistence at him, then Shadow-fang stuck his paw out in front of him to Sora's confusion.
"Toro, your ignorance will be the death of you one these days… We won't allow you to stay here, let alone hunt anything any longer than you have." Shadow-fang stated as well with Toro snarling for his remark.
"Ha, really?! You and the injured cub aren't going to allow me…?" Toro mocked when suddenly another roaring horned saurian comes charging in, shoving Toro making him stumble nearly to the hills edge.
"Guru?" Sora said surprised to see him, "How nice of you to drop-by this evening." Shadow-fang amusingly said to him.
"Sora, are you alright?" Guru asked turning his head to him, "I've been better, but I'm okay." Sora reassures him.
Toro recovers and roars fiercely angered by the new interruption, Shadow-fang and Guru roar back at him in unison, Sora then steps forward standing tall in front of them.
"Toro these are our hunting grounds, its time now for you to go back to your own…" Sora said sternly glaring at him, then Toro and the others sense a change in the wind. Sora's eyes glow yellow as he lets out his roar against Toro who tries to stand his own gripping the ground with his toe claws. But Sora's roar eventually blows him off his feet and over the hills edge as he roars, falling into the shallow riverbed below. For a moment he's stunned, but recuperates struggling a bit to get back up; looking up, he roars fiercely and then walks away into the forest as Sora looks on from above.
Sora walks back and sits down tired, "Thanks you guys…" Sora gratefully says to Shadow-fang and Buge.
"I heard what happened at the hunt today, you tried to show off didn't you." "I… um…" Sora stuttered embarrassed that Shadow-fang knew.
"Oh, so you heard too. Or have you been following him all day like an old worrywart." Guru suggested amusingly to Shadow-fang who adverted his gaze from him about the idea.
"I am not following him, whatever gave you that idea? Speaking of worrywarts…" Shadow-fang said impedingly, adverting his gaze from him and looking back hinting at Guru's own concern.
"Well, I'm Sora's teacher… He isn't fully trained in the ways of the jungle yet, so its my responsibility to guide him." Guru stuttered a bit but told Shadow-fang glancing away as well.
"Are you badly hurt Sora?" Guru asked but Sora nodded reassuring him.
"Sorry to say, but it was your bad teaching that got Sora into this dreadful mess in the first place. How much of the jungle law have you taught him?" Shadow-fang asked questioning his methods
"Wait, how much is there to learn?" Sora askes perplexed by what they mean.
"Ah, I should have known. You've forgotten to teach him the most important thing!" Shadow-fang scolds a slightly mortified Guru. "Now listen Sora, the first rule of the law is the survival of the fittest, we must do nothing to endanger the survival of any species." Shadow-fang sternly explains to him.
"I don't understand what you mean." Sora says still puzzled.
"Give up Shadow-fang, your talking way over his head. The survival of the fittest is a simple way of saying that in the jungle only the strongest, healthiest, and smartest members of any species can survive. Hunters must take only weak injured or injured creatures; strong animals have strong, healthy children and the species will survive." Guru explains to Sora.
"But if hunters take away the strongest, the herds will get weaker and weaker, eventually the herd will disappear and then there'll be nothing left for us to hunt." Shadow-fang explains further to him.
"I think I'm understanding, that's why we can't take the strong ones." Sora says beginning to see the meaning.
"That's it Sora, excellent." Shadow-Fang praises him.
"You've learned an important lesson today, all of us here in the Sirona lands have to learn to live in harmony with each other. You don't have to like everybody but you do have to respect them." Guru explains to him.
"Respect, huh?" Sora said perplexed.
"Mmm-hmm, when you respect every other creatures right to survive, you'll be grown up." Shadow-fang says lifting his spirits in hope.
"I see now…You know Shadow-fang, if it wasn't for Guru's bad teachings, I would've been in a lot more trouble than from both Jackal and Toro." Sora says making Guru feel a retrieved sense of pride much to Shadow-fangs dismay.
"Sora, Sora…!" A voice calls out to him which is Adar with Katuri and Crystal the baryonx.
"Adar, Katuri. Hey!" Sora greets as they rush to him.
"Ah, you're safe… Why did you run off like that?" Katuri asks both relieved and confounded by his actions.
"We were so worried, we looked everywhere for you." Adar stated as well.
"Iris told us while we were out on patrol, we heard Toro was in the area." Crystal explained as Iris walks up from the side of the group.
"Sora." Iris says warmly relieved to see him, "Oh mother." Sora rushes up to her relieved and happy to be with her as he playfully hugs and swing around her as the others watch.
"I'll let Umara and the pack know he's safe." Katuri lets Adar and Crystal know before heading off.
"And we'll go tell Zeon and the others." Adar and Crystal head off as well.
"Doesn't look like we're needed around here anymore." Shadow-fang states to Guru.
"No, but you haven't been needed since the beginning." Guru argued.
"I got in here in time to save Sora, you slowpoke." Shadow-fang retorted.
"Are you calling me a slowpoke?! Race you." Guru challenged Shadow-fang as they start to walk away.
"Race? You're too old to race anymore." Shadow-fang once again countered Guru.
"What do you mean I'm too old?!" Guru retorted, "Why don't you act your age?" Shadow-fang cracked.
"Look who's talking, they you can only catch small game now." "What! I caught a iguanodon just yesterday…" Both Guru and Shadow-fang continue to counter each other as Iris watches for a while.
"Sora, one of these days you will have to leave and go away on your own… But not for a while yet, not yet… No… My little one." Iris warmly says comforting Sora as he rests on her with her tail around him as she nuzzles him.
(Sora managed to learn something valuable, what else will he learn through the ways of the Sirona land creatures? Stick around to see what happens next.)