The next day he woke up, with a large smile. He didn't give a second thought to the unusual dream of yesterday. He was just too excited today. After all, why wouldn't he? He was finally allowed to enter the forests but not alone. He would play with his friends, climb trees and jump off into ponds and the river and generally having fun.
TIMESKIP- 2 YEARS
It was a little after his 8th birthday that aunty Sara called him over for something.
"Alright Aunty, I'm here. Why did you call me today?" Cliff said.
"It's time for you to learn to hunt kiddo." Sara said amused at how his grin suddenly became as wide as a mile hearing that.
"Right, we'll do this the same way I was taught." She spoke.
"Oh yeah! And how were you taught Aunty?"
"Not now boy! Now follow me."
The boy followed her in to the forest to a part he'd rarely been in partly cause Sara usually never went deep for his lessons and partly because the children were all scared to go deep in the forest.
"Now," she said, "you'll learn not only to hunt but to survive in the forest."
He froze at those words. 'Sur-Survive in the forest.'
Seeing his pale face and mortified looks, she laughed. She turned and started walking away. "Survive for as long as it takes for me to return, will you? And don't worry about me finding you, I'll find you no matter where you go in the forest."
POV CHANGE~ CLIFF
Aaaand she's gone! Great! How am I supposed to survive in the forest? How will I hunt? I don't know how to hunt!
What am I supposed to do? She used swords to hunt. But I don't have a weapon on me. How did she always know where to go? I can barely tell left from right in here! I'm gonna die! I'm gonna die! I'm gonna die! I'm gonna die! I'm gonna die! I'm gonna die! I'm go-
ROOOOAAAAAR!
What was that? A roar means a predator. Too dangerous right now. Plus, I barely know how to fight. The other direction looks good. The other direction it is.
…
…
Uhhhh~ I'm bored. So far walking around, I've only managed to find trees, trees and more trees. A few fruits too, but I've gobbled them up already. It's been a few hours and it's getting dark. I remember aunty Sara saying to find shelter during dark in a forest and not to sleep unprotected.
Now shelter will be a problem. From what I remember, aunty Sara would periodically drop advice while in lessons. Let's see… she said
-to never sleep unprotected
-to never make a shelter too far from a water source
…
…
Can't remember much else.
Alright! At least I know where to look. Gotta look for water.
…
…
I'm tired. So tired. So so sooo tired. You know what? I'm just gonna climb the nearest tree and sleep.
…
…
POV CHANGE~
'I think I passed out last night.' He thought yawning as he sat up on the tree branch he slept on last night.
'Right! What do I do now?' he thought. 'I could gather more fruits or I could search for water? Eh why not both? I can get fruits while searching for water.'
He gets down and starts walking. Quickly spotting fruits, he climbs the trees to get them. He makes his shirt into a makeshift bag for the fruits he collects and starts storing more.
It was at this point he comes face to face with a huge lion enjoying his kill.
He froze and slowly moved to his side making sure to not alert the lion. Once he believed it was safe enough to run, he ran faster than ever before in his life.
He stumbled onto the river and almost didn't stop on time to avoid falling in. He sits at the shore out of breath, 'Man, that was scary!'
He slowly sits up and eats the fruits he collected. He starts searching for a relatively safe place to hunker down for however long it would take for Sara to return.
He moves around looking for places until he found a small clearing surrounded by trees. The clearing is just big enough to start a fire for warmth and cooking if needed and to skin and gut the hunt. He could sleep in one of the trees surrounding the clearing.
As noon rolls around his stomach rumble reminding him to get lunch. 'I could start slow. The fish won't hurt me back now, would they? I just need a long sharp stick to hunt them.'
It took him some time to get a stick that could work. It took him even longer to use a rock to sharpen an end. He then entered the river until the water reached his knees thanking himself for wearing shorts so that he did not have to wear wet clothing later.
He found there to be plenty fishes around and started stabbing mercilessly. The results were not what he was expecting. He got one fish in maybe 20 stabs. It took him a frustratingly long while to understand how to stab good enough and on time to get more fish. After 10 fishes he returned to the clearing and cooked them.
It was around lunch on the 7th day that he got bored of fruit and fish and wanted some meat. Up until now he was trying to avoid conflict but now that he just wanted something else to eat, he just gave up thinking and went for it.
Having seen multiple animals coming to satiate the thirst from the river, he figured laying an ambush would work for now, until he gains some confidence in himself to hunt.
A good-sized deer was what he found drinking at the bank. He decided to ambush and hunt it. As soon as he got close, the deer perked up looked at him and ran. It was fast enough that giving chase wouldn't work at all.
It took him several more tries before he figured out that it was the noise giving him away that he tried to dampen his footfalls. He tried to walk slower but it didn't work. After several tries, he gave up for the day and went for fish as dinner having blown through lunch trying to ambush.
The next day, he gives a new idea a go. He tries to walk slower all the while trying to not step on dry grass, twigs and anything laying around.
He had decided to use his spear to kill the deer he chose to hunt today and very carefully angled himself around just out of line of sight of the deer, ready to kill it. He quickly stabbed the spear into the neck of the deer trying hard to not let go as it tried to run away and just generally thrash around. He dug his feet into the ground and held on until the deer died. Panting, he fell on his butt next to it trying very hard not to fall back onto his back. Some time, later he picked up his spear in one hand grabbed a leg of the deer and dragged it back to be skinned, gutted and cooked. The deer meat with fish and fruits was good enough to momentarily forget about everything. He fell on his back and passed out from exhaustion once all was said and done.
It took him some time but he woke up feeling fresh. The deer meat lasted him a full day i.e., 3 meals if buffed with a few fish and fruits.
This was his routine for the next few weeks. He hunted a few more deer and a few cows, sheep, goats that came around. His prey slowly started escalating in size until he thought himself to be ready to hunt and not ambush anymore.