He steps out of the clearing and starts moving inside the forest. 'I'll hunt the first animal I see.' He vowed to himself.
It was just his luck that within 30 minutes of starting he came face to face with a huge boar. The boar dwarfed him in terms of height and was fat enough to last him 2 weeks without being conservative.
He got ready to move and attack when the boar saw him and attacked with his tusks. He dodged to the right but it was back on his tracks within seconds. He dodged left and right trying to attack the boar from its' sides but failed to pierce the skin. He was accumulating scratches and small wounds from repeatedly scraping against the trees and rolling on the forest floor. He kept trying to stab the boar while dodging. The smallest of mistakes would mean being impaled on the boars' tusks. Around half an' hour later, the boar managed to glance his body with a tusk drawing blood due to its momentum. It was at that time; Cliff's reflexive stab pierced its eyes and luckily went straight to its brain ending his life. When the boar fell lifelessly, so did Cliff. He fell on his back panting and immediately passed out due to exhaustion. He woke up some time later feeling tired and hungry. Finding the boar nearby he got up and grabbed a leg and tried dragging it to his clearing. He had to push his tired body a lot to even begin moving the behemoth. It took him about 3 hours to drag it there in his tired state. He started to skin and start the process of cooking.
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It took him 2 weeks to finish the boar meat. Since then, he had hunted a few times. It wasn't as hard as the first time but he definitely worked up quite a sweat. He estimated it had been about 2 and a half months when Aunt Sara came back.
She casually strolled up to his clearing, sat down next to him watching him as he gobbled to last of another huge boar. He didn't even see her sitting beside him, so busy he was in filling his stomach.
"Kiddo! You did good." She said suddenly.
"Yaaaaaaaaaaaah!" he jumped a few feet in to the air. He turned and saw his aunt Sara. "Oh, you came back. Please tell me you're here to take me back to the village. I really want to sleep in a bed."
"Yup kiddo. Time to head back home. I reckon you did good with what I just saw. That was a boar, wasn't it?"
"Yeah! That was like my 4th boar."
"4th huh? You're learning quick kiddo. Of course, you're nowhere near what I can do but, I reckon you'll get there in a few lifetimes."
"Just you wait, I'm going to be a better hunter than you soon enough!" he exclaimed, confident in himself.
"Oh really?" she said in tone that said she doubted him. "Then tell me how great you did in these 2 and a half months inside."
This prompted him to begin telling the story of his adventure. Sara led Cliff to the village all the while listening to him talk about his time in the forest. By the time they reached his house he was pretty much out of it, only having enough energy to wish his aunt a goodbye and walk to the bed passing out on it.
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The next day, after a super relaxing sleep and a good soak, Cliff decided to get breakfast at the local diner (it also operated as a bar) and leave to find his friend group. He found them at their normal haunt. Upon seeing him they all ran up to him trying to question him. They all looked worried. He told them he was in the forest learning to hunt and he told them the story of all he did there. All of them said they were worried but if one looked closely, they would see one girl his age that looked at least 10 times more concerned than the others while listening to his story. Everybody was listening to the story with rapt attention and was 'ooohhing' and 'aaaahhing' along with it. She was too but it always had the undercurrent of concern that though she tried to hide was always betrayed by her eyes.
This young girl was Cassy. She was the same age as Cliff. She had fiery red hair and green eyes to go with a small nose, rounded jaw and a rounded face. She had quite a bit of fat that children do but one could see signs of beauty in her.
At the end of the day, when all the children were leaving after playing around for much of day having returned to their previous routine of hunting for lunch after Cliff's story, she approached Cliff.
"Cliff?" she asked.
"Hmm... oh Cassy." He said looking up from the stick he had been waving around as a sword while playing 'Pirates and Marines' today. "How are you?"
"I'm doing great Cliff. I just wanted to ask if you were truly alright after what happened."
"Uh… Yeah, I'm alright. Just a little scared of Aunt Sara right now. I don't wanna spend nights in the jungle much, ya know?"
"Uh… yeah. So did you really get hurt by the boar?" she asked trying to look at his torso.
"Yep, see?" he said pulling his shirt up on his left side showing a faint scar left between his last 2 ribs. It wasn't long but it was definitely visible right now.
"Does that hurt?" she asks trying and failing to hide her interest in touching it as her hands kept trying to reach out before she pulled back.
Cliff seeing her like this just laughed off saying he felt no pain from it anymore and that she was welcome to touch. He laughed even harder when her hand did touch it, after hesitating for some time, which ended up revealing he was ticklish on the sides. She latched onto this moment and started to tickle him making him laugh even harder. Once he managed to get away from her evil hands he chased after her running into town.