UNTAMED (The True Color of Adventure)

Chapter 5

We continued on our journey as soon as it was dawn, I had things to carry now that we were short of one soldier.
I now had to carry my own sword, a bag having clothes, and a water jar. Lucas wasn't here to carry me whenever my legs ached anymore, so I slowed them down as we often took breaks because of me.
Taking a break at noon, I requested food as my stomach kept growling on the way. Uncle Tom and Joe did not eat as often as I did, trying to save the little we had left, as it seemed we were getting close to our destination. After the battle with the bear, we kept a low profile travelling through the woods as we kept sighting dangerous wild animals and avoiding them with utmost prudence.
I was cut off my reminiscence by some noise from nearby. It sounded like arguments between humans. In this thick and dangerous forest? Uncle Tom and Joe also heard the same, we all got up and moved towards the direction of the noise. We hid between leaves and peeped. Surprisingly, there were two people, a boy my size and an older lady. They looked fearless, not minding if their noise would attract a wild animal to them.
From the look of things, the boy was rude and the lady was trying to act like an elder in the situation as she scolded him.
I approached them first, leaving behind my team who were still trying to be careful.
“Hey!” I said to the boy who was surprised to see me. He looked at me from head to toe, left his sister and moved closer to me.
“How on earth are you here?” He asked confused.
Uncle Tom and Joe moved closer, they scanned the duo and Joe pulled me closer to himself.
“Hi! I have never seen a living human here before. How come you guys are here? I'm Miranda.” The lady said stretching forth her hand to Uncle Tom. He received her hand and told her his name. Joe also moved close to them, smiling at the lady and saluting her.
“I'm Joe,” he said grinning.
“Nice to meet you guys, this is my brother, Alex. Sorry about the noise earlier, he is quite naughty,” she said, giving Alex a look of warning.
“That's fine, my nephew isn't any better,” Uncle Tom said as the trio laughed, not funny to Alex and I.
I asked Alex why and how they came to be in the forest and he narrated their escape from Zara. About two weeks ago, they were brought by Zara into the forest as part of the prey it keeps in a tunnel.
Apparently, Zara didn't kill all its prey on the spot, it took some from the city into a tunnel in the Dark Zone, reserving them. So, it came sometimes to devour one at a time.
Seven days ago, Zara came in to take one of those in the tunnel and as it left, Miranda got up and spoke to the people that were still alive. About twenty were females, including children and five were males, some were wounded and corpses were lying around. Some died of starvation, while some died of severe injuries. The place was a mess.
The people were too scared to try saving their lives, they dreaded Zara's wrath once it saw them outside the tunnel since there was no way many of them would walk fast while escaping because most of them were either injured or weak.
Miranda could only take her brother, Alex along. She had had enough of sitting still, waiting for her turn to be devoured.
She tiptoed towards the entrance after Zara had left, she had taken her time to study Zara's movement for the past few days and she knew it wouldn't return to the tunnel until after two days. She peeped through the trees opposite the tunnel and made sure Zara was gone, straightway going to pull Alex up from his position on the floor, she dashed out the opposite direction Zara went.
Ever since, they had become notorious in the affairs of the forest in their quest for survival.
“So how have you been feeding?” I asked in concern since he mentioned nothing relating to feeding.
“Well, there are fishes in the rivers and small animals, sometimes wild pigs. We make fire and roast them, and if we need water, we can always locate the rivers and streams.” Alex said sharply.
“We were once attacked by a bear in the forest in the middle of the night. How have you both been surviving that? A lady and a young boy? I still understand that my team has soldiers. Even at that, we lost a man.” The horrors of that night flooded my memory. I shook my head in an attempt to shake off the thought.
“We've been lucky, if one could say,” he said, shrugging his shoulders.
“Also, Miranda is very smart, strong and rugged. She teaches me some basic skills to protect myself in case she is not there to save me,” he added with some funny demonstrations.
“We have been looking for our way out for the past seven days, but we get lost every time. Everywhere looks the same, no matter how far we walk. Oftentimes, we come in contact with ostriches, wild cows, wild pigs, antelopes and we once fought off a hyena” Alex continued.
Interesting and yet scary, I said “What! I only see that in movies and in the zoo. How did you guys pull that off? Hyenas are wild and scary”
Alex explained that often it was teamwork between himself and Miranda. A person distracted the animal and the other would set a trap; they had their own way of pulling their stunts. They had become soldiers themselves in the forest to stay alive, acquiring new skills each time, especially helped by adrenaline.
“I see you guys have become friends so fast.” Uncle Tom said looking in our direction.
“The way children mix is amazing,” Miranda said as Alex and I responded harmoniously “We aren't children, we're soldiers!” They all laughed at us, shaking their heads.
Miranda; jovial, outspoken and always on her feet requested to join our small quest against Zara. She mentioned that a few days ago, the whole forest was tense. Zara kept roaring all over the forest, more like groaning, and since then they had seen no sign of it. Eavesdropping on their discussion, I kept hoping in my heart that Uncle Tom would agree to them joining us, so the journey could be more fun.
As the adults discussed, Alex and I began our own discussion. Thankfully, we both had the same interests, especially in martial arts. Mentioning our favourite movies, w laughed and demonstrated our favourite scenes.

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At nightfall, we made a camp on the plain where we found Alex and Miranda. Joe went in search of woods nearby, and handed them over to Uncle Tom, but as he was about to make fire, he was called abackby Miranda.
“It's not safe out here, making fire only calls attention to us,” she said in a whisper.
Now I understood why we were attacked by the bear that night. The bear might not have noticed us if only we didn't make fire, and Lucas would still be with us.
Uncle Tom came to me, sat beside me and took my hand in his. Now I realized how much I had missed spending time with him back at Ruby. I lay my head on his lap, and Alex did the same.
“I'll get you all out of here, I promise. To your normal lives free from a monster's threat. You will go to school, cinemas, amusement parks, birthday parties, and have sleepovers at your friends' houses.” Uncle Tom said, looking all serious and determined. Soon, we both drifted into sleep. Joe lay some clothes on the grass and placed us down to continue our sleep undisturbed.
The three of them took positions where they all could cover the whole surroundings, without shutting their eyes throughout the night, making some strategic plans for the mission.