UNTAMED (The True Color of Adventure)

Chapter 6

Opening my eyes slowly, I perceived more than one figure over my head. I narrowed my eyes, trying to draw out the figures when I suddenly heard a shout.
“Wake up! Sleepyhead.” Alex's voice jerked my eyes wide open. I cursed under my breath and dragged myself up.
Everyone seemed excited as they kept jumping from topic to topic. Turning left, the sight of a roasted pig graced my sight. I jumped up and moved closer to the meat. A big thick stick was inserted in the middle of the pig held above the fire. The aroma was tempting that I could tell the taste from it. I had never eaten roasted pig, impatiently I dug in with my hand and pulled out a handful of meat. This was more than a feast.
After food, we resumed back our journey. The adults kept us under their close watch as they carefully made way through the forest. The forest kept getting thicker and appearing more dangerous, but now there was enough strength to face off any wildlife.
Alex and I resumed our topic of martial arts, thank God we both held weapons in our hands, it made it easier to demonstrate. To demonstrate a particular scene in a movie, Alex pushed me and I fell to the ground.
“Oh sorry,” he said, feeling bad that he actually pushed me down.
“No, that's right. Let's spar a little” I suggested, but Alex said no, and my convincing nature kicked in.
“This is an opportunity to practice for strength as we approach Zara, our elders cannot always protect us you know?” I said, concealing my intention of just wanting to have fun.
After about an hour of trying to convince Alex, Miranda said she needed to pee, Uncle Tom said the same and so did Joe. Perfect timing! I went to Alex again, this time with a different approach.
“I'm tired of walking, nothing fun to do. It's so boring” I said, looking dejected.
“I'm bored too, why not do something fun while we wait for them” Alex suggested
“We could go watch some wildies…” He continued.
I shook my head in disagreement, not wanting him to drift away from my original intention. “We could train. I want you to see how good I am at martial arts; I could be your trainer,” I said teasing him.
Picking up the challenge, he said, “That's not possible, I have been surviving in this dangerous forest fighting off beasts, you are no match for me.”
I scoffed, wanting to make the challenge hotter for him to succumb to the sparring. I moved towards him, raised my chin up and said, “I was living amidst soldiers in the castle, watching and training with them. You have been in Miranda's shadows all along. Thanks to her, you are not a lump of dead meat by now”
Finally, I got his attention, no strong boy wants to be ridiculed, not even us young soldiers.

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The adults were lost in their discussions, the majority of it centred on battle tactics. Uncle Tom taught them some strategies that might be useful in capturing Zara. Alex and I moved to a plain in the opposite direction with blades and a spear each. Staring intently at each other dramatically, we stood in the opposite direction of each other, moving our legs as we saw in the movies. I cursed under my breath at the heaviness of the spear.
“Do something, mama's boy,” I said teasingly and Alex angrily lunged at me and we began. Our blades clashed thus making noise, I'm sure the adults could hear but were carried away in their discussions. Remembering a trick I picked up from watching soldiers train, I flung up my blade and ran towards Alex in an attempt to distract him. Right in front of him, my blade which was flying in the sky dropped. I grabbed it and hit Alex with the tail which was wrapped with rubber. The strength I applied in hitting him with the tail of the blade pushed him farther from me, landing on his butt. We kept sparing and jumping and we soon began to leave our original space.
I began to reminisce on different styles of martial arts I had seen in movies as well as in the castle. Alex himself wasn't lacking in skills as he tackled almost every move. In an attempt to dash past me, he hit his foot against a rock and fell to the ground. Dropping his sword, he used his hand to support his foot as he felt the pain. Seeing Alex fall to the ground and holding his foot in pain, I rushed to him.
“Oh sorry, does it hurt badly? Miranda should…” I started to say getting him up and realized I didn't recognize the environment.
“Err…Kevin. Where are we?” he said confused.
I looked around, scanning through and I didn't seem to recognize the place. Suddenly, his foot no longer hurt. Uncle Tom, Joe and Miranda were nowhere to be found. I took a few steps immediately, pick up my blade and we started calling their names. We could not trace back our steps as everywhere looked the same. It seemed as though we were lost.

*********
Unaware of the situation, battle plans were still going on. They soon shifted to individual roles and positions in battle, that was when they realized they had been having an uninterrupted discussion.
“Kev!” Uncle Tom called out but there was no response.
“Alex!” Miranda called as she got to her feet in fear.
“Oh my God!” Where could they be? Joe said, pacing around the plain with his right index finger in his mouth.
Miranda panicked; she ran everywhere shouting 'Alex'.
Uncle Tom came to her and grabbed her by the shoulders to calm her down.
“Hey, hey, listen. We will find them, okay?” He said, holding her face in his palms.
“I..I..I don't know what to do. Where can they be in this…” She muttered in distress.
Uncle Tom held his head with his hands and walked around in search. Coming back to them, he told them to move together so as not to lose more people.
“We have to look for them, it's dangerous out there. They couldn't have gone far”. He said, picking up his stuff, others doing the same as they set out to look for us.
Often, Uncle Tom would curb Miranda from crazily shouting 'Alex', in order not to attract danger to themselves and us.
“I should have paid more attention to them.” Joe kept blaming himself all the way, hitting his head many times.
For hours, they did not seem to see traces of us. What could have happened within that short period? Could we have been hurt? Could we have been devoured by a wild animal?
Or worse – Zara?