All characters referred to in this story are copyright Daniel Pering. Any unauthorized alteration, or

distribution constitutes as theft and will be dealt with to the fullest extent of the law. Enjoy but don't mess

with this stuff.

CHAPTER V

The human was almost out of his mind with relief,

"Why did they let me go? Who cares, I am free. I will have to be far more careful. I have to find the beast I

killed, so the children can eat. Now where was it?" he pondered. He could not smell the boar, but after a

couple hours of moving ever deeper into the forest he began to recognize the area, "Ah, I know this place!

The beast is over here." he thought to himself, "I hope my blade is still there."

Roy was watching, from behind some bushes a couple dozen meters behind the human, "So, he is

going for food first. Interesting. I would have gone straight home. Wonder why he is doing this?"

"Oh, good they left it right here." he thought picking up his knife, "I had better work fast. They are

sure to come back for a kill like this one. I need to take as much as I can." he thought cutting a large slab of

meat from the dead boar.

"Good grief! He certainly could never eat all that! It will rot in no time. Wait a minute, why would

he take a piece that big? He almost certainly knows it will rot." Roy thought for a moment before the

answer came to him, "There must be others. It is the only possible reason. Ho boy, old Ruth won't be too

happy to hear about this."

"Alright, that should be enough. I just hope I have enough strength to carry this all the way back."

"Well here we go again. Why, in the dirt in my hooves, is he going even deeper into the forest? It's

dangerous in there. Well I still have to follow him. Boy, am I in trouble if he sees me." Roy was completely

unarmed save for his own hunting knife.

The human kept walking deeper into the forest, it was substantially slower going now that he was

encumbered so,

"Almost there. Got to keep going." he thought to himself. He was quickly becoming dehydrated. Roy was

becoming tired also,

"How much farther from here can he live?" Roy had just finished thinking that when he smelled something

burning, "Ruth said humans burnt their food. Could his home be near here?"

"Ah, the smell of home. They will be overjoyed to see me. They have not eaten in two days. I will

need to hunt again soon." he let out a huge sigh, "What am I going to do? When mom and dad died, they

were to young to know how to keep up the garden and I only know how to hunt. If I don't find some way to

feed them, they will starve." His thoughts were interrupted. His siblings saw him return, and swarmed

around him hugging him fiercely. He smiled, temporarily forgetting about the potentially dire situation they

were in. He put the slab of meat down on one of the nearby cleaning skins, and turned back to his siblings.

He sat down and began to play with the smallest ones while the two of the eldest did what they could to

prepare the meat and cook it.

"Yes! So this is where he lives. Excellent. I can find this place again easily." Roy thought to

himself, and headed back to the village.