6 Hibernation

Rays of sunlight poked their way through the tiny cracks within the fallen dirt. I opened my eyes half hoping that I would be back home, but was let down when I saw the monkeys' dead eyes staring back at me blankly. Sighing with frustration, I got up from my rest. The only way I could sleep was by laying on my four arms, or just plain out sleeping like a dog.

My stomach protested the thought of standing up, and my limbs almost gave in. 'I need to eat something,' I thought to myself, but the only thing there was to eat was the monkey. I was disgusted by the thought of it, but it was my only option. If I looked for fire now, I would surely die.

Holding my nose, I used my claw and started removing the fur and then the skin. I placed my claw at its sternum and made a slight, surgical puncture. Once the tiny red dot appeared on its chest, I ran my pointer claw down to the dead monkey's groin. After I made the incision, I filleted the meat from the skin and moved onto the head.

As my head got closer to its open flesh, I caught a whiff; it smelled like freshly baked pork. I couldn't stop myself from moving my head closer, drool seeping out of my mouth towards the once repugnant creature. 'Would it be fine if I just eat it as is?' I said to myself.

Before I split off from the group I remembered one last thing mom told us. 'After two weeks of your life, you will enter a ten year hibernation. If you do not eat 500 pounds by the time you fall asleep on your 14th day you will starve while in that deep sleep. Once you have successfully reached your teens, you can spend the rest of your life however you want to… Just remember, 500 pounds.'

This was the answer I was searching for. This was the reason ashen dragons couldn't survive their early years; it was because of the hibernation. Five days, 500 pounds of food! There was no way I could find that much food with my sub-par strength.

My nose couldn't resist the temptation any longer, and I bit through the black monkey's chest, tearing through its flesh and gouging out its still-warm heart. Once I started to feast, I couldn't stop. After a few moments a few bloody scraps were all that was left.

Now that I had a somewhat satisfied stomach, I turned my mind to the problem at hand. I came to the conclusion that the only way I'd ever get 500 pounds of food was in one shot. A deadfall trap needs to be three times the weight of its prey, and I had read somewhere that a fifty foot tree can weigh up to 10 tons. The surrounding trees were a bit shorter, but it did not matter. If he can kill a bear or something of the sort, I will be able to eat and then hibernate for the required time.

After I devoured the monkey, I dug away at the dirt blocking the cave entrance. Once outside I assessed my surroundings, particularly the path of fallen trees that the Treant made. I looked for the perfect setup, slowly making my way to where I first encountered the Treant.

There was a large fallen tree in the middle of the forest leaning on another that had snapped at the bottom; it was only hanging on by a thread. If the broken tree were to fully go, the fallen tree would fall to the ground.

All I needed was a 500 pound beast to lure into the trap. The dumber the better because why would anyone purposefully snap a tree only to be crushed by it? The only solution I could think of was bait, and the only bait I had was myself. 'I will sit on the stump and bring the beast to its doom,' I thought.

I grabbed the few leftover scraps of meat from the monkey and carried them in my mouth. I wandered away from the trap, making sure to keep note of its location, and tried to find the biggest animal I could.

After searching in every direction, I found 3 wild boars that looked fairly large, and a pack of Berserker Bears I thought were just big Grizzlies. The boars were big, but I needed 500 pounds. If I got two of them it would be more than enough but I couldn't test my luck. I would need to lure the biggest bear out of the group and into my trap.

I followed the 4 bears and noticed something odd. The biggest male was left behind. Every time he tried to keep up, the mother bear just pushed him away.

The cubs were in front of the mother while the male bear made every attempt to get around her. Just as I realized what was going on, the male who was going after the cubs, turned towards me.

"ROOAAAAARR!" The male bear roared and ran at me on all fours.

I tumbled out of the brush and ran in the direction of the trap. The bear followed close behind, slowly closing the distance between us. When the bear was about 15 feet behind me, the trap came into view. All I had to do was bait a swing without getting hit, that sounded easy enough. I was about to get into position for the trap and turn around when I realized the bear was almost upon me. I panicked and lashed my tail out at him. Smacking him in the face did nothing to stop him. The unfazed bear slashed his giant claws at me scraping off part of the left side of my chest. I screamed in agony and ran even faster.

The tree became a safe haven for me, and I sprinted towards it with every ounce of energy I had. The bear, directly behind me, lashed out again. The second slash just missed me, pulverizing a huge moss-covered rock into dusty splinters. 'Holy shit that thing is strong!' I thought to myself as I finally reached the top of the stump.

The bear's left paw withdrew as it threw a right hook at me. As the heavy hand flew towards my head, I dodged, actually jumping towards the predator. I passed its head as its paw destroyed what was left of the tree, unfurling my wings to stop my momentum. Retracting my wings, I spun my body a full 360 degrees, the momentum transformed my tail into a whip-like weapon, which pounded the back of the bear's head. The force of the impact caused the bear to stumble forward and then fall face first into the dirt.

The huge tree that its splintered comrade had supported, fell on the back of the bear's head; it was the last thing on the bear's mind.

After the kill, I gorged myself. Two hours of continuous gluttony would be required to finish him off. Then, I would need a place to rest for the next ten years.

Dragons have two stomachs: one for digestion, and the other for storage. For some reason, my two stomachs were very small, but I had another one that seemed to be vacant. It reached from the bottom of my neck into my lower abdomen.

Once all my stomachs were full, I slowly dragged myself back to my small cave.

Safely in the cave, I squeezed my body through the hole and turned around to face the entrance. The dirt in the entrance was almost gone to make way for my body.

Too full to do anything else, I drifted off into sleep a few days early.