6 The Two Shots

The Injured Tiger ran away from both of the invaders of the forest and came to a cave which was its dwelling and fell down.

One would assume it was assaulted by severe pain from being shot in the eye.

But the ridiculous truth was that its hand was fractured.

Full of regrets, it thought back to the time when it smacked that human right in the face and could feel its hand getting broken. A crunching sound could be heard. A sound it could hear often from the bones of its prey when it hit too hard.

It was more painful than hitting a Rock. It didn't imagine a Human skull would be that strong. As a monster beast, it's high regeneration prowess had made sure that its eyes were completely all healed up now. But it was not sure whether it's shattered arm could be patched up anytime soon.

It limped towards the cave with a sad face and fell down with a thud, its future unknown whether it was Dead or Alive.

If Oliver saw this scene, he would never believe it as he did not know his body was packed with this much strength. He was a weak person and never trained in any of the Martial Arts.

Oliver got up from the ground while feeling some pain in his forehead which slowly faded away. He wondered whether he was being paranoid.

He felt hurt, but then fine, and then hurt again, but now was fine again?

Drake pulled Oliver up and asked, "Are you injured?"

"No, I am fine!" answered Oliver.

" Can you continue or Shall we return back?" asked Drake with concern.

"No, I can continue, let's hunt at least one animal and bring back so that we can have a stupendous meal," said Oliver.

"Sure, let's go," said Drake and they both followed the edge of the river banks to not dwell too deeply into the forest.

Oliver suddenly thought about something and asked Drake "Since you know Swordsmanship, why did you use a bow rather than your sword, Hell!, Why do you even have a bow? " questioned Oliver.

Oliver felt wronged.

"Well, I always use bows when hunting animals since I don't have to face against them directly and alert other animals, Only when I am in a close quarter will my prey meet with my blades."

Oliver was speechless once he heard that and contemplated whether he should return back to his old farm to find the meaning of life, since being around fools like this guy made him wondered whether he too will become like that.

They both slowly and cautiously walked around the edge of the forest. They saw countless fruit-bearing trees and numerous mushrooms bloomed at the foot of the trees in the forest. There were many a number of trees which were never seen nor heard before by Oliver which quite fascinated him.

Reality dawned on him ever so slowly that he may not be in a place close to Britain. Hell! he may not even be in the same world.

Oliver curiously yet cautiously questioned Drake about these types of trees and fruits for which Drake answered as much as he could remember.

Oliver was intrigued that there were many types of plants and vegetation that he was not aware of, was situated here.

"Shhh" suddenly Drake made a low noise and raised his hand showing Oliver to keep quiet.

"What?", whispered Oliver cautiously.

"Look there!" said Drake as his forefinger pointed towards an animal lying down near a tree.

It was a Deer, which was grazing near a tree, surprising Oliver as he saw something which he had only seen in a zoo rather than in life, and very much near him.

"Here, come and take a shot," said Drake while handing Oliver his bow and an Arrow.

"What? But I have never even held a bow in my whole life!" gasped Oliver and shook his head indicating his refusal.

"This is the Wild and you have to be ready to utilize any weapon available to you and not search for your favourite ones when trouble knocks on you" Replied Drake full of earnestness.

Oliver thought for a bit and uttered" Are you sure you want to go Hungry tonight?" with a serious face to Drake.

Drake said full of confidence "The Sun is still high up in the sky and we have a lot of time and area to cover " while pointing his finger towards the sun.

Drake quickly showed him how to hold the bow and arrow and how to aim with it.

"Now fully draw the string, Aim your bow at the deer and release it"

Oliver carefully listened to Drake's teachings and while aiming at the Deer's head, fully drawing the bow's string to its maximum limit and shot it towards the deer.

He thought it would require some effort to pull the string but it came to him fluidly without much trouble.

The sound of the release of the bowstring could be heard humming throughout the calm forest. Even the Deer was alerted and it anxiously turned its head left and right and wondered whether something happened.

Drake who was eagerly looking at the deer getting an Arrow to its head was dumbfounded as there was no sign of blood or the arrow.

Even the Deer soon lost interest and resumed grazing the grass lazily as before.

Drake gazed at Oliver questioningly, while Oliver was still flexing his fingers wondered whether the arrow was still there.

Both looked once again towards the deer, then Oliver's hand.

"What? "

"What?"

"Where is the arrow?"

"Well it flew somewhere, that's for sure" suspiciously replied Oliver which checking around in all directions.

"Here's another arrow, try again" Drake handed him another one.

Oliver was more confident now since it's not his first time anyhow.

As he notched the arrow, he could feel the whole world becoming quiet as his eyes focused at only the Deer's head.

Oliver released an arrow for the second time in his life.

The arrow pierced through the sky and it reached towards the deer in an unprecedented speed, and just before it reached the deer, the arrow lost its speed and fell just before the leg of the deer.

The Deer was fully startled and Took off in the other direction and ran away.

Both Oliver and Drake were dumbfounded.

"Did you see that!, Did you see that! my arrow reached the deer, it almost hit it.!" Screamed Oliver at the top of his voice.

Wow, it certainly was a tremendous achievement for Oliver to nearly hit the target within the second shot by a complete noob who had first touched his Bow on this very same day but his angle was completely awkward, deliberated Drake.

"Again, give me another arrow!" said Oliver with his excited eyes all over Drakes quiver.

"No, there are few arrows I brought for today's hunt, we will finish the hunt and return soon, And the deer's long gone, " said Drake as he took back his bow.

They quickly searched for another animal to hunt and after about an hour they came across an Ocelot which was certainly small, but since it was likely that it will become dark soon, Drake took it down with a single arrow and tied it up to his belt.

Since they got the meat, they decided to go back to the river bank of the forest and quickly row the boat back.

Along the ferry back to Goldstone village Oliver took in the scene of the sun setting over the thick forest as if wanting to set fire to it, the first sunset he witnesses in this foreign place.

They disembarked as they hit the other bank along with the Ocelot and the wild fruits that they gathered along on their way back to the boat.

Tracing back the same mud path they reached Drake's house as Gloria was just finished gathering back the clothes that she had hung up this morning to dry outside the house.

"Look at the catch today!" said Drake showing the hunted Ocelot to Gloria.

"It looks so small, will it even be enough for all of us?" complained a voice from the front door.

All looked towards the voice and found it to be Elise, the couple's daughter.

"It will be enough since it's just the three of us and Oliver need to go to the Apothecary's hut for his final inspection as he was injured that day when we found him," said Gloria smilingly.

Both Oliver and Drake shivered at her tone.

Oliver knew when he was not welcome so he quickly bade farewell to Drake and his family and made his way towards Apothecary Edmunds Hut.

Hopefully, he would be fed there.