The Strange Fruits.

Duncan was making his way through the forest, searching for his base.

The rain just stopped pouring moments ago. After a few difficulties he finally managed to find it, or what was of it. The rain had completely ruined the shelter that would have lasted him for a few more days until he just needed to change the outer covering to make it as good as new. This was quite an unexpected turn of events for Duncan.

He needed to make another base, fast. the sun had already begun to set and when the night came, he'll be helpless without shelter.

All the leaves and barks he found were damp from the rain, rendering them useless to his cause. After some more minutes of fruitless searching, the day finally gave way to the night, sheathing the forest in shadow.

Duncan had no choice but to give up his mission. He sat down on a large tree root and leaned against its trunk.

Sigh, what won't he do for a cozy room and a soft bed to relax?

He thought it was just better to put these thoughts away and think of his current self and what he needed most. There was no helping it, he wouldn't dare to go try building a shelter by this time lest he got himself hurt.

He was so distracted that he had even forgotten to build a fire. The coldness of the night had just started to reach him. The fire was warm and provided him with a sense of safety. Now that the forest was completely dark that it was hard for him to even see his own hands in front of him, fear had started to creep up on him. The moonless night didn't help at all.

Duncan sat there quietly listening to the creepy sounds of the night that sent shivers down their spine. Only today did he notice how scary the forest was. He shut his eyes to prevent the images formed in his head. The sounds of the flutter of wings, snapping twigs as whatever creature lurked in the dark, breathing sounds, coyote calls, fox yipping, and wolves howling in the distance. His throat was dry and he licked the sweat on his lips.

His imagination only got worse when he closed his eyes, afraid any creature would pounce on him, and he would even be able to react because he couldn't see. He pressed his back against the bark, the ridges biting into his skin, and tried to become one with the tree...

** * ** ** * ** **** * *

The sun rays which are shown through the lattice of the leaves hit Duncan's face. He frowned and opened his eyes, wondering what dared to disturb his sleep.

He opened his eyes and quickly shut them back again, momentarily blinded by the sudden increase in the intensity of light. He shielded the sun from his eyes with his hands and opened them again, slowly this time.

He blinked a few times, adjusting his eyes to the environment.

He realized that it was already past morning. The sound of happy birds chirping was enough proof of that.

When did I fall asleep? He thought. He chuckled. Sleep was indeed a mysterious thing. One would never realize when it would take you away.

He had quite a scary night. He thought he would have been dead by now.

Ok, maybe this was just an exaggeration. But still, the night was quite scary, he was never going to sleep out, never. His imagination was wide yesterday, making him unable to tell what was real from what was fake.

*Growl*, Duncan's stomach rumbled. He realized that he was quite hungry and very thirsty. His coconut supply had depleted long ago and he didn't have any water supply that he could rely on.

Fruits were one of the commonest sources of food in the forest, but he couldn't tell which one was safe to eat. That was why he avoided them till now. He needed to know which kind of fruit to eat, like the coconut.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"Yummy," Duncan mumbled as he stared at the juicy, tantalizing, and colorful apricots that hung on the tree. He greedily licked his lips as he eyed the monkeys gnawing on his fragrant fruits. Some fruits were hanging so low that he didn't even need to stretch his hand to pluck them.

He tried to pluck some before, but he was immediately barraged with hard seeds as a safety protocol from the greedy monkeys. He didn't know when monkeys became so smart and he didn't like it one bit.

How much bad luck could one person even have?

He tried hunting rats again.

Sometime after he continuously threw large stones at the them, they scurried away from the perverse creature who kept harassing them and their peace. He cursed at them and swore that they will become his food one day.

From there he set out to find another source of food. That's when he stumbled upon a sweet apricot tree with heavenly sent fruits. Duncan rushed to seize these heavenly sent fruit — and then came the damn monkeys with their hard seeds that hurt like hell when it struck its target.

Duncan was forced to take cover from the deadly barrage of hard seeds which brought him to where he was now —hiding behind a large stone and trying to find a way to steal those juicy apricots.

He observed their movements for a while. His stomach continued to growl and demand good food.

'This is it' he thought as he rushed towards a fruit he had targeted to pluck it. The ugly monkeys were now at the other side of the tree, attacking some random creature who also had similar thoughts to Duncan. Too bad the monkeys spotted it and started to barrage it immediately.

Duncan took advantage of this and rushed to pluck the nearest fruit. He grabbed hold of it and plucked it from the tree.

That's when he noticed something was wrong.

~' Why is it so quiet all of a sudden ?'

The monkeys who were all hooting and cooing at the assailant at the other end of the tree all grew silent.

'They didn't notice me, right?' he falsely hoped as he slowly raised his head to meet the monkeys.

'Oh no,' he had successfully attracted the attention of all the ugly monkeys on the tree. They all stared at him with rage and fury. Their frenzied eyes all locked on the stupid thief who tried to steal their most prized treasure right under their noses.

"HOOOTTT!" One of the larger monkeys bellowed and started jumping in Duncan's direction. The rest responded to the battle cry, following their leader.

Duncan knew that if he lingered here any longer, he was going to be extremely fucked by those goons.

Clutching the fruit tightly, Duncan sprinted in the opposite direction, running for his dear life.

The monkeys were hot on his tail, ready to grab him and tear him into pieces.

"How the hell did they even notice me!" Duncan screamed in his mind. He had no time to care about his sense of direction. He was running aimlessly, hoping to find someplace to hide away from his pursuers.

His eyes darted from one place to another as he jumped between the roots of trees and rocks.

Some of the monkeys were running on the ground with him and some were jumping on the trees. He was sure there were more than 20 of those bastards wanting to chop him up.

'Is that the cave from yesterday?' Duncan noticed. On a whim, the cave became his escape point from his pursuits. The monkeys were getting closer to him. He could hear their growls and howls becoming louder by the second.

Duncan rushed into the cave and continued to run away from the bastards who were just a few meters away from getting him.

'Hmm? Why aren't they following'

The monkeys were howling and growling at the mouth of the cave as if they were afraid of getting inside.

"Not today suckers!" Duncan shammed at them.

He shouldn't have done than. He sure did know how to piss them off. The leader first stepped into the cave, then his loyal followers came.

'Me and my big mouth!' Duncan cursed and started to sprint deeper into the cave.