6 Strange Boulder

Something woke me up in the middle of the night. Fortunately, it wasn't the howls of a wolf. I scratched my eyes a bit, and when my eyes adjusted, I saw something weird. I could see some rays of moonlight... shining onto a certain boulder. I thought 'I must be tired', and rubbed my eyes again. But no, the boulder with the rays of moonlight illuminating it, was still there. I was confused, and looked around the boulder area.

I noticed different animals converging to that boulder. There were deer, rabbits, squirrels and even boars. I wasn't sure what was going on, so I stood up from my shelter and tried to approach the boulder. All the animals present simply ignored me. They just stared at the boulder, as if the rest of the world didn't exist. I couldn't figure out what was going on, asking someone was certainly out of the question. It wasn't like a deer would suddenly learn Human language, and answer me.

Without me realising it, I got closer to the bolder. I stood a few good metres away from, before I snapped out of my thoughts. 'That's weird, it's like the boulder is attracting me' I thought. I looked at the bolder more closely and unbeknownst to me, I approached the boulder again.

When I snapped out of it this time, I was very close to the boulder. There was something else as well. All the animals started doing weird sounds. I took my eyes away from the boulder, and looked around. The animals gathered, were staring swords at me. I don't know how it was possible for a deer to have killing intent in their eyes, but those deer had!

I was clueless as to what the hell was going on. I was sure of one thing though. "Do not get close to the boulder!", I exclaimed and backed away from it quickly. As if this was an unwritten rule in this place. When I moved away, the animals again ignored me, and stared at the boulder. I didn't want to become the target of hatred, so I stayed away from that boulder. 'If I try something stupid, I'm sure those animals will eat me alive' I thought.

Around twenty minutes later, the rays of moonlight disappeared. All the animals that were present, returned back into the forest. If I could have a look at my own expression, it would probably convey one message. 'Just what the fuck has happened here!?'. It was quite dark, now that the rays were gone. I couldn't see much, therefore I decided to investigate that boulder in the morning. I went back to my shelter, and tried to get some sleep. But I couldn't push away this boulder business out of my mind. I twisted and turned, but to no avail. In the end, I laid there until the morning.

The morning sun filled the horizon. I couldn't wait any longer, and immediately went to the boulder. That weird phenomenon was just to mysterious to me. I stood very close to the boulder, and I looked around. 'Nothing' I thought. I didn't see any animals rushing at me, or even coming out of the forest. I thought to myself 'It should be alright now... I think', and proceeded to touch, knock, kick, climb and whatnot the boulder. I found… Nothing. 'What the hell!? What's up with this boulder, and those rays of moonlight?' I thought.

I needed to come up with an idea to test the boulder more. 'I need to stay here one more night, maybe this will happen again'. I didn't just sit patiently waiting for the night to come, no. Instead, I practiced my throwing skills. By the noon, I was quite tired already, but my overall accuracy increased to 30% which was not bad. I already got the hang of it, reaching the 50% accuracy wasn't impossible in short run.

'Right now I can hit my target two out of six throws... With fifty percent accuracy, I will be able to do one in two throws. That is already great' I thought. I took a rest and while I was at it, I started making new spears. Unfortunately, the rays of moonlight didn't appear that day. I decided to stay one or two more days, and check if that happens again. Besides, I could always practice at that location, and it wasn't half bad either.

Two days passed, and the moonlight didn't appear. One reason might've been the bad weather. Due to the ray and clouds, no moon was visible. Although I didn't get to see those rays of moonlight, I managed to improve my accuracy to that of fifty percent. 'With this, I can try to hunt something. One out of two, is not bad odds already' I thought.

I went around the area looking for small animals. I was mostly looking for rabbits, as I didn't think my wooden spears would do anything to a deer's hide. 'Even if I managed to wound it, a deer wouldn't die from one spear' I thought. The search took me an hour, before a rabbit appeared in my line of sight. Hiding myself in the bushes, I prepared to throw my wooden spears. My aim was alright with stationary objects, like trees. Fortunately, the rabbit eating grass was as stationary as it would get.

With the rabbit's back facing me, I threw my first spear. The rabbit unfortunately, heard me throw the spear due to stepping on some lose twigs. The startled rabbit easily escaped my attack, then quickly jumped into some bushes. I tried another spear, but without luck. The rabbit became a moving target, and hitting it was magnitudes harder. Though it was a complete failure, I didn't give up and went off to find a new prey.

This time, I found a new prey much faster. 'A deer' I thought. I knew it would probably achieve nothing, but at least I would get some experience out of it. I decided to try either way. The deer was eating some leaves off of a bush. I took my time, and tried to make no noise.

Using my full strength, I threw the spear, and reached for another one to prepare. The spear managed to wound the deer, but the injury wasn't enough to make it stay. I tried to guess the deer's escape path, and threw another spear. It missed by a bit, and the deer managed to get away. Though a failure again, I knew my spears had potential. Killing a deer might've been hard, but a rabbit should've been possible. 'If my first spear hits and injures the rabbit heavily, then I may have a chance' I thought. Full of hopes, I searched for my next prey.

The search was much shorter compared to before. After a few minutes, I crossed paths with another rabbit. With all my experience, which didn't amount to much, I threw the spear when the rabbit least expected it. "Swoosh", the spear flew through the air, and managed hit the target. Although the rabbit didn't die, it's speed suffered greatly. I was able to catch up with it, and killed it with another spear.

This was the first time I hunted something properly. Not because of luck, or coincidence, but because of skill I learned myself. Full of smiles, I returned to the area with stones and boulders to set up a fire. This time I had a knife. After taking out intestines, and getting rid of fur, I could roast the rabbit and enjoy it. Although the meat was hard and almost tasteless, it was much better than berries. A welcomed change in my diet.

After the meal, I decided to exercise to try and achieve higher accuracy. The simple pointed wooden sticks, turned into throwing spears. Albeit not entirely true, since they were only stick, calling them throwing spears sounded better in my mind. The accuracy practice lasted until the evening, where I awaited the moonlight again.