19 Worms

'The heck?' asked himself Mark, because what landed in front of him was the same crow he released a few minutes ago.

The crow took small little jumps in Mark's direction. 'Damm it's so cute.' and dropped a three worm from his beak.

Mark's brows furrowed at seeing that. 'Is he thanking me for releasing him?' and shoved the crow away with his hand.

~caw~

But the crow didn't move, it was waiting for Mark to grab the worm, but what was he supposed to do with that? Mark ignored the crow and went about his business, leaving the stunned crow behind.

~caw~ ~caw~

Mark was about to take a piss and the crow suddenly jumped in front of him, 'Dammit! I almost ...'

The crow gave small jumps on the ground and put a dropped a worm. Mark was not sure if it was the same or not, but it was another worm.

Mark put his thing back on his pants and thought about something, 'Maybe if I give him some food he will stop pestering me, after all, he had no use for a worm.', Mark grabbed the army rations and took a small piece of those cereal bars, it was disgusting for humans, but maybe for a crow it was good, after all it was a bit sweet and animals in general loved sweet things.

Mark put the small piece of cereal bar on the ground and waited. The crow took small little jumps closer, but did not grab it.

'He still has some reservations about me, it seems it's afraid,' Mark took a few steps back and waited.

The crow took a big jump to the front and immediately grabbed the food and flew to the skies.

'It seems he really like that army ration,' thought Mark, seeing the bird fly to a tree closer to them.

Mark turned his back and walked away. He still had a few spots to check today in the forest, because a few minutes ago, he saw a trail of snakes. Now he was searching for them in the hopes he could catch one, or at least identify where was their habitat on the woods.

Animals, mutated or not, were like that. They had their preferred places even in a forest as big as this one, and if Mark saw a crow and a recent snake trail, it means that the region still had a few animals; the beasts had not eaten all of them.

...

The sun's rays passed through the trees and made shadows on the leafy ground, Mark looked up and saw that the sun was once again at its apex, it was midday again.

But looking up, Mark's brows furrowed once he saw a dark shadow by the tree branch. 'The fuck?' once he realized what that was, 'Is that crow following me?' Mark didn't notice the crow before, only now that he looked up to see what time it was that he glimpsed the animal in one of the branches above him.

Mark ignored the crow and kept walking. He figured that the animal would not try to harm him and was probably just curious. 'I must be the first human he ever saw,' thought Mark while poking a hole in the ground with a stick. He was checking if that hole had any snakes because the previous trail lead him to this exact hole.

~rattle~

'Bingo' Thought Mark, hearing the sound of a pissed off snake from inside the hole, 'And judging by the sound, it's a rattlesnake,' thought Mark, because the sound produced by a rattle was a very peculiar one.

Mark knew the snake would be pissed off and try to run outside of the hole. They were like that, very territorialist and easily angered. Mark grabbed his stick and inverted it in his hand and put the forked side just above the hole exit. The moment the snake left the hole, he would press the forked side on its neck and kill it.

Mark knew it was a gamble, first he was not sure that the snake was a mutated one, second, if it was, he had no way to know what ability it had, he could only hope that it was not an ability that the snake could use to escape, or hurt him.

Time passed, but the snake didn't come out. 'Is this a coward one?' thought Mark, seeing the snake would not come out.

'Dammit!' thought Mark, because if the snake didn't come out, he would need to force it to leave the hole, and the only way Mark knew to force an animal to leave a hole was, 'Should I use smoke?', but the problem was that it was dangerous to make a fire on the forest, wyverns could spot the smoke from far and come to check what was happening.

'I will do it by night, if this thing don't leave the hole by then.' thought Mark, at least doing it during the night, it would be extremely hard for wyverns to see the smoke above the trees, and Mark could easily make smoke by burning green leaves and gravels, it would almost make little light and a lot of smoke.

Thinking about that, Mark immediately started to prepare everything for the fire, grabbing leaves, gravels, small sticks, while also keeping an eye on the hole, to see if the snake would leave.

~caw~ ~caw~

Mark was almost finishing everything when suddenly the crow jumped in front of him and dropped a small stick the size of a thumb. "Is he trying to help me? What a little smart thing he is," said Mark aloud in surprise. 'He must have seen me grabbing gravel around and since I refused the worm, he is giving me sticks?'

Mark accepted the small gravel the crow gave him, and said, "Thank you," while also giving the bird a tiny piece of his cereal bar.

Seeing the bird happily eating the cereal bar without flying away, Mark turned to the hole and said, "Now let's catch a snake for dinner"