10 Chapter 9: Trapped in the Forest (Part 1: The Duo Tigowls' Ambush)

Somewhere in the forest, the two Tigowls had been hiding among some bushes near the nest cavern of the Dinobirds, waiting for Dinobirds to make their appearance, to take revenge for their precious burned haircuts. They were pretty mad as well as so adamant to take revenge on them.

The talkative Tigowl kept asking a lot of questions nonstop as usual, <"are you sure they are going to get out of the cave soon, or you are just guessing that?! Do you know that I hate waiting?! What would we do if they didn't get out of the cave-">

The other Tigowl's eyebrows were twitching, greatly annoyed by the constantly increasing questions as they kept resounding in its head endlessly, and it was beginning to feel a great headache from all that.

<"Why can't ya shut your mouth up for a moment and just keep watching?"> The Tigowl with afro interrupted and shut the earlier's mouth with its paw, feeling a headache from the endless and non-stop questions and talk. <"If they get out at this moment, they'll find us out because of your never-closing mouth.">

<"Uh?!">

The spiky-haired Tigowl got hurt by its comrade's harsh words. The edges of its eyes got tearful, holding back the tears from falling, and its face got filled with sadness. It looked like a lover who was betrayed and left heartlessly. At the moment, the talkative Tigowl was living its own flowers-filled world, forgetting why they were waiting.

<"H-how could you say such hurting words and break my heart so easily like this?! I-I hate you!">

The afro Tigowl became shocked in surprise when it heard a certain sentence, which was 'I hate you.' Unfortunately, that took him off guard as it did never expect to hear such a thing from its 'full of questions only' comrade, forgetting about the Dinobirds completely that they were waiting for to take revenge on.

<"Y-you!"> it shouted with widened eyes. <"For the first time ever, you have said a sentence rather than a question! I'm proud of ya."> It then wiped a tear from the edge of its eye, watching its comrade like a parent proudly observing their child growing up.

Unaware of them, while they were busy with their own matter, Sam and Hoperist flew out of the nest cavern and landed in the nearby forest; unluckily, the duo Tigowls didn't notice that.

Meanwhile, a few moments after Sam and Hoperist got out of the cavern, the afro-haired Tigowl suddenly woke up as it remembered belatedly what and why they had been hiding among the bushes, twisting its head towards the entrance of the cavern just to catch sight of a Dinobird holding a human right before they landed. Unfortunately, they already got far away from them though.

The afro-haired Tigowl jerked and turned hastily its face to the spiky-haired Tigowl, and then it slapped it on the face and shook it hard.

<"Hey, talkie. Wake up!"> The afro-haired Tigowl shouted. <"They're running away! We have to follow them right now, otherwise, we'll totally lose them!">

Successfully, that dragged the Tigowl with spiky out of its flower-filled world.

<"W-what?! When did they get out of the cave?! Can we catch up with them now?! Or what- ">

The afro-haired Tigowl interrupted the spiky-haired one with an urgent tone, <"Shut your talkative mouth up, we don't have time to waste with your endless questions!! Right now, we have to go after them!">

The spiky-haired Tigowl kept his silence after that and ran at high speed silently along with the one with afro. Although flying was better and faster for them to catch up with Sam and Hoperist, still, they chose to run on land in order to not expose themselves. They kept trying to catch up until they eventually made it when Sam and Hoperist stopped to rest their worn bodies.

Of course, they never felt the Tigowls following them at all though.

<"Y-yes, we caught up with them!!"> the afro-haired Tigowl celebrated.

<"...">

Yet, shockingly, the Tigowl with the spiky hairstyle was unusually silent. That made the afro-haired Tigowl wonder how come it was pretty quiet. It was not like they were hanging together for quite a long time. Still, the change in attitude was for the first time ever since they knew each other, the afro-haired Tigowl thought, ignoring that right after.

Soon then, the duo Tigowls hid among the bushes, and then they began watching the weird human and the pained Dinobird stealthily and quietly.

<"They're off-guard. It's our chance-"> the afro-haired Tigowl suggested, but it was instantly interrupted by the other one, preventing it from completing.

<"Wait!">

The spiky-haired Tigowl blocked the afro-haired Tigowl with its paw with a serious look on its face. Stunningly, it was the first time for the afro-haired Tigowl to see it like that. That was why it felt goosebumps and began to wonder even more right after.

<"W-what? Why?!"> the afro-haired Tigowl asked back, shocked and surprised as well by the unexpected thing.

<"Are you stupid not to notice such a thing as clear as this? They are not off-guard at all... yet at least. Of course, by this, I don't mean that stupid-faced human, but that Dinobird, it is in its full awareness and readiness to react for anything in case something suddenly attacked them, or something like that.">

The afro Tigowl stared at it with disbelief.

<'...How could this all-talkie know something like that? I even didn't notice anything, not even one bit.'> The Tigowl with afro wondered with wide-open mouth.

While it was thinking, a little tiny bit of noise in some bushes afar came from another place. In an instant, the Dinobird shifted its sight towards where the noise had come out from and stared right there, tensing its body up to respond in case anything was to bounce on them.

<"You see that? The Dinobird is quite in a high alert state. It's not the suitable time to bounce on them yet."> The spiky Tigowl spoke, proving to the other its trueness.

After witnessing that, the afro Tigowl had noticed how ready the Dinobird was, and turned its head right then towards the spiky-haired Tigowl with incredible surprise; it got considerably speechless.

Surprisingly, the spiky Tigowl was totally right although the afro one didn't take even a slight glimpse of the situation. Even though, never did it expect its comrade with a spiky haircut to be so observant like this at all.

<"H-how did ya figure that out?!"> It asked with disbelief, still unable to close its mouth from the huge surprise.

<"...">

Once again, it kept its silence, focusing on the human and Dinobird, and thinking of a suitable plan to make a successful attack without even a slight mistake until, eventually, something clicked in its head.

<"I got a plan."> The spiky Tigowl said.

<"What's it?"> The afro Tigowl asked curiously.

The spiky Tigowl got its head closer to the afro Tigowl and raised its paw to its mouth to explain in a whispering voice, so the afro Tigowl also got its ears closer and started to listen carefully.

<"We should distract them by making noises from the far bushes in different directions."> The spiky Tigowl explained.

<"...And then?"> The afro Tigowl asked, impatient to hear out the rest of the plan.

Then the spiky Tigowl continued, <"and then we would trick them by making them think that our attack is aimed at the human rather than the Dinobird, and once we get close enough, we would change the direction of the attack towards the Dinobird instead.>"

The afro Tigowl stayed silent for moments before it then started to speak, <"...are you sure this is gonna work out properly?">

<"I can never be sure about any plan, no one can be sure, but I wish it to hit a complete success."> The spiky Tigowl answered.

Then they proceeded with their plan. They started by moving in the bushes and making noises from different locations and different directions, distracting Sam and the Dinobird from detecting their exact location.

After that, they jumped and leaped up into the air at them while shouting out...

<"Pay for what you've done to our precious haircuts!!"> The afro Tigowl said.

<"Can't you just die by my paws?!"> Said the spiky Tigowl.

But annoyingly, what Sam could hear was just "OWO! OWO!".

At that moment, Sam thought he could have avoided their attack with hair's width, but he was utterly wrong. From the beginning, they had been aiming their attack at the pained and worn-out Hoperist.

As Sam ran to Hoperist, held its body, and cried out in grief, the duo Tigowls, watching them with dropped jaws in disbelief, got greatly stunned and speechless by the scene in front of their very own eyes.

<"W-what?! What's happening?! Why's that human crying for that Dinobird?! Wasn't he its slave?! What the heck is happening?! How come humans cry for Monsters?!"> The Tigowls were going insane.

Well, the one talking and spitting out countless questions in disbelief and with a bewildered expression wasn't the spiky Tigowl.

Yes, it was the afro Tigowl.

<"Hey, hey, hey, don't steal another Tigowl's roles."> The spiky Tigowl spoke with furrowed brows, annoyed by the sudden change in the attitude of its comrade.

Unlike the afro Tigowl, the one with spiky was not shocked nor was it surprised. Indifferently, it even kept watching the scene with a cold expression on its face. In a way, its personality had completely changed as if it was someone else.

Yet, in addition to the bizarre and unusual occurrence with the human and the Dinobird, the afro Tigowl was also aghast at the spiky Tigowl. It was its first time seeing its comrade with a completely different personality.

<'...What happened to the talkative Tigowl that I've always known?! Something doesn't look right!'> The afro Tigowl thought, doubting the sudden change in personality with its comrade.

A few seconds had passed, and the Tigowls were starting to feel nervous and devastated as they saw Sam in an increasingly outraged state.

Once Sam had turned his face towards the two Tigowls as he felt his anger was about to burst out like a volcano, they flinched and started to retreat instinctively.

"YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS YOU FUCKING TIGOWLS!!!"

Once Sam had shouted out quite loudly, the Tigowls' bodies began to tremble heavily as they became terrified horribly as well. Their legs refused to budge from their place. Desperately, they even attempted to crawl but all to no avail.

The human whom they thought was just a mere weakling that was slaved by the Dinobird, was emitting an aura that was quite heavy as a mountain, preventing them from moving and even lifting their bodies, and also was terrifying, making them shake in horror way far worse than their worst nightmares.

Well, unfortunate for them, they had pissed off someone they should have never provoked in the first place, it was their biggest mistake.

With every stomp Sam proceeded with, their state got worse and worse.

*Owo owo owo

"There is no way for you to escape me," Sam said with a fierce tone, making them pee in fear. Well, they couldn't stand such great horror after all.

Sam then stopped moving forward, and then he raised his hand to point his index finger at them.

"You will pay for what you have done!" Sam shouted out with his eyes blazing in rage. "You're so doomed, pray for your own lives!"

They could not run away, nor could they open their mouths to beg for their lives, or even cover their eyes to not witness what was going to occur to them either; they were completely helpless.

When Sam had pointed at them, countless small animals including birds, crows, rabbits, squirrels, and even more started to come from all directions at high speed, assaulting these two Tigowls badly. They were crying out in severe pain.

*OWO OWO~!

Witnessing the scene, Sam was in a state of shock with dropped jaw, this situation reminded him of the students, who used to bully him, back when they had assaulted a dog and Sam had tried to save it, yet then all the beat had been changed towards him instead.

At that time, a faint aura rose from him, and the sound of several barkings of some dogs had been fetched to them by the air, and right then, a countable number of dogs had shown themselves out, coming at them at high speed just to attack them, apart from Sam himself.

'...But in a way, this time is far more intense and effective than last time,' Sam thought with his eyes open wide. 'My hunch is telling me that this incidence is somehow relevant to my taming ability. What a headache, this ability has a lot of mysteries I have yet to find out about.'

At the same time, in another place yet not far from where Sam had been, a man with a long, white hair with his face shaded, was standing on a cliff, looking at a cave-like passageway that led into a huge, wide cavern, and a mighty vulture, five times bigger than normal, was standing beside the human. He seemed to be investigating something.

"...It seems there've been some people here," He thought out loudly, making it hearable. He then sat and started to look into something. "And this rope... it shows that there has been a conflict here. If my guess is right, then it's between a human kid and a monster.... perhaps a Dinobird?"

The man approached the entrance and looked into it carefully.

"There are some traces on the floor, maybe it belongs to five grown-up persons. But the one seemed the most recent one, it likely belongs to a kid? What would a kid be doing in such a creepy place anyway?" The man wondered, then shifted his sight to the cliff. "How was he or she able to climb up to such altitude? It's hard to reach this place by just climbing without flying methods, even for me. If my hunch is true, he must have come from the cavern rather than climbing up unless he had a method to fly. Still, coming from the cavern itself is less likely. Then, what about the conflict and fight? What has caused it? Is it possible that the kid is the one who had a fight with a monster? It's hard to believe..."

While thinking, out of the blue, the masked man felt a violent aura rising in the air nearby as different kinds and considerable numbers of birds had flown away at once, heading to the same point of place.

The man felt something was not right. How could someone appear to have such violent energy nearby without him having discovered whose before? He had already experienced and felt similar auras that agitated animals and monsters countless times before, yet this one was way far more violent and uncontrollable like a child's energy who had for the first time to produce, or that was what the man thought.

"I think I should go and take a look myself," the man suggested and spoke to himself. "In case it's the same kid who has been here right before I come, then it's worth it to take him as a disciple of mine. The reason for that? Well, it's because there is no child or person below twenty years of age is able to produce a violent aura to such level after all unless they were prodigies having exceptional talents."

A wide grin became clearly visible from behind the edges of the shaded mask. He was absolutely keen to meet this great prodigy and make him his disciple. That was why he approached the vulture and got onto it riding it. In no time, the vulture's wings opened widely and they began to flap up and down until it floated in the air and immediately flew away.

Back to where Sam was, while he was still watching the scene of the animals with a stunned expression clear on his face, suddenly, Sam remembered Hoperist. That was why he flinched in panic and then turned his face to see it before getting deeply surprised by witnessing what was going on with it.

Before him noticing, what was more to his surprise was that Hoperist's body was emitting light, and at the same time, its wounds were regenerating as well as being treated.

"...W-what's happening?" Sam stuttered in wonder. "Her wounds are being treated?!"

Sam, in one go, had experienced more than one shocking event at the same time. He got a deeply complicated complexion. However, on the other hand, figuring out that there was a chance that Hoperist might be treated somehow and become even better than before, made Sam feel glad and reassured to some extent. That was what had subdued his anger and calmed him down quite a bit.

'T-that means she won't die!' Sam thought with a face filled with happiness. He then ran over to Hoperist and sat close, eagerly waiting for it to open its eyes and wake up.

A while after, the animals were starting to leave the area, letting the duo Tigowls lay down on the ground filled with wounds all over their bodies, and Hoperist's eyes started to flutter open slowly.

"H-hoperist?" Sam called out. "You are really waking up, right?" He then said with a flat voice.

*Q-qua

-"Ye..yes," Hoperist answered, struggling to utter the words. "Wh..where am... I?"

Although, it replied slowly and hardly, still, that swept all the worry and stress that filled Sam's heart. He now confirmed its well-being, so he became fully reassured.

"Oh, thank god," Sam said and began to cry in contentment right after. Well, luckily, he didn't lose Hoperist, so, meanwhile, he deserved to be happy about that, didn't he?

*****

Some time later, after cooking in a wood-induced fire and eating rabbits' meat, Hoperist was in its best condition, even better than before. The little Dinobirds were hovering around over their mother, happy with its full recovery.

*Qaa qaa

"Hehe, they're adorable," Sam chuckled.

-"Yes," Hoperist agreed, putting a warming smile on its face. "I am such a fortunate mother to have them as my children."

They all, including the little ones, were doing their things while putting shiny and vigorous expressions on their faces. That showed how much their mood was quite the good one... for now.

But regrettably, something had ruined this picture, it was the coming of the duo Tigowls. They were in a miserable situation. The swellings and bruises were all over their bodies, even covering their eyes; they were black and blue entirely.

Sam started to frown the moment he noticed them coming over to them. They were getting closer and closer, but this time, it appeared that they were not intending to attack them anymore. One time, they had committed a mistake, and they decided they would never do it once again. Next, They began to speak once they approached Sam and his group.

*Owo owo

'Shit, I can't know what they're saying at all,' Sam cursed. It bothered him even more since he was totally unable to understand them, even a bit was impossible.

"Hoperist, can you understand what they are saying?" Sam asked, looking back at Hoperist.

-"Yes," it answered, nodding its head up and down. After all, Hoperist was a monster who talked in their language, and now, it became able to speak to Sam, only in his head directly without making a voice out of its mouth.

"What do they want to say?" Asked Sam.

-"They're apologizing," Hoperist informed him.

"Okay, tell them we forgive them, so they should immediately leave us now," Sam said while waving his hand to tell them 'go away'.

*Owo owo

-"They said they want to direct you to the location of ancient pillars that were said to be hiding valuable secrets as an apology," Hoperist explained. "They also said they have heard rumors that underneath those pillars was a gate that leads to an ancient temple perhaps where treasures and high-quality pieces of equipment reside in there; that's what was said to be the case."

Hearing that was to Sam's huge surprise. He felt like he was in a game more than the real world instead. In some kinds of video games, when beating a boss, the victor player would receive a bonus quest, and this was a similar case to Sam's now, except for that being a game, and this being a real world.

"Okay, where is it-"

Unfortunately, while speaking, Sam was interrupted by some growls. They heard the sound of monsters roaring from all directions in the forest as some of them started to get into Sam's sight field, making their appearance.

*Growl! *Growl!

All the existing ones around Sam froze in their place. Sam looking around him noticed the expressions on Hoperist and the others were hardened at once, and buckets of sweat made their way out covering all over their bodies altogether.

When seeing that, he then flinched as an iffy feeling filled him. Sam knew this definitely would appear to be something very bad, bad. Perhaps even worse than the previous encounters and incidences.

"W-w-what is this?!" Sam stuttered to ask.

*OWOO OWOOO

Sam thought, before anything else, the most important priority was to ensure the little ones' safety, thus he then sucked the children into his hand's black hole.

-"Shit, if we don't run away right now, we all are going to be dead meats," Hoperist cursed, and this was more to Sam's panic.

"...What?!!!"

*******