Despair

A group of two grown-up men and two kids could be seen silently walking in the forest.

Ivar's friend, John, was sweating buckets as he tiptoed through the slippery leaves in the forest. He held his spear close to his torso, alert for any noise or an attack from an animal.

Shwrak-Shwrak-

Few bushes moved, which increased John's breathing. Seeing John stressed, his father shushed him up and whispered "Don't be afraid kiddo, from the sounds of it that is a rabbit. Only one of us has a long-range weapon so he will hunt it."

Ivar had already aimed his arrow at the bush, just ready to shoot and take the kill.

"But Dad, how did you know that was a rabbit?" John whispered back at his father.

Swish– 

Ivar had shot the arrow, skillfully killing the rabbit.

"Well, son, that comes with experience. You will learn it soon enough. Also, remember to watch your surroundings when your friend is hunting. Just watch and learn from Ivar's dad!"

John nodded.

All the while, Ivar and his dad had already tied the rabbit.

"We will only be hunting for 2 days. Let's hope we find a boar or a deer this time." Ivan, Ivar's dad, excitedly said.

Johan laughed looking at Ivan's face. "Dream on! We won't find that in this area of forest. There have been no sightings of a deer pack ever in this area. Mannn… we sure got the short end of the stick."

"A man can always dream!" 

"Let's search some more. We also have to harvest our maize after returning home. So getting into this area is also pretty good. At least we won't be tired. Like those other bastards!"

Ivan nodded.

For the rest of the day, they kept searching for more animals. Their effort was rewarded with three more rabbits, which each of them took turns hunting with the borrowed bow.

One of the rabbits had multiple wounds because John missed the vital points a lot.

They finally returned to the campsite where the group had set up multiple tents. After some discussion, it was decided that Ivar and John's father would take the second shift for night watch.

"Alright, you kids. Sleep well. We got a long day tomorrow!"

Ivar had experienced hunting a lot of times before so he wasn't nervous at all. He guessed that it was meant for John.

The next day, The group was ready to go hunting in the same place again!

"What do ya think? How many rabbits will we hunt today?" Johan cracked a joke to break the ice.

"No matter how much we hunt. It won't be enough to fill your belly." Ivan replied, laughing.

The group kept walking.

"You know what? Didn't we go to that part yesterday? I don't think we will get any rabbits there today. So why don't we go to the other part? The one with the small lake." Johan pointed at one side of the forest.

He then again sarcastically remarked looking at Ivan, "Maybe we will find a deer or something there?"

"Tch" Ivan clicked his tongue.

"John, relax a little nothing is going to happen. I have done this many times before!" Ivar smiled at John.

John frowned, "I am not scared! It's just that I am angry at the mosquitoes biting me!". Ivar couldn't see any mosquitoes.

"Hahaha, Mosquitoes right? Did they appear from thin air?"

After a bit of walking, the group reached the small lake. Johan's eyes looked as if they were going to pop out of his socket.

"Hehe, Didn't I tell you? My word is the will of this world!" Ivan smirked.

"This is a great find! If this small deer pack has really migrated here then we can inform the messenger in the village. I am sure the messenger will relay the message to a higher branch of the Shield! We are gonna get rich!" Johan excitedly remarked.

"Alright! Let's hunt some deer as proof and we will go back!" Ivan's face had a big smile.

The group of four was really excited by their new discovery and all of them quickly took their own bow and arrow to hunt. Today, each of them brought a bow after borrowing it from others to hunt some rabbits.

John didn't know about the whole procedure of informing the messenger of their town but he was sure they were gonna get a good reward. John was excited to kill his first deer, he quickly brought out the arrows, pulled the string bow and almost immediately released it towards the deer.

Swish-

The arrow cut straight through the air towards the deer but the deer's instincts kicked in as it quickly moved sideways and started running away. Seeing the lone deer run away the other remaining pack of the deer also dispersed.

All the eyes were now on John. He had made the rookie mistake of getting excited for the kill. The forest turned silent except for the slight movement of grasses and bushes but the group didn't put much thought into it.

They were really angry at John! This was quite probably their only chance to hunt quite a few deer and take a big haul home but John had completely ruined it!

John looked back at the three, His father, his friend, and Ivan. 

"I-i am-"

Before he could say another word, he froze as a gut-wrenching smell of urine pierced the nostrils of the three hunters. These experienced men instantly realized something was wrong. Their instinct kicked in. They scrambled to the sides, quickly dispersing away from John. They realized that he had wet himself in fear.

But the danger hadn't even revealed itself. A majestic orange tiger with black stripes emerged from the dried grass and bushes, leaping toward John. He had urinated himself because he had seen the tiger before the others did.

As the tiger lunged at him, John's adrenaline surged. He shakily raised his spears, trying to defend himself. But it was too late. Before his father could even scream, the tiger tackled John to the ground and bit into the 10-year-old's neck.

John had died.

"Son!" John's father's eyes welled up with tears as he readied the spear hooked on his back.

"John!" Ivar started crying, while his father had already begun carrying him away.

"Johan! Come back! Run! Don't think, just run!" Ivan screamed at his lifelong friend.