Savior

Leo just stood there watching it as it slowly sunk back into the ground. The teeth of this monster had a small hole through which the fruit was let out and allowed to hang again. Leo was right to suspect it as a trap. He closely studied the monster's appearance even as it sunk in and realized that it had no eyes and was looking more like a plant with teeth than a monster. It completely submerged itself back into the ground and spat out the sand that got into its mouth.

"Whoa"

Leo was still shivering at the shock of what he just witnessed. That was when he realized that the branch that was holding up the fruit had a slightly different appearance than that of the tree. The branch ran across the tree and into the ground close to the pile of sand. You could say that it was the tail of the monster.

"Was that a plant just now. That's not fair. How can I be below a plant on the food chain? What I'm I going to eat?"

This was a sad moment for Leo but it was just about to get worst.

[RUMBLING]

He felt the ground beneath him vibrating furiously and could hear loud noises of multiple monsters running in his direction.

"That loud boom must've attracted them here."

He quickly took cover behind some bushes as the tiger monsters, now in a streak of about 17 made their way into the vicinity and started moving around the pile of sand as if searching for something.

'There are soo many of them and they are all of different sizes with the smallest one in this group having no stripes at all, just the greenish scales and its size matches that of the one that chased me.'

Just then the largest monster in the group stepped out from the dense part of the jungle and into Leo's view.

'Wooooowwww! These monsters just keep getting bigger and bigger. This one could definitely fight head to head with that giant aquatic monster. The colors on this one is completely different from the rest.'

It had scales with a bright orange color and black stripes mimicking the exact colors of the tigers back on Earth.

'This one is at a great disadvantage, with that color, it can't hide anywhere. It has no camouflage. But come to think of it, does it even need camouflage. This monster would definitely rank above many of the monsters in this jungle, so it makes sense why it wouldn't need to hide in the first place'.

This monster that towered over the other huge monsters was obviously the alpha because it had a more intimidating presence than the others and was clearly more intelligent because it didn't carelessly roam around the vicinity like the others but just stood in front of the sand pile and was looking around it.

'What's it doing?'

Suddenly, it turned its gaze from the pile of sand to a small trail that Leo left behind when he ran to hide in the bush. The monster followed the trail without bending its head to sniff out Leo and eventually stood in front of the bush Leo was hiding in. Leo was shocked at how easily this monster tracked him even though he had already masked his scent. He was looking at the monster and as if the monster could clearly see him, also looked at Leo in the eyes. Leo was sure that it could see him, but didn't sense any malice coming from it as if it had no intention of attacking him. The monster then turned round and gave out a loud roar causing the other monsters to run back into the dense jungle. The monster began walking away from the bush but later turned around and stared at the bush where Leo was, before running off.

[PHEW]

"That was just too close for comfort. For a moment there, I was sure it could see me. Those monsters rushed here right after that plant monster submerged itself. This must be the way of life in this jungle. The plant monster attacks the unsuspecting victim and those tiger monsters rushes in to finish up the remains."

Leo finally came out of his hiding place now feeling a bit dizzy from the hunger and severe dehydration. His blood pressure was dropping and this was reducing the flow of oxygen to his brain. His body could no longer handle it. But to be honest, any normal human being would have died several times over if they had gone through what Leo had gone through.

But then.

"Is that what I think it is. It is, isn't it"

Not that far off from him was a bush filled with berries, he walked towards it quickly but stopped midway to examine the surroundings.

"I think it's alright for me to assume that this is not a trap"

When he got to the bush, he remembered that not all berries were edible and some were even poisonous. He plucked out one and twisting it in front of his eyes, confirmed that it might be edible since it was black and black berries were usually harmless.

"But that was back on Earth"

[GULP]

He took a big gulp before gently nibbling the berry.

[SQUISH]

His eyes slowly widened as he ate the berry and he now had a look of ecstasy on his face.

"This is…AMAZING!! And it is soo juicy that my thirst could be satiated"

The taste of the berry was out of this world, or in Leo's case, it was in this world. He gobbled down as much berries that could fit in his mouth at once and kept grabbing more and more as if they were about to disappear. This moment was really enjoyable for him.

[CRUNCH]

Leo had been eating soo fast that he didn't even bother to chew the berry properly, but after he felt a crunch in his mouth and got a foul taste, he stopped to pull out the source of the crunching sound and the foul taste. He reached for his mouth and pulled out an injured insect that looked like a berry but a bit more spherical and having legs. The insect was injured from Leo's bite and had a green fluid leaking from its body.

"Ewww. I was careless. Good thing I noticed it on time."

His hunger and thirst now mild allowed him to slow his eating pace. He was now more focused on the berries to make sure he didn't eat another insect. He inspected each berry he plucked out and soon realized that the number of insects hanging around in the bush were almost the same number with the actual berries. Leo then knew that while he was on the food rampage, he had already consumed a lot of the bugs. He stopped eating and became scared at the consequences of eating insects with weird physiologies. Just then, Leo began feeling sick and held his tummy tight.

"Why didn't I pay attention!"

[Uhhhhh!]

He fell to the ground and wiggled around as the pain he felt only grew worst. He then went silent and laid down motionless with his eyes still wide open. He then saw a large number of the berry like insects crawling out of the bush and onto his body.

He was their prey

'Even insects can hunt on this planet. But to think they would sacrifice themselves to catch their prey. Nature can be cruel some times. Would they eat me?'

They began crawling on his body, but luckily for him, only his feet and his arms were exposed, so they started from there.

[MUNCH]

They began biting Leo and eating through the skin of his feet and arms. Leo could feel the pain but was unable to react to it or even scream in pain. All he could do was cry as he was slowly being devoured in the most painful way possible. As the pain worsened, Leo began losing consciousness and was about to pass out before a small bag landed right beside him and released a smoke that caused all the insects to quickly disperse leaving a bloodied Leo behind. He watched as the insects left him.

[In a low voice]

"Those insects don't hold back when they're eating."

His vision was going dark when a pair of human legs wearing sandals stepped right in front of him.

[In a lower voice]

"Finally, I'm saved"

Leo then passed out as the human that had saved him, watched his body before picking him up and moving into the dense part of the jungle.