Prey Or Predator?

Getting water was no problem, he went downwards in the jungle; following the sounds of water splashing; and eventually found his way to a small river that ran across the jungle. As he bent down and picked up the water in his small water bottle made of the gourd fruit, he thought of how he would hunt down a pure beast.

From his teachings, he knew that he had to put himself in the mindset of the beast. First off, the most likely spot any animal would be seen is by water. Water was the source of all life in a jungle, so most animals would gather around there anyways.

Water was not only life in the jungle however, but also death.

Many predators used the water to catch their prey off guard, whether it was water predators or land predators, when something was distracted, that was the easiest time to hunt them.

Although Yin had this knowledge, he also knew that the beasts of the jungle could go many weeks without drinking water. They had an ability to retain water in their skin, so it wasn't necessary to rehydrate often.

He had two options, to either try out his luck and wait until a pure beast came to drink water, and hunt them while they were distracted. This would be the easier of the two options, but could also prove to be detrimental. It could be that not a single beast would appear in the time it would take Yin to die of starvation.

So, he decided the second option would be most efficient. Force the beast to drink water, by way of salt. Even the thought of it annoyed Yin, to waste salt, which was regarded as the most valuable item in all of the villages around the Ja' jungle, for just a single pure beast.

But right now, Yin had no time to waste thinking about the salts value, right now, it had less value than even a chunk of meat.

And so, after drinking the water, he stood up and started walking towards the nearest hill, or mountainside.

Caves were obviously the place where salt was most abundant. If one got lucky, he could stumble upon large crystallites made of pure salt, however, this was very hard to come across. Yin knew that most of the caves near his village had already been used.

Still, Yin knew that he was quite far away from his village. It was not likely that the caves around this area had been searched yet by any man.

And so, Yin made his way to a mountain side and found many cave entrances, large holes in the sides of the steep cliffs. Of course, caves were quite common, however, most of the cave entrances were far too high for Yin to reach.

After looking around for a while, Yin discovered a cave entrance that wasn't too high up on the mountain side. He jumped up and grabbed on to the ledge of the entrance.

Once up, he walked into the dark cave. He didn't need much salt, just a handful would be plenty.

After walking for a little bit, the cave opened up to a large cavern. Here, Yin could already see small crystals of salt here and there. He was pretty excited about the salt, but he also noticed the sheer size of the cavern. It didn't go down or up, but was a straight hall way of coarse rock that was absolutely colossal in size.

The ceiling was so high that Yin couldn't see it, the walls stretched far enough to be over 500 meters wide; and of course; Yin could only make out all this not only because of his slightly enhanced eye sight; but from the glow the salt crystals gave off that lightly illuminated the cavern.

He had never witnessed a cave of this caliber before, it was like finding the lost city of Atlantis. Although he wanted to explore it, he had no choice but to focus on his goals right now.

The opening had a small drop off to the floor of the cavern. After jumping down, Yin walked over to the nearest salt pocket.

Salt was very hard, but was far easier to break than rock. He easily broke off a large chunk just by hitting the crystal with a stone.

With salt in hand, Yin started to journey back to the tree. By now, it had started to become dark, and he was even more exhausted then before.

On arriving at the tree, Yin grabbed a large flat stone, and a smaller round one. He broke down the salt crystals even smaller and put them onto the larger flat stone before starting to grind them into a fine dust.

Although it sounded easy, this was extremely taxing work.

Yin refrained from thinking of how he could hunt with such little energy left. It would do him no good.

Once he had the salt ready, Yin put a handful in a leaf and started to look around for a pure beasts nest.

Not all pure beasts had nests, but ones such as snakes and other rodent type pure beasts did. He knew that rodent type pure beasts were the easiest to kill, however; he had no way of telling whether a hole next belonged to a rodent or a snake; he simply had to place his bets.

While looking for a nest, he decided to scavenge for supplies and food as well. He ate random berries and plants that didn't taste bitter in attempt to give him some sustenance. He didn't know whether they were actually giving him energy, or just poisoning him; but he hoped the former.

Eventually, he found a large nest, a hole that could've bared a slithery beast, or a scurry rodent. Taking his chances, he placed the salt near the entrance of the hole before quickly leaving.

If the beast that inhabited the nest was nearby, it would probably use the salt to season Yin before eating him instead.

Now, all that was left to do was play the waiting game. He left back to the tree. Once he got there, he unloaded his pile of different plants, and started grinding them.

He was making poison.

All that was needed was the leaf of the Kui plant, the root of the Hamling plant, and the stem of the Guiokious plant. They were quite common in the Ja' jungle, and were harmless by themselves; but when put together; they made a powerful toxin that was not in the knowledge of many. It had a tint of purplish color.

Without knowing it, Yin had spent the entire night grinding plants. When he finally stood up and looked outside, he felt the bright morning sun shining on his eyes through the cracks of the jungle roof. He stretched his arms out and yawned.

"I probably should have slept instead of making so much poison... but I'd rather be safe then sorry." He spoke outload to himself as held his newly brandished spear. A simple wooden stick with a sharp tip carved on it. He dipped it into the poison before making his way to the beast nest.

The salt had been eaten. This was a good sign, it meant that the beast was either already drinking water, or was making its way there right now.

'The prey has been set' Yin thought to himself.