Fishing and Warriors

Chapter 4

"Sayo pag-sugod!"

The loud roar of thunder startled Isog awake. The sky was already dark, the moon nor a star can be seen in the nighttime. Cold wind was blowing with an intense gust.

"How long had I been asleep here?". Isog ask to himself. He can still feel the stinging pain in his arms from the earlier blows from the chief's wooden practice sword. Every muscle in his body were aching and sore. Falling down after each blow was all the best he remembered of the session earlier that day.

"Why did nobody moved me from here?". Their were lot of other apprentices who had practiced earlier but not one of them wake him up.

Isog can still feel the pain from hearing their their laughter but he realized one thing. It is the only thing he have learned this afternoon. He no longer feel any shame nor fear falling down. I've fallen down a lot and beaten by an old man, nothing can ever embarrass me again, at least in failing while trying.

He picked himself up, but his sore body was too weak and he fall again.

"Probably it's a good thing they left me here so they can't see me fall down again." The boy thought to himself.

So he crawled on all fours, and he grabbed the shield to support him. Now he's kneeling. In trying to stand up, he exerted all his strength into the the shield and on his both feet. He was shaking, 'but no, I wont fall down this time even if nobody is watching me.'

Willing himself to pick all his strength and stand up, he was able to. It cost him a lot of strength that he had gathered back during his slumber but something within him feels lighter after standing up. The soreness he don't know what part of his body was feeling suddenly was gone.

No, it wasn't soreness but the pain of falling down earlier.

"I have suffered pain today, and it will be more painful tomorrow."

With a deep sigh at that thought, the boy started himself to walk toward the direction of their house. Huge pearl of water droplets were starting to fall from the dark sky as the wind was now howling in their blowing against the leaves of the trees and sides of the mountain.

The boy slowly inches his way back home, carrying the shield and dragging back his tired and hungry body.

"Shh!"

An adult motioned with his finger toward the apprentices in tow to keep quiet. They are on their Kalimango river catching fish.

Clear waters were flowing swiftly without a sound in this part of the river. The stones in the river bed can easily be seen due to the crystal clearness of the water. It gives an illusion that the water is shallow but it is actually very deep, probably a 3-5 adult body deep. The water is cold but it felt so fresh to their skin. So the younger apprentices can't stop themselves from playing with it. However it also create a disturbance, alerting the fishes to stay away from that area. As a result they have fewer catch than there usually is.

Taghoy, the adult who is also a warrior of the village was feeling so irritated right now. He has been tasked in showing this apprentices how to fish as part of their training. He is the youngest among the warrior of the village as he was only a warrior for a year. In the warrior's camp, he is the errand runner and the worst is being a jokes' attention by the older warriors and veterans.

" I wish I could just spend this time alone training, not with these clumsy kids". Taghoy thought to himself with great irritation. Especially at the one kid who acted mighty around other kids when to his eyes, he's just another brat who is just a little bit more confident.

" I hate this task!". He was almost fuming with rage as it had been already past an hour yet his catch were not even half to what he usually do for a few minutes alone. Taghoy is one of the best fisher in the village, around this annoying and loud apprentices, he feels like the worst day of his fishing ever.

Usually, they uses nets, traps and baits to fish. But this time, he is using a long spear for fishing. It is one way of training the apprentices in handling the spear while also a demonstration of the full pledge warrior of his skill.

"Will you keep quiet, you brat!". Taghoy finally had enough of that loud mouthed apprentice. Yeah, the spear is for meters long but how could he ever hope to have a decent catch when no fish will ever approach within 10 meter distance.

The young apprentices fall quiet at the scolding of the young warrior, but not that they fear him. Instead they whisper among themselves and talked about the young warrior.

"That guy is the lamest warrior I've ever seen. Only a few fish for all this time".

"Yeah, he really such a loser, and that fishes were not that even large. All he ever catch was that small, dumb fishes like what he probably is!"

"Hahaha!"

"Dumb and small! Hahaha!"

And the apprentices that were huddled together burst out in loud laughter. It it was the last straw of Taghoy's shortened fuse. He cannot accept that that even this brats of clumsy apprentices were even laughing at him. He turned at them and were about to shout when he spotted something moving in the water.

It is a familiar muddy dark brown in color with spots of algae green.

"Tsoyokoy!"

Taghoy exclaimed loudly, warning those at the edge of the water. But it was too late already.

The creature jumped out of the water and swiftly snatched that loud apprentice. He only gave out a short cry and then it was drowned out as he was dragged into the depths.

The water is so clear so they can see him being dragged by the creature. It was half fish and half frog, having limbs in the front like those of a frog and a tail of a fish. The head was also like that of a frog. It was ugly and horrifying to look at. An adult can fight off a tsoyokoy so it was not problem for them, but the creature only preys on those youngs. Dragging them in the water until they drown.

They all watch in horror as they can clearly see the apprentice being death hugged by the tsoyokoy.

Taghoy was about to jump into the water when there was a splash before him. It was a very familiar frail figure of a boy that he watched it yesterday train.

"Isog!". The young warrior exclaimed.

And then he felt even more terror as he saw two more creature aside from the one who is already dragging an apprentice approach from the depths. This bastards were waiting all this time!