Chapter 62- The Cicada, the Mantis and the Oriole.

Jim yelled to the high heavens. Yellow liquid wet his pants as he twitched and groaned and wailed on the ground. He felt like his male organ was shattered in pieces, the pain ensuing from it hurt him all the way to his forehead. How painful!!

'What have I done?' He wanted to yell that question at them, but all that came out of his mouth was the mixed vocal combination of whimpering and wailing, blended with guttural groans.

The slim Hunter instinctively covered his jewels with his hands and shuddered in fear. There is not one man who did not feel intense pain whenever their crown jewels was hit.

Short and stocky, on the other hand, did not seem to be capable of empathy because he burst into laughter as soon Jim's balls were hit. Even he, did not dare to tease his female partners that way, how dare this stranger think of trying that kind of thing. Serves him right.

The extremely attractive lady crouched beside Jim and asked him for the direction in which he saw the snow tiger. Jim, pointed in the northern direction.

"Let's go!" The ladies said at the same time and walked away. The slim Hunter jogged after them while shorty looked at the writhing Jim and said in a wise tone.

"If you do not seek death, you will not die." Then, he roared in laughter and ran to catch up to his partners.

Wilson was soon left alone with Jim He looked around and noticed that the last traces of last night's fire was already disappearing. He noticed that Jim was now hugging his backpack on the snow.

'Should I help him up or let him continue twitching like a dying cockroach?' Wilson wondered.

*************

About Thirty minutes later.

"Where are we going now?" Wilson asked Jim when he was able to move again.

"Well, if we assume that the direction I pointed the hunters in is the north, then, we are going towards the east." Jim said as they walked walked in the direction those hunters first appeared from. There was no way they were going to follow those hunters. They would rather go in the opposite direction.

"I did not see any weapons with those hunters. Are you really sure they are hunters?" Wilson asked a question that had bothered him for a while.

"Those f*cking hunters are loaded."

"Huh??"

"Those hunters have storage rings. You know, those rings with special spatial dimensions embedded in. Very convenient." Jim explained. Wilson nodded in understanding. Of course, he barely understood what Jim just said, but he knew what storage equipments were. He had seen it in on the revolutionaries elders. And in his dream where he was married to a particular someone.

"Is there something special about your bag? Why are you always holding it so close to you?"

"That's not your business." Jim snapped at Wilson. 'How dare you ask about my precious bag?' He thought to himself.

"Is it a storage bag?" Wilson asked coolly.

"I said none of your business!!" Jim repeated in a panicky tone, his voice rising in pitch. Wilson nodded and asked another question that had been on his mind.

"How are your penis eggs?"

"....." Speechless. That is the best way to describe Jim's reaction to that question. Why did it sound so crude. Have you not heard of other names like crown jewels, nuts, balls? Why 'penis eggs?' Jim felt like he was going to have a heart attack.

"Let's not go there." Jim replied with a pained look and a shake of his head.

"Look on the bright side. You pointed them in the wrong direction." Wilson said with a chuckle.

"I did?"

"Where did we see the tiger?"

"Several mile down there." Jim answered, pointing in the southern direction.

Wilson looked amused as he said, "You pointed them in the opposite direction."

"I...I did?" Jim asked again. Wilson nodded and Jim burst into laughter.

"Karma! Ahahaha....Serves them right!... Hehehehe.....My balls don't hurt anymore... haha. I'm so f*cking glad."

***********

The four hunters walked on and on and on but did not find even the slightest trace of a living thing. Not even grasses and trees could be found, not to talk of animals. All they managed to see was a bird way up high in the sky that was migrating late after having been left behind by its companions.

"Why do I feel like that motherf*cker f*cked with us?" Shorty said.

"Probably because they did." The slim Hunter responded.

"Do you think we kicked him too hard in the nuts, so he ended up mixing the directions up?" The not so attractive lady asked. Shorty burst into laughter again before answering; "No, you did not! It was even slightly mild. I would have kicked harder."

The tall and slim hunter's balls began to ache.

"Son of a b*tch. You call that mild? I can swear I heard his balls crack and pop." He painfully whispered as if he was the one whose balls cracked and popped.

"Whatever!" Shorty answered. "I don't think they knew the place to begin with. They were just trying to extort us." He continued.

"I don't think that's it." The attractive lady that really stunned Jim said. "He might have pointed us in the wrong direction to waste our time as a form of payback."

"You know what, it does not matter anymore. We need to consider our next move. Time is not on our side." The slim Hunter said, taking charge. He was tired of thinking about the problems and just wanted solutions.

"Well, we could choose to go back the way we came." Shorty suggested.

"That will be a waste of energy." The slim Hunter quickly discarded of that option. It was not worth considering in his opinion. Bit Shorty was unwilling to give up his suggestion.

"Is walking this way also not a waste of energy?"

"Technically, it is. But at least, we will be checking areas we have not been to unlike your suggestion to turn around and return."

"What kind of animal only wakes up once a year and goes back to sleep one week later, anyway?" Shorty complained.

"The snow tiger and it is called hibernation." The less attractive lady responded, earning herself a stink-eye from Shorty.

"If you think about it, is it really right to call it hibernation? I mean, it sleeps all year round and is only awake and visible during the first week of snow. The rest of the time, it is asleep, somewhere far away from human's prying eyes." The slim Hunter said thoughtfully.

As Shorty, slim and less attractive converse, the more attractive lady scouted ahead for the slightest sign of life in the white environment. She squatted down after noticing a fast fading paw print on the crunchy snow.

"Hey guys....over here!" She called instantly and waved at them to hurry up before the print disappeared.

"Oh, that looks like tiger's paw print. it seems to be pointing in that direction." The slim Hunter said, pointing to their east. Shorty ran forward in the east direction and soon spotted another print.

"Hey, there are more in this direction. Let's get moving." He said and began running without hesitation. A sniper rifle, almost one and a half his height, appeared in his hands as he ran and his hunting partners ran to catch up, weapons also in hand.

"Seems like we still have a chance, after all." Slim said with a chuckle as he summoned tranquilizer darts from his storage ring and stored them in a small pouch that was specially modifed into his rifle. This small pouch was not the only thing modifed in the slim hunter's rifle. There was also a blade laced with highly effective poison, attached below the mouth of the gun. It made the rifle look more like a gun of ancient times.

**********

Jim briskly walked alongside Wilson, explaining whatever came to mind to the vastly ignorant Wilson. He had explained so many different issues to Wilson in the past several hours of their endless journey, but Wilson was still paying attention. Jim could not help but think about how great of a teacher he would be and how great of a scholar Wilson would have been.

"Maybe, I should consider taking a teaching job. I mean, it would not be a bad idea, right? I mean, good pay, respectable profession, doesn't really sound like a bad idea." Jim said with a casual shake of his head. Wilson nodded in agreement. But the, Jim thought about his time in elementary school.

"Too bad I did not pay attention to my studies back in elementary school. My grades were so bad, I could not even graduate from middle school." Jim chuckled. Wilson shook his head sadly.

"I did not even go to school." He said.

"I failed everything in school." Jim countered.

"I never set a single body part in a school."

"I ran away from school." Jim said, unwilling to give up this petty argument.

"I never even set my eyes on a school."

"You win!" Jim raised his hands in surrender.

Both Wilson and Jim walked and talked, slowly and unknowingly forming a bond that would last decades, but, also unknown to them was the fact that the snow tiger had marked them the day before and was now on their tail, sorry, asses. And the hunters were also doing their best to catch up to the tiger.

Is this the proverbial 'mantis hunting the cicada, oblivious to the oriole hunting his own ass?' Maybe, or maybe the hunters ain't worth being called Orioles....