Chapter 23: The hunt(3)

The rabbit was like a blur in the familiar forest. Since long ago, its speed has been unrivaled. Even the others of its kind were not as fast as it was, so it was no debate whether the rabbit would catch up to the goblin. But rather, it will catch up to the goblin.

So with each step the rabbit took, it cut the distance between it and the goblin. Even though the goblin had a head start and the rabbit was using its regular speed to conserve energy, the goblin was doomed to be caught.

That was why the rabbit was growling as it got closer. It was both a growl of happiness and intimidation. This was the rabbit's favorite thing to do. Chasing its inferior while terrifying it with its inevitable doom The more it hears its growls, the prey will start to make more mistakes. Ultimately letting it catch it easily. Of course, it doesn't need to do this; it just likes to.

But unlike how it usually happens, the goblin did not make stupid mistakes like tripping on its way. It's instead kept running a bit steadily on its four limbs. But still, the rabbit was getting closer, so it's of no use a few seconds later.

That was, of course, what would have happened had the goblin in front not suddenly climbed a tree. The rabbit grew angrier, but it was stalling the inevitable. As it too can climb trees, it was just slower than on land.

So the rabbit jumped up to give itself a start and clung to the tree. It then started climbing the tree, much like a cat would. But just above it, it saw the goblin holding some sort of hollow stick. The goblin put the stick in front of its mouth and took a deep breath.

The rabbit instantly had a premonition. It knew that whatever the goblin was doing was not good. So it did a back flip on the tree and distanced itself from it. And it seemed it was right, as a dart similar to what had hit it before flew and hit just where it was before.

The rabbit fell directly to the ground, as unlike cats, it can't always land on two feet. This, of course, led to an opening. The goblins through did not take the chance to attack. It instead ran towards a thick and taunt rope not far away and cut the vine with a knife.

The moment the rope was cut, like dominoes, a rock fell from the sky and hit the ground with a thud. And as it fell, the rabbit was surprised to find that a net was slowly rising from the leafy ground around it.

The rabbit tried to run out of the encirclement, but the net rose too fast, and the rabbit soon found itself inside the net. Suspended in the sky, it was only then that the rabbit noticed that it was trapped. It wiggled and struggled, but the position it was in was not the best to exert strength. It was then that...

'Whoosh' 'thump!'

A dart from the goblin flew towards the rabbit. The rabbit once again felt the stinging pain in its body. Making it struggle more violently. More darts flew and stabbed the rabbit.

But maybe it was because of the pain or something else; maybe the rabbit remembered that it had teeth. So it bit the net and chewed it till it broke piece by piece.

The goblin that was out of darts, on the other hand, was not interested in seeing an escape magic show. It immediately climbed the tree and then ran away. Thus, the goblin disappeared within the bushes.

The rabbit that was left over, on the other hand, bit the net as fast as it could. And not long after...

Thud!

The rabbit fell to the ground. After getting up on its feet, the rabbit took out the many darts that were on its body.

After it took all the darts out, the rabbit's blood could be seen dotting the ground. Seeing its bloody hands, the rabbit was not happy.

It then looked ahead toward where the goblin had disappeared. Although the rabbit could no longer hear its feet, it still ran after the goblin. In its opinion, the goblin was still within reach. Although its nose was not that great, it could still track down the goblin.

In just a single minute, the rabbit proved itself to be the fastest in the forest. It had, at some point, caught up with the goblin. Just like before, the goblin ran as fast as it could possibly. But still, the gap between it and the rabbit grew shorter and shorter.

And unlike the rabbit that was running at a steady speed, the goblin was going all out. Meaning it was getting tired much faster too. Leading to its actual speed being much slower than it was at the beginning.

The rabbit could sense it, and the goblin could see it; the end of this long chase was coming near. And it was at that moment, when the goblin's stamina was getting closer to its end, that the goblin did something that confused the rabbit.

The goblin did a long jump!

A jump so long that the moment its feet touched the ground, the rabbit instantly rolled to the ground as though it had just collapsed.

The rabbit was confused, but it was grateful. Although it had been running steadily all this time, even its stamina was starting to run out after all.

But at that moment, when it was riddled in confusion, its feet pounced to the solid ground. But instead of going to the jump as it usually does, it's feet suddenly sank. The solid ground was not as solid as it thought it would be.

The branches holding the leaves in suspension broke.

It was a trap.

The oldest trap in the hunter's book of traps

The pit of spikes traps

As the rabbit slowly fell deeper into the hole, it felt fear grip it tightly. It didn't know what was below, but it was surely not good. That was why the rabbit's instincts kicked in. Much faster than it normally would.

Using its hind legs, the rabbit kicked itself forward. All in hope of luckily landing on the other side of the hole.

But something was wrong.

Although the rabbit had used its greatest strength to jump forward, it did not exert as much strength as it should have. So in the end...

Puchi!

The many spikes planted deep within the hole punctured the poor rabbit into a sieve. Worse, it was not even dead.

In that wide hole, the rabbit looked up, up to where a group of goblins crowded. There were four of them: three that looked like normal goblins and one that was very short.

This was the very one it had been chasing all this time. All the goblins smiled and laughed, but to the rabbit, the short one's smile seemed different.

It was only then that the rabbit realized it was a trap; it had been a trap all along. It was not the hunter, but the hunted instead.

The poor rabbit thus lay in the pit of spikes. Slowly dying.

...

The child who watched this from the goiblin's point of view was satisfied.

"It seems that the gremlins are a successful idea."

After all, it has already been five days, and they have hunted a number of creatures for the child. As such, the information he has has expanded greatly.

The child once again focused on the rabbit.

"Isn't this the rabbit that killed one of my goblins before? What a coincidence."

The child shrugged and let it go; after all, it was only one of the many bodies he had consumed these five days. There was nothing special about this one. Like the rest, it was either going to end in his core or in the belly of the goblins.

So the child ordered the goblins to wrap things up. It was time the goblins returned, and it was soon going to turn dark.

But suddenly, the gremlin heard a faint sound. A sound so faint that it was only after it faced its ears to the ground that it knew what it was.

Footsteps.

And since the gremlins can hear it, how could the child not? Hearing these steps move closer, the child pondered what they could be. But even as he was thinking, he ordered the goblins to prepare themselves.

...