It wasn't perfect, but it didn't need to be. All it had to do was hold long enough for a beast or for a chance at something edible.
Soon, he heard sounds like bushes ruffling against the wind. He immediately turned toward its direction and waited for a while, but nothing came out.
'Must have been the wind,' He thought as he finally took the initiative to draw back into the shed and wait for something to get caught in the trap he dug.
But his stomach growled in protest again, which made him rethink his thoughts again.
'If I just sit here waiting for something to get caught, I'll end up dying slowly without catching a damn thing. And even if I do catch something, I'll still need the strength to kill it and pull it out of the hole… Might as well go find some fish myself, at least that'll help rebuild my stamina. Protein is protein, after all.'
He glanced over to the rustling river and walked over toward it, staring into the semi transparent water, flow down towards the waterfall.
A few fish sprang out of the water, small but in decent numbers. If he could catch enough, they'd be more than enough to keep him fed.
He bent low and moved his hand through the surface of the streaming water to check the current of the water.
'It's not too strong,' he glanced up, and the sun was still climbing up, not fully set in the sky yet.
"I guess the current doesn't get stronger during these hours of the day. It's a good time to catch something then," he murmured to himself as he gauged the pressure of the flowing water.
He stood up, yanked off the worn footwear he hadn't removed since leaving the clan, then stepped back a few meters. Without hesitation, he sprinted forward, leapt into the air, and crashed into the river with a violent splash.
"Ohh my God!!!!" He exclaimed as he tried to catch his breath out of excitement.
"I haven't done anything fun since I left. This is so awesome!" He continued as he began playing in the water for a bit, briefly forgetting why he jumped in in the first place.
He pulled his head above the water as he tried to find his way toward the shallow part of the streaming water.
Though the current was strong but due to hunger and a weak body, it felt considerably stronger than he had felt when he was checking the pressure.
His stomach began growling again, snapping him back to reason
'Right, I have to catch fish, or I end up dead soon,' He recalled.
The fresh, cool water that kept flowing made his skin feel refreshed from the packed up sweat that settled on his skin from hours of moving around.
Though the water felt cool, he kept his mind on his reason for jumping in because his stomach never stopped reminding him of the reason he had jumped in.
He glanced around after getting to the shallow region of the water, looking for fish swimming by him.
He reached his hand into the water with speed and caught one, holding its sleek body tight. He slowly pulled it out of the water so he didn't lose it in the process.
After he successfully pulled out the fish, he raised it high with one arm as he celebrated
"Yesss!!" He screamed out
The fish slipped out of his hand during that motion, but he instinctively reached for it and caught it before it met with the water.
"Not gonna happen!"
He took it carefully this time and flipped it to the edge of the river, where his shoe laid. Then he went back into the water to catch more fish.
He took his time this time around, reaching in for different fishes that swam by, being careful enough not to let go of them as he threw them to the same place.
'This one should be enough for an afternoon food...'
The cool streaming water soon made him start feeling cold due to the continuous splash from the pressure of the water. After staying in for a while, he swam toward the bank of the river.
Upon reaching close to it, he saw a small beast munching on one of his cats. It chewed on it slowly like it owned the fish and not him.
'What the hell.....' he gasped as he pulled out of the river.
Still shivering slightly from the cold, he picked himself up from the river and fell to the edge of the flowing river.
The sounds of water still rustling behind him as he tried to catch his breath before he turned toward the small creature that felt entitled to his catch.
"You little...!!" He cursed under his breath as he rose to his feet.
"Shooo!!, shooo!!" He shouted as he tried to chase it away.
The creature raised its head and saw him, afraid of what he might do to it. It bolted away in blinding speed, into the small bushes up ahead.
"Nasty piece of shit!!" He cursed as he watched it squirm away.
"You wanna reap what you didn't sow?" he murmured as he walked over to where he dropped the fishes.
He picked up his shoe and threw then to the end, close to the path where the shed was. Then he bent down and picked up as many fishes as he could before he moved toward the path.
"Climbing up this shed is gonna be an issue with these things on my hands...." he said, looking up the tree to where the shed sat.
"I'll have to throw them up, in hopes of them making it,"
He took the fishes, one by one, and tossed them with force into the shed, and as expected, they made it into the shed, though loud thuds were heard from down below where he stood
"I'll be eating filleted fish for lunch.." he chuckled to himself.
He turned over and began moving back to where the other fished where, but before he could, he beard growls coming from the bushes.
He glanced over, but there was nothing there. He knew there had to be something hiding in the bushes, but since he didn't see anything, he decided to pass it off as nothing.
As he pulled a leaf to the side and glanced at where the fishes were, he saw the creature was back again, but it wasn't alone this time.
"Looks like someone went to call his mom as the baby he is," he giggled as he went through the bushes and came into full view.
The creature's noticed him and turned over immediately, growling loudly to warn him...but he didn't understand their warnings, so he kept stepping forward.
"Shooo!!, go get your own food scavengers!!" He shouted as he chased them away like he did to the little one earlier.
Because of how the smaller one reacted last time, he expected the same from its mother, but she was nothing like it.
She lunged at him without warning. He instinctively dove to the side, barely dodging for his life. As she landed, her jaws snapped open, revealing a mouth full of gleaming canines that caught the sunlight like polished blades.
"What the sharp tooth is this!!" He yelled as he pulled back slowly.
He barely turned to run before it lunged faster than he could react, its jaws clamping down on his thigh and tearing a scream from deep within him.
"Argggghhhhhhhhh!!!"
"Yooouuuu, pieceee of shiitttt!!" He stammered as he pulled the teeth out of his thighs, grabbing it's head to yank it out.
He was finally able to pull it out, but now he had a deep injury on his thighs which would have been avoided if he took to their warnings and went away.
He picked up a stone and threw it at it, to keep it away from him. The stone his the creature and it began bleeding, he immediately used the opportunity to make a run for it.
'I have to get away from here before the father comes aswell, I might not survive that!'
He bent low as he ran and picked up his footwear from the ground where he dropped it. He glanced back and the creature was still recovering from the injury he inflicted on it.
Slowly he climbed the tree to the top, his blood dropping to the ground as he climbed.
'I hope they don't use my blood to find me!'
He reached the top and dropped to the branch of the tree, gasping for air before he rose to his feet and made it inside the shed where it was safer, then he fell to the ground due to hunger, the injury and loss of blood.
'I think I'm actually gonna die this time afterall....' he thought as tear streaks rolled down his face from his eyes.