Sneak Attack

As Zhu Jin woke up from his sleep, he realized that Bai Shuixian was not in the cave. Not only that, he recognized that her smell was nowhere near the site. This raised alarms for him.

He had gone to sleep after eating expecting her to return after a few hours or so. Zhu Jin did not know that despite the sun already rising, she had not entered the cave at all. This had shocked him upon waking up.

With anxiety filling him, he exited the cave and walked around the perimeter in search of a sign that she was close by. By the time he finished with the perimeter, he could not hear her voice or smell her scent. Was she attacked last night?

Then, he thought about what animals were in the surroundings. From memories, he remembered that there was a pack of leopards that lived near the lake. There was also a lone wolf in the perimeter.

Zhu Jin instantly became worried. However, even with this, he remembered to berate himself. How could he forget what he told her?

No matter what group it was, they were all dangerous. Whether it was the leopards that attacked her or the wolf, her ending would be bad. Why did he bring her to this area full of carnivores instead of the herbivores?

Even if the cave near the herbivores were farther, it would have been more safer for her. Why did he have to be so lazy? If he was not, she would not be in this predicament.

He had been so distracted by the tasty meat in front of him and her carrying the bag weighing almost the same weight as her that he forgot about what he told her. Seriously, how stupid could he be? He continued to scold himself as he walked out of the perimeter towards the lake for her.

However, even when he reached the lake, there was no evidence of her. Just in case, Zhu Jin circled the whole lake which took lots of time. In the end though, he did not find any traces.

An unsettling uneasiness permeated him and he started to sprint back towards the cave. He needed to gather some things and individuals. How could she disappear in such a way that no evidence was left behind?

In fact, Bai Shuixian had left behind lots of evidence, but Zhu Jin had not looked at them. On the path that Zhu Jin took, there were lots of ruined plants. Leaves were strewn on the ground, vines ripped apart from their parent bush, and trees with broken branches.

These damaged greeneries showed the struggle that she had put up to run away from her chaser, but it had been futile. At the moment that she had been attacked, the lurker had been smart to make sure she did not bleed. Not only that, it even knew to destroy all traces of her scent, items, and keep her distracted enough to not yell.

After a painful attempt at running away from the animal preying on her, it had been futile. In the end, it managed to hit her on a nerve and make her faint. With this, the lurker dragged her body away to where it lived.

At the same time, since the animal dragged her, there were drag marks on the ground. Only, Zhu Jin did not look at the ground. He had been too occupied at looking for things she carried and the scent special to her.

Time continued to pass by as Zhu Jin searched for her with no success. By the time the sun had started to set, most animals already started to head back to their home. The only individual still out in the forest left was the white tiger.

_ _ _ _ _

Waking up, Bai Shuixian looked around. Where was she? It was dark around her and there was no light, not even the sunlight.

As she continuously blinked as though to get used to the dark, her vision started getting better. That was when she saw the animal that sneaked up on her with a bunch of other individuals looking alike to that one animal. Perhaps they were family?

However, maybe her body was in fear, she was unable to move at all. Her vocal cords refused to react when she wanted to make a noise and every time she tried, it was in pain. At this point, she felt a heating sensation all over her body.

Her eyes that were originally pointed at the animals eating the boar meat she had just cleaned moved down to her own body. With her vision more than adjusted to the dark, she saw the claw marks all over her torso and legs. She struggled to make a sound again with nothing coming out.

After a long struggle, she finally managed to move by a millimeter. However, by the time she did get to move a little, the pack of animals had finished devouring her meat and stared at her. With all of them staring at her, the original attempts of movement she tried to act stopped and she froze in place.

Right after staring at her body, one of the animals started talking. She was unable to understand their language and could only stare back at them in horror as she watched the talking one walk closer to her. When that one was just a few steps from reaching her, another spoke up.

Maybe what they said had logic or something for the moving one stopped and looked back at the pack instead of her. Seeing their movement, she internally heaved a sigh of relief and a bit of the panic she had for the moment disappeared. She was not fully free of relievement though.

None of the animals spoke human language, so they were unlike Zhu Jin. This meant that they were definitely following her as a predator and a prey. It was also at this moment that she laughed at herself on the inside.

The alarm she received while walking back to the cave did not come out of nowhere. There was indeed a reason. A reason she did not know, but all the more still important.

She wondered, how many times would she slap herself in the face? Why did she come into this forest in the first place? Why did she decide to follow Zhu Jin?

Why could she not just stay in the capital? Why could she not just stay with her grandma? Why could she not be where it was safe?

Why did she have to come to this place full of danger? Why did she choose to go somewhere far from family? She had so many questions, yet she was unable to answer any.

At the same time, her low self-esteem struck her again and she began to think maybe it was not so bad to die again. She thought once again how much better it would be if she did not have to handle the extremities of human life.

In her mind, she remarked, "After all, it's not as if my wish will come true."

However, as though there was someone echoing in her brain, she became strong again. Her initial decision to lose herself to the animals was flung out to the back of her mind. The most and forefront though being to survive this ordeal.

She sighed in pain. It was not only her body in numbing pain, but also her mentality. She felt that at this moment, she controlled nothing.

Despite being initially lost in her thought, she came back to and saw the animals in a circle with partners. Each of them was helping clean their fur and such. Once again, she felt like laughing.

All of them were looking regal and fancy, but here she was full of blood pitifully thrown on the floor. Was she even thrown? She did not know.

She only felt that her back was in too much pain and that there were rocks stuck on her back. Not only rocks, but also dirt and leaves. However, there was just so much pain she was dealing with that everything seemed to be numb as long as she did not move.

At the same time, she was feeling increasingly tired. If at this moment she closed her eyes, she felt that she could sleep forever and never wake up again. How nice would that be…

However, as soon as the thought came to her, it disappeared again. The idea that she built was completely destroyed without her knowing. It was as though her brain did not belong to her.

With all negative thoughts disappearing, the only thought left was that she wanted to sleep. She did not get a peaceful sleep after being hit on who knows where to faint. Though she was scared of being eaten by the animals gathered in a pack in the place, she still peacefully closed her eyes and went to sleep.