TIMELESS VOYAGE: A Dance With Death

Chapter 06: A Dance With Death.

As both, jack and smith arrives close to the lush green forest ahead of them, smith suddenly stops, turns toward jack and warns him seriously: "Kurt, as you can see in front of us is a forest and no forest is ever safe, you have to tread carefully around the forest, remember to check and scan your surroundings quickly for any predator that may roam around here."

"I have a lot of experience in this field but, I am unlikely to survive if I lose my caution for even a bit. Listen to my orders carefully and execute them accordingly, don't hesitate to run when in danger even if..." Says smith seriously as he stops for a bit.

"Even if I were to be entangled by an animal or even close to the jaws of death." Continues smith emotionally after taking a deep breath.

"I agree to all your points but the last one." Says jack thoughtfully.

"Why?" Asks smith in confusion.

"Would you actually run away if, I were to be entangled by an animal or close to death?" Questions jack as he looks at smith calmly.

"No, I won't run away." Says smith firmly and also curious at what Kurt was get at.

"So, you are saying that you will try to save me even when in the jaws of death and I shouldn't try to save you, when you are the one in such a situation? What kind of logic is this?" Utters back jack in contempt.

"Okay, okay, do whatever you like, let's go first, we don't have all the time in the world. Oh, do pick up sticks and the like you may find on the way to use as a weapon against an unlikely predator." Says smith avoiding eye contact with jack and knowing he can't convince kurt with a rebuke, he switches the topic entirely.

Both of them starts to tread carefully as they enters the forest, keeping watch out for an unlikely animal attack. As if a tacit understanding has formed between them, they keep covering each others blindspot in order to have a better reach of their surroundings, they also kept calm as best as possible, not letting a single sound go out of their mouth since, they are afraid to attract predators.

As they tread on the path, jack sees a branch of a tree, good enough to keep as a weapon. As jack goes to pick up the branch, out of nowhere a snake jumps toward him from a short tree above him. "Watch o.." As smith was in the process of warning kurt, it was already too late as the snake has already jumped out and it was about to bite into kurt. As if the time has stopped for a second, all smith sees is the snakes wide open mouth about to reach kurt's neck. Out of nowhere, a hand reaches out perfectly in time catching the snake by surprise, catching it just before it could have a bite. Upon being caught, the snake was stunned but soon starts to struggle as it fights for its dear life to escape, unable to move it's head, the snake starts twisting its body left and right, it hits jack's arm with its flexible body to let it go.

Yes, jack was the one who caught it, as he saw the snake jump out from the corner of his eyes, he caught it by it's head instinctively without even calculating the trajectory. He doesn't feel a single ounce of pain from the snakes hit as it is too small and weak to hurt him, despite that being the case, he holds it in a firm grip. Slowly but surely the snake calmed down as if realising that it's struggle is useless and lay motionlessly in his hand.{It seems, all those drills in the military were to train my instinct. Thankfully, I caught it by it's head or it could've been disastrous.} Thought jack with realisation as he secretly heaves a sigh of relief while looking at the snake.

" Are you fine?" Asks smith after calming down from the shock, as he saw jack catch the snake calmly. He takes a deep breath to calm his thumping heart and thinking to himself in the process.{ Close, it was too close. Thankfully, he survived. Who in the world is this kurt? After all, no human can catch it so calmly and perfectly by the head, was it a coincidence or pure skill? I can still remember the danger I felt from this young man, he might likely be a martial artist or even, likely be from the military, if he is a martial artist, then which secret martial arts family is he from? It is unlikely that he is a military personal judging from his young age. After all, most of them at his age are all trainees.}

"Yes." Nods jack calmly.

"Wow, you have incredible reflexes." Exclaims smith in shock as he puts away his thoughts and decides to ask kurt later about his 'true identity'.

"Be careful next time. We have to watch out for encounters even, from the trees. It's not every time that reflexes might save you." Warns smith seriously with surprise still visible on his face. He still continues to scan jack with his eyes to check for a possible snake bite, as he can't get close to jack because of the snake.

"Okay but, what to do with this snake?" Nods jack as he asks smith.

"This, I think we should kill it and tie it up, maybe we can tame some animals with this snake as the snack." Says smith in consideration.

"You can tame animals? You have pets?" Asks jack in surprise as he knows a lot of people in the military who used to tame some wild animals like cats and dogs that they took a liking to and brought them to the military base. Of course, most of them were researchers, while some others had researcher wife, other personal family members who used to live with them in the base and took care of the pets safe keeping. A normal military personal doesn't have that luxury as they have to join in military expeditions and most of them can't bring their families in the base due to being in lower ranks.

"I had an eagle oh, how I wish she was here, if only I could bring her here then maybe, maybe we could've had much leisure time strolling around." Says smith with a resigned expression as he reminisces about his pet who, he loved dearly.

"Ok, now let's not talk, we still might attract potential predators here so, we have to find a shelter hurriedly." Continues smith again anxiously as he stops reminiscing.

Jack picks up the branch, while smith takes the snake carefully from jack's hands and presses the snake with his boots on the ground, jack pierces the snakes skull with the sharp edges of the branch, killing it instantly. At this point jack notices the detail that smith and the other two who came with him has boots on and no one found it suspicious. Knowing that it will be nothing good to say such a thing now, he decides to keep quiet and look around cautiously for any potential predator that might launch an attack.

After making sure the snake has died, both of them tied it using vines and looked around for leaves and such to cover up the bloody smell, after finding a big enough leaf they covered the snake up with it and buried it beneath a tree as they used an 'x' mark on the ground and on the tree to mark the snake they hid. After what seems like an hours walk, they came to an open area like a forest with slopes, they found a cave, as smith is an experienced hunter, he warns kurt to not get close to the cave and indicates him to hide behind a tree.

After kurt hides behind a tree, smith also hides behind a tree, a little further from him and throws a stone in first and waits for the potential predator to show itself but, he was shocked as he suddenly hears the howling of wolves coming from the cave, as he quickly calms down his thumping heart, suddenly from the corner of his eyes, he sees a grey furred giant muscular wolf come out of the cave, the wolf looked around and sniffed a bit here and there, while smith moves, slowly bit by bit behind the tree trying his best to get out of the viewpoint of the wolf in the side and also from the wolves in the cave behind.

The wolf sniffs here and there and finally decides to circle around it's territory as it finally comes closer to the tree smith is at. At this point, smith's heart is almost in his throat as his heart beat accelerates faster and faster, his back drenched in cold sweats as he hears the approaching wolf. The wolf comes closer to the tree and suddenly stops. As it sniffs the tree, finding a weird smell coming from it. It tries to circle around the tree to get a better look. At this point smith realises the predicament he was in, he can't outrun the wolf as it runs faster than an average human, on the other hand, he can't even attack and kill the wolf stealthily enough to not alert the pack, if the pack comes out then, everything will end right then and there. {Forget about killing, I can't even harm it fast enough to injure it. Besides, this branch might not enter it's body entirely either. If only I had a gun then maybe, I would've been able to scare it. Unfortunately, my current situation doesn't allow me such luxury. } Thought smith resignedly as he cautiously moves out of the wolf's view point while also keeping himself out of the caves entrance as best as possible.

Crack!

Suddenly he steps on a stick which suddenly cracked startling him and the wolf opposite the tree, causing the wolf to suddenly jump backward, providing enough time for smith to reposition himself. With his heart on his throat smith holds the stick firmly as he gets ready to swipe the wolf with the branch instead of dodging it, because if he moves around a little more then, he will be seen by the other wolves in the cave. As the big wolf recovered from it's startle, it soon became suspicious and cautious about the thing behind the tree, as it cautiously approaches the tree and about to circle the tree.

Tack! Tack!

Two consecutive sounds are suddenly heard as the wolf is startled again, this time turning it's attention towards the new sound it heard, it approaches the area where the sound came from cautiously, which is closer to the cave, he completely forgets about the thing behind the tree. While smith behind the tree sighed with relief as he carefully keeps out of the vision of the wolf and approaches another tree, shorter in size, he starts to climb it instantly and cautiously instead of waiting down the tree. After he gets to a high and big enough branch of the tree he sighs in relief. As he slowly looks around, he realises that kurt was looking at him, he nods at kurt and mentions him to climb the tree. While kurt shakes his head as the wolf was slowly walking towards kurts direction.

The wolf starts sniffing the air as it slowly approaches towards the tree kurt was at while smith watched in horror and anxiety towards kurt as kurt don't even have a weapon to defend against it, unlike him. He finally realised that the sound that he previously heard, which diverted the wolves attention, might've been kurt throwing the stone to divert the wolf's attention from him.

The wolf continues sniffing as it comes closer to kurt. While kurt slowly, inch by inch moves away from the wolf as he shifts swiftly from the direction the wolf is coming at, as he continuously looks at smith for further direction. Slowly by slowly the wolf was bored as it starts to head towards the cave unable to find a target this time unlike smith who was slow, kurt starts to climb the tree fast but out of nowhere another thin and short but fast wolf starts to dash towards kurt from the cave bypassing the bigger wolf while, the bigger wolf starts to bark at it's direction.

Soon, realising that something was wrong as it sees a creature climb a tree, after looking around. It also starts dashing behind the thin wolf. Even though, kurt was climbing the tree very fast, he still wasn't fast enough. He watched in horror, as the wolf try to bite his leg only to barely miss it as he moved his leg quickly in time but, somehow it managed to bite the corner of his pant which was hanging little outside of his leg with it's mouth, while the bigger wolf was getting closer and closer. The small wolf starts to pull him down while bigger one is getting closer to him, in such a predicament kurt decides to let go of his pants but at that moment hears a "swoosh" sound, as something hits the small wolf causing it to let go of his pants while kurt took this chance to climb higher, as if realising what he was trying to do, the bigger wolf accelerates faster as it jumps high to catch him.

Seeing the big wolf jump to catch him, kurt at this point applies pressure on his leg subconsciously as he jumps onto an ample sized branch a little higher barely missing the bigger wolf in the process, the wolf still manage to tear his pants a little with a small chunk of meat as it couldn't hold on to kurts pant while in mid air, leaving a small gushing wound on his leg, kurt didn't stop there as he applied pressure on his hands on the ample branch as, the force propels him further to a bigger branch a little higher than the current one and he holds onto it tightly with his hands as he climbs it slowly.

Despite the pain on his leg due to the wound, kurt calms down as much as possible and sits on the branch while he uses some force to tear off the pant's part below the bite mark and tied it to his wound to stop the blood loss, after all of that, continuing his sitting posture on the big branch and kurt grimaced in pain. As he reminisces his luck mentioned in the system stats, he clearly thinks it's a joke to have such amount of luck which, he thought was very high. As he is very unlucky for wearing this waist taper pant, which almost cost his life today.